George's Blog

Dead Rising 2

2011-12-13T10:19:00.000-05:00

This game irritated me to the point of me (almost) trading it away before I got through 4 missions.

Navigation is too time consuming
Weapons break too quickly
The main character is too serious
I'm wasting a lot of time but not having any fun

Limitless

2011-12-09T11:47:00.001-05:00

Bradley Cooper is the new Matthew McConaughey. You heard it here first. Limitless was more or less Two For the Money with DeNiro and instead of Pacino. The predictability made me cringe - I had to stop watching because I already figured everything out. I realized this was only 45 minutes in and there might be more plot twists. There were. There were worse than I envisioned. Who gives movies like this and ending like that?

Crysis 2

2011-11-17T11:48:00.001-05:00

Played through this in about 5 days. Probably the better FPS I've played this year. Stealth Mode is particularly enjoyable - nothing like sneaking up on fools, close pulling off a stealth kill, silencer tapping another Cyph in the head and hiding back in the bushes. Weapons are balanced and there is plenty of ammo everywhere. There was an awesome part where all the lights went out and I had to battle a Ceph Pinger and a swarm of Stalkers and Commanders. I hunkered down in some bunker and had to outplay the AI - a feasible task in Medium mode. A love me a good boss fight

Cold Weather biking ( again )

2011-10-30T23:40:00.001-04:00

Arguably it was not that cold today but I still broke down and decided to invest in a UA ColdGear hood quarter way through the ride. Fortunately for me there is a Sports Authority on 53 & 3rd. The face mask is a bit doofy looking but it keep the head warm, allows for breathing in cold air via the face mask, and it probably very useful for holding up liquor stores.

A+ would do business again

Trip to Cambodia Honorable Mention

2011-10-30T23:30:00.000-04:00

Good job South East Asia on having universal electrical sockets. I didn't need to figure out adaptors between all the countries I visited. This used to be a huge pain in the ass. This time it wasn't. #FTW

Cambodia Trip memories

2011-10-30T23:25:00.002-04:00

Flooding in Thailand - nobody seems to care. People sitting around in very flooded stores, chilling on raised furniture.
Getting fooled by the tuktuk drivers and not seeing the grand palace
The beach on the islands of sihanoukville
Watching the sunrise at Ankor Wat
Siem Reap Ankor What? Cafe. Sickest air band performance of Sweet Child of Mine. I played an excellent Slash
Siem Reap - biking around town before getting on the bus. Breezing through town, navigating around and generally feeling like a local. I even bought an H1N1 themed bag
Killing Fields - guide sharing his story of forgiveness
Sanderzone
Riding scooter to the top of mountain, hanging at the observation point and riding back down.The driver taught me how to holler at women in Vietamese
Seeing water world - city of Chau Don in the Mekong Delta ( Vietnam ). We took a boat ride to see floating village, much like the Kevin Constner movie.
Petting an elephant. Feeding it bananas.

Hello from Cambodia

2011-10-22T15:54:00.001-04:00

The weather is wonderful and the flooding is minimal. Everything is super cheap. Spending 2 days at the beach is a great idea.

Posting via iPad app

2011-09-18T23:22:00.001-04:00

Not bad
actually pretty bad. I had to use the browser to get the rage face in here

5ive games I want to play

2011-09-18T21:47:00.002-04:00

Dead Island
Deux Ex : Human Revolution
Brink
Batttlefield 3
Modern Warfare 3

Manhattan things I've done as a Manhattanite Part 2

2011-09-18T21:45:00.003-04:00

Bought a used Hybrid bike on craigslist ( Trek 720 )
Paragon Warehouse Sale
Biked on the West Side highway to the George Washington Bridge
Had some sausage at the Feast of San Gennero
Bought fish in Chinatown

Red Dead Redemption

2011-09-13T09:41:00.003-04:00

Pretty awesome. Took about 2 week to finish. The RedDead wiki is very useful. Decent game but not quite GTA

Bike Shopping in NYC

2011-09-13T09:33:00.001-04:00

EDIT #1 - http://redd.it/ke8dk

EDIT #2 - it's just a cheap Japanese bike. No go.

This is a place on the west side highway - bike is about $175

This is bike #2 - it was 2x the money - but a lot nicer. The bike is a Biria CitiBike

Manhattan things I've done as a Manhattanite

2011-07-25T00:14:00.003-04:00

Bought stuff at The Container Store
Cycled around Central Park
Saw improv at The PIT
Bought vegetables from a corner guy at 2am
Walked home from work everyday for the last 2 months

New life for old projects

2011-03-18T11:14:00.003-04:00

That one thing I did a really long time ago.

I'm now sitting in a meeting watching a new guy from a different team presenting it to the rest of the department ( again )

Computer Books on the iPad

2011-02-09T15:16:00.005-05:00

I've recently discovered CHMate for my iPad. I've been looking for a .chm reader for a while.The OTA document transfer is really neat. The hosts a little website where you can upload your .chm files. The app reformats your documents and fonts and has an option for black background. A++

Why .chm you ask ? IMO it's the best format for technical literature ( or any literature ). Easy reformatting, lightweight, and it's not PDF. I have a huge backlog of technical literature from a.b.e-book.technical that I've been meaning to go to. Here's the roster. I'll try to blog about these a little individually

That'll probably last me through the winter.

God Of War 3

2011-02-09T15:11:00.002-05:00

Yet another Video Game review. About a year late. I'm on the Craigslist get-it-later cycle.

All in all an awesome game. Having recently finished Darksiders, this feels like a more epic and slightly better polished version.

There is some small carnal pleasure in absolutely murdering everyone in Greek mythology. The redemption plot wasn't all that believable.

