Coredump

I got Google’s invitation to try out Google Spreadsheets last week. I only had time to try it out just now, and frankly, I’m not too hot on using it just yet.

The interface is painfully slow, Ajax notwithstanding. There are also some features that I miss, like select-and-drag, for one. Of course, it’s a web app — and besides, it’s still in beta (like most other Google offerings) — but then again, I don’t see much use for it.

Sharing spreadsheets *might* be cool, but how’s that different from just attaching, say, OO.o Calc files to email? I haven’t tried out any of its other features yet, but Google Spreadsheets is probably one of those apps that are long on promise and short on delivery.

But given Google’s propensity for putting out apps and goodies for all the world to play with, and with their capacity to continuously improve and add on new features, I’m quite sure Google Spreadsheets will go far. With their acquisition of Writely, Google may be on its way to building a Microsoft Live alternative, as some people are speculating. I’d rather stick to apps that I have actual use for, like GMail and Google Talk, for example.

I wish!

I was just lounging around, checking out the Pinoy Blogger “A-list”, when I came across Marc’s article, looking for any Pinoy Googlers (er, is that even the right term?), which in turn pointed to Migs’ post.

(I know, they’re old articles, but hey, it’s been a while since I’ve kept up with reading blogs — aside from the usual cut-and-paste-and-link posts I did off of my RSS subscriptions.)

Anyway: I, too, got a shot at an interview for Google, early this year. It was for an engineering position. It was actually a surprise, getting an email from Google (a recruiter told me they got my resume off the web {searched, of course}, were interested in me, and wanted to arrange for an interview) right at the start of the new year. I was dubious at first, but when I got the call, I got this cold, cold feeling down my spine: OMG, Google!

To make the long story short: I didn’t make it. Oh well. At least, I got considered — and I didn’t even apply. *shrugs*

I’m still gunning for working in the Googleplex, though. Even a blue collar position would do. Heh. (How’s resetting some of ‘em Big Daddy servers sound to you? Cool, eh?) So what do I do now? Beef up my knowledge, of course, and continue doing what I love to do. Somehow, I hope Google will take notice again, and when that time comes, they’d be foolish not to take me in.

I wish!

NB: I should have written “Working with Google”, not for them. Same difference.

“Given a number of cities and the costs of traveling from any city to any other city, what is the cheapest round-trip route that visits each city exactly once and then returns to the starting city?” [Travelling salesman problem, Wikipedia.]

Well, don’t despair, Mr. Loman, because DNA computing is on the rescue. DNA computing works like this:

Release thousands of DNA sequences into a pool, and the simple thermodynamics of hybridization means each strand will end up finding its partner. Thus the dream of DNA computing - massively parallelized by the ability of many, many small pieces to diffuse and hybridize in a solution. Via Madprime.org.

Uh, okay. Right… For those of us who like pictures, Discovery magazine offers a beautifully rendered comics: