James

What do I do for Google?

2009-08-20T04:56:40Z

ACM posted an interview with Sean Quinlan called "GFS: Evolution on Fast-forward". GFS is this context is the Google File System. My team runs, maintains, monitors, is on-call for, etc. most of the GFS cells in the company.

The interview:
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1594206
The whitepaper published eons ago:
http://labs.google.com/papers/gfs-sosp2003.pdf

Home power monitoring

2009-08-17T04:33:13Z

I finished building several tweet-a-watts power meters this weekend. I'm still working on the software to record the data, but here's a sample. I've turned off the y-axis units because I'm not 100% sure of my math. The relative differences should be correct. The x-axis is in UTC, so the numbers are 7 hours ahead.

Currently this is what each sensor is recording:
Sensor 1: The air conditioner.
Sensor 2: 2 linux computers.
Sensor 3: 1 windows computer
Sensor 4: 1 linux computer.
Sensor 5: Refrigerator.

I have one more sensor, but something is wrong with it and I haven't figured it out yet.

uberjames @ 2009-08-10T10:54:00

2009-08-10T17:58:09Z

I decided to get updated business cards. They just arrived.

For reference, this is my old one.

Office Moves.

2009-07-31T07:55:53Z

When I started at Google, I sat in Building 43. Before that, my team had recently moved to that part of the building. About eight months later, my team moved to building 40. Which building isn't important, just that we moved. At the time my teammates told me to expect a move every 6 months or so. There are various reasons groups get moved around. Sometimes they outgrow their currently allocated space, or sometimes their neighbors do. Other times it's because it makes sense for two groups to sit near each other. Switching teams will also cause a move for just you.
Anyway, since that move in 2006, my desk has stayed put, including a shuffle of seats my team did a year ago. Just one or two months shy of 3 years, this has been my desk.

That picture was taken the day I got back from a two week trip and the woot fairy had left me gifts while I was gone. Something you can't see in that picture and I wish you could is the take-a-number dispenser I have to scare people away.
Tuesday, the era of that desk ended and I had to pack up everything for a move.

This time the move was not as far. In fact, I moved less than 100 ft from my old location. A group nearby wants more continuous space, so they're getting our space and we're moving to the window spaces. I don't know where this picture was taken, but it reflects what our area looks like. I was in one of the center cubes, now I'm in one of the offices in the back. (courtesy of an image search for google office pictures.)

This is the view from my new desk.

We got to pick which seat we wanted and coincidentally the people I'm sharing with are the same people I've been sharing a cube with for over a year. We even sit in the same places relative to each other and have our desks arranged in the same pattern as before. Tonight I counted, there are three of us who share this office and, not counting laptops, there are 6 computers and 9 monitors.

uberjames @ 2009-07-28T15:21:00

2009-07-28T22:22:32Z

Separate, yet equal.

Fuel stats

2009-07-13T05:50:39Z

Since I bought my Prius last February, I've been keeping all of my gas receipts and on each one I mark the mileage. I now have a bunch of stats that are likely only of interest to me.

Start time: 2009-02-09
End time: 2009-07-10
Duration: 516 days
Mile traveled: 18467
Fill ups: 43
Total gallons: 417.982
Total Money spent on gas: $1,364.82
Fuel cost per day: $2.65
Gallons per day: 0.81
Overall MPH: 1.49
Numerical Mean of weighted zipcodes of fill ups: 82881.954 (Northern Wyoming if it existed.)
Numerical Mean of unique zipcodes of fill ups: 76775.916 (West/Central Texas if it existed.)

Mean miles per day: 35
Mean miles between fill ups: 429.47
Max miles between fill ups: 550 [1]
Min miles between fill ups: 341 [2]

Mean days between fill ups: 12
Min days between fill ups: 5 hours [3]
Max days between fill ups: 46 days [4]

Mean per gallon paid: $3.27
Max per gallon paid: $4.559 [5]
Min per gallon paid: $1.799 [6]

Mean gallons per fill: 9.50
Max gallons per fill: 12.047 [7]
Min gallons per fill: 7.829 [8]

MPG, method one. (current mileage - previous mileage) / current gallons added
Mean miles per gallon: 44.25
Max miles per gallon: 49.52 [9]
Min miles per gallon: 38.43 [10]

MPG, method two. (current mileage - previous mileage) / previous gallons added
Mean miles per gallon: 44.48
Max miles per gallon: 53.9 [12]
Min miles per gallon: 34.4 [13]

MPG, method three. Total miles / total gallons.
44.26

Footnotes:
[1] This was the segment of the PIT -> SJC drive from a truck stop in Tennessee to Mesquite, TX on 2008-08-04.
[2] This was 2009-02-16 through 2009-03-13. I don't remember anything specific during that time. It might have been when I realized my tires were under-inflated. I was also out of town during 2 weeks of this period.
[3] Part of the PIT -> SJC drive on 2008-08-05. This was also the only time I've ever run out of gas. It was just outside of Lordsburg, New Mexico. I coasted into the gas station. Based on some calculations I'm not going to post, this is also the fastest average speed.
[4] 2008-05-25 through 2008-07-11. I was in Pittsburgh at this time and my car was mostly parked. Those dates are also the only times I filled up during my stay in Pittsburgh.
[5] 2008-08-06 in Blythe, Ca. My first stop upon returning to California after spending the summer in Pittsburgh. Welcome home.
[6] 2008-12-05 in Campbell, Ca. This excludes the initial tank that came with the car which I record as $0.
[7] 2008-05-08. Part of the SJC -> PIT drive. Waynesville, MO -> Eaton, OH. I'm positive I over filled because the bladder in the tank spit gas back out at me.
[8] 2009-03-13. In Campbell. No good reason.
[9] 2008-05-06. Part of the SJC -> PIT drive. Flagstaff, Az -> Tucumcari, NM.
[10] 2008-05-08. Part of the SJC -> PIT drive. Waynesville, MO -> Eaton, OH [11]
[11] With the min and max so close together in days, I think there is something odd happening with the math, or maybe the Prius batteries were used a lot get the max, but I paid for it shortly after.
[12] 2009-03-13 through 2009-03-21. Might be right after I added air to my tires. See [2].
[13] 2008-08-06. Part of PIT -> SCJ. Blythe, Ca -> Lost Hill, Ca

uberjames @ 2009-06-14T22:55:00

2009-06-15T06:00:20Z

The Empire State Building from my hotel:

My hotel from the Empire State Building:

(At least, I think.)

uberjames @ 2009-06-09T00:24:00

2009-06-09T07:29:57Z

I think my video card is trying to hurt itself. The cooling fan has melted and bent out of shape. Note: The fan blades should be flush with the surrounding bits.

uberjames @ 2009-05-31T19:35:00

2009-06-01T02:48:28Z

I didn't arrive at the faire until late, so the only thing I really did was attend the surface mount soldering workshop that I signed up for.
I turned this:

From 2009-05-30 Maker Faire

Into this:

Step by Step photos can be found in the album.

I also saw gf2e who I've only seen once or twice since 1994 when we lived on the same dorm floor.

uberjames @ 2009-05-31T00:13:00

2009-05-31T07:58:24Z

Pictures from Saturday at the Maker Faire.

2009-05-30 Maker Faire

I randomly ran into ariiadne, but I didn't see any of my coworkers that said they were going.

I don't want to go to heaven / As long as they have Vulcans in hell

2009-05-07T06:22:23Z

I found out that I've been promoted again. I'm not exactly sure when it becomes official or if it already has. I applied about a month ago and the committee met a week or so ago. I know it hasn't been announced internally.

uberjames @ 2009-05-06T02:50:00

2009-05-06T10:15:06Z

If you ever wondered what it would be like to sit in my passenger seat and stare straight ahead while I drove to work, all while listening to a They Might Be Giants song, this video is for you. Everyone else is permitted to watch it too.

See if you can find the 7 or 8 cities that I pass through. My effective speed in this video is ~462 mph.

