cubicle-culture

The Twitter Frat House

Ryan Tate · 08/19/09 10:44AM

Twitter's been repeatedly brought down this month by attacks from global hackers, attacks that sysadmins at rival Google managed to deflect. What better time to tinker with the elaborate process of home beer brewing?

We're Firing! Then, 'We're Hiring!'

Ryan Tate · 07/14/09 01:48PM

People appreciate of corporate flexibility in a recession. Fire people, hire them back, God bless you. But keep firing and hiring in an endless cycle, and people are liable to think you're as sadistic as Yahoo.

Bill Gates in Cambridge Slob Shocker

Ryan Tate · 06/15/09 02:14PM

Notice something about Bill Gates in the attached video? Shuffling along a procession at Cambridge University, the Microsoft founder is the only dignitary without a tie. And he looks plenty sheepish about it.

Facebook Tries to Cool-ify Fuddy-Duddy Office

Ryan Tate · 06/01/09 04:30PM

Facebook's making the best of its move from downtown Palo Alto to an old Hewlett-Packard building in the suburbs. As if to prove the campus is sufficiently cool, one engineer shot a video in which he skateboards through the building. Someone else took pictures.

Indian man dies in pie-eating contest

Owen Thomas · 11/20/08 12:40PM

Desperate to train employees in the way of their customers on the other end of the world, Indian tech outfits teach them American accents, the names of local football and baseball teams, and slang expressions. Nativists wring hands about this crushing local mores in favor of Western culture. But sometimes the importation of Western culture proves outright deadly. In Gurgaon, India, a suburb of New Delhi filled with offshore-tech outfits, police are investigating the death of a 22-year-old employee of Nokia-Siemens at the company's office.Nokia-Siemens officials held a pie-eating contest for workers in the company cafeteria. Saurab Sabharwal started choking and ran to the bathroom. No one thought to follow him. A coworker found him dead an hour later. His father is now asking why medical personnel weren't on hand; doctors in India question whether such contests should be held at all. The point of such contests is to spur competition between employees, in a culture which fosters cooperation. That one proved deadly is perhaps the best lesson about American culture, if not the one the bosses intended. (Image via Machias Wild Blueberry Festival)