Reunions, Red Rocks, Rockies, and Revolution

This post is gonna be all over the place, so bear with me.

This past weekend was a special treat as my girlfriend flew in Friday afternoon for a quick, though incredibly fun visit.

On Saturday we took yet another hike from the Hikes for Dogs in Colorado book. This time we chose Apex park and the Apex trail which is no more than a half hour from downtown Denver. Despite the weather being forecasted as a miserable, the day ended up a bright and sunny 75 degrees with a nice (well, actually pretty strong) breeze. It was good to get out at a bit lower altitude than I'd been at on previous hikes. At a lower elevation there are far less evergreens and far more color, which is perfect for this time of year.

Apex trail climbed about 1,000 feet and gave a nice view of the city from the foothills. Though it was primarily a mountain bike trail it was a fun hike. It was particularly nice to have someone to talk to on the way up as the last 2 hikes I'd been on (Maxwell Falls and Windy Peak) the only things I've had to say are "Frisbee, sit". We made it to the top, and then some, and back down in about 4 hours and had some time to go visit Red Rocks afterward.

Red Rocks was cool to finally see. So many bands I liked have recorded live albums their it was nice to walk and get excited about seeing shows there when it warms up in the spring. I'd passed Red Rocks before on the return trip from my Maxwell Falls hike and was pretty astonished at the sheer size of it. In reality, the amphitheater is the smallest part of Red Rocks park. It's quite a site.

We finished up watching the Rockies win at a friend's place for a get together he was having. Oddly enough, we were able to catch up with some faces from Saint Louis University that have returned or migrated to Denver since graduation.

Sunday was another red letter day as I purchased my Rocky Mountain Super Passes. $400 is a big chunk of change, but after calling them up and finding that the price climbs all the way to $800-$1000 by Christmas time I knew I'd have to bite the bullet and I'd be thankful later. My girlfriend and her brother, however, got the deal of the century when they cashed in the 2 for 1 pass provided by Wells Fargo to college students. They were able to snag an entire season of unlimited skiing and snowboarding at Copper Mountain AND Winter Park for $200. Unbeatable. Walking out of the store with passes in hand made my day, my week, and probably my year. I can't wait! Copper Mountain opens Nov. 2nd!

Unfortunately Erin had to leave Sunday evening, but it was a great visit and she'll be back soon enough!

So coming off of the ride of the good weekend it was back to the work week. Work itself has unfortunately been pretty boring. I'm in a difficult spot now where I could get clearance any day and my job location/boss/responsibilities will change almost entirely. This means I'm kind of in limbo in an area where they don't want to spend too much time on me when, in the end, I won't be around to help their investment in me pay off, at least not on this project. However, I'm making a paycheck, which means I'll survive… and just cross my fingers that clearance arrives sooner rather than later.

This morning rolled around with a happy email in the inboxes of hipsters everywhere. Radiohead (my favorite band) released their much anticipated and highly publicized 7th album entirely digitally this morning. The blogosphere has spent the last week analyzing how their unexpected name-your-own-price strategy will impact the recording industry. What ultimately happens as a result of their releasing an album digitally and without a record label I won't care to guess.

Yet, I do know this.

• I was expecting a new Radiohead album in March - I got a new Radiohead album today.
  

• I paid $10 because I love the band and want to support them - I could have paid nothing and that would have been OK with them.

• I opened up my email at 8AM - I was listening to it by 8:20 on my iPod on my drive to work.

So, I hardly have anything but incredible appreciation for their willingness to try something new. Whether or not this is a stint or the beginning of a music distribution revolution, I don't know. Time will tell. But with bands like NIN and Oasis following suit, it's at least an attempt at breaking the mold.

Oh yeah, and my thoughts on the album? Brilliant. Having heard 6 of 10 tracks at Bonnaroo in 2006 (see photo above! I was 9 rows back!) I was expecting a lot. And in my opinion I got a lot.

Here's Thom Yorke preforming Videotape, the closing track of in rainbows:

Check it out! http://www.inrainbows.com/. You may as well, it won't cost you a thing (well, a $1.00 credit card processing fee, but it's close)!

Viva la Revolucion!

-dp

Maxwell Falls and Handywork

Having a 9-5 job certainly cuts down your available free time. However, I've rediscovered the glory of what it feels like to leave the workplace on a Friday afternoon. I had forgotten.

We'll start with my first weekend after a real Big Boy work week. I decided to make the most of it. Saturday morning began with a trip to the REI in downtown Denver. Now, I had been to an REI before in St. Louis and it made the list of top 5 stores to go to immediately. I love touring the aisles looking at how the engineers of these tents, backpacks, and all other gear ceaselessly manage to make things smaller, lighter, and more compact. It's quite impressive and, well, cool. I entered Denver's REI and was a kid at Disney World. I wanted to get to the hike I had planned so I didn't waste too much time around the store but I did manage to walk the entire first level (of 3) of the store and it alone was about 7 times the size of the St. Louis store. Had I not had an agenda I probably could have spent the entire day there. There was even a refrigerated room to test your sleeping bag in! This place was no joke!

Since I had the dog waiting in the car I purchased my new daypack (which is awesome) and the book,

Best Hikes with Dogs in Colorado (yep, a book specifically for that), and unfortunately had to leave. With my new gear ready to be tested I drove about an hour West of Denver to a place called Maxwell Falls, just outside Evergreen, CO. I picked Maxwell Falls based on the information I'd read about it being a good hike to take a dog on. After his first week of being home alone I figured I owed it to Frisbee. Now, online I had read that the Maxwell Falls hike allowed dogs off leash, however, the sign at the trail head said differently. In any case, all but one of the 20+ dogs I'd seen on the trail were off-leash and people seemed pretty understanding, if not supportive of this. So with my pooch assuming the exploratory lead we hiked, bouldered, and explored the Maxwell falls area and further to the cliffs above. For an hour's drive I can hardly do any complaining about the sites and general romp that I got outta the day trip. In fact, for a former resident of flat land, I saw it as pretty amazing.





