Nedelja #6 / Week #6 - July 4th Weekend

Zbog epskog fejla sa objavljivanjem poslednjeg posta, ove nedelje ima vise materijala za citanje i bonus slika :)

Because of the epic fail with publishing last post, this week there will be more reading material and bonus photos :)


Javno mnjenje od jedne osobe je htelo da cuje o atmosferi u Facebooku i sta FB misli o Google+. Mislim da sam nesto pisala o tome, ali u sustini, atmosfera je skroz opustena. Radno vreme kao koncept ne postoji, moze da se radi od kuce, ili kako bilo, samo da se posao zavrsi. Ja sam na back-endu doduse, pretpostavljam da je na front endu malo stresnije, posebno kad se TechCrunch nakaci. Timovi su jako mali tako da svako ukljucujuci i interne ima odgovorne zadatke koji dosta uticu na finalni produkt. Svuda po firmi su (de)motivacione poruke tipa "Move fast and break things" ili "Done is better than perfect" sto dovoljno govori o filozofiji firme. Kolege u timu su uvek tu da pomognu kad se negde zaglavim. Moj primarni kontakt je uglavnom mentor + jos neko u zavisnosti od zadatka na kome radim. Cak i back end searcha ima dovoljno veliki codebase da ni svako u timu ne zna sve.

Juce smo, kako Zuck rece, poceli sezonu launchova. Radimo na dosta novih featurea, od kojih su neki bas veliki i skroz kul. Juce smo lansirali video chat u saradnji sa Skajpom, grupni chat i chat je generalno redizajniran.

Sto se Google+ tice, stav je manje vise ono sto je Zuck juce rekao na konferenciji za stampu. Socijalni aspekt weba je trenutno hot tema i za ocekivati je da svako ima neku varijaciju na temu, ukljucujuci i firme koje to primarno ne rade. On je za primer naveo Netflix koji totalno nema veze sa socijalnim do sada. Realno, od Google-a se ocekivalo da izbaci normalnu mrezu, a i TechCrunch je odavno o tome pisao. U sustini, zdrava konkurencija je dobra, ali u FB-u nista nece posebno da se promeni zbog toga. Google ce da radi svoj posao, FB svoj i to je to. Just for the record, Zuckov profil ima najveci broj followera na Google+. Ja iskukala invite drugog dana zvanicnog postojanja i u sustini, fin je + kao koncept, ja cu licno da ga koristim za neke stvari, fejsbuk za neke druge i to je to. Ako se isprate naslovi po novinama, Google ce morati dosta da se potrudi da + zazivi. Facebook ima jako veliku inerciju sa 750 miliona korisnika, a Google losu reputaciju sa orkutom, buzzom i wave-om. Kad je + izasao, naslovi su bili skroz pozitivni, a iz dana u dan se menjaju u "Pronadjite razlike izmedju Gugla i Fejsbuka", "Zasto Gugl nece da zazivi" i milion klipova i stripova. Ja se svakako radujem Circleovima zbog lakse distribucije Picasa linkova, a za ostalo cemo da vidimo.

Elem, nedelja je imala jos par highlight eventova. Skrenula sam s uma i placam sadistu koji ce da me maltretira dva sata nedeljno. U prevodu, pocela sam da idem ozbiljno u "teretanu". Teretana ide pod navodnike jer je Daniel mnogo kreativniji od pumpanja tegova od jutra do sutra. Najepski deo je bio kad mi je dao ogromni cekic i rekao da udaram po gumi od 150 kila (guma od monster trucka, ja u zivotu nisam videla toliku). Otkrila sam par novih misica kad su se upalili, tako da kapiram da je investicija dobra.

Osim toga, poslednji dug vikend mog internshipa je proveden na Taho jezeru. Jezero je prepolovljeno granicom izmedju Nevade i Kalifornije (koju smo presli jedno 20 puta tako da sada mogu da se hvalim da sam bila u Nevadi :D) i prilicno je popularna turisticka atrakcija. Priroda je presavrsena - videti slike ispod. S jedne strane je plaza s ljudima u kupacima, a s druge planine pokrivene snegom u sred jula. Sneg dolazi uz cenu da je voda ledena pa nije bilo puno kupanja. Elem, nasa strana jezera je imala savrseno vreme za hiking, tako da smo odabrali neku dugacku stazu. Predvidjeno vreme od 5 sati nije predvidelo maratonsko slikanje na svakom koraku i to sto smo zalutali u shumi :) Osim prirode, mesto u kome smo bili povremeno lici na ostatke socijalizma u Srbiji s onim odvratnim sivim zgradetinama koje nisu restaurirane 30 godina. Zbog toga sto je praznik, ulice uvece su bile pune
ljudi pred 20-om s laznim ID-evima, koji su pijani kao guzice i otisli u kazino da izigravaju ne znam ni ja sta. Drug je opravdao MIT reputaciju u kazinu i uzeo 50-ak dolara na blekdzeku :) Ja sam prokockala dolar na slot masini i tu se moje kockarsko iskustvo zavrsilo :)

