Ask HN: Help for a newbie

Hi all,

I've been hanging out here for about a month as I've been learning Python. It's been a great process, and what I've learned is finally being tested by someone other than myself. Today at work (I work for a genomics startup), I faced a problem that likely would have been most elegantly solved through a script. Unfortunately, I was forced to face the Sisyphean task of doing everything manually using (wait for it) Excel. I haven't reviewed enough of the Python Standard Library yet to tackle it alone. If someone on here is just hanging out tonight, and would like to help a newbie, just shoot me an email or IM at the address on my profile. There are two potential reasons you might do this:

(a) It'll probably only take an experienced programmer roughly 15-20 mins, and you'll feel good about yourself for what you did.

(b) Another guy in my office (who works on software) is hacking together a solution this weekend in C. He's an old-school Fortran hacker and lover of all things compiled. I'd love to walk in Monday and compare code length in front of the whole group.

Thanks guys,

matt