I really need to come up with a project to program in Python. Several years ago, I wrote an orbital dV calculator as a first Python project in two days. The language is amazingly intuitive and didn't get in the way like so many other languages with steep learning curves do (PERL, for example).
More and more, doing good science means writing good code. Good code requires testing/verification and sharing/review.
From the article: "As a general rule, researchers do not test or document their programs rigorously, and they rarely release their codes, making it almost impossible to reproduce and verify published results generated by scientific software, say computer scientists. At best, poorly written programs cause researchers such as Harry to waste valuable time and energy. But the coding problems can sometimes cause substantial harm, and have forced some scientists to retract papers."
From the article: "As a general rule, researchers do not test or document their programs rigorously, and they rarely release their codes, making it almost impossible to reproduce and verify published results generated by scientific software, say computer scientists. At best, poorly written programs cause researchers such as Harry to waste valuable time and energy. But the coding problems can sometimes cause substantial harm, and have forced some scientists to retract papers."
A style guide for Python! (Saved for later) See also: Python Idioms and Efficiency Suggestions and How to become a proficient Python programmer (an annotated linklist).
Rogue: source files for a wide range of operating systems
I've been using Google Docs to share notes, and such with friends, but really miss the simplicity of the cancelled Google Notes. Pastebin fills that niche, with the added benefit of syntax highlighting for most programming languages (even COBOL). I'll definitely be using this site more in the future.
Large collection of free references.
From the site:
"SciPy is open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering. NumPy and SciPy are easy to use, but powerful enough to be depended upon by some of the world's leading scientists and engineers. If you need to manipulate numbers on a computer and display or publish the results, give SciPy a try!
Calculation algorithms for C. C++ and Fortran.
Amazing reference for the *nix GUI system, X1/X11.
Quick Python cheat sheet for programmers.