Cold Weather Biking

2010-12-04T11:44:00.006-05:00

Went out for a ride today - weather is 41F and Sunny - really nice out

NorthFace hard shell is awesome - vents come in real handy. EDIT: REI article recommends a softshell to let some cold wind through. I think that might work better
Bike Helmet is like a ski helmet but much much colder. I need to find a hat that fits underneath. Or go with the Ski Helmet liner.
I really need to invest in a pair of 180s. The $5 knockoff kind that can be found here
I need a better pants solution - double pair of sweats + windproof is too much
Can't go wrong with long socks

REI has a good article on winter cycling here

How long do I plan on riding ? Until there is snow/sleet/rain on the ground - I don't have fenders

More games ? I should read books instead

2010-10-01T17:03:00.003-04:00

I think since my New Yorker subscription ran out, I've had a lot more time for games. The current queue is as such.

Darksiders

2010-09-20T19:51:00.006-04:00

I thought I'd write a serious blog post. Serious serious ruminations on the benefits of continuous integration or the perils of relying too much on the Django ORM. No such luck.

I also beat Darksiders this weekend. In retrospect, Darksiders is an epic game. It's ripped off every single game I've ever played - and added a giant sword ( I've never played Zelda ). Voidwalk through blue and orange portals: check. Freezing time: check. Grappling hooks, box pushing, and monster boss fights: check. Fortunately there were no QTEs.

If the main character wasn't so tragic, upset and serious about everything, it would have been awesome. For a horseman of the Apocalypse, he's awfully pissy. And where are the other Horsemen ? Maybe Django models left a bad taste in his mouth as well.

GTA - Episodes from Liberty City

2010-09-19T23:28:00.004-04:00

GTA continues to have the highest production quality of anything I've ever played. It's incredible how they manage to consistently tie the 3 stories here and make references to past games. Kudos

I picked this up on Friday via CL. Cost me all of $20. Beat the 'The Lost and Damned' episode in a weekend - casually. Legend of Gay Tony is a little longer. The characters are awesome, and I like the rip-off Rolls Royce Drophead

Weekend NYC ride

2010-09-19T23:09:00.005-04:00

I biked to work & back - about 25miles in 3hrs. My route via GMaps

I caught a stickball game Carroll and 7th. It was the most Park Slope thing I've ever witnessed in Park Slope ( except for maybe the Halloween parade ). It was an old-timers game, guys with gray hair and think 'how YOU doin', kid' accents. A Jetta and an Forrester served as 1st and 3rd base. I didn't quite catch what consituted 2nd base, but I guessed it was a fruit delivery truck. The block and intersection was packed with people in slippers enjoying fare from local cafes. People were consuming things from triangular and oval packaging - I assumed sandwiches or ice cream. Every 3 minutes, the entire game would pause to let cars through. This involved a couple of guys yelling at minivans and Volvos full of confused passengers and amused drivers.

I also visited Prospect Park. This seem to be the formula for everyone : Aquire plaid shirts and vintage bicycle. Picnic in Prospect Park. Loudly discuss digital media or your relationships.

GWB Route

2010-08-16T10:44:00.001-04:00

New plan - bike to the George Washington Bridge & back

Here's the route - Google Maps says it's 41.1 mi – about 3 hours 49 mins

Now I need to allocate some a Saturday or Sunday for this when the weather cools off a little

Thoughts on Biking Brooklyn

2010-06-25T23:30:00.010-04:00

I just took a 2hr bike through NYC. I took Manihattan bridge from Brooklyn and the Brooklyn bridge back. Here are a few thoughts

Here is a link to the Route:

Prospect Park is really nice. I should plan every route through the park. Friday nights there are awesome concerts at the Band Shell via @CelebrateBklyn and on 4SQ. I caught some of Kid Koala's show. Very cool event - evening concert in the park. Large crowds of people chilling on blankets and dancing around. My check in got me a Swarm badge.
Do not bike on the Brooklyn Bridge. The walkway is wooden ( atleast horizontally ) and not very pleasant. Pedestrians hardly respect the pedestrian vs bicycle lane division and tend to spill over on the bike side for pictures.
Surprisingly, there are bike lanes everywhere ( up to Prospect Park )
Ocean Parkway - bike along the satellite road, not the bike path. Bike path is riddled with little kids, potholes, strollers and houligans. The satellite side road is better paved, free of pedestrian shenanigans and is fairly car-free. Also you can bike a lot faster - at the speed of cars.
Smith Street is good to bike through. The lane is mostly paved except for a few bits around Poly. Take 9th Street to Smith street. Do NOT take 15th street - messy around Ft. Hamilton
Flatbush was actually better than I expected - keep pace with traffic - even up the mild hill and everything works out fine
I need a cycling jersey with back pockets. Regular t-shirts don't quite cut it - too much drag and I don't have anything in bright color. Carrying stuff in short pockets sucks
I need to put some lights on my bike. An LED in the front and a reflector thing in the back.
If I don't get a shirt with pocket, it would be awesome to get one of those under-seat saddle bags for cellphone / wallet / keys
I need to buy a bike lock. I think I'll stop by Roy's Sheepshead Cycle tomorrow
My bike is a triple. The front gear really confused me for a while but I finally figured it out. The shift still has 3 positions, but only two gears. I need to shift TWICE to go up or down.

5ive things I have done with the iPad

2010-06-19T02:18:00.003-04:00

1Youtube
2 browse the web
3 paid a bill
4 planned a vacation
5 Netflix

25th Birthday - Thank You Everyone

2010-06-13T12:23:00.014-04:00

Hi Everyone

I thought I'd write something with a little more permanence than a Facebook event message to t thank everyone for making the trek out to Echo Lake Park, NJ.

