They want people to have to fumble through their site the better
They want people to have to fumble through their site, the better to get page view numbers up so they can command higher rates for advertising This, of course, makes me livid.The Web is a public place. Which, of course, causes the jogger’s brain to jump to the “deep linking” controversy.A US company, Ticketmaster, has been suing other companies, including Microsoft, for linking to pages in its Website. California has ever been a study in interesting cultural juxtapositions. This group has been gathering for the past year in a small garden in the shadow of the edifice named for the cross-dressing former head of the FBI. This is a group who gather in the early morning to perform the slow, meditative exercises of the spiritual movement banned in China.
God knows how much productive time is lost to this exercise hereabouts.But now we’re rounding Stanford’s Hoover Tower, just coming up on the Falun Gong people. The tidal wave of prosperity that’s crashed on to Silicon Valley’s shores has given “fiscal emergency” a new meaning.For many here, a fiscal angst means deciding whether to sell stock options now, or waiting to see if the price will go up. People sit, eyes fixed on their online broker’s Web page stock ticker, anxious finger poised above mouse. “Remember the panic when the mechanic would say you needed tires?” he asked. “I don’t even think about those things anymore.”Once, in my impecunious youth, I’d been given a ticket by the Pasadena Police Department for having a bald tire on my ‘54 Chevy Sudden financial needs qualified as a genuine emergency. John Santoro, an Apple executive, is recounting that his car needed unexpected repairs, and how he’d told the mechanic to go ahead without even thinking about the cost.John has been a teacher and a wire service photographer in past lives Neither metier is famous for its abundant remuneration.
The whole open space is ringed with buildings featuring lots of corner offices, glass walls, and a four-story atrium replete with live trees and a coffee bar. Even that pales in comparison to some other hi-tech palaces, but back to the office conversation. Much of the 10 or so acres (in a county where quarter-acre lots can bring a million dollars) is given over to a grassy quadrangle and outdoor amphitheatre, complete with cafe. Some of these companies have, or had at some point in their trajectories, so much money that they decided to carve large and deluxe digs right into the heart of some of the most expensive real estate in the world.Apple Computer keeps its campus in the heart of Cupertino. As we cross Sand Hill and turn on to a bikepath heading into the grounds of Stanford University, the sunrise-lit horizon blazes into view. Grey sky with dramatic pink and orange splashes catch my attention like the cover of Wired magazine before my thoughts drift to a scene the day before in an office in one of Silicon Valley’s palatial HQ buildings.
Not every Silicon Valley company is a raw startup Why, some are 10 and 15 years old. This is a trance-like state that overtakes the head as the feet, on autopilot, follow a well-worn trail.
My wife, Linda, Cassie the dog and I jog here six mornings a week, alternating among three routes to keep it interesting Any long-time jogger knows about runner’s reverie. The manual effort must have been terrifying.At home I have got a computer and bits of several others. At one point I had three computers and two huge boxes of bits, lots of spare hard disks, spare memory, and mother boards. I have learnt how to put them together mostly through just doing it, and computer magazines offer a wealth of information.I am passionate about computers and quite evangelical – if people don’t have one I encourage them, even if that means going round and building one for them.Jonathan Church directs his first production for Hampstead Theatre, `You be Ted and I’ll be Sylvia’ by Simon Smith, from 7 September.
IF JOGGING on Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road is inspirational, then I’m one inspired fella. Plus the ease of tracking the show financially, giving an accurate daily report, whether in attendance format or percentage numbers. And because demands are simple – apart from the box office’s computerised system.It mystifies me how the marketing function of a theatre could have worked before; it means the ability to create a database, showing who comes to what type of show, how often they attend – vital information. I was very pleased, because it’s an area I am enthusiastic about. At theatres the money is tight, so the technology tends to be a little bit behind the current, most expensive, machine. We had started using basic IBM PCs, with 8086 chips, then 286 machines, and then had a big upgrade five years ago and moved to 486 machines and low-end Pentium-based.