CHAPTER I. DOWN THE RABBITHOL. This was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversations? So she was considering in her own mind, as well as she could, for the day made her feel very sleepy and stupid, whether the pleasure of making a daisy chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her. There was nothing so very remarkable in that, nor did Alice think so very much out of the way to hear the rabbit say to itself, O dear, O dear, I shall be too late. But when the rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat pocket or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit hole under the hedge. In another moment, down went Alice after it. The rabbit hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well. Either the well was very deep or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her. First, she tried to make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything. Then she looked at the sides of the well and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and bookshelves. Here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed. She was labelled Orange Marmalade, but to her great disappointment it was empty. She did not like to drop the jar, so she managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it. Down, down, down, would the fall never come to an end? There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking to herself. Dina will miss me very much tonight, I should think. Dina was the cat. I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea time. Dina, my dear, I wish you were down here with me.  Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up in a moment. She looked up, but it was all dark overhead. Before her was another long passage, and the wide rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost. Away went Alice like the wind and was just in time to hear it say as she turned to corner. Oh, my, ears and whiskers, how late it's getting! She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the rabbit was no longer to be seen. She found herself in a long, low hall which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked, and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again. Finally she came upon a little table, all made of solid glass. There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall. But alas, either the locks were too large or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high. She tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted. Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole. She knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway.  I think I could if I only knew how to begin. Alice went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate, a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes. This time she found a little bottle on it, which certainly was not here before, said Alice, and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label with the words, Drink Me, beautifully printed on it in large letters. No, I'll look first, she said, and see whether it's marked poison or not. For she had never forgotten that if you drink from a bottle marked poison it is almost certain to disagree with you sooner or later. However, this bottle was not marked poison, so Alice ventured to taste it. And finding it very nice, it had a sort of mixed flavor of cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast. She very soon finished it off. What a curious feeling, said Alice. I must be shutting up like a telescope. And so it was indeed. She was now only 10 inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. After a while, finding that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once. But alas for poor Alice, when she got to the door she found she had forgotten the little golden key. And when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it. She could see it quite plainly through the glass. And she tried her best to climb up on one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery. And when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried. Come, there's no use crying like that, said Alice to herself rather sharply. I advise you to leave off this minute. She generally gave herself very good advice, though she very seldom followed it. And sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes.  She opened it and found in it a very small cake on which the words, eat me, were beautifully marked in currents. Well, I'll eat it, said Alice. And if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key. And if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door. So either way, I'll get into the garden. And I don't care which happens. She ate a little bit and said anxiously to herself, which way, which way, holding her hand on the top of her head to feel which way she was growing, and she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size. So she set to work and very soon finished off the cake. End of chapter one. Chapter two of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Kirsten Ferrari. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Chapter two, The Pool of Tears. Curiouser and curiouser cried Alice. She was so much surprised that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English. Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was. Goodbye, feet.  I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you." Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall. In fact, she was now rather more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door. Poor Alice, it was as much as she could do lying down on one side to look through into the garden with one eye, but to get through was more hopeless than ever. She sat down and began to cry again. She went on shedding gallons of tears until there was a large pool all around her and reaching half down the hall. After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the distance and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.  He came trotting along in a great hurry muttering to himself, oh, the duchess, the duchess, oh, won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting? When the rabbit came near her, Alice began, in a low timid voice, if you please, sir. The rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid-gloves and the fan and scurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go. Alice took up the fan and gloves and she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking.  And yesterday things went on just as usual. Was I the same when I got up this morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is, who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle. As she said this, she looked down at her hands and was surprised to see that she had put on one of the rabbit's little white kid-gloves while she was talking. How can I have done that, she thought? I must be growing small again. She got up and went to the table to measure herself by it and found that she was now about two feet high and was going on shrinking rapidly. She soon found out that the cause of this was a fan she was holding and she dropped it hastily just in time to save herself from shrinking away altogether. That was a narrow escape, said Alice, a good deal frightened at the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in existence. And now for the garden.  Things are worse than ever, thought the poor child, for I never was so small as this before, never. As she said these words, her foot slipped, and in another moment, splashed, she was up to her chin in salt water. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea. However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high. Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a little way off, and she swam nearer to see what it was. She soon made out that it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself. Would it be of any use now, thought Alice, to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out of the way down here that I should think it very likely it can talk. At any rate there's no harm in trying. So she began, oh, mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, oh, mouse. The mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing. Perhaps it doesn't understand English, thought Alice. I daresay it's a French mouse. Come over with William the Conqueror. So she began again, ois-macha, which was the first sentence in her French lesson-book. The mouse gave a sudden leap out of the water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright. Oh, I beg your pardon, cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had heard the poor animal's feelings. I quite forgot you didn't like cats. Not like cats, cried the mouse, in a shrill, passionate voice. Would you like cats if you were me? Well, perhaps not, said Alice in a soothing tone. Don't be angry about it. And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dina. I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She's such a dear, quiet thing. The mouse was bristling all over, and she felt certain it must be really offended. We won't talk about her any more, if you'd rather not. We indeed, cried the mouse, who is trembling down to the end of its tail, as if I would talk on such a subject. Our family always hated cats, nasty, low, vulgar things. Don't let me hear the name again. I won't indeed, said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of the conversation. Are you fond of dogs?  I should like to show you. It kills all the rats. And oh dear, cried Alice, in a sorrowful tone. I'm afraid I've offended it again. For the mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and making quite a commotion in the pool as it went. So she called softly after it. Mouse, dear, do come back again. And we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't like them. When the mouse heard this, it turned round and swam slowly back to her. Its face was quite pale, and it said in a low, trembling voice, Let us get to the shore. And then I'll tell you my history.  