I kind of gave up trying to get what I wanted to render, so the music ends about 8 seconds sooner than I'd like.
I also tried filming the 2 hour drive from San Jose to Sacramento, but the camera battery died after an hour and a half, and the software I'm using doesn't seem to like processing the 2gig video. This one is works out to be ~582mph.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCfY0t9eoPM

uberjames @ 2009-01-25T23:30:00

2009-01-26T07:44:35Z

The robot uprising started today in 1979.

Here is my army. Click to see the full version.

When I was in Pittsburgh for the summer, I left this guy behind to guard my desk. I went to the security office to get him an official badge with his photo and the onsite store to find the smallest shirt I could. (It turns out even the baby onesy is still too big on him.)

Click for rest of the images. Red-eye reduction works against you when your eyes are supposed to be red.

uberjames @ 2008-12-20T23:33:00

2008-12-21T07:37:17Z

My question about the certificate part of my degree was answered when this arrived a few weeks ago.

1KDay.

2008-11-22T00:32:39Z

I've been working at Google for 1KiloDay. (It's actually 1039 days as of today, so 1KDay was on Nov 6th.)

uberjames @ 2008-11-09T23:32:00

2008-11-10T09:43:36Z

Now that Zach and Miri is in theaters and I've seen it, I can confirm that I'm visible 2, maybe 3 times.

The first time is the easiest to find. Near the beginning of the movie Zach is dropping Miri off at the mall. The shot starts with the camera looking straight down at the car as it drives up to the entrance. I'm in the background on the left walking into the mall. I'm the only one there, so it's easy to find me.

The second time is later when Zach is talking to Delaney in the mall. Eventually, they're on an escalator. When Delaney is on screen, I'm in the background on the second floor.

The possible third time is when they reach the top of the escalator, there is a shot of both of them with the escalator behind them. I was in the crowd in the background on the second floor. I'm not sure if I'm visible because I was in different places during different takes and it was only on screen for a brief moment.

There was another scene that was filmed inside a store and I would have been outside walking around. This was cut.

I was supposed to write down notes back in February, but of course I didn't. So here is what I remember from that day.

We were told to report to Monroeville Mall at 7:30. I woke up spontaneously sometime around 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, I also couldn't get online. When the fire alarm went off at 4am, I was already awake. When they let us back in, I decided to give up on sleep and head out to the mall a little early.
I remember listening to the radio. The story of the morning was about Britney Spears being arrested or having that intervention.

I knew where I was supposed to go, but there were understated signs on telephone poles that just said 'Z&M ->'. Useful if you were lost, and simple enough to not catch attention if you weren't involved.

Extras were supposed to report to the food court, but the first doors I tried were locked. There was a large second of the parking lot blocked off and they were putting down fake frost and snow. I walked over to a tent and asked some guy which door we were supposed to use to get to the food court. He kind of stared at me for a minute like I wasn't speaking English, then pulled out some papers (a call sheet?) and said that extras were supposed to go to the food court. Thanks. :-P

After checking in, signing forms, and getting my $10 for lunch, Amsie, the second second director I think, came and took some of us outside to film the first scene I mentioned above. They had me stand next to someone's car. I was with another extra who was in the driver's seat. You can see her for a second before the scene cuts. They only filmed one take with us, and I thought they were going to film it again without extras because they changed their mind.

Back to the food court to wait for the next scene.

A while later they took a bunch of us up to the second floor to fill the walkways and make it look more like Black Friday than a random Thursday in January. This was the scene that was cut. You would have only seen my back at best. During these takes, we were talking about the Britney situation. Some of the people from my table at the food court were inside the store during these takes.

Back to the food court to wait for the next scene.

Last was the escalator scene. I found out that they film those types of scenes three times. Once with both sets of stairs going up, Zach on one side giving his lines and the camera and Delaney on the other. Next, they switch sides and film Delaney's side of the conversation. Finally, they set the stairs to normal and film the conversation from the top of the escalator.

Eight hours of work for about 5 minutes of screen time.

After filming, the extras from the board went over to the Raddison. At some point during the day, we started talking about Dave Attell's bit about how "It's always 10 minutes after you leave when the all fun shows up". To test this, I left Raddison to give someone a ride back to his hotel. Returning to the Raddison after at least 10 minutes did not prove the Attell Theorem to be true.
I also found that the tiny glow sticks I bought in the food court bathroom don't last very long.