Osim Tahoa, desio se i 4. juli i vatromet, ali to je bilo u ponedeljak, tako da se tehnicki racuna u 7. nedelju :) Cuvam materijal za tad, a i mrzi me vise da kucam :)



By popular demand constituted by one person, here is the story on atmosphere in Facebook and what FB thinks about Google+. I think I wrote something about, but shortly, it is pretty chill. Hours as a concept don't exist, you can work from home, or whatever as long as the job gets done. To be honest, I'm on back end, I assume front end is a bit more stressful, especially when TechCrunch gets to us. Teams are very small so everyone including interns has responsible tasks that significantly affect the final product. There are (de)motivational messages everywhere around the company like "Move fast and break things" or "Done is better than perfect" which says enough about the philosophy of the company. Colleagues on the team are always there to help when I get stuck. My primary contact is mostly my mentor + someone else depending on the task I'm working on. Even back end of search has large enough codebase so not everyone on the team knows everything.

As Zuck said, we started launching season yesterday. We are working on lots of new features, some which are very big and very cool. Yesterday we launched video chat with Skype, group chat and chat is redesigned.

As far as Google+ is concerned, the opinion is more or less what Zuck said yesterday for the press. Social aspect of the web is currently hot topic and it is expected that everyone has a take on it, including companies who are not primarily concerned with it. He gave the example of Netflix which is totally not related with social up until now. It was expected that Google launches a social network, and TechCrunch wrote about it a while ago. Healthy competition is good, but in Facebook, nothing special will change. Google will work their own thing, Facebook theirs and that's it. Just for the record, Zuck's profile has the largest number of followers on Google+. I got the invite of the second day of official existence, and basically, + is nice as a concept, I will use it for some things, Facebook for something else and that's it. If you follow the press headlines, Google will have to try really hard to keep + alive. Facebook has a huge momentum with 750 million users, and Google bad reputation with orkut, buzz and wave. When + came out, the headlines were absolutely positive, but they change day-by-day into "Find differences between Google and Facebook" or "Why will Google fail" and million clips and comics. I am definitely happy about Circles because of easier distribution of Picasa links and we'll see about the rest.

Anyway, this week had a few more highlight events. I've gone crazy and I'm paying for sadist to torture me two hours a week. This translates to I started going seriously to the "gym". Gym is quoted because Daniel is so much more creative than just weightlifting all day long. The most epic part was when he gave me humongous hammer and told me to hit the 300lb tire (monster truck tire, I've never seen that large). I discovered a few new muscles when they got sore so I guess the investment is good.

Besides that, the last long weekend of my internship was spent at Lake Tahoe. The lake is dividied in half by the state border between Nevada and California (which we crossed like 20 times so now I can brag I was in Nevada :D) and it is fairly popular tourist destination. Nature is super-perfect - check the photos below. On one side, there is a beach with people in their swimsuits and on the other snow covered mountains in July. Snow comes with the price so water was ice cold and we didn't swim much. Anyway, our side of the lake had perfect weather for hiking so we picked a long route. Estimated time of 5 hours didn't account for taking (vanity? :P) photos at every step and that we got lost in the forest :) Beside nature, the place we stayed at occasionally looks like Serbian socialism remainders with those gross gray buildings that weren't renovated for the last 30 years. Because it was the holiday, streets were full of people right before their twenties with fake IDs, who went smashed to the casino to pretend they are whatever. A friend of mine justified MIT reputation and won ~50 bucks on blackjack. I wasted a dollar on a slot machine and that's where my gambling experience ended :)

Except Tahoe, we had July 4th and fireworks, but that was on Monday, so it's technically 7th week :) I'm saving material for than and I'm too lazy to keep typing :)

Najepskija kombinacija prodavnica / The most epic store combination