What the press is saying about the new Google Mobile App for Blackberry

Just a collection of links to different articles; probably I'll update it later. Meanwhile, let me enjoy my 15 minutes.

CNET (Really in-depth): Google Mobile App now searches Gmail, Docs on BlackBerry

Wireless Ground (Very balanced, I like it): Google App Gets a Much Needed Update For BlackBerrys Today

Into Mobile (A really serious blackberry user, mentions a Use Case that is not in our blog!): Google App for Blackberry Updated with Gmail, Docs and Google Contact Search

Information Week: Google's BlackBerry Search App Updated

BerryReview:Google Mobile App v3.8.22 Released With Login to Search Gmail

WebProNews (they even mention my name!): BlackBerry Users Get New Gmail, Google Docs Search Features

Blackberry Rocks (they wrote this before we posted on our own blog in Google): Google Mobile App For BlackBerry Updated To Version 3.8.22

The next web (with a user comment!): The Google Mobile App will now search cloud-based items for Blackberry users.

And of course, here is the Google News I am following

When being a genius means you know you aren't one

I was reading this post by a fellow Googler, and I have a hunch: he is exactly the person he describes in the post. I bet he has this superhuman ability of coming on Monday and telling that the code you talked about is ready, he refactored the whole code base, and since he was bored, he made some nifty application that you needed for a presentation.
And while you are trying to understand what he has done (how is beyond mere mortals), he wants to play foosball.

Workign in a meritocracy

I find it so refreshing working in a meritocracy. The lack of turf wars has such a great impact. I started workign on my 20% in an area I am not going to disclose, but let's call it A. There are people already working in A.
In a normal company it would go like this:
I have to ask my manager if I can work in A.
My manager thinks about whether he is going to gain or lose power with that.
If he approves, I go to my project manager, who can still reject it, because he will lose someone from his project, and possibly, is afraid of losing me completely.
My project manager fights with my manager, and I may go to square 1 if the project manager wins (notice the word "win").
After all this approval, my manager will think the best way of telling the manager A that I'll be working part time in that.
The manager in A will be afraid that my manager is planning a takeover, so they will keep information away just from me.
Whatever was wrong, it will be my fault (because I am the inefficient minion of my manager who is trying to spy in A).
If everything goes well, my contribution will be ignored, since prizes, raises, etc. are for "full time staffers only".

In Google, on the other hand it goes like:
Checking that I am not in absolute crunch time, I tell my manager I'll work in A (and notice it is not ask, request, it is just tell).
I read the documentation.
Tell the team A that I am planning to work on this.
Team A will be really helpful since they can use whatever assistance they get.
If it works out, I will get a positive review, raises bonuses, etc.

Why is it profitable to goof off?

Last Thursday my desktop was running the tests, I had read all my mail so there was nothing to do on my notebook, so I decided to grab a book I had to read for the job , a Diet Coke and go to the massage chair (OK, it was not goofing off, but the title makes a bigger hit this way). In other companies they would tell me that if I want to read, I do it in my own time, and of course, pay for the book myself.
Maybe that was not the most profitable hour that Google paid, but it meant that on Friday I really wanted to get a test suite to run in 60 seconds, no matter if I had to stay until 2 AM (which I did).

Playing board games Google style

As you can imagine, we have a board games group in Google (actually, several, one per major location). And by board games, we DON'T mean Monopoly . We mean serious games, and, this being Google, it must be large scale.
Last Saturday we played Twilight Imperium Third Edition with the Shattered Empire expansion. It lasted a mere 11 hours (from 12:40 to 23:55). I cannot recommend it enough (if you are into board games, of course), since it has a really good balance between races and the combination of long term strategy and random events works wonderfully. And to understand what I mean by large, just check the picture.

This is the kind of people you find in Google...

So, the standard way of doing thing in the music business is:
-You publish crap
-Your sales suffer because you publish crap
-Some of your suffering customers download your stuff even though it is not worth the electricity it takes to download them
-You sue your customers

Now, the new EMI CIO, ex Googler, says that suing your customers is not a good idea, even though the full music industry is going for it. Again this is what I like about working in Google: nothing less than a full-scale revolution is good enough

Blackberrying and eating gum

I am getting tired of famous magazines plagiarizing my blog. In this case, Time blatantly copied my post about Google reducing my lifespan. I hope my formula for profits works this time... I have a big time lawyer: his last client was SCO!

