To Google, with Love

I am in love with Google.

It's any HCI student's dream to be able to work at Google, a company who has from the beginning valued the user experience as a top consideration when designing their products. Google's mission to organize the world's information is ever-more successful. Recent user-pleasing improvements include a new look for Google Docs and Spreadsheets and the ability to drag your route around on Google Maps. It's now easy to visually choose your alternate route and to compare times on different routes.

In addition to the generally useful awesomeness of Google, Google is environmentally conscious. So much so, in fact, that they plan to be carbon neutral by the end of 2007. This is an amazing step for a company of their size. I wish I had a quote on how many servers they have, but it's a LOT! And to make all the energy to power those carbon neutral is quite a feat.

Incidentally, a little later I stumbled across a link to Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, which I thought was interesting. It's unfortunate that Apple is lagging behind in some areas, since I like them so much (what a change from a few years ago!), but when I look at their page on the environment, it seems that they are making a decent effort with the recycling and such, even giving 10% off of a new iPod if you recycle your old one.

I also feel that their products tend to last longer, which in itself is good for the environment since they don't enter the waste stream (or recycling) as readily.

In any case, I wish you happy and green computing until next time.

Freakonomics and LibraryThing

A few weeks ago, I finished Freakonomics. I found it to be a fun, light read that examines everything from teachers and sumo wrestlers cheating to the origin and educational names to the downfall Klu Klux Klan in a different light. One of the facts I found particularly interesting was the strong correlation between legality of abortion and crime rates. It was a perfect read for my daily bus ride to and from work. I would recommend this book if you're looking for something that is fun without being unintellectual.

This particular book I borrowed from my father's extensive library. For his birthday, I began to catalog it with LibraryThing, a social networking site for bibliophiles, as a PC Magazine article described it last year. This site not only offers an easy way to catalog your collection, which is what I was originally looking to give him, but it has unique social features like tagging and forums and common interest groups. While I have a long way to go in exploring all the features, my favorite so far is the Zeitgeist, which can tell you the highest (or lowest) ranked books, authors, tags, and much more statistical fun based upon the users of the site and books they've entered, tagged, reviewed or discussed. When I settle down somewhere and establish my own more permanent collection, I'll have an account there as well.

Speaking of my book collection, as I became more environmentally conscious, I realized that just because I have the money to buy books new doesn't mean that I should always do so. Now, I usually purchase books used online if I think I will be unable to find them used at local bookstores. I need to consider other tradeoffs this entails, including the environmental impact of packaging and shipping (I usually find a copy that is also in the Midwest at least), and the fact that it doesn't support the author much. How much do authors usually get after the publisher's cut? Perhaps I should consider making personal contributions to the author based upon my level of enjoyment of the book.

In any case, all this talk about books has me wanting to get back to reading.

Currently reading: Life on the Screen by Sherry Turkle and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser