I was looking at the asphalt walking slowly to my car, thinking, “This is it. This is the end.”

I’m not dying. But, it’s true. I’m moving to a different company. Starting Monday morning I’ll be sipping coffee, about 15 minutes across town from the people I’ve worked with the last 3 1/2 years.

Good people.

Friends.

Office life is an odd thing. After sitting next to the same group of people for most of your waking hours everyday, you become part of a community. Inside jokes, office enemies, team victories, Internet Explorer bugs; over time these experiences build a micro-culture. Different rooms have different auras. Each personality adds a unique flavor to the mix. No office is exactly the same.

Only those in the region around your desk belong to your tribe.

Outsiders are received with cynical squinted eyes. Sales people are watched with ninja laser beams. Only your eyes move, following them as they stroll gingerly past. Your heart sinks as they pause at your comrades desk.

“Be strong, my friend!”

But it’s too late. You can only watch in horror as they learn how the feature being requested has already been sold to the client.  Your fellow warrior is bleeding from the face.

You quickly send instant messages mocking the situation to ease their pain.

“… yeah, we’re gonna need this by the end of the day. Thanks! See ya later.”

More blood.

You resort to some hilarious tweets.

Your friend smirks.

Its working.

With a screech and a clank the gears of productivity jerk back on task.

Its battles like these that create soldier-like bonds between office mates.

Now I face the challenge of becoming part of a new tribe. Are they ninjas? Robots? Ninja-bots?

Whatever they are… I’m ready to fight.

No related posts.

This week I received an email so beautiful I had to share it with the world. It said that Google will no longer support Internet Explorer 6. This means that maybe… just maybe, the day when I can completely ignore that buggy browser is a bit closer. If you didn’t receive this hope infused email, here it is:

“Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience.  We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team”

Sigh… Google has leaned a little toward the dark side since initially declaring “Don’t be evil”, but this move completely lives up to that mantra. And for this step toward the light I would like to recommend their browser Google Chrome.

Google Chrome is an Internet Explorer killer. If you use IE 666. Stop. Download Google Chrome and enjoy the internet.

No related posts.

Customer: “A computer.”

Overheard in a classroom:

Student: “How much do Windows cost, and do you have to buy each one separately?”

Go here for more:

http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_os.shtml

No related posts.