So, today was the day of days. We got to go to Google. The Google-plex is a really awesome place. We went on a quick tour and then sat down for some presentations from people from various aspects of Google's empire. They were all really interesting, and really made me want to work there. Our host was a Luther Grad, and totally boosted my confidence in getting hired there. From what people make it seem like, Google is nothing by PhD's running around having a good time. Really they only have about 10% PhD's which is still a very high percentage but not as high as I would have guessed. The rep from the University Relations part of the company honestly made it sound like everyone in our group had a very good chance of getting hired there. Granted, I don't think any of us are going to apply for a job there straight out of college, but most of the developers in the group would love to work there. After we saw some very interesting presentations we got a little bit more of a tour. Then it was time for lunch, we went to Charlie's. It is one of many restaurants at Google, and is more of a cafeteria type of place. We had a table reserved for us, and when we looked at the table behind us, it was reserved for the Executives of Wal-mart, so we were in some good company.
After Google, which I can't even describe because it was so awesome, we went to the computer history museum. Here we got to see something pretty rare. We got to see a working Babbage Difference Engine. Not only are there only two of these in the world, we got to see a demonstration of one. It is a machine that can calculate different functions to 31 significant digits. It is all mechanical and run by a hand crank. The people who were doing the demo were both specially trained volunteers, and they were trained specifically to do this demo. It was really cool to see, since Babbage never got to see a working model, nor did anyone else from the Victorian age. Finally a museum decided to make a working copy, from his plans, and just as he had directed in the drawings.
From there we went and spent some time downtown Palo Alto. I went and looked around a sports memorabilia store. They had some really cool things, like a signed, game worn, Joe DiMaggio jersey ($7,000). After the time downtown we headed to a private country club to meet with a '55 Luther alum. His name is Al Brudos, and he was a professor and CPA among other things. He did a lot of investing, and made quite a fortune there. He wanted to meet with us and just talk about his experiences as well as answer our questions. We asked him about all kinds of things, from what he liked about Cali to what he looked for before investing in a company. He was a very interesting man and made for a great ending to the night.
Tomorrow we head to Facebook, Microsoft, and Intel. Three giants, should be fun.
Thanks for reading,
Aaron
No comments:
Post a Comment