最近在网上看到一个不错的在线任务管理工具：Remember The Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com)。这个网站的名字很有意思，设计也应用了当前最流行的Web 2.0技术。PCWorld评价它说“Remember The Milk 重造了任务列表（Todo list）”。运用这个工具，你可以管理个人的日常任务，也可以和同事朋友共享任务，也可以分配任务给他人，相当方便。而且它还提供了和主流网络工具比如Gmail、Google Calendar等的整合。

也许Google应该把这个小公司买下来，整合到它的产品线里面。

今天看到一篇不错的Blog文章，是Google一个VP给学生的建议，转帖在此，和大家分享。

Management guru Peter Drucker noted that companies attracting the best knowledge workers will "secure the single biggest factor for competitive advantage." We and other forward-looking companies put a lot of effort into hiring such people. What are we looking for?

At the highest level, we are looking for non-routine problem-solving skills. We expect applicants to be able to solve routine problems as a matter of course. After all, that's what most education is concerned with. But the non-routine problems offer the opportunity to create competitive advantage, and solving those problems requires creative thought and tenacity.

Here's a real-life example, a challenge a team of our engineers once faced: designing a spell-checker for the Google search engine. The routine solution would be to run queries through a dictionary. The non-routine, creative solution is to use the query corrections and refinements that other users have made in the past to offer spelling suggestions for new queries. This approach enables us to correct all the words that aren't in the dictionary, helping many more users in the process.
How do we find these non-routine savants? There are many factors, of course, but we primarily look for ...

... analytical reasoning. Google is a data-driven, analytic company. When an issue arises or a decision needs to be made, we start with data. That means we can talk about what we know, instead of what we think we know.

... communication skills. Marshalling and understanding the available evidence isn't useful unless you can effectively communicate your conclusions.

... a willingness to experiment. Non-routine problems call for non-routine solutions and there is no formula for success. A well-designed experiment calls for a range of treatments, explicit control groups, and careful post-treatment analysis. Sometimes an experiment kills off a pet theory, so you need a willingness to accept the evidence even if you don't like it.

... team players. Virtually every project at Google is run by a small team. People need to work well together and perform up to the team's expectations.

... passion and leadership. This could be professional or in other life experiences: learning languages or saving forests, for example. The main thing, to paraphrase Mr. Drucker, is to be motivated by a sense of importance about what you do.

These characteristics are not just important in our business, but in every business, as well as in government, philanthropy, and academia. The challenge for the up-and-coming generation is how to acquire them. It's easy to educate for the routine, and hard to educate for the novel. Keep in mind that many required skills will change: developers today code in something called Python, but when I was in school C was all the rage. The need for reasoning, though, remains constant, so we believe in taking the most challenging courses in core disciplines: math, sciences, humanities.

And then keep on challenging yourself, because learning doesn't end with graduation. In fact, in the real world, while the answers to the odd-numbered problems are not in the back of the textbook, the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market. Learning, it turns out, is a lifelong major.

今天听了Ivar Jacobson的Presentation。Ivar是一个瑞典人，早年是爱立信的首席架构师。他看起来年纪真的不小了，还要在世界各地四处奔波讲学，实在不易。他的口音显然是欧洲的口音，听起来不是很习惯，更像是英式英语。一场presentation听下来，主要的收获就是：

1. 好的软件应该是有用的、可扩展的和稳定可靠的；
2. 要想快速做出好的软件，主要依靠有能力和热情的人员。

Dr. Jacobson还是很幽默的，中间甚至穿插了一个笑话。但总的来说，他更显得是一个学者，不像一些市场销售人员的presentation那样有煽动力。

明天将会有幸听到Dr. Ivar Jacobson的Presentation，有些期待。Jacobson是软件业的大牛之一，发明了UML和RUP。他前些年从Rational（后来被IBM收购）出来创立了自己的咨询公司（http://www.ivarjacobson.com/locales/china.cfm），在中国应该有不少业务，所以最近常在CSDN上看到他去北京的消息。