World Ending - Just Deserts At Google

Phott by Everett Bogue, via NY Mag

Ah yes, early signs that the on-going meltdown of capitalism is impacting even Google, or at least the lavish perks Googlers have come to take for granted. The notice, as reproduced below -and thanks to Silicon Alley Insider for this one - was sent round the New York offices of Google. (Please do though take a look at the linked article to see the inaugural menu so you can get a taste of what, err, you won't be tasting.)


Hi Everyone,
Changes have been made recently to programs throughout our company to ensure cost effectiveness and consistency across offices. In New York City, our food service team has closely examined cafe usage, food consumption and labor costs to find areas where efficiency can be improved without compromising food quality and nutrition. We would like to announce the following NYC-specific changes to the food service program:

* Meals: The below hours were determined to be the most cost effective to serve meals based on traffic flow to cafes.

* Breakfast will be served from 8:30-9:30am (formerly 8:00-9:30am) and the menu will be simplified.

* Lunch will be served from 11:30am-2:00pm (formerly 11:30-2:30pm).

* Dinner will be served from 6:30-8:00pm (formerly 6:00-8:00pm). Please note that dinner is provided for those working late in the office and is not intended to be taken home.



* Microkitchens: Those of you who have been around for a while know that the microkitchens started for a variety of good reasons, including a genuine desire to make it easy for folks to grab some food while working long and/or odd hours. While we are staying true to that original purpose, we are also looking for ways to be smarter, more cost-efficient, and more earth-friendly in the usage and product offerings of our microkitchens.

* There will be changes to the selection of snacks in the microkitchens. We will be sending a survey to Googlers in NYC soon asking for them to vote on their favorite snacks.

* Socials and Guest Policy

* Afternoon tea on Tuesdays will be suspended. Similar to Mountain View, there may be occasional surprise "snack attacks" in the future.

* On those occasions when a senior executive would like to speak at TGIAF, temps, contractors, vendors and guests will be restricted from attending, for confidentiality reasons.

* To maintain consistency with other Google offices, we are going to adopt the guest policy announced in MV last month. Please see below for more detail about this policy.

We look forward to continuing to provide Googlers with a great meal experience every day. Questions, comments or concerns can be sent to [REDACTED]@google.com.
Thank you,

Shocking. Next they will ban pyjamas in the workplace and actually make people work on real stuff that matters. Fancy that. And for those of you who can spell schadenfreude without first looking it up, bets on when we'll see the first round of Google lay-offs? April '09 gets my vote.

HHNF #2

Pithy, and to the point.

Hell Hath No Fury ...

... etc.

On The Plus Side

Layoffs are starting to bite here in Silicon Valley. Any young company that relies on click-throughs, eyeballs, web-traffic or advertising spend in order to have a business model is about to have a tough few quarters. For example, following their doom-and-gloom presentation, Sequoia's portfolio companies are cutting back on average by 30%. However, they are not the only ones. Some 50,000 tech job cuts have been announced spanning everything from semiconductors to PCs, cell phones to cars.

This is nothing new to California's high-tech businesses. In its short history Silicon Valley has already lived through several cycles of up-and-down, with the more recent-prior in 2001 being, of course, the worst by far.

At this point we don't yet know how wide or how deep this new rift in the high-tech landscape will become. Yes, it's going to hurt; yes, we'll get through it and something else will propel the next run-up. It may be green-tech, bio-tech, web-tech, nano-tech or something-else-tech, but somehow we'll figure something out. "Hope springs eternal" as they say, and nowhere quicker or more vigorously than in Silicon Valley.

Meanwhile, Starbuck's will get clogged with unemployed geeks renting wi-fi by nursing a small coffee for 5 hours, property prices will fall further as people migrate away from the area, and the incessant calls from stock brokers touting for business will become even more strident.

However, experience tells us that on the plus side at least the commute will get easier....

Made It Back

Racing Aston Martin, 007

Back from Europe, at least for a few days, but leaving again next Saturday to head to Switzerland.

Meanwhile, here's a car picture to keep you going until I can sort out what timezone this is. Going to China, getting home but then turning right around and heading to Europe for few days is a painful way to do it, but circumstances dictate that that's just the way it had to be.

Hopefully, the travel gods will get me into Heathrow in time next Sunday to watch the final F1 GP in Brazil where Lewis Hamilton again has a seven point lead going into the closing race. Thanks to what we saw last year (he lost the title by one point after a poor start and mechanical problems) it's goign to be a nail-biting experience.

Alas, before that there's a board meeting to get through, along with all the usual end-of-year planning and other tasks to get completed between now and Friday.

Much less fun in prospect, therefore, than watching cars going round a racing circuit.

Yea, Now We're Winning ... Kind Of

Over breakfast, I found myself reading an article in the european edition of the Financial Times discussing the impact of the precipitious fall in world oil prices.

