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Everyday it seems to be something new for bands to get there music out there. If you haven't been noticed by now you might as well move from where you at and go to where opportunity happens. The  Question is not if your going to make it but more of how much drive  are you willing to put in to make it. NYC group Telling on Trixie devises a tailor-made crowd-sourcing plan heavy on audience participation at www.abandwithaplan.com. (Billboard Publicity Wire May 21, 2008) Read the full story at http://billboard.prweb.com/releases/2008/05/prweb953994.htm

Posted by Amy Ho Seto, Google Chef

Nothing evokes the spirit of the holidays more than the traditional foods that mark the season. Whether your holiday include latkes, a delicious butternut squash souffle, or even a deathless fruitcake, Googlers love to commemorate the occasion with food.

Last week I spent the afternoon baking Christmas cookies with a group of culinary-minded Googlers. Traditionally, this cookie is not just a festive holiday snack; it also makes a great homemade gift and an absorbing arts and crafts project. Our little get-together not only resulted in some melt-in-your mouth treats, but also allowed us to roll up our sleeves and get creative. Check out the photo album from our baking session, and try my recipe for buttery shortbread cookies.


Buttery Shortbread Cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix the following ingredients until smooth:
1-½ sticks unsalted butter (must be soft)
2-3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Then add the following ingredients and mix until smooth:
8 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon +1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add:
8 cups all-purpose flour.

Mix everything thoroughly until dough comes together. Gather to a ball and flatten to a disc.

Chill the dough until firm. You might want to prepare the dough in the evening before you plan on baking and chill it overnight.

When chilled, roll to ¼-inch thickness, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Sprinkle tops with assorted sugars, jimmies and sprinkles.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 10-12 minutes on either a sheet greased with vegetable oil spray or a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper. Edges will be golden when they are done.

You may also bake the cookies plain, cool them, and then brush with icing sugar. Cover the whole surface of the cookie.

Serves: 4 dozen.

Posted by David Griswold, Google Blog Team

The holiday season is a time for reuniting with friends and family, reveling in stories and sentimentalities, cozying up to a cup of warm cocoa, listening to a fire slowly pop and fizzle. It's a time when we ease ourselves out of our routines, and have a moment to share our joys with those who are nearest to us. And the season affords us a unique opportunity to step back and empathize with people who face hardships throughout the world.

This season, Googlers everywhere are not only celebrating the joys of the holidays; quite a few of us have joined together to give back to our local communities. Whether it's helping kids craft public service announcements, contributing to toy drives, gathering donations for food banks, working with high schoolers on their college apps, writing get-well cards for sick children, or pitting teams of chefs against one another for charity, Googlers have made it a point to get creative.

We've assembled pictures from these events in this album, and encourage you to find a way to give back in your own community.

Posted by David Griswold, Google Blog Team

... something Googley this way comes.



It's that time of year, when ghouls, goblins, and Zeitghosts roam Google in search of fresh human bandwidth. We hope you enjoy these Halloween photos from several of our offices, and wish you a safe -- but suitably scary -- celebration.

And if you're looking to plot that perfect trick-or-treat route, might we recommend the My Maps feature on Google maps? You can even tag videos and pictures from your spooky night, highlighting your favorite stops. If you like seeing our ghoulish get-ups, you can use Picasa Web Albums to share yours with kindred costumed spirits.

Now get out there and enjoy All Hallow's Eve.

Posted by Katya Rogers, Software Engineer

Go back in time with me to last Friday morning. It's 4:30 a.m. I am standing in a parking lot, watching 11 Googlers and friends adding finish decorating the mini-vans and loading coolers filled with Gatorade and snacks. We're planning to drive to Blaine (Washington) and then run 187 miles over two days, relay-style, along the coast, finishing on the south end of Whidbey island. In other words, this is the Ragnar Relay, an event that started in Utah 4 years ago, now in its first year in Washington State. Sounds crazy, huh? Fortunately, I'm working with people who consider no idea too outrageous -- not even the notion that running a multi-day relay would be "fun"!

For the next 30+ hours we're on the road, catching naps in mini-vans and exchange points, overcoming challenges of running through summer Washington heat (who knew?) and total darkness (aided by headlamps), enjoying the roads that take us through the farmland (hello, llamas and blueberries!) and near the coast (over Deception Pass just before sunrise). We're ignoring blisters, scrapes, sore knees and ankles to get over the next hill, and another one after, and another one -- where our van is waiting, full of good cheer and ice-cold water. Then we push even harder to get to the exchange point.

