Meet the dentist

A dentist office in Belgium is little Taj Mahal (were Shah Jahan a dentist). The office is squeeky clean, marble floors, spectacular cabinets and the latest chair and drills. Cleaning your teeth is a pleasant experience where a special tool does all the work.

My experiences with dentists in California has been quiet different. The offices have nowhere the same look and feel: often with carpet, the dentist chair could be easily from the 70's. I've rinsed afterwards at a kitchen sink. My first dentist was a husband and wife office. Everyone was very friendly. But when it was time to clean my teeth, the metal scraper from the middle ages came out. Since both were from Teheran, I thought, their training must have prepared them to practice dentistry in every situation, even when no drills or electricity was around. Teeth cleaning was overall unpleasant.

So I switched and I called 1-800-dentist (from the commercial on television). This is a free dentist referral service. My new dentist was more of a car salesman than a dentist. After evaluating my teeth, he concluded quickly I needed a new crown. He went into his side office, and started tapping on his calculator. A bit later he came out and told me: "The procedure normally costs $xyz, but after taking the insurance into account it would be $xy. However, if I were willing to agree to the new crown procedure today, and only for today, it would be $y." Hold on a second. Next up would be a pitch about upgrades, I guess. So, I thanked him and left his office. Oh yeh, again teeth cleaning was done via the metal scraper. By now, I was convinced this was the common practice. I went back to my first dentist. But I had seen nothing yet.

A few days ago, I took my son to a pediatric dentist. The waiting room is wonderfully decorated in a Hawaian theme. There are three reception islands. They were well prepared: they greeted my son my name and asked him who he had brought along with him. This is all about him. After we watched a bit of Dora the Explorer on television, we were invited by the Patient Counseler. Her job was to make the kids feel at ease and answer if we had any questions. She explained him what to expect next. She also took a picture to hang at the wall of smilling kids, and if there were no cavities, he would join the no-cavity club and could win prizes. Then, she invited us to meet the dentist. The room had six modern chairs in two rows. There were four more in offices along the side, for more involved procedures. Everything continued in the Hawaian theme. There were about six dentists, overseen by two head dentists. Each kid gets a wireless headset to listen to the cartoons, playing on six televisions in the ceiling! It was amazing. Prior to the visit, we completed a form with personal info: his favorite colors, movies, etc. When he got stickers, they were the ones of the cartoon he likes. The balloon was in green with a black ribbon, to match his new tootbrush, and in his favorite color. You can not make this stuff up. But I got to tell you: it was the best customer service of any dentist I've visited. And they make the kids love the dentist. My son asked the next day, if we could go and visit again.

Early detection, early response

Several months ago, Larry Brilliant was named Executive Director of the Google Foundation. I had never heard of Larry Brilliant. Google watchers headlined: “Grateful Dead doctor to head the Google Foundation”. So, they hired a hippie. It wasn’t until I watched the presentation of Larry Brilliant at TED, that I understood why he was an excellent choice to preside over some of the Google monies.

Download this talk: Audio (MP3) | Video (MP4)

More TEDTalks: TEDTalks website | iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video)

TEDPrize winner Larry Brilliant is an epidemiologist who presided over the last case of Smallpox on the planet. He also founded the Seva Foundation, which works to reverse cases of blindness, and co-founded several technology start-ups, including the legendary online community, The Well. He was recently named Executive Director of the Google Foundation. In this talk, he explains in fascinating detail the key behind the successful WHO campaign to eradicate Smallpox, and then unveils his TEDPrize wish: to build a global system that detects each new disease or disaster as it emerges or occurs. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 26:34)

Another great series of well-doing is the three part interview of Charlie Rose with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, following Buffet's $31Billion gift to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
Charlie Rose - Warren Buffett: The Man - Part One in a Three Part Series (Part 2 and 3 can also be found at video.google.com).

Technorati: Google TED Larry Brilliant Warren Buffett

breydel.blogspot.com as a graph

Today, I came across an interesting way to look at websites: websites as a graph. Here's a way the HTML of http://breydel.blogspot.com looks like. (Other graphs can be find at flickr tag websitesasgraph.)

blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

Attitude Control

I've been several weeks in my new job, when an email about attitude control arrives in my inbox. Great, after merely a few weeks and unbeknown to me, I apparently have rubbed somebody the wrong way. Week 2 coincided with the annual company offsite and retreat (this year to the Chaminade in Santa Cruz) with all the families. So, I got to know and interact with everybody in the company. However, my day to day interactions are with a small team of about ten people. Who was it?

Upon reading the email, my fears subdued and I was convinced it was a typo and should have been altitude control. Wrong again. When I consulted the reference book for the project I am currently working on, attitude control system or attitude determination and control system (ADCS) stabilizes a spacecraft and orients it in desired directions during the mission.

Pew, no attitude control required. I am still the quiet lamb I used to be. Baaaah Baah