I don't remember exactly when I got back to my hotel, but I do remember that the fire alarm went off for the second night in a row around 4am.

uberjames @ 2008-10-15T23:46:00

2008-10-16T07:27:43Z

This happened.

Luckily, it was before I needed this.

Is it common to not print the major? It was Computer Science, with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems. Oddly, there was no actual certificate enclosed.

And here are my cars on street view Link.
The green on in the foreground was mine until late August when I donated it, and the black smudge in the back on the left is my Prius. Given that both cars are there, and I noticed this in August, that places the time of the picture between February 9th and May 5th.

That white box on the side walk is something that belongs to AT&T. I'm fairly sure it's part of U-verse, their entry into the broadband market. My driveway was blocked on and off in January while Constructicons were digging that trench that goes down the street. It has it's a unique street address. I keep meaning to send it a letter welcoming it to the neighborhood. Does Miss Manners place a statute of limitations on doing that?

uberjames @ 2008-08-07T13:01:00

2008-08-07T18:08:42Z

I have returned.
-- General MacArthur

Me too.
-- me.

uberjames @ 2008-06-25T16:47:00

2008-06-25T21:36:17Z

I realized that I haven't posted since I got to Pittsburgh. This is week 7 of the 12 week summer session, so I'm past the half-way mark.

When I arrived in Pittsburgh there were 4 classes I needed to complete in order to graduate. Public Speaking, Implications of Computer Technology, Indo-European Folktales, and Classical Mythology. Except for the computer science class, I didn't need to do these exact classes. If scheduling limitations required, I could have taken alternative courses that met certain general education requirements. I'm sticking with the classes listed because I've taken each of them at least once before.

I took the folktale class in 2005 as a self-paced external studies class. I finished all of the work in that year and emailed the professor to remind him to give me a grade. I didn't hear back from him then, and eventually I lost access to check my records. So, I had that course on my schedule at the beginning of the summer just in case. I did finally track him down and he submitted the paperwork needed to give me a grade. I'm fortunate that the grade was based solely on 3 exams and those exams were proctored on a computer in the testing office. Despite having an odd filing system, they still had copies of the test. The guy working there claims to remember my face, but not my name. I got a B+. The class wasn't scheduled to start until this week, so I had plenty of time to drop the class without penalty. Someday they will issue a refund check. Since I'm paying out of state tuition, it's a significant amount.

I first started taking Public Speaking in the Spring of 2003. I didn't pass it the first time because I didn't finish all of the assignments on time. I enrolled again as a self-paced course and had an incomplete for years. I even tried to fly back to Pittsburgh after I moved in 2006 to attend the infrequently held classes, but it never worked out. This class was held the first 6 weeks of the summer. Even if my work sucked, I still turned in everything and attended all of the classes. I'm waiting for my grade to show up officially, but it looks like I'm getting an A- in the class.

The schedule for the Public Speaking and Classical Mythology meshed together perfectly. They're the same time and days, just one was the first 6 weeks and the other was the second 6. My history with Classical Mythology dates back to the Summer of 2004. This was another self-paced class. I was making steady progress and I think I only had one more thing to do when I left for California. Since that wasn't the only thing I needed to do in order to graduate, it didn't get much attention. Similar to the folktale class, I enrolled in the course this summer to hold a seat. Given how long it was, and I knew she was having health problems back then, I didn't think I would be able to do something similar to the folktales class. It turns out she passed away over a year ago. Class started last Monday. The new professor sent out a reading list a week before the first class. He also doesn't seem very focused when he teaches. He also doesn't seem to understand that taking a 5 minute break means he should stop teaching.