We get into Langley, our last town on the route, Saturday afternoon. We wait for the last runner at the finishing line, and cross it together -- tired, sore, and, astonishingly, ready to do it again next year. And that, dear readers, is the story of how some of us spent last weekend.

Posted by Christine Knight, Maximizer Associate, Google Australia

To our international friends, Australia can have a rep for Crocodile Dundee jokes, poisonous animals and meat pies with mushy peas. What you'll find when you visit the new (ish) Google Australia Blog are the real reasons why Google has made a significant investment in Australia. And right now there's a post explaining the special doodle that was on the Google Australia homepage for NAIDOC Week.

Both an engineering and sales hub, our Aussie team is an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life. We're lucky enough to be the home of the original Google Maps team, so we're at the forefront of global product releases. Aussie Googlers don't take ourselves too seriously, we love a good laugh, we're always happy to make fools of ourselves for a good cause (so long as we're beating the Poms in the Ashes).

Visit our blog to read about new product launches for our Australian users, musings on life as an Aussie Googler and what the team gets up to in the community. (Also, stop by if you want to see words like "centre", "maximise" and "humour" spelt correctly). We hope to see you there!

Posted by Christine Hong, Head of Engineering Operations, Asia Pacific

We're hosting an Asia Pacific open house for engineers on Thursday, June 28 from 6-9pm on the Google campus in Mountain View. Ping Li from Accel Partners will moderate a panel discussion by the four directors of our engineering centers in India, Korea, Taiwan, and China. They'll talk about top tech trends in their respective markets, and we'll demo products developed in each location. Of course, there will be plenty of food & drink, and a raffle. This should be an informative networking event for Bay Area engineers and entrepreneurs with a technical background.

Agenda:

• 6-6:30 pm - Registration, food, drinks
• 6:30-8 pm - Panel discussion and Q&A
• 8-9 pm - Product demo, networking, and a raffle drawing

If you're an engineer or an entrepreneur with a technical background who'd like to come, please email me at chong at google dot com for your invitation. Make the subject line "APAC Open House 2007" and include:
- name
- title
- affiliation/company
- contact info

We're looking forward to seeing you on the 28th.

Posted by Dr. Taraneh Razavi, Staff Doctor

Googlers aren't the only ones to spend time on planes – many people suffer the effects of "Economy Class Syndrome." Here are some tips even for flying veterans – or for that matter, those taking long road, train or bus trips, as similar advice applies. Much of this information can be found at the helpful site AirHealth.

Economy Class syndrome causes blood clots that develop in the legs (deep venous thrombosis, DVT) as a result of prolonged air travel. "Prolonged" can mean a 2-hour flight – and after 2 hours, the risk increases hourly, even if you change flights. If the clot breaks off and goes to the lungs (pulmonary embolus, PE) it can cause death.

Of course, this syndrome can easily occur in business or first class seats too – but it happens more in economy simply because there are more seats and therefore more people sitting.

Sounds obscure, you say? It's not. Some 3 to 5 percent of air travelers develop blood clots, most of which dissolve naturally. The few that don't have significant morbidity and mortality, but most of these can be prevented. However, the more frequently you fly, your chance of developing them goes up: frequent business travelers are about 50 times more likely to develop clots.

Often there are no symptoms until several days after the flight, and the DVT may be mistaken for a cramp. Symptoms may include:

• Sudden swelling in one leg (a little swelling in both legs is usually normal)
• Cramp or tenderness in one lower leg
• Bruise or swelling behind a knee

Chest symptoms (PE) usually appear 2-4 days or more after the initial blood clot, and may include:

• Shortness of breath, rapid breathing, panting
• Cramp in your side, painful breathing
• Chest pain, sometimes shoulder pain
• Fever
• Coughing up blood
• Fainting

If you're thinking this doesn't happen to healthy road warriors, you'd be wrong. Being athletic is a major risk factor, because the slower pulse and resting blood flow rate may lead to increased stasis. Others who need to be on guard for DVT are:

• Those who've had recent surgery or an injury. Avoid surgery 30 days before and after travel.
• Personal or family history of DVT
• Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity
• Women who are pregnant, or are taking birth control pills or other hormone therapy

I think I have your attention now - so how do you prevent DVT when traveling?

