Python

The day has finally arrived. The blog post which nobody thought will happen, has happened. I had planned to work in theoretical computer science even before entering computer science department. As an ardent believer in the sanctity of mathematics, I avoided programming at all cost. As a wannabe cool dude, never showed any traits of a geek. But today I will shed all the inhibitions and write about a programming language, called "Python".

Few days back, my friend "Bandar-hair" convinced me to learn Python. His name is being changed because of the privacy issues (I like to believe that many people read my blog, in spite of the evidence for the contrary). Many thanks to him, for the wonderful advice.

The reason why it is awesome is because of the intelligence in the structure and design. To start with there are NO DECLARATIONS. Sometimes I also don't know whether the variable is integer, double or single; but the language knows:). The amazing thing is it has almost all operations for every data type. So a string can be added or multiplied, all with the usual symbols. So just name a variable and let the program take care of data type. Another brilliant thing, You don't need to put semicolon or dot after every sentence. In effect, saves at least 1 compilation error every 5 lines you write.

Lets come to more substantial points. It has extensive libraries which cover Matlab, Maple and Mathematica. So you get all the functionality without the rigid and painful syntax. And like scheme, you can pass functions as arguments. That give the programmer immense power, which I don't know how to use :P. A small point, if you write "if i=10", the interpreter shows you an error, and does not assume it to be always true. See, a very intelligent language.

This fills up my quota of talking about a programming language intelligently (or in a partially intelligent way). I knew this entry was going to be short, but still I underestimated my coolness (or overestimated my geekiness). It all started with a small tutorial "Learn Python the hard way", available on net, and finished before the tutorial was not over.

Given that I have finished the blog entry before the tutorial, probably should look into alternate career path :P. On this thought, let me say good bye and leave you wondering about your career path.

NYC eatathon

There are few people in this world who eat to live. They have the liberty to stop reading now. This post is for people who live to eat. Yeah, we are going to talk about a food filled day in New York city.

My quest for finding a good lunch place in "The Big Apple" for a recent trip made me realize the potential of NYC. So we (party of 5) decided that just a lunch can't do justice to this place. Only a complete day devoted to exploring street food will satisfy us. So below you will find the list of places we tried and "non useless" information about them.

1. NYDosas : Washington Square , Sullivan st. Probably the only vegetarian place to get best street food prize. We included this place so that the only veg guy in our group couldn't complain later (but didn't help :( ). The Samosa was excellent, Uttapam was good but we didn't like dosas. One of us really liked the Rava Masala Dosa (but he also thinks "boiled plain lentils" is a delicacy:P)

2. Mamoun's Falafel: 119 Macdougal st, Greenwich village. They don't just taste good when you are drunk. We had veg falafel and chicken kebab, both were awesome. One of the best places we tried that day, not a small compliment :).

3. Meat on a stick Chinese kebabs (Xinjiang Kebabs) : Divison st at Forsyth st. This is the place in Chinatown where you get 1$ chicken, lamb or beef kebabs. We ate at one of the cart and still not sure if that is the famous one. The kebabs were decent but slightly sweet. For the first time tasted cumin powder in Chinese cuisine.

4. Margon Cuban sandwich : 46th st between 6th and 7th avenue. Great lunch and breakfast place. Things to try are roast chicken, Cuban sandwich and roast pork. This place was the motivation for the entire eatathon.

5. Biryani Cart : 46th st and 6th avenue: Best Bombay spicy chicken biryani ever , better than the one you get in Mumbai :). Previously decided to leave it because one friend said "not another desi place man". Not listening to him was an intelligent decision. There were no kebabs that day, they should be good also.

6. Ben ash : cheesecake place . I am not giving the address because don't want anyone else to waste the money. Lesson: Don't listen to people who only eat sweets and are vegetarian :P.

7. Burger joint at Le Parker Meridian : 56th st between 6th and 7th avenue. Yeah, this is the name of the place. It is "in" Le Parker Meridian and it is not expensive. To reach this place, go inside Le Parker, ask the receptionist and follow his pointers exactly. Great burgers (cheeseburger and hamburger only), and nice milk-shake. Definitely worth it for its location. Oh and for its burgers also.

8. Creperie NYC : 112 Macdougal st in Greenwich village. Good place to try Crepe, if you know how to pronounciate "Crepe".

9. Joe's Pizza : 7 Carmime st (at Bleecker st). Heard that they have the best pizza in NY. Huge disappointment, probably because they didn't have many toppings. We made every effort to like it, went there after Backfence, but still.

10. Backfence : 155 Bleecker st in village. The pub was just legen ...... dary. It had live music, both the bands were really good. Lot of beer on tap and free peanut. To top it, you can throw them on the ground:). Really great atmosphere and enjoyed throughly.

If you are taking so many advices, take one more. Don't listen to anyone else, go to NYC and try these places yourself:).