The Daily Cow

I learned a lot this summer at Facebook. Here's a list of things that I never really used before:

• Mac OS X. I managed the learning curve by staying mostly in the terminal and getting help from my friend Wei, an engineer at Apple
• iPhone: Admittedly there isn't much to "Learn" but it was a valuable experience using so the device so much
• Vim: Brian Harvey (Berkeley professor) pushed Emacs really hard, but Vim has many more features at our disposal. I'm still not very good at it--I don't use any advanced features--but I have become fairly productive in it. It's useful for development over ssh/shell, but I miss Visual Studio's IntelliSense or Eclipse's context-sensitive auto-complete.
• Git: I've been using exclusively SVN before this summer. I must admit that I have had many blunders with Git this summer--some of which took a good part of a day to figure out and recover from--but I am able to do enough to do basic tasks like branch, deal with conflicts, check in commits, etc.
• C++: I've written a lot of C before, but mostly for small independent programs. I have never worked with C or C++ on such a large scale before--and I wrote several hundred lines of C++, tested them, and deployed them. I now have lots of practice with the standard library, managing pointers, dealing with dependencies, etc.
• PHP: I've been doing PHP since 7th grade, but I admit that I've learned a lot of PHP in the summer. Some advanced (for PHP) features like interfaces and inheritance I have used only to the basic degree. I have never had to ask myself--which method does this call actually invoke? This class or its parent's?
• Javascript: I have become better at writing Javascript too, despite already having years of experience in it
• Thrift: I've only played with thrift before this summer through the Simon Says Facebook puzzle. I have learned so much more about it--how it ensures backward compatibility
• Tons of internal libraries, tools and technologies we have at Facebook. Some of the public ones include XHP. And there are tons of internal ones that I probably can't mention, such as our dependency-management system, our own javascript library, tools that allow us to get javascript functionality without having to write javascript, our deployment system, and many more
• Many non-work things: I have become better at chess and bughouse. I have learned backgammon, go, chinese chess (sort of), coloretto, and many other things.

The list is bigger if I include the technologies, tools or libraries that I have used or modified during my summer. In light of all I've learned and experienced, I believe that this summer was very successful.

Summer has arrived! We "cows" spend lots of time in the sun, so here is a review of the sunblock tested by your very own sunblock critic, me.

Coppertone Sport Sunblock Lotion, Ultra Sweatproof, SPF 30

This sunscreen is fairly cheap and easy to use. No fancy smells or perfume. It's quite runny despite the "ultra dry formula" label, which actually makes it easy to spread. However, be careful not to let it drip on the carpet or your clothes.

Target Sport Sunscreen - Continuous Spray, SPF 30

A no-rub sunscreen? It seemed like a good idea. However, breathing in the fumes was not fun. Also, the spray stinked up my room and carpet for hours. Be careful when spraying - a thin film did not seem to block as much UV. If you don't mind coughing on the fumes, this sunscreen is fast and convenient. Plus, it's transparent so you don't have to worry about walking around with a white blob on your nose.

Lancome UV Expert 20 Sunscreen, SPF 20

It's expensive ($35 for 3.4 oz. at Macy's), but it works very well and doesn't feel oily. Although the SPF is lower than the Target Sport Sunscreen above, it's better at blocking UV rays. It's white and has a thick consistency, so be wary of white patches after applying.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock, SPF 70

This sunblock works very well. It does smell a bit funny, but the smell is well worth the SPF 70 protection. Despite the high SPF, it feels "lighter" (less thick) than the Lancome sunblock. It's quite inexpensive - around $10 for a 3 oz. tube.

Alba Hawaiian Green Tea Suncreen, SPF 30

This smells good! It's probably the best smelling sunblock I've tried. Buy it for the smell! It's almost as runny as the Coppertone SPORT sunblock, so beware the drip.

Hawaiian Tropic 45plus Sunblock, SPF 45

One of my favorites. It smells good (like coconut) and works fine. However, it leaves my skin feeling oily, so I wouldn't use it on my face. Also, I'm a bit skeptical of the "all day waterproof."

That's all of the ones that I can remember! Feel free to post your own recommendations.

If I intend to accomplish anything this summer, I need to make it into a list:

1. Complete all of my work items and commitments and perform beyond expectations
2. Interact with other teams at Microsoft to see where I might be interested in working should I return (and get a return offer)--Windows Mobile, XBox (the Entertainment division in general), Internet Explorer (just because I want to make it better), and even Microsoft Shuttle Service (their assignment algorithm sucks) are on my list so far
3. Complete my Facebook application (40%)
4. Complete/pass all of the Facebook puzzles (5%)
5. Read through the 1000 page corporate finance textbook (10%)
6. If you click here, the world will explode

   (99%)

7. Swim at least twice a week (100% so far)
8. Get my bike fixed. (100%)
9. At the end of the summer, update my resume

Things I will work on in the summer:

1. Sharpen (ahem) my C sharp skills: Build some useful windows form applications
2. Learn ASP.NET -- should not be too difficult given #1
3. Learn to cook more things, cook them better and more efficiently
4. Read at least half of the books I've received in my first three weeks. That would be two of four
5. Renovate originxt.com
6. Reclaim all of my 2008 losses from the stock market (Ha, yeah right)

Hopefully I achieve all of the first list, and do a fair share of what I can from the second list.