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John Henry Short Term role

Looking for a break? Want to improve fairness for Google products? Have a supportive manager? Then check out this short-term opportunity on the John Henry Team:

https://grow.googleplex.com/opportunity/job/2000000070880

So what exactly would you be doing you might ask...

- Work with a system that pulls all the term lists used for blocking through Google and properly categorize them based on identity facets.
- Work with research/product partners to apply this merged, vetted Societal Context dataset. Help remove bias from underlying systems and ML algorithms
- Build tools that will help us develop System Dynamics as a common practice in policy making and the product design process.
- Have fun!

Our environment is Java+Spanner with a goal of migrating to GraphStore in 2020.

Happy to chat about this opportunity or the project as a whole.

 

Societal Context Summit

*** This is Happening Now ***

There will be two great talks tomorrow on the intersection of technology, society, and justice. I highly recommend catching these talks if you are able! Details below:

Livestream link:

http://go/scs-keynote-livestream

Talks:

Ruha Benjamin (9:45 - 10:30am)
Anna Lauren Hoffmann (9:45 - 10:30am)

Speaker bios:

https://www.ruhabenjamin.com/ is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founder of https://www.thejustdatalab.com/ and the author of two books, https://www.ruhabenjamin.com/peoples-science and https://www.ruhabenjamin.com/race-after-technology. Ruha teaches and speaks widely about the relationship between knowledge and power, race and citizenship, health and justice and at Princeton her main focus is on the social dimensions of science, technology, and medicine.

https://www.annaeveryday.com/about is an Assistant Professor with The Information School at the University of Washington working at the intersections of data, technology, culture and ethics. Anna has written many https://www.annaeveryday.com/publications on issues in information, data and ethics, while especially to the ways discourse, design and uses of information technology work to promote or hinder the pursuit of important human values like respect and justice.

Rooms for livestream:

DUB-1GC-1-Dracula (8)

DUB-1GC-3-Golden Grove (7)

LON-123-1-New Forest (12)

SVL-MOT1-5-Triskelion (8)

NYC-9TH-14-F-324-Uptown Training (16)

 

Stadia and Digital Preservation

[crosspost from industryinfo..]

One thing we at Google could do is advocate for a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_deposit scheme for Games.

- Game publishers would put their games in Escrow when they publish.
- Google could publish a spec on how to interpret the game contents.
- 'Orphan' games would actually be preserved.
- Users that purchased the Game would then be entitled to a copy of the escrowed item, plus the design on how to run them.

This, combined with an export of user-generated data would allow for usability after Stadia or the Game Publisher sunsets the service/game.

And TBH I'd love to see this extended to all Online "Stores" that don't let you export usable contents.

Barring something like that Google could enter a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_pact with our users if we're serious about the long-haul.. For each purchase a user makes put 10x in a locked escrow fund. When the service cancels that money can be used to migrate the games to a new provider or payout back the user.

- If Stadia gets few users it's not a lot of money to exit and actually would increase satisfaction.
- If Stadia does get popular then there's an explicit feedback loop that reinforces the durability of the system and alignment of interests.

Evernote announced something like this, but never really followed through. A small company called https://www.forever.com/guarantee actually does have a preservation fund that is purpose driven.

 

Corporate Memphis

_Tracking the illustration style of choice in our tech dystopia_

Warning: once you see this you'll notice this design pattern almost everywhere you look.

 

Google Forever

Greetings Area 120. Google Forever has also made it to the final pitch round.

We have plenty of opportunities for people to pitch in on sustainable bizdev models, decentralized engineering and more. But one role we'd love to fill is a UX/Design/Frontend leader. Here's our job listing. Please reach out if you're interested!

https://grow.googleplex.com/opportunity/job/2000000020689

Are you interested in building user experiences and critical user journeys that work for generations? Do you want to help people preserve their most important digital memories?

Consider joining the Google Forever Project. We're a proposed Area 120 project that's already made it to the final pitch round and we need you!