After a solid 3 hour hike we made our way back home. Naturally, the dog had enough energy to want to keep playing, but I was beat. I swung by home depot on the way home to pick up some toggle bolts and some wall patch (for all the times I should have used toggle bolts) and had a couple beers accompany me in my most recent home improvement project, my LCD monitor arm.



Between the LCD arm and the doggy door I must say, I'm feeling alright about my handyman skills. With the Wi-Fi internet, Wireless keyboard/mouse combo, and floating 19 inch screen I'm pretty psyched about the space management in action for my desktop PC. The monitor arm is also a practice run for wall mounting the HDTV I hope to be purchasing in the next couple months.

After a productive weekend I returned for my second week of work. There's not too much to talk about as I'm still trying to get adjusted and understand just what is going on. Days have become pretty routine with waking up at 7 to walk the dog and get ready for work and then coming home at about 5:30 and going straight to the park to get the remaining pent up energy out of the animal. The reputation Frisbee has gained makes me laugh. The park at which I throw the disc with him has some lacrosse and soccer fields on it and after most practices he'll gather a small crowd that sticks around to watch him catch the disc. Last Friday he was approached by 4 little kids from the ages of about 2-4. Before I'd realized what was happening he'd managed to herd them all into a small group in the center of the field. Myself and the parents of the kids all found it pretty impressive.

This past weekend wasn't nearly as productive as the first, but nonetheless appreciated. With my first paycheck I purchased myself an Xbox 360 and spent some time on Xbox live with my brother in memphis playing Gears of War, holding us over for Halo 3, which drops in about… 2 hours now. Should be a good time.

-dp

My Big Boy Job

Today is my 8th day of work. And yes, the fact that this post comes 7 business days after my 1st day of work clues you in to how busy things have been. Big boy land is an exciting new world so here’s the rundown.

I considered myself quite prepared for my first day of work. I'd done a dress rehearsal - testing preparation time and traffic - the Friday beforehand and was more excited than nervous. I could give the play by play on unnecessary details that are only warranted, in my opinion, with 48 hours of the "first day experience" but now that a week has passed here’s the fast forwarded description: I walked in, had a seat in the lobby, got my badge made, went through an HR orientation presentation, met and went to lunch with my manager, returned and met my temporary manager and coworkers, started reading documentation about the project I am working on, went home. All went well, no hiccups, and a few really cool things.

I'm currently awaiting my security clearance so, for the time being, I am working on an unclassified project called MUOS. Due to it's unclassified nature I am able, however discouraged, from discussing details about it so I'll just stick with the general public description.

"The Mobile User Objective System is an array of satellites being developed for the United States Department of Defense to provide global SATCOM narrowband (64 kbit/s and below) connectivity for communications uses by the United States and allies.” [more from Wikipedia]

Even if I were encouraged to discuss details I think I'd do a pretty poor job of it as, now 8 days in, I am still weeks away from understanding the intricacies.

Here's what I know: The project is enormous. Seeing documentation and flowcharts and presentations and requirements and "The LMS interfaces with the CMCI producing the GC and GP data for OA," when I have no idea what LMS, CMCI, GC, GP, or OA are leaves me feeling overwhelmed in a big way. There is no group project in Comp Sci 415 that could even begin to prepare you for contributing to something like this. It's taken 3 years of work by 4 government contractors to produce what exists today... and the satellites still aren't launching until 2009! To further illustrate the scale, the primary contractor is Lockheed Martin who has subcontracted to General Dynamics who has subcontracted to Northrup Grumman (me/us). The degree of coordination and pages and pages of information this all requires is truly like nothing I've ever seen and almost incomprehensible.

So, for that last week I've been trying to play catch up on 3 years of work. It's not been easy. It's alot to take in. However, I know this much: the piece that my team is working on involves the geolocation process of the MUOS systems. 2 satellites get a signal at different times and, using this information and some surprisingly simple math, an accurate point of origin is determined over time.

I have yet to get into the real meat of the project, which I far from expect at this point, but in the coming weeks I hope to write some code that will eventually find itself orbiting earth. I find it pretty awesome to be able to say that.

As far as other work details go it's a pretty neat place. I feel very James Bond-ish entering the doors with my "proxi card" which illuminates a keypad with a random placement of 0-9 on which to type my PIN. People are pretty laid back which I found pleasantly surprising knowing that it's a company contracted by the government. Jeans and earrings are not uncommon. It also feels alot smaller than it is. When I was being shown around by my boss, everyone knew him and he didn't even work in the same building. I think the fact that they encourage people to switch projects as often as possible shuffles the deck of cards enough that everyone has been in the same hand at some point. It really changes the feel of things.

Some other points of interest:

• I was told to take my badge of at lunch because we don't advertise who we work for as we can be targets
• If I don't show up to work and I haven't notified anyone they call the police
• There's a black phone room, I'm not sure what it's for, but it sounds pretty cool
• The black phone room is not as cool as the red phone room next door

So far the actual work has ranged from boring to busy, nothing yet that really utilizes or excites me, but I know I have to be patient.

Here's the final big piece of news I didn't anticipate: I'm starting my Masters in January! After being hired I asked HR about education reimbursement and until 2 weeks ago their policy was that they would reimburse you for the lowest price per credit the state offered. This price was $405/credit hour at University of Colorado, a far cry from the $873/hr cost at nearby (and highly reputable) University of Denver. When I heard this I considered either going with the cheaper option or waiting some time before trying Denver. However, in an incredible stroke of luck I was granted a wish!

For the first time University of Denver is starting classes in January on Northrop Grumman’s campus for a MS in Computer Science Systems Engineering at the exact cost Northrop is willing to pay! (wow that’s a lot of prepositional phrases) Whoopee! Sign me up!

I’m really excited about the potential of having security clearance and my Masters in a few years. I really got lucky when this company found my resume on Monster.com!

-dp

Apple's Apology

So, here's what I've meant to do with this blog, write my opinion on nerd stuff. And what better (and more widespread) nerdiness exists than iPhone buzz, or on a broader scope, Apple announcements.

