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Will it lens?
April 10, 2009
Not long ago, a bunch of us in our
Santa Monica office
pooled together the money to buy a four-foot by three-foot
Fresnel lens
. We've since been spending our lunch hours out in the sun playing with it.
A normal lens this big would be several feet thick and weigh a proverbial ton (the right-hand image below). However, it's possible to remove much of the inside of a lens and collapse down the shape without introducing too much distortion (the left-hand image):
Fresnel (pronounced "freh-NELL") lenses are used in overhead projectors and lighthouses. We've been using ours, however, to see what happens when you focus 1,000 watts of sunlight onto a single point. It's like when you were a kid and tried to burn ants with a pocket magnifying glass — but 400 times stronger. We built a wooden frame to keep the lens flat and focused, and a stand to hold it steady:
The light in the focal point is so bright that you can't look directly at it without welding goggles.
The lens maker claimed you could melt a penny with it, so that was the first thing we tried:
Modern pennies are made of zinc with a copper coating. The bottom row shows what happens when you put a penny in the focal point of the lens: the inside melts away and the coating stays intact (zinc melts at 693
kelvins
, copper melts at 1,356 K). But if you heat it just enough, the metals mix and you make brass (the gold-colored penny in the middle). Older pennies (those minted before 1982) are almost entirely copper, so they didn't melt (top row).
We also had an aluminum can:
The water we poured in boiled quickly, while the can itself became so brittle that we poked holes through it with nothing more than sunlight.
Then we tried cooking. Popcorn did both what you'd expect and not quite what you'd expect: when you really focus the light on it, it kinda pops but mostly burns. However, if you don't put it directly in the focal point, so the light is spread over a larger area and doesn't heat it up as quickly, you can get a whole bunch of kernels to pop without burning too much.
The steam/smoke coming up from the kernels really highlighted the spectra from the lens beautifully. Our yield was very low (lots of unpopped kernels for each popped one), but at least we had real popcorn!
When we tried to cook bacon, about a third ended up well done, a third was burnt, and a third was uncooked. Cooking with the lens is difficult because it heats stuff up too hot too fast. But the well-cooked parts tasted great, so we added an egg:
(We didn't lens the spoon; we used it to eat the egg afterwards.)
It's been fun experimenting with different lensing techniques and items and we've learned a lot (including where the nearest fire extinguisher is!). These are just the highlights — we've lensed gourds, soap, gummy bears, CDs — you name it. Next on our list: marshmallows!
We've got more details and more pictures of our results on
Alan's personal blog
. If you have ideas of other things we should try lensing, we'd love to hear suggestions.
Posted by Alan Davidson and Dustin Boswell, Software Engineers
Mosaic: bringing diverse perspectives together
April 10, 2009
This is the next post in our
Interface series
, which takes a look at valuing people's similarities and differences in the workplace. For more information on how Google fosters an inclusive work environment, visit
Life at Google
on our Jobs site. – Ed.
Since joining Mosaic, our diversity initiatives group in the
Boston office
, we've seen firsthand how even a small group of Googlers dedicated to a cause can make a real difference. Mosaic was created in 2007 when a few Boston Googlers were talking informally over lunch about how to increase the diversity in our rapidly growing office. Since then, we've made great strides in growing our membership and highlighting the creativity and varied experiences of our colleagues. The idea even spread to other Google offices, with several Mosaic chapters opening across the U.S.
Over the past year, Mosaic Boston has participated in Google's university recruitment efforts by holding three open houses to encourage traditionally underrepresented students from the Boston area to apply for careers at Google. This past summer, we hosted two enthusiastic interns as part of
Google's BOLD
(Building Opportunities for Leadership & Development) diversity internship program to explore opportunities in the technology industry. We watched their leadership skills grow as they organized events such as a career panel and product demos for high school students through Mosaic.
Most recently, we co-hosted a lunch-and-learn with esteemed Harvard Business School professor
David Thomas
, co-author of "Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America." Down-to-earth and engaging, Professor Thomas presented his findings about minorities and women who had "made it" in corporate America, stressing the need to build wide networks of support, find strong mentors and develop a niche within a company that meshes with one's personal values. His message reminded us of how important it is for Mosaic to provide these opportunities for our own community here at Google. You can
watch the video
from his visit on the Authors@Google YouTube channel.
As both Googlers and members of Mosaic, we feel empowered and excited to live out our values in our workplace. To us, this means anything from inviting authors to speak and training non-profits on how to use Google Apps, to throwing a Brazilian Carnaval-themed edition of our weekly company meeting complete with
capoeira performers
, caipirinhas, and authentic Brazilian food. We're excited about what Mosaic has accomplished so far and can't wait to see what's next. In the meantime, we continue to be committed to providing personal and professional growth for the members of our diversity group, as well as doing our part to keep Google an inclusive place to work.
Boston Mosaic team with capoeira performers
Posted by Priti Sanghani and Mariam Shaikh, AdWords Account Associates
Send a video message with Google Latitude
April 9, 2009
If you're like us, you never tire of finding fun ways to send a simple message (what's the challenge, after all, in just flipping open your phone?). Here's our latest idea: spell out the words with Google Latitude.
