Holy Shit Black Ice

Posted on January 15, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

I was driving up to Stevens Pass this Sunday and had an encounter with black ice. I was just driving along listening to music in two-wheel-drive, and I decided to change lanes. The road looked wet, but right when I started turning I lost control and started spinning. My car spun 90 degrees and started gaining traction, so we started heading for the snow bank. I slammed into the snow bank going about 25-30 mph at 90 degrees and went up on two wheels. At this point, I said to myself, “Shit we’re flipping.” I think I also yelled to my passengers, “Hang on!” Before I knew it we were back on four wheels and spinning. We stopped spinning to finish a perfect 360. Holy shit.

I asked my passengers if they were OK, and they said they were. We drove up a little ways to get off the road, and I got out to check the car. I slipped on the pavement while getting out of the car. My car had very little damage and drove away just fine. I have a new respect for Toyota Trucks, and the accident made me appreciate my car even more. I’m glad that my passengers are OK and my truck only sustained small damage, but the experience scared the crap out of me. We had an awesome day at Stevens and a safe drive back. I’m heading to Whistler this weekend, and I’m going to click on four-wheel-drive a little earlier this time ;).

Check these photos out:

Netsol.com And Their Unfair Search Practices

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

I’ve been trying to help a friend setup a blog, so I told him to pick a domain. I pointed him to netsol.com (Network Solutions) to find a domain to use, because I find their domain search tool to be very useful. My friend did some searching and found a domain that he liked. I pointed him to WingSix, which is the registrar that I prefer to use. He did a search on WingSix with plans to purchase and got a message saying that the domain was taken. We returned to Network Solutions to see if the domain was still available there, and it was. We then did a whois lookup to see if someone did own it, and someone does.

It turns out that Network Solutions registers every domain that you search for. That means that if you do a search on Network Solutions for a domain, then they’ll exclusively own the domain. You now have two options: purchase the domain through Network Solutions or choose another domain and search for the domain elsewhere. So what’s the catch? Network Solutions adds a fee to your bill when registering a domain that they own, so instead of costing $9 / year, your domain will cost $40 / year (at least for the first year).

In the extreme case that the whole internet used Network Solutions for searching, Network Solutions would own all new domains, turning themselves into a monopoly.

Update: pledge this if you disagree with their practices or sign the online petition! Digg this posts and that article as well!

Update 2: Apparently Network Solutions is going to get rid of this policy! CNet has more.

Google Shanghai Here I Come

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

Well it’s officially. I’ve decided to work for Google in Shanghai with a friend of mine, Christophe Bisciglia. I had to choose between Redfin in Seattle and Google in Shanghai, and the decision was not an easy one. Check it out:

Redfin
Pros
Insanely awesome coworkers. Unbeatable coworkers. Incredible company. Radical work. Great learning experience.

Cons
Located in Seattle. Won’t get better at engineering.

Google
Pros
Super challenging engineering work. Managerial experience. Located in Shanghai. Resume booster. Awesome boss.

Cons
Won’t get better at wireframing or specing.

This was a really hard decision. On one hand, I have a company that I truly love in a place that I really don’t like much at all. On the other hand, I have an insane opportunity with a prestigious company and super technical work. I decided on Google mostly because it would be a great segway into the Bay Area. I’d much rather start my life in the Bay, and Google in Shanghai is a great way to start that goal. I’ll get killer experience in Shanghai, which should make job hunting in the Bay much more easy. Shanghai is a crazy town as well, so just being there a few months will be an experience in and of itself. Redfin would also be a powerful experience, but I’m not willing to spend a few more years in Seattle. In fact, I’m scared of working in Seattle for a few more years.

I interned this past summer for Redfin in Seattle, and I found myself having a killer time at work and a boring/depressing time at home for the most part. I was limited a lot by the weather, and many of my college friends were home for the summer. I’m scared that if I were to stay in Seattle, the happiness gap between work and my personal life would grow too large. One could say, “Well why don’t you just leave Seattle if you get depressed?” My response is that I’m worried I might push myself to stay in Seattle until my shares at Redfin vest. Knowing me I’ll want to just stick it out and get my shares, and I don’t think that’s a healthy thing to do.

The Bay Area is still far from the people I love, but it’s much closer than Seattle. The Bay is also pretty close to Mammoth, which is a place where my friends, family, and I congregate all the time. It’s also my favorite place to snowboard. The Bay is also way closer to the ocean, making surfing much more accessible.

I believe I’m making the right decision, and I know that Shanghai will be an adventure to say the least. I just know I’m going to cry when I say goodbye to the rock-solid friends I’ve made at Redfin. I’m gonna miss you guys.

