In the world of technology, the word “Python” can only mean one thing. And it don’t mean no stinkin’ cloud-hosting company.

An obscure U.K. cloud server company is trying to trademark the word “Python” for just about any computer-related use, including software and services. This company, which bought the ULR “python.co.uk” more than a decade ago, is now facing off with the Python Software Foundation, beloved keepers of the open-source Python programming language.

“We contacted the owners of python.co.uk repeatedly and tried to discuss the matter with them,” writes foundation chair Van Lindberg on the organization’s blog. “They blew us off and responded by filing the community trademark application claiming the exclusive right to use ‘Python’ for software, servers, and web services everywhere in Europe.”

Lindberg said the company had been doing business under other names (Veber, Pobox) and the trademark issue didn’t come up until recently. In fact, python.co.uk used to redirect to other URLs until now.

The Python Software Foundation has, on the other hand, been using the term for the past 20 years and has held a U.S. trademark for many years as well. Unfortunately, the PSF’s EU trademark application hasn’t yet matured. Enter the trademark trolls.

The U.K. company in question is doing the unthinkable in naming itself after a respected software organization. Not only is it consigning itself to SEO hell, it’s also being a huge jerk toward a friendly entity known and beloved by many of their target audience.

As reads the sole Google Places review of the python.co.uk company:

Deliberate attempts to benefit off of the efforts of the Python Software Foundation, who I’m willing to bet have provided the platform that a large deal of your business is based on. One less company to consider for my EU offsite/cloud backups storage needs! Stay away, these guys are scum.

So, what can you do about it? Well, if you work in the EU, the Python Software Foundation is asking you to write a nice letter describing how you use Python for work, how the word “Python” means the programming language “Python” in your view, and how another company claiming that trademark is confused and leading to more confusion in the software community. (The PSF blog post has more details on exact verbiage.)

The PSF is also asking for pictures or scans of the word “Python” being used in printed materials such as books, conference signage, magazines, job listings, and so on in the EU.

The PSF is also soliciting donations to help with legal fees.

So U.S. readers, please give what you can, and bring this issue to the attention of your Python-using friends in the EU. Together, we can put a stop to trademark trolls.

They work hard and make good money — which got even better in 2012.

Source: Riviera Partners

Average salary by programming language

The average salary of a Silicon Valley developer jumped about $4,300 in 2012 to reach $118,900, a new study by Riviera Partners, a technical recruiting firm in the Bay Area says.

Database specialists brought home the most bacon, at $130,500, while lowly front-end developers wrangling CSS, Javascript, and some small remnants of HTML pulled in a relatively lowly $109,200.

Interestingly, when you break down the numbers by coding specialty, relatively out-of-favor Java developers make the most money, at $122,400. Developers in the popular but perhaps more accessible PHP programming language make $106,700, while devotees of relatively new languages Python and Ruby bring home $117,900 and $121,400, respectively.

So what else is new?

Not gender equality. Silicon Valley engineers are still overwhelming male, with 86 percent of developers prominently featuring a Y chromosome.

More details in the infographic below:

photo credit: Carsten Schertzer via photopin cc

A certain kind of developer loves to hate on PHP. They are really going to hate where PHP’s custodians are taking it next.

PHP was created by Danish programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995. In 1997, Israeli programmers Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski rewrote the parser, creating the base for PHP 3. By 1999, they had built the Zend Engine, which is still the interpreter for PHP.

Update October 18: Andi Gutmans just gave us more details about where PHP is going in mobile.

Gutmans and Suraski continued their partnership with Zend Technologies, a commercial entity that creates add-on products and services for PHP developers, particularly developers in the enterprise.

Today, after multiple massive iterations to the codebase, 35 percent of web traffic is handled by PHP, says Gutmans. Wikipedia says 75 percent of websites use PHP. Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo, and Photobucket are all built in PHP. WordPress, the most popular blogging platform in the world, runs on PHP and probably accounts for half of that 35 percent. Most of the other major content management systems, such as Drupal and Joomla, are also built in PHP.

No respect?