Our project is creating the software that will power a business and ecosystem that will last for decades and centuries. We're starting with a way to preserve the world's most valued Photos in an easy, simple sustainable way.

As a lead/founding frontend member of the team you will have considerably freedom to set the direction and tech stack while working with our passionate engineering and business teams. You will also be able to explore experimental user interfaces and user experiences that might be used in the far future.

If accepted to Area 120 you will have the chance to work on this full time. We also will accept any and all people who want to help us achieve our vision!

See http://go/google-forever or contact Paul Lindner to discuss how you can contribute.

 

New comment by lindner in "The world in which IPv6 was a good design"

I thought this was what HIP was supposed to provide?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Identity_Protocol

Anyone know what's going on with those protocols?

 

Code Next Opens in Oakland, creating diversity through Constructionism

Code Next Opens in Oakland, creating diversity through Constructionism

"From a design point of view it is a truly unique experience that very much leans on an educational theory known as constructionism. This codified curriculum will soon be available to the entire world as an open source."

 

Radical UX'ers

Also there's this: _Diverse teams that design for themselves are able to address the needs of diverse audiences, as opposed to teams that design for ‘the other’_

https://ind.ie/ethical-design/

 

Postdoc

*Me*: There should be a term that describes writing the design doc after the implementation

Wahbeh Qardaji answered immediately _Perf_ ....

 

A Design Doc for your Illness

Just got the final Second Opinion report and I'm quite impressed.  [See http://go/secondopinion - it's a great perk]  I liked that they chose people that are advancing in their careers and researching the specific field.  You get a clear, well written summary of your medical record, actionable data, and citations for specific background information.  There's pragmatism and optimism, including this quote:

_Finally, if one can outpace the innovations in cancer that are taking place right now, survival may actually be substantially better._

If you're considering this service please let me know.  We're happy to share our report, just ask.  For everyone else here's an outline of what's included.

Expert Selection Process 2
Letter from Physician Case Manager 3
Summary of Clinical History 4
Questions to the Expert 20
Report by Vijayakrishna K. Gadi, MD, PhD 21
Report by Komal Jhaveri, MD 28
Curriculum Vitae for Vijayakrishna K. Gadi, MD, PhD 33
Curriculum Vitae for Komal Jhaveri, MD 37
Legal Terms 40

https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fappengine.google.com%2F_ah%2Fconflog...

 

Interviewing PMs

Not sure where to get feedback for this so tossing into the ether...

I've been getting many PM interviews for Technical Hat; I wonder what others think of this line of questioning?

- We have a SMB with 1000 devices and 20 servers
- These machines generate log files (1st question, does candidate know what a log file is?)
- Your product needs to meet the needs of the following users
- Sysadmins need to be able to diagnose problems, do postmortems.
- Auditors need to enforce rules on system usage
- A security team wants to detect intrusions, malware etc.

I then ask the candidate to ask clarifying questions and try to get them to give me any/all of the following through progressive probing:

- Min viable features of the product
- Do they suggest graphs? notifications? email alerts?
- What about user provisioning? Admin features?
- What kind of UI? Web? Mobile? Command line?
- Search?
- A high level technical design showing how the we get from Logs -> UI
- Push vs pull?
- Where/when does parsing happen?
- Technical
- How do you store the data? How do you transform it? Batch?
- What database? How many QPS?
- Redundancy? Failover?
- On site / off site?
- Insights
- Does the candidate understand privacy/security concerns? (Mention wipeout, retention for the auditor use case)

So far I've gotten some decent responses, but most fall into the run reports on files and store those.

For the good candidates we are able to progress to phase II where we design for a multinational fortune 500 scenario.

So WDYT? Good question?

PMs? How do you think you'd do on my question?

 

I call mine my "Macbook-C"  Seriously awesome hardware.

I call mine my "Macbook-C"  Seriously awesome hardware.

