• lazy valleywag

    Why did Google choose Greece for its anniversary party?

    The celebration for Google's tenth anniversary party was held in Rhodes, Greece, of all places. It doesn't get much more lavish than flying employees from offices around the world to a popular tourist destination, near the peak of the travel season. One self-proclaimed shareholder employee complained that "spending I'm guessing $1000/a head = $4,000,000 on a party in Greece for European Googlers and (no doubt) 'special' USA based employees is shameful and un-Googley." Actually, for a company whose CEO own a part of not one, not two, but three party planes, it seems pretty darn typical. Lavish expense aside, the question that's been bedeviling me — why Greece? Is there any special significance, besides the hubristic allusion to the Hellenic Golden Age of knowledge? (Photo by Ade Oshineye)

    7:00 PM on Mon Sep 8 2008
    By Jackson West
    2,423 views, 19 comments

    Most discussed QADude: I figure they went to Greece so they could travel to Ibiza. Why not? Lots of dancing, booze, women, etc. Who more »

  • lazy valleywag

    Please share your semiconducted romances and microprocessed fears

    Let's face it, the world of Web development and production is a glamorous sham. The real science is in semiconductors. That cute Ajax script kiddie with the asymmetrical haircut? Ask him to design a microprocessor cache bus. Learn a little ActionScript? Go ahead and try to get a job pinning Intel chips to nuclear reactor control systems or laser-guided bombs. Even if you're a C++ jock or MapReduce expert, your gonads shrink when an actual electronic engineer is in the room. It's okay, you can admit it. We will. More »

    7:20 AM on Thu Sep 4 2008
    By Jackson West
    763 views, 12 comments

    Most discussed frederic: awesome sign. truly embodies the average silicon valley programmer's contempt for graphic designers. more »

  • lazy valleywag

    What's Sergey Brin doing with Arianna Huffington in Tahiti?

    Google cofounder Sergey Brin is, two days away from his company's first-quarter earnings call, sunning himself in Tahiti. As is Greco-American blog tycoon Arianna Huffington and Wendi Deng, wife of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. Huffington is reportedly there on vacation, but it's a stretch to think Brin and Deng are also there by sheer coincidence. Anyone have a bead on what prompted the South Pacific power summit? Do let us know your theories.

    9:50 PM on Tue Apr 15 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,898 views, 9 comments

    Latest by loslosbaby: Who are all these people you're talking about? Oh, yeah, I know who they are, they're old. more »

  • lazy valleywag

    Failed spectrum bid taxes Googlers' health

    Google PR's party line: Even though Verizon Wireless and AT&T mostly won the FCC"s 700-Mhz spectrum auction, Google got what it wanted out of the bid by forcing the carriers to agree to "open" their new airwaves to any wireless device, including the still-mythical Googlephone. Google's latest actions speak otherwise: Google telecom lawyer Richard Whitt has moved from talking about 700 Mhz to new spectrum, formerly used by TV channels, that will become available next year. Some suspect Google's top management was always bluffing with its spectrum bid. If so, we're guessing they never let the team working on the project in on the secret. More »

    2:40 PM on Mon Mar 24 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    1,473 views, 3 comments

    Latest by WagCurious: It's incredibly distracting for an organization to submit a "fake" bid for a serious piece of wireless property. The impact more »

  • lazy valleywag

    Google kills babies?

    A tipster emails us to ask about strange goings-on at the Googleplex.
    A co-worker of mine just left the Google campus in Mountain View and reported that there's a single protester out front with a picket sign that reads "Google kills babies". Can someone investigate?
    Well, can you?

    3:21 PM on Wed Mar 12 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    5,339 views, 7 comments

    Latest by dalejo: It's just Marissa's yearly sacrifice to keep her youthful appearance despite her heroic achievements. It's considered an honor to more »

  • lazy valleywag

    Send in your worst holiday-party photos

    The hot Santa at Marissa Mayer's Christmas party inspired us. Readers, we've heard all about your tragic holiday parties — like Facebook's prissy shot luge, where health inspectors forced partygoers to use a glass rather than press their lips against the ice to get a drink. Pictures are worth a 1,000 words. Send in your photos of the most embarrassing holiday-party moments this season, and we'll run the best — the worst, rather — as a present to you next week.

    12:48 PM on Fri Dec 21 2007
    By Owen Thomas
    636 views, Comment

  • lazy valleywag

    Were you at the Thrillist SF launch party?

    Persistent rumors are burning my ears about last week's Thrillist SF launch party. The events newsletter reportedly attracted a very special guest — one who probably should have been burning the midnight oil in Palo Alto dealing with a company crisis. We hear he stayed up late drinking, ending up passed out on a couch, while his girlfriend lit up with friends. Were you there? Drop me a line.

    2:55 PM on Thu Dec 6 2007
    By Owen Thomas
    709 views, 3 comments

    Latest by Emdash: I was at the party and far too drunk off free bottles of booze to remember who was there. You more »

  • lazy valleywag

    Which "bitch" inspired Zuckerberg to write Facebook?

    Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg kept an online journal during college. Part of it has become publicly available thanks to 02138's recent reporting on the ConnectU case. In this portion of the diary we witness the moment of Zuckerberg's inspiration for Facebook, the social network with 57 million active users and a bubbly valuation of $15 billion. This is, most likely, the kind of thing Facebook wanted to quash with its ill-thought-out lawsuit:
    [Redacted] is a bitch. I need to think of something to make to take my mind off her.
    I need to think of something to occupy my mind. Easy enough now I just need an idea.

    More »

    2:40 PM on Thu Dec 6 2007
    By Nicholas Carlson
    5,189 views, 6 comments

    Latest by Figaro: Did she really "inspire" him? Heh, he allegedly stole the idea from those ConnectU guys. more »