I went to the AV reunion last night at the Blue Chalk. Several of the guests were retained (or rehired) by Y! At the last reunion, some of the Y! folks' spirits seemed a bit low, in that they missed being in a smaller company, or felt they'd lost some autonomy. However, the Y! folks seemed a bit more upbeat this time. One person from marketing commented that the big difference he felt between AV and Y! is that Y! is willing to commit whatever resources (money) are necessary to compete with Google. It must be reassuring for people to feel that their company is willing (and able) to commit the necessary resources for them to do their jobs to the best of their ability. And it seems to be paying off, imho; for the queries I submit, Y!'s results are as good as Google's.

I've been enjoying Conway and Guy's The Book of Numbers. In the second chapter, the authors are using the construction of geometric shapes to illustrate some basic principles of number theory. Some of the pictures in the book reminded me of cuisinaires, which are toy wooden rods I used to play with when I was very young. (Here's a picture of someone playing with them; isn't that cute?) Incidentally, it surprises me that I can remember participating in activities that occurred almost 40 years ago. I hope that 40 years from now, my memory of my early childhood is still that good. Triggering this type of memory is a good sign that I'm on the right track towards developing my mathematical intuition, etc.