It was great seeing everybody come out to the picnic. I had a great time, and I hope you did too.

The present is wonderful. I now have a Mac id, Apple has my credit card information, and I finally feel like a fully fledged member of society. I will now proudly hold my head high when I walk into the Apple store. Thank you everyone for the great present. It's really cool! I can watch Netflix without getting out of bed and moving to the couch. I can also @foursquare check into my house with ease.

A special thank you to my lovely girlfriend. Here is the video footage of her amazing poem.

Thank you everyone for your kindness, friendship and support.

- George

Knowing ( Movie, 2009 )

2010-04-05T11:28:00.003-04:00

What a TERRIBLE movie. It was just such a giant let down. Cage goes through this whole predeterminaism vs randomness spiel, figures out all this stuff, and still the world explodes. It looks like his only purpose in the movie is to get his kid to the Pebble Meadow where the Noah's Ark aliens are hanging out. Except that the aliens kidnap the kids and bring them to the Pebble Meadow anyway. What was the whole point of Cage even being in the movie ?

What was the point of the movie ? There's no plot ark, there's no real tension or resolution. We could have just watched 3 days of Nick Cage's boring astrophysicist's life and then everyone get set on fire in the last 3 minutes of the film

At least The Day The Earth Stood Still had a point - stop polluting. Or maybe the point was that if we destroy New Jersey ( at least everything around the Meadowlands ), we'll be ok. What was the point here? Beware of solar flares ? Don't let creepy kids make time capsules ? Maybe this was just a massive sunscreen ad.

Video games as of late

2010-03-30T11:21:00.003-04:00

All of these were ( or are ) still pretty good. It's hard to find the time to play but we must all make sacrifices.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

2009-12-23T12:31:00.002-05:00

Traded this for UFC 2009.

Giving it a shot now.

Apparently I'm the foremost expert of showtime.fu

2009-11-01T12:45:00.004-05:00

I read about it on ReadWriteWeb a whole back and tweeted. Now it seems I am the foremost expert on the subect. My tweet is the 2nd search result on google.

Twitter Application with Google App Engine/Python

2009-09-28T21:50:00.006-04:00

Setup

To get started, you will need

Python 2.5.2 - According to Google App Engine documentation here - make sure to use the right version to avoid any compatibility issues
Eclipse - IDE - makes your life easier
PyDev- Eclipse Plugin to support Python - to install : in Eclipse, go to Help -> Software Updates -> Add Site : http://pydev.org/updates
Google App Engine SDK - get the latest version .msi file. double click
Tweepy - best damn Twitter/Python API to date

If you have git installed: 1. clone the repository from github 2. in the tweepy directory, type in setup.py install
If you don't have git, download the archive from the site, unzip, and follow 2. from above

Github - optional - it's a good practice to use SCM for your code. I wrote the following article on how to use it with Eclipse

I won't be discussing how to commit your code (atleast here). If you want to maintain sanity, I suggest you use an SCM of some sort

Screwing Around with Tweepy

Next we're going to console use the Python console to experiment with the Twitter API. Please note, text in Courier New is meant to be executed in a Python shell

>>> import tweepy # if this worked, you installed it correctly

There are two way to get authenticated with Twitter. With an authenticated Twitter API you can do all the things you can do with a twitter account: post messages, read your DM, etc.

via username and password ( basic authentication )
OAuth - requires registering your app here.

>>> twitter = tweepy.API.new('basic','twitter_account_name','twitter_account_password')

if this worked, you're in! Let's try to update your status

>>> twitter.update_status("I'm using the internet!")

So now that you have the Twitter API working, go through tweepy's API/tutorials to figure out what it can do. Try calling other methods on the twitter class. See what happens. If you're reading this tutorial, you're probably ahead of my on this one

Setting Up Eclipse

Follow the Configuring Eclipse on Windows to Use With Google App Engine tutorial. It's pretty detailed.

Google App Engine requires you to upload all the extra libraries you need to appspot in order for you app to work. This means you need to add the tweepy library to your project:

open the directory where you installed tweepy above in Explorer
Drag&Drop the whole tweepy directory in build\lib\ into the \src folder
Tweepy is installed - use it

Making the App

We're going to make a simple app. It will

run a search on all public tweets for the phrase "#python"
store the results
display the top 20

To do so, we will need two scripts files to execute

show.py - shows top 20 tweets
update.py - performs searches at 5 minute intervals

and a common library file to store stuff ( common.py )

stay tuned for Part 2

Git + Eclipse

2009-09-27T23:48:00.003-04:00

In short what you need to do is

In Eclipse, go to Help -> Software Updates and add the following address http://www.jgit.org/updates .
Click install and you're done
Click on a file in Eclipse, and under the 'Team' menu, you'll find Git options
Profit

Look through these links for more info

Installation notes from EGit wiki
Usage guide from GitHub

Memeoized

2009-09-24T13:58:00.007-04:00

I'm writing a new twitter app: Memeoized. See it in action at twitter.com/memeoized

Idea: 'scour' twitter for people mentioning memes and report the memes with a (@) . Simple enough idea but I kind of like it.

I'm able to reuse most of the code from NYCGameTrade because the idea is so similar. Exept this time I'll keep myself to a single blog.