Yesterday, as all of internet knows, Steve Jobs revamped and introduced the iPod and its various children, brothers, cousins, what have you. Yet, unlike previous apple announcements, everyone did not leave Jobs' keynote address all fuzzy inside. In fact, some people left pissed. With good reason? I happen to think so.



First we've got Fatty Magee, the Nano. It's ugly. No really, it is. And surprisingly so, especially for a company that's oftentimes the epitome of trendy and sleek like Apple. The first nano was cute. Fatty Magee is not. Yes, it now has video and some pretty impressive battery life but I have a hard time believing that anybody was waiting for the day when they could watch 5 hours of video on a 2 inch screen. iPod nanos (and mini's) have traditionally been for the casual music listener wanting to toss on some tunes during a jog, not having a music library large enough to be disappointed with a 4 Gig device. With the emphasis shifted to video, I think Apple's lost its focus for this class of iPod.



Next we've got the iPod classic which I find to be the most under appreciated announcement of the keynote. For those with moderate to enormous music and/or video libraries, you can pay $50 more than a 8 gig nano and get 10 times the capacity at 80 gigs. The $250 price tag puts an iPod, a real iPod, not a slimmed down copy, in the hands of the budgeting audiophile for the first time.



Then there's the iPod touch. It's cool. Really cool. And also REALLY expected. It's what 90% of people wanted when the iPhone was announced - everything but the phone function itself. Yet, the amount of customers I believe it loses based on storage size alone is astonishing. Yes, it's thin indeed, but that's because it can barely hold the Bon Jovi discography. But make no mistake, people are going to be going crazy over it. WiFi enabled, multitouch, and widescreen video are serious, serious kudos to this device... but going from a 30 gig iPod video to an 8 Gig iPod touch, the 30 gig replacement as far as Apple's line is concerned, and having to cut your library into a fourth... seems like kinda a bummer to me. That being said I'd gladly take one off someone's hands if they don't want it.



Finally, there's the announcement that made several tens of thousands of people a little nauseous - a price drop of $200 for the iPhone. Congrats, suckers, 1/3rd of what you paid for an iPhone got you a whole 70 days of look-what-I-have-that-you-don't pleasure. That's $2.85 a day. Now, are you to be blamed? Not entirely. How were you to know that Apple would make you queasy in such a fashion? A $200 price drop in 2 months is unheard of! Price drops at this level of gadgets generally occur when the technology for a device becomes easier and cheaper to produce. Technology evolves quickly, but not 2 months quickly. A 33% price drop this soon shows you how massively Apple was overcharging its loyalists who waited in line at launch day. They could have charged whatever they wanted and the fanboys would have bought it. Now Apple is paying the price in the form of angry emails from those who have a tattoo of the rainbow macintosh on their ass. There's some fixing to be done.

Some say, "Tough noogies, that's what you get for being a gizmo fanatic". Jobs himself even hinted at that idea in his apology letter. You'll always pay more at launch than you will if you wait... but this much more? This soon? As an iPod video owner I STILL FEEL QUEASY when comparing the $400 I spent for 60 gigs vs. the new iPod classic at $250 for 80 gigs... and I got my iPod 2 years ago! I have to justify it as "C'est la vie" and get over it. But 2 months? I'd certainly feel wronged myself and I sympathize with those who forked out $600 because of their love for the fruits of Apple.

Thus, we have Mr. Jobs write us a letter apologizing and trying to make amends in the form of a coupon for $100 we can use to buy MORE APPLE STUFF. Whoopee. For a $100 I can get an iPod shuffle or - oh, wait, that's all you can get for $100 from Apple. Yet, this move is being praised as a maneuver that shows Apple's true colors and focus on customer satisfaction. I disagree. They did the very least they could to prevent inciting a riot. If they really wanted to show how much they cared they'd offer a $100 refund, and they wouldn't have done it as an after thought brought on by outrage.

Listen, if I go into Best Buy and buy a TV and 2 weeks later it goes on sale and I come back with my receipt I get the FULL difference back. Some places even allow up to 30 days. Why should Apple be any different? 60 days and 1/2 of the difference in the form of a coupon? This is not a gift from the benevolent Steve Jobs, this is Apple's duty. When you're paying for an Apple product you are paying that extra money over comparable items for customer "care". Not providing this most meager of attempts to keep their fans, let alone customers, happy would have been shameful.

Yes, this was a bit of a rant. And it's not that I have something against Apple because that's not the case at all. I think Apple is doing more things right than any other computer producing company at this point. I'm an Apple, iPod, and iPhone supporter! However, I'm bothered by their fan base. Everything Apple does is not the best thing there ever was and exempt from objective evaluation. Steve Jobs is not to be toted as the best CEO that has existed because he's trying to keep his customers on his side. It's his job. This should be expected of him.

Keep on loving Apple, just don't forget to cash in on your alloted customer satisfaction.

-dp

A New Colorado Resident

Hello from Denver, CO. After an exhausting drive from Memphis to St. Louis to pick up the dog and the girlfriend, proceeding to Kansas City for the night, and then driving another 10 hours the next day, we arrived at my new home in Denver last Friday. I love it here! With a few minor hiccups everything has been going picture perfect.

Friday night consisted of the first of many runs to Target (the 2nd busiest target in the nation is just 2 miles away!) and Saturday was the epic task - the doggy door. After some tense and frustrating moments the pet peurto was successfully installed and I went to bed that night with some new power tools.

There was a 2-21 day window in which my moving van was to show up. Sunday I lucked out in a big way and had my stuff delivered on the shorter end of that spectrum at just 4 days and the move in began. With my new fangled drill and lovely girlfriend I got everything assembled in record time and the house began to look like home.

Tuesday rolled around and I got my first big boy house gift... digital cable and high speed internet. Since then I've been lounging around, taking the pup for walks, exploring some of the many parks around my area, and all around getting familiar with my new home. So far I've been able to keep myself busy but I am more than ready to start work on Monday... I'm not very good at being bored.

