Electrons For Breakfast

What Google Wants

Over the summer, Google has been hiring some of the best and the brightest Java programmers. In recruitment ads in trade mags, Google prominently indicates they want Java expertise. Top people from the Java heavyweights such as Sun and BEA have recently joined Google. Google's #1 draft pick was none other than Joshua Bloch, the guy designed many of the core routines in Java, gave us the awesome improvements in Java 5.0, and wrote the most widely-respected book on Java design fundamentals ( Effective Java ).

So, what are they up to? What clues does this provide to the direction they will go? Following up an entry on Brennan's Weblog , here are my own wild-ass speculations:

1. A 'google' your hard drive application. Now, the G hasn't been too good when it comes to cross-platform apps (the IE toolbar), but using Java may allow them some freedom from the vicissitudes of Microsoft -- and you know M$ is gunning for them.

2. Tools for developers. M$'s great success is at least partially built on giving developers what they want: great tools. As Brennan suggested with Eclipse, perhaps the idea is to create a set of easy-to-use tools. For instance, development environments for building custom apps which hook into google web services.

3. File sharing or 'google your peers'. They could vastly increase their power by making an app that becomes THE way to transfer files and share/search data.

4. Extending the google appliance. This is really speculative, but what about extending the search engine to run second-order stuff on a distributed farm of perhaps millions of volunteer PC's? For instance, crunching through indeces to improve the results of a particular topic, weed out page rank abusers, etc.

One things for sure, as a publicly traded company now will be set by a board and approved by shareholders. Microsoft has shown that a public company can remain innovative. However, they did it by taking good ideas from competitors (either by crushing them, or buying them out), can Google do it in a "not evil" way?

Network Names

I've never had the responsibility of maintaining a large network of computers. But one can dream :-) . Anyways I've kept around a few naming conventions, just in case I needed to name a bunch of systems. A good network name convention should supply short, simple easily rememberable names. It should also provide names which are easily distinguishable from each other, but that still fit the larger pattern. And it should be fairly inexhaustable. So here goes....

Antacid medication names: Zantac, Pepsid, Tagament, Nexium...

Old lady names: Mildred, Agnes, Dolores...

Robots from the movies: C3PO, Klatuu, Deckard...

2004 Aug 26

"Four years ago, Florida election officials removed over 52,000 voters from the rolls under the guise of 'cleansing' the list of felons. Over 90% of those purged were not guilty of any crime.... The company that provided the purge list warned Florida officials that thousands of eligible voters would likely be disenfranchised in the process, but Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State who also served as state campaign manager for George W. Bush, went forward with the purge anyway. The result was thousands of voters not allowed to vote in an election that was decided by just over 500 votes." MoveOnPAC

They're gonna try and do it again. Once again intimidating mostly minority voters in order to skew the election in their favor. Don't let it happen .

It makes me sick to realize that such a fundamental right - the right to vote - should be taken away so deliberately and so easily right in our own country in the present day. When you think of George W. Bush's campaign, think of a boot stamping on a human face fifty thousand times.

AVP Review

Alien Vs. Predator draws heavily on it's prequals of course, but also upon a few lesser known movies: The Cube, The Thing, and Jurassic Park (okay, only one of those is lesser known).

It's got a pretty damn cool story idea: alien creatures battling each other in an ancient pyramid buried deep in the Antarctic. Throw a team of humans with varying degrees of bravery into the mix, and you've got the making of a great sci-fi slash action movie.

Except it doesn't quite work out that way. Bad action, bad dialog and a complete lack of suspense ruin the promise of merging these two great film franchises.

Let's start with the cornball dialog. Actually I don't remember any particular instances, just the overall lameness. But there was one scene where the archeologist figures out what a series of engraved symbols means after exclaiming "the Mayan Calendar was base ten, so this must mean ...". Whatever the Mayan Calendar was (base 20?), I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't metric!

The lack of suspense was a major disappointment since the preceeding movies were so good at building up fear, dread and (at times) horror. Of course, we're familiar with these creatures now, so why not dispense with the slow burn and commence with the big fights?

Well it fails at that attempt too; aliens and predators die much much too easily here. Even what could have been an extraordinary ending is just silly. This is a B movie on every level.

Super Sub Way

A fat Lady Liberty totes a burger and fries and a giant Big Mac crashes into Manhattan in Subway's German ads . Some people can't take a joke. Sounds pretty damn funny to me....

2004 Aug 23

Here's some extremely useful quick reference bookmarklets (drag the link to your browser's toolbar):

They'll let you input some text and a) lookup the term in the wikipedia b) lookup the definition of a word / phrase c) find quotes by author's name.

2004 Aug 09

Mary and I went and saw M. Night Shamma-lamma's latest film, The Village on Saturday. I thought it was genius, pure genius, his best movie so far. Many reviewers have dumped on it. In retrospect, the story is ( no spoilers ) absurdly implausible. But that doesn't take away from the experience of viewing a great story artfully presented. And isn't it the case with each of his movies (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) that they are build on the fiction that something which we know to be absurd, is actually happening?

Then on Sunday we saw The Bourne Idiocy , which is a pretty good movie, but not quite equal to the original. It's quite dizzying: deliberately shaky camera work, fast cuts, quick pans, etc, etc. I half expected the closing credits to be rendered in Nervous Text ! Also, in the original, you're shown how Bourne does some of his �ber hacks: slipping past security and defeating border patrols for instance. In the sequel, not only are they featured less, but you are given little insight into his skills.

2004 Aug 03

If the election were held today, who would win? You can find out at Electoral-Vote.com . They use the most recent major polls to give a state-by-state electoral vote breakdown. Of course a lot of things could happen by November 2nd, not to mention what could happen after it. The graph shows the trend over time.

Update : To underscore the volatility, yesterday Arizona was shown as slightly favoring Kerry, today the latest poll shows Arizona slightly favoring Bush. I guess that settles the question of Arizona being a swing state.

On another topic: I'm a huge fan of the Wikipedia (Wiki + encyclopedia). In this fantastic Slashdot interview , Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales provides answers on how Wikipedia works and where it is going.

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing."

Viva la revolution!

2004 July 29

Am I the only one who thinks that Al Sharpton's speech last night at the Democratic National Committee was terrific? The pundits on MSNBC and CNN seemed to be disturbed that he'd deviate from his script, speak with great passion, and discuss issues which might scare away fragile swing voters. On the contrary, I thought he was the only speaker so far to clearly communicate the urgency of removing the Bush administration from power. Here's a couple of his punchlines.

I have come here tonight to say, that the only choice we have to preserve our freedoms at this point in history is to elect John Kerry the president of the United States.

... this is not just about winning an election. It's about preserving the principles on which this very nation was founded.

Mentioning the importance of preserving civil liberties has drawn great applause in the convention, from more than one speaker. Yet it's not a theme we're hearing from the Kerry campaign, but from outsiders. They're making a mistake by being way too cautious, IMHO.

Instead we hear the same old ' our administration will fix everything' platitudes, that are clearly registered on anyone's bullshit detector.For a quarter century, Democrats have been trying to look like Republicans, not the other way around. In other words, the GOP is setting the trend, the Democratic Party being led around like a donkey and getting kicked in the ass.

Barack Obama hit upon the right theme Tuesday night when he spoke on how "people don't expect government to solve all their problems" but with a "change in priorities... we can do better."

That's the theme the Democratics should take away from the Republicans: a smaller, better government. Still progressive, but focused on specifics, not panacea. Clearly it's an issue conservatives have totally failed on, but that resonates very strongly with voters. Clinton's "move to the center" was a fluke. It worked for him because, once the issues were the same for both parties, voters were hooked in by his charisma. But swinging for the center fits like a bad suit on most other democrats, and more importantly, voters can smell it.

2004 July 27

I've put together a sort-of top-ten list of things to watch out for in my next job (whatever that may be). It also includes things I'd like to focus on doing better.

collaborate
Collaboration has been actively discouraged here. Yet I've found that it typically boosts productivity, particularly in pairs and small groups. Make sure that small collaborative teams are the employer's typical work mode.
work on stuff people actually use
A no brainer. If there isn't an end-user involved, then the project is either just a bureaucratic requirement or some manager's fancy. Either way it's most likely a dead-end.
use linux and open source tools
Leverage the huge repository of useful tools in modern Linux distros. Usually the right tool for the job is a single package-install click or command away. On Windows, more often than not, you're stuck searching for a limited payware or shareware application that interoperates with nothing. Make sure Linux on the desktop will not be met with resistance.
graphical front ends for all utilities
No more command line interfaces, graphical for anything that will be used by anyone besides myself. Create simple xml-based GUI's if possible (e.g. JDNC, Qt/Designer).
insist on useable common formats
Binary formats are evil and more than that, rarely necessary. Use text-based, especially XML-based (or other text-based) formats that can be imported into common programs, easily transformed, and quickly debugged (and are quite compressible).
make visualization a priority
If users can't visualize it, they won't be interested in it. Make sure that the employer wants to provide robust tools, not just data.
understand what you're working on
Don't proceed assuming someone else has understood (or will understand) it. I.e. if it's largely engineering gobblydegook, then try to get the engineers to document it properly.
be vital to operations
Volunteer for tasks that could lead to developing new skills and personal contacts.
share knowledge
Make seminars, conferences, informal sessions & talks, or publications a priority rather than an afterthought.
have fun
If you're not having fun at least some of the time, you're going nowhere.

2004 July 26

My r�sum� has been updated. Would you believe it is actually shorter than before? It was surprising how much stuff, in just four years, became less relevant, less in-demand, and as a result, I honed down the document.

Never take apart an Apple Pro Keyboard. It begins with four simple 1.27mm allen bolts, 3 hidden screws, and individually prying off all 108 keys. But behind each key is a small clear plastic nipple-like cover and if you aren't very careful, they will all fall out at once onto the floor. I wasn't careful. Then there is the matter of some 50 tiny tiny screws that must each go back tightly into place, or certain keys will never work again. And two LED's which are set in just so like delicate jewelry. The whole thing is over-engineered like an Audi but probably assembled by some 9-year-old Malaysian who puts together 500 of them every hour... it took me about 4, aided immensely by the extensive documentation provided by some poor S.O.B. on the Net. Hmmm. I should have snapped a gross-out pic of the tangled detritus of Coke, cat hair and fingernail clippings that was in there. Yeah, great idea, a see-through keyboard! But hey, those LED's weren't necessary after all....

2004 July 04

Happy Fourth of July. Check out these panoramic images made from this gallery of photos taken during a hike the other day up to Pusch Peak.

2004 June 24

I've got a new email address : guymac@gmail.com

A thought for the day: people who are ignorant are also ignorant of their own ignorance... this goes a long way towards explaining the state of the world today....

2004 June 23

From CBS News :

Kerry invited Aspen resident and writer Hunter S. Thompson to ride in his motorcade and brought three copies of Thompson's book about the 1972 presidential race, "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail."

"Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly," Kerry told the fund-raiser. "How does this sound . Vice President Hunter Thompson."

Hilarious! Now that's a ticket I'd definitely support!