Google's Googlers

From Matt Cutts recent blog post:

Words can’t express how much I respect my colleagues at Google, but I’ll try. Googlers are smart, rational, and polite. They execute well on projects and listen to objections with an open mind. When they run up against an obstacle, they get creative and look for a new approach to solve the problem. Among the hundreds of Googlers I know, there’s also a strong streak of wanting to change the world for the better.

He's got a pretty good description started but I think theres more than that as well. From my experience theres no way to describe being Google-ly you just are or aren't, and you can read it in an instant, it's a feeling/vibe you get from the person I guess. I've never seen people love their work as much as they do at Google. Their faces light up as you talk about their project or the problem they are having with it. I know mostly Interns but I've seen these qualities across all Googlers. These people are smart. But more importantly they really care. Sometimes they come up with amazing product ideas that could change the world and personally I think they are blinded by the good they think it will do. They don't see the malicious ways their product could be used right away. As time goes on there may be a need for more critics inside Google that people will listen to. I think this will become a major responsibility of the User Experience Researchers at Google. Not only to figure out that the product is easy to use for every user but to make sure that its not ominous or scary to the user AND to ensure that the malicious uses of the product are at least known and discussed.

I think, like many, that Google has grown to a very interesting point, where it goes in the next few years will be fun to watch. I read about 2006 being a record year for them... they were in the news just about every day.

Florida

I've just recently got back from my Florida vacation. I had a great time and really enjoyed spending time with my family. We are all getting older and getting closer to the real world (for the kids anyways). Its hard to imagine where we all will be in another 5 years. 5 years ago I was in High School still hadn't met Sean just yet. I think at that point I wanted to be a computer engineer, HA how times have changed. Jake was in England and Julie was still in Canada. Now... My brother is going to be a Dad... Julie is in Bermuda and Cousin Jason is "Mr. Riddell" a 3rd grade teacher. I also have a new younger cousin who is SO cute and SO smart. Anyways we had a great time and a lot of great food. I'm so very thankful to have such wonderful grandparents!

My Pictures

Personal vs Family Vacations

Disclaimer: I'm having a great time here with my family. Please do not twist my words to say anything else.

I've noticed there is quite a difference between my personal vacations and my family vacations. And I'm not sure if its the same for everyone or not. When on a family vacation we all wake up relatively early and do an event every day. We make it a point to spend quality time and make every minute count. It's long tiring days and seemingly a lot of work. When you wake up in the morning you make yourself presentable and pleasant to be around. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this plan and it creates wonderful memories of the time we all spend together.

On the other hand... my personal vacations are much more relaxed. I wake up whenever I want... and some days I'll spend the whole day in my PJs. Reading a book or using the internets is just fine with me. I'm sure when I go to CA my days will be filled with movies and video games and thats just fine with me. Sure its things I could do at home, but its not the same cause theres always responsibilities when you are at home. Not thinking and not stressing is my personal vacation.

Both vacations are quite different and good in their own ways. I'm lucky enough to have a little bit of both over the Christmas holidays. Pictures will be posted of Florida when I get reliable internet and I'm not sure there will be many pictures of Cali.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Holidays everyone!!
Hope you are happy and healthy where ever you are!

Living on Limited Internet

I suppose it’s good for me to have limited internet, and that it’s a good hard look at just how much time I spend online… but this is hard and not very fun. I’ve been able to quickly check my email everyday but I’m not reading all my feeds and I’m not keeping up with all my forums.

I'm trying to remain calm about it and just tough it out.

I'm having a great time with the family and my little cousin Ava is just so cute! The whole trip has been great and it’s been a lot of great food. We seem to be hitting my favourite restaurants, including The Cheesecake factory, Panera Bread, and Cold Stone Creamery.

Also, I’ve managed to visit and be in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans this year.

{Pacific Ocean Pic}

{Atlantic Ocean Pic}

I'm not sure what they would be like that the same time of year... but my opinions of them vary Greatly!

Start of Christmas Holidays...

Okay so my laptop isn’t exactly coach plane sized. But it helps me deal with the turbulence.

In recent years, best quantified by the time I’ve been with Sean (coming up on 5 years!), I’ve done a lot of solo traveling. Going to see various people and most recently just because I’m on a different schedule than everyone else. I’m currently going to Florida to meet the rest of my family for Christmas. I always find the traveling experience different usually it’s just a long process.

The worst is traveling by Greyhound bus (LINK). I have nothing against Greyhound, the offer an excellent service for what it is but… the bus is usually crowded and smelly. My advice should you ever have to travel by bus, is to get an overnight ride. I’ve found that traveling at night makes it easier to sleep (obviously) and people tend to not talk to you as much. Also, Sit at the front of the Bus if possible… it’s really nice to be one of the first off the bus.

Domestic flights are interesting as well… particularly dependant on the time of year and even the time of day. Holiday travel + going to Florida = screaming children who are going to Disney for the first time… The best part about this flight tho… not many just couples so I get my own section of 3 seats. But… It’s an entirely different flight atmosphere than the usual Thursday morning business trip flight at any other time of the year. Ahhh the business trip flight… those are nice, everyone is quite and reading the paper, but there are a lot more couples/single flyers… you don’t normally get a section to yourself.

No matter where or how you are traveling, get an mp3 player. I would be absolutely lost without my mp3 player. It makes all the difference in the world. I tend to travel with my laptop, DS and latest Wired magazine but the only crucial entertainment device that I NEED is my mp3 player. I currently have a first generation IPod shuffle and it’s perfect. Some people would recommend the noise canceling headphones… but to me those are too big and obnoxious to actually use on a flight, not to mention I’m poor cause of school.

Traveling opens an interesting opportunity to view humans and try to consider their “story”. It seems that most people are pretty obvious, particularly on this flight (go Disney). But airport watching is an interesting game… There are roughly 180 people on this flight, the plane isn’t full but that’s still a lot of people heading to Orlando 6 Days before Christmas… From Detroit… that’s a lot of different stories. Behind me are two young children traveling with what appears to be their grandpa or step dad? In front of me are a mother and her screaming 4 year old son. The hardest stories to guess are the non-student age people who are traveling by themselves.

Etiquette and Our New World

In the cynical world we live in I try to maintain hope that we are generally a good species that has respect and cares about the great good and other peoples feelings. When did people stop caring about professionalism online and generally how you look to the rest of the world (minus the physical)? Recently I have read an article about netiquette and I noticed that it spawn other rants (like mine), but I haven't read them... I'm supposed to be studying.

First, a story about etiquette in the real world... you do not call a house of 4 students, during exam time, at 7:30 in the morning, on a Saturday. Unless their house is on fire. (Tyler is not a student but he keeps the same hours as the rest of us.) You particularly don't call, to say that your in a line to pick up a Wii... Use your head... I seriously thought the world was coming to an end when the phone rang.

Back on track, I agree with Porue's post and find the current state of netiquette appalling. From email, to IM, to forum behaviour, everything that people used to time is now a garbled mess. Emails have always been the center of online etiquette discussions... the "reply to all" function was always first on the list.... Then there was BCC... yes, if you are spamming people used BCC so they don't get a whole new resource of email addresses to re-spam back. Finally, with regards to email, people seem to think its okay to send typos and screwed up engrish because they are sending the email with a quick response time... That's no excuse and it reflects badly on you and your professionalism... If you can't type on a blackberry... THEN DON'T

IM - if you are above the age of 15 there is no excuse for not typing the entire word 'you' or 'are' you aren't typing any faster or learning anything... such as how to clearly communicate yourself. The use of emoicons should be kept to a minimum, and should be used to show emotions that can otherwise not be conveyed with the text. :) :P :( are acceptable. (I sometimes throw in :$ which is the blushing one on MSN).

Finally, Forums... You are NOT anonymous. Ever. In most forums, they are archived, and indexed... chances are if Google can find it... your (next/current) employer can find it and those you are ranting about can find it. You never know who is reading the forum, and you have no reason to be rude and say things that you wouldn't say in person. Even worse when you bad mouth a person who deserves your respect and you just don't know who they are.... like a CS secretary or a CS Professor or a Co-op adviser... They are reading and they know who you are.

This rant when much longer than I intended, and my point really is... your online persona should be a reflection of yourself. Hopefully it will be the best image of yourself because you are able to manipulate it as you chose. However it seems that many use anonymity and removal of physical nonverbal actions and reactions, to explore their otherwise hidden dark side... and that makes me sad.