Here's a few pics:




On the anecdote side of things I had the pleasure of meeting a Senior Fellow of Lockheed Martin. My girlfriend's parents were moving her younger brother into University of Denver on the same weekend I arrived here and we joined them for dinner along with their family friends, including this Senior Fellow. He was introduced to me as an algorithm writer which immediately impressed me as I know that writing algorithms for a living requires a mental capacity that I will surely never be capable of achieving. However, as dinner went on it became apparent that he was involved in much more than writing algorithms.

Throughout the meal he spoke only when necessary and was a man of few words without being curt. Oftentimes his sparse amount of details were necessary as what he was speaking of regarded classified information. Yet, the more he spoke the clearer picture I got of him. His wife mentioned his being on the hit list of a Russian spy (whose name I should recall but can't) and it became more and more apparent that he'd been involved with and/or created some pretty important things in his line of work. I asked what kind of clearance he had and his response was along the lines of "the kind of clearance you need clearance to know about". He made mention of his multiple polygraph tests and the numerous agencies that he's collaborated with, some that he alluded to the public not knowing the existence of.

Toward the end of our conversation he asked what I'd be doing at Northrop Grumman. I responded that I'd be a software engineer in Mission Systems. He got a grin on his face and I followed up asking if he knew what I'd be doing. He said that he'd been involved with Mission Systems and when asked if he thought I would like it he responded saying I'd be "pleasantly surprised and delighted with what I'd be doing".

Needless to say this only added to my building excitement and anticipation for what I'll be working on at Northrop Grumman.

-dp

Northrop Grumman

Thus it is here, the big move out to Colorado. Since I only slightly touched on my new employer in the last post, I'll go into some more detail on this one.

I'll be working for Northrop Grumman as a "Software Engineer of the Missions Systems Sector, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division." And yes, that is indeed a mouthful, but I don't mind it too much since it sounds fancy. I'd love to be offering up more details about what specifically I am to be doing but the truth is I myself am a bit clueless. The job falls under the category of classified. What does this mean? Well, for starters it means that I've spent the last several weeks doing a variety of things to earn my government security clearance. This includes a drug test, some finger prints, and a nice elaborate pre-screening report with every employer, neighbor, and person who's known me well since I was 16. The feds are going to know more about me than I will know about my self I'm sure.

I start working on the 10th of September but I won't be working on my "real job" until I pass my security clearance, which they tell me is 60-120 days, provided there are no hang ups. Like I said, I know very little about what I'll ultimately be doing, but they have been able to mention the word 'satellites' to me. Since my first call from Northrop Grumman I've done a decent amount of research about my now employer. NG has made the B-2 bomber, parts of the F-16, and even the lunar lander. From what I gather they've got a pretty sizable space program located in Colorado. I'd like to think I'm going to be a part of that in some way really really cool.

I'm really anxious to get going. I've spent the last several weeks making my rounds Memphis, Kansas City, and back to Memphis again tying up whatever looses ends I've needed to and making sure I'm ready for this big shift. Northrop has been very generous with my relocation package and made the whole process alot easier. I honestly am not sure how I would have been able to afford this first couple months had it been somewhere else, especially a start up company. My apartment is ready for me, the moving truck came this morning to take all my stuff away, and the car has 2 new tires equipped for the long haul.

I'm leaving tomorrow at around 10AM and driving to St. Louis to pick up the dog and my girlfriend (who's helping me move this weekend) and spending the night in Kansas City. We'll be in Denver by early evening on Friday.

And thus I begin my biggest new adventure. Wish me luck!

-dp

Employment

It's been nearly 2 months since my last post. A whole hell of a lot has happened in that amount of time. It's been ups and downs, but the end result has been a certified up.

When I last posted Garmin was the leading contender for my employer. The interviews had gone well, the company seemed like a place I could see myself, and with the exception of it being located in Kansas City it seemed like a great fit. However, Garmin didn't see it the same way. A few days after my interview process had begun I received a rejection letter in the mail. I was shocked - momentarily depressed even - it seemed like this was going to be the one (job). I was so mystified as to why Garmin decided to pass me up I asked one of the HR people I'd interviewed with. A couple days later they got back to me saying that it was due to 2 C's from freshman year I'd gotten in Calculus. I couldn't believe it. You keep hearing about the "whole person" and "well rounded individual" that companies are looking to hire... to be turned down by that garbage made me frustrated to say the least. The job search continued.

Things were not all bad though as I was able to get my mind of things with a trip to Colorado. My roommate, Brad, got married in Golden, CO and I was a groomsman. The wedding was incredible and I had a GREAT time. Afterward my family flew in and we drove north to spend a week in Rocky Mountain National Park. We did some camping, hiking, rafting, and general exploring and I was reminded how Colorado was a place I could certainly see myself. In fact, Colorado was the only other State of desired employment besides California, I just saw myself in CA more because there are a much larger number of jobs there. On the way home I kept my eyes open for jobs I could apply to when I got back to St. Louis.

The next weeks were full of phone interviews, a resume refresh (which helped tremendously in finding offers), and more filling out applications online. I was getting 2 and 3 calls a week for various positions with varying degrees of excitement about them. I turned to Dice.com and put my application online there and was able to apply to some more California positions. I had a couple interviews with a startup company called SonicSwap in addition to some tech staffing places trying to put me at various St. Louis area jobs.

One week I got a call from a place in Aurora, CO. I didn't catch the company name the first time around and didn't want to ask again cause I figured that window of opportunity had passed, but I heard something about the Department of Defense. I did a phone screening with them, they liked me, and wanted to fly me out to Aurora for an interview. In a subsequent phone call I got the company name, Northrop Grumman. I didn't know much about them but one of the first things I learned was that it was a $30 billion company and the #3 largest contractor for the department of defense (behind Lockheed Martin and another I'd assume).

After being flown out to CO and interviewing I received a call about a week later with a very gracious job offer and I happily accepted!

