where do you see ANYTHING about google expecting people to work extra hours on the personal project? I mean beyond how every company on the planet would like people to work extra hours on all company projects?
Of course they own the work they pay you to do during working hours. To expect otherwise is insane.
If I do end up working more than 40 hours a week, I'd much rather do it because I was working on a project I was fascinated with and WANTED to work on more, instead of just about every other tech firm where working 50-60 hours a week is par for the course in order to compete with the guy/girl in the next cube, and of course the big outsourcing fear.
When you say you wouldn't do it for your employer, you mean that if your employer said "hey, we only want you to work on this project we assigned to you 4 days a week, and we'd like you to spend the other day working on something you come up with that you think might be useful to us or our customers. We're paying you the same, and are expecting you to work the same hours." You'd say no? No no please, I only want to do exactly what you tell me to. I don't want to come up with an idea of my own. *shrug* That wouldn't be my choice certainly. Your risk of getting *BURNED* is exactly the same as doing your normal work. You're working as many hours as you choose on projects that the company owns. Period. That's what a job is all about. There's no addional risk or burnage if you pick the projects or if your manager does. There's just more potential for job satisfaction if you pick it.
I don't think anyone is gushing over google giving people free time. I think the whole point is that most people would love the opportunity to choose an idea or project to develop, something they are intersted in and belive in, as opposed to whatever their manager assigns. I know I would. And yeah, if I'm getting paid for it, and given company time and equipment to do it with, I'd expect that it should have to be in line with the overall company direction, and it would belong to them. Work for hire.
Your last statement about google getting reamed if they penalize someone for not having a project doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, sure, if that were to happen, then yes, people would be unhappy. Likewise, if Yahoo penalized employees for not taking a lunch break everyday, they'd get "reamed". If the Army penalized people for not going to the shooting range while on leave, they'd get "reamed". There's a million similar scenarios, and no reason to belive the google one is more likely than any other. The flip side of that, is if I were a manager at google, I'd sure want to hire self-starter types, motivate creative people who like coming up with ideas and working on them, instead of developer drones who only want to work on what they are told to.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine, but from where I sit you appear to making paranoid accusations without any real basis for any of it being likely. Now, if you'd said "here's some proof that google expects people to work extra hours on their personal projects *more so than most tech companies want employees to work in general* and if you don't do that, you get reprimanded", then sure, I'm right there with you. Or even if you said "hey, 4 years ago Google abused employees with a similar situation, this seems likely to end up as a repeat of that fiasco", I could totally see where you are coming from. But you're basically saying, and please excuse my exageration, "hey, if mother theresa started poisining patients then she'd get 'reamed'". "If Mr. Rogers was found to be a crack-smoking pedophile, then he'd get 'reamed'". "If my neighbor started beating his kids, even though he has a long history of not beating his kids, you never can tell with folks, maybe he'll just start beating them, then he'll get 'reamed'". Seems oddly paranoid to me.
having used their 3 button bluetooth mouse, while they do look pretty, the build quality is pretty awful. It feels cheap. The plastic shifts on the base. It lags worse than any other bluetooth mouse I've used. Etc... I now use my old MS 5 button wired mouse.
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Of course they own the work they pay you to do during working hours. To expect otherwise is insane.
If I do end up working more than 40 hours a week, I'd much rather do it because I was working on a project I was fascinated with and WANTED to work on more, instead of just about every other tech firm where working 50-60 hours a week is par for the course in order to compete with the guy/girl in the next cube, and of course the big outsourcing fear.
When you say you wouldn't do it for your employer, you mean that if your employer said "hey, we only want you to work on this project we assigned to you 4 days a week, and we'd like you to spend the other day working on something you come up with that you think might be useful to us or our customers. We're paying you the same, and are expecting you to work the same hours." You'd say no? No no please, I only want to do exactly what you tell me to. I don't want to come up with an idea of my own. *shrug* That wouldn't be my choice certainly. Your risk of getting *BURNED* is exactly the same as doing your normal work. You're working as many hours as you choose on projects that the company owns. Period. That's what a job is all about. There's no addional risk or burnage if you pick the projects or if your manager does. There's just more potential for job satisfaction if you pick it.
I don't think anyone is gushing over google giving people free time. I think the whole point is that most people would love the opportunity to choose an idea or project to develop, something they are intersted in and belive in, as opposed to whatever their manager assigns. I know I would. And yeah, if I'm getting paid for it, and given company time and equipment to do it with, I'd expect that it should have to be in line with the overall company direction, and it would belong to them. Work for hire.
Your last statement about google getting reamed if they penalize someone for not having a project doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, sure, if that were to happen, then yes, people would be unhappy. Likewise, if Yahoo penalized employees for not taking a lunch break everyday, they'd get "reamed". If the Army penalized people for not going to the shooting range while on leave, they'd get "reamed". There's a million similar scenarios, and no reason to belive the google one is more likely than any other. The flip side of that, is if I were a manager at google, I'd sure want to hire self-starter types, motivate creative people who like coming up with ideas and working on them, instead of developer drones who only want to work on what they are told to.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine, but from where I sit you appear to making paranoid accusations without any real basis for any of it being likely. Now, if you'd said "here's some proof that google expects people to work extra hours on their personal projects *more so than most tech companies want employees to work in general* and if you don't do that, you get reprimanded", then sure, I'm right there with you. Or even if you said "hey, 4 years ago Google abused employees with a similar situation, this seems likely to end up as a repeat of that fiasco", I could totally see where you are coming from. But you're basically saying, and please excuse my exageration, "hey, if mother theresa started poisining patients then she'd get 'reamed'". "If Mr. Rogers was found to be a crack-smoking pedophile, then he'd get 'reamed'". "If my neighbor started beating his kids, even though he has a long history of not beating his kids, you never can tell with folks, maybe he'll just start beating them, then he'll get 'reamed'". Seems oddly paranoid to me.
you must be british:)
having used their 3 button bluetooth mouse, while they do look pretty, the build quality is pretty awful. It feels cheap. The plastic shifts on the base. It lags worse than any other bluetooth mouse I've used. Etc... I now use my old MS 5 button wired mouse.
https://www.macminiservers.com/signup.jsp/
I'm currently paying about $120/month for a server. Most of it's for bw I don't use. But for $20/month or $50/month or whatever, I'll probably switch.
Hell, I pay more than $50/month for cable tv.
Plus, I gotta say, I love my powerbook. OS X is awesome for java development. JBoss+Postgres+Apache installs and runs great.