AOL buys Netscape.

Michael As already reported, I am now working in the hallowed halls of Netscape, but to preempt any panic rumors ("What, has the boy switched again? Oh my!"), let it be said: Only the packaging is changing. AOL has bought Netscape, and I remain employed by AOL, just working in a new environment and on a new project. Otherwise, nothing changes!

On the so-called Netscape Campus (modeled after a university campus), there are 25 buildings, several basketball courts, a beach volleyball field (with sand), showers in every building, and hot tubs (large bathtubs with hot water). During lunch breaks, aerobics classes are offered, as well as golf seminars and kickboxing.

A mobile oil change service person comes by and changes the oil in your car if you let them know. There are concierges (a term from the hotel world, where there are sometimes people who run small errands) at Netscape who can handle the most impossible tasks: getting concert tickets, shopping for gifts, booking trips, finding rare books or records. At the introductory event, a story was told about a manager who could never remember birthdays. He simply gave the concierges a list of his acquaintances' names, birthdays, and preferred gifts, and the ladies there reliably sent out a gift by mail for each occasion--and the manager received an email confirmation each time. I'll do that too! Haha, just kidding. The goal of these efforts is, of course, to keep all the annoying stuff away from the employees--so they can diligently tap away on their computers. Incidentally, I recently read, amusingly, that the divorce rate in Silicon Valley is the highest in the world at 68%!

Back to Netscape: Bringing dogs to the office is explicitly allowed, probably because Marc Andreessen (one of the founders of Netscape, extremely wealthy, and now Chief Technology Officer of AOL, a mere 27 years old) has a few dogs himself. Recently, early in the morning, as I was sitting in my cubicle (partitioned square in the open-plan office) tinkering on my computer, something suddenly scurried under my feet--it was a small dog that had escaped from a colleague, who came running and apologized profusely. "Don't worry, that's okay," I naturally said. By the way, at Netscape, no one has a private office--everyone works in a cubicle, even the big shots who are now billionaires. Of course, this has the disadvantage that you can hear everything when someone is on the phone, but it's fun. Recently, there was a commotion around my cubicle, everyone was laughing and cheering, so I stood up and saw that four people had bought small toy guns and were firing soft Styrofoam balls at each other from their cubicles, only to quