My big news

So I realize that I've been really bad at keeping the content rate of this blog anywhere close to reasonable. Still, there seem to be a couple dozen hardy souls who took my advise and subscribed to my feed. As a reward for your patience I have some big news that will break here first!!!

In two weeks I start my new job, at Google!!!

Cool, eh?

I just got my offer last week, and I officially accepted it a couple of days ago. There's a ton of paperwork to fill out, ranging from background checks to immigration documents. But the most interesting two are those I received today.

First, they want me to pick my username. I've never had a choice before. In high school I was berkana which I wasn't very fond of. Since then I've mostly been aberkan, with the occasional adamb or just plain berkan. I think I've grown accustomed to aberkan so I'll probably stick with that. Any thoughts? (Remember the name should probably have something to do with me and shouldn't be rude!!!)

Second was a document asking me what kind of computers I would like. Notice the 's'! I get a desktop and a laptop, with any of Windows, Linux, or Mac OS on them. I've certainly never worked anywhere that lets you pick your development environment. So here's the dilemma I'm facing: I've mostly been a windows based developer my whole life, and the thought of not having MS Visual Studio for debugging is kinda scary. Also, my time at Microsoft made me a bit of a Windows guru, and I'd hate to throw all of that away. But... Don't real hackers use Linux? I developed on Linux (and Unix) in University so I'm sure I'd manage. I'm a vi freak so I know I don't need the pretty interfaces from Windows. Is this the right time to switch? Finally, I've been seriously considering buying a Mac for around the house. Apple is the hot shit in Silicon Valley right now, and all the hippest engineers are using Macs for their web development. Hmmm... I could even conceivably get a different OS on my two machines. But which two? And on what machines? Linux laptops are not an option, and I'm not really interested in a Mac desktop. That leaves:

Windows PC, Windows Laptop
Windows PC, Mac Laptop
Linux PC, Windows Laptop
Linux PC, Mac Laptop

I really don't know what to pick. I'm leaning towards the 3rd option, but they all have something to offer. Any suggestions?


I promise to keep mt loyal readers well informed about how things at Google are going, and that means you'll be seeing a lot more posts in the near future. So enjoy, and let me know what machines I should ask for...