binary

So, the woman next to me at a GoogleIO session decoded the binary on our badges: they say ATTENDEE. That's kinda neat. Too bad the TShirts aren't right: they say GoogleKO. ;-)
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/28/google-gets-fancy-with-google-io-tshirts-too-fancy/

Google IO Keynote

I really liked Marissa's speech this morning. She did a good job of providing the flavor of Google's decisionmaking and focus on userexperience. Her descriptions of how they do A/B split testing was kewl. Especially when she gave realworld examples. I was happy to be the one in the audience to point out what the differences between three versions of ad was - there was differnt amounts of whitespace above and below the yellow ad bar.

I knew some of the stuff but it was fun to hear her take on it. And she's a good speaker.

google earth api ROCKS! and other Google IO stuff

OMG - the new API for Google Earth on the web is absolutely awesome! I am so looking forward to that.


Google DocTypes - Hitchhikers Guide to the Web. ;-) DocTypes will be following the Python BDFL model. Neat.

Note: lots of women at this conference. Google did a good job of getting woman developers here.

Are we there yet?

Bad Astronomy writes:

Think on this, and think on it carefully: you are seeing a manmade object falling gracefully and with intent to the surface of an alien world, as seen by another manmade object already circling that world, both of them acting robotically, and both of them hundreds of million of kilometers away.

Never, ever forget: we did this. This is what we can do.

Many years ago, I watched Columbia go up in flames. I was home sick from work that day and had turned on the tv, ... I sat and wept. Crying for the loss, and fearful that the dirthuggers might use this to quash humanity's best hope for survival.

Looking at this image, I am in tears again, in hope that maybe, just maybe, we can find something that will spur on even the dirthuggers to renewed effort. That maybe, this will remind us that we, humankind, might have an option besides scratching the dirt forever until we blow ourselves up or destroy our home planet's ability to sustain life. In awe of the potential, if we only let ourselves *try*!

And the child inside me gazes up at the stars and whispers, "Are we there yet?"

23andme

So, along with so many other geeks, I've just spit in a plastic tube and we're sending it back via FedEx tomorrow.
Within 6 to 8 weeks, I should know more about my family background and medical history. I'm adopted, so this will be important information, a bit more so than for those who can already trace their family history using geneology, I think. Every time I go in to a new doctor, they ask "and has anyone in your family ever..." and I have to explain that I have no idea.

I *think* I'm Irish, English, French, and Polish ancestry. So my adoptive parents were told. But was that just from the mother's side or from the father's too? Who knows. In any case, I'll finally be able to give my kids more than "I dunno" for their medical history. That, in itself, is worth it.

Keith Olberman's response to Hillary's RFK comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyf811vluHg

Santa Cruz County Fire Recovery Fund

Go to
http://www.cfscc.org/page10002588.cfm

if you want to donate to the relief fund.

The best 15 seconds you'll spend this weekend

To vote in support of the California Supreme Court's decision on LGBT
marriage:
1. call 1-916-445-2841 (Governor's office)
2. press 1, 5, 1, 1
(1=English / 5=opinion / 1=court / 1=support)

Yes - it really is that simple to support LGBT right to marriage.

Marriage Ban overturned in CA

http://www.eqca.org/site/pp.asp?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4026385

It's been a busy quarter and it ain't done yet

I love my Learning and Memory class. I want to love my philosophy of mind class but I'm just not cut out for "philosophy". I have 5 classes. In two of them, I'm researching on autism, which is kewl. I have a research internship this summer investigating executive dysfunction. Fun!

More later...