It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and animals that had fallen into it. There were a duck, and a dodo, a lorry, and an eaglet, and several other curious creatures. Alice led the way. And the whole party swam to shore. CHAPTER III. A Caucus Race and a Long Tale. They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank, the birds with draggled feathers, the animals with their fur clinging close to them, and all dripping wet, cross, and uncomfortable. The first question, of course, was how to get dry again. They had a consultation about this, and after a few minutes it seemed quite natural to Alice to find herself talking familiarly with them, as if she had known them all her life. At last the mouse, who seemed to be a person of some authority among them, called out, Sit down, all of you, and listen to me, I'll soon make you dry enough. They all sat down at once, in a large ring with the mouse in the middle. A hem! said the mouse, with an important air. Are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round, if you please. William the Conqueror, whose cause was favoured by the Pope, was soon submitted to the English who wanted leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria— Ugg, said the lorry, with a shiver. And even Stigant, the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury, found it advisable. Found what? said the duck. Found it! the mouse replied rather crossly. Of course you know what it means. I know what it means well enough when I find a thing, said the duck. It's generally a frog or a worm. The question is what did the archbishop find? The mouse did not notice this question, but hurriedly went on. Found it advisable to go with Edgar Atheling to meet William and offer him the crown. How are you getting on now, my dear? It continued, turning to Alice as it spoke. As wet as ever, said Alice, in a melancholy tone, it doesn't seem to dry me at all. In that case, said the dodo solemnly, rising to its feet, I move at the meeting adjourn, for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies. Speak English, said the eaglet. I don't know the meaning of half those long words. And what's more, I don't believe you do either. What I was going to say, said the dodo, in an offended tone, is that the best thing to get us dry would be a carcass-race. What is a carcass-race? said Alice. Why, said the dodo, the best way to explain it is to do it. First it marked out a race-course in a sort of circle, and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no one, two, three, and away, but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the dodo suddenly called out, the race is over! And they all crowded round it, panting and asking, but who has won? This question the dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought. At last it said, Everybody has won, and all must have prizes. But who is to give the prizes? Quite a chorus of voice asked. Why, she, of course, said the dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger, and the whole party at once crowded around her, calling out in a confused way, Prizes, Prizes! Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand into her pocket, and pulled out a box of confets. Finally the salt water had not gone into it, and handed them round as Prizes. There was exactly one apiece, all round. The next thing was to eat the confets. This caused some noise and confusion, as the large birds complained that they could not taste theirs, and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back. However, it was over at last, and they sat down again in a ring, and begged the mouse to tell them something more.  And why it is you hate? C and D, she added in a whisper, half afraid that it would be offended again. Mime is a long and sad tale, said the mouse, turning to Alice and sighing. It is a long tale, certainly, said Alice, looking down with wonder at the mouse's tail. But why do you call it sad? And she kept on puzzling about it, while the mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this. Fury said to a mouse that he met in the house, let us both go to law. I will prosecute you. Come, I'll take no denial. We must have the trial, for really this morning I have nothing to do. Said the mouse to the cur. Such a trial, dear sir, with no jury or judge would be wasting our breath. I'll be judge, I'll be jury, said cunning old fury. I'll try the whole cause and condemn you to death. You are not attending, said the mouse to Alice severely. What are you thinking of? I beg your pardon, said Alice very humbly. You had got to the fifth bend, I think. You insult me by talking such nonsense, said the mouse, getting up and walking away. Oh, please come back and finish your story, Alice called after it. And the others all joined in chorus. Yes, please do. But the mouse only shook its head impatiently, and walked a little quicker. I wish I had Dina our cat here, said Alice. This caused a remarkable sensation among the party. Some of the birds hurried off at once, and a canary called out in a trembling voice to its children, come away, my dears, it's high time you were all in bed. On various pretexts they all moved off. And Alice was soon left alone. I wish I hadn't mentioned Dina. Nobody seems to like her down here. And I'm sure she's the best cat in the world. Poor Alice began to cry again, for she felt very lonely and low-spirited. In a little while, however, she again heard a little pattering of footsteps in the distance, and she looked up eagerly. CHAPTER IV. OF ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. RECORDED BY KIRSTEN FERRERI. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. BY LUIS CAROL. CHAPTER IV. THE RABBIT SENS IN A LITTLE BILL. It was the white rabbit, trotting slowly back again and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something. Alice heard it muttering to itself, The duchess, the duchess, O my dear paws, O my fur and whiskers, she'll get me executed as sure as ferrets or ferrets. Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?" Alice guessed in a moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid-gloves, and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Everything seemed to have changed since her swim in the pool, and the great hall with the glass table and the little door had vanished completely. Very soon the rabbit noticed Alice and called to her in an angry tone, Why, Mary Anne, what are you doing out here? Run home this moment and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan. Quick, now!" He took me for his house-mate, said Alice, as she ran off. How surprised he'll be when he finds out who I am! As she said this, she came upon a neat little house, on the door of which was a bright brass plate with the name W. Rabbit engraved upon it. She went in without knocking and hurried upstairs, in great fear lest she should meet the real Mary Anne, and be turned out of the house before she'd found the fan and gloves.    Before she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling, and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken. She hastily put down the bottle, remarking, That's quite enough, I hope I shan't grow any more. Alas! It was too late to wish that. She went on growing and growing, and very soon she had to kneel down on the floor. Still she went on growing. But as a last resource she put one arm out of the window and one foot up the chimney and said to herself, Now I can do no more whatever happens. What will become of me? Luckily for Alas, the little magic bottle had now had its full effect, and she grew no larger. After a few minutes she heard a voice outside and stopped to listen. Mary Ann! Mary Ann! said the voice, That should be my gloves this minute. There came a little pattering of feet on the stairs. Alas knew it was the rabbit coming to look for her, and she trembled till she shook the house, quite forgetting that she was now about a thousand times as large as the rabbit, and had no reason to be afraid of it. Presently the rabbit came up to the door and tried to open it, but as the door opened inwards and Alas's elbow was pressed hard against it, that attempt proved a failure. Alas heard it say to itself, Then I'll go round and get in at the window. That you won't, thought Alas, and after waiting till she fancied she heard the rabbit just under the window, she suddenly spread out her hand and made a snatch in the air. She did not get hold of anything, but she heard a little shriek and a fall and a crash of broken glass, from which she concluded that it was just possible it had fallen into a cucumber frame or something of that sort. Next came an angry voice, the rabbits. Pat! Pat! Where are you? And then a voice she had never heard before. For then I'm here, digging for apples, Your Honor. Here! Come and help me out of this. Now tell me, Pat, what's in that window? Sure it's an arm, Your Honor. Well, it's got no business there at any rate. Go and take it away. There was a long silence after this, and Alas could only hear whispers now and then, and at last she spread her hand out again and made another snatch in the air. This time there were two little shrieks and more sounds of broken glass. I wonder what they'll do next, thought Alas. As for pulling me out of the window, I only wish they could. She waited for some time without hearing anything more. At last came a rumbling of little cartwheels and the sound of a good many voices all talking together. She made out the words, Where's the other ladder? Bill's got the other. Bill! Here, Bill! Will the roof bear? Who's to go down the chimney? Nay, I shan't. You do it! Here, Bill! The master says you've got to go down the chimney. Alas drew her foot as far down the chimney as she could, and waited till she heard a little animal scratching and scrambling about in the chimney close above her. Then she gave one sharp kick and waited to see what would happen next. The first thing she heard was a general chorus of, There goes Bill! Then the rabbit's voice alone, Catch him, you by the hedge! Then silence, and then another confusion of voices. Hold up his head. Brandy now, don't