In the end I interviewed with the following:
Google, Reuters, Garmin, Emerson, ExpressScripts, SonicSwap, Sandel Avionics, Elliot Data, Tek Systems, Apex Systems, and the list goes on...

I worked my last day at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University on July 21st and am now unwinding and getting my things in order to move out to Colorado in early September. I'm trying to keep this post short since there's alot to talk about but for details about working for Northrop Grumman and moving to Denver be sure to check my next post!

-dp

Since Getting Gradumacated...

So once again I've spent quite some time away from my self imposed blogging duties. Believe it or not I think things have been busy enough that I nearly have an excuse. Anyway, back to business.

Long, long ago when I last left this blog I was still a month away from graduating. Well, a month has more than come and gone and I've gotten myself that little piece of paper with fancy writing that says "I know some things". So, I am now a Saint Louis University alumni with a Bachelors of Art degree in Computer Science. Does it feel good? Yes, I suppose it does. I'm proud of myself. Even prouder that I've made my mother as proud as she tells me she is. But at the same time, in the way that you're asked on your 22nd birthday, "Does it feel any different," I'd say no. Maybe its the fact that I've know it was coming for the better part of 4 years. Maybe its the fact that I haven't yet had an opportunity to sit on my ass and think about it. Whatever the case is, it doesn't feel like the milestone you'd expect. I remember in 5th grade I counted how many years of school I had remaining. After adding it all up the kid next to me then said that I hadn't included 4 years of college. Seeing what a huge number it was I nearly cried. Now that it's over I'm asking myself "is that it?". Surprisingly, it is. For the time being.

My family was in town for the couple days of my pre-commencement and commencement. There was some pressure to entertain, but it ended up being one of the best weekends I can recall. The City Museum, Fitz's for Dinner, taking the ever growing puppy to Forest Park, some uniquely St. Louis activities that I don't know I'll be able to enjoy for much longer. After they made their way home my girlfriend and I got in the car and drove to Kansas City to spend a few days with her family and see her brother's high school graduation. After our stint in KC it was back in the car and off to Memphis to spend a couple more days with my family, see some friends on my home turf, and participate in the annual Memorial Day Bocce Ball tournament held by our close family friends. These stops in Kansas City and Memphis could easily be called a vacation by some, but with the excess amount of people to see, events to attend, and things to get done there was little room to actually sit down and relax and revel in any free time... cause there was none.

Now I'm back in St. Louis, continuing my part time job in a nearly vacated city (as far as my friends and classmates go) and continuing to pursue employment. It's been an interesting journey since I last updated this blog. Sandel Avionics has dropped the ball in a big way. Where they were once chomping at the bit to get me hired (back in February), and couldn't wait to interview me (back in March), and simply needed one last phone interview to complete the process (back in April), they're now at a dead stop (present), and I haven't heard from them since late May. Now believe me, this was disheartening news at first. They'd led me to believe that I had nothing to worry about and I'd soon be in sunny San Diego. Yet, their disappointing me was in some ways a great thing as I jumped back on the ball to get some interviews.

For the last 4 weeks I've had an interview every week with a different company.

• Week 1: I responded to secret solicitation I went through the interview process with Meebo. I was thrilled at the possibility of working for what I believe to be one of the most useful tools on the internet, destined for greatness, and located in Mountain View, CA (big plus). However, with only 16 employees Meebo is pretty selective and I was turned down due to my incorrect answers on their programming puzzle questionnaire.
  
• Week 2: Had 3 phone interviews in the period of 24 hours with SMS.ac, a mobile content provider. They were anxious to move me along as quickly as possible and offered to fly me out to San Diego but I had to turn it down because it was during the week that I was going to be in Kansas City and Memphis. With their first phone call I was excited but as I did more research on them I found them to be a employer that I wouldn't be excited about working for and a product I couldn't really get excited about (even though apparently 60 million other users are). I haven't heard from their HR guy in a while and am willing to let things with them die.
• Week 3: Garmin! I applied for Garmin online and received a phone call from them the day afterward to set up a phone interview. I had the interview later in the week and it went really well. I should be hearing from them within the next week, hopefully sooner, for another interview with an engineer. They seem like an awesome company to work for and they're getting bigger and bigger. Since applying I've seen their ads everywhere on TV.
  
  
  
  I really can't imagine a much better company to work for and that I'd be more excited to work for than Garmin (with the possible exception of Google, but we know how that went). In a few years I believe they'll be a household name as they're already rapidly approaching that point. The only downside is they're located in Olathe, Kansas which is not the California I've been dreaming of, yet they do have an office outside San Fran... I'll see what I can make happen if it comes to that :)
  
• Week 4: This week I've been set up by a staffing firm to interview with Emerson, a Saint Louis based power company. It's a 3 month contract position which might buy me some time should I need it, but I'm not nearly as excited about it as I am about Garmin. Especially considering when I Wikipediaed them I stumbled onto their lawsuit against the TV show Heroes. I love Heroes. This is a con.

So there's my status. Hopefully, I'll be able to update more frequently as things are slowly shifting into lazy summer mode. Cross your fingers for me in hopes things go well with Garmin!

-dp

Frisbee of Multiple Varieties

I will be the first one to admit that as of late I have not strained myself in school. This is not to say that I have been skipping classes or doing poorly, I'm just loving the fact that I have a mere 12 credit hours and the classes I'm taking I either A. enjoy thoroughly and don't mind the work or B. don't require much effort. Now, although my academic endeavors have not been of the most strenuous variety I am by no means un-busy. On top of my 12 hours of class I work 23 hours a week and am a dedicated member of SLUUT (Saint Louis University Ultimate Team), practicing 3 times a week and going to 3-4 weekend tournaments a semester. Additionally, with the recent job hunt in the mix things have been pretty hectic. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that my classes have remained fairly relaxed, I might be having a hard time getting it all taken care of. Things were fairly manageable until this monster arrived:



Quiver in fear at the paws of Frisbee, the new border collie pup. He arrived at our modest apartment 2 weeks ago coming from Eriphos Farm and has been a wonderful new best bud. Since he showed up it's been 2 eyes on the little beast at all times. He's quite needy. Adding even more to the plate was a weekend with the above mentioned ultimate team as we played our way to 5th in our section, securing a bid for the regional tournament in Austin, Texas. Having started the season unranked, this is quite an achievement. Barring all this it's pretty evident there's been a shift in priorities for the time being and although news relating to the interviews was something I intended to share, it's been hard getting it done. Anyway, enough with excuses, moving on.

