kraneland...

Google Design Principles

David — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:01:00 +0000

Read the full post on the User Experience Team blog...

1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people's trust.
10. Add a human touch.

Happy Passover...

David — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:53:00 +0000

...to those that recognize this holiday! Reminds me of how Gmail saved the day a few years ago, and enabled us to have a wonderful (yet brief) seder!

Calling all NASA fans...

David — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Holy wow...these are cool pics!

More MB Air craziness...

David — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:57:00 +0000

Would you make the same decision?!

MB Air

David — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Two interesting tidbits, shortly after the much-hyped introduction of this beautiful (yet not ideal) machine -- here and here.

The flu has arrived...

David — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:01:00 +0000

...says the Google Doc. Details here.

Happy Birthday, LEGO!

David — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:44:00 +0000

We're honoring the 50th anniversary of the LEGO Brick on our home page today...

Larry and Sergey have always had a thing for LEGOS:

* A programmable plotter , Larry built out of LEGOS, years ago. He said the following on his Stanford webpage, while in grad school:

Legos and other lesser construction toys have been quite important to me. I have constructed numerous amazing contraptions out of Legos. I built a four foot wide inkjet printer out of Legos (and a few things from the hardware store and a bunch of electronics).

I attriubute (his typo, not mine) a great deal of my understanding and ability with mechanical devices to Legos and similar construction toys.

* Early hard drive enclosure (10, 4GB drives), encased in "faux" Duplos (see them in action)
Note: Sergey says they couldn't afford the authentic LEGO product!

* LEGO-infused photoshoot, as part of this TIME Mag cover story

Simply awesome...!

David — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:34:00 +0000

Step 1: Visit www.google.com
Step 2: Input these search terms: find chuck norris
Step 3: Click "I'm feeling lucky"

Note the site restrict!! ----> "pages from Chuck's Beard"

Attention Bay Area oenophiles!

David — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:07:00 +0000

This one is for you...

If you like drinking wine and discussing its attributes, we might be looking for you.

With our expansive (and continuously expanding) wine list, we need someone who can take a few hours per month to sample our new wine offerrings and compare/contrast with our existing wines. You will jot down your thoughts which will then be included in the monthly Educational Memo that is sent to our servers. While we need you to dissect individual wine notes for each wine, more importantly, we will need you to tell us what you believe the differences are between, say, the 7 different Pinot Noirs that we may offer.

A perk of this position is that you will be able to attend many of the wine and liquor events exclusive only to restaurant insiders as a rep of our restaurant. Spirits (and free food!) are almost always served at these events. Attendance isn't mandatory (and won't be compensated) but will be made available to you should they pique your interest.

If you are interested in this position, please send a quick email detailing your interest and qualifications for this position. Please also include what you are asking for as fair compensation.

Invisible Octopus...wow!

David — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:07:00 +0000

Weirdest discoveries in LA...

David — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 07:54:00 +0000

Was in S Cal for the day today. Lots of absolutely random things caught my eye...but these two "artifacts" share the title of the weirdest things I saw in Los Angeles.

If you're at a loss for what to do w/that spare elephant foot you have lying around your garage...here's an idea. The guy told me that the foot was rather "old," so I shouldn't really be concerned about animal cruelty! Whatehvuh!

Lovely Valentino dress meets a tub of tar. Yes, TAR. This particular "artist" also happens to have applied tar to things like a set of candelabras, and also to a bust of the former creative director of Italian furniture designer, Cappellini.

Congrats, Dad!

David — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:07:00 +0000

Featured on the Oregon State Univ. home page today...

Krane Honored by OSU's University Honors College

CORVALLIS, Ore. The University Honors College at Oregon State University has selected Ken Krane as its '2008 Eminent Professor,' an award given in recognition of outstanding instruction to the university¹s honors students.

Krane is a professor emeritus of physics and has been active in teaching University Honors College courses since the program¹s inception in 1995.

"Ken Krane exemplifies how bringing OSU¹s best faculty together with highly motivated and capable students can leverage learning for those students, and for the broader OSU student body who enroll in physics," said Bill Bogley, associate dean of the UHC.

An innovator in science education, Krane most recently has worked to build a bridge between physics education and the curriculum for students at OSU on pre-medical and pre-engineering tracks. He has also supervised National Science Foundation-sponsored physics workshops at the university that focus on helping new physics faculty become better teachers.

In 2004, Krane was recognized by the American Association of Physics Teachers with its Millikan Medal, presented for outstanding instruction.

Krane chaired the Department of Physics at OSU from 1984 to 1998. He has written or edited nearly 20 books and monographs, as well as dozens of research articles.

Silence, explained... sort of

David — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:03:00 +0000

It has been awfully quiet around here as of late. For that, I apologize. It's a mix of the usual excuses...two kids, busy job, lots of outside distractions ---- and a focused attempt to spend a bit less time connected to the Net each day. The iPhone prevents me from succeeding at that last point. Genius device, in so many ways. And the Google experience on it keeps getting better.

Let's see if we can't pick up the pace of this blog a bit...

On Pavarotti...

David — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:12:00 +0000

The world lost one of the greatest musicians of all time today...rest peacefully, Luciano.

Wyclef visits the Googleplex...

David — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Damn. I missed this.

Beaver baseball repeat!

David — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 05:36:00 +0000

They did it again!! Go Beavs! Back-to-back national champions...WOW!

1.6MW -- live!

David — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:11:00 +0000

We're live...solar everywhere at the Googleplex. In fact, we believe it to be the largest commercial installation of its kind in the U.S. Solar panel production stats published here... 9,468 kilowatt-hours and counting!

The NYT has an excellent article about a related PHEV announcement we also made today...

Cavett says it best...

David — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:38:00 +0000

Dick Cavvett offers this excellent summary of the sunsetting of "The Sopranos" later this evening. 86 of the best, most entertaining television episodes I can recall in years...

Welcome, Feedburner...

David — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:23:00 +0000

We just announced this new addition to the growing Google family. Not a huge surprised based on recent speculation, but exciting news for our ads and publisher-facing initiatives. Welcome! Their perspective captured here...

Modern mommy...

David — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:43:00 +0000

Technology, meet baby...

Wake up, Metro riders...(!)

David — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:54:00 +0000

Fascinating experiment conducted by the Washington Post and one of my Hoosier musical heroes, Joshua Bell. Terrific (warning: somewhat longish read) article + video with all the details/analysis...absolutely stunning results!

Google Earth and Darfur

David — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:58:00 +0000

This is important...released earlier today.

[download the.kmz file here]

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has joined with Google in an unprecedented online mapping initiative. Crisis in Darfur enables more than 200 million Google Earth users worldwide to visualize and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur, Sudan. The Museum has assembled content, photographs, data, and eyewitness testimony from a number of sources that are brought together for the first time in Google Earth.

Crisis in Darfur is the first project of the Museum's Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative that will over time include information on potential genocides allowing citizens, governments, and institutions to access information on atrocities in their nascent stages and respond.

Search With Kevin...huh?

David — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:04:00 +0000

In "News of the Weird," KFed now (apparently) fashions himself a search engine guru.

Check it.

Update: CollegeHumor.com looks at this more closely...

* The fine print notes that search results are powered by the folks down in Sunnyvale...yet they use Gmail to communicate with their users

Google Me, The Movie

David — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:47:00 +0000

Trailer here.

Update: Possible cast revealed...(this is quite funny!)

Yes, Dennis can spell...

David — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:03:00 +0000

Some buzz around the 'Net today about our Valentine's Day doodle. Dennis responds...