choke him. What happened to you? Last came a little feeble squeaking voice. Well, I hardly know. No more thank you, I'm better now. All I know is something comes at me like a jack-in-the-box, and up I goes like a skyrocket. After a minute or two of silence they began moving about again, and Alas heard the rabbit say, A barrowful will do, to begin with. A barrowful of what, thought Alas? But she had not long to doubt, for the next moment a shower of little pebbles came rattling in at the window, and some of them hit her in the face. Alas noticed, with some surprise, that the pebbles were all turning into little cakes as they lay on the floor, and a bright idea came into her head. If I eat one of these cakes, she thought, it's sure to make some change in my size. So she swallowed one of the cakes, and was delighted to find that she began shrinking directly. As soon as she was small enough to get through the door, she ran out of the house and found quite a crowd of little animals and birds waiting outside. They all made a rush at Alas the moment she appeared, but she ran off as hard as she could, and soon found herself safe in a thick wood. The first thing I've got to do, said Alas to herself, as she wandered about in the wood, is to grow to my right size again, and the second thing is to find my way into that lovely garden. I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other, but the great question is what? Alas looked all around her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she could not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances. There was a large mushroom growing near her about the same height as herself. She stretched herself up on tiptoe and peeped over the edge, and her eyes immediately met those of a large blue caterpillar that was sitting at the top, with its arms folded, quietly smoking along hookah and taking not the smallest notice of her or of anything else. CHAPTER V. ADVICE FROM A CATTERPILLAR. At last the caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed Alas in a languid, sleepy voice. "'Who are you?' said the caterpillar. Alas replied, rather shyly. I—' I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then. "'What do you mean by that?' said the caterpillar sternly.  Being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.' She drew herself up and said very gravely, I think you ought to tell me who you are first.' "'Why?' said the caterpillar. As Alas could not think of any good reason, and the caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away. "'Come back,' the caterpillar called after her. I have something important to say.' Alas turned and came back again. "'Keep your temper,' said the caterpillar. "'Is that all?' said Alas, swallowing down her anger as well as she could. "'No,' said the caterpillar. It unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, "'So you think you are changed, do you?' "'I'm afraid I am, sir,' said Alas. I can't remember things as I used, and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together.' "'What size do you want to be?' asked the caterpillar. "'Oh, I'm not particular as to size,' Alas hastily replied. Only one doesn't like changing so often, you know. I'd like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn't mind,' said Alas. "'Three inches is such a wretched height to be.' "'It is a very good height, indeed,' said the caterpillar angrily, rearing itself upright as it spoke. It was exactly three inches high.' In a minute or two the caterpillar got down off the mushroom and crawled away into the grass, merely remarking as it went, "'One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.' "'One side of what?' "'The other side of what?' thought Alas to herself. "'Of the mushroom,' said the caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud, and in another moment it was out of sight. Alas remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it. At last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand. "'And now, which is which?' she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect. The next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin. It had struck her foot. She was a good deal frightened by this sudden change as she was shrinking rapidly, so she set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against her foot that there was hardly room to open her mouth, but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the left-hand bit. "'Come, my head's free at last,' said Alas, but all she could see when she looked down was an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her. Where have my shoulders got to?  How is it I can't see you?' She was delighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction like a serpent. She had just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry. A large pigeon had flown into her face, and was beating her violently with its wings. "'Serpent!' cried the pigeon. "'I'm not a serpent,' said Alas indignantly. Leave me alone. "'I've tried the roots of trees, and I've tried banks, and I've tried hedges,' the pigeon went on. But those serpents—there's no pleasing them.' Alas was more and more puzzled. "'As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs,' said the pigeon, "'but I must be on the lookout for serpents night and day, and just as I'd taken the highest tree in the wood,' continued the pigeon, raising its voice to a shriek, and just as I was thinking I should be free of them at last, they must needs come wriggling down from the sky. Oh! serpent! "'But I'm not a serpent,' I tell you,' said Alas. "'I'm a—I'm a—I'm a little girl,' she added, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day. "'You're looking for eggs. I know that well enough,' said the pigeon.  "'But I'm not looking for eggs as it happens, and if it was, I shouldn't want yours. I don't like them raw.' "'Well, be off, then,' said the pigeon, in a sulky tone, as it settled down again into its nest. Alas crouched down among the trees as well as she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After a while she remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height. It was so long since she had been anything near the right size that it felt quite strange at first. "'Next thing is to get into that beautiful garden. How is that to be done, I wonder?' As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with a little house in it, about four feet high. Whoever lives there, I thought, Alas, it'll never do to come upon them this size. Why, I should frighten them out of their wits.' She did not venture to go near their house, till she had brought herself down to nine inches high. CHAPTER VI. OF ALAS'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. For a minute or two she stood looking at the house, when suddenly a footman in livery came running out of the wood, judging by his face only she would have called him a fish, and wrapped loudly at the door with his knuckles. It was opened by another footman in livery, with a round face and large eyes like a frog. The fish-footman began by producing, from under his arm, a great letter, and this he handed over to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, for the duchess, an invitation from the queen to play croquet. The frog-footman repeated in the same solemn tone, from the queen, an invitation for the duchess to play croquet. Then they both bowed low, and their curls got entangled together. When Alice next peeped out, the fish-footman was gone, and the other was sitting on the ground near the door, staring stupidly up into the sky. Alice went timidly up to the door, and knocked. "'There's no sort of use in knocking,' said the footman, "'and that for two reasons—first, because I'm on the same side of the door as you are—secondly, because they are making such a noise inside no one could possibly hear you.' And certainly there was a most extraordinary noise going on within—a constant howling and sneezing, and every now and then a great crash, as if a dish or a kettle had been broken to pieces. "'How am I to get in?' asked Alice. "'Are you to get in at all?' said the footman. "'That's the first question you know.'" Alice opened the door and went in.  The duchess was sitting on a three-legged stool in the middle nursing a baby. The cook was leaning over the fire, stirring a large cauldron which seemed to be full of soup. "'There is certainly too much pepper in that soup,' Alice said to herself, as well as she could, for sneezing. Even the duchess sneezed occasionally, and as for the baby, it was sneezing and howling alternately without a moment's pause. Only two creatures in the kitchen that did not sneeze were the cook and the large cat, which was grinning from ear to ear.  "'I didn't know that Cheshire cats always grinned. In fact, I didn't know that cats could grin,' said Alice. "'You don't know much,' said the duchess, and that's a fact. Just then the cook took the cauldron of soup off the fire, and at once set to work throwing everything within her reach at the duchess and the baby. The fire-irons came first, followed by a shower of sauce-pans, plates, and dishes. The duchess took no notice of them even when they hit her, and the baby was howling so much already that it was quite impossible to say whether the blows hurt it or not. "'Oh, please, mind what you're doing,' cried Alice, jumping up and down in an agony of terror. "'Here, you may nurse it a bit if you like,' the duchess said to Alice, flinging the baby at her as she spoke.  