Here is my resource list

Using Google App Engine with Eclipse http://code.google.com/appengine/articles/eclipse.html - quick setup instructions on how to get rolling with App Engine and Eclipse. Integrates with dev_appserver.py
Python introduction to Google App engine http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/gettingstarted/ The general Python walkthrough
Tweepy - http://github.com/joshthecoder/tweepy - fantastic twitter client in python.
Pixlr - how I made the domo kun logo
Github - because you'd be crazy not to.

and we're up and running

How quickly ideas die - NYCGameTrade

2009-09-15T01:23:00.004-04:00

Yes. I'm blogging about another blog. Yes. it was a big failure. No. there were no lessons learned.

here's a link: http://nycgametrade.blogspot.com/

why did this exist? read this post: http://nycgametrade.blogspot.com/2009/06/welcome-to-nycgametrade.html

I wrote a Google App Engine service that would poll a twitter account, see if anyone twittered anything with #ps3 or #xbox tags at the account, and re-tweet the request. The blog details some of my attempts to woo an audience such as posting to CL news ( useless ), posting to as a CL ad ( deleted ), posting to meetup ( ignored ).

Why would I bother with this ? have you not seen this: http://ggodik.blogspot.com/search/label/games . Most of what I do is trade games on CraigsList, play em, and swap-em-out again. Rinse. Repeat.

Why did I do this ? honestly, just to try out Google App Engine, code in Eclipse again, and to screw around with Twitter. I have

downloaded every twitter python api library and determined they're mostly garbage
messed around with Google App Engine to discover how awesome Google did at hosting application. And they keep releasing features! And the whole thing works!
to fail miserably at something web2.0ish

Will this deter me ? Probably now. I think I'm going to make my system generate DM message spam. Should it deter me ? Probably.

More Craiglist Magic

2009-07-29T10:57:00.001-04:00

Here is $40 dollars well spent

Really Pandora, Really ?

2009-07-24T12:27:00.000-04:00

Do I have to make a different account now ? Is that what you are resorting to ?

Tisk Tisk Tisk

The Magic Of Craigslist

2009-05-11T14:34:00.001-04:00

My intial $25 dollar investment has gone very far

Quantum Of Solace

2009-05-11T11:08:00.003-04:00

Beat in a day. Semi-'meh' pseudo-tactical shooter. No Golden Eye for the N64.

Trading it away for Far Cry 2

The Day The Earth Stood Still

2009-05-06T14:19:00.002-04:00

The whole point of this movie was to wipe out New Jersey. That apparently made everything better.

It seems that this movie suggests that the 'drastic change' to our existing is going to be the lack of electricity / electronics. This will cause food shortages, starvation, riots, etc. How is that any better ?

Call of Duty : World At War

2009-04-27T14:17:00.000-04:00

latest time drain.

short game.

going to do a little online action before I move on to Quantum of Solace 007

RockNRolla

2009-04-27T14:16:00.001-04:00

This movie made no sense. And not because it's a Guy Ritche british talking film. It just made no sense.

The Hacker Ethic - Pekka Himanen

2009-04-27T14:14:00.002-04:00

Latest iteration of literary adventure. Thoughts coming soon

Street Kings

2009-04-14T12:54:00.005-04:00

It's kind of like Training Day except it's not. I thought Training Day was a much better movie. However, the Hugh Laurie plot twist at the very end is a nice touch. It serves as sort of retribution for the predictability of the entire film.

The plot seems fairly typical of the cop movies, and very in line with what David Ayer has been writing for Dark Blue and S.W.A.T

Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut

2009-04-07T12:54:00.002-04:00

I haven't read a Vonnegut book since 2004-5. I really like this collection of short stories. Vonnegut follows his 8 rules of short stories and I feel it works out great.

I haven't had much exposure to short stories but I like the general concept : works great with a short attention span, readable in a subway ride, and are generally amusing.

What I like most about the format is that making the story 'short' keeps the writer focused on making it 'to the point'. Often times books will come up with a 'point' or a central theme and continue to expand on it throughout the book though various literary deviced. Some books really take to 'beating a dead horse' for a while. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a good example. The short story format, at least in K. Vonnegut's case, does not permit this.

Resident Evil 5

2009-04-02T15:26:00.006-04:00

I've traded Resistance 2 for Resident Evil 5. Well worth the trade.

I'm mass murdering zombies like no tomorrow.

Edit 4/7: This game takes the 'zombie' idea a little to far. The goons attacking me are not quite zombies, although they display zombie-like behavior. They are, however, able to engage in tactical combat with high power rifles and chuck spears. CAPCOM : That's not how zombies work !

The MyCheats walkthrough is here

Fallout 3

2009-03-26T11:19:00.002-04:00

Next on the roster is Fallout 3.

maybe I should read a book or something ?

Update 4/1 - I don't like RPG games. ZeroPunctuation has good things to say about this game. I find it boring.

Craigslist and Google Reader

2009-03-23T23:43:00.004-04:00

I've been using it and it works wonders. The basic idea is:

go on Craigslist and do a search

such as PS3 Game less than $40 http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=PS3+game&minAsk=min&maxAsk=40

get the RSS feed version ( bottom right corner )

http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=PS3+game&minAsk=min&maxAsk=40&format=rss

Subscribe to the RSS feed via Google Reader

This automatically will keep track of what items you have read and allow you to tag your content.

Here is a more detailed tutorial from SeattleBubble.com : How To: Use Craigslist & RSS to Find a Great Rental

Israel Birthright

2009-03-06T14:17:00.003-05:00

I'm going to Israel with Birthtright Israel Outdoors March 8th to 19th. I will attempt to blog as I go here. Stay tuned. maybe.

Edit: 3/19/09 - no internet connection = no blogging. I'll try to post thoughts here

Prince of Persia

2009-02-23T15:38:00.004-05:00

$30 on CL. A weaker version of Assassin's Creed.