In my string of Google mails that got me giddy, I received one last week that did not have the same effect.

Hi Danny,

We would like to thank you for your interest in Google and taking the time
to talk to us. After carefully reviewing your experience and qualifications,
we have determined that there is not a fit for a 'Systems Support Engineer - New Grad - Mountain View' position.

Thanks again for considering Google. We wish you well in your endeavors.

Yes, despite how pleased I was with how well the phone interview with Google went, I was not what they were looking for at this point in time. I'll admit, there was some disappointment in the beginning. I'd done my best to try to remain grounded and realistic but of course spent some time getting my hopes up. However, it faded pretty quickly. Had I done poorly on the interview I'd have been kicking myself asking, "Why didn't I say that?" or "What the hell was I thinking?". Instead, I realized I got my shot and don't think I could have done better with it. It may simply be the case that I don't have the Masters, 5 years of work experience, or the PhD that they're looking for. There's really no way around that at this point in time. My pursuit of Google is by no means over! Yet, right now it's time to get that work experience and education that they're looking for. Currently, it seems like Sandel Avioncis, may be the thoroughfare for this. They've been quite busy the past few weeks and haven't been able to arrange my follow up phone interviews as of yet, but assure me that they have not forgotten about me.

However, as to not keep all my eggs in one basket, my job pursuit has not ended. I've been lucky enough to be given the email of my aunt's coworker at IBM. I submitted my resume and cover letter to him and he's written me back saying he's passing it around the company and will also be passing it around at a IT fair in June. Additionally, I appear to have a long lost cousin who works for Microsoft. I'm in the process of being given his email and will be sure to submit my resume to him as well. I know, I know, Microsoft is somewhat of the opposite of Google, but it would be foolish not to get some work in there should it arise.

So there's the status update on the job hunt. Less than 2 weeks of classes and then another 2 until I'm a full blown college graduate... how nice! Let's hope Sandel makes good on their promises so I don't end up a hobo... but then again not hurry up too much, so I can enjoy my last free summer for some time!

-dp

what a week (part II)

After an incredible interview with Google in the morning (see part I) I got in the car that evening and drove with my girlfriend to Kansas City to have an interview the next day with Sandel Avionics. We spent the night with my girlfriend's family and I left for my interview after some blackberry pancakes for my time slot of 1pm.

Sandel's office was in a tiny office park not more than 10 minutes from my girlfriends house. The fact that I was even interviewing there was in a way serendipitous as the email advertising the position was a forwarded forwarded forwarded forward from my girlfriend's aunt's ex-boyfriend's co-worker. Even funnier was the fact that I'd been seeking out jobs in California and responded to this one although it was for Kansas City. However, after I'd received the first call from Sandel I found that their base was actually in San Diego and I'd be interviewing for a position there. Hurrah!

I made my way to their office and waited in the "lobby" for about 5 minutes before somebody came to get me. It was a really small group of offices and I later found out that only 8 people work in the Kansas City branch. I sat down and began the interview with a man named Rich. Unlike the cold and emotionless Google interviewer, Rich was awesome. We joked back and forth and he seemed like an entirely personable human being. He then started off with some technical questions relating to C and C++ (my favorite!) and I was able to answer all of them with relative ease, once again reaffirming the fact that I have indeed been educated while in college, which is always nice.

The interview moved on to behavioral questions and then opened up for my questions. The entire time I remained really comfortable and provided some pretty damn good answers in my opinion. After about 45-60 minutes of questions I said goodbye to Rich and met Dave, chatting with him for another 15 minutes before I was on my way.

In asking questions about Sandel I found alot of info on what it would be like to work there.

• There a small company with less than 85 employees in the software area.
  
• They make all of their parts in one warehouse, no outsourcing.
  
• They're hiring like mad now after winning a lawsuit and the intellectual property rights for one of their systems.
  
• I would be the first New Graduate they've hired.
  
• They're doing quite well and business is good.
• The FAA has a criticality scale of A-F. F is no big deal, C is a minor inconvenience, and A is "if this isn't fixed in 5 minutes everyone is going to die". Right now they're working on A and B.
  

As I waited outside after the interview I felt really, really good about the last 2 days. 2 interviews that I was proud of and confidence in what I've learned in the last 4 years. I drove back to my girlfriends house and within and hour of finishing the interview the HR guy, Sam, who had been more than helpful setting things up and consistently a pleasure to talk to, had called to see how things went. He told me Rich was one of their most experienced members, had conducted more than his fair share of interviews, and had very positive things to say about my performance.

I continued to talk to Sam on the phone for a little while longer and he told me that the next step would be a phone interview with the man who would be my future boss in San Diego and the founder of the company. Let's hope things keep going as well as they are with Sandel! It sounds like a great place to be a part of!

-dp

what a week (part I)

On March 20th I turned 22. It wasn't exactly a milestone in terms of birthdays, but it was a good day, a fun time with some pad thai chicken, cake, ted drewes, and friends. The next day, however, was definitely milestone in my life. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon my GMail notifier read me the subject, "Availability for Google Phone Screen?". I pointed and clicked as fast as I've ever pointed and clicked to my inbox and read the full message.

Hello:

We received your resume for the Systems Support Engineer position we have open in Mountain View. Thanks for your interest in Google! Following is a link to the job description.

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=47094

I'd like to schedule you for a technical phone interview with one of our engineers. Please let me know your availability the week of March 26th and April 2nd (a couple of dates and times, including time zone), as well as the best number for the engineer to contact you on for the phone interview.


I look forward to hearing from you!

