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Inside Google's Secret Employee Hackerspace
An anonymous reader writes "One of the more secret perks on Google's campus is their hackerspace that even most of the employees don't know about. Only the most skilled need apply, but once you're in, you have a treasure trove of equipment at your disposal. While there are no restrictions on what employees can build for personal use, some pretty important hardware has come out of the Google hackerspace over the years. Their Streetview trikes were designed and built there, as were some components for their self-driving cars. Yet another reason I want to work for Google." I guess the AP blew that "secret."
Hack jobs need not apply.
Microsoft used to pay a lot of people to sit in a tiny office for years and work on personal projects. Don't know if the still do
not really, it was featured yesterday on hackaday.com, and probably 2 dozen other sites
I wonder if Google will give Apple a tour?
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
A very finite set of company understand how innovation work. The others starve to death.
Anyone that wants to work for Google needs to know how the company got its funding.... (aka CIA, aka NSA, aka Mil... )...
[citation needed]
Does a company really want someone who works only for the additional benefits of the company, rather than the core business?
I'm coming from this line is the article:
"The workshops are my No. 1 perk at Google," Awad said during a break from a welding project. "They're the main reason I will be a Googler for life."
"Besides heavy-duty equipment, such as an oscilloscope, plasma cutter and miter saw, there are some children's toys. "
:)
Woah, talk about heavy duty. a miter saw!!! Seriously, I can get a plasma cutter from Harbor Freight for like $500 (After my 20% off coupon of course
Other than its existence, not very much was revealed. Even the five photos there seem carefully posed. You see no work in progress, there aren't metal chips around the lathe, this is that never happens in an actual working shop.
Consider the alternative (usually unexpressed) "The money is the No. 1 perk at FooCo", Awad said during a break from filling out his TPS report. "It's the main reason I will work for FooCo until it goes bankrupt".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Google sponsor a few interesting external projects which then end up having their name slapped on them to the point that people assume it was their work (driverless car, etc.), but they produce fuck all of this sort themselves. The reason, to me, is pretty clear: a creative genius would not want to work there. They're a glorified ad broker which has spent 13 years resting on the laurels of a better-than-average search algorithm.
The rare lone inventor hero can and does prototype in his own garage; the man needing the support of modern technology and the input of his peers has academia. Those who have high talent and the single-minded technical enthusiasm to plough themselves into secretive efforts in a budget-unconstrained environment will get work directly for the government, enjoying all the privilege and security which no profit-directed corporation will ever give you. The more routine individuals with a sound past or promising future have established research arms anywhere from IBM to Microsoft, all having decades of experience actually ploughing out new inventions and papers.
Google's a cult of big kids. Combining the accessible populism of GWB with the more sophisticated charisma of Obama, it reaches the top without being very remarkable. Its success - like the success of Windows - says more about the disinterest and/or ineptitude of the competition than anything.
The screening usually falls to Rodney Broome, 63, a veteran machinist who teaches the craft at nearby San Jose City College when he isn't busy as the foreman of Google's workshops.
Wow! Google actually has a 60+ year old employees? Sounds like a blue-collar type too. The general impression I had gathered before was that to work there you had to be under 40 (preferably under 30), and intimately conversant on the difference between a latte and a frapachino.
In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA, invested in Keyhole, which Google acquired and renamed Google Earth. All of this is well-documented.
If something truly fishy was going on, it wouldn't be this well-known.
... and I snapped a quick photo on the phone I snuck in. What the hell are they doing, anyways?
I8-D
USA is spy / censorship state and Google as an arm of the Gov is facilitating this by data mining by aggregating any data it can store in the Google Plex.
You've been warned.
My last post was deleted by the censorship... rather than delete the post, allow the debate you fascists. Afraid of the truth? Go back to American Idol and Dancing with Stars... idiots...
Slashdot is losing its credibility as the days go by..... corporatism.. the USA effect....
What was your name again you great American hero? Anonymous Coward, eh?
Google has little to do with innovation or technology. They have crossed the line into cult, and cults often have super secret inner circle things to make them more cult-y.
If a company gave me $30,000 raise, that raise would be subject to income taxes, and might even kick me into a higher tax bracket. So say it's really 20K. Then when I go spend that 20K on things for myself, I pay taxes again, so the value is further reduced. So the company is only really giving me a <$20,000 in services or goods while spending $30,000 of its cash all the same. On the other hand, the company can offer more value to the employees while giving less to the government by offering perks. Hence company-provided laptops, smart phones, gym memberships, ping-pong tables, daycare, spa memberships, massages, and even cars. A hackerspace can be written off. Giving employees enough money to build or start their own hackerspace....well, the company wouldn't cough up that much extra salary.
I'm skeptical of perks because I'm usually of the attitude that I would rather have the money and then go spend it on whatever I want, and I don't want to hang around at work playing pingpong, but the fact is that from a gross perspective employees will will get more in perks than they will in money, and the government will get less.
"Only the most skilled need apply"
How many important inventions were simply the result of someone with an idea and a desire to see it to market rather than "only the most skilled"?
I bet they would be surprised at the stuff that comes from people who are not considered to be the cream of the crop.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Right. I have access to all that stuff at TechShop. Costs me $100 a month. Cheaper than some cable TV packages.
Now, if they had a water jet cutter (which TechShop is installing right now in San Francisco) or a 5-axis CNC mill with HyperMill software (TechShop only has a 3-axis plus a rotary table, and midrange Vectrix software) or a full surface mount assembly setup (Hacker Dojo has one, but nobody uses it) I'd be impressed.
Anyone that wants to work for Google needs to know how the company got its funding.... (aka CIA, aka NSA, aka Mil... )...
Every time I read something like this I have to laugh. I don't want to, but that's the response they conditioned into me.
...that is a neat perk.
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
(Smash amp, burn guitar, take home the groupies)
the first rule of hackerspace is we don't talk about hackerspace ..
People need to realize nearly all creative companies has the same option of workshops, garages, tools, and allow personal use... and also exposes the fruits of their labor to the outside world.