• Walk when possible on the plane (or bus or train).
• Do leg flexing exercises at 30-60 minute intervals. Extend your legs and flex your ankles, pulling up and spreading your toes, then pushing down and curling the toes. Or rotate the ankles by making circles in the air.
• If there isn't room to extend your legs, start with your feet flat on the floor and push down and curl your toes while lifting your heels. Then, with your heels back on the floor, lift and spread your toes. Repeat this heel-toe cycle five times or more.
• Exercise your thigh muscles by sitting with your feet flat on the floor and slide your feet forward a few inches, then slide back and repeat. Or extend the legs if possible and isometrically flex thigh muscles.
• Avoid crossing your legs, or wearing constrictive clothing (knee braces or tight garments, elastic support hose. (Compression hose have been proven effective, however).
• Stay hydrated - but only with non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverages like a Virgin Mary (no vodka), and preferably electrolytic drinks (Gatorade type) – 1 cup every 1-2 hours. Drinking lots of plain water is not recommended (on long flights it can contribute to thicker blood viscosity, which may lead to clots).
• If you have risk factors (such as history of DVT) talk to your doctor, since these require prescriptions. (Note that contrary to popular belief aspirin does not help prevent these clots because aspirin mainly affects the arterial and not the venous circulation.)
• Though another standard recommendation is to avoid sleep, I think that would be cruel and unusual punishment given the severe deficiency of entertainment on these long hauls.

Finally, if you think have DVT, do not massage the leg - it can break off the clot and lead to PE. Call your doctor and let him or her know that you have traveled recently, and are having pain or swelling in one leg. The proper test then would be an ultrasound of the leg (not invasive or painful).

Want to read more? There's an extensive list of references of studies at the National Library of Medicine's PubMed service.

Wishing you safe and healthy trips!

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team

-- via craigslist, and thanks for asking. Our engineers, though, tend to come by more varied, and occasionally odder, routes. Some get recruited out of grad school, or by friends or former colleagues. Others just send their resumes to jobs@google.com. For a few engineers, though, the path has been more interesting. Peter Bradshaw, for instance, built “a music playing system based on printed cards with barcodes and webcams. Includes lego!” (No, I don’t know what that means, either.) Over the next few weeks, we’re going to post some of their stories.

Like this one, from Systems Administrator Aaron Joyner:


My story started when I came into work one morning and was unable to look up something on Google. Being the sysadmin for my company at the time, it was my responsibility to resolve the problem, so I started poking around. It turned out that our DNS server [ed: all the jargony stuff you'll hear in this anecdote refers to the software that websites use to connect and talk to each other] was returning an error when trying to look up google.com, specifically a server failure error. Just as I’d convinced myself that it wasn't our problem but Google’s, the problem suddenly resolved itself. I promptly forgot about it and went back to my regular work.

But then I came in the next morning and had exactly the same problem, so I started looking at Google's DNS responses very closely. It became clear that the specific combination of delegations and glue records they were returning [ed: see note above] would result in an eventual error approximately once per day, and this would then take it about five minutes to give up and try again. Not entirely convinced that I should point the finger at Google yet, I posted a message to my local Linux Users Group asking if anyone had had problems with resolving google.com addresses and got a couple "Yeah, I did have a problem like that once recently" responses.

Thus reinforced, I headed over to Google.com, found the "Contact Us" page and the "Report a problem" link, chunked in a brief problem description and a link to the archived copy of the long technical description from that same mailing list thread, and thought to myself, "Gee, I'll never hear about that again." But then one afternoon a week later I get an email that said, basically, "We've received your problem report, and forwarded it on to the appropriate department, if they need any further information they’ll contact you. Thanks." Again, I thought, "Gee, how nice. I'll never hear about that again."

But that evening I got an email from Dave Presotto (the guy who wrote the DNS server for Plan9) saying that he was looking into it and would get back to me. Forty-five minutes later I got another email, this one describing how he believed they had accidentally fixed the problem earlier in the week due to general code cleanup, and asking what I thought of the solution. After I recovered my senses and stopped bouncing around the room, I had a few email exchanges with Dave, in the course of which I asked casually if they needed any good sysadmins out in Mountain View. He referred me, and the rest is history.