After you watch the video, feel free to send your own Latitude message by creating
a custom video
for a friend. You can also check out the
Google Mobile Blog
to learn about some of the other creative ways people are using Latitude.
Posted by Heaven Kim, Product Marketing Manager
Designing lean, green, energy-saving machines
April 9, 2009
Last week Google hosted a
Data Center Efficiency Summit
, bringing together approximately 160 industry leaders to share insights and best practices. Since it was April Fool's Day, we threw in a few jokes to keep the atmosphere fun (
oil-cooled data center
, anyone?), but the topic is serious: How can the IT industry keep growing while also exercising good environmental stewardship?
We disclosed for the first time details about the design of our
ultra-efficient data centers
. We also provided a first-ever video tour of a Google
container data center
as well as a
water treatment facility
. We detailed how we measure data center efficiency and discussed how we reduced our facility energy use by up to 85%. The engineers who developed our efficient battery backup solution even brought an actual
Google server
to the event.
By the end of the day, we narrowed in on a recurring theme: Reducing resource use through efficiency efforts is not just good for the environment, it saves money too. And it is this economic advantage which makes efficient data centers not just green, but truly sustainable.
For a tour of a Google container data center check out the video below or watch the entire summit:
part 1
,
part 2
, and
part 3
.
Posted by Jimmy Clidaras, Principal Engineer
Click-to-Buy expands to 8 new countries
April 8, 2009
Whether you come to YouTube to watch a specific video, discover related content, or engage and interact with people and videos from all around the world, our goal is to put you in control of your online video experience. This means making it easier for you to find what you're looking for (like dedicated channels for
music
or
HD
videos) and offering you new and innovative ways to engage with that content.
One way we already offer you this kind of deeper experience on YouTube involves music videos on the site:
Click-to-Buy
, our eCommerce platform, helps you find products (like songs and DVDs) related to the videos that you're watching.
A recent study
found that after watching a music video on YouTube, 50% of adult users in the U.K. then go on to purchase music from that artist. And we've seen these results for ourselves — three of the four major music labels are Click-to-Buy partners and are already selling millions of songs a year from these links on YouTube.
We're excited to announce that today we're rolling out Click-to-Buy links on music videos in 8 additional countries: Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and Sweden. Now Click-to-Buy partners can offer music downloads to hundreds of millions of people around the world.
We enjoy working with our music partners to provide them with these kinds of opportunities, and we look forward to further expanding the program in the coming months.
Posted by Thai Tran, YouTube Product Manager
Search the rainbow
April 8, 2009
No one likes to take work home, but lately I've been looking forward to it. That's because I've been working on our new color filter in
Google Image Search
, and my daughter and I have been having a great time together looking at all the colorful animals that we've seen in the tide pools. "Papa, do the
green noodle fish
."
"Papa, now do the
red one
."
She loves it.
Today, I'm happy to announce that you too can use our color filter in your own image searches. Just search for something the way you normally would, such as [
tulips
]. On the results page, click on the "All colors" drop down in the blue bar and choose a color. For example, try restricting your results to [
yellow tulips
]. Want to see purple tulips instead? Simply click on the color filter again, select purple, and
voila
— you have pages of beautiful images!
You can also combine the color filter with any other image filter to further refine your search. For example, if you're looking for an image of an orange butterfly, try restricting to
photos
or
clip art
.
Color is one of the basic visual elements of an image. Whether you're browsing through photos of sea creatures and flowers or searching for the perfect orange butterfly, we hope you like our new color filter. We've been rolling this out gradually, but it will be available to everyone soon.
Posted by Donald Tanguay, Software Engineer
New features and an early look at Java for App Engine
April 7, 2009
Scarcity brings clarity, and many companies are taking important steps to adjust to today's economic climate. At Google, we've started changing the way we build and release products.
In the past six months alone we've launched nearly 50 projects and small products on
Google App Engine
-- from
Google Moderator
and
Labs for Google Apps
to internal-facing tools for both our Ads and Web teams. In all cases we found it quicker, easier, and more cost-effective to leave the infrastructure to App Engine, and the actual product-building to our engineering teams.
Running our internal and external apps on App Engine isn't without difficulty, however, and we've learned a lot in the process. Tonight at
Campfire One
we released a new set of features -- based on community and internal feedback -- that helps App Engine interface more easily with businesses' existing technologies:
App Engine's
early look at Java™ language support
includes a Java runtime, integration with the new
Google Web Toolkit 1.6
, and a
Google Plugin for Eclipse
The
Google Secure Data Connector
enables centrally-managed access to on-premise data from Google Apps
The
database import tool
makes it easier to move gigabytes of data into App Engine (and export functionality is coming within the month)
Cron support
can execute scheduled tasks like report generation and DB clean-up at regular intervals
By reducing the administrative headaches that come with scaling and distributing an application, we hope that App Engine will continue to let developers do what they do best: launch services that delight users.
Take a look at videos from tonight's Campfire One below:
To learn more about Google App Engine or today's announcements, feel free to check out the
Google Code Blog
or
online docs
. You can also register for our annual developer conference,
Google I/O
, as the App Engine team will be there to answer any questions you might have, as well as unveil a few surprises.
Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Update at 10:44 pm PDT:
We've just added the videos from tonight's Campfire One.
Posted by Kevin Gibbs, Tech Lead, Google App Engine
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