We had a team lunch at Smorgas Chef at the suggestion of our Swedish ex-pat veep. It was fantastic. I had the Baked Cod fish in a Lemongrass sauce with Lingonberries ( $26 ) and some of my colleagues had the Smorgas Pepper Steak ( $28 ) and were raving as well.

We went for lunch on a Friday so I have no idea how difficult it is to get a reservation during prime time. But I will definitely be heading back. In fact we have a (different) team lunch tomorrow, I might suggest Smorgas Chef.

I had a nice surprise this morning when I arrived at my desk. A yet to be identified reader turn contributor to my blog left a copy of the Wall Street Journal Technology Section on my desk folded to an article entitled Glitches Bug Google's Android Software. The salient few lines for me are:

"Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn't work. It's clearly not ready for prime time," said Mr. [Adam] MacBeth, who earlier this year helped found mobile software start-up [omitted on purpose]

Looks to me like Mr. MacBeth got himself some free publicity by giving them the quote that they wanted. That being said, I have yet to really dive into the development portion of my Android efforts - still in concept stages. So I don't know how buggy or not it is.

At any rate, Anyone who's been around the block once or twice in software knows that the bleeding edge stuff is always fraught with pitfalls. There is a reason version 2 exists. Dare I tie this in to Agile Software development thinking around deliver something and improve as you go? If you gold plate everything you bloat and you'll never make it out the door. note to self - tell them about the software side project you've been working on for 5+ years because you've been compulsive about doing it all the right way. It's a bit embarrassing.

Thankfully, the WSJ decided to be even handed and get another voice:

Rick Genter a professional software engineer who is writing an Android application in his free time, said that while Google's mobile software is buggy, it isn't necessarily any worse than any other software at such an early stage.

Thank you also to my reader/contributor for bringing this in. I have purposely not linked to WSJ because frankly, they don't seem to want to let me have access to their content so I won't be giving them my "network effect" love. And I'm not really sure that a story about a new platform being buggy is news.

Anyway, just released in Europe of all places, comes iPhoneFingers, which are made of latex (there goes that imagination again…) and fit over your thumb and index finger, saving you from future cleaning of the iPhone’s screen.

IntoMobile.com has a tidbit about an Android Device prototype reportedly by HTC in the wild. It's not pretty, but prototypes aren't about pretty...looks like they actually got their information from gizmodo.com : Google Android Prototype In the Wild

Our source, a Giz reader, had some feedback to add to the prototype, which he used for a day: Even in early form, it's light and fast, much faster than the desktop emulator at times. And as a longtime programmer, he thinks it's a lot more put together than Window Mobile 5 on the back side of things.

props to Dave for putting this on his Reader share and bringing it to my attention

Wired has a tidbit about the winners of their Saddest-Cubicle Contests.. Damn I have it good.

The 'Winners' of the Wired News Saddest-Cubicle Contest

We used to have a small Ikea desk we would make the intern sit at. We called it The Bannana Stand and even contemplated having it putting in the company directory as a conference room.

Conf-NYC "Banana Stand" 4x (East 34th Street)

We opted not to because at the time conference room space was so scare we were certain people would turn up having scheduled it sight un-seen. Instead we placed a sign on it that said, "El Soporte de Plátano" with a lovely picture of banana's on it. We did make him sit there for several months.

The fact that it was yellow was a classic Ikea mistake on my part. My co-worker and I had identified that we needed a small table as a shared workspace and had identified the MUDDUS as a good option. I went to Ikea, picked one up off the racks, got it home, got it to work (via and then, some weeks later from the original purchase, went to set it up. I had intended to get a white one... oops! it's yellow. The idea of trying to return it was just out of the question... so we gave it a good name and put it into use.

gigaom.com has a piece that was picked up by the NY Times technology bits blog about Ribbit a newish player in VOIP who is taking a more platform approach to telephony and the web.

Can Ribbit Finally Bring Web & Voice Together?

If you strip away the hype (meaningless blather such as the company’s claim of being Silicon Valley’s first phone company), what they have done is built their own Class 5 softswitch and back-end infrastructure and married it to front-end technologies like Flash and Flex from Adobe Systems (ADBE).