Still, the language can’t seem to get any respect and has been derided for years by programmers coding in C, Java, .NET, Python, or Ruby. In terms of trends, PHP as a search term has been dropping for years, and the mobile app revolution has led to the revival of Objective-C and Java.

So is the programming language that powers so much of the web disappearing gently into the night?

Not if Gutmans has anything to say about it. VentureBeat talked to him about PHP and the future, and he’s more bullish than ever, especially when it comes to the mobile-focused ace up his sleeve.

Riding the U.S.S. Enterprise

“All dynamic languages are gaining share from Java and .NET right now,” says Gutmans. “We’re getting a lot of benefit.”

Source: Wikipedia

Andi Gutmans

So the noise around trendier technologies like Ruby on Rails or Node.js doesn’t especially bother him. Mindshare is nice, of course, but market share is nicer. And market share is what Gutmans is focused on, especially in the enterprise.

“From a maturity point of view,” Gutmans told me, “I don’t think any other dynamic language right now has the full tool set. Our competition is Java and .NET … never with other dynamic languages.”

While he likes what Ruby on Rails is doing, and thinks there are some things there that PHP can learn and grow from, Gutmans points to PHP’s massive support in packaged solutions like WordPress, Drupal, and Magento.

“We’re better off than we were eight years ago … today we’re the only ones who have really hit the mainstream enterprise,” says Gutmans. “We do believe that the momentum and the size of PHP will continue. We don’t see it slowing down right now.”

Gutmans speaks with the enthusiasm of a founder; of course, there are other companies catering to the PHP-related needs of the enterprise. But Zend remains one of the biggest and best-known, especially due to its provenance.

And he’s got a point: Two-thirds of developers in a recent study reported spending half their time in PHP. And in a recent study by Rails developer Marc Gayle, half of all developer job postings on Craigslist call for PHP developers. When I talked to Gayle, he surmised the reason might be PHP’s super-popular content management systems.

“I think that is skewing the results,” he said. “But I can’t be sure.”

And a mysterious mobile story, coming soon

When it comes to mobile apps, Gutmans sides with the likes of JavaScript creator Brendan Eich in a firmly held belief that the web and web languages will eventually catch up and win out over native stacks.

But, he hinted to me, PHP and Zend will be providing client-side app-enabling tools.

Gutmans declined to comment further, saying he would only announce the full details at Zend’s conference in late October. However, it sounds like PHP will have a mobile app story of some sort, in spite of being the web’s predominant server-side language.

What that looks like and how it will be distributed is still mysterious. But a strong mobile story, says Gutmans, will only help PHP continue to grow.

It’s hard to argue with that.

photo credit: Red Bonzai

Codecademy has announced a new lineup of courses to its learn-to-code-online curriculum. This time, the site is letting learners dive into Python — a feat that took a ground-up rebuild of Codecademy’s tech on the server side.

Python has been one of the most popular and requested languages for the young service, which launched as a Y Combinator company last year. At its launch, the startup used a simple interactive web app to teach total newbies how to use JavaScript. The text entry field itself acts as your teacher, guiding you through exercises as you learn the basics of a particular technology.

Since then, Codecademy has added a slew of new courses in all kinds of languages, including jQuery classes and some popular HTML and CSS training modules. The addition of Python to the lineup is welcome, to say the least.

“Python is used by hundreds of thousands of developers. Lots of schools and classes use it as a starter language because of its clean and readable syntax,” the Codecademy team writes in a blog post on the news.

A January project variously called Labs or Creators allowed Codecademy-vetted subject matter experts to write their own lessons, and several lessons popped up for client-side Python.

“Labs has been an awesome testing ground for the technologies that we’ve built, and we discovered that much of the experimentation with client-side Ruby and Python is constantly broken by updates in browsers,” the team continues.

“Everything we’re launching today has been built from the ground up and rearchitected to run Python server-side. The infrastructure we’ve built can help us launch other server-side languages you’ve been asking for sooner than we expected.”

Want to start learning Python? You can jump into the first tracks now, which cover beginner topics such as syntax, printing strings, etc. Codecademy contributing community members are invited to create more courses, as well.

Codecademy is based in New York and has taken a total of $12.5 million in venture capital, including a sweet $10 million round just last month.