Caktus Blog

Caktus has always pursued projects that make a difference in the world, particularly around HIV/AIDs. Now we’re hoping to provide a technology solution to a population that’s notoriously difficult to treat: teens and young adults living with HIV. They’re disproportionately impacted by new infections and, in the South in particular, those with HIV/AIDs have the lowest survival rates of any group living with the disease.

Technical Director Mark Lavin will be hosting a free O’Reilly webinar today at 4PM EST or 1PM PT on Testing Client-Side Applications with Django. Mark says testing is one of the most popular question topics he receives. It’s also a topic near and dear to Caktus’ quality-loving heart. Mark’s last webinar garnered more than 500 viewers, so sign up quick!

We’re proud of our collaboration with Durham-based non-profit MDC to create the health insurance exchange alternative for North Carolina, NCGetCovered.org. The site was recently featured in the Herald-Sun. We’re excited to see our commitment to social good making an impact in our local community. Don’t forget the open enrollment deadline for health coverage is February 15th!

The Triangle Business Journal recognized Caktus’ work in the fight against HIV/AIDS in an important article discussing lower survival rates for those diagnosed with the disease in the southern United States. The article lauds our work on the medication adherence app Epic Allies as innovative in the effort to develop and maintain consistent medication habits for those living with HIV/AIDS.

We’re happy to announce that TriPython will be hosting their project nights at our new offices in Durham. This means now there’s a TriPython project night every single week, in every major Triangle city every month, on most weekdays. It’s great to see that the Triangle Python community has gotten so large.

The weekly Python e-mail newsletter, Pycoder’s Weekly included Caktus Developer Dan Poirier’s post, Celery in Production on their list of the best articles and projects of 2014! Take a look at their list and be sure to revisit Dan’s post.

The Triangle Business Journal recently featured Caktus’ addition of seven full-time jobs to the local economy. This growth is a direct result of increasing interest in Django powered web applications as well as a grant from the National Institutes of Health. It’s no secret we’re filling up our new Morris Street building with smart, sharp, passionate people.

Technology Tank, a communications and tech think tank, recently ranked their top 10 stories of 2014 and Caktus made the cut. Earlier this year, we shared a story about Libya’s SMS voter registration system. We’re happy to learn that other people were just as excited about our work enfranchising Libyan voters as we are! The list is based on number of visits to the story.

With Girl Develop It RDU, we celebrated the launch of Lightweight Django (O’Reilly) with the authors, Caktus Technical Director Mark Lavin and Caktus alum Julia Elman. Sylvia Richardson of Girl Develop It MCed. The event was open to the public and so popular we kept recounting the RSVPs and fretting over the fire code. But, phew, we were good. In attendance were friends, family, fellow Cakti, and Django fans from around the Triangle.

This October, nearly everyone at Caktus took a break from their usual projects to take part in Caktus’s 8th ShipIt Day. Apart from a few diligent individuals who couldn’t afford to spare any time from urgent responsibilities, nearly everyone took a break to work and collaborate on creative and experimental projects, with the aim of trying something new and ideally seeing a project through from start to finish in the space of a day and a half.