This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (a.k.a. "The Guy with the Red Tie"), founder of GarysGuide, mentor at ER Accelerator and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

Spoiler Alert!
Walter Isaacson's long-awaited bio about Steve Jobs comes out today. But if I know u folks well, y'all just want a quick 'n dirty review to be able to hold ur own in any water cooler conversation this week, no? So here goes ... (deep breath) ... "Jobs wanted to wage thermonuclear war on Android, was obsessed with Autobiography Of A Yogi (read it every year, only book on his iPad), almost licensed Mac OS to Compaq (but had second thoughts about giving away the 'crown jewels'), was deeply influenced by Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma, wanted to revolutionize the textbook industry next, thought he had finally cracked what an Apple television would be like, was 50-50 on whether God exists and hated on-off power switches." Phewwww. There u have it. You're welcome.

The 'Gary' Halloween Costume
So yeah, Halloween is right around the corner and u know what means ... a whole buncha tech+Halloween flavored shindigs all over town. Now I know u folks are busy figuring out ur perfect outfit--maybe dressing up as ur favorite startup founder or VC or as a Tech Bubble or a Signed Termsheet or ur favorite Social Networking App or a Fail Whale or an Angry Bird or a Siri-enabled iPhone or whatever. But here's the dealio ... I better not catch u dressed up in a black suit, white shirt & red tie with a giant 'fro and 70s style mutton chop sideburns, 'k? Oh, who am I kidding? No one is pimping for the 'Gary' Halloween costume to take off this year more than me! ;)

Deals & Discounts
As always, a bunch of tasty deals and discounts for my peeps including classes at GA, the Raise Cache fashion extravaganza, Silicon Valley Human Rights conf, Dave McClure's Warm Gun conf and more.

And now, lets journey into the heart of the Silicon Alley beast to see whats creakin' this week...

The Startup Lifecycle: Your Company, from Idea to Maturity
Taught by Fred Destin, a VC in NYC.
Monday, 8 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

The World Technology Summit & Awards 2011
The event where u get to hang out with cool folks doing innovative work. Speakers include Ray Kurzweil (Singularity Summit), Kati London (Zynga), Steven Howe (Center for Space Nuclear Research), Poppy Harlow (CNN Money), Jeff Kluger (Time) and more.
Tuesday, 7 a.m. @ Time & Life Building, 1271 Avenue of the Americas

GA Digital Buffet: Data and APIs
If you live, breathe and dream in the wonderful world of APIs then you're guaranteed to like this one. With Doug Rushkoff, Matthew LeMay, Chris Castiglione, Rob Spectre and Akshay Patil. Yeah, that Doug Rushkoff.
Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

ERA Halloween Party at Webster Hall!
So you mean we can network with other cool startup entrepreneurs AND meet potential investors AND get to dress up in our fave Halloween costumes? Now thats just crazzzy talk.
Wednesday, 6 p.m. @ Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street

Digital Media MBA October Happy Hour
Learn about a bunch of cool projects people are working on, including improving efficiency of taxi dispatch systems at NYC airports, creating a film & new media incubator, helping muni agencies better leverage social media, growing the reach of NYC Life (Channel 25) and much more.
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Solas, 232 East 9th Street

Location-Based Apps Demo Day Meetup
Location-based apps are hot. Demo days are hot. Here's what u get when u bring all that hotness in one place. Presenting will be Yog, Getgame, Matchbook, Jauntlet, Citymaps and others.
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. @ Aol Ventures, 770 Broadway

PGA New Media Council: Smart TV - Producing For Pixels
If u are the type who starts hyperentilating everytime someone blogs, tweets or whispers about the fictional (so far) but oh-so-desirable Apple Television, then u have bigger problems this event may be right up ur alley. In the hot seat talking about Smart TVs will be Rachelle Zoffer (Interactive TV at Verizon), Felicia Wong (Showtime), Eva Bask-Karlsson (Samsung Electronics), Vamsi Sistla (Telvetto) and Anne-Marie Roussel (Sharp Labs). Moderated by Chris Pfaff.
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Theresa Lang Auditorium The New School, 55 West 13th Street

