No doubt. The goal wasn't to say "I feel like tackling these projects" but to say "these are the things in my life that make me regret my paucity of programming skillz." So it sounds like I need to dip my toes in Python and perhaps buy the Nemeth book. Amazon sez you can rent it; first I've seen that. Thanks!Writing an application like that is almost certainly an overly ambitious first project.
"Overly ambitious" doesn't necessarily mean not worth playing with. Generally, the only thing a failed software project costs you is time, and you'll probably learn a lot about the problem while failing to solve it, so if you want to learn more about a problem and have the time to burn, trying an overly ambitious project can be a good idea. You just don't want to do it expecting to get something that works out of it.
They do it with textbooks, technical books and most books from academic publishers. I think they're trying to compete with university bookstores for students who would usually sell their books back at the end of the semester.Amazon sez you can rent it; first I've seen that