I couldn't feel my fingers. I'd been trying so long and done everything within my power to get Google to notice me (short of making the singing resume music video, although i had written the lyrics) and they finally had! I kept in contact with my recruiter for the rest of the week and we worked out a date and time: March 29th, at 12:30PM (I asked for a little earlier but apparently engineers don't come in any earlier than 10:30PST, a perk of the job).

I spent the next week scouring wikipedia, blogs, and message boards trying to prepare myself for talking with my dream employer. I read about others' google interviews, stumbled across the google interview wiki, and refreshed my knowledge of sorting algorithms. I was preparing myself to get destroyed. Having read some of the blogs by those whom appeared to be exceptionally smart individuals and hearing of the rejection was disheartening to say the least.
For every day prior to the interview I would fluctuate between utter despair and unabashed hope.

When the day came I was all over the place, bouncing back and forth between refreshing my coding knowledge and trying to keep from freaking myself out by playing guitar or watching some TV. The phone rang at 12:33 and a smile came over my face. I was on the phone with an engineer from Google and I'd been given the opportunity to prove myself. That's something.

My interviewer let me know the format of this 45 minute interview. He'd start by asking me to describe a project I've worked on to him, followed it with 3 technical problems using my ability to think in code, and finished the interview with me asking him some questions about Google.

As things got started the nerves disappeared. I told him all about my work and dedication to CampusPirate and he seemed responsive to it, asking me follow up questions to what I was describing. Having built CampusPirate from the ground up I knew all the ins and outs, so brevity was more of a challenge than thoroughness. 10 minutes or so passed by and we moved on to the meat of the interview.

You may see on other blogs about interviews with Google they fail to mention the specific questions asked. As I read these blogs myself I kept asking, "Why!? Just tell me... PLEASE", but now that I've gone through the interview, I find myself leaving out the specific questions on my blog as well, not because Google has asked me to, but because I feel it's something I earned and protective of that. In the end, the advice that everyone gave of looking over your algorithms and data structures and familiarizing yourself with a puzzle mode of thinking was excellent advice indeed. Had I not looked over things I doubt I would have been able to think up some of the solutions I provided.

He asked me the first technical question, essentially requesting a rewrite of a Linux command. I talked him through my thought process and he answered me with details when I asked them. It took a while, but I got more comfortable as things moved along. Satisfied with my answer, we moved to the second question which was a bit harder. After 5 minutes or so with me failing to produce anything valuable I became hyper aware of the silence and my focus drifted from the question to how things were going and into a tailspin of "you're screwing things up!". Eventually I knocked myself out of it and from nowhere came up with the pseudo code to an algorithm I'm still quite proud of. Back on track, we moved to the third question which was more of a logic puzzle than directly related to programming. I think then I realized "Hey, this is kinda fun" and smiled for the entire rest of the time while I was describing my solution. I got tripped up in the beginning by interpreting "1 or 2 feet per second" as an estimation rather than "1 foot per second or 2 feet per second" as it was intended. I was forced into asking for a hint because of this but I eventually came up with the answer and was happy to hear, "that's the preferred solution" from my interviewer.

As the interview ended I asked my interviewer a couple questions about what happened next in the hiring process. As I'd read before, it seems things move kinda slow, but I guess that what it takes when you're looking for such a specific breed of thinker. In my 45 minutes in talking to him his tone was very unenthusiastic and almost cold, but I was prepared to have that so it didn't really dampen my spirits. The one thing he warmed up to was when I asked him, "Do you like your job?" and I heard the smile on his face as he told me how much he loved it.

I got off the phone very satisfied with how I did. I'm not your stereotypical computer nerd in the sense that I'm quite able to express myself interpersonally and I think I did quite well with that over the phone. After the interview I decided that if Google doesn't want me after my performance than I simply am not Google material. I have no regrets about how I handled things things (with the exception of 1 OR 2 feet per second, grrr). I got my shot, which is more than most get, and I can even say I had fun with it. It was no doubt a challenge, but a reaffirming challenge. It let me know that the last 4 years of studying Comp Sci have prepared me to handle the pressure of one of the most difficult tests I'll face in making my way into the workforce. It made the next days' interview at Sandel Avionics seem like a snap (stay tuned for part II).

I sent an email to my recruiter thanking him for the opportunity. The new work week starts tomorrow, hopefully I hear something!

And for all of you who found this in preparing for you upcoming Google interview, GOOD LUCK!

-dp

The Pursuit of Google

It has been my dream for quite sometime to work for Google. I'm not sure when I began to realize the brilliance of their design, but know that it was somewhere in between discovering Gmail in 2005 and Picasa soon after. Every button in these interfaces was where I wanted it and every action I completed was followed by a result I expected. It seemed to me that Google knew what I was thinking. At one point I was even griping about the lack of a 'Delete' button in Gmail when not more than 2 weeks later I was rewareded with this blog update letting me know that they were on top of things. As my experience with Google's products expanded to Google Earth, Docs and Spreadsheets, and dabbling in Google Desktop and Sketch Up, I realized that Google didn't know what I was thinking at all. Instead, they knew that "simple" is the highest common denominator among all its users and making effective use of simplicity can be like reading minds. Nobody wants things complicated. Thus, I began my love affair with Google.

I started college picturing myself never wanting a real job. For my freshman and sophmore year I saw myself finishing up school and going to teach English in Japan through the JET program. Then came Junior year and I began to get into the meatiness of my Computer Science major. After a course in Microprocessors I was hooked and openly embraced the idea of computers being my career. I'd loved programming since middle school, but never did I think it would be fulfilling to the extent of having a life based around them. Since this epiphany I've dreamed of Google.

