A silly utility to launch a qtconsole in an IPython Notebook if one doesn't already exist. Just put this in a cell.

qtutil.py

# silly utility to launch a qtconsole if one doesn't exist

consoleFlag = True
consoleFlag = False  # Turn on/off by commenting/uncommenting this line

import psutil

def returnPyIDs():
    pyids = set()
    for pid in psutil.pids():
        try:
            if "python" in psutil.Process(pid).name():
                pyids.add(pid)
        except:
            pass
    return pyids

def launchConsole():
    before_pyids = returnPyIDs()
    %qtconsole
    after_pyids = returnPyIDs()
    newid = after_pyids.difference(before_pyids)
    assert len(newid) == 1
    return list(newid)[0]

try:
    print qtid
except NameError:
    if consoleFlag:
        qtid = launchConsole()
        print qtid
    
if consoleFlag and (qtid not in returnPyIDs()):
    qtid = launchConsole()
    print qtid