And she hurried out of the room. Alice caught the baby with some difficulty, as it was a queer-shaped little creature, and held out its arms and legs in all directions. "'If I don't take this child away from me,' thought Alice, "'they're sure to kill it in a day or two. Wouldn't it be murder to leave it behind?' She said the last words out loud, and the little thing grunted and reply. "'If you're going to turn into a pig, my dear,' said Alice, "'I'll have nothing more to do with you. Mind now.' Alice was just beginning to think to herself. Now, what am I to do with this creature when I get it home, when it grunted again so violently that Alice looked down into its face in some alarm? This time there could be no mistake about it. It was neither more nor less than a pig. So she set the little creature down and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. Alice was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off. The Cat only grinned when it saw her. Cheshire Puss began Alice rather timidly. "'Would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here?' "'In that direction,' the Cat said, waving the right paw round, lives a hatter, and in that direction,' waved the other paw. "'Lives a march-hair. Visit either you like. They're both mad.' "'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. "'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat. "'We're all mad here. Do you play croquet with the Queen today?' "'I should like it very much,' said Alice. "'But I haven't been invited yet.' "'You'll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished.' Alice had not gone much farther before she came inside of the house of the march-hair. It was so large a house that she did not like to go near till she had nibbled some more of the left-hand bit of mushroom. CHAPTER VII. A mad tea party. There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the march-hair and the hatter were having tea at it. A door-mouse was sitting between them, fast asleep. The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. No room, no room, they cried out when they saw Alice coming. "'There's plenty of room,' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. The hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this, but all he said was, "'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' I'm glad they've begun asking riddles. I believe I can guess that,' she added, aloud. "'Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the march-hair.' "'Exactly so,' said Alice. "'Then you should say what you mean,' the march-hair went on. "'Well, I do,' Alice hastily replied. "'At least—' "'At least I mean what I say. That's the same thing, you know.' "'You might just as well say,' added the door-mouse, which seemed to be talking in its sleep. That I breathe when I sleep is the same thing as I sleep when I breathe.' "'It is the same thing with you,' said the hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose. The door-mouse shook its head impatiently and said, without opening its eyes, "'Of course, of course, just when I was going to remark myself.' "'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the hatter said, turning to Alice again. "'No, I give it up,' Alice replied. "'What's the answer?' "'I haven't the slightest idea,' said the hatter. "'Nor I,' said the march-hair.' Alice gave a weary sigh. "'I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, then wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers. "'Take some more tea,' the march-hair said to Alice, very earnestly. "'I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone. "'So I can't take more.' "'You mean you can't take less,' said the hatter. "'It's very easy to take more than nothing.' "'At this,' Alice got up and walked off. The door-mouse fell asleep instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice. The last time she saw them, they were trying to put the door-mouse in the teapot. "'At any rate, I'll never go there again,' said Alice, as she picked her way through the wood. "'It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life.' Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it. "'That's very curious,' she thought. "'I think I may as well go in at once.' And in she went. Once more she found herself in the long hall and close to the little glass-table. Taking the little golden key, she unlocked the door that led into the garden. Then she set to work nibbling at the mushroom.  Then she walked down the little passage, and then she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains.' CHAPTER VIII The Queen's Croquet Ground. A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden. The roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red. Suddenly their eyes chanced to fall upon Alice, as she stood watching them. "'Would you tell me, please?' said Alice, a little timidly. "'Why are you painting those roses?' Five and seven said nothing, but looked at two. Two began in a low voice. "'Why, the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red-rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake. And if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know. So you see, Miss, we're doing our best before she comes to—' At this moment five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out, "'The Queen, the Queen!' and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen. First came ten soldiers carrying clubs with their hands and feet at the corners. Next, the ten court years, these were ornamented all over with diamonds. After these came the royal children. There were ten of them, all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly kings and queens, and among them Alice recognized the white rabbit. Then followed the nave of hearts carrying the king's crown on a crimson velvet cushion, and last, of all this grand procession, came the king and the queen of hearts. When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the queen said severely, "'Who is this?' She said it to the nave of hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply. "'My name is Alice, so please, Your Majesty,' said Alice very politely. But she added to herself, "'Why, there are only a pack of cards after all.' "'Can you play croquet?' shouted the queen. The question was evidently meant for Alice. "'Yes,' said Alice, loudly. "'Come on, then,' roared the queen. "'It's a very fine day,' said a timid voice to Alice.  "'Barry,' said Alice, "'Where's the duchess?' "'Hush, hush,' said the rabbit. She's under sentence of execution.' "'What for?' said Alice. She boxed the queen's ears, the rabbit began. "'Get to your places,' shouted the queen, in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other. However, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began.  It was all ridges and furrows. The croquet-balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingos, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their heads and feet to make the arches. The players all played at once, without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while and fighting for the hedgehogs, and in a very short time the queen was in a furious passion and went stamping about and shouting, off with his head, or off with her head, about once in a minute. They're dreadfully fond of beheading people here, thought Alice. The great wonder is that there's anyone left alive. She was looking about for some way of escape when she noticed a curious appearance in the air. "'It's the Cheshire Cat,' she said to herself. "'Now I shall have somebody to talk to.' "'How are you getting on?' said the cat. "'I don't think they play at all fairly,' Alice said, in a rather complaining tone, and they all quarreled so dreadfully one cat hear oneself speak, and they don't seem to have any rules in particular.' "'How do you like the queen?' said the cat, in a low voice.' "'Not at all,' said Alice. Alice thought she might as well go back and see how the game was going on, so she went off in search of her hedgehog. The hedgehog was engaged in a fight with another hedgehog, which seemed to Alice an excellent opportunity for croaking one of them with the other. The only difficulty was that her flamingo was gone across to the other side of the garden, where Alice could see it trying, in a helpless sort of way, to fly up into a tree. She caught the flamingo and tucked it away under her arm that it might not escape again. Just then Alice ran across the Duchess, who was now out of prison. She tucked her arm affectionately into Alice's and they walked off together. Alice was very glad to find her in such a pleasant temper. She was a little startled, however, when she heard the voice of the Duchess close to her ear. "'You're thinking about something, my dear, and that makes you forget to talk.' "'The game's going on rather better now,' Alice said, by way of keeping up the conversation a little. "'Tis so,' said the Duchess, and the moral of that is, oh, tis love, tis love that makes the world go round.' Somebody said, Alice was spurred, that it's done by everybody minding his own business. "'Oh, well, it means much the same thing,' said the Duchess, digging her sharp little chin into Alice's shoulder as she added, and the moral of that is, take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves.' To Alice's great surprise, the Duchess's arm that was linked into hers began to tremble. Alice looked up, and there stood the Queen in front of them with her arms folded, frowning like a thunderstorm. "'Now I give you fair warning,' shouted the Queen, stamping on the ground as she spoke, "'either you or your head must be off, and that in about half of no time. Take your choice.' The Duchess took her choice, and was gone in a moment. "'Let's go on with the game,' the Queen said to Alice, and Alice was much too frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the croquet ground. All the time they were playing, the Queen never left off quarreling with the other players and shouting, "'Off with his head,' or "'Off with her head.' By the end of half an hour or so, all the players except the King, the Queen, and Alice were in the custody of the soldiers and under sentence of execution. Then the Queen left off, quite out of breath, and walked away with Alice. Alice heard the King say in a low voice to the company generally, "'You are all pardoned!' Suddenly the cry, the trial's beginning, was heard in the distance, and Alice ran along with the others.' CHAPTER IX. OF ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. CHAPTER IX. The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them, all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards. The