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Apple Planning To Build Private Restaurant

First time accepted submitter a90Tj2P7 writes "Apple is building a 21,468 square foot private restaurant in Cupertino so employees can talk shop over lunch without being overheard. Apple's director of real estate facilities, Dan Wisenhunt, stated that: 'We like to provide a level of security so that people and employees can feel comfortable talking about their business, their research and whatever project they're engineering without fear of competition sort of overhearing their conversations.'"

23 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by decora · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Adele Goldberg -- "actually, i did think of that, and told you guys, but you ignored me"

    Consumer - "and that democratization of information between Xerox, Apple, and Microsoft brought technology to the masses and created the computer revolution of the 80s and 90s"

    Apple CEO - "and we cant have that again, because the 80s and 90s were brutal for the entrenched interests. like Xerox"

    Google - "no shit. thats why you shouldnt base your fucking business model on making information secret, when your entire history has been based on borrowing ideas from other people"

    1. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by mad+flyer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd rather have companies "stealing" information from each others (maybeee apple)
      Rather than megacorporation systematically stockpiling private information from the whole planet population (Google Dark Empire of Doom)

    2. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by alen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except that all of google's algorithms that their business depends on are secret

      Maybe google should release all their secrets as well?

    3. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by icebraining · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Funny, considering the algorithm most important to them - PageRank - is described publicly in a patent. Not to mention that it doesn't even belong to Google, but to Stanford University (since it was developed by Page and Brin as a research project).

    4. Re:Xerox - "damn, why didnt we think of that" by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Except that all of google's algorithms that their business depends on are secret

      Maybe google should release all their secrets as well?

      From a competition standpoint: It doesn't matter now. Google could release every secret in their search algorithm, and no competitor would be able to compete because it's the collected data that's important. Without the search data, the algorithm is near useless -- You'd be starting from scratch and they have how many years of a head start?

      From a user standpoint -- I sure as hell hope they don't release their algorithms. Do you like link-bait and search spam clouding your search results? I don't. As long as they disclose what information they collect, then it's fine with me. Sure people can figure out how to game the system, but the algorithms can also be changed behind the scenes.

      To those who argue the "security through obscurity is no security" fallacy: What about 256 bits of obscurity? What about 512 bits of obscurity? 1024? 2048? Our whole security infrastructure is built on obscurity, tiny obscure secrets of the 1's and 0's -- Individually: not secure; All chained together: Obscurity is Very Secure. If the secret key isn't "obscured" in PKI, it would have no security at all.

  2. I hope by kelemvor4 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hope they serve more than just apples.

    1. Re:I hope by jcr · · Score: 5, Interesting

      you'll find plenty of Google, Facebook, and other South Bay company employees living in San Francisco, but not Apple employees

      Really? Then why does Apple run a fleet of busses between Cupertino and San Francisco every day?

      Got anything else you want to make up like that?

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    2. Re:I hope by shugah · · Score: 4, Funny

      It will undoubtedly have a walled garden.

      --
      If you aren't part of the solution, then there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
  3. Sssh. don't tell them about cell phones or tablets by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they don't know those have microphones and cameras, they won't realize security is a waste of time.

    or that you can hear everything just by the vibrations off of the windows.

    be vewwy vewwy quiet, I'm hunting trilobytes.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  4. Next up... by poity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    employee dorms to prevent honey trap operations.

    --
    your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
  5. Employees can talk without being overheard... by DWMorse · · Score: 5, Funny

    And lose iPhone prototypes without being publicly embarrassed.

    --
    There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
  6. What's new? by Snowgen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've worked for big companies, and for startups. I have to say that on-campus dining facilities are pretty standard for big companies. We normally call them "cafeterias" but if you want to call it a restaurant knock yourself out.

    Not to mention that Google's in-house chefs are a thing of legend. I really don't see what's news here.

    1. Re:What's new? by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can't believe I had to scroll down this far before someone pointed this out. "Apple to set up an employee cafeteria" is some kind of news item? What about "Apple adds 25 spaces to parking lot D," or "Apple to install new urinals on the fourth floor." Remind me why we should give a crap about this.

