Monday, 7. July 2008, 15:13:41
google, googleplex, inside
Google's main headquarters are located in Mountain View, California. The building is referred to as the "Googleplex", as the HQ is a complex of buildings. The lobby is featured with lava lamps, a piano, old server clusters and a projection of search quaries on the wall. The hallways are filled with bicycles and exercise balls. Each and every employee has access to the corporate recreation center.
Perks are all around the Googleplex. Such as work-out rooms, locker rooms, washer and dryers, a massage room, foosball, a baby grand piano, a pool table, video games, and ping pong. In addition, the rooms are stocked with foods and drinks.
Google is also taking steps to make their building "green". In October 2006, the company made an announcement to install thousands of solar panels to provide up to 1.6 megawatts of electricity. That's enough to supply 30% of the company's needs. In June of 2007, the company also announced that they will plan to be carbon neutral by 2008.
Image sources can be found
here,
and here. More images can be found
here.
Tuesday, 1. July 2008, 20:39:27
xbox, inside, history, museum
...
Part 2, of "Inside Microsoft". The picture to your left is an actual real-life Windows Live Mail mailbox. It looks pretty nice. Wonder what the mail main thinks of it,
, and it also seems that Microsoft didn't check their mail yet.
In this blog post, I will include some pictures that go with "Part 1" because I couldn't find a good way to fit all the pictures in the last post to make it look nice and pleasing to the eye
. The picture to your right is a pole banner (is that what you call those?) for Windows Live. Below that is another banner for the Xbox 360, I'm guessing that it tells you that you're near the Xbox 360 building. That banner would make a decent poster for your room, eh?
The below image is showing one of the Cafe's at the Microsoft campus. That looks like a good place to eat. I wonder what they serve...now, can one visitor visit this place to learn about Microsoft? (Like a field-trip) Sure. There's a "Microsoft Visitor's Center" and museum where people can go to learn about Microsoft's past and more. Below is an image of the museum, they call it the "Microsoft Timeline". I think I can see Windows XP in one of the moniters.
This concludes the "short"(
) tour of the Microsoft main campus. This post was inspired by Ashley over at
CyberNet News. Image sources can be found
here,
here,
here,
and here.
Monday, 30. June 2008, 20:14:12
work, inside, interesting, cool
...
Well, not really
inside Microsoft, but I'm going to give you a little tour inside the Redmund, Washington main campus. That's a map of the campus to your right. At the Cafe, drinks are free while the food isn't.
There are 14 Cafe locations with 10 ATMs. Don't think you'll get hungry there as long as you have some money with you,
. In 2007, the campus was 388 acres and held 70 buildings. That's around 350 Football(US) fields.
How does one get from place to place quickly? Without having to walk? Well, the Microsoft Shuttle of course! Thousands of people ride it each day, over 50 shuttles are used to get people to their destinations.
Now to get the employees to efficentally work and to be creative, you gotta give them some perks. Perks at Microsoft include: Free drinks, P.R.I.M.E discounts where employees get discounts on services and products. What happens if your on a vacation? Or you're sick? You get 15 paid vacation days, and 10 paid sick-days. Other perks are a "Stay Fit" program, counseling, on-site services like dry-cleaning for your clothes, and take-home dinners.
Now, probably the best perk is their Health-Care program. It includes no deductible, and they pay 100% for your prescriptions!
This concludes Part 1 for, "Inside Microsoft".
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