May The Brunch Be With You

One of the perks of working for Google is that we are provided free food.  At my office, which is a smaller location, we get breakfast and lunch 5 days a week.

Its not just food tho, it is really good food. Prepared by an amazing, top notch, kitchen staff.  Nutritionally balanced, quality ingredients, and talented chefs.

Today they went above and beyond for the classic geek holiday, May The 4th - aka Star Wars Day.  They cooked up an amazingly tasty brunch with a Star Wars theme - Ham Solo Eggs Benedict, Jed-eye steak, Princess Leia Cinnamon Buns etc.

The image on the left is one of our chefs, Jordan, who had just prepared my breakfast.  (Well, first breakfast.  I did some genre hopping and went all Hobbit today and had second breakfast as well).

Yesterday, when I found out that brunch was going to be served, and what the menu was going to be, I got inspired to create an art piece for the food team.  I worked out the details in my head while biking home, and hit my studio right after kids bed time.

I cooked up the following image:

I printed off a print - 13x19, the largest my home printer can produce - and presented it to the food staff this morning.  Early reports indicate they loved it, and are getting it framed.  Score.

Turns out the way to get art out of me is to feed me first.  Not a bad way to go, really.

Wordless Wednesday

Googleversary

So today marks my official 10 year anniversary as a real life full time Googler.  True story.

I haven't done anything for 10 years before... feels kinda good.

A Birds Eye View

One  of the advantages of hiking the Uetliberg was getting a birds eye view of the city, including the part that, as a visitor, felt most like home, the Zurich office.

Bike To Work Day 2015

As part of Bike To Work Month, I organized a group ride for my local office.  Based on past participation, I expected 4 people to sign up to ride sometime this month, and 3 to actually show up for the group ride planned for this morning.

Turns out, I got 14 people to sign up for the month, and 10 (10!) people to come out for the group ride.

Here is a pic of the group that rode in on Friday.

My Claim To Fame

My one small footnote in the history books of Lenoir North Carolina:

I am likely the only person in history to drive a Google Bike thru the hallways of the Broyhill Civic Center.  I have proof:

Picture taken by Brendyl Smith

I hope someone is writing this down...

Scenes From A Googleween

For the past few years my office has held a Halloween party so our friends and family can get a chance to see where we work, and have some fun.

The party is called Googleween.

This year we had some great food, fun activities for the kids, and even a special guest.

The following are a few pictures from that event.

Our resident Android got into the halloween spirit:

The menu for the event, displayed in our cafeteria.

Victor, the Viking Of Victory.

There were many activities for the kids, including house building with marshmallows and tootpicks.

One of the awesome Googlers helped the kids make magic potions (of vinegar and baking soda, and red dye for "bat blood").

Mixing the two main ingredients causes lots of bubbles occur.  The first time this happened Abigail dropped her test tube in surprise. The second time she enjoyed it a lot more.

A plasma ball hanging out on a Googlers desk.

The special guest?  The Ghostbusters! (Or at least an excellent recreation)

Who ya gonna call?

Virtual Reality On A Budget

In what is possibly the coolest merging of low tech and high tech, one can now get a very passable virtual reality headset for your Android phone, for approximately $10.

Best part: it is made out of cardboard, with two simple lenses, and a magnet.

It sounds like something an 8 year old would build, but it was actually designed by Google engineers, and it actually works as advertised. Almost like magic.

It is called Google Cardboard, and is basically a cardboard box that holds your phone in front of your eyes in just the right way to allow for a 3D effect.  It then uses your phone display and sensors to show you 3D images that respond to your movements.

To use it you need to download the Cardboard app (free from the Play Store), which has several demos included, such as (among others):  YouTube, Street View, PhotoSphere viewer, and a Google Earth Viewer.

The amazing thing is that it works fantastically well (especially considering it is made from the stuff most other things are shipped in).  I tried out the Google Earth viewer, and you can navigate the world in 3D simply by moving your head around.  This is pretty much what you would expect from any VR headset - but the effect is astoundingly effective.  The resolution is a tad lower than a normal Android display because you are splitting the equivalent of an HD display, however, half an HD display is still a lot of pixels to play with.

Icing on the cake is that it works while wearing glasses, so there are no focus issues for us weak-sighted folk.

It works by splitting the phones display into two halves with the correct parallax distortion between the two to simulate 3D.  You can see how it looks in the screenshot below (looking at the Chicago skyline in the Google Earth demo).

So far the only downside I can see is that it eats your cell phone battery like a fat man at a Chinese buffet, so you'll want to keep your charger handy.

It is impossible to show you what the experience looks like, so you'll have to simply go check it out for yourself.  For $10 it is quite possibly the cheapest entertainment going so you have little to lose. You won't regret it (just make sure you have a compatible Android phone - only a few models are proven to work so far).

You can check out the details for yourself here: https://developers.google.com/cardboard/, and either build your own viewer, or buy one off Amazon.

Tech is finally mind blowing again, and it is awesome.

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Disclaimer: As a Google employee I try to stay away from mentioning Google products on this blog - partly to avoid any conflict of interest issues, and partly because this isn't really a tech blog. All opinions are my own, and may not represent Google Inc's stance etc. Aside from sharing a CEO, I have no contact or connection with the folks that built this technology. I didn't really knew it existed until a Cardboard set was handed to me this morning. I am, however, a freshly minted fanboy of the whole idea of VR on the cheap.

GoogleServe 2013: Helping Hands

Every spring Google encourages all Googlers to help improve our communities by spending a day working at a local organization.  This year the Lenoir office spent the day helping to improve a local low-cost health clinic called Helping Hands.

A lot of jobs were performed:  painting, cleaning up vines growing along the side of the building, assisting in disposal of old medication, and replacing some ceiling tiles damaged during a recent storm.

In the morning I pulled some paint duty and slung some pigmentation onto the walls (and a little onto myself).    After lunch I helped dispose of some old medication.  This is done by removing the pills from the packaging, throwing out the containers, and sending the pills to a disposal service.  This is the only time where I got to "pop pills" at work.   (These off-sites are becoming fun as the last one involved me leaving in the back of a police car).

It is a great way to spend a day. I'll leave you with some more scenes from GoogleServe 2013: Helping Hands Edition:

Site Reliability Engineering

Yesterday some co-workers of mine did a question and answer session via Hangouts On Air for students that answered the question of "What is Site Reliability Engineering".  

Since this is what I do for a living, I figure my friends, family, and faithful audience of world wide readers (all three of you! hi mom!), may be interested in getting a glimpse into what I do all day.  Its not all massages and free food.  I actually do stuff.  Honest!

First off is an interview with Andrew Widdowson, the moderator for the discusstion: http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/2012/06/site-reliability-engineers-worlds-most.html

And the video for the Q&A session:

A Story Of A Work Offsite Gone Awesomely Awry

It is not every day that I go to work and end up in the back of a police cruiser.

It went down like this.  On Friday a bunch of us fine folks from the office went on an offsite for team building and merriment making.  Our mission was to go to Cinebarre in Charlotte to enjoy the cinema.

If you have never been, Cinebarre is a  movie theatre that has table service. They have a full bar and pub food that they bring to you in your seat while you watch a movie.  It is a pretty dang awesome way to watch a movie.

The start of the journey went off without a hitch.  We all piled into the 14 passenger bus that we use as a shuttle between our two office buildings at work and headed south towards the big city.  We got to Charlotte (a 90 minute drive) on time, drank free beer, ate free chicken wings (and free popcorn, natch), and watched a free movie (Identity Thief, if you must know),  during standard work hours.  I even found a geocache in the parking lot. So far so good.

The trouble started when we started on our return journey.  We had developed a coolant leak along the way in, so we stopped to fill up just a a few miles from the theatre. Then we hit the highway.

A few minutes after that the radiator melted. Coolant sprayed everywhere. There was much concern, drama, and email sending as we took stock of the situation.

We took the next exit off the highway, pulled over on the side of a random road, and bailed from the rather steamy van.

There we stood.  Stranded 80 minutes from home, on the side of a road, with no way to get home.  Naturally we made the most of it. We had a merry old time (aka merriment mission accomplished) discussing our predicament, talking about the movie, and making hobo signs.

A few minutes later an Officer Of The Law pulled in behind the van and offered assistance.

We weighed our various options, and concluded that the best thing was to go rent a couple mini vans from the local mini van rental establishment (in our case, Hertz).  So two of us piled into the police cruiser (I got in the back), and we headed off to fetch the rescue vehicles.

20 minutes later we returned, piled everyone into the rescue vans, and drove everyone home. I walked through my front door only an hour later than I normally do.

Not the most awesome story, I will admit, but it allowed me to use the opening line, so I consider this blog worthy.

I'll leave you with some more pics, starting with our fearless site manager checking out the smoke machine that was our shuttle bus:

Well, there's your problem!

The rescue vehicles.

Google Christmas Party 2012

Last night we attended the Google Lenoir Christmas party, and it was over-the-top good times.

It was held at Chimas Brazilian Steakhouse in downtown Charlotte NC.  If you've never been, it is a place where you get various meats brought to your table on skewers, and they cut off a slice or two, as much as you want.  If you love meat, it is the place to be.

When we arrived we discovered that the place was set up like a Las Vegas casino, including gambling tables.  We were each given $50,000 in chips to gamble with.  I mainly played blackjack, but they also had roulette, craps, and some other things.  I have never played any Vegas style games (aside from $1 in a slot machine once), so it was interesting to try them out with someone elses "money".  Any winnings were "cashed in" for raffle tickets for some awesome prizes.