The game feels like a giant artwork gallery. I like the running on walls.

Edit 3/23/09

I grew very bored of this game and CL traded it for Fallout 3 today. That stretches my initial investment of $30 pretty far.

Resistance 2

2009-02-23T15:34:00.003-05:00

fbeatifully rendered but very short. took me less than a weekend to beat. well worth the $25 I paid for it on CL

Death Race

2009-01-28T21:47:00.003-05:00

This movie was terrible. Even as a senseless action movie it was still terrible.

I should reconsider my Netflix queue.

booooo.

Hennessy 44 New York Map

2009-01-20T10:52:00.001-05:00

As can be read on Luxist or nymag.com there's a limited edition Hennessy 44 bottle to commemorate the 44th president. They can be purchased here:

View Larger Map

5ive: posts I don't have time to write

2009-01-13T14:46:00.002-05:00

Summary of gumption from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence
Thoughts and latest developments on work project mentioned below
5ives #3 through #5

Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of The Patriots

2009-01-13T14:42:00.004-05:00

I'm working my way through the game.

So far the graphics are amazing and the I'm liking the action and story line. I thought Rainbow Six Vegas 2 was going to be it for me but I guess I was wrong.

Apperently there is Multiplayer in MGS4 as well.

Edit 1/26/09:

Unless I've missed something the game is a little too easy and a little to short. The bosses do not require that much effort and the action is pretty weak.

It's still very well rendered

Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

2009-01-11T15:49:00.004-05:00

I thought this was a great book. It was a bit odd and a bit difficult at times but overall it's very enlightnening. I would consider re-reading this.

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

2009-01-11T15:39:00.002-05:00

I don't have much original thought on this book. It is well written and thoroughly amusing on a cruise.

I'll refer the reader to Michiko Kakutani and his review of the book in the NYTimes. Joel Spolsky seems to agree as well.

Ski Season

2009-01-03T01:05:00.003-05:00

This season is starting off right. Killington, VT for 4 days of weekday skiing

Organically grown software

2008-10-25T19:32:00.003-04:00

I've come up with a pretty good idea (at work) and I have been working on it on-and-off since March '07 now. I'm going to chronicle my experince here for mostly my own amusement.

The timeline for the project is something like:

September'07 - faced with a problem I decided to come up with a generic solution that a few of my coworkers can use
October '07 - Priorities/focus shift and the problem I am faced with is no longer urgent. I put this on the back-burner and drift off to several other side projects
Oct'07 - March '08 - a few code contributions here and there. The project is overengineered to the point where the focus is kind of lost
Febuary '08 - talks with another co-worker from a different group spark some interest and I do a 30 minute presentation for about 15people from 3 different offices
after the presentation I realize exactly that this project is way to ambitious and over-engineered to be feasable, useable and stable so spent some time ripping out bad features
March '08 - I hold an office-wide naming contest to come up with a name for what I'm doing
July '08 - more refactoring, test cases, and narrowing of focus
August '08 - the problem from Sept '07 comes back into focus but is assigned to an employee on my team. Since I am able to dictate the terms of the project, my side-project comes into play
August '08 - Another employee is confronted with the same problem and succumbs to using my work as well
October '08 - I woo yet another potential user

My immediate goals are these

release into production a working version as soon as possible
leverage the oodles of existing code that others have written for similar tasks
elicit as much feed back as possible
advertize the product - entice more users
keep the design flexilbe and robust

Assassin's Creed

2008-10-25T17:54:00.003-04:00

Just beat Assassin's Creed on my PS3

The plot was a little weak and slightly predictable. The protagonist aggressible alluded to something being wrong and thus the plot twists were fairly obvious throughout the whole game.

The fighting action is a little mundane and only gets hard in the last 3 missions. The jumping and climbing is fun but also very repetative.

As negative as the above sounds, the game has some pleasant predictability and is visually pleasing enough to play.

Overall I'd give it a B+ and would buy the sequel after a year.

By the way, the trailers on YouTube for Assassin's Creed 2 are fake

Netherland - Joseph O'Neill

2008-10-20T10:33:00.004-04:00

New Yorker book review seem to speak favoribly about this book. I picked it up from @fanatoly.

It offered a glimpse into Dutch / English upper-middle class culture, rare glimpses into early 2000's i-banking and talked alot about familiar to me parts of Brooklyn.

There were 3 different tracks of thought in this book.

A portion of it discussed cricket, a large parf of it involved divorce and brooding over life, and some slight bits of a Londoner's impression of Brooklyn

Semi-Pro

2008-10-20T10:30:00.003-04:00

This was just a terrible movie and a big waste of time. It had none of the Anchorman funny I excpected.

My policy on facebook hack-spam

2008-09-16T22:36:00.009-04:00

Every time I see one of these on my Facebook wall I remove the person from my friends. Clearly if you cannot manage to use the internet, we should probably not be on speaking terms.
I think everyone should follow in this example, thus imposing a social ban on people who are unable to come to terms with not clicking on everything they see.

Edited 11/14

Your name in comments in Word

2008-09-09T10:18:00.002-04:00

Sometimes specs are necessary and require some formal written documentation. When documents are shared ( email / sharepoint / network drives ) I really wish people would figure out how to change thier comment name/initials from Default.

