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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."
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
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.
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
Yeah, I believe one of them is called Bob.
Nah, the project manager for Bob decided to quit Microsoft to make a game.
Turns out that's what he still does 15 years later.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
They still do this. But instead of actual hardware, they primarily work on making video's of things that would be cool if they existed in real life. Occasionally, they will make hardware, primarily out of clay.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
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.
Having had a job offer from a small company many many years ago where perks included free components and use of tooling and lab equipment for my own projects, I have no doubt that there must have been some other companies doing the same thing too. After all, it makes perfect sense to attract people that find joy in creating. They're the sort that as long as they've got enough to live on, are really more dedicated to what they're doing than to just collecting a check. You don't hire the best and brightest artists by treating people like hourly laborers.
The tale of the guy that developed the Graphing Calculator at Apple more than a decade ago makes for a good read. It's not quite the same thing, but does reflect people of the same mindset.
http://www.pacifict.com/Story/
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.
Oohh, how about a fancy C&C machine.
I think you mean CNC which stands for 'Computer Numerical Control.'
Don't stop playing gin every morning in the breakroom. You won't be getting the promotion.
Then might as well flip burgers. If you are not happy doing it, don't waste 1/3 of your life on it.
If you're in Denver, we have http://www.clubworkshop.com/
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
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.
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.
How many reporters do you know that are skilled enough to identify the really interesting shop equipment? I doubt that the Google shop is as poorly equipped as you seem to think.