Question: Does anyone know if its feasible to convert PCM/FLAC files to some compressed format (mp3/wma/ogg, not picky), **with the conversion process running on Azure**?

An Amazon EC2 based solution would be trivial, as 3rd party libraries could be installed; but what about Azure?

Answer: 
The simplest command pattern is already built into Python, simply use a callable:

```
def greet(who):
    print "Hello %s" % who

greet_command = lambda: greet("World")
# pass the callable around, and invoke it later
greet_command()

```

The command pattern as an object oriented design pattern makes more sense if your commands need to be able to do more than just be invoked. Common usecase is when you need to be able to undo/redo your actions. Then a command class is a good way to couple the forward and backwards actions together. For example:

```
class MoveFileCommand(object):
    def __init__(self, src, dest):
        self.src = src
        self.dest = dest
        os.rename(self.src, self.dest)
    def undo(self):
        os.rename(self.dest, self.src)

undo_stack = []
undo_stack.append(MoveFileCommand('foo.txt', 'bar.txt'))
undo_stack.append(MoveFileCommand('bar.txt', 'baz.txt'))
# foo.txt is now renamed to baz.txt
undo_stack.pop().undo() # Now it's bar.txt
undo_stack.pop().undo() # and back to foo.txt

```
Yes, you do miss something: the command pattern is only necessary in languages that don't have function pointers (or functions as first class objects), such as Java. In languages with functions-as-objects, you can use the function itself; no need to have a separate command object (which then should have a "doit" method).

In the example could you quote, the `getattr()` call gives you the "command object" (i.e. the bound method); adding parenthesis after it "invokes" (i.e. calls) the command object.