Google Alum Network

From John Battelle's Searchblog

A Lot of Folks Are Leaving Google...
So it's about time to create an alumni relations program!

[link]

Indeed. I'm a member. It's an interesting idea, and I found it slightly amusing that they kicked it off in February so immediately everyone was asking about missing W2's.

The part I found most amusing is that I run an informal amazon alum group/email list on google groups - and at the moment the google alum group is mostly a google group as well. Google groups is great for email list hosting, but I really wish that they would work on the part that hosts files and pictures- it should be so much easier to create small custom websites, and have a little blogger instance, and maybe a wiki. Facebook and the massive increases of splogs and comment spam and whatnot have had me thinking quite a lot recently about walled gardens how they really aren't a new thing at all. WELL was a big walled garden, and we've been reinventing it in new technologies over and over and over.

scottish

I have to write this up, lest I slip & start thinking my family might be normal. For almost a week I've been sick- sore throat, headache, whatever. Last night I was curled up in a chair, buried under blankets with a small sheltie snuggled nearby. My dad lit a nice fire, turned on the Christmas tree lights, and turned up next to my chair with a bottle of Drambuie.

Drambuie is really really sweet liquor made from scotch and honey, and if you drink it straight up, it will quite literally take the lining off your throat, and your stomach, and probably strip off a few of your teeth. It's strong. Really, really, bite-your-head-off nasty stuff. My family is cuckoo & Scottish, so whenever one of us got sick as a kid, we were treated with a nice shot of it.

So here's my dad, with his guaranteed sore throat remedy, trying to heal me. When I declined to drink any (come on, I'd brushed my teeth already!) he launched into a "you won't get better until you drink it!" speech. On Christmas Eve. Yes... we think Drambuie is actual medicine around here.

Meanwhile, I've been stumped about how to back up all the text messages I have saved on my sim card in my phone for a few days, and it finally occured to me that I should just type them out or something. So here are a few that I've been carrying around on my phone over the last 5 years.

"Happy no longer working for Gooooooogle" -my sailor 6/15/07 (yes, he put all those "o"'s in there himself. and yes, that was my last day working there)

"She said yes!" - Brian 10/22/06 (after many text messages working up the courage to propose to his now wife)

"Heh i locked myself out of my apt" - my sailor 7/13/05 (might I note that he is an actual licensed locksmith?)

"Ticket 0000XXXXX - Impact 1 - HP6 Automated warm fuzzy" - amazon's ticketing system 7/13/05 (paging me for a not so small bug)

"Hi beautiful. Miss you" - my sailor 11/12/02 (awww. he's so sweet)

30 degrees & RFID interference

This is a "I need to investigate something" note to myself. I've read lots of interesting stuff on RFID theft (schneier on security covers skimming today), it's something that's fascinating- I wonder if the person who invented the "tin foil hats" meme years ago could possibly have predicted tin foil wrapped passports. However, I have 3 proxcards on a chain that I carry around every day. When I need to scan one, I have to take the particular card that I want to read and either flip it out almost perpendicular to the other cards, or fan it out (as if I was holding some playing cards in my hand) so that there's about a 30 degree angle between the card I want and the others. Holding the cards stacked up on top of each other- as they usually are on the chain- means that none of them will scan. I think this must be some kind of radio wave interference, and I wish I knew the physics behind it. One more thing to look up some weekend. I really wonder why 30ish degrees is the magic angle.

babysitting the baby geek

I'm babysitting Kate tonight, and she was quite the teeny geek girl this evening. First, when I walked in the door after getting home from work, she said "oooh, I like your black google shirt!" I asked her how she knew it was a google shirt (so far as I know, she doesn't read yet, although she can do her ABCs). She said "I have a google shirt too, it's white." Which is true, I gave her a tiny toddler size t-shirt, but I'm suprised she picked out the logo on both.

Then we sat down and watched the new homestar runner. She likes Strong Bad. But only after I take the privacy filter off my laptop. When she sits down on the sofa in front of my powerbook, if it's on, she points to the screen and tells me to take it off. After that, we went to maisy to read an online book and play games. After that, Kate wanted some Miffy. "I don't know, Kate..." I started to say. She looked at me & said "You have Miffy in your computer, you have everything." Heh. Three years old, and she understands the internet. Pretty good.