I visited Google last week for one of their monthly Tech Talks -- the rather awkwardly titled "Watts, Faults, and Other Fascinating Dirty Words Computer Architects Can No Longer Afford to Ignore" -- the speaker covered data center power efficiency and fault-tolerance. The event was light on content, as the material was broadly presented and not too detailed (though it got interesting towards the end when he detailed their health monitoring and analysis infrastructure), but heavy on deliciously heavy food!
Frankly, the food was more interesting to me than the talk. The coarsely-textured lemon aioli was delicious, especially when eaten with the bite-sized crab cakes (crab cakes optional). Miniature quiche lorraine melted in the mouth while still hot, but a few pieces foolishly reserved until the middle of the talk had the opportunity to cool down and become merely good, instead of great. The feta-filled phyllo pastries were okay. I only mention them because of the alliteration. Then there was the cheese plate, which was quite the sight. Who knew green cheese actually existed outside of the surface of the Moon?
Two observations: one, people at Google really love using scooters to get around; and two, the cafeteria staff took the food away while people (not me, I swear) were still eating it. Way to yank the punch bowl before the party's over, folks.
Went to the Auto Show on Saturday. It was crowded. I saw lots of expensive cars on one hand, and on the other, GM's new so-crazy-it-might-actually-work lineup, including their line of super-compacts. Walked away feeling a bit silly for having paid to see what amounted to scads of advertising (and for a product I don't even need).
Man, just when you're cruising along in life, feeling kinda good about what you're doing, along comes a database of all the noteworthy achievements people in history have logged by a certain age. What a buzzkill.
The Go! Team just keeps on showing up in unexpected places, from car commercials to the streets of Manhattan:
It's like everything these guys do, from their hyped-up cheerleader punk sound (which is really the best I can describe it as) to this music video is engineered to do one thing: make you smile.