nave was standing before them in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him, and near the King was the white rabbit, and the trumpet in one hand and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it. I wish they'd get the trial done, Alice thought, and hand around the refreshments. The judge, by the way, was the King, and he wore his crown over his great wake. That's the jury-box, thought Alice, and those twelve creatures, some were animals and some were birds. I suppose they are the jurors. First then the white rabbit cried out, Silence in the court! Harold, read the accusation, said the King. On this the white rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, then unrolled the parchment scroll and read as follows. The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, all on a summer day. The nave of hearts he stole those tarts, and took them quite away. Call the first witness, said the King, and the white rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet and called out, First Witness! The first witness was the Hatter. He came in with a teacup in one hand, and a piece of bread and butter in the other. You ought to have finished, said the King. When did you begin? The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into the court, arm in arm with the Dormouse. Fourteenth of March, I think it was, he said. Give your evidence, said the King, and don't be nervous or I'll have you executed on the spot. This did not seem to encourage the witness at all. He kept shifting from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread and butter. Just at this moment Alice felt a very curious sensation. She was beginning to grow larger again. The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread and butter and went down on one knee. I'm a poor man, your Majesty, he began.  You may go, said the King, and the Hatter hurriedly left the court. Call the next witness, said the King. The next witness was the Duchess's cook. She carried the pepper-box in her hand, and the people near the door began sneezing all at once. Give your evidence, said the King. Shant, said the cook. The King looked anxiously at the white rabbit, who said, in a low voice, your Majesty must cross-examine this witness. Well, if I must, I must, said the King. What are tarts made of? Pepper mostly, said the cook. For some minutes the whole court was in confusion, and by the time they had settled down again the cook had disappeared. Never mind, said the King, call the next witness. Alice watched the white rabbit as he fumbled over the list. Imagine her surprise when he read out at the top of his shrill little voice the name Alice. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Recorded by Kirsten Ferreri. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Alice's Evidence. Here cried Alice. She jumped up in such a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box, upsetting all the jurymen onto the heads of the crowd below. Oh! I beg your pardon! She exclaimed in a tone of great dismay. The trial cannot proceed, said the King, until all the jurymen are back in their proper places. All, he repeated, with great emphasis, looking hard at Alice. What do you know about this business? The King said to Alice. Nothing whatever, said Alice. The King then read from his book. Rule 42. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court. I'm not a mile high, said Alice. Nearly two miles high, said the Queen. Well, I shan't go at any rate, said Alice.  Consider your verdict, he said to the jury, in a low trembling voice. There's more evidence to come yet, please, your Majesty, said the white rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry. This paper has just been picked up. It seems to be a letter written by the prisoner to—to somebody. He unfolded the paper as he spoke and added, It isn't a letter, after all. It's a set of verses. Please, your Majesty, said the name. I didn't write it, and they can't prove that I did. There's no name signed at the end. You must have met some mischief, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man, said the King. There was a general clapping of hands at this. Read them, he added, turning to the white rabbit. There was dead silence in the court, whilst the white rabbit read out the verses. That's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet, said the King. I don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it, ventured Alice. If there's no meaning in it, said the King, that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any. Let the jury consider their verdict. No, no, said the Queen, sentence first, verdict after. Stuff and nonsense, said Alice loudly, the idea of having the sentence first. Hold your tongue, said the Queen, turning purple. I won't, said Alice. Off with her head, the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved. Who cares for you, said Alice. She had grown to her full size by this time. For nothing but a pack of cards. At this the whole pack rose up in the air, and came flying down upon her.  Wake up, Alice, dear, said her sister. Why, what a long sleep you've had. Oh, I've had such a curious dream, said Alice. And she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange adventures of hers that you have just been reading about. Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might. What a wonderful dream it had been. End of Chapter 10 End of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


So my name is Jeff Kutcher. I'm a sports neurologist. I'm the global director of the Sports Neurology Clinic. I'm also the director of the National Basketball Association Concussion Program, the neurologist for US Ski and Snowboard, and a consultant to the NHL and NFL Players Associations. My area of focus is brain health in athletes. So that includes concussions, but also post-concussion syndrome and long-term brain health over the course of a career and a lifetime. So any aspect of neurological injury, from playing sports or even common neurological problems in athletes, that's my area of expertise both clinically and in research. So we are today far better off than we were over a decade ago when concussions and brain health really wasn't a conversation we were having in sports. One of the issues though is we don't have a lot of data that actually speak to long-term outcomes, real clinical outcomes. And there's been this tendency to try and solve concussion problems, whatever they may be in sports, by applying very simplistic protocols, very structured ways of evaluating patients. And as a neurologist, we are trained to examine the brain of a living person, being able to do an examination and a complex history that gives us information about how that brain is operating in real time. And that experience tells us that we can't rely too much on oversimplifying oversimplified protocols to help us. We really need to apply a comprehensive neurological approach to every patient we see, whether it's a simple concussion, quote unquote, during a game or somebody has a more complex history. I think we are, things are improving, but I would say the majority of the progress has not been in data as much as it's been in policies and approaches and education and awareness. It is very difficult to do good clinical studies on something like concussion, because it is a clinical diagnosis, something made by a clinician. And your level of experience and training that you bring into that diagnosis will absolutely affect your ability to have an accurate diagnosis and to also account for other possible explanations for what's going on with that patient. So I think we've had this problem for years in concussion research, where we have not been careful enough at what we're calling concussion to put into the research that we're doing. We must be much better at that going forward if we're going to get good data to help us make decisions. The term concussion has really become something that is very emotional. There's a narrative out there that concussions are sort of the next C word after cancer. It's something that should change your life and lead to all these bad things down the road, and that's not true. Concussions are transient injuries that get better. There are other things from getting your brain-experiencing force that can cause long-term issues, but that's not concussion. So we need to be careful about the words that we use and how we describe things, because right now we have all over America and all over the world youth athletes being concussed. And then that emotional value that people are putting on that term comes to the fore. And you have parents who are very concerned about, oh my gosh, I don't want them to be concussed again. Well, the reality is humans have been being concussed ever since we've been walking, probably before that. And it is part of our natural history to experience concussions. But we have to be careful about how we interpret what the injury is and what it means for the future. What's really fantastic about this event, the Stubman-Philipon Research Institute Second Annual Injury Symposium, is it brings together people. Anytime you can get folks in a room who are clinicians of different types. We have athletic trainers here. We have physicians of different types, really any clinician that touches this issue. In one room to talk about injury and injury prevention, it's incredibly powerful, especially at a place like the Stubman-Philipon Institute, where a very well-respected institute and really just an opportunity to take things to the next level. Well, I think prevention is something that doesn't have to be an absolute, and in some cases, will never be an absolute. You talk about risk of being injured. And the only way to prevent a concussion from sports completely is to not play sports, just like the only way to prevent knocking and car accident is to never drive. Our life is filled with risk. Our job as physicians and clinicians is to mediate risk, to prevent as many as possible and still be able to have that activity as part of a meaningful life.


