Even though I consider myself quite skilled with computers, I am slow when it comes to applying technology to my life in new ways. It was just last week that I decided to try out Google Earth’s ‘path’ feature to measure the length of my run. Unfortunately, when I got into the program, I realized that a saved path couldn’t be measured, and a measured path couldn’t be saved. What a dilemma!
After a little bit of searching, I discovered a site that will allow you to calculate the distance of any saved path in Google Earth. If you highlight the path name in the sidebar and copy it, you can paste it into the box on the site as xml.
The picture above is the run I did last Saturday, before exams destroyed my life. School is on the left and the Cobb’s Hill Reservoir, my destination, is on the far right. The path I made put the distance at 9.3 miles. I’ve made the kmz file available for download.
I suppose I could just measure the path once, but I really would like to be able to keep these paths, for two reasons. It would be nice to be able to change them later on, in case I make a slight variation on a run. But the real reason is that I just love data. I think it would be really neat to make an entire collection of the runs that my team does, and then put them on the internet for anyone to download – new freshmen, other area runners, etc.
I also want to use Google Earth to find some new places to run this summer. I’ve been canvassing the same trails for five or six years, and they are getting worn out. A lot of my runs need to be extended to fit college training distance as well.
First of all, please accept my apologies for not having posted in a really, really long time. Last week was extremely busy. I worked for about 12 hours giving campus tours and representing UR at a local college fair. I also had a test and a quiz and pile of homework. To top it all off, I was sick with a cold. Just as I was starting to get healthy, a nasty stomach virus knocked me out for the better part of this weekend. I’m back to normal today, though, and I’m hoping that I’ll be healthy for the rest of the year so that I can enjoy the spring that hasn’t quite made it to Rochester yet. It’s been snowing for the past four or five days in a row! The seasons have been so backwards this year – we’ve had a white Easter and a green Christmas.
On to the point of this post – my summer plans. I decided about a week and a half ago to take a job with IBM. I’ll be a member of what IBM calls a “Speed Team,” a group of six interns that spends an entire summer overhauling a mission-critical component of the business. We’ll be working on the automation of the dice, sort, and pick process for MPWs (multi-project wafers).
I was on another Speed Team two summers ago, and it was a very positive experience for three reasons. Speed Teams at IBM have a lot of executive visibility – we often had meetings with managers three levels above us during which we had to present, with metrics, our methodology and progress. It gave a sense of importance to our work. Secondly, there was never a shortage of things to tackle. I am the kind of person that needs to be kept busy and to have two or three projects going at once so that if one stalls then I can move on and come back to it laster. Lastly, it was a blast to be in a room with only other interns. We had our own lounge/meeting space, and could shout to each other over the cube walls if we had questions. I’m hoping that this summer will be just as rewarding.
“What happened to Google?” is the question you’re all probably wondering about. Continue reading ‘Finalized Summer Plans’
It’s been over a month since I had my first phone interview with Google, but I’ve finally got a second one set up for Monday the 19th. It took more than a few emails to prompt the recruiter to do this, but I’m glad that it’s finally happening.
Most companies are wrapping up their intern hiring by this time, so I wanted to make sure that I had a backup plan in case Google didn’t come through. I interviewed for a few positions at IBM over break and got two job offers that sound interesting and challenging. Both want a response by this Friday. I’m not willing to let those go in order to chase a Google internship that may not happen, so I’ve let the Google recruiter know that I’m on a tight time schedule in hopes that she can find me a group within the week.
I’m not sure how the intern hiring process works at Google. The recruiter mentioned that it can take anywhere from “one week to two months” to find an appropriate match, and that matches are made based on “intern experience, skills, and interview feedback.” The emails that she sends make it sound like they want to hire me, but they’ve really let the ball drop these past few weeks. I think that they must be busy trying to hire people to fill full-time positions. I also wonder if maybe this process would have gone faster if I had applied for an internship out in California, where they have more of their workforce.
Either way, I’ve got another week until I have to make a decision. Both options have their merits. If I work at IBM, I can live at home for free and hang out with all of my friends. I would give all that up, though, to have the chance to live in New York City and meet a whole new set of people. I think I’ll be happy no matter which way it goes, but I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed anyway…
Update: The second interview went alright. There were more abstract math questions this time, more emphasis on algorithms rather than data structures, although there were a few questions about trees and lists at the beginning. Once again, the interviewer was really interested in hearing my thought process, so I tried to think out loud as I was solving the problems.
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