Finally, we come to Social Implications of Computing Technology or as it's called within the department, 'the writing class'. I think the only reason this course exists and people take it is because of a university requirement that every student take a writing intensive course within their major. There are currently two, but the added a writing component to an existing course the term after I took it, so that one isn't an option for me. This class is my arch-rival second only to the Sun. I've enrolled in the class 5 times, including this time. Usually I withdraw midsemster when I realize that I'm so far behind that I can't catch up in finite time. This class is the full 12 weeks, so it isn't as rushed as one of the 6-week courses. I have two difficulties with the class. First, most of the papers require us to argue a position. For example, "Argue that "computer" or "on-line" ethics will indeed become one with "off-line" ethics or argue that they are and will remain two distinct entities." I'm not a strongly opinionated person. The other problem I have is getting into a writing mood. This is partly a corollary to the first point. How do I stretch out 'I don't care.' to be 2 pages? When I do write, I think I'm a fairly dense writer, and like Carlin (RIP), I don't do transitional material. There are 5 more weeks of that class and somehow I will get a non-failing grade.

In Soviet Russia Livejoural posts on you.

2008-05-09T02:56:53Z

If anyone was wondering what happened to Yakov Smirnoff, wonder no more. I found he's doing 1 or 2 shows a day Branson, Missouri. The city where I stayed last night.

uberjames @ 2008-05-05T09:51:00

2008-05-05T16:52:55Z

The Summer of James has begun.
I will be leaving Mountain View in the next few hours heading toward Pittsburgh.
If you're bored and want to follow along at home, here's a map of my recent progress:
http://where.jo2y.com/

uberjames @ 2008-04-19T18:40:00

2008-04-20T01:43:31Z

I took my car apart today.

Now it boots linux.

Full gallery:
http://photos.jamesokane.com/gallery/Prius

The Summer of James

2008-03-17T07:47:10Z

Wheels are in motion for me to move back to Pittsburgh for the summer. I'm planning to enroll in the 4 classes I need to finish my degree and graduate in August. The tentative plan is for me to leave California around May 1st, and drive east. I want to arrive in Pgh by May 9th because classes start on May 12th. I'll be in town until about August 2nd when I'll drive back. I'll be working part-time in the Pittsburgh office, but my main focus will be finishing those annoying 4 classes. Not everything has been confirmed yet, so there is still a slight chance this won't happen. I need to verify my assessment of graduation requirements is correct. I still need to hear confirmation that I was successfully enrolled in the courses I requested. I need to find a furnished apartment near campus. I need to plan a route from here to there and back.
What would be helpful is if people could relocate to strategic locations along the route from here to there. Locations about 8-10 hours drive apart should be optimal.

The cake was not a lie.

2008-03-03T09:34:59Z

Two concerts in two weeks and neither of them were They Might Be Giants; possibly a jo2y first.
A week before last Friday I drove up to San Francisco to see Jonathan Coulton perform. He was there to record footage for a DVD he's putting together. I found the Great American Music Hall is a much smaller venue than the name would have you believe. I heard somewhere that the sold-out show was 400 people, so compare that to your favorite venue size standard. It was a neat concert. Many people dressed up as zombies. I wanted to dress up as a Mandelbrot Set, but I didn't really know how to represent in fabric, and well, I'm lazy. One neat part was he performed 'Still Alive' from the game Portal on Rock Band (It's neat because he wrote the song). They scored 99%. I think I was sitting next to the guy who filmed this footage. And the cake was not a lie.
The opening band was Paul and Storm, half of DaVinci's Notebook. They also helped perform some of Jonathan's songs. They made fun of/mimicked They Might Be Giants in one of their songs, so they gained me as a fan. Partly because they knew of TMBG, but also because they did a good job at it. They have some video taken before the concert, like when they went to pick up the ukulelist who also performed with Jonathan.

The other concert I went to was last night. Warp 11 was performing in their home town of Sacramento. I never heard of the band until Christmas when I got one of their CDs as a gift from my sister, but I've been waiting since then to see them. Last night was their only future concert date listed. If I thought the previous venue was small, the one was even smaller. It was more of a bar really. The stage had just enough room for the 5 of them on stage at once. I think the audience was about 50 people.
As their name suggests, they're a Star Trek themed band. This was a re-release concert for their remastered first CD, 'Suck My Spock' now called 'Suck My Spock Some More'. This is good because it's the one I've not been able to find in any stores. If you're interested, here's a professionally done music video of one of their songs called 'She Make It So', the classic store of boy-meets-green-skin-alien-girl.
The opening act was The HellBenders or something. I didn't pay much attention to them. The only thing of note was that they performed a few covers of Warp 11 songs.
The only downside was that Sacramento is a 2 hour drive from here. So I drove 4 hours for a 2-3 hour concert.

