What is a technical interview with Google like? To be brief and honest, not much different than one with Microsoft, IBM, or any other technical company. They started off by getting to know my background work experience off of my resume. After that, each interviewer asked two technical word questions.
For example, they asked me, “If I had a stack of pancakes of varying sizes and wished to order them from largest to smallest with the largest on the bottom, but you could not create any new stacks, how would you do this? What is the running time of your algorithm?”
My solution (and I could be wrong!):
I would first index the pancakes in an array (in time O(n) time) and keep track of the largest value inserted into the array and it’s position (do a compare statement on each insert with a variable. If the new insert’s size is bigger than largestPancakeSize, replace largestPancakeSize and update largestPancakePosition) and a pancakeCounter variable initialized to 0. Once completed, I would position my spatula underneath the largestPancakePosition and flip the stack (order O(n) time). My largest pancake is now on the top of the stack. I would then flip the entire stack from the position of my pancakeCounter. My “next largest” pancake is now on the bottom of the stack. I would then re-index the pancakes into an array starting with ++pancakeCounter (exclude all the “next largests” that we have already handled) and repeat (order O(n) time). This entire process would take place in time O(n).
I am not sure if my O(n) is correct, but the interviewer seemed happy with the response and the solution. Can anbody shed some light on this or shoot down my solution? My Big-O notation is rusty 
Both interviews went well, but it is unfortunate that they probably won’t mean much of anything since they were looking for an intern for this summer…and I already have an internship with IBM Extreme Blue. Both of the interviewers had joined Google within the past year and worked on the video.google.com project. Oh well - I was glad to go through the process just to learn it and I hope that there will be an opportunity for me at Google in the future.
I caught the Saturday midnight performance of “Footloose” as presented by Footlighters, along with a group of Phikaps and friends. Jeff Verespej, the director, made my night by saying I didn’t need to pay for the show - he rocks. The show was fun, upbeat, and soaked in 80’s (but bearable).
I was very impressed with some of the singing and the pit, under Kevin’s direction, was very good. I thought Alex Hamberger and Kim Sullivan were hilarious in their roles. Phikap’s own Eric Moschetta was one badass street thug. Garrett Coombs, Christine Chambers, and Sonali Arora have amazing voices. I am envious!
After the show, I headed back to my apartment. The night didn’t end there, but that’s all I care to tell.
Saturday’s performance at Severance Hall was surprisingly…tonal. Schoenburg, the inventor and master of the twelve-tone system, did not always compose atonal music as evident in “Kol Nidre”. The piece is based off of the Jewish prayer said at the holiest of High Holidays, Yom Kippur. Schoenburg, who was then living in California at the time, worked with a local Rabbi in creating an extended and slightly modified English translation of the Aramaic text. This text is spoken in a dramatic tone by a narrating soloists who is accompanied by a reduced orchestra. As the narrator speaks the text, the orchestra provides apt coloring and phrasing that intensifies the meaning of the words.
I had never heard this piece and I really enjoyed it. It had some very innovative sounds and the simplistic way in which Schoenburg resolved the G minor piece to a G major chord at the end was beautiful. Of course, the traditional “Kol Nidrei” melody typically performed by a cello soloists during the Yom Kippur, will always be my favorite. In fact, it is my favorite Jewish melody - it is incredibly passionate and moving.
The evening concluded with Bruckner’s epic Fifth Symphony. We’re talking 70 minutes of hardcore symphony. The perfect marriage of sonata and fugue form in the finale. The Cleveland Orchestra is performing the piece on tour this summer and will produce a DVD video recording of it. Needless to say - they have been practicing it extensively and Saturday’s performance was flawless. The Cleveland Orchestra’s recording under Dohnányi is considered by many to be the definitive Bruckner Fifth Symphony recording. It will be interesting to see how Franz Welser-Most’s recording will compare.
Last Friday, Cassie took me as her date to the Alpha Chi Omega Formal. I always enjoy dressing up in a suit and eating great food - so needless to say the evening was a pleasure. A bus took us from the AXO house to the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Cleveland. Dinner was served and then Cassie and I danced the night away. Greg and Alisson were there too so we hung out with them too.
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Last Thursday night I fixed my broken Canon 580EX Flash. The customer service representative that sold me the replacement part told me it was ‘user servicable’. The part was a replacement front panel to the flash which included the auto focus sensor.
After removing the two top screws hidden by the flash head, and then the bottom two screws at the base of the front panel, the two screws holding the camera mount, and the screw hidden by the rubber panel, I began to delicately pry the unit apart. Delicate didn’t work, so I forced it.
The front panel ripped off and exposed an array of ribbon wires and dangerously sized capacitors. There was a final screw hidden inside under the camera mount holding the front panel on. I was unable to remove this screw with even the smallest jeweler’s screw driver. I ended up taking a pair of pliers and ripping the plastic out and then using a pair of metal cutters to crush the screw. While doing this, I shocked myself on (thankfully) one of the lesser sized capacitors.
User serviceable my ass. After reassembling the unit, I had little hope in it working again. I hooked it up to my camera and, by some miracle, it worked.