ryanpark.org

Yosemite

Ryan — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:28:50 +0000

Last weekend I travelled to Yosemite National Park here in northern California. It was stunningly beautiful — just amazing, really. My photos from the trip don’t really do it justice, because they don’t really capture the magnificent scale of the landscapes, but they’re still great photos. Enjoy!

Sneaking Ruby Through Google App Engine (and Other Strictly Python Places)

Ryan — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:12:22 +0000

Very insightful post from why the lucky stiff about the challenges and successes he found when attempting to translate Ruby bytecode to Python bytecode. Money quote: What amazes me is how close Ruby 1.9 bytecode and Python 2.5 bytecode are. Some things translate almost directly. It is completely obvious that Koichi took his cues from Python. [...]

Sneaking Ruby Through Google App Engine (and Other Strictly Python Places)

If You Use Outlook E-Mail, Meet Xobni

Ryan — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:00:46 +0000

Congrats to Adam and Matt for getting featured in the New York Times!

If You Use Outlook E-Mail, Meet Xobni

17 Mile Drive

Ryan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:51:23 +0000

Yesterday I made a short day trip to Pebble Beach, Carmel, Monterey, and Santa Cruz. I wanted to see some of the Pacific coast before I move to Seattle in June. All of the cities were pretty, but 17 Mile Drive was especially beautiful. It’s a private road in Pebble Beach — it costs $9.25 to [...]

A chance encounter with Hiroshi Ishii

Ryan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:07:57 +0000

I was reviewing some old outgoing email this morning, and I found a message I sent last month, regarding a book I had listed for sale on Amazon Marketplace. A few weeks ago, a man named Hiroshi Ishii attempted to place an order for one of my listings, but there was an error processing [...]

Top 10 Reasons to Avoid the SimpleDB Hype

Ryan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:42:18 +0000

There is a ton of chatter on the Internet about Amazon SimpleDB, Apache CouchDB, Google App Engine’s Datastore API, and other distributed key-value data stores. Their biggest perceived advantage is scalability: they can help eliminate the bottleneck imposed by single-server databases. But the hype around these new databases is growing frantic. This morning I read an [...]

Tufts Beelzebubs - “Let’s Get It Started”

Ryan — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:01:50 +0000

This is just an incredible recording: all a cappella, no instruments. The link should auto-play the song in your browser.

Tufts Beelzebubs - “Let’s Get It Started”

Urban Dare DC

Ryan — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:30:06 +0000

“We plan on setting the record for the most people participating in a 3-legged race.”

Urban Dare DC

My calendar

Ryan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:55:34 +0000

I’ve started to publish my calendar on my website so that everyone can see when I’m busy or free. It may not be terribly useful, but it was pretty easy to do, and a fun little programming exercise. Read on to learn how I did it. I use Apple’s iCal to manage my schedule, and iCal [...]

The Jane Galt Tax Plan

Ryan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:37:44 +0000

Megan McArdle, a.k.a. Jane Galt, suggested a very interesting and smart tax reform plan about five years ago. I don’t agree with everything she’s suggesting, but I agree with most of it, and her rationale is quite sound. It’s a much more nuanced and smarter approach than the “tax simplification” plans proposed by our politicians.

The Jane Galt Tax Plan