Rob Ewaschuk's Blog Rob Ewaschuk

/life/Google: Level Four!

Yay! I indeed got a second "phone-screen." The fellow slept in, and thus was late. This was fine with me -- it sort of counterbalanced my repeated trouble with converting time zones.

The second screen was quite broad -- DNS, TCP/IP, sort algorithms with constrained RAM, sockets, SSH, etc. There was one bit where I wish I had been quicker to notice a really slick solution, but in general it went very well, and I think I picked up all of his hints basically immediately.

Sue-the-HR-person just called to let me know that they'd like to fly me down to California. Two trips to the US in the next month, after a five-year moratorium.

The tentative schedule is the weekend of January 7th-8th-9th, but we'll see.

That's pretty exciting.

Continuing on the unrelated-photo theme.

New Albums from the Gallery

/life/Google: Level Three?

I was much more relaxed for the second level. I avoided talking about the interview all morning, which helped my nerves. I SNAFUed the time-zone conversion, and made an ass of myself by suggesting that the call was late, but it ended up not being too big of a deal. The HR people seem sincerely friendly. I guess that's their job, so it's hard to know, but it seems so.

I have soft confirmation that I "passed" and there will be further interviewing, but I'll wait until I get more firm confirmation.

The fellow that was interviewing me described the position that I was being interviewed for -- which I didn't actually know details of up 'til then -- and then asked me to write the merge() function in a merge sort. He used this as a platform for discussing testing, debugging, robustness, runtime, etc. Initially, I made a small error, but caught it when he asked if I thought it was correct. In retrospect, there are no major details that I feel I missed, though I never actually tested the solution I wrote.

The work sounds interesting; different in style from what I've done, but fun and interesting and engaging.

Also, snow is pretty.

/life/Google: Level Two

So I beat the first boss in the Google Game. He asked some nitty gritty tech questions, which I felt like I was bombing at the time, but in retrospect I think I did fairly well.

He thought they had no junior spots in Dublin, and was asking about going to the US. I pushed for a senior spot, which is what I actually applied to (only because there were no junior spots), but that would be a rather large stretch of my qualifications.

He called back a little later, and it turns out they do have junior spots. With that as retrospective, the discussion had gone fairly well.

Probably the most interesting thing was that they definitely dug the UW math degree.

Tomorrow I meet the level two end-boss, a techy who's going to "grill" me for 45 minutes. I'm looking forward to it, though it's always a grueling experience to have someone finding the edges of your knowledge; if they do it right, you'll get nearly as much wrong as right, which makes it hard to judge how you've done. That last time I faced a similar situation, it was for a job I didn't want, so it'll be rather more stressful this time.

Clare gets here tonight! Yay!

Also, flowers are pretty.

/life/Google Discussion

I got a job interview with Google! Yay! Please click here to see the logo that I would have attached to this entry to continue the image-run, but don't have permission to use. Instead, I've put in one of my favourite photos from Finland.

The interview is actually a "discussion," which I rather like. I presume that means it's the first stage in a multi-stage process. I'm looking forward to it, though.

That's all I'll say, because I imagine they may read my blog at some point, (Hi Google!) and anything further would seem (or be) manipulative.

In other news, a random person emailed me to say she liked my photos, and recommend a book in the same vein as Culture Jam. That's neat.

I got my Tetanus/Diphtheria/Polio vaccinations updated. Clare and Julia both got vaccinations in the last two days, too. Weird. (This is mostly blogged so in 10 years I can google/wayback to find out when they were updated.)

Work is good -- the end is in sight, so it's busy. Going to Toronto for the weekend. Ottawa is slippery. I've fallen once a day, never badly. Food time.

/life/Hot Eighty-nine Nine

I was annoyed by their long-running, manipulative "$25,000 Fugitive" radio contest. But their music was often okay.

I was vexed when they lied on the air about their non-involvement in a website that "leaked" clues for that contest, while it shared the IP address of their website. But their selection, though repetitive, was still passable.

I was frustrated by another, similar radio contest, involving a "shopping spree", so I eased up on my listening.

I was mildly disenchanted when they told me that their target market was 18-24 year old females. But still, there were some songs I liked. Although they weren't changing much.

But I am utterly floored by their latest stunt: "Breast Christmas Ever". I don't even know where to begin. When I heard the first bit of the ad, I assumed it was a fundraiser for breast cancer. But no, no, they're giving away a breast augmentation to "that A-cup" in your life who "needs" it.

"Hot 89-9 will turn one woman's chest into the one she's always dreamed of... but could not afford - a world class breast enhancement - due to the generous contribution of Ottawa's own Doctor Lloyd Van Wyck....
[I]n 89 words or less, tell us why you, your best friend, co-worker, or even family member deserves the gift that keeps on giving, and tell us why they are the most deserving of the 'Breast Christmas Ever.' It'll be a "NOT SO SILENT NIGHT" if you're the lucky winner."

The female D.J. remarked that the "augmentation" could be any kind you want, be it an "enhancement" or a "reduction." At least she's trying, but I think she doesn't know what augmentation means.

I hovered through the CRTC website, but I don't think this is a place for government intervention. Complaints directly to Hot 89.9 seem warranted, though.