My First Cycling Accident

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

Check these pictures out. I was turning onto Valley St. from Fairview Ave. N. and got caught in a train track. Here’s the map. I fell so fast that I didn’t even have time to avoid it. I thought I was hitting the tracks at a good enough angle, but I guess I was wrong. I went down and luckily didn’t get run over by the cars behind and beside me. I messed up my handle bars, pedal, back axle, left elbow, and left chin, but me and my bike are fine. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

This was definitely an eye-opener for me. I need to be more careful in traffic, and I need to avoid train tracks at all costs. I knew train tracks were bad prior to this accident, but now I understand their true wrath.

Bonus image thanks to Sierra:

You Want a Viral Site? Do this.

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

I’ve now failed twice at making a viral site (Cellarspot and Helpd). I’m starting to notice that this blog is growing virally. I think I learned something tonight. If you want a viral site, then you must at least do the following things:

Create features that will allow users to share
1. Invitations, tell-a-friends, etc
Create features to get people to link to you
1. RSS feeds, widgets, etc
Offer a good product and/or good content

Invitations and tell-a-friends make it easy for users to get their friends involved. RSS feeds and widgets make it easy for your content to be placed on other sites. When your content is placed on other sites, it’s much more likely to be viewed by people who haven’t heard of you yet. For example, my blog has an RSS feed (thank you, WordPress), and some people subscribe to my RSS feed with their Google Reader. Some of these Google Reader people share certain posts with their gFriends, which puts my blog in front of the eyes of people that haven’t heard of me yet. Item 3 is a tossup, because I’m not convinced that my blog has good content ;).

Perhaps this is old news to some people, but I wanted to share just in case.

Am I missing anything? Want to add anything? Write a comment.

Update: more here and here.

Friends and Family in High School, College, then Real Life

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

I’ve gone to school in Seattle for three-and-a-half years, and I’m originally from Los Angeles. This past summer was my first summer away from home; I worked (and still work part-time) for Redfin in Seattle. Lately I’ve been spending tons of time thinking about where I want to spend my life. On one hand, I can work for Redfin in Seattle, and on the other hand, I can work for Google in China for a few months and then look for work in the Bay Area.

I think Seattle and the Bay Area both offer similar benefits – outdoor activities, fun nightlife, snowboarding, interesting people, etc. The largest difference between Seattle and the Bay Area, at least for me, is their distance to Los Angeles and to the people I love. While trying to figure out if I want to live in Seattle or the Bay Area, I did a lot of thinking about friendships and family relationships and how they’ve changed over time for me.

High School
Friends
I had insanely good friends in high school. There were seven of us including me, and we did everything together. We road tripped, camped, surfed, snowboarded, played videogames, watched TV, saw movies, and did just about everything else together. We cried when the first of us left for college. We saw each other at least once or twice a day in high school, and we all shared insanely strong emotional connections. We had the same interests, the same personalities, and the same values. I love those guys, and I’ll always remember the awesome times we had.

Family
I loved my family in high school, but I wanted to spend more time with my friends. I enjoyed spending time with my family – snowboarding with my brother and dad, cooking with my mom and sister, and doing all the other things we would do. I cried when I left home for college, and I cried a lot when I said goodbye to my mom in her hotel room in Seattle. When I think of high school, I don’t really think of family, but that’s not to say that I didn’t love my family and spend lots of time with them.

College
Friends
In high school, my friends and I would call one and other most days to figure out what was going on. In college, I find that there are only a few friends of mine whom I speak with regularly about what is going on. I’ve made lots of good friends in college, but I only see most of them every few weeks. Perhaps this is because I’ve become so involved in my work and my schooling. Perhaps this is because I let my high school memories consume my thoughts to the point that I don’t make a large enough effort to see my college friends more.

I’ve found that I’ve grown apart from many of my insanely good high school friends — one moved to London, another broke up with me, and two others changed their interests a lot in college. On the other hand, my bond between the other two of my high school friends has gotten stronger. We act exactly how we would act in high school when we’re home for break. We call each other every day to get a game of soccer going, session the half-pipe, drive to Mammoth, or hit the surf. We miss each other when we’re away from home, but we always look forward to seeing each other when we’re back for break. We talk every few weeks over the phone, and we visit each other once every year or so.

Family
My relationship with my family has gotten insanely stronger since I’ve been at college. Spending time away from home really made me realize how incredible my family really is. My sister and I stopped fighting over stupid things like the toilet seat being up. I find myself wanting to spend more and more time with my family as time goes on, and I find myself getting slightly more homesick the longer I’m away from home. I miss them when I’m away, and I want to spend lots of time with them when I’m home.

Real Life
I’m not in “real life” yet, but I feel like my descriptions here are accurate because I spent a summer away from home. The summer away from home is probably a good preview of how life would be after college.

Friends
You see your friends on your vacations. In real life, you probably have two or three weeks of vacation, and the chances are good that unless you make a large effort, you’ll see your good high school and college friends only during those vacations. That sucks! There are no more breaks where we’ll all be in town together. No no. Instead we’ll have to coordinate trips and vacations to make sure that we’re all in town together at the same time. You have to try hard to see your friends if you’re away from them.