to theCUBE here at the Stanford Excel Partners Symposium, 17th annual, where the theme this year is the modern enterprise. I'm Jeff Kelly with Wikimon. I'm joined now with our next guest from a company called Qualtrics, Ryan Smith, CEO and his brother, Jared Smith, president, welcome guys to theCUBE. Thank you. So why don't we kind of start off, help us understand what Qualtrics is all about. My understanding is around real time research and analytics and kind of give us a primer on what you guys are up to. You know, we're an online, we built a cloud-based platform that helps organizations gather insights to do it yourself tool where, you know, anyone from sophisticated PhD or an intern can go on throughout the organization and gather real time feedback. We think it's absolutely critical that, you know, organizations are gathering data and becoming data driven and we're helping them do that.  Do you focus on a vertical or? So starting out, primarily, we focused entirely in the academic market. So we've got, you know, every major business school will have, you know, 1,000 Qualtrics users doing a ton of different things on the platform. And in about 2008, 2009, we started focusing on the enterprise. So we have over 5,000 enterprises now. So 1,300 universities and, you know, 5,000 enterprise spanning. I think we just signed up our 200 financial services organizations. We've got the cruise lines, the travel industry, sports teams, pretty much anyone that's got a question or needs to collect data, which we believe everyone does and every organization does, should be on Qualtrics. So, Jared, tell us a little bit about kind of how you came to tackle this problem. What kind of was the, what's your why? Why did you guys decide that this was a problem that needed a new solution? Kind of this type of collecting data, finding answers to questions you didn't know. It was all done offline. And so that's when we started and it was painful. So you would have basically a paper-based survey. Somebody'd stop you in a mall or call you on the phone. They'd say, you know, what do you think of this? You'd say B. You didn't know what you were saying, B. They'd flip to page 32, ask question 71, and then they'd flip back somewhere else. And so if that's the way research was done, you could never do analytics on the fly. You could never do really smart adaptations. And so just moving it online solved a huge amount of problems within the research space. And that's what led us initially to tackle that. Then you do 10 years of innovation on top of that and you end up in a very different spot. Right, so tell us a little bit about that innovation and some of the things that have happened with the consumer web and some of the underlying data, processing and storage technologies and analytics. How has that impacted your business? You guys have been around for a while now. So what's kind of, how has the evolution of the technology kind of impacted how you guys go about doing your job and delivering value to your clients? Well it certainly makes it easier to create products but what, as companies become more data driven, their ability to drive more contextual research is becoming more powerful. So why would I ever ask you a question I've already asked you in the past and I know you? And if somebody's doing that, they're not using our stuff. So it's kind of understanding some of those best practices. If I already know your age, why ask you again? Ah, I see, so that's something you can, in the past, it was really, it was totally kind of out of context. You wouldn't know what you've asked before and it would be very difficult, I would imagine, to kind of compare past results to current results and things like that. Yeah, and if you take it a step further from, I've already got that data, how do you take the data that we're collecting and making it, really turning it into insights so that it's actionable and you're doing something with it and part of that involves integrating into existing platforms that are available and every organization's trying to become more data driven. I mean, ultimately they want to be right and there's one way to do it is to do that, make decisions based on data and not based on opinions a lot of times and to do that, the data is there, you're collecting it. A great example of this, we've got one customer who when they purchase or they go through, it's a famous travel client, they'll have five data points on a customer. By the time they go through and do a Qualtrics survey or transaction where they're gathering feedback, you might have 30 data points. So combining that, there's 35 and then taking that and automatically throwing that into their CRM platform so that there's a score or some sort of mechanism makes the whole process more intelligent and that's exactly what Jared's describing there is leveraging prior data, existing data and merging it together to gather insights. Right, so as we kind of cover the big data space we're seeing a lot of the value really comes when you start bringing in different types of data or maybe different sources. Do you guys work with your clients to help them kind of correlate some of the insights you find with things that they might be seeing in the market or things they might be seeing in other parts of their business? How do you kind of put kind of the insights that you guys help your clients see? How do you help put that into context and some of the other things that are happening in their organization and out in the market at large? Yeah, so we just had a great example of this. We just launched a new product called Site Intercept where it's targeting websites and you're able to intercept people the days of going to a website and right when you get there it says, hey, how's your experience? It's like, look, I just got here, right? I mean, everyone hates that. So we've integrated with a lot of the analytics platforms on the website and so they're tracking some data and then we've got data and we're actually combining the two and being able to target people intelligently. Like, look, we haven't seen you in six months. What's going on?  You know? Any other data that they've got in triggering an action and then pulling that back down and combining it and do an easy way to analyze. And that's one of the things that we've worked hard at is taking the sophistication out of the analytics side of it. And I think that there's a, you know, that's an area where we're just starting to really make a dent and people are starting to catch on that, look, it's not this hard anymore. Right, that's definitely actually one of the themes I'm seeing here at this event is kind of the application providers trying to obscure some of the complexity underneath to make it possible for, you know, non-data scientists and others to really start to understand their data and take action on that insight. So I wonder, could you talk a little bit about how you actually go about doing that in terms of maybe your design philosophy in terms of how you deliver some of these analytics? How do you actually interact with the end user? Who I imagine, in most cases, is a business user, not necessarily somebody who's got deep statistical skills. How do you kind of make it accessible to some of your clients? Good. I think that, you know, is as far as interacting with the end user, I mean, we've been doing this for a long time, right? I think that if you look at what we were able to do in the academic space, you know, we've got, with the university, there's a thousand users and it could be, you know, a sophisticated PhD who's trying to, you know, study interrupted decision making or some sort of cutting edge research project and then you might have an intern or an undergraduate who's looking to assess where their next fraternity party's going to be, right? So we've really built a platform that allows every possible use case and that's been tried and it's been tested and we've been really close to the customer throughout the whole process. But I think that if you just take a step back and say, you know, what are people trying to do? How do we make it easy for them? And I think with technology, especially over the last five or six years, it's, we're able to do things that we couldn't have done when we first started, you know, in a basement 10 years ago. Right. And I think Jared's probably got a little more insights around making this application. Yeah, well, Jared, I wanted to touch a little bit on the company itself.  You've got about, I think you've raised about $70 million, is that right? Between Excel and Sequoia. So tell us about kind of the state of the company, where you guys are in terms of, you know, kind of staffing and really kind of building the culture internally and where you are there. All up and to the right. And so since taking the funding and well before, everything is just trending up as a mass account. So we're, you know, we're more than doubling in employees every year, clients, you know, same equation, it's that magical spot where almost everything we focus on is just how to scale it. So talk about this event a little bit in some, and you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurs here, a lot of them play in the data space. Talk about the kind of this event and kind of maybe a little bit more big picture. What's the environment like out there for entrepreneurs right now? We're looking to leverage some of the underlying technology we've got in big data, whether it's Hadoop or whatever the case may be, and really build applications on top of that infrastructure. What's the environment in terms of, you know, the available capital, but also, you know, finding the right people to kind of staff up your organization? What is it like out there right now? I think it depends on where you are. So first in terms of the capital, the capital's there always for a good idea. It's just kind of one of the magic of the valley. In terms of, you know, staffing and building an organization, we're actually very insulated from that being out in Utah. But around here, it can be quite hostile with all the talent wars and everything that are going on. And so it's one of the things that we're certainly benefiting might be somewhere else. In terms of, you know, ideas, I think it depends on what space you're in.  We're a consumer, I hear it's getting a little harder. Indeed. So Ryan, talk a little bit about your experience building the company in terms of the internal culture that you mentioned, how you're growing significantly. You're adding a lot of employees.  Our culture's always changing. I mean, we've onboarded 150 employees in a year, right, which is half the company, you know. I can't keep it anymore, I mean, that's one of the things that I realize. But the important thing is that it changes for the better. Right? And I think that if you just keep that in mind, it kind of changes the thought process around it. I think we've constantly been thinking, you know, as our culture evolves, it needs to evolve for the better. And, you know, we're extremely transparent in our organization. One of the most transparent companies I've ever seen. And, you know, I think that we've really shifted the default from being closed to being transparent as opposed to, you know, we're not gonna share this. It's gotta be, why wouldn't we share this? And I think that it's really the only thing that you can do to, one of the only things you can do to make it so that you can onboard that many people and create an organization where everyone's rowing in the same direction is you've gotta arm them with the information that they need to be successful. Because, you know, not everyone can see into our brains or what's going on. And, you know, the more helpful that we can be to over-communicate that, it seems to be the more productive teams are. And they understand, you know, Qualtrics and where Qualtrics is going. But, I think it's the ultimate challenge. And, you know, I think we're doing a great job. I think we're gonna continue to improve at it. Great, well, good advice for any entrepreneurs out there. Ryan and Jared from Qualtrics, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having us. I really appreciate it. And thanks for watching. Of course, we'll be right back shortly with more interviews, covering the Stanford Excel Partner Symposium, 17th annual, we're here all day. Please stay tuned.


Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Wired for Hybrid. This is a busy week for us. As you can see over my shoulder here, we're right in the middle of build. We were hoping that maybe there'd be some tidbits that would come out about Azure networking, but so far it's been mostly focused on developer and AI, if you can believe it. Anyway, so this week, join us for what's new in Azure networking. Hey Michael, how are you doing? I'm doing excellent Pierre. Enjoying your build week? It's a little busy. It's a little busy, lots of sessions to watch. I'm moderating a few of them and I got one more later this afternoon, the Mark Rosinovich session where we're going to be answering questions in the background. Joel, I'm looking forward to that one. How about you? Yeah, same here. The one nice thing for those people that are out here listening, as you know, I'm a content developer, with build, the week before is good if you don't have something going into build because we have a freeze on all documentation since the 15th. It gives us a little bit of time to maybe catch up on something and that sort of stuff. But as far as build is going, just some really cool stuff, some stuff that I'm always like, they announce all these great things. This was even before I joined Microsoft. Yeah. It's like, when can I get to use this? I want to go home now and use Microsoft 365 Copilot. I can't wait for the June Windows Copilot that Panos talked about today. That's so many cool things. And I know that the show is focused on networking, but all of you in the audience, hit that like, hit that subscribe, and put in your comments if you want to hear Pierre and I talk about copilots and generative AI and GPT and how you as IT pros can be really using that in your environment. Because I'd love to have that chat with Pierre about that. So I just put him on the spot right now for that. Yeah. Yeah. That's OK. And speaking of content, I don't know if our listeners know, but the last time, last episode, we were live at the PowerShell Summit or PowerShell and DevOps Summit in Bellevue, Washington. We had a little kind of like Hackadoc at the end or Docathon.  But we kind of fixed documentation for like, I think it was something like 200 pages of documentation in Microsoft. So if you see something in the documentation, if it's a wrong command, if it's a typo, if it's something, you can hit that little edit button at the top and suggest an edit to our own documentation. That's how it gets better. So our own documentation is now open sourced. So. Absolutely. Help Michael and fix his. Help us out, absolutely. Yep. All right. First item this week, Michael, what's up? We got generally available cross region service endpoints for Azure Storage. So just to kind of give everybody a refresher, what service endpoints are for virtual networks? Is it basically gives you that direct connection over the Azure backbone to a number of different services? Think of like data like SQL and Cosmos DB. And specifically here, we're talking about Azure Storage and Datalink. So traditionally with these service endpoints, those are typically more like PADS services, correct? Yep. Yep. So there's a whole huge list of it. And unfortunately, I rebooted my computer so I no longer have that list. But we'll put that for you down here somewhere. In the comments. So it's mostly those PADS services. So instead of having to connect across the public, internet, whatever, getting over there, it's basically a direct connection and allows you to utilize that the higher speeds that you get running on the Azure backbone. So traditionally service endpoints, you've only been able to use them in the same region or if you have paired regions with Azure Storage, you could use that. So with this, what this allows you to do is you can go across any region. So you can connect to Azure Blobs or Data Lake Storage from vNets in any of your regions. So you might be thinking, Mike, what's the value of this for me? So let's say you have a global infrastructure.  You have a centralized storage location. Maybe it's because of access control. Maybe it's a security concern, regulatory, whatever. Let's just say you need to have everything central. This allows you to be able to access those from all your vNets and not having to have a service endpoint in every one of those regions going to storage in those regions. So it gives you a lot more scalability and access for networks as they're getting more global. As people are bringing their data closer to them and closer to where their customers are. Yeah, and it also makes the management of those service endpoints a lot easier because like you mentioned, you don't have to create one in every region. You can just have the one and manage that. That's perfect. Yep, and another one of the neat things that it does is that with this update, it changes. So you're no longer connecting using public IP addresses to those storage accounts. You're now using private IP addresses. That's right. Cause for example, a blob storage would have like a, it has a very long URL, but it is exposed to the internet. So you basically, instead of having to from your VM, go out to the internet, hit that DNS name, come back into Azure. Now you go directly. Yep, you go directly through those service endpoints. So let's see some other stuff with this. We talked about the centralization of the data. Along with that, what you can also do is, we always talk about high availability, high availability, not enough coffee today and business continuity. And so what you can also do is you can still do cross region replication. So you don't have to just put all of your eggs in one basket, you can still replicate that storage and have it work with this as well. So you can make it highly available, highly scalable, but also make it easier for you to get into those workloads. So we'll have some links for you. I'll also throw in some links to service endpoints as well cause that's an area when I talk to a lot of people, not a lot of people, they've heard about them, they might not be using them. We'll throw some articles in there for you to get a better understanding of those and maybe check them out yourselves. Perfect. Yes. And those will all be in the show notes. And we will list them in the description down here, linked to the blog article with all of the details. Unless you're in Australia, they might be up there. They're not watching us upside down, you know. We could totally cut this. The only reason I say that is my buddy Glenn from Australia, his avatar everywhere is upside down. Oh God. So Pierre, what do you got for us? Yes. So general availability, as you mentioned, not enough caffeine, Azure CNI overlays are generally available.  You're asking the right question because I had the exact same response when I first saw the announcement. But the more I look into them, the more I think this is a fantastic things, especially for now when we are in the age of the container in AKS where you've got pods and dozens of containers running your application. So what the Azure CNI overlay is, it's a new networking options for Kubernetes services or Azure Kubernetes services that assigns IP addresses to pods from a private address space, which means that just like when you're in a network environment, you're on a regional office and you've got <IP_ADDRESS> address or .1.0 slash 24 address for your local office. And as you go up to the internet or to your other offices, you're actually getting knadded or network address translation at the egress point. Now, with the CNI overlay, that's basically the exact same concept that happens. So all of your pods can talk to each other using that private IP address. Those private IP address can be reused across different pods because they would never talk to it, not different pods, but different environments and they would never talk to each other because they're always knadded through the AKA service. So they communicate with each other using that overlay network without encapsulation or custom routes. The pods use the external endpoint or naps through the nodes own IP address. And it's been generally available since May 10. So about a week ago or a week, maybe a week and a half ago. Nice. Yeah, that sounds like for a lot of people that are starting to move into the containerized world and using AKI site, I can