I am off to volunteer at a camp. Posting will resume shortly.
In the meantime, a thought to think about.
Assumptions
1. Karma is real
2. Global warming will kill us all
If said assumptions are true: Wouldn’t it be better to be a bad person now and come back as a cockroach? They are probably one of the few species that will survive after global warming reaches a tipping point.
Chew on that one. Get back to me.
Peace
Currently learning: Sustainable Architecture
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But this post is really about a work phenomena.
I am the only one of all my closest friends that has never worked for Apple. Somehow Apple tapped into my network of people from LA and hired them….all. My best friend in highschool, my college dorm roomate, my tennis partner, all of them.
At one point I could name 15 people who worked at the Grove Apple store, just off the top of my head. I can still name a few, and I can also spout off the names of friends who work at Apple stores in Century City, The Beverly Center, SoHo and the store on 5th avenue in New York.
Yesterday I had problems with my computer charger and being in LA, I went to the Century City store where I was greeted by three good friends from high school. We were able to shoot the shit and I was able to get good service. Believe me, this post isn’t complaining that all my friends work at the Apple store, I find it rather cool to walk into the store to get big smiles, hugs etc. But there is something about the whole ‘all of my friends work this one corporation,’ that leaves me puzzled.
Apple seems to hire in clusters. Obviously there are recommendations flying around, which happens in any business, but I wonder if their hiring clusters is statistically significant? How is it that all of my friends got hired?
How does Apple decide what hipster group they are going to attach themselves too? Why did my group of friends get labeled as a perfect group of Apple employees and how did Apple slowly convince all my friends to work there? Isn’t it odd not only that Apple wanted to hire all my friends and but that in turn all my friends were happy to work for Apple? They have all been brainswashed. It’s as if Apple is a cult that demands you to give it money in return for false beliefs that they are the sole proprietor of some futuristic product….oh, right. My point, however, stands — it seems strange that one corporation would hire so many people that I know to work retail for them.
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I would like to. Unfortunately, Apple has serious gag rules they put on their employees. Everyone is afraid to talk about their experience working for Apple, because they might get sued. I even talked with a certain actor (the Mac guy) that is employed by Apple for a set of commercials and he wasn’t allowed to talk about stuff because of Apple’s gag orders.
What’s the deal with that? I don’t know, they can’t even tell me why Apple is so scared about people talking. On a regular basis I threaten my roomate (an Apple employe) that if he tells me how is day went, I’m going to blog about it. Of course I wouldn’t, but it’s nice to be able to threaten him with something.
In truth, this is probably the only blog post I’ll ever do about Apple — because I don’t want to get anybody in trouble, so I will again express my frustration in not understanding how Apple retail works from the inside. My guess — they train you to sling computers the way a used car salesman trains his apprentice.
I do invite a comment from a frequent comment contributor on this blog, since he might have more insight than myself.
I have a friend that is currently biking across the country. I get email updates from him telling me what
states he has crossed and where he is heading.
I like to bike, don’t get me wrong. But across the country? That’s roughly 3,000 miles. I wonder how many tanks of gas that takes? (I ask because one day I want to do said cross-country trip… in a car, of course).
Currently at MIT there is a Vehicle Design Summit taking place.
This summer from June through August 15th MIT will host 60
engineers from 15 different countries. Their goal is to build cars that get 500 Miles to the Gallon. Impossible, no. But improbably…. damm straight.
The students that organized the summit were inspired by the World Solar Challenge.
By re-thinking modern vehicle designs the student engineers, many of whom have won the World Solar Race in the past, are going to create a practical solution for drivers that is environmentally and economically friendly.
I wonder how a car could ever get 500 mpg and what would it look like? To my feeble mind it sounds like technology from another planet.
The designs are broken into the following categories: hydrogen fuel cells, photovoltaics, biofuels, and human power. Their
goal is to design a practical vehicle that gets 500 mpg. I talked to the organizers over the phone, hoping I could turn it into a story. Although I haven’t found a home for it yet, I did get this breakdown of the different categories of cars from the organizers.
Via Email from the coordinators:
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END EMAIL
Having talked to the organizers, I realize that a big part of the inspiration for this summit is related to the World Solar Challenge. The World Solar Challenge started as an attempt to create practical cars that ran on solar energy. While the challenge brings about new designs for cars every year, it has failed to create anything practical. Today it is just a side project for eager undergrads at prestigious universities. They don’t create vehicles that are useful outside of the WSR.
This summit is an admission of the failings of the World Solar Race. Three students at MIT got sponsorship and have brought in 60 engineers from all over the world to create just five cars. Sixty Engineers from 15 countries and 20 Universities working on five cars.
The teams come from Australia, Japan, South Africa, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Wales etc. That’s some real hands across the world type crap. The final designs will be public, not proprietary for the school or the sponsors (which include GM and
Ford).
Are movie trailers getting longer these days? I just saw Pirates of the Caribbean II (POCB for hardcore fans) and I couldn’t help but feel like it was one long trailer for POCB III.
