Did you know that the second Monday in February is Clean Out Your Computer Day? Just don't tell Google's Sam Schillace.

The unsentimental engineer who built the precursor to Google Docs would rather throw an older computer in the trash than spend any time vacuuming crumbs out of the keyboard.

"I'm not in love with my computer," Shillace said. "It's just a tool."

With that Spartan attitude, Schillace has built or overseen many of Google's minimalist Web programs, including Gmail and Google Calendar.

Most notably, Schillace built Writely, a Web-based word processor that was acquired by the search giant and became Google Docs. As Google's engineering director for communications products, he now manages several teams of developers as an engineering director.

He has a reputation around the Googleplex. A Google spokeswoman introduced him by saying, "He hates computers."

You don't say? And he's your computer engineering director?