Originally shared by Google Chrome

Introducing the HP Chromebook 11, designed and built in partnership with our friends at HP. It has all the speed, simplicity and security benefits you've come to expect from a Chromebook, with unique design elements that makes it easier to get stuff done. And all for $279. 

Look for it starting today in the US at Best Buy , Amazon.com and Google Play and in the UK at Currys, PC World and more. It will also be coming to other countries in time for the holidays.  

Find out more on the Chrome blog: http://goo.gl/tzyHvs

 

 

SeeClickFix is one of the best things to come along for fixing problems in Oakland.

SeeClickFix is one of the best things to come along for fixing problems in Oakland.  Here's one of their "highlighted" issues for all you typography/design nerds out there..

 

This is just so amazing.

This is just so amazing.

Originally shared by Google Glass

We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.

A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.

Please follow along as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?

Babak Parviz Steve Lee Sebastian Thrun

 

 

Anyone want to help Adam find ways to use Google+ more effectively?

Anyone want to help Adam find ways to use Google+ more effectively? I added a few tips on making yourself more findable and increasing engagement.

comments on the original...

Originally shared by Adam Rifkin

It's March 2012 and I'm still not sure what to use Google+ for.

Private sharing still seems best handled by email.

Public sharing still seems best handled by my Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Maybe Google+ is for people who want to share publicly but don't have Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook?

It's also unclear how to get more followers on Google+. Will my follower count always be smaller here than on Twitter and Facebook? Is that by design?

Feel free not to answer; I'm just thinking out loud.

 

Wallpaper* is here.

Wallpaper* is here. Not as much of a fan since Conde Nast bought them. Of course that just means we now have Monocle

In any case it's always good to see the Walker Art Center doing the good things they do.

Originally shared by Wallpaper* magazine

 

 

Skins, Updates, More

Just caught up 10 days worth of Neighborhood posts.  I now have Vox fatigue combined with Vox guilt.  I didn't even read comments, for shame :(  After this post I'll need to check on the 'ol LiveJournal Friends page.  Don't even ask about the umpteem BlogLines blogs stuck at 200 posts...

Hi5 has a new Skins system that actually can make profile pages look good.  I had some input early on and made sure Vox and the SixApart styles were part of the inspiration.  It's coming out really well and we've received over 200 submissions.  Check out the snazzy new profile page?  Designers can check out the specs page.

Embeds are evil.  They mess up divs and tables and are often pasted in haphazardly.  Amit  came up with an amazing solution.  Use JTidy to clean up the user submitted content.  Tags match and broken html goes bye-bye!

Now back to the super-secret Hi5 Project Funk.

 

 

 

Bay XP Meeting Roundup 8/23/2006

BayXP (The Bay Area Extreme Programming Group) had a small meeting at the offices of ThoughtWorks here in San Francisco.  The topic was interesting things learned at the Agile 2006 conference.

I found a number of items to add to my reading list, Including Refactoring Databases and Working Effectively with Legacy Code.  (See Links below)

Topics of discussion from the meeting included

  • Coding Dojo - how to get hang of test-first development and Pair programming.
  • A lot of talk about how Rails stacks up against upteen different Java Frameworks.
  • The TDD Pair Programming Game is an interesting way of pairing that seems to make sense.  It's like a dance.  I write a failing test, you implement, then I refactor, then you write a test, etc.
  • The best name for a talk that I've seen in a long time was Crushing Fear Under the Iron Heel of Action.  It explored how to deal with team dynamics in an Agile environment, mostly by saying "What's the worst thing that can happen". 
  • Found out about a web site called Developer Testing.  Another thing to add to the RSS reader...
  • There was a short talk about Code Debt.  Some people are surmising that Code Debt should be publicly disclosed in a companies SEC S4 forms via Sarbanes-Oxley.  One interesting quote was that code is an asset and you should maintain that asset properly because assets "increase the means of production".  If you don't maintain code properly and use correct process your software becomes a liability.  (Or course that begs the question of who defines the Generally Acceptable Coding Practices (GACP!)