You are old when you are a part of a museum...

Last few months I've been to a couple of “Living History” museums. What I mean by “Living History”? These were historic museums, but some parts are so recent that actually people who lived through that age are teachers themselves. Last weekend I went to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It was really interesting, especially where they showed a Railway Post Office; in this car mail was sorted while the train was riding, so letters could be delivered as soon as the train arrived to the destination! The guy who explained all this, now in his seventies, was actually a clerk, so he explained how he did his job. Actually, since the last wagon was retired in 1977, I was alive when this kind of cars existed!
In addition, 6 months ago, I went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. They have a restoration project for a PDP 1, and the teacher has actually worked with the computer when he was at university. He told the story how they found the data for a music program, but not the program itself. Amazingly this guy had written the original program, so he reconstructed it from the data! As if that wasn't enough, one of the first Google servers was on display... if you thought turning forty was a crisis, being a part of a museum is way worse!
I can imagine in thirty years being a teacher in a museum explaining the history of the Internet.
I: “So, when I was young, we communicated our computers with modems over a phone line... (young girl raising her hand) Yes, darling?”
Young girl: “What is a phone lane?”
I: “A phone is what we used to talk before we had iBlackBerry's, but the difference is that it was connected to the wall.”
Young girl: “My daddy connects my iBlackie to the wall one night a month, and it is terrible, I cannot use it at that time”
I: “Well, actually, phones had to be connected to the wall to be used....”
Young girl: “But how did you carry it to the playground, to school?”
I: “We didn't” (young girl looks perplexed, not understanding the concept of being out of touch)
Young boy: “How fast were these “phones”? How many Gbps?”
I: “My first modem was 2400 bps”
Young boy: “Ohh, 2400 Gbps is quite good”
I: “No, no, sorry for not being clear: I meant bps. That's like 1 billionth of a Gbps” (the boy refrains from asking me how we hunted mammoths)

gHaircuts

No, I am serious. Not only you can have gourmet meals, massages, pets, clothes, doctors and laundry at Google, you can also get a haircut. We have our official hairdressers and they are pretty good (ok, my standards are quite low, so a good haircut is whatever leaves my head on my neck without any major hemorrhages). I guess I'll need some informed opinion about it but I don't think many Googlers have a clue; it is not something simple as stellar astrophysics, Fermat's theorems or Quantum mechanics.

The power to change Google

So, you assumed you had to be a major player to change Google results, like Oprah or China? Think again. You can write a small stick figures cartoon and make results jump with just one picture. This picture is way beyond being worth a thousand words; it is more like thirty nine thousand seven hundred (and going up). Will this entry have the same result?
On related news, I've been watching The Big Bang Theory; I have never seen such a thing happening in real life (except the time I've played ONE board game from 1 pm to 10 pm on a Saturday, random discussions about the theory behind moving a couch upstairs and the fact that I will not allow my children to have any inheritance if they even think of using derivation to get the area below a curve).

gGym

I have described some time ago how we ate in Google, how much weight we win, and how that is evil. Well, we have the gym of course. Most probably you are joking about us using the net in the gym. It happens you are right. Our bicycles and treadmills are network enabled, so you can compare your efforts, times, calories spent against other athletes. Amazingly (or not) this is the first time were I see Googlers having the worst scores by a large margin.

gBus

After a really long hiatus, I am writing again. Last months have been pretty hectic, so I am taking a chance to write about some Google perks I had not used before. This time, it is the gBus. There have been some comments about it, but I don't know how many people have written first hand about them. As a matter of fact, this is as first hand as it gets: I am writing this on the bus, using the wirelesss network. gBus etiquette is strict: you can either sleep, use the computer or talk in a really low voice (because people are sleeping or using their computers, and those activities rank higher in Google's pecking order).
The bus is not your run-of-the-mill bus. It is actually closer to a Limo than a bus, with the leather seats, tables, carpets, etc. I guess I have never driven a car as luxurious as this Limo. In my case I am commuting to San Francisco, so my choices are an hour in the crowded highway getting mad at drivers, or fifty minutes relaxing in the bus in the pool lane... The choice is quite clear, isn't it?
My main complaint: my MacBook Pro doesn't fit in the seat tray in front of me, its screen is too wide.

Another reader for my Blackberry comment

It seems my original post about the Blackberry is quite popular. Besides the post I have already mentioned, I have found another post about it. If you can't read German, the brief translation is "the deep and insightful blogger delights us with some wonderful perspectives about technology" (hey, don't blame me if you can't understand German, it is not that difficult :-) )

Some assorted news and reflections

Today I am again on the healthy side of 90. So cheers for that (without food, otherwise I'll cross that threshold again).
By the way, have you realized that in my previous articles I have become a bit fond of the number 90? However, my favorite is still 42 for well known reasons. One interesting fact about Google is that everybody knows arcane references to H2G2. Nobody will feel insulted if I call them smarter than mice, and I will start a Krikkit War by saying "your code is worse than Vogon poetry!"

He will NEVER get his name to rank #1 in Google

As you can see, there are really serious Google fans...

I will not confirm or deny these perks

There are some secret perks stated here. Per policy, I cannot confirm or deny them. In particular, this non-acknowledgment shouldn't be perceived as a confirmation of perk #25.
By the way, the picture in perk #1 looks very similar to a Dalek. And in perk #18, goto statements are grounds for immediate dismissal (this is not an official statement from Google or me confirming such perk). Finally, some statisticians in Google (we have a few of them here... Google Field's medalists are counted with exponential numbers) show a high correlation between people about to leave the company and people who "disappear" in the next months; amazingly, this correlation approaches 1.0 since perk #4 was (or was not) instituted.

Everything about Google

Today I have found out this Google Blog with plenty of Google information, amazing style and great pictures. It seems they have liked my post about the Blackberry... I guess the gTent (not an official product) might be of interest too.

Finally, the last step for complete Google immersion

As I have commented in many previous posts, Google provides us with food, clothing, transportation, treats, gym, entretainment, parties and phones. The only thing missing was a roof. Well, actually, now they do. We have been given tents, so I can now officially spend 24 hours a day in the office (I have a huge bean bag next to me to sleep). And if you are wondering about hygiene:
1. I am a Software Engineer, we don't need no stinkin' showers! (ok, it is just the opposite of stinkin' but you get the idea)
2. There already are showers (you don't want 100 people out of a gym without showers).
By the way, I have seen The Terminal yesterday, and it looks too familiar. Unfortunately, I haven't met Catherine Zeta-Jones yet. Mmhh, this comment may not make me popular among female Googlers. In my defense, I can say I am no Tom Hanks myself either.

A win-win proposition

Win-win is a nice term from the biz lingo. Nobody dislikes it; since you win for certain, how can you dislike it. However, companies don't seem to apply this to employees (and to be honest, unions don't seem to embrace it either). However, I think Google has hit the sweet spot. Today, Saturday, I came to the Gym, and later, I watched a movie in the games room, with a projector I'd never have in my house. It was certainly a win for me. And for Google? Since I was here, I answered mails, performed a bit of work, for the exact cost of 0 for Google, and to my full satisfaction. Philip Greenspun wrote
"Your business success will depend on the extent to which programmers essentially live at your office. For this to be a common choice, your office had better be nicer than the average programmer's home. There are two ways to achieve this result. One is to hire programmers who live in extremely shabby apartments. The other is to create a nice office."
Google has managed to do exactly that.

Some good videos about Google

The first one is about interviewing in Google. The best part: is it mainly in Dublin! Actually the first revolving door you see, and all the flags, that's here!


If you have been too lazy (or in your right mind) and didn't read why working at Google is great, you have a bite-sized, easy to watch Oprah (yes, that Oprah) video at:

not everything in that video is true: there are 17 canteens, not 11.

Finally, one about Virgin Galactic... not much to do with Google, except that it happened here