Now that the price of a barrel of oil has fallen by 50% from its peak, bringing it down to around $70 to $75, the writer was noting that this is likely to have a positive impact on the west but a much more significant and negative effect in the east.

It seems that the national budgets in Iran and Venezuela, for example, only balance when oil trades at $95 per barrel or above; that figure is $70 for Russia, making them about break even today but clearly much worse off than before Wall Street withered. (This is of course a game the US doesn't even get close to playing, thanks mostly to dwindling oil output and a budget deficit that beggars belief.)

Add to the above an analysis by Deutsche Bank that says the marginal production cost for crude is between $65 and $80 a barrel - by implication also therefore the trading range that things should settle into over the long term - and it's hard to see how even with OPEC trying to trim output and push prices back up again that we will see much in the way of upwards pricing pressure.

Ultimately, it was economics that brought the collapse of the Soviet Union, not some inate demand from the proletariat for the wholesale adoption of democracy. Over the past years, Iran's burgeoning balance sheet has unnaturally emboldened the state in both its rhetoric and the surpression of internal anti-government dissidents. Being flush with cash makes it much easier to covertly fund terrorist activities elsewhere and also creates a thick insulating blanket against the negative effects of any sanctions applied by the western powers. Take away that comforter and it makes you wonder if falling oil prices may ultimately do more to bring stability to the middle east than the reverse trend ever could, especially as meddlesome forces get increasingly distracted by niggling domestic issues like, shall we say, trying to stay in power?

Oh, and the dollar is finally worth something again. Funny old world, innit?

Night Races

Racing Into The Night, ALMS 2008, Laguna Seca

I've raced in the dry and I've raced in the wet; I've driven in sprint races and endurance races; I've raced in the US and the UK. But, I cannot claim to have ever had the chance to race in the dark. I've read a lot of accounts of what it's like at Le Mans proper, especially in the old days of turbo charged long tail Porsches doing over 200 mph down the Mulsanne straight in the pitch dark, and quite frankly it sounded terrifying, an impression not changed by noting that the drivers often felt exactly the same way. Definitely a case of taking the brave pills and refusing to listen to the nagging voice in your head that says there's no way you can get round the next corner flat in fourth,despite the fact that you've already done so many times in the past.

Don't know if I will ever have enough time and/or money to race again, but even if I do then I think I'll stick to the daylight hours and leave this challenge to the pros.

What the 360 Means in Xbox 360

Porsche 911 GT3 Having a Bad Day, Laguna Seca, 2008

"Degrees of rotation" would be the answer, at least in this case. This GT3 nerfed the car in front between turns two and three, somewhere close to the back of the pack. Lots of tyre smoke (blue stuff front left) and bits of bodywork was the result, along with the exit of this competitor from the race. If only it had been hit by a car sponsored by Nintendo then the world would have been in perfect harmony, but alas not!

American LeMans 2008

Acura ARX-01b LMP2 Sports Prototype

Since I managed to make it by on Friday, I was able to catch the last race in the American LeMans series, held as always at Laguna Seca. I'll post a few more pictures over the following days but, once again, I'm on a plane today, this time heading to Europe.

ALMS is a great sports car series and of course Laguna Seca is a wonderful circuit. I like the way they organise the racing here and there's always plenty to do and to see, both on and off the circuit.

Uniquely, this is the only race at Laguna that runs late enough into the day to give some impression of what it's like to compete in the dark. The shot above is of the Gil De Ferran Acura grounding out as it runs down the corkscrew (they ultimately finished 4th). According to the telemetry I saw on the TV coverage the next day, that car was accelerating through 80 mph at that point and pulling 2g. Wonderful stuff!

Terminal Disease

Terminal 2, Pudong Airport, Shanghai

Terminal disease (not a terminal disease, thankfully) is currently an affliction of mine, not something exhibited in anyway at all by Shanghai airport's terminal 2.

While I'm seeing way too many different kinds for my tastes - quite to the point where I am indeed sick of them - I would nevertheless have to congratulate the Chinese authorities for the design and implementation of the new terminal 2. It's broad, light, spacious, well laid out and quite frankly yet another testament to the skills of Richard Rogers the architect they brought in to create a new gateway to China's most prosperous area.

From the upstairs lounge, you can see that the main runway runs parallel to the terminal building, affording a great view of the aircraft taking off and landing. Beyond that, you get a similar vista, this time though of ships entering and leaving Shanghai's immensely busy seaport. Most entertaining.

Since the airport was built to offer a lot of headroom for future passenger growth it means that today the typical traffic load is way below capacity, leading to a very pleasant sense of not being crowded or harried anywhere at all in the process of going from check-in to departure.

This contrasts sharply with the Heathrow experience at T5 which already felt cramped, hot and fatiguing the last time I was there, an experience I'll get to re-asses in about, oh shall we say, 24 hours .... ?

Round 2 begins.