Here is how: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100364151033.aspx

Songza / Metallica - To Live is To Die

2008-09-02T13:17:00.000-04:00

awsome song. thought I'd share

5ive things i've been doing instead of posting

2008-09-02T00:14:00.001-04:00

going to work
Half Life 2
Half Life 2 Episode 1
beta.stackoverflow.com
the beach

Twitter as usual

2008-08-29T18:58:00.001-04:00

I kind of missed these.
Apparently its not the RoR

5ive shows I'm waiting for new seasons of

2008-07-31T14:39:00.001-04:00

Heroes
The Office
Burn Notice
30 Rock
House

Strange Wilderness

2008-07-29T16:25:00.002-04:00

Grandma's Boy was hilarious. This was not.
Memorable quote:

[sic] "Here are the sea lions. They're getting out the water because of the sharks. Good thing there are no tigers on the rocks. Otherwise they wouldn't know what the f*ck to do"

Peter Dante was funny in this film. I liked him in Grandma's Boy more. Justin Long sucked as a stoner. Or as an actor. He should go back to Mac commericals.

Hipster PDA Week 1 Results

2008-07-29T16:12:00.003-04:00

I've been using my hPDA for a week and it's mostly been a positive experience. Aside from taking some flak from my less tech savvy friends it's been well received by my peers. In a short list, here are some negatives:

Limited multimedia capabilities and no mp3 support
Not a very 'rugged' device. My BB Pearl survived the thunderstorm by managing not to partially disintegrate
Bulky - again, the Pearl has a smaller and more attractive form-factor
Does not sync with Lotus Notes
No internet apps or the ability to install $10 Apps ( like MonkeyBall )

What the hPDA does offer is a very good experience of reflecting on the various tasks and to-dos of my life. Sitting down with a pen and paper beats the BB Pearl hands down: Whenever I have attempted to do this on the Pearl I end up mostly fiddling with the device, pressing random buttons and eventually end up playing BrickBreaker. I find the pen&paper approach a lot more productive

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco By Bryan Burrough, John Helyar

2008-07-28T11:48:00.004-04:00

Barbarians at the Gate is probably the latest and latest in my streak of finance related literature. This was a very long and sometimes boring book. Overall I felt it is a worthwhile piece of literature that offers a glimpse into the lives of corporate CEOs, bankers, lawyers and PE firms. The book is set in the late 80s, which offers some hindsight into who made it out alive and who collapsed.

Trying out the Hipster PDA

2008-07-22T16:45:00.006-04:00

According to Merlin Mann on 43folder.com in

is a fully extensible system for coordinating incoming and outgoing data for any aspect of your life and work. It scales brilliantly, degrades gracefully, supports optional categories and “beaming,” and is configurable to an unlimited number of options. Best of all, the Hipster PDA fits into your hip pocket and costs practically nothing to purchase and maintain.

Pictured here are some initial attempts at using my hPDA.

5ive PS3 games I want to play

2008-07-21T11:38:00.003-04:00

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
FIFA 08
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare / Call of Duty 3
Grand Turismo 5: Prologue
Bourne Supremacy

5ive shows to watch on Netflix/Hulu

2008-07-11T11:08:00.004-04:00

Weeds Season 1&2
Dexter
Arrested Development
Burn Notice
Highlander

5ive favorite Perl libraries

2008-07-03T10:34:00.002-04:00

Monkey Business Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle - John Rolfe and Peter Troob

2008-06-23T11:02:00.003-04:00

This books seems to be as much IB gospel as M.Lewis' Liars Poker. Perhaps my expectation for this book were a bit high because my friends built it up, but it seems a little weaker than previous banking literature. Perhaps this is because you can only convey so much misery through text. This book walks a thin line of suffering for a paycheck so it cannot turn into a sob-story without turning into one of these.

The more amusing realization about this book and the way by which I came to read it is the following: everyone who recommended it after reading took an IB job and is as misearble as the characters in the book.

5ives: Banking books I've read

2008-06-23T11:00:00.003-04:00

Liar's Poker
Monkey Business
When Genius Failed
Ugly Americans *
Den of Thieves *

* denotes books not read yet

5ives: 5 awsome open source/freeware programs

2008-06-10T14:16:00.001-04:00

Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird
Dia
Emacs
Winamp
BSPlayer

5ives: 5 excused I've used to avoid going to the gym

2008-06-10T14:12:00.001-04:00

Intoxication
Laziness
Too much work to do
Golf
Laziness

Gone Baby Gone

2008-06-10T14:10:00.002-04:00

I'm a movie critic by no means but I felt this movies to be a little drawn out and little 'scattered' towards the end.

5ives: 5 blogs I like to read

2008-06-03T17:07:00.002-04:00

Joel on Software
The Leveraged Sellout
Freakanomics
Coding Horror
Brownstoner

5ives: Things I do like about the subway

2008-06-03T12:03:00.002-04:00

the 'entertainment'
successfully racial profiling that results in me getting a seat: guessing which Chinese people get off at Canal/Grand, yuppies and hippies at Park Slope and anyone with a flat bill hat between Prospect and Church
utterly lost tourists
getting a running start and shoving everyone into 4/5
early morning BlackBerry email productivity and a round of BrickBreaker

5ives: Things I don't like about the subway

2008-06-03T11:57:00.004-04:00

running nose and no tissues. I end up combating snot for 45minutes. Sometimes I ask strangers for tissues. Rarely does anyone ever take pity.
dudes in expensive suits on the 4/5. If I had a $5k suit, it'd cab it to client meetings
the riff-raff
people who have not yet adjusted to the daily violation of their 'personal space'
people who stare back, thats just uncomfortable

I'm starting 5ives

2008-06-03T11:53:00.004-04:00

Much like Merlin at 5ives.com, I'll be posting some 5ives here: Random musings, with five thoughts at a time. These mostly happen as an expansion of thoughts I have on the subway. Also, I've read somewhere that bullet points give credibility.

