A Googly Peek into Racism

Racism is rampant. Maybe this election has made people less racist, maybe it hasn't. At the very least, I hope that it has made people realize that, yes, racism is still very much alive. As a quick illustration, check out the top 10 Google search suggestions for Obama: 30% are race-related issues: "birth certificate", "muslim" and "antichrist".

The most frustrating part is that people don't even see the racism and sexism. A Google coworker who had a "Hillary Nutcracker" displayed in his office window - he probably didn't think about how that's dripping with sexism. Nor did the Republican friend who asked online for one good thing that "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" has ever done. Nor does the other friend who asserts that Colin Powell only endorsed Barack Obama because he's black.

We don't see these things because we see them all too often. We've become immune to it. It's time that we wake up and call these things out for the racist, sexist acts that they are.

Top 10 Best Microsoft Interview Questions

500 Microsoft Interview Questions on CareerCup

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As the founder of CareerCup, the web's largest source for technical interview questions, I have over 500 Microsoft Interview Questions at my disposal, with more added every day. Everyday people ask me what they should study before their Microsoft interview.

So, without further ado, I present the the Top 10 Best Microsoft Interview Questions:

Microsoft Interview Question #10
Given two nodes in a binary tree, find the first common parent node. You are not allowed to store any nodes in a data structure.

Microsoft Interview Question #9
Simulate a 7 sided die using a 5 sided die.

Microsoft Interview Question #8
How long would it take to sort 1 billion numbers?

Microsoft Interview Question #7
Given two sets of objects, S1 and S2, write an algorithm to determine their subset relationship. Eg, which of the following is true: C1 is a subset of C2, C2 is a subset of C1, C1 equals C2, or none of these?

Microsoft Interview Question #6
Given a value in a binary search tree, print all the paths (starting from the root or any other node) which sum up to that value.

Microsoft Interview Question #5
Imagine there is a square matrix with n x n cells. Each cell is either filled with a black pixel or a white pixel. Design an algorithm to find the maximum subsquare such that all four borders are filled with black pixels.

Microsoft Interview Question #4
How would you divide an integer array into 2 sub-arrays such that their averages were equal?

Microsoft Interview Question #3
Given two binary trees T1 and T2 which store character data, write an algorithm to decide whether T2 is a subtree of T1. T1 has millions of nodes and T2 has hundreds of nodes, and each may have duplicates.

Microsoft Interview Question #2
Implement boggle: Given an NxN matrix, print a list of all words that appear in the matrix. To find a word, you can move left, right, up or down, as long as you do not use the same letter twice. For example, if the matrix were:
W A
D R
You could find the words: WAR, WARD, DRAW and RAW

Microsoft Interview Question #1
Design a webcrawler.

In Honor of the VP Debates...

Brought to you by Google's 2001 search index, a quick comparison to show just how new to the scene Sarah Palin is:

John McCain: 158,000 hits in 2001
Joe Biden: 3,240 hits in 2001
Barack Obama: 671 hits in 2001
Sarah Palin: 0 hits in 2001.

Despite being mayor of a small town, the internet had not even heard of her in 2001. I'm not sure if that says more about Palin or Google...

Bye-Bye Evite - Maybe

It's been a good run. We've have laughed, we've cried, we've... ok, mostly just cried. What's up with evite? I swear, the only thing that the evite does is make the service worse.

The last Seattle Anti-Freeze event was the last straw. A few days before the event, messages we tried to send would silently fail. When your best selling days are within a few days, this is a big deal. The tipping point, however, was after the event: we could no longer export our guest list. We depending on exporting in order to drop people as they wish and to add new guests. So, that was it for evite.

After playing around with far too many services, I decided to use pingg.com. The designs are clean and simple - a big step up up from evite's cluttered interface. RSVPing is simple, and at no point does pingg try to force guests to register to do basic tasks like inviting their friends. It's missing a few features, like the ability for guests to remove themselves from the invitation (they do, however, support the ability to block someone which is sort of the same thing). I have a few little complaints, here and there, but all around pingg is a much better service than evite.

There's just one issue: people don't get it. RSVPs on all sides (yes, no, and maybe) have dropped significantly since leaving evite. I'm not sure if people are mistaking pingg invitations for, say, an invitation to join another annoying web 2.0's service, or if it's just getting lost in their email box. Either way, RSVPing is way down.

I heard so many people state that evite has no switching costs. Not true. The switching costs are huge and possess a scary unknown factor: Will people RSVP or not?

Drink for the Cure / Bid for the Cure - Charity Auction

I usually don't cross-post Seattle Anti-Freeze events, but this one's for a good cause...

Drink for the Cure / Bid for the Cure - Charity Auction
Oct 1, 2008 at 8pm (Location TBD - Belltown / Downtown)

Every three minutes, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. One out of every eight American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. Seattle Anti-Freeze invites you to make a difference.

On Oct 1st, please join Seattle Anti-Freeze members for a silent auction to benefit Susan G. Komen foundation. Mix & mingle - drink & bid.

There is no cost for this event, but donations at the event for the Susan G. Komen foundation are, of course, appreciated.

DONATING ITEMS
Got something cool, funky, unique or useful that you'd be willing to part with? It doesn't have to be anything fancy - all donations are appreciated! In return, you receive good karma, and two free tickets to a Seattle Anti-Freeze event of your choosing.

If you have something you could donate, I'd really appreciate it :-). Click here (or just shoot me an email).

Want to come? Join the Seattle Anti-Freeze list.