The company put us up in a nearby hotel for the night, so we got to enjoy the full evening without having to worry about the kids.   It was a great time until I did the Gangham style horsie dance (cause it was playing, and it was a dance, thats why.  Don't judge), and I strained my knee.  I had to hobble back to the hotel, but it was only a block, and well worth it for the awesome good times.

I'll leave you with some more pics, starting with some souvenir chips:

All the steak you can eat.  I got the meat sweats that night.

Blackjack!  I had a lucky streak going last night.

Betting the wad.

Google Data Centers: An Inside Look

This morning Google has released unprecedented images of the inside of their datacenters, something that they have kept very secret until now.

They also released a Street View tour of the Lenoir Datacenter, where I work.

Google doesn't often give out this sort of information.  As someone who has worked in the company for almost 8 years I am actually stunned by the level of openness here, but I am also thrilled to be able to share some of the amazing things we've been working on.

So check out these links:

The official Google blog post - including links to the Street View tour:
Google's data centers: an inside look  (if you take the Street View tour, look out for easter eggs!)

This is a lengthy article by Wired's Steven Levy that goes into much more detail about life inside the data centers:

Google Throws Open Doors to Its Top-Secret Data Center

And finally a segment on CBS: This Morning:
Behind the cloud: A tour of Google's secretive data facilities

Scenes From The Googleplex

I am writing this blog post from 33,000ft over Kansas, heading east.

I have been out in Mountain View California visiting Google HQ for the past week.  I have been there several times, but I figure the vast majority of my readers haven't, and may be interested to see some of the sights that is the Googleplex, so I decided to whip up a quick photographic tour.

The 'plex is a large area, taking up many city blocks.  All of the spaces between the buildings are public areas, so anyone can go visit - at least if they stay outside :)

This first shot is the courtyard for Building 44, where a large chunk of the Android team works.  They have statues outside for each release of Android, which if you are not aware are named after desserts. Pictured here are statues for Gingerbred, Eclair, Ice Cream Sandwich, Honeycomb and Jelly Bean. On the other side of the sidewalk is the Android mascot.

A shot of one of the many shuttle buses that transport Googlers to and from various places in the bay area. Each shuttle has wifi, so Googlers can work while commuting.

A statue of the Android droid wearing the Noogler beanie outside B46. New Google employees, or Nooglers, are given multi-coloured beanies with propellers during their first week to identify them.

A large statue outside B46. His head is approx. 15 ft above the ground.

A sign identifying two of the office buildings.  All Google offices have a sign like this, in some shape or form.  It makes navigating the complex campus much easier.

The Google logo on B43, in the main complex.

The patio outside Building 40.  Behind the large glass wall is the main cafe on campus, Charlies.  Named after one of Googles first cafe chefs, Charlie Ayers, who previously cooked for the Grateful Dead, and now runs his own chain of healthy fast food restaurants in the bay area.

Since the campus is so large, and meetings (or lunch) are often in other buildings, Google has provided a large fleet of bicycles for Googlers to use, called gBikes.  They are painted in bright Google colours, and are often found at various entrances to buildings. They are free for use by any Googler who needs to use it to get to another part of campus.

In the courtyard of the main complex lives a t-rex named Stan, the moralosaurus.  No one knows where he came from - he just showed up one day, but the rumour is it was a gift to the company from the founders, Larry and Sergey. He also makes a great home for a flock of flamingos.

Street View Famous

Google Street View is a project to provide 360 degree panoramic views of, well, the world.

A couple months ago we were told that a Street View car was going to drive around the office where I work (there are advantages for working for Google - heads up on Street View car drive-by's is one of them).  We all got a chance to pose as the car drove around.

Today I noticed that those images are now published, and I am officially Street View Famous.

Here is a screen shot of me on Street View. I am the bearded dude to then left of the center pillar:

You can check out the live version here: http://goo.gl/maps/1f9Ov

Google Parties

Some pics from the two Google parties I attended.  One on the USS Hornet in Alameda CA, The other at Grove Park Inn in Asheville NC:

Keeping Your Google Passwords Safe

Take steps to ensure the safety of your Google accounts by turning on 2-factor authentication.  More details at the Official Google Blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-information-is-safe.html

Security in Google Datacenters.

The Google Apps team has released a video about security measures in Google Datacenters:

Google I/O From Your Living Room

Google I/O is Googles yearly developer conference, and a place where they have made some large product announcements.   Since tickets are sold out, and its likely most of my readers are not local to San Francisco anyway, but are all Google Fans (you *are* fans, right? :), that you might want to check out the conference over streaming video.  The conference begins May 10th.

For more information, check out this blog post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/bringing-google-io-direct-to-you-with.html and the Google IO website: http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/ to enjoy all the Google I/O goodness.