<blatant transition >

With all of this driving to strange new cities, I've passed my first 1000 miles in my new car. It happened just outside of Sacramento. While looking for something else, I found this entry about the first 1000 miles I put on my first car. That time took 3 months, this time took 3 weeks. I'm 4 times more efficient at putting mileage on a car now. I still lack sad music and a photo montage.

Random Trivia: Between research, fact checking, link finding and shower breaks, it takes me about 2 hours to write a post like this.

How I spent my winter vacation

2008-02-13T07:26:49Z

It's been a busy 2 weeks. Starting the Friday after my car wouldn't start, I drove up to Santa Rosa to meet some people. That's why I had a car reservation before my car stopped working. I think it stopped because it was jealous. That Sunday was long enough for the portable battery jumper to be charged and ready for testing. Before I tried I gave it another try and it started with a little bit of a hesitation. I didn't feel like driving it around, so I turned it off. I should point out that one of the belts has been squealing for a year. Belt dressing used to help, but it's beyond those powers. The squeal is worse when it rains. It does rain in California. I took pictures. See below. There also seems to be water getting into something because twice I've found the passenger side foot well with an inch of water. Turning on the vent also produces a slight gurgling sound. Old car == bad.

So, home Sunday, work on Monday, then fly to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I didn't say before why I was going because I still wasn't sure it was going to happen. Kevin Smith is filming another movie in Pittsburgh and I went to be an extra. I'm not going to post much about that until after the movie comes out. I'll write about it offline now and then annotate and post it after I see the movie. The short version is I was a shopper at Monroeville mall. I wasn't even the person who traveled the furthest. Someone flew in from Ireland to be an extra.

I was going to stop by the WPLUG meeting that Saturday since it was the first time I've been in town on the first Saturday of the month in a while. I was planning this on Thursday, by Saturday I forgot.

Saturday I flew home. This was the night before the Superbowl and I was flying out of Phoenix, the host city. That's why there were so few people on my flight that night. I didn't know that's where it was to be played until my flight from PGH -> PHX was landing and the flight attendant said something.

Monday I stopped by work long enough to do laundry, eat lunch, and pick up a package from my desk. I had a flight to LAX at 3:30. A few thousand of my closest coworkers and I were going to Disneyland. (heh, the firefox spell checker knows Disneyland, but not Monroeville.)

Tuesday was Disney day. I woke up with a dry throat that got worse during the day. Luckily, the California Disney is smaller than the Florida one. The park closed at 8pm, and we had the whole park to ourselves until 1am.

Wednesday was my flight back to SJC. I had a late flight without much to do, so I took a cab over to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. It's a small store inside of a video rental/sale store. Pictures below.

Thursday and Friday, I took off work sick.

Saturday I bought a new car. It's a 2008 Prius. It's magnetic gray with the navigation package, which is everything except leather seats. That's also means it has some features I wouldn't have picked myself, but were included, like fog lights. Seriously, who uses those? The bluetooth hands free feature is neat. There is a meeting on Tuesday that I'm usually running late for so I dial in. It's neat to have the car's sound system used for speaker phone. The rear view backup camera is weird. I forgot it was there the first time I tried reverse.
I signed up for a costco membership and then used their auto finding service to put me in touch with a dealership. They're supposed to have pre-negotiated prices that are a fixed amount over invoice. So I went to the dealer knowing they had the car I wanted and how much it would cost. (I compromised on color because I didn't want to wait 2-3 weeks for black.) I think I was there for about an hour and half.

Sunday I went to the Palo Alto board game meetup. I got to play Carcassonne, Power Grid, and Munchkin Cthulhu

Indisputable proof that weather does exist. (paraphrasing a bad quote from Primeval) Also, my old car. The date on that photo is wrong too. I didn't even own the camera or live in this apartment on that date.
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Me next to Elias' uniform from Clerks II. I was tired, sick and sore all over by this point.
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I had the whole theater to myself to watch the first 50 years of Disney.
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