Red Dead Redemption

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

Bike Shopping in NYC

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

• 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

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

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

1. Exceptional C++
2. Modern C++ Design
3. Code Complete
4. In Search Of Stupidity

That'll probably last me through the winter.

God Of War 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Surprisingly, there are bike lanes everywhere ( up to Prospect Park )
4. 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.
5. 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
6. Flatbush was actually better than I expected - keep pace with traffic - even up the mild hill and everything works out fine
7. 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
8. I need to put some lights on my bike. An LED in the front and a reflector thing in the back.
9. 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
10. I need to buy a bike lock. I think I'll stop by Roy's Sheepshead Cycle tomorrow
11. 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

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

25th Birthday - Thank You Everyone

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 )

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

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

Traded this for UFC 2009.

Giving it a shot now.

Apparently I'm the foremost expert of showtime.fu

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

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.

1. via username and password ( basic authentication )
   
2. 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:

1. open the directory where you installed tweepy above in Explorer
2. Drag&Drop the whole tweepy directory in build\lib\ into the \src folder
   
3. 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

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

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

stay tuned for Part 2