Life on the Farm

Where did Google start? Google started here!!



While visiting my good friend David Menestrina at Stanford, he showed me this cool little gizmo made out of Lego Duplo blocks located deep in the bowels of the CS building! It is the "case" that the Google founders built to put their first hard drives in to run Google with. I'm not sure what the hard drives did exactly, maybe do the first caching of the web? According to the Mercury News, "In their early days, Google's founders crafted hard disk drives out of Lego-like toys called Duplo." Now that would be something. :)

So thanks Dave!

Also, rumor has it that these blocks inspire the color of Google's letters on its homepage. I'm starting to think that's true because also found in the Merc article: "Eustace handed the winners their trophies, made out of Legos" Obviously, they stay in touch with their roots. Go Lego!

ps. About the subject heading: "Locals and university affiliates are known to refer to the school as The Farm, a nod to the institution's origins as a horse farm." quote from the Wikipedia.

Post-Thanksgiving Post

I'm back after having a great Thanksgiving visit to Chico. Home of Sierra Nevada Brewery and THE National Yo-yo Museum! (Home of the worlds largest yo-yo! They have pictures of a crane operating the giant yo-yo. Fascinating.) The meal was excellent, my aunt and various helpers did a fantastic job. It was really great to see a bunch of my family, too!

About the yo-yo thing, this was my second trip to Chico, CA and I had brought my Team Lossi Ball-Bearing "Da Bomb" yo-yo, just for fun. I was told that Chico had a big yo-yo store in town, then I heard it was a museum, when I got to this place (a medium sized room at the rear of a large toy-store), I discovered that it's THE place for national yo-yo competition and the museum itself is THE National Yo-yo Museum.

So apparently, if you're into Yo-yoing, you will inevitably "wind up" in Chico, as the shirts say. :)

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving!


(World's Largest Yo-Yo)

Famousome!

If you haven't been to my friend's Laurence's band's website lately, check it out! His new band is called "The Famous" and it's got quite a few clips from their new album! Very cool. Enjoy!

Incredible In-Joke

In the latest Pixar release, The Incredibles, there is a scene involving the word KRONOS. Why the word "kronos"? My friends, this is Kronos!



The reason "Kronos" is a reference is clear to those who have seen the movie, so I won't go into detail for those who haven't. However, click here if you would like to learn more about this voracious creature from another world.

It's good to see someone at Pixar (I assume the director Brad Bird) is an old b-movie buff. Kudos, Mr. Bird! And kudos, Sean for pointing out this ref!

If you'd like to read much more about Pixar Studios, here is a link to a great blog with many, many links!

Incredible!

Indeed! "The Incredibles" is AWESOME! Wow! This is how good movies should be! It's a rollicking adventure start to finish with really, really solid great characters throughout. A joy to watch! Check it out!

¡Los Increibles!

Everyone go see "The Incredibles" this weekend! It looks like it will be a really great Pixar movie!

And I wanted to add this picture. Where do they get Legos in Iraq? Do soldiers bring them in? It's good to see the ever versatile Lego helping out our troops!