Tuesday, September 27, 2005

[report] Run Hit Wonder

Event: Nike Run Hit Wonder
Distance - Race Route: 5K
Distance - To/From where car is parked: ~3K+
Chip time: 00:34:27
Pace: 11:02.5
Date: 2005 Sep 24
Color of race t-shirt: grassy neon green

Favorites:
- Running through the tunnel and ending the race in the USC Coliseum football field
- Being cheered on through frat row
- Watching a racer stop to enjoy a beer bong
- Counting the number of fastfood restaurants on race route and thinking about fries
- Mounds of perfect bananas
- Joan Jett finally singing "I Love Rock And Roll"

What a great first 5K of my life.

Monday, September 05, 2005

[tech] Proxy Server

Instead of your computer going directly, say, to CNN to request a page. If you are using a proxy server, the proxy server will request the page for you, and then pass you the result.

But what's the point of that? Sounds like rather pointless middle-layer management. Well, here are some reasons:

1. Caching. Proxy server can save a previously requested page and serve it back faster. That is of course really only relevant in the Compuserver and America Online days.

2. Filtering. If your organization really cares about censoring your surfing activites, they can use a proxy server to control access.

3. A proxy such as The Cloak could provide "anonymous service", which would then allow you to hide your info. This, is the much more interesting application. Privacy is a double-edged sword ...

Sunday, September 04, 2005

[eats] Johnnie's Pastrami (Culver City, CA)

There are few things better in life than a late-night Johnnie's Pastrami sandwich. This place is an authentic 50's diner. Complete with synthetic rubber seats on the inside, antique jukebox, even the waiting staff feel like they are from a different era. There are kick-ass fire pits outside, which makes for quite a different experience. Of course, the main show is the Pastrami sandwich. Do not be distracted by anything else on the menu. Just ask for a double-dipped Pastrami sandwich.

Trust me.

Johnnie's Pastrami Restaurant
(310) 397-6654
4017 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230

Saturday, September 03, 2005

[tech] Python

I read that code blocking by indentation is really old school. I suppose this goes to show that everything old eventually becomes new again.

What fun with data structures. And not forgetting the very nice regexp package.

Here is a very nice tutorial. You can always start from the official python site.