Accordingly, Ribbit is offering API (Application Protocol Interface) access to much of our switch today, allowing third party developers to create rich integrated telephony applications without previous knowledge of telephony. Currently, the Ribbit API is optimized for Flash / Flex developers because of the pervasiveness of the technology (Flash is resident on 98% of the world’s computers). This means that Ribbit communication applications written in Flash will run without the need of a client download.

I'm starting to futz with video and video conferencing and voip. I got myself a Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooksand have been having a blast. tokbox.com let's you do p2p video without any software install. And we use Adobe Breeze / Connect Pro at work and it is fantastically easy to use and has pretty good video support.

If you're looking for something to do tonight I have just the thing. Come see The All-For-Nots play at Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston Street - corner Avenue A & Houston) at 7:30. This is your chance to notch your I-saw-them-when belt so you are well prepared for when they mahir.

I'll be there tonight support my friend Kathleen, producer extraordinaire. It's also endlessly humorous to me that they are following a band called the The Neverbeens. I can't think of a better opening act for a psuedo-fictional real band.

This is really amazing. One family has owned the same townhouse in Brooklyn since 1866 and apparently they more or less kept most things. Be sure and check out the slide show.

The Ghosts of Clinton Street

Bar of Gold is a fairly simple word problem I give people I interview for technical positions. It's not huge think question, IMHO. It's really designed to see if you can conjure a thought process. And while there are, I'm sure high fa luting ways to solve it, a straight forward brute force attack and you can't help but solve it. The most common response I get from candidates is to stare intently at the white board and make a face like that makes me hope their are wearing and adult diaper. The most successful candidates at this just start solving the problem out loud and quickly realize that by beginning to solve it you pretty much can't help but solve it. I know this, because I was presented this problem in an interview with a much higher value and I managed to solve it.

Here is the problem:

You have 1 bar of gold and 7 days of work to be done. You hire a man to do the work for you and agree to pay him 1/7th of your bar of gold a day. You must pay him in full at the end of every day. The problem is you can only cut the bar of gold in two places. Where do you make the two cuts in the bar of gold so that you can pay him properly each day?

Additional Info: Since you live in such a remote location the guy doesn't have any where to spend any of the money you pay him from day to day and because you don't provide your employees with lockers he carries all his gold on him.

My feeling is if you start to solve the problem using trial and error you'll come across the solution pretty quickly. If you stare at it, you invite an aneurysm.

Now the funny part. I had to write this down somewhere. A while back we did a mass intern interview where the candidates showed up anytime from 10 AM to 3 PM and during that window we would try and get them seen by at least 2 interviewers. The thing about intern interviews is that you can't really expect the students to have specific technical expertise, you're looking for good foundations in Computer Science and problem solving and communication abilities. That's why I like the bar of gold. You have to have problem solving abilities and explain to me how you arrived at the solution.

Well, there was one candidate who was exceptionally nervous to whom I gave this problem. He looked as if is head was going to explode until I repeated the question about 5 times clarifying the problem. He then proceeded to scribble down the following formula and then look up at me half triumphantly and half in uncertainty and more or less remarked, "there."

$[\; 1\; -\; [\; 1\; -\; (\; 1\; -\; \Delta \; 1/7)\; 1/7\; ]\; 1/7\; ]$

There what? How did you arrive at this conclusion and what is the answer? Nothing. And while I'm not sure what that formula expresses, I'm reasonably confident it's not the answer.

In case you can't figure it out I'll leave the answer in the comments in a few days.

Answer posted in the comments 12/16/2007

If you're looking for directions to Dave & Busters in Phoenix click here

Today was my second all time ever visit to Dave & Busters. The first time was in Phoenix. There is a bowling alley at the one in Phoenix (actually Scottsdale) and we had a great time at the lanes with wife's family over Thanksgiving. While technically that was a D&B experience, it was a bowling alley. I did go upstairs there to the game area and play one of my favorite video games from years gone by and get hit on by a cougar. Overall, impression of the place more or less neutral - game room really didn't do much for me.