"Give someone a story" game....

So I had to make a trip to the Driver's License Office because ... well I needed a new one and a new picture. So after my exam I headed to the office, it was around 1 so it was pretty dead in there. As soon as I got to the counter and they had me started on the process, the woman behind the counter to the right of where I was says to the woman helping me.

"My neighbors smoke a lot of pot... it's all I can smell when I go outside"

To which I smirk a little bit, and then they proceed to have conversation about it...

"Oh you could just go outside and get high, thats great"
"Yeah, you can picture me outside sniffing the air" [acts it out]
"I saw these people on tv once using this thing with water and such... I'm going to get one of those for my neighbours for Christmas."
"You know with my condition now I can legally smoke pot..." "Yeah you could smoke pot but the stuff that the government gives out is pretty bad, just grow your own"

Keep in mind these are women probably in their 50's, so it was pretty funny to listen to. And then I have to get my picture taken and they are still going on while I'm standing in front of the
white background. I'm sure I'm almost laughing in my picture now. ...

It was very random. I got to thinking after, it could have been a legitimate conversation, OR these women are bored with their job and have invented a new game. The point is to give the innocent bystander a story to go home and blog... err... tell all their friends about. The more creative the better and if you can get the stranger to participate in the conversation there are bonus points.

Co-op Notes

So while I was ego-surfing last night I not only realized that my blog's page-rank is slipping but theres a new news article that I didn't know about. The University is still using my name as a recruitment tool. Seems okay except for the "Co-op Placements at Google"; While co-op helped me get there experience wise, Google is not an official co-op employer and their experience with the students has been one-off situations.

Yes Vince, my school is still making a big deal of it. Probably until another student goes to Google or somewhere bigger (does one exist? j/k) I'm going to be used for publicity. And in reality I like being able to help the school cause I really believe that it is a great school and there are things that I can do to improve it.

I personally have put a lot of work into the co-op program. I have sat on many committees and even helped customize the program for computer science. I believe that it is very important and useful for students to get real world experience before graduation. Not only to get a job but to make sure you are in the right place... find your area of expertise or at least what you don't like. It's been an awesome experience for me.

Sheikah needs some Water

The Sheik really seemed to like Michelle's cup. It was pretty funny. Now there are pictures and a video... all over the place... I should be studying, where did my motivation go?

The Madness ...

The Finals are as follows....
Tuesday: Operating Systems
Thursday: Networking
Saturday: Databases
Monday: Programming Theory (and Speech)

Then, Tuesday morning fly to Florida for 10 days with the family; come home, the hopefully go to California for a few days with the boyfriend. Make it back for the first day of school and thus the first day of usability testing on the new CS Website for my university.

Some other things that I need to do...
> Go to the doctor and get my knee assessed
> Get new contacts
> Get a hair cut
> Get my driver's license renewed
> Write various reports for work
> Buy my textbooks for next semester
> Prepare that usability study
> Other things I'm forgetting....

Must be exam time....

I've found new ways of procrastinating... I've finally got Google Reader set up and running .. and is it ever a good waste of time... even just looking for new RSS feeds is fun and time consuming...

And currently I'm watching Hackers on the big screen with a bunch of the computer science students. Go CSS and the movie marathon .... there aren't many here, but the movie is awesome!

On that note... should get back to making my notes.... Exams... AH

It's COLD

It's cold outside!
All of the sudden it is Winter and I need my scarf! This is crazy. My hands are all dry and my lips are chapped, this sucks. Too cold and dry!

So, School is almost over and exams are nearly underway. I have one major project left and one small reflection paper to write. And then 4.5 exams. The 0.5 exam is for my speech class... its multiple choice and only worth 10%. I haven't had an exam worth 10% since grade 9 in high school. I'm not complaining... but I'm probably not going to study either. Its on the same day as one of my scariest exams.

It has been about 2 weeks since Google last contacted me. I'm starting to worry. Hopefully everything with my resume is okay but you never know.

I haven't been sleeping very well lately. The move and the stress have put me on an odd schedule and the new noises in the house are interesting to get used to. On that note... I'm going to get a coffee!