You can see them all here (via search)

Made To Stick - Chip Heath & Dan Heath

2008-06-01T20:23:00.006-04:00

Made to Stick

some really good ideas in here about all the common traits of ideas that worked out.

I'd like to have kept a summary of this.

will post back with findings

Pandora ... it's full of leaks

2008-05-16T14:44:00.005-04:00

Maybe not Pandora but Flash in general. My computer grids to a halt after an hour of Pandora usage.

When it starts, the memory footprint looks like this:

And over the course of an hour worth of usage turns into:

This will keep increasing and eventually thrash my computer to death. I'm switching to winamp/ShoutCast.

update: Two hours into usage:

Onslaught ( Yet another awsome Tower Defense game)

2008-04-21T18:56:00.004-04:00

The folks over at playr.co.uk http://playr.blogspot.com/ have an awesome tower defense game called Onslaught. By far this has the most advanced game features and 'cleanest' feel. Good work !

Canyon Defense

2008-03-28T16:42:00.003-04:00

Canyon Defense can be found here on MiniClip

It's an awsome but hard game. The graphics are neater and the enemies are more annoying but there is no 'upgrade' feature. Enjoy

Desktop Tower Defense

2008-03-21T20:01:00.007-04:00

Desktop Tower Defense is my time sink right now.

Here are some of my attempts to play the Fun-10k mission.

This is probably my best strategy to date

Some tips/ideas
1. maximize range/exposure of towers to creeps by placing upgraded towers in central locations
2. slow the game down with freeze and bang towers
3. mazes help
4. ink/dart towers do not need to exposed to creeps directly. It's possible to attack from afar.
5. My previous strategy included combining the 'creep-flow' into a single heavily guarded channel. It feels like being able to reuse the endpoints somehow extends game play by having the creeps traverse the field in opposite directions, thus continually exposing them to upgraded tower clusters
6. don't forget to take care of Flying attacks. These usually get me

Some bad books and movies as of recent

2008-03-17T13:59:00.012-04:00

Rant was just too boring and confusing for me to 'get into'. Maybe I'm just Palahniuk oversaturated. This lived under my bed for a month and went straight back to the NYPL. Some books just don't catch on.

Vanilla Sky was one of those movies that fell through the cracks and I never got a chance to see. Seems like I should have left it there.
In retrospect, the movie is split into real and imaginary halves by the events following the nightclub scene. Every 'present time' scene in the movie, as well as some flashbacks during the 'jail time' scenes occurs in a dream.
There are some enjoyable cinematic effects, such as the use of sets and color to distinguish between real flashbacks, real dreams, and the surrealistic dream reality of the present. The blurring of these events is also very enjoyable.
However, the great disappointment here is twofold: a shitty deus ex machina and a missed opportunity for a decent movie.

What seems to be strange surrealism turns into uncalled for science fiction. It felt like the writers couldn't come up with an explanation for what's going on so they thought up some corporation that would freeze people and let them dream whatever they wanted. There are subtle hints of this during the film (appearance of tech support, few anachronistic scenes) but overall I would have preferred a more plausible ending.
There was a great opportunity for a 'Fight Club' like jamais vu that would make the viewer reexamine every scene with a completely different idea of who is who, when and what. Instead, we're quickly clued into the fact that David is having what surmounts to a bad trip.

Other bad movies I will breifly mention:

My expectation for Dan In Real Life were pretty low, but this movie managed to outdo itself in the crap department. The only thing this movie was missing is a holiday theme to serve as a pivot point for the plot. Then I could have made my girlfriend watch Rambo: First Blood Part II instead.

The Reaping spiraled from interesting, to creepy, to scary, to creepy and scary and suddenly collapsed to ridiculous. Somewhere between the little girl jumping out of tree bark, scary houses and creepy southern towns this movie aquired a Satan worshiping death cult and a 12year old that wields lightning bolts. How and why did H.Swank decide to act in this ?

Choke - Chuck Palanhnuik

2008-01-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Also accordng to IMDB, there's going to be a movie based on the book, although it looks like more of a 'film short' rather than a movie. I can't quite see enough plot here for an hour and a half of watching and $10+tax.

This is my second to last (and most amusing) Palanhnuik book. After 3 books and a movie, he's begining to sound repetative. The author follows a very straightfor

Survivor was probably the farthest departure from the standard Palanhnuik genre.

up next: Rant

Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk

2007-12-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

This book is way over the top drama, but very Palahniuk in delivery and writing.

Fashion, models (but not drugs or surgery) seem like very odd topics for Palahnuik to have intricate knowledge of.

The book is enjoyable, in its own strange way.

I'm going to read my last Palahniuk novel: Choke.

It's getting a little monotonous and boring.

Skiing in Okemo 12-8-2007

2007-12-11T10:44:00.001-05:00

Okemo was awsome. As usual. Click on picture for full size (it's big)

Foggy Blurry Midtown

2007-11-26T19:33:00.000-05:00

It's not poor image quality from a cellphone, it's art. Enjoy.

Classical Music on Pandora

2007-11-21T10:54:00.000-05:00

As mentioned on their blog and my mailbox, Pandora has classical music.
I'm excited. I can now be cultured and only mildly distracted at work at the same time.

