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A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

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Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#351

Post by linkregister »

valuearb wrote: post #288
Fricken wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you conveniently ignore all the negative side effects of cars and sprawl that accomodates them, and start not from first principles but with the clusterfuck we currently inhabit, then I guess over-reliance on cars enhances individual liberty for a privileged few. With less cars you can take the bus, the train, a bike, or you can walk. You can do it whether you're rich or poor, or too old or too young to drive. Wit…

Sprawl is allowing another person the freedom to have a yard. But sure, we can shave a few seconds off your commute by forcing everyone into tiny apartments in this massive country with massive amounts of open space. I live in a state that appropriately funds it's freeways, so we don't have a cluster fuck. I seldom ever have to drive below 75 on the freeway.

Maybe one policy for an urban area doesn't fit for a rural area, and vice versa. Maybe... life is complicated and there's no intellectually easy solution for everything.

(directed at both Fricken and valuearb)

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#352

Post by akgerber »

plussed_reader wrote: post #74
akgerber wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the postwar suburban land use of the surrounding area is designed exclusively around automobiles and makes it nearly impossible and extremely unpleasant to walk for transportation, a prerequisite of functional mass transit. Silicon Valley has chosen to preserve its form of single-family suburban sprawl forever, at the cost of any human with a reasonable income being able to move there.

Not forever; the old parts of 'silicon valley' have been being turned under and rebuilt taller. Look north and east of the intersection of 237 & Mathilda Ave. The south SF bay(and most of the bay, really) is similar to Chicago in the run up to the Civil War; it's expanded out as much as possible, the only direction left is up. The gentrifying is pricing families out of the area; you can measure progress with BART, an…

Except Chicago in the runup to the Civil War had population growth of 274% in a decade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago

Well over 10x what Silicon Valley has experienced during another world-historical boom: http://siliconvalleyindicators.org/special-reports/populatio...

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#353

Post by snowwrestler »

valuearb wrote: post #230
accountyaccount wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then don't. Corporate childcare isn't mandatory... just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't incredibly valuable to other working parents. I've considered employers I wouldn't have otherwise considered because the thought of on-site child care is incredibly appealing.

Child care is a competitive business that can almost always be provided better and cheaper elsewhere. So it's much better to use stipends to subsidize employee child care. Having child care is also an expensive distraction and liability for management. Do you want to deal with employee complaints over childcare hours, personnel, facilities, etc, or do you want to spend your time thinking about how to better sell prod…

This is a classic HN conversation, a bunch of people trying to reason about something off the top of their head from their own personal experience.

Childcare in businesses is a solved problem. Thousands of businesses do it, as do many government agencies. Here in DC there are in-business childcare centers at places like the Smithsonian, Holocaust Museum, FDA, World Bank, HHS, etc. Heck the public middle school in my neighborhood has an attached childcare center for the teachers' kids.

Patagonia, one of the most-admired businesses in the world, has a huge childcare center on campus, and encourages other businesses to do the same thing.

Whether or not to offer on-premise childcare is a choice every business can make for itself, but let's not pretend it's some risky idea that is hard to work out.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#354

Post by Markoff »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #342
Markoff wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you don't want companies do what? stop building massive useless parking lots blocking local roads with thousands of cars instead of helping with local public transport, leaving nature untouched and easing the roads? wow, you got me there, sure the other option would be much worse... let's strictly follow dumb rules instead of trying to change them for people benefit

Typically we don't like having companies manipulating municipal policies. This is how we end up in situations where we have one or two ISPs in a market. Or a situation where ATT and Google have to go to court for access to that pole. That was my point. It was not a dis on Apple or a desire for things to not change. We just need to tread carefully when allowing business to dictate municipal policy.

what has decreasing parking limits per employee (especially in middle of nowhere, so it's not like they are gonna park on nearby streets) to do with company being monopoly? somehow I fail to see there any relation, it might as well be company with 200 employees challenging dumb rule

it's not about business dictating rules, it's about 9000 parking spots for 12000 people, which sounds for someone from Europe completely insane