Guest post by John Battelle

Over the past few years I’ve made at least a dozen 90-minute treks from my forested perch at the north end of San Francisco Bay down to the Googleplex, which sits at the heart of Silicon Valley. The reason? I was writing a book, and Google was a major part of the story. I always enjoyed the drive, I’d go down to interview the founders, early product managers, recent hires and advisors, and I’d drive up with a full tape recorder and plenty to think about.

But last Friday I drove down for another reason. My book The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, has just come out, and much to my astonishment, Google invited me down to give a talk. While Google staffers were extremely generous with their time, the fact remained that the book told the story as I heard it from many different sources, inside and outside the company. And on my own Searchblog, where I cover search and its implications, I've been known to call Google out as often as I offer praise.

As I drove down, I fretted over any number of things. Who might show up for the talk (what if no one did?!). What mistakes might be pointed out - flaws in my reporting, my writing, or my conclusions? What if the famously combative Google culture turned on me?

I needn’t have worried. My host Karen Wickre, whom I’ve known since my days as a cub reporter at MacWeek, met me at the door, and before I could make my way to the lecture hall, a clutch of friendly folks had surrounded me. Once there I saw Louis Monier, founder of Alta Vista and the star of Chapter Three, who had recently left eBay to join Google. And Peter Norvig, Google’s director of search quality, who helped me understand Google’s core search service and even presented at my Web 2.0 conference last year. And many more, many of whom I had spoken to, but most of whom I had never met.

I began by explaining how I came to write the book, a three-year odyssey which started with a link, back in late 2001, to Google’s first Zeitgeist. I read how I came to the idea of the Database of Intentions, and I read some funny emails from webmasters who had encountered the early BackRub crawler. And because it was clear the audience wanted to ponder the future of the company they had joined, I read from the chapter entitled “Google Today, Google Tomorrow.”

The best part, by far, was the Q&A that followed. Googlers are some of the most sincere questioners I've ever encountered. The exchange felt very much like conversations I've had with graduate students when I was teaching at Berkeley - no agendas, just a desire to challenge and to learn. Afterward folks lined up to have me sign their books. As the line dwindled, I looked behind me and there was Eric Schmidt, who more than any other source went out of his way to lend me his time and insights. He shook my hand and thanked me for coming, and I have to say, I was honored by the gesture. I did my best to be fair in the book, but it's never easy to read about yourself, to be the subject of someone else's conclusions. The same could be said of the entire Google team who came to listen and to converse, and I'm truly grateful for the experience.

Posted by Cristin Frodella, Manager, K-12 Education Programs

Yesterday we hosted our third Google Teacher Academy, this time in sunny Santa Monica. More than 50 innovative K-12 educators from across Southern California joined us to share and learn new methods of incorporating online tools and collaborative techniques into their classroom experiences. Elementary, middle, and high school teachers spent time hearing from experts and one another about subjects like lesson-plan development, group projects, and on-demand publishing using Google and non-Google tools. Carol Anne McGuire, who teaches blind and visually impaired students in Orange Unified School District, delivered the keynote along with some of her students. She brought to life "Rock Our World," an international project in which kids across continents work together online to make movies, tell stories, and compose music.

After previous Google Teacher Academies in our Mountain View and New York City offices, we consider ourselves fortunate to have a cadre of 150+ Google Certified Teachers nationwide. These "graduates" continue to inspire their students: for instance, Jerome Burg created GoogleLitTrips, a way to journey along some of literature's most classic roadtrips via Google Earth, and Cheryl Davis engages her students in the presidential election and local history through podcasts such as "Candidate Watch" and "Postcards from the Past."

We started this education program last October to support teachers, empower students and expand the frontiers of human knowledge. To say we're inspired by what we've seen is an understatement.

Posted by Reza Behforooz, Massage expert and Software Engineer

Life at the Googleplex is often full of fun surprises. One day, I was asked if I could do a massage interview. I was already a big fan of our massage program, and I was familiar with doing interviews at Google, but I didn't know about massage interviews. Regardless, it sounded Googley, and I decided to help.

Getting a massage at work is a favorite perk among Googlers. As with anyone we hire, our massage therapists have to go through an interview process...but the actual interviews are a little unique. We ask the therapists to do what they do best -- give massages. And as Googlers, it is our duty to help with the hard task of receiving table or chair massages as part of the interviews. Though we do have to write detailed feedback about the massage, just like any other interview, in this interview, all I had to do was close my eyes and relax. Who knew interviewing could be so easy!

