Pwn2Own & Chrome

Put your computer hacking skills to use and try to hack Google's Chrome OS in the 2011 Pwn2Own competition for $20K.

"The Chrome prize is only the latest in a string of incentives from Google for anyone who can demonstrate security flaws in its products. In January of last year, it launched a bug-buying program to pay as much as $1,337 for information about critical security bugs in its browser. Within six months, it upped that maximum payout to $3,133.70. (Both numbers contain a coded reference to the word LEET, or “elite” in hacker jargon.)"


So nerdy... but I love it! Read the rest of the Forbes blogpost here.

Google Street View for Art Museums!

What a cool project--Google recently took its street view technology into museums so that people can take virtual tours of museums and see artwork up close. Through this partnership with museums, we the public can arguably get "closer" to paintings via digital means than we could at the actual museum with cordons.

Check out the project at www.googleartproject.com--it's worth it!

New website, same blog!

Given that I am now a Google employee, it seemed as though it would only make sense for me to continue to dogfood our own products and switch over to Blogger! Hopefully this will also incentivize me to update the blog more often since the huge hurdle of logging into a different program will now no longer exist.

Free Google Voice Phone Booths

The Googleplex in Mountain View won't be the only place to boast of a British-style, Google-themed phone booth. In celebration of the new Google voice call feature within Gmail, Google is planning on installing these phone booths high-traffic places (college campuses!). Calls made from these booths will be free.

Read the entire Fast Company article here.

Boomerang for Gmail--FINALLY!

Boomerang for Gmail is the Chrome extension that I have been waiting for for ages. I am personally a neat freak when it comes to keeping a clean inbox, and there are times when I wish that I could schedule an email to pop up in my inbox at a later time when I actually need to read it. Alternatively, I've also wanted to schedule emails to be sent at a later time, instead of keeping it in my draft box until it's time to send. In comes Boomerang! It's currently still in beta mode so it may be a little buggy, but it's about time something like this came along!

Read the full article on Lifehacker here. Thanks for the find, lil' bro!

Bike Sharing Program

After working at the Googleplex for almost a month now, I have come to greatly appreciate the bike sharing program we have on campus where you can take any Google bike and leave it anywhere on campus as long as it doesn't block an entrance. A new company called Social Bicycles, located in NY, seems to be doing something similar (also reminiscent of Zipcar). With the help of an iPhone app, members of the program can locate bikes around the city.

The Social Bicycle System from Ryan Rzepecki on Vimeo.

Read the full TechCrunch article here.

Who knew rats could be a good thing?

As featured in this Nicholas Kristof NYT op-ed, HeroRATS finally represent a case where you'd probably be happy to see rats. Trained by Dutch company Apopo, these rats are currently being used in Africa to detect landmines through using their keen sense of smell. Even better, they are too light to set off landmines. As an additional bonus, HeroRATS can also sniff sputum and detect TB much faster than lab technicians.

For more information on HeroRATS or how to donate to this cause, visit the Global Giving website.