Be One of the Cool Kids: An Introduction to Ruby on Rails
Wait, whaa...? I thought the cool kids preferred to code in Fortran, no?
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Skillshare HQ, 407 Broome Street

BKTK - Tech, Design, Social Media and more in Brooklyn
Wherein you learn how to deal with situations where "your collaborator has turned into a dictator."
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Bitmap Creative Labs, 300 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn

Spotify NYC Developer Meetup
Spotify fanboy? Then, u my friend, cannot miss this event. Hang out with Spotify's community manager Andrew Mager who'll demo their platform, engineer Ricardo Santos who'll show off their backend and recruiter Howard Smith who'll tell u how to get a job there. And yep, there'll be free food and booze. But what I really wanna know is how to prevent my guilty pleasure songs & playlists from accidentally popping up in my facebook newsfeed. About time we got that fixed.
Wednesday, 7 p.m. @ Spotify NYC, 76 9th Avenue, 11th Floor

TEDxSiliconAlley
Chris Grayson had a dream. To bring a lil' bit of the magic of TED to our backyard one day. And so he has. Introducing the inaugural edition of TEDxSiliconAlley with an all-star speaker lineup including Scott Heiferman (Meetup), Max Haot (Livestream), Alexandra W. Wilson (Gilt Groupe), Avi Muchnick (Aviary), Siobhan Quinn (Foursquare), Elena Silenok (Clothia), Anna Akbari (NYU), Jack Mason (IBM), Tor Myhren (Grey), Alexander Rea (Skinny), Nicole Tricoukes (Motorola), Faris Yakob (MDC Partners), Rana Sobhany (iPad DJ) and more. [It's sold out, despite being $100. --ed.]
Thursday, 1:30 p.m. @ Grey Advertising, 200 Fifth Avenue

New York Mobile App Developer (MAD) Meetup
Its a mad, mad, mad world ... of apps.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Magnani Caruso Dutton, 138 West 25th Street

Ignite: Lean Startup at Pivotal Labs
Since y'all have been such nice folks, Ignite organizer Tikva Morowati has decided that this month we're getting a 2nd (BONUS!) Ignite event in partnership with the Lean Startup folks. How do u like 'em apples! :) Presenting will be Alex Weinberg (SnappSchool), Brandon Root (Friendzy), Brian Sowards (GiftSquid), Deirdre Lord (Megawatt Hour), Giff Constable (Lean Startup Meetup), Jacob Brody (MESA), Josh Seiden (LUXr NYC), Kareem Kouddous (CrowdTap), Katia Beauchamp (Birchbox), Lee Hoffman (Veri), Michele Tepper (EnergyHub), Noah Kagan (AppSumo), Rachael Chong (Catchafire) and more.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Pivotal Labs, 841 Broadway

Digital DUMBO: The Haberdashery Sponsored by Bing
Yes, yes, Digital Dumbo is awesome. But u know whats even more awesome? When they invite The Bumbys (That would be Gill and Jill Bumby. No, those are not their real names) to give u a "fair and honest appraisal of your appearance." Intrigued? I know I am.
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. @ Dumbo Loft, 155 Water Street

App Store Revenue Optimization
Want to take down Angry Birds and make a bajillion dollars in the process? Well of course u do! So go get the inside scoop from Andrew Cohen of Brainscape and get crackin' on that killer app of urs.
Thursday, 8 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

Techdrinkup Tech Takeover of Halloween (School Girls & Nerds) Costume Party
More tech + halloween craziness. Got a hawt costume to show off? You might just snag urself a free bottle of Patron XO or Ultimate Vodka. Sounds like a boozy party, all right.
Friday, 9 p.m. @ G 50 Lounge, 208 East 50th Street

More on the horizon...
Social Media World Forum North America on Nov 1 @ Javits Center
November NY Tech Meetup on Nov 2 @ 92 Street NY
GA + GLabs present: Ben Lerer, Co-Founder & CEO of Thrillist on Nov 2 @ General Assembly
Mashable Media Summit on Nov 4 @ The Times Center
CNet Gotham Live on Nov 9 @ Openhouse Gallery
Raise Cache: A Celebration of NY Tech and A Benefit for hackNY on Nov 17 @ State Armory

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends!