When work is fun

First of all, to all those who did not understand my "Kool-aid" references, see this. I am not obsessed with Kool-aid.

Since my last blog post, I have moved desks so that the team now sits together, now have 90 bottles/cans in my collection, went for a talk by The Simpsons animators in Google (and got a free book!), bought a car (Toyota Corolla CE) and got rejected for a credit card.

But most importantly, I am working hard trying to get a system up at work, and have worked on weekends and weekdays until 10pm.

When work is fun, it becomes dangerous. :)

Amazon Kindle

As an avid book reader, I really like the idea of Amazon Kindle. Imagine a whole shelf of books in a electronic book reader! (And no more nagging from wife and parents about the number of books in the house)

Very nice points:

• Lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces.


• Long battery life. Leave wireless on and recharge approximately every other day. Turn wireless off and read for a week or more before recharging. Fully recharges in 2 hours.


• Unlike WiFi, Kindle utilizes the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones—so you never have to locate a hotspot.


• No monthly wireless bills, service plans, or commitments—we take care of the wireless delivery so you can simply click, buy, and read.


• Includes free wireless access to the planet's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia—Wikipedia.org.


• More than 88,000 books available, including 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers.

However, it's currently getting 2.5 out of 5 stars in the Amazon rating system. Most complaints are on (1) DRM books, (2) Expensive reader and (3) it's not paper!

(1) DRM - unfortunately, is a necessary evil for business to agree. I would rather have tons of quality DRM books than a small selection of non-DRM books

(2) Expensive - it's all relative. Heck, if all my books are digital, imagine the money I would save on shipping charges.

(3) It's not paper - if it's better for the environment (not sure how much effect the manufacturing affects the climate), then I can adapt.

It's not that I would get the Amazon Kindle at this point in time. The main negative point for me is that it lacks many technical books, especially computer science. I am sure this is due to the HTML format of the ebooks, as opposed to something that maintains the page layout of the book like PDF. (Not that I am saying PDF is a good choice)

All the Drinks

I currently have 66 unique beverage cans/bottles on my cabinet, ranging from Guru Energy Lite 100% Natural (argh, cough syrup equivalent) to The Ginger People "Ginger Beer" (wow!) to Tejava Premium Iced Tea (Unsweetened).

And I just discovered that different buildings have slightly different sets of drinks. Looks like I might hit 100 unique drinks by the end of the month. Woe is my bladder.

Am I a M?

I am trying to buy clothes online (Google store) and I can't decide if I am a S or a M. I know I am a M in Singapore, but am I a S or a M here? It varies from place to place.

It's all very perplexing.

Days of my Life

Reveille

Due to the time difference between Singapore and US, I wake up at around 6am PST while the Mrs stays up late (by our standards) to videoconference. This arrangement means that I normally sleep by around 10pm. As such, I normally get to work by 8ish, which brings us to the one frequently asked question is what the working hours are like. There are people here at this time of the day, but let's just say if someone is working at this time, it's being a looooong night. The working hours vary greatly from project to project, but people tend to incline towards starting around 10am and going home after dinner (it's free anyway).

After arriving at my desk, I normally throw down my bag at my desk, and think to myself how unfit I am to be this out of breath.

Self-Powered Commuting

I cycle to work daily as I live about 5-6 miles (depending on the route I take) away. This is apparently quite Googley, so for every 5 days you cycle to work, Google will donate $25 to a selected charity. See Forward Management and Sierra Club Mutual Funds Announce 2007 Green Leaders and Bike to Work Day [danvk.org].

Here today, Gone tomorrow

The first two weeks as a noogler involves a lot of learning and going for lectures. By the second week, I learnt how to ignore certain emails, what classes to attend or not (and what classes to try your darnest to get a place in), and, well, where to find out what you do not know.

I have a mentor who guides me, but it turns out that my group has gone to Hawaii this week, leaving me and a noogler who joined a week before me back in Googleplex.

I have a goal

I started a personal project to sample all non-alcoholic distinct canned and bottled drinks available at Googleplex. At last count, I had about 40 bottles and cans listed in my spreadsheet, and I reckon I am about half-way done (I still have not gotten to the Cokes and Pepsis).

My last marathon

I have a deal with the Mrs that I can run one more marathon, and I have my sights set on one in the Bay area. Definitely. And this time, it will be sub-4 hours. Oh yeah.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for marathons in the Bay area? Preferably as close as possible to Mountain View, California (don't have a car).

Perks

Friends and family keep asking me for what other perks Google has to offer. Let's see, you get $5000 off when you buy a green car (although that's about to change for 2008). Free laundry room with free washing powder/liquid. Did I mention the food? Free gym membership with subsidized personal training rates. Subsidized massage plus one-time free one-hour massage. On-site doctors. Medical, dental and vision coverage. High-end desktops with 30" monitors for software development plus a laptop (Mac, Windows or Linux). Nap pods (these are cool, basically they are sofas with screens and lounge music that allow you to take naps). Dog-friendly. Great talks (e.g. Obama visited Google). California weather.

It's a nice great almost-perfect place to work for, ok? :)

Life as a Noogler

Seeing this is the end of my first week as noogler, I thought I should relate some of my thoughts so that I may look back at them fondly in the future.

Feeling alive

First and foremost, this is an amazing place to work for. You feel completely appreciated and while most nooglers would allude to the amazing food that is all free here, I am completely blown away at the opportunities given to you here. What you do here in Google makes a difference to millions of people, and Google provides you the tools and support needed to do so.

Need a better ergonomic keyboard? Walk 2 minutes to a hardware depot and get one. No questions asked.

Need a vertical mouse? Yap. Same procedure.

New headphones? New laptop cable? Yes, Yes and Yes.

I exchanged my Mac Pro for a Linux box (don't ask why), and all I had to do was to go online, request for an exchange, and a technician comes down with the new machine and replaces it for me. I almost broke a sweat. So I went to the gym to get it out. (argh, that's terrible writing)

Gym with 20 treadmills which have televisions built-in? And infinite pools? And personal trainers? And monkeys that cheer you on as you exercise?

I made the last one up, but with free gym membership, what can I say?

Maybe you are asking, yes, so what - Google is just throwing money at engineers. What a waste! Well, everything is on a honor system, but I do not see people abusing this privilege and say, getting a fancy keyboard for their mother. These accessories are there for engineers to use and work with. You do not know how empowering this is. In school, I would have to go to my supervisor to request for something as mundane as a keyboard, and not to get a new fancy keyboard as my current one does not suit my posture, but because the current one is so full of biological material that spiders have taken residence in it. I felt beholden to the institution.

Here, I feel that I am part of a organism that is dynamic and growing. Things are a little chaotic, but it's managed chaos. I feel alive here.

Am I drinking the kool-aid? Maybe it's in the food, but hey, it's all true.

The Power

Google technology is crazy wow. The amount of API and libraries that an engineer has access to is mind-blowing. And everyone works out one source control tree. _ONE_. Everything any engineer writes (even an intern) is available to any other engineer for use. And these are not any engineer off the street, these are top-notch "best people I have ever worked with" engineers with top-quality code. Gee. I hope I do not humiliate myself here.

The collaborative nature of Google is outstanding - you think of something, and instead of worrying about the bits and pieces, and coding from scratch, you just have to piece together some of the most powerful technology you have ever seen and bam! Your sauce is done. No, wait. I mean, your program is parallelized and has access to TB of diskspace.

Be with me

If you know me, or even if you do not know me but feel that you are an excellent candidate, and feel like exploring opportunities with Google, please _please_ email me your resume and I will gladly refer you(It's on the main page of this domain). Such a referral can mean the difference between your resume being overlooked and tossed in the bin, and being placed on a priority list for interviews.

I will also love to take the time to talk to you about Google, and how you can be part of this adventure.

Noogler

I am a noogler!

All I can say is that I have received more emails in one day than I used to receive as a student in a whole month!