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#355

Post by Markoff »

s73ver wrote: post #322
Markoff wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you don't want companies do what? stop building massive useless parking lots blocking local roads with thousands of cars instead of helping with local public transport, leaving nature untouched and easing the roads? wow, you got me there, sure the other option would be much worse... let's strictly follow dumb rules instead of trying to change them for people benefit

Stop being deliberately obtuse. We don't want companies using their leverage to change city regulations, even if it's something we agree with.

why not? you rather suffer out of principle? what difference does it make if it's company or local citizen chalenging stupid rule? I fail to see difference if it's something majority will benefit from

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#356

Post by Keyframe »

jumpkickhit wrote: post #261
valuearb wrote: post #220

“It’s an obsolete model that doesn’t address the work conditions of the future,” says Louise Mozingo, an urban design professor at UC Berkeley." Everyone should note that Louise Mozingo has criticized the Apple campus from not having large open floor plans where employees can stare at each other across narrow tables and "collaborate" by yelling to one another over their co-workers heads. She simply doesn't get how so…

This is great! Too many companies are in the 1920's, where they want an open plan so bosses can stare at people while they work.

Preferably from a raised platform of sorts.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#357

Post by abakker »

detritus wrote: post #299
abakker wrote: post #183

I do some small amount of woodworking on the side of my main job, and as a result I have a large envelope CNC router in my garage. I occasionally post ads for craigslist looking for odd jobs. About a year ago, I was approached via craigslist by a contractor working on this campus to help make some plywood parts for concrete forms that they couldn't figure out how to mark and measure on site with a jigsaw. They were t…

Oh now that's a lovely-looking machine! I love the way your width/x axis stepper is handled. Did you build her yourself?

Shout out entirely to Cory at CNC router parts. They designed it, I assembled it. Their electronics are REALLY nicely done, too.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#358

Post by Markoff »

bronson wrote: post #327
Markoff wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you don't want companies do what? stop building massive useless parking lots blocking local roads with thousands of cars instead of helping with local public transport, leaving nature untouched and easing the roads? wow, you got me there, sure the other option would be much worse... let's strictly follow dumb rules instead of trying to change them for people benefit

No, the poster is talking about influencing municipal policies. You're not even trying.

and what's wrong with influencing municipal policies for good?

that's like saying that chain of nonsmoking restaurant is bad bad company if they try to push stricter local nonsmoking laws. that brand of electric vehicles is bad bad company if they try to push ban on old polluting cars. that bike company is bad bad for trying to influence city to build more roads

I fail to see what's wrong with anyone trying to influence local policies for better. Company is not some imaginative entity, in the end it's people after all.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#359

Post by akgerber »

mc32 wrote: post #95
matsemann wrote: post #36

I'd wish they were a bit more futuristic than having 9000 parking spaces. Why not offer buses from where their employees live or other means of transportation? It's easy to say that most people drive, but that's only because everyone always make that the most convenient mode of transportation. With some effort something else could be even more convenient.

It's a bit of damned if they don't and damned if they do. FB, GOOG get flack for their shuttle busses plus if you get there later in the day parking in MTV is dicey. At least if you wanna drive, you can, if you wanna ride the bike, no one's stopping you.

Except that the land use of Silicon Valley makes cycling dangerous and distances often too large to be practical for many.

Re: A Look Inside Apple’s New Campus

#360

Post by Keyframe »

linkregister wrote: post #198
jseliger wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no parking garage for the new bars and restaurants, so all visitors simply parked in the residents' neighborhoods This is a solved problem: Charge for parking and the shortage goes away. Meter technology is decades old and well understood. https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193...

When you become dictator, maybe that will be viable. In the meantime, what sane city council member is going to tell residents they need to pay for parking in front of their own townhouses?

It's common in Europe. Residents get a special (yearly) discount. Road and sidewalk are not property of the house owner.
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