Today we went to the D&B on 42nd street in NYC for an intern event for work. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not ungrateful for an all expense, open bar, game play on the company, trip to D&B. I just wasn't finding much in the game room that was all that great. The whole place was littered with those terrible dexterity games where you drop a coin onto a shelf in the hopes that your coin will shove others off the shelf. What are those? Other than that it's one Dance Dance Revolution in the corner, a Donkey Kong / Super Mario Brothers / Donkey Kong Junior game next to Miss Pac Man and Space Invaders consoles. On the upside, having it be a Tuesday afternoon with two cocktail waitresses who have nothing else to do but follow us around bringing beverages. So at the end of the day, I don't ever really need to go back to D&B, but then again how does the old saying go, "the worst day fishing is better than the best day at work."

Where to start? Since I last posted the bathroom has more or less been entirely finished. Once they finally vacated last Thursday (Day 10) I was overjoyed. There was a board game group at work that night so I hung out and played. I got home around 11 PM, before my wife who was out with friends, to find a puddle in the bathroom coming out from under the vanity. I looked and found that the cold water feed valve to the sink was leaking. I sopped up the water; put a deli container underneath and called the landlord to express my displeasure.

So, day 11 - they come back and fix the valve. I didn't bother to tell him that the seal around the new kitchen faucet was crap. I'll fix that on my own.

Saturday morning, day 12, I'm cleaning up and going to put down a bath mat and realize there is a 2" darkening of the floor around the toilet - what granite floors do when they are wet. So I call the landlord figuring there is some water seepage from the base of the toilet into the floor. No visible water just evidence there is moisture there. He comes over and visits. Long story short, today, day 13, the landlord and the contract stop by and fix the tiny leak in the vanity drain, I had also found on Saturday. The Landlord called me today and told me the contractor assures him there is no problem with the toliet. Not that I care, not my building, so whatever. But they did fix the leaky drain in the vanity.

Bottom line I am thoroughly unimpressed with this contractor's work. The obvious problems aside, the work overall is ripe with cut corners and things that I am going to feel compelled to go back over and dress up a bit. I have to look at them every day.

My friend Kathleen's (creator of theburg.tv) latest endeavor has kicked off in anticipation of it's kick-off.  The All-For-Nots is a band out to "conquer the world wide web..."

I'm excited to see what she's got up her sleeve as I really enjoyed the burg.

I still enjoy watching my favorite episode of the burg - Training. What can I say, I live in Queens and I love the Doppelgängers

All that is left is the vanity, the medicine cabinet, the light fixture over the vanity, and theoretically they are also going to install a new faucet in my kitchen.  The contractor thinks he can do all of this between 8 AM and 11 AM tomorrow.  Yeah right. 

At any rate, the floor is in; the new toilet is in; the shower is in (with my hand picked nice shower head) and I can take showers at home again.  Basically, as soon as he left today and had said I could use the shower I showered, just on principle.

What I'm really afraid of is what he's going to bring for the Vanity.  I mean I already have "Suburban Housewife's Italian Fantasy" (thanks Sarah)  I'm afraid I'm going to get a vanity to match.  It's become painfully clear that because I don't write the check for the work, I am a bystander to be dealt with.  If I really wanted to affect anything I'd have to throw a major fit and piss on the relationship with my landlord, who is pretty great.  Arghhhh.

Well, here is the latest progress. 

I'm guessing this is as boring for you as it is for me, but rest assured you're doing a good deed - this is really cathartic for me.

I love this 80's hit and I have no idea what it means. Apparently, it was a love song?

I promise not too re-point you to or repost EVERYTHING Noam (Pygmy Goats - Man's Best Friend) posts but damn if I can't NOT post this one.

Shawn, I totally get it now. I'd probably go for stew, seems a bit small for kebabs.

I guess it must be day 8... They started last Tuesday.  I'm starting to care less what my bathroom looks like and more that I just get one.  Landlord has said it might be done tomorrow.  Let's all hope together.

I will be using that, big time. I love me the color codes. 

I just want my bathroom back.

Day 5 - Yep they worked on Saturday

Day 6 - Oh yeah the tile is ugly.