    2. Re:What's new? by Greystripe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well if it's urinals I'd think they'd really want you to not give a crap.

  7. They've run out of space...and this is news? by Elfboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple has a wonderful cafeteria and a seriously epic variety of food, they are just out of space (food stations are being set up outside etc...). Makes perfect sense for them to house a larger "restaurant" (aka cafeteria) so employees don't have to head out to the local BJ's. Why is this being spun as an OMG Apple is too wealthy and splurging. Yahoo and others have freaking DMV and hairstyling services for employees (okay maybe Yahoo is not the best example here....)

    --
    * We dance where angels fear to tread *
  8. Re:Whatever will they call it? by wiedzmin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Applebee's

    --
    Bow before me, for I am root.
  9. Re:lol by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 5, Funny

    In unrelated news, many Samsung employees are now trying to find a new place to eat.

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  10. Re:Cafeteria by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um no. The author of the article called it a private restaurant. No one from Apple called it that. The author also says that's the commission calls it but they might have used "dining facility". From the article the author also says:

    The facility will have two stories, meetings rooms, lounge areas, conference rooms, storage lockers, an underground parking lot, and, yes, even restrooms.

    It doesn't sound like it's just a restaurant or cafeteria but a building annex of some sort.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  11. Re:Sounds like self-aggrandization by Karlt1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many companies do what Apple does, and do it even better in many cases

    "Doing it better" in business means more profitably or at least with better margins. Which company is "doing it better than Apple"?

  12. I've heard of this before... by jd2112 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Most larger companies have one of these. It's called a cafeteria.

    --
    Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
  13. Re:Sounds like self-aggrandization by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So you're saying that every other company in the consumer electronics biz has lousy marketing?

    At some point it's gotta break for you apple haters. Apple is popular because they put out products people like. No more, no less.

    If it was purely marketing, why hasn't anyone out done apple?

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  14. Re:Sounds like self-aggrandization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They never got there first. There were other computers, tablets, other music players, other music stores, other phones with music. You're talking out your ass.

    Apple has excellent marketing, yes. Microsoft spends tons on marketing too, but theirs sucks.

    What Apple did was to make tech delightful. Simple and elegant. They ditched floppies first. They made it really easy to buy music and put it on a portable device and make playlists without a tutorial. They did something unprecedented when they made the iPhone-- at home activation. I was waiting in line on release day (for the mother-in-law) a hundred people or so from the from the front, yet I walked out with two iPhones 45 minutes after they opened the doors. (then I wisely waited two days before attempting to activate). For the first time, using a web browser on a phone was fun instead of a disappointment.

    Look at the consumer section of Dell's on-line store. Look at Apple's on-line store. Now which one is more scary to a non-technical person looking for a personal laptop? Do they want the Intel Core i3, the 2nd Gen Intel Core i3, the 2nd Gen Intel Core i5, the... Do they want IKEA laptop covers? Or do they instead want something that "Handles daily tasks with ease" but is rated 3/5 stars.

    The Jukebox 6000, and its successor the Jukebox Studio (see below), used standard USB 1.1 technology, transferring data at a maximum rate of 1 MB per second. These models transfer data at a comparably slow rate compared with succeeding Archos devices using the USB 2.0 standard.

    Regarding the popular predecessor to the iPod line, the Archos Jukebox, Wikipedia has this to say:
    This device was released Saturday, December 9, 2000 and discontinued as of Friday, May 16, 2003. It weighs 350 g.
    The Jukebox is historically notable for shipping with a user interface and operating system so unfriendly and bug-ridden as to inspire Björn Stenberg and other programmers to begin to develop a superior, free and open-source replacement operating system. This project became Rockbox.[citation needed]

    Apple isn't so much about making "new categories of consumer product" as they are about finding broken categories of overly complex and unsatisfactory products and re-imagining them as delightful products. I've supported family on Windows and on Macs.. once they get Macs, they don't call me even 1/10th as much for support issues.

  15. Re:Sounds like self-aggrandization by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's always been part of Apple's business model. It started with the Apple computer. They were the first company to really market computers to home users.

    Wild guess, are you around 13 years old?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."