Can you crack the code?

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.google.com/davincicode"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/davinci_large-739640.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br /><span class="byline-author">Posted by Wei-Hwa Huang, Software engineer and <a href="http://wpc.puzzles.com/history/index.htm">4-time World Puzzle Championship Individual Winner</a></span><br /><br />Back in college, I had this idea of an Internet-based puzzle extravaganza. It would have one thousand puzzles of various types, more than anyone could ever expect to solve in the time limit provided. It was all going to tie into a central theme and an intricate story.<br /><br />I got to about two hundred before I got exhausted (in both senses of the word).<br /><br />Almost a decade later, that dream has come true: a small group of us at Google, in cooperation with <a href="http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thedavincicode/">Sony Pictures</a>, have managed to create 12,358 original puzzles for <a href="http://www.google.com/davincicode?source=gb">The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google</a>.<br /><br />That's right, 12,358 (I'd make a joke about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number">Fibonacci numbers</a>, but that would be too obvious), all designed to honor both a fanatical puzzler’s sheer love of a mental challenge and the labyrinthine spirit of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Da Vinci Code</span> itself. They'll be released over the next 24 days, in the form of six different challenges at four difficulty levels, with enough variety that I think everyone will be able to find something they like and play it over and over -- although if you're in the U.S., you'll want to try to complete all 24 and make it to the Final Challenge, where I hear there's a <a href="http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicodequest/us/prizing/index.html">pretty nice prize package</a> awaiting the winner.<br /><br />I'm rather pleased with how this project fulfilled my youthful dream, and very proud of how well our team's creative synergies were able to mesh with the world of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Da Vinci Code</span>, the cinematic version of which will premiere just as the Quest wraps up. Yes, we'll have to turn the puzzles off then -- after all, how else are we going to get you all offline to join the rest of us in the multiplexes?<br /><br />Good luck, and more importantly, have fun!<br /><br />P. S. Okay, this wouldn’t be a <span style="font-style: italic;">Da Vinci</span>-related post if I didn’t give you a clue: if you really want a mental workout, try solving the Chess Challenges by looking only at the board, without using the multiple choices to help you. The training you get may very well prove helpful should you turn out to be one of the elite few who reach the Final Challenge.

Can you crack the code?

Posted by Wei-Hwa Huang, Software engineer and 4-time World Puzzle Championship Individual Winner Back in college, I had this idea of an Int...

Đọc thêm »

It's about time

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Carl Sjogreen, Product Manager</span><br /><br />We're all busy people. Whether it's work or play, school or family, every day is filled with stuff that takes time. Keeping track of schedules isn't easy, and frankly we haven't been too happy with the tools available. So we invite you to try <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar">Google Calendar</a> -- a tool that simplifies keeping track of events, special occasions, and appointments -- whether they’re on your own agenda or on the calendars of contacts who opt to share their schedules with you. <br /><br />First, we tried to make it <a href="http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/overview.html">fast and easy</a>. You can add events just by clicking and entering one line of simple event information. No muss, no fuss, no cumbersome forms to fill out. And it’s integrated with <a href="http://mail.google.com">Gmail</a> so you can add events mentioned in messages to your calendar with just one click.<br /><br />Second, we wanted to make sure you could use it to see all the events in your world. It’s drop-dead simple to see calendars from your friends and family, or calendars you find with the built-in calendar search tool, right next to your own calendar. You can choose to share as much or as little of your own calendar, too. <br /><br />Third, we focused on helping events come alive. You can turn any event on your calendar into an invitation just by adding the email addresses of your guests. They can see and respond to your invitation, whether or not they use Google Calendar themselves. Event reminders by email and text message to your mobile phone help you remember what’s on your agenda.<br /><br />Finally, we kept it open. Google Calendar supports the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar">iCal standard</a> so it cooperates with many other calendar applications, enabling you to easily get event data in and out. Also, webmasters can add customized Google Calendar event <a href="http://www.google.com/googlecalendar/event_publisher_guide.html">reminder buttons</a> to their pages, letting visitors quickly add copies of events to their calendars. <br /><br />We thought it was about time to let you take a look.

It's about time

Posted by Carl Sjogreen, Product Manager We're all busy people. Whether it's work or play, school or family, every day is filled wit...

Đọc thêm »

Day off for Dennis

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Rupert van Millingen, Google UK</span><br /><br />From time to time, we like to reflect the world we live in through the logo designs on our home page. These <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/holidaylogos.html">Google 'doodles'</a> are designed exclusively by the original Doodler, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/06/oodles-of-doodles.html">Dennis Hwang</a>. Here in the UK, we wanted to let Dennis have the day off and give someone local the chance to get their artwork in front of millions. After a successful <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/thanks-victoria-doodlers.html">pilot competition</a> in 2005, we're pleased to tell you that our 2006 "Doodle 4 Google - My Britain" competition is now open and accepting doodles from pupils ages 4-18 in all schools across the UK.<br /><br />A panel of experts will judge, narrowing the submissions down to a Top 30 and the public will vote for their favorites. The winning doodle will be hosted on the <a href="http://www.google.co.uk">Google.co.uk</a> home page for a day, and also bag the artist a trip for four to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. To get your (again, UK) school involved, please check out <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/doodle4google">Doodle 4 Google - My Britain</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/UK_doodle_paintpot-756541.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/UK_doodle_paintpot-745709.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a>

Day off for Dennis

Posted by Rupert van Millingen, Google UK From time to time, we like to reflect the world we live in through the logo designs on our home pa...

Đọc thêm »

This year's Anita Borg Scholarship winners

<span class="byline-author">Posted by April Yu and Jennifer Bostrom, University Programs</span><br /><br />It's that time of year when we happily announce the winners of the <a href="http://www.google.com/anitaborg/">2006 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship</a>. We're awarding 19 $10,000 scholarships to these outstanding young women -- graduate and undergraduate students who are completing degrees in computer science and related fields -- with our <a href="http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/anitaborg06.html">congratulations</a>:<br /><ul><li>Brianna Bethel, University of Colorado - Boulder</li><li>G. Ayorkor Mills - Tettey, Carnegie Mellon University</li><li>Gillian Rachael Hayes, Georgia Institute of Technology</li><li>Himabindu Pucha, Purdue University</li><li>Karen Fullam, University of Texas at Austin</li><li>Kristen Walcott, University of Virginia</li><li>Kristina Chodorow, New York University</li><li>Laura Rouse, Georgia Institute of Technology</li><li>Marta Magdalena Luczynska, Massachusetts Institute of Technology</li><li>Megan Olsen, University of Massachusetts Amherst</li><li>Michele Banko, University of Washington</li><li>Neven Abou Gazala, University of Pittsburgh</li><li>Parisa Michelle Tabriz, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign</li><li>Rebecca Nancy Nesson, Harvard University</li><li>Shana Kay Watters, University of Minnesota</li><li>Sharmishtaa Seshamani, Johns Hopkins University</li><li>Soumi Sinha, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign</li><li>Tracy Westeyn, Georgia Institute of Technology</li><li>Vinithra Varadharajan, Carnegie Mellon University</li></ul>And we also recognize these 28 highly qualified finalists, who will receive $1,000 awards from us:<br /><ul><li>Alicia Avelon Permell, Michigan Tech University</li><li>Anagha Mudigonda, Polytechnic University New York</li><li>Anna Tikhonova, University of California, Davis</li><li>Annie (Hsin-Wen) Liu, University of Washington</li><li>Ashima Kapur, Carnegie Mellon University</li><li>Cindy Rubio Gonzalez, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee</li><li>Delphine Nain, Georgia Institute of Technology</li><li>Divya Arora, Princeton University</li><li>Emily Grace Christiansen, University of Minnesota-Morris</li><li>Emily Shen, Stanford University</li><li>Erika Chin, University of Virginia</li><li>Eva Mok, University of California, Berkeley</li><li>Evelyn Mintarno, Stanford University</li><li>Gina Upperman, Rice University</li><li>Hayley Nicole Iben, University of California, Berkeley</li><li>Jiayue He, Princeton University</li><li>Jing Chen, University of Pennsylvania</li><li>Laureen Lam, San Jose State University</li><li>Lingyun Zhang, University of California, San Diego</li><li>Lu Xiao, Pennsylvania State University</li><li>Meeta Sharma Gupta, Harvard University</li><li>Moushumi Sharmin, Marquette University</li><li>Neha Rungta, Brigham Young University</li><li>Rachel Weinstein, Stanford University</li><li>Sunny Consolvo, University of Washington</li><li>Tanya Lee Ann Crenshaw, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</li><li>Valerie Hajdik, Texas A&M University</li><li>Xiaonan Zhao, Northwestern University</li></ul>

This year's Anita Borg Scholarship winners

Posted by April Yu and Jennifer Bostrom, University Programs It's that time of year when we happily announce the winners of the 2006 Goo...