Posted by Julian Sonego, Marketing Manager, Google Australia and New Zealand

Google Australia has officially come out of beta--we've recently launched our new Australian operation. While Google has had a presence Down Under since late 2002, we have only recently moved into our new digs, which have water views that are the envy of Googlers worldwide.

This new Googleplex in Sydney gives us the opportunity to scale our operation to support a growing band of users, advertisers, and partners. We have also invested heavily in local engineering talent to conduct original R&D work, underscoring Google's commitment to Australia and willingness to set up shop wherever there's talent.

To coincide with the grand opening of the office, the team recently released street maps for Australia and New Zealand so web developers can get a jump start on integrating Down Under maps into their sites.

If you're interested in becoming an Aussie Googler, take a look here. Who wouldn't want to join this team?

Posted by Rupert van Millingen, Google UK

From time to time, we like to reflect the world we live in through the logo designs on our home page. These Google 'doodles' are designed exclusively by the original Doodler, Dennis Hwang. Here in the UK, we wanted to let Dennis have the day off and give someone local the chance to get their artwork in front of millions. After a successful pilot competition in 2005, we're pleased to tell you that our 2006 "Doodle 4 Google - My Britain" competition is now open and accepting doodles from pupils ages 4-18 in all schools across the UK.

A panel of experts will judge, narrowing the submissions down to a Top 30 and the public will vote for their favorites. The winning doodle will be hosted on the Google.co.uk home page for a day, and also bag the artist a trip for four to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. To get your (again, UK) school involved, please check out Doodle 4 Google - My Britain.

Posted by Ellen Spertus, Software Engineer & Associate Professor of Computer Science, Mills College

Recently I was one of several Googlers who volunteered at the Expanding Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics conference at Mills, where I also teach. This annual event provides career panels and hands-on workshops to encourage middle-school girls to keep studying science and mathematics as they enter high school. I led a workshop, "How to Build a Computer," in which the students learned binary arithmetic and built a half-adder.

I don't know who had more fun, the girls or the volunteers! Google is a sponsor of the national Expanding Your Horizons Network, whose workshops have reached over 625,000 girls.

Posted by Karen Wickre, Google Blog team

This is the 201st post to be published on the Google Blog in 2005. In closing out the first full year of our company-wide effort to share news and views, we thought you might be interested in a few factoids. Since we've had Google Analytics running on this blog since June, some of these numbers reflect only half a year. In that time, 4.3 million unique visitors have generated 8.7 million pageviews. Readers have come from all over the world, not just English-speaking countries: 53,001 visitors from Turkey have stopped by, for example; so have 155,691 from France, 29,614 from Thailand and 8,233 from Peru.

The most popular posts? Here are a few that have yielded scores of backlinks:

- Our explanation of "Googlebombing"
- A celebration of email and Gmail
- Google Earth's partnership with National Geographic about Africa

Several on Google Book Search (formerly known as Google Print), including:
- Preserving public domain books
- Our statement on the Authors' Guild suit
- and Eric Schmidt's op-ed about Book Search.

During the year, we've published 38 how-to tips, announced 77 new products and services, and addressed policy questions and legal matters 17 times. We've featured 11 guest bloggers. Forty posts have illuminated something about day to day life at Google; 19 have offered some international perspective.

In 2006, we'll keep up the Google Blog with more posts, more bloggers, and even more topics. Meanwhile, we really appreciate your interest and feedback, now visible through "Links to this post." We know some of you would like to offer comments directly, and we would like that too, when we can add resources to the blog crew. Meanwhile, our best to you and yours for the New Year.

The Google Foundation supports select organizations whose work addresses the challenge of global poverty in ways that are effective, sustainable, and scalable. From time to time we will invite guest bloggers from grantee organizations to tell their story. Here's the first of this occasional series.

Posted by Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen Fund

Arriving at Google, we somehow found a spot in the overflowing lot and emerged onto a sprawling campus reminiscent of my days at Stanford. At the front desk, our team commented on the simple yet impressive display we spotted on a monitor depicting the volume of searches originating from every point on the globe with colored dots. Interconnectedness: Acumen Fund is building a global community of like-minded individuals committed to solving problems of poverty through market-based approaches and enabling poor individuals to make their own choices.

We followed the yellow brick road to Building 40, past the packed beach volleyball courts and an outdoor café. More than 100 people came to our talk. I was introduced by Sheryl Sandberg, who is Google’s VP of Global Online Sales and Operations and the current acting director of