Family
Same thing goes with family. You no longer have room in your schedule to automatically go home for break. You have to make an effort to plan vacations and head home if you’re away. You have to take weekend trips. Seeing your family and friends if you’re away from them isn’t an automatic thing anymore.

I believe that we’ll all come across some people that become our best friends, and I believe that those friends can be found at any point in our lives. I know of some people that have made life-long friends in college, and I for sure made life-long friends in high school and in college. I also know of some people who have made life-long friends after college. I believe that as we grow older and begin to commit ourselves to our work, life partners, and family, we have to make a large effort to never lose touch with our friends and family that we once would kill to see. I’ve realized that the chances of me being away from my friends and family after college are very high, so now I know that I’m just going to have to make an effort to frequently call and visit. I find that most of my motivation comes from my family and friends, and I’m now making a promise to them and to me that I’ll never lose touch with them, even if we’re hundreds of miles away.

Maybe I’m being too dramatic here; maybe I should go to the city with the best opportunity and make new friends. No. I will make new friends, but I will never lose touch with my old friends and my family.

Mammoth Mountain: Why I Think It’s the Best

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Alex Loddengaard

I recently returned from a long visit to Mammoth Mountain. I had a few different conversations up there about Mammoth’s awesomeness and its comparison to other mountains such as Whistler, Vail, Alta, and Squaw, so I wanted to share my views on Mammoth.

I will start by making the claim that Mammoth is the best – the best terrain, the best lifts, and some of the best conditions. I don’t travel to mountains to party, eat good food, or shop; I travel to mountains to shred. I have one goal in mind: snowboard long and hard. I go to sleep early, I eat home-cooked breakfasts and dinners, and I pack my own lunches (if I’m not lazy at the time). My time spent at mountains is centered around snowboarding, and everything I do outside of snowboarding is focused on recovering from a ridiculous day or getting ready for another sick day. Mammoth is definitely not the best place for nightlife, food, and shopping, but I don’t really care about those aspects. Oh, and I don’t spend any time in the park.

Mammoth has the best terrain of any mountain I’ve ever been to. I don’t know what to do with myself at Mammoth. There are so many ski-able acres of insanely steep alpine, insanely steep and gladed trees, huge and fast groomers, and giant hucks. In one day you can get the best turns of your life through the trees and later go faster than you’ve ever gone down an untracked alpine double-black. In that same day you can launch a giant cliff and point a ridiculously narrow chute. The terrain at Mammoth is unbeatable. No other mountain has the variety, the difficult, and the insanity. No other mountain is as accessible either, which leads me into my next point: lifts.

Mammoth has the best lifts of any mountain I’ve ever been to. If there is a sick run, then there will be a lift going over it. You can make lap after lap on most of the terrain that I just discussed. Chair 22 starts at the bottom of Lincoln mountain and ends at the top. You can make 20 runs down the best tree skiing you’ve ever done in one day on Lincoln mountain. You can also leave Lincoln and 10-15 minutes later be at the steepest alpine you’ve ever done, gondola 2 or chair 23. You can then shred lap after lap on that alpine hill. There are lifts that let you lap the sickest runs, and there are lifts that take you from one sick run to another.

Mammoth has some of the best conditions of any mountain I’ve ever been to. It’s true that the snow in Mammoth is typically heavier than Colorado and Utah snow, but the dumps that hit Mammoth are legendary. I’ve been at Mammoth when they’ve gotten seven feet of snow in one day. I’ve also been there when they’ve gotten over twelve feet of snow in a three-day weekend. The snow is heavier but insanely plentiful. Mammoth is also good at handling these huge dumps. A lot of resorts will shut down with a three-foot dump, but Mammoth won’t. They’ll bomb the alpine slopes and leave the tree sections alone, and they’ll have the mountain ready to go in the morning. A lot of times I will be woken up at 5:00 or 6:00am the morning after a big dump because of the avalanche control. There’s nothing like the sound of bombs going off in the morning.

As you can tell, I love Mammoth. I think it’s the best mountain, but I naturally have a bias. I’ve spent my whole life on Mammoth, so I know it like the back of my hand. I know where to go when the snow is good, and I know where to go when the snow is bad. If you haven’t gone to Mammoth yet and you love the snow, then you should get down there. Unfortunately it’s difficult to get to because there are no nearby airports, but the drives to and from give you lots of time to reflect on the nastiest trip of your life. Oh, and don’t forget to dress like a superstar, because the image-driven Los Angeles crowd will be dressed to kill. (this is actually one of the few annoying things about Mammoth – people are dressed like idiots usually)

Surf Roots, Software Thoughts

A blog by Alex Loddengaard

Monthly Archives: January 2008