Đọc thêm »

Out of the Wi-Fi wilderness

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Chris Sacca, Special Initiatives</span><br /><br />In Wi-Fi terms, I can go just 19 steps from my front door and still get coverage. The nearest coffee shop seems within reach -- but signal strength-wise, there's not enough power to pick it up. And the signal def­in­itely isn't strong enough to get to the res­taur­ant kitty-­corner from my place. Frankly, my home Wi-Fi connection works just enough to let me use it in the middle of oncoming traffic (especially dangerous considering that I live on a <a href="http://www.sfmuni.com/cms/mms/home/home50.htm">Muni</a> line). As soon as I take that 20th step, I either lose signal altogether, or have to pay some crazy amount of dough to jump onto the Internet at a paid hotspot.<br /><br />So when I'm out and about, how am I supposed to stay current on the filming of <a href="http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=owner%3Amchammer">M.C. Hammer's latest videos</a> in downtown San Francisco? Of course, I also need constant connectivity to keep tabs on the inventory of pirate supplies at <a href="http://www.826valencia.org/store/">826 Valencia</a>. And without Wi-Fi, how else can I check in on <a href="http://www.craigslist.org/mis/">craigslist missed connections</a> in real time? <br /><br />This is why I am especially excited to hear that the City and County of San Francisco <a href="http://www.sfgov.org/site/tech_connect_page.asp?id=38562">just chose the bid</a> from EarthLink and Google to offer <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/06/MNGCGI4CA71.DTL"> citywide Wi-Fi access</a>. If all goes well, construction will commence this year on a network that would provide it for free to virtually the entire city at speeds up to six times dial-up.<br /><br />I can't wait for Wi-Fi everywhere. Who knows? Pretty soon I might even be able to wirelessly place an order with the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/28/MN161258.DTL&type=news">Tamale Lady</a>. But first, I need to dodge this streetcar bearing down on me -- yikes!<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Update:</span> Revised first 3 sentences for clarity.

Out of the Wi-Fi wilderness

Posted by Chris Sacca, Special Initiatives In Wi-Fi terms, I can go just 19 steps from my front door and still get coverage. The nearest cof...

Đọc thêm »

Toolbar v2 for Firefox fans

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Justin Voskuhl, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />Here in the Kirkland, we've had one of the rainiest winters in a long time, giving me extra time to work on the latest release of the Google Toolbar for Firefox. Today, we're happy to release the beta version of <a href="http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/index.html">Google Toolbar 2 for Firefox</a>. If you were wondering what we were doing with that extra time indoors, Toolbar for Firefox is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux -- and in 16 languages.<br /><br />This new release includes feed integration with the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">Google Personalized Homepage</a> and a number of other feed readers. We've made searching better by including previous queries, spelling corrections, and suggestions for popular choices. Gmail fans might appreciate having the mailto: links in Firefox open a compose window in Gmail -– no more copying and pasting email addresses. And to combat the ever-increasing threat of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing">phishing</a>, we've integrated the Safe Browsing extension into Toolbar to alert you when a page is trying to steal sensitive information. Check out everything in the new Toolbar <a href="http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/static.py?page=features.html&v=2.0f">here</a>.<br /><br />As a dedicated <a href="http://www.getfirefox.com">Firefox</a> user, I think that the latest version enhances an already innovative browser. Meanwhile, you IE Toolbar 4 fans may notice that the feature sets aren't identical. That's because Firefox and IE users have different needs. Rest assured that we're working to get the most popular features in both versions.<br /><br />Here's my new customized Firefox Toolbar, showing my Google Personalized Homepage (built from feeds I discovered using the feed feature). It also gives me history, popular queries, and query corrections in my search box, which I moved to the upper right with the new custom layout.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/FF_Toolbar_suggs-714603.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/FF_Toolbar_suggs-710891.JPG" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a>

Toolbar v2 for Firefox fans

Posted by Justin Voskuhl, Software Engineer Here in the Kirkland, we've had one of the rainiest winters in a long time, giving me extra ...

Đọc thêm »

More feeds for speed

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Adam Sah, Software Engineer</span><br /><br />The personalized homepage has a <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory">new directory</a> with more content and more ways to browse, search and add it to your Google homepage. A lot of content owners have been asking for ways to drive adoption of their feeds and <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/homepage">modules</a>. One option is the <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/add.html">"Add to Google" button</a> you can add to your website as a way to quickly connect fans to your content. Enjoy all the new stuff and as always, <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Homepage-API">feel free to discuss</a>.

More feeds for speed

Posted by Adam Sah, Software Engineer The personalized homepage has a new directory with more content and more ways to browse, search and a...

Đọc thêm »