Strange findings about Microsoft on the web
Microsoft is a really good company to work for, but amongst the tech community (online and in person) there is kind of a love-hate relationship with the company. In fact, even amongst the non-tech folks, people make fun of MS
Anyway, Clodagh was looking for a co-workers office to go to tomorrow that's in a different building neither of us were sure the exact location. Rather than bothering to RAS (connect to the secure company network) to check the official campus maps, we just google'd it. And as I was curious about the other hits that came up - yes, we did find the map we were looking for - I came across this link: http://www.cities21.org/Redmond.htm.
How cool would that be?!?!?!? Our own monorail system just for 'softies! How much more would that contribute to people thinking that we're some sort of weird incredibly focused and self-contained crowd? How much would that inflate the ego of the people at the company? Or would it just be a little too "evil society from a James Bond movie"?
And how obsessed with monorails must this area be if someone is proposing one just for a single company's campuses? Yes, I just got my car-tab renewal notice which calls out the obscene amount of the dreaded monorail tax. That they're now saying is going to last until 2050. The damn thing better be free because I've sure paid my share of ridership dues already in the last couple years. Not that I'm opposed to the concept - one of the things that is tremendously lacking from the puget sound area is a really good, efficient light rail system (or some public transit) that runs across the lakes and for reasonable hours. When I lived in Redmond I tried to plan a night out downtown and back home using the bus system for transportation - if I planned on heading home roughly when the bars closed it would take another FOUR HOURS to get home between all the transfers and waiting.
[Edit 6/27 10:48pm: add below links]
more links about the PRT (personal rapid transit) including a snazzier version of the above website:
http://gettherefast.org/bettercampus.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/