imagine with all of the containerizations of different apps and everything that much like when you and I were running data centers is we went through the late 90s and the 2000s of data center sprawl that led to virtualization. There's probably a lot of organizations that have container sprawl. And maybe I just created a new buzzword, container sprawl. But this is awesome because it does, you can create pretty big address spaces inside of Azure, but I could totally see if somebody just put the wrong slash, maybe made it a wee bit too small, that you could probably run out of that. So having that ability to have those pods natted I think is a great feature. Yeah, and if you were looking at it with the idea of like security is everywhere and is everybody's business, by having a private IP like that, it also kinda, it's not foolproof, but it does add a layer of security because those IP addresses are not exposed. So all of your pods and everything that's communicating behind the node or inside the node is not being, cannot be sniffed, for example. Good stuff. I think, continuing on that security thought, I believe we've got something new for DDoS protection. Yes, yes. Well, we've always had, or we've had for a while now the IP protection for Azure DDoS protection for your environments. Now there's what's generally available is a new SKU. Just like with other services that we reviewed in past episodes, these are the same services that have been tuned for like very large environment or big enterprises, but now they're being tuned for SMBs or small and medium businesses, in which case you can have the protection from Azure DDoS protection and defend against DDoS attacks and DDoS grade protection, but now you can get it at a lower price point. Of course, there are always some adjustments in terms of how much you can process and so on, but this particular SKU is specifically tuned for small and medium businesses. You get the exact same protection for like L3, L7 protection for DDoS attacks. Your additional features add DDoS response or rapid response support, sorry. So if something does happen, you have some recourses, cost protection and an integration with Azure Firewall Manager. So it's kind of cool. That is great stuff. I think continuing to build out that set of resources and features that small to medium size businesses can get into that give them the class of security and services that the enterprises have had for a long time. I can also see this used in some of the larger organizations as well, but maybe they don't need to have every one of their IPs covered by this. There might be this option to kind of look at it singularly, but I think you totally had on ahead that this is really designed at that lower cost point for those SMBs that they want to get this protection but they- Well, everybody deserves that protection. They do, everybody does. Everybody does. And now it's reflected in the price. Yep, okay. I think we have a segment that we've never done before. We talked about it, I think, or we alluded to it in the past, but this is really the first time when we're going to talk about retirements. Pierre, I didn't know you were retiring. No, I'm aware. I'm in the Pinebox program. Oh, you're talking about- We're going to take me out of Microsoft in a Pinebox. Oh, you're talking about service retirements. Okay. Service retirements, yes. Good. I thought maybe I was going to have to do this show with Rick. No, not yet, not yet. Not yet. So yeah, so there's every once in a while and Microsoft we've been very clear since I think it was 1991 where we came up with the enterprise lifecycle support agreement or lifecycle support statement where every product that was at the time was five years of mainstream support, five years of extended support. And after that they had custom support if you were able to justify it. With the cloud, this becomes a little bit more nuanced. So now when we announce a product or a service that's retiring, we do it way in advance. So there is a couple of them. I'll do the first one and you can cover the second one. There's a retirement notice for public peering. So new, new express public peering connections will be allowed, actually have been allowed since 2018. So that's how long we've been getting, but now the dates have actually been set for March 31st, 2024 where public peering or V1 of public peering is gonna be out of service. So there is ways and documentation on how to migrate to the current version, but that gives you a full year before you get there. So that's kinda cool. That is kinda cool. And as far as application gateway, so application gateway V1 is gonna to be retired on the 28th of April in 2026. So you should be transitioning over to application gateway V2. So this means you've got until 2026, so you've got about three years. In order to get over to that transition. And also, if you're a new customer and you've got something planned in the works, you should be planning to put this onto V2 because starting on July 1st of this year, there's gonna be no more V1 that you can actually deploy. So maybe in the audience, you've got this working, a project working in your organization on this. You wanna make sure that they are speccing this for application V2, unless you are on a quick path to get this done before July. Even then, I would recommend moving up to V2 because you're gonna get the newest features, you're gonna get the best features set, you're gonna get a longer life on that as well. Yeah, so it's a good idea to do an inventory of the services that you're running, either by looking at your bill at the end of the month to see all the services that are, but also when looking at the CICD pipelines that you may have in your environment. So if the deployment of the application gateway has been automated somehow as part of a workload that you're managing or deploying or monitoring or involved in any way, take a look at your pipelines to make sure that those are also got time to test them and modify them and test them to move from V1 to V2. And there's also a script if I'm not mistaken, correct? Is a PowerShell script to help you do the migration? There's a PowerShell script that's in our documentation that will walk you through the migration process. We'll have that like everything inside the show notes for you and you'll be good to go. So that was it. Not as many GA as we normally get, but that was kind of expected in the month prior to build because like Michael mentioned, there is some embargo and then there's some lockdowns. You're not allowed to announce anything and you're not allowed to make any new documentation until build is over or until the event is over. In this case, that'll be on the Friday, I believe. Yep, yeah, I'm expecting that we will probably have a few more things, hopefully to talk about in the June and July and August shows. And then I would expect once fall starts rolling around, we're gonna be pretty busy with Ignite coming up in November. I know a lot of service, that's you think about a builds kind of that event for a lot of developer type stuff. There was a, I dig into the AI sort of stuff. So there were a lot of great sessions for me, but there's generally not a lot of stuff focused on the infrastructure side Ignite. There was a lot on monitoring and managing containerized or AKS environment, Kubernetes environment. So there's quite a few sessions in there that I thought were are interesting. But that being said, and talking about more stuff is coming, we do have two episodes in the can, two deep dives that I'm currently editing that will be released in the upcoming week or weeks. The deep dive on WAF. No, no, the deep dive on front door and the deep dive with Andrea on AVNM. So Azure Virtual Network Manager. Yeah, I think everybody's gonna be really excited about those both, they're both pretty long, but I think that they're really, really solid information. Both Dong and Andrea did an amazing job of introducing us to the products and also deep diving into the what, the how and the why and show to some great demos of how to use those products and why you should be using them in your environments. Yeah, so if you don't wanna miss that, like and subscribe, and Michael and I will see you next month. So, Mike, great to see you again and everybody else. As always. Have a good week, cheers. Take care, everybody.