Facebook

So after a long period of soul-searching, I recently decided that it was a getting time to leave my current job at Microsoft. I definitely learned a lot during my first couple of years there and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately I haven't really been challenged on the job for at least a year, which was a sign that it was time to move on to bigger and better things.

I was looking for something with a significantly faster pace of development where I'd be able to learn a lot. I looked around at a few different tech companies, and one consistently stood out from the others as being a great place to work.  The final decision wasn't too difficult - I'm pleased to announce that I'm going to be working for Facebook!  I'm really excited - they have a great product and a willingness to continually improve it, which is very important in the social networking sector. They also just hit 350 million active users, which is absolutely phenomenal growth given that they were at only 100-150 million one year ago. I can't wait to learn how to work at such a massive scale.

I'll be starting in mid-January, but I'll actually be on vacation until then. Starting next week I'll be on a month-long trip through India and Africa, culminating in a climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro! More on that soon - I hope to be able to post pictures from the road. In the meantime I'm exceedingly busy finishing up my current job, moving out of my Seattle apartment, preparing to move to San Francisco, and getting ready for this massive trip. I'm definitely looking forward to the vacation!

Kill A Watt

I recently got a Kill A Watt, which is a device that plugs in between the wall and your electronic devices. It monitors various parameters, such as volts, amps, watts, and kilowatt-hours.

Kill A Watt power meter

It's very interesting to see how much power all of my devices are using. Without knowing these kind of details, it's difficult to accurately answer certain kinds of questions about my power usage.  For example: "Is it worse to leave my computer turned on, or leave two lights on?" (answer: the computer is worse if the lights are CFLs, but not if they're incandescent)  Or, "Should I turn off my computer speakers when I am gone, even if no music is playing?" (answer: probably)

Here are some measurements I just made:

• Computer, idle: 130 watts
• Computer, 1 core active: 170 watts (2 cores: 195 watts)
• LCD monitor, minimum brightness: 50 watts
• LCD monitor, maximum brightness: 110 watts
• Computer speakers: 8 watts (always)

There were several surprises just from measuring these three devices - I didn't expect to see such a wide range of power consumption even on one device. I will often absent-mindedly leave open web browser windows that contain Flash animations (such as the YouTube video player's animations after a video finishes playing).  Little did I know, a few of these pages could end up using as much power as leaving on a 60 watt light bulb!

Another surprise was that my speakers always seem to be using 8 watts of power, whether they are playing sound or not.  Previously I had assumed that they weren't using any power when they were silent, so I have been leaving them on all the time. Doing that for the past 4 years has apparently cost me $25 (8 watts x 4 years = 280 kWh).

That last number brings up an interesting point - I was surprised at how low the dollar number was when I calculated it. I currently live in the Northwest US, and our power is relatively cheap since a lot of it is provided by hydroelectric dams.  I am currently paying about 9 cents per kilowatt-hour. If I were to move to California I'd need to be a little more careful about turning things off, since they pay about twice as much down there.

FiveFingers

I recently purchased a pair of Vibram FiveFingers after reading several positive reviews and a book extolling the virtues of running barefoot.

If you haven't seen them before, they're basically thin rubber soles that fit around the bottoms of your feet. They have five little "toes" on them that allow your toes to flex independently of the rest of the foot:

The idea is that they are as close to running barefoot as possible, while still keeping you safe from stepping on glass and rocks. Running barefoot is supposedly good because that's how human bodies evolved to run. Typical padded running shoes make it easy to run with wide strides, striking the ground heel-first. This striking action causes lots of stress and problems in your joints, particularly knees and ankles.  Running barefoot forces you to run differently since you cannot strike your heel (or else it will hurt, like it is supposed to). While barefoot you automatically run with knees bent, "rolling" your foot from the front to the heel as you step. This extra flexibility reduces joint stress since your legs will automatically bend to accommodate the force of the footfall.

That's the theory anyway. I haven't had the FiveFingers long enough to tell if they will live up to the promise.  When I got them I used them on my morning run, of about 3 miles. While running everything felt more or less fine, but afterward I noticed that I had gotten a blister on the bottom of my right foot, and both feet ached for a couple of days (it felt like the foot muscles were sore from not being used, rather than actual foot injuries). Some people recommend gradually switching to barefoot running (starting with only a half mile or mile each day), which sounds like good advice in retrospect. I need to build up calluses in places where I don't usually need them in shoes and socks.

The sensation while wearing them is very interesting. It's not quite like being barefoot, but you "feel" the ground much more than you do with regular shoes. You can really tell the difference between concrete, asphalt, a dirt trail and grass. You also notice little things that you'd normally miss, like sticks and cracks in the sidewalk, as well as temperature differences between different surfaces (cool wet grass vs hot dry asphalt).

I wore them to work one day and got a lot of weird looks. Most people did not know what they were and thought I was crazy. I didn't notice much difference after wearing them for a day at work, so I've stuck with regular shoes since then. Some people claim that it helps to wear them around to daily activities if you suffer from back pain, as they will force you to have more "correct" walking posture.