We call this world "Internet"

The death and life of the newspaper

Journalism is collapsing, and with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law as it has been understood here in the United States.

It will take more than a few A:B tests to figure this out.

posted by Stefan Smagula at 8:20 PM 0 comments links to this post

Posting via a tiny keyboard: just returned from 20th reunion at Yale. Visited old haunts, ate pizza at Pepe's (The Spot was closed), recalled things to come.

posted by Stefan Smagula at 11:08 PM 0 comments links to this post

Remembering Google, or why I quit

Everything flows and nothing stands still.
—Heraclitus

I have decided to resign from Google. My last day was yesterday, the 30th of March, 2009.

This morning, instead of talking about what has happened at Google over the last couple of years and why I felt the time was right for me to move on, as my colleague Doug Bowman addresses in his post from just last week "Goodbye Google", I thought I'd write a few notes remembering what I loved about Google.

The founders' letter promised, "Google is not a conventional company. We don't intend to become one." I loved that. All companies should have founders' letters.

On the subway rides home, I could read an article about Bayesian ranking systems, and then think about the ratings UI we were about to launch on one of my products. At lunch time I could see a lecture about sustainable food from Mark Bittman, or about bio-mimicry, or machine learning, or facial recognition algorithms, or maybe a lecture about the extra-terrestrial Internet delivered by Vint Cerf. I really loved that.

Late at night, after my baby had fallen asleep, I could dip my English major toes into data visualization, and those magical incantations some call code. Then at work the next day I could help to organize fledgling "Googler to Googler" training sessions about information visualization. I loved that.

Toward the end of my tenure at Google, I finally learned how to manipulate little computational cubby holes (that's how I think of two-dimensional arrays) so that I create a map that would show us whether Obama or McCain was leading the search engine query race. The query map showed us what we already knew was true: change is coming.

I'm super excited to say that in a couple hours I'll be hopping on the subway to start my first day at a new company (more on that later), but I will miss the irreverent, unconventional, and undeniably bright group of people I worked with at Google.

Labels: Google

posted by Stefan Smagula at 5:07 AM 0 comments links to this post

3/2 House for Rent in Austin, Texas near Zilker Park, Barton Springs

Available February 1, 2009

More information about Austin house for rent in Zilker

Contact Stefan: newzembla at gmail dot com

posted by Stefan Smagula at 12:16 PM 0 comments links to this post

Waterfalls in Brooklyn?

For a limited time, four waterfalls are flowing into the East River in New York City. This public art was conceived by Olafur Eliasson, and is running until October, when I suppose the freezing mist might create problems for pedestrians.

Having been to see the waterfalls at day and at night, I think the best time is to go at night, and the best location to view them from might be the Brooklyn Bridge Park, where this security guard, Asberry Williams, happens to be standing.

So, you ask, are they as wonderful as this photo makes them seem? Well, my critique of them is that they fail to connect the person with the art, as this photo does.

posted by Stefan Smagula at 5:39 PM 0 comments links to this post

Hello Astrid

I've been pretty busy over the last year—first a new job, then a 2000 mile move from Austin to New York City, finding a new home, and now for the biggest move of all: a new baby girl. She is about 6 weeks old now, and this slide show takes you from the first trimester to just a few days ago.

posted by Stefan Smagula at 1:26 PM 2 comments links to this post

The mixtape gets a second life

smag.muxtape.com

A dead simple way to share music with people. Why didn't someone think of this sooner?

On my muxtape, you'll find 8-bit Betty playing "This would be a lot easier if I didn't care" (check that out) and Os Poligonais, a Brazilian jazz/bossa nova outfit from the 60's, Of Montreal, Paul Weller, and the Pixies playing "UMASS" live in Minneapolis.

Listen now

posted by Stefan Smagula at 10:44 AM 0 comments links to this post

Engineering and Design: Separated at Birth?

Today I proposed hosting a series of lectures, or Tech Talks as they're called at Google, titled "Design + Technology." My thinking is that design and engineering are really quite tightly intertwined. Two ends of a single spectrum, with a bunch of overlap in the middle. Design is generative and problem-setting, and engineering is analytical and problem-solving. One with out the other is like corn flakes without milk, like lobster without butter, like a rich man without money. You get the picture.

So, what do I see in the New York Times tonight but an article about a new show at the Museum of Modern Art. The theme? Science and design. Take a look:
Where Science and Design Collide from the New York Times. An excerpt:

Dr. Mandelbrot, a professor emeritus of mathematical science at Yale, spoke with joy in an interview about the new exhibition, but also with an air that suggested he was wondering why it had taken so long for the world to catch up to him. "I have been fighting on that front for a very long time," he said.

Dr. Mandelbrot said the separation of science and aesthetics had always puzzled and frustrated him, though now “the separation is decreasing, or vanishing,” as more people find ways to bridge the gap.

Mr. Mandelbrot and I agree on this one. For sure. Mandelbrot, if I'm not mistaken, discovered fractals after seeing the image of England's coastline, published in a geography journal that was being discarded. Who says that science and technology have moved beyond the scale of the human eye, hand, ear, or heart? They havn't, and I doubt they ever will.

posted by Stefan Smagula at 11:58 PM 0 comments links to this post