The Pandora email has links to stations: (I like the Symphonic, Romantic Period)

Symphonic, Classical Period Listen Now
Symphonic, Romantic Period Listen Now
Piano Concerti, Classical Period Listen Now
Opera, Romantic Period Listen Now
Chamber, Baroque Period Listen Now

Blackwater - The Rise Of The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

2007-11-09T16:56:00.001-05:00

Bartered this book from a co-worker for 'Survivor' (see last post)

Started: 11/9/2007
Finished: 12/11/2007

I've always been lukewarm on the exposé novel genre, but maybe that just stems from my distrust of non-fiction to be entertaining. After reading the book I came to realize that I stand correct in my assumptions. This book suffers from the same problem all non-fiction literature is plagued with: there is one grand point to be made in the entire book. The rest of the book feels like a book report (albeit a well written one). Scahill makes his point early on in the book, and keeps talking about the same thing for the rest of the book. It's not as bad as the 'dead horse beating' in The World Is Flat, but there is something very off putting here. There is a distinct lack of a cohesive narrative. The book picks up in certain parts with the stories of several mercenaries, lawsuits, etc, but for the most part it reads like a research paper.

For these exact reasons, this took me like a month to read.

Survivor - Chuck Palahnuik

2007-11-07T23:59:00.001-05:00

I felt as if I've had it to easy in my recent bouts with literature, so I've decided to go for something more serious.

Survivor is written backwards. The first page in the book is numbered 2xx and the pages count down to 1. This way I know how much I have left to go. It seems a fairly odd but fitting style of layout.

The narration, layout, etc are all done in a similar style to style to Fight Club. The narrative is hindsight aware retelling of events that have already happened with in the order that the narrator percieves them leading to his current state. There is the slightly offsetting amount of Home Economics details offered by the author, also in some sense similar to the information conveyed by Ed Norton's character in Fight Club.

I'm half way through the book, and it feels like I'm going to borrow another one: Choke

It seems as if Palanhuik really enjoyed Psychology in college (or is still teaching). The references and usage of the DSM and the various disorders were humorous and nostalgic. As far as social commentary, this is a much darker than what I've been recently reading.

Boomsday - Christopher Buckley

2007-11-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

A modern version of Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal'.

This book centered around the idea of the surmounting Social Security debt imposed by the Baby Boomer ('46 to '62) generation on the current generation. The proposed solution involved 'Voluntary Transitioning' : having old people volunteer to kill themselves after the age of 65 for tax benefits.

A light and humorous read, the book took me about 5 days to read Oct-1 to Oct-5 2007.

up next ... Chuck Palahniuk, maybe

Absurdistan - Gary Shteyngart

2007-10-30T23:17:00.000-04:00

Another glorious exploitation of the NYPL, I borrowed this in the same Shteyngart batch to read in 20 days. At this point I must profess I am somewhat saturated by satire, Russian culture, and the author.

A large portion of this book the author devoted to himself, or his literary incarnation of Jerry Steynfarb author of the the Russian Arriviste's Hand Job. Amusing, yes. Noteworthy literary achievement, no.

Half of this book is a discussion of food, which is to my liking. The author crams sturgeon, vodka, and whatever else restaurants can conjure to feed a 325lb man. Shteyngart shows some breadth here, creating completely different character from V.Grishkin of the last book.

Amidst the absurdity of Abusrdistan, mockery of Hunter College (who's students are poor and impressionable), and the nativity of the protagonist, the book two punchlines:
1. It's all a sham: There is no oil and everything is a corporate machination.
2. The bigger punchline is that of Jewish-Russian parental love and attachment. This seems to be a recurring theme in Shteyngart's work and servers as its main redeeming feature. While this invokes embarrassment (Sixty-Nine Cents, short story in the New Yorker 'Food' issue) or annoyance (Débutante's Handbook), it's ultimately heart warming. While it's possible to explain slang, gangsters, and soviet life, unconditional parental love seems to be out of scope.

All I have to say:
Humongous G ... bitches!

The Russian Debutante's Handbook - Gary Shteyngart

2007-10-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

For me this book symbolizes freedom, a sense of accomplishment, and a borderline obessive-compulsive joy of finishing things I've started but abandoned.

I picked the book up originally from the BPL based on Igor's ranting and recomendations. It turned out to be a delightful read (I'm still waiting on payback for Almanac Of The Dead) but I was unable to split my time between last semester of school, a master's thesis, and a book. I tend to be a very absorbed and dedicated reader.

I was very conflicted about giving up the book so I ended it on the boundry between New York and Prava, Republic Stolovaya.

The NY portion I found a little hard to digest partially because it's too crammed with witty remarks and side comments and partially because the experience is too familiar. While I have not yet reached the protagonist's stage of life, I have survived through similar circumstances.

I picked up the book again, a Master of Science in Computer Science and a Software Engineer and found it to be a more pleasant and enjoyable read. The book came from the NYPL and I still owe the BPL ~$20. The MidManhattan NYPL branch is 2 blocks away from work, so I made due with a library card.

Fully stocked with $1 honey roasted street peanuts and a lemon Snapple from work, I embarked on this glorious quest of picking where I left of 7-ish months ago.

The Prava chapter seems a bit unrealisitic and slightly too believable at the same time. Perhaps I have not been to Europe for the book to be set in better context. Apparently I found myself in Norwalk, CT instead.

Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis

2007-10-02T00:01:00.002-04:00

Captures such a distant moment, its well worth the read

When Genius Failed - The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Managment by Roger Lowenstein

2007-10-01T23:55:00.000-04:00

Read it after my dad in about two weeks. Great literature to read during August 2007 Credit Crunch. The market situation resembled the shenanigans in the book: same words, same money, same problems, same solution, same assholes.

While a bit too long, the book goes to great length to heighten the suspense and stretch the pleasure of the inevitable collapse. It's as if the author takes some pleasure in prolonging the enviable and using foreboding language. It goes to some length to explain the finance and math involved. It's hard to say whether the characters arrogance was correctly captured, justly portrayed, or accurately reported.