I'm now finishing my senior year of college. I've probably sent Google at least 20-30 resumes for varying positions and with varying resumes and cover letters in the last year. I've had a couple "No positions that are a strong match" responses, but with no reference to the position I was applying for, so it's hard to tell what's still out there and what's been denied, but with no follow-ups, I'm pretty sure it's been everything so far... until last week (cue chimes)

In the midst of meeting with my professor last semester, the same professor that taught the Microprocessors course that'd set me on this path in the first place, he mentioned his "friend that works at Google". I thought to myself "aw, cool" but really didn't do anything about it. So I kept on changing my resume around and with each little change I'd send Google an update. In the flurry of productivity sometime 3 weeks ago I applied to several positions on Monster.com and with various other companies. On a whim, I emailed my professor asking him if he could put me in touch with his "friend at Google". After several days with no response I figured he'd skipped over the email. I was wrong. He'd emailed his friend and was awaiting his reply to make sure it was ok. It was ;)

I spent the week exchanging emails and chatting with his friend, a technical writer at Google. He read over my resume, offered suggestions, and at the end of the week submitted my resume to Google explaining to my professor that,

If he puts his resume into the generic place, it goes into a pile of resumes. 99% of the resumes in that pile are resume spam--people who automatically email their resume to every $$*#**^% listing on monster.com. It takes a while for the recruiters to sift the pile. I can put the resume into the next pile, the pile of Resumes that are Probably from Humans.

Thus, I've passed the first tier! I'm still trying to remain realistic about my very slim, almost miniscule, chance, but hey, it's something! I even got this fancy email addressed to me by an actual human being!

"Hi Danny,
Your resume was recently submitted by **** ******* for a position at Google. Our staffing team is in the process of reviewing your application. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your interest in Google!
Best Regards,
**** *****"

Sure beats resume-thanks@google.com's brutally unforgiving tone ;)

I've been told all my life that if you want something badly enough and will do anything to go about obtaining it will be yours. I guess we'll see if this is true in the next couple weeks...

-dp

not what you do but how you do it

The iPhone was announced earlier this year as anyone reading this blog knows by now. I watched Steve Jobs' Keynote Address to MacWorld (not knowing the hour and a half commitment I would be making in doing so) shortly after the announcement. The iPhone is without a doubt revolutionary, and although I wouldn't claim that it is 5 years ahead of any other product like Jobs did, I'd be willing to say it is a good 2 or 3 years ahead of the competition. The visual voicemailbox and iPod/Phone combo as well as the web browsing capabilities are no doubt pretty incredible, but I think what got the biggest reaction from the crowd was Steve sliding his finger across the touch screen to unlock it.

It seems like a simple concept. Let the device know you want to interact with it by giving it the simplest gesture. Nowadays every phone has a feature to lock and unlock the keypad to avoid keys being pushed when it isn't your intention to push them. This is usually some combination entered or the pressing of two buttons at once, something a person can do that the inside of a pocket can't. But if this had been a highlight of the Keynote the crowd reaction would have been one thing, instead it was just the beginning of his address. It was at this point however that people knew the iPhone was going to be something incredible, simply because they were demonstrating it was made to work the way people think a phone should.

Intuitive design is driving the next revolution in electronics. Look around today at what's working and what's not. GMail was rated the #2 product of 2005 by PC World in their top 100 products of the year behind Firefox and I think 2006 made GMail even better. Why does GMail work so well for so many people? Cause it does what you'd want email to do for you. Your emails are conversations, not redundant documents with endless numbers of >>>>>>'s, your space is nearly limitless, and you can find anything with Google's trademark searching capabilities. It's simple, it's clean, and it makes sense to casual users. Look at entertainment. The Nintendo Wii is doing phenomenally while the Playstation 3's sales figures are falling short. Although there is no denying that price is a big factor in this war of consoles, it seems to me that it could be not an issue of what you play but how you play it. Look at Wii Sports, a game where you find little spheres and ellipses floating around a baseball field without legs. Do you think anybody would have given this game more than 20 minutes on another console? Absolutely not. Yet on the Wii, a game like this can change the way you think and feel about your media. Girlfriends and parents that used to be unable to comprehend the hours their boyfriends and sons spent playing video games are now joining in. Why? Cause the interface makes sense. You swing, your character swings. It seems obvious, yet for the last 25 years we've found ourselves pressing buttons to represent these actions. Playstation 3 is banking on pretty graphics, Wii is relying on the idea that everybody's a gamer, just let it make sense for them. The public knows how they want to use a product... and usually they're right. Apple, Google, and Nintendo have learned that if they want to make their products ubiquitous they have to eliminate the learning curve of what they sell.

As computers make their way out of the dark ages and slowly evolve from their tree dwelling keyboard and mouse ancestors we'll see interfaces become what they're destined to be. Multitouch screens, like the one the iPhone is going to sport in June, are just be the beginning.



Perhaps Minority Report's futuristic depcition of touching huge displays to move information around isn't as far off as we may have thought. Where once the interfaces were developed to facilitate the use of software we'll soon be seeing a shift of software adapting to the new ways we're giving computers information.

-dp

Time for a New Blog

1,149 days and 771 posts ago I created a livejournal account. My commitment to my livejournal remained consistently strong for 3 years until recent months when my motivation to post began to fade. For years it afforded me a tremendous social tool, enabling me to maintain contact with a majority of my friends from the place I used to consider home, Memphis, TN, as we all spread throughout the country and began our respective higher educations. It was how I first came to know a blog, keeping in touch with friends at my convenience and sharing only what I chose with whom I chose to share it with.

Alot has happened in my life in these 1,149 days. Alot has happened to blogging as well. I write with a different purpose than I have written previously. I write now to make my feeble attempt of meaning something on the internet. I think there are things I've got say and things that may possibly even mean something to others, things others may want to hear. I want to give you the perspective of a college kid getting ready to make some of the most life altering decisions he'll ever make as he enters Big Boy Land.

TIME's person of the year for 2006 was you... and me, really. I saw the cheaply made reflective sheet they put out in an attempt to capture my face on cover and a mock up control bar of a YouTube video. I got a chance to read the article and found it somewhat inspiring.

"Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."

I feel that at 21 years my life is just beginning and that all my hard work and education have enabled me to put myself in a position where I can start giving back... something. I'm not sure what this will be, but I hope you'll enjoy it.

-dp