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If you have a chance - get this book.
All info about it here: http://www.exactitudes.com/
Thanks Lionel for reminding me...

After my little trip to the bookstore today, I decided I would probably need a book on Google App Engine as well, since it does slightly differ from standard python, and the datastore, Google's databases, are very deferent than anything I've worked with in the past (read: relational).

i.e. To use a database in Google app engine, you must write it as a class:

 
class Greeting(db.Model): 
 author = db.UserProperty() 
 content = db.StringProperty(multiline=True) 
 date = db.DateTimeProperty(auto_now_add=True) 

This class goes within the code, and can be written to through statements such as:

 
greeting = Greeting()


if users.get_current_user(): 
 greeting.author = users.get_current_user()


greeting.content = self.request.get('content') 
 greeting.put() 

In this sample from Google, you can see the program checking to see if the user is logged in, requesting the "content" input field from the form and sending the data to the datastore. Much more on all this to come, but for now you can find the standard tutorial on how to do this on Google's own code site. Unfortunately the book is just on preorder; fortunately it is released at the end of this month, so I wont be waiting too long. In the meantime, I'll be catching up on this python.

Faster - James Gleick

Drawing largely from the work of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, Faster should appeal to fans of sci-fi authors such as Kurt Vonnegut or Douglas Coupland for its dystopian theme alone. What really makes this book great though is the way it challenges preconceptions of both space and time while reminding us all of the present we all live in and aspire to improve. Preferably read it just before reading Super-Cannes by the late JG Ballard.

I enjoy great infographic design and the Choose Your Own Adventure series. This has both.

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