I don't think breast augmentations should be banned. I don't think radios should be overly regulated in terms of their contests. But the advertising, the contest, the whole thing, will generate vastly more misery and self-consciousness than it will ever repair. This kind of violent pursuit of beauty is unhealthy and that a radio station would reinforce it so directly surprises me. People who are seek to live comfortably, happily and confidently in their natural bodies have that effort undermined by something like this, and for that reason, I think Hot 89.9 should take this contest off the air.

I've stopped listening.

/stuff/Blackspot Sneakers

So I've been trying to slog through the introduction of what I imagine is a grad-level philosophy book with a fascinating title (Order Without Rules - Critical Theory and the Logic of Conversation by David Bogen). I gave up for now, as it makes lots of references to concepts, people and writings that I don't know, and I just finished Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, which is rather dry reading as well.

Hence, last night I picked up Culture Jam, by Kalle Lasn, which I bought at the same time as the philosophy book several years ago. The few pages I read were exciting, though they still ignored the "why" of the situation described, about our path towards a fully marketed world.

Today, I got my Blackspot Sneakers. They were laced funny so I spent some time figuring out the essence of shoe-lacing. After having a satisfactory lacing on one shoe I put it on and started composing this entry. I decided it wasn't right to comment on the shoes until I had laced both and worn them a bit.

Hence: My first reaction is one of satisfaction. The shoes fit, which is good because there's no returns possible. They are comfortable enough -- in a shoe store, looking for a running shoe, they would pass muster but I'd probably try on others.

I'm no expert in these matters, but the materials and stitching seem to be of extremely high quality. The shoe feels very solid. One gets the vague impression that these shoes are built with what would survive of 80 year techniques and materials under modern health, safety, environmental and labour practices.

Oh, and the point: with each pair of shoes, you get a share in the company. This is a nice gesture, though for me I buy them simply because they're what I want, made how I want, not because of fierce alignment with a movement. At the bottom of the letter is a signature. I saw the distinctive name, and struggled to place it, until I looked at the spine of the brutally unfolded book beside my bed: Kalle Lasn

/life/A day of protestations

I like protests. Obviously I think they're an important part of democracy, but my enjoyment of them is not particularly intellectual; I just like them. They're big fun parties. They have a sense of unity that you don't get very often in our society.

I took a half-day off, and headed downtown at about 1pm. On my way, I stopped at home, picked up an extra sweater, and dropped of some unnecessaries. My camera battery was charged, and off I went.

As I got into downtown, it was pretty empty. I came up Rideau, and hit a barricade lined with cops. Basically the whole Rideau Center was blocked off to traffic, though I think pedestrians could go inside. I went around the building, and after asking a few people with placards, ended up near the main throng of protests as they were nearly at parliament hill.

I've read enough horror stories about people suddenly being arrested that I'm pretty tentative about joining these marches. But it seemed to be pretty calm and peaceful and fun, so I started walking alongside, snapping photos as I went. There were certainly lots of clever (and not-so-clever) posters and banners, but you can check out the gallery yourself.

The march hung around the Hill for a while, then headed off towards the barricades. There was a fellow on top of a truck with very long hair who seemed to think he was a rapper. He rapped. He also said "we" were going over the barricades. He was right; without much difficulty, the first layer of barricades were crossed. It was fairly clear that this had been expected; the second layer was a criss-cross mesh of fencing, rather than the single layer that had just been trampled. And it had bubble-heads behind it.

The protesters were about 99.9% peaceful. Apparently the front-line cops had both gasoline and paint thrown at them, which I find reprehensible. And, according to some young teenage girls -- who insisted they were the peaceful kind of protester -- a couple guys tried to hop the real barricade, resulting in pepper spray and billy club action.

There were dozens of messages in the posters, banners clothes, stickers, costumes and graffiti: anti-war, anti-missile-defence, comparisons of Bush with Hitler, and the like. A very prominent theme was a demand to arrest or try Bush for war crimes. Many people seemed to take that very seriously, which is interesting.

Once darkness settled, there was a candle-light vigil on parliament hill. After that, a few small fires were lit, and a couple of American flags were burned. By the time I got back to the fence, it had been reduced to one layer, and the bubble-heads were gone, replaced by some Toronto cops. There was a mother, chastising the cops that it had been 12 minutes since they said the fence would be opened in 10, but the mood was still friendly.

The hardest thing for me about the protests is that I wasn't entirely sure why I was there; I certainly don't like Bush's policies, but he's not my president. I decided I was there to keep the pressure on him, and make sure the world continues to know that his policies are not popular.

I was happy with what I saw. Having a helicopter hovering just over a crowd, with three-layer fencing and cops in full riot gear is oppressive; this is what was going on as the motorcade went by. It makes you feel like rebelling. It made me angry. The snipers on the rooftops also made me angry, though in retrospect I'm not completely sure they were snipers.

The police seemed effective at defusing situations, holding the right lines, inventing lines to let go of so the protesters could have their rebelliousness sated. To the extent that this was a grand manipulation, it's distressing; both "sides" are getting more and more refined in their strategieis, tactics, and roles that when the day comes when people really protest something, as they did in Seattle, it will be fearsome indeed.