Saturday, October 25, 2003

Researcher Techtor-ga

Interviewed: Google Answers’ Techtor-Ga (with 150 answers so far).

Techtor-ga

What’s your first name?

Carlos. Chino is my nickname.

Whereabouts are you located, and what’s your profession?

I live in my bunker dug in someplace safe in Quezon City, Philippines. I work on Google Answers full time (should I say fool time?). But I do writing, fiction and feature, on the side, and I’m pursuing other jobs I can do on the Net. I’m eyeing medical transcription or similar stuff right now.

Do you have a blog or some other kind of homepage?

Blog? Sounds like something on a Rorshach test. Last time I took that test, the thing tasted awful.

What’s the story behind your Researcher alias?

If you’ve heard of the Japanese live-action scifi series Winspector, the heroes are known as Fire-tector, Bikle-tector, etc., so I took the last part to become “Techtor”. Also, “Techtor” does sound like a guy who’s full of nuts and bolts and not nuts over people, eh?

... on Google Answers

What would be an especially fun question for you to answer?

Anything interesting. Like the Star Wars and anime questions I answered.

What were some of the most interesting discoveries you made during your research activity?

Well, one surprising thing is that some commenters can be helpful and supportive.

I also realized that I can answer questions I know nothing about. As long as the asker just asks me to find things. Hehe.

Can you give an example of a question where you think the road of discovery (or the ways to get to the answer) was highly unusal, funny, or interesting?

I guess the same question as above. It was unusual for that commenter to help me, and the asker to rate me that highly and with a big tip. It surprised me.
Sorry, I don’t give much attention to what I feel when I’m at Google Answers, I’m pretty much like my usernamesake, robotic. ;)

Hypothetical Musings

If an omniscient deity would be a Google Answers Researcher, which question would you ask?

Uh, does she love me?

Which famous person, dead or alive, would make a great addition to the Researcher team?

Sun Tzu. Great military strategist, great mind, and right to the point.
I’ve also been thinking of the poet Charles Baudelaire. Bohemian minds probably compose the most entertaining answers and searing flame messages.

What would be a great new site on the Web... something no one ever thought of, or something plain impossible?

A site where you put in any amount of money, and a check comes to you with that money the day after.

What do you think would be the one question a being from another planet would be most interested in having answered upon arriving on earth, and spending one day with us humans?

“Wow, you Earthlings actually live like that and you’re all still alive?”

Techtor’s Favorites

What are your favorite research tools, on- and offline?

Google search engine. That’s all I could use for now.

You are in charge of the Webby awards next year – who’s winning for which category?

I couldn’t think of entries, but I can think of the categories. After all, it’s the categories that are interesting:

1. Nastiest flame message ever! > - I’d rather not name names, or I’ll get flamed. ;)
2. Most Bohemian website
3. Least updated website for the longest time
4. Most Oh what the heck! website (makes you go somewhere else)
5. Website with the coolest colors (doesn’t hurt the eyes)
6. I hate Flash/Java! website
7. Most shocking website

Which is an example of a Google Answer another Researcher provided which really opened your eyes on something and made you go “Wow, I didn’t know that"?

I feel that way with most market research questions I couldn’t do but get answered by others. I don’t really look at others’ answers as I just go about my business.

Oh yeah, Pinkfreud told me something about a certain quote I thought I found the source of, but it turned out to be something else.

Spare-time

What’s your most unusual hobby?

Uh, banging my head on the desk while listening to some 80’s disco or dance.

What are some of your favorite books, movies, and music albums?

I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy books, so Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series takes the cake.
I don’t care much for movies, but the like of Stars Wars, Godzilla, Rambo, The Last Starfighter and Conan interest me.
Music, Diamonds and Emeralds by Care. Plus I have a lot of bootlegs of 80’s, new wave and some Japanese hero themes.

Friday-Five

1. How are you planning to spend the winter?

Cool.

2. What was your first summer job?

Babysitter for my nephews.

3. If you could go anywhere this winter, where would you go?

Antarctica, maybe.

4. What was your worst vacation ever?

Probably when I said, “I should go somewhere for a vacation,” then I went back to bed and fell asleep. Go figure.

5. What was your best vacation ever?

My dreams. :)

Final words by Techtor-ga

Who would play you in a movie on your life... and what would the tagline on the movie poster be?

Hmm, pretty hard... anybody I guess who could play disturbed souls well would do... or someone who could hide insanity under a saintly face... Michael Keaton or Oliver Platt maybe...

Tagline: “Help this guy find a life... or lose yours...”

Anything else you might want to say?

Well, I am what I am, you guys are what you are. Be yourselves. Don’t be just like anybody else. Don’t be normal.

Researcher Techtor-ga by Philipp Lenssen

Google to IPO

“So if Google goes public, the question then becomes who they plan to acquire.”
– Tristan Louis, Google to IPO*, October 24, 2003.

*"In the United States, an IPO (initial public offering) is a first and one-time only sale of publicly tradable stock shares in a company that has previously been owned privately. An IPO is also sometimes known as ’going public.’” (Whatis.com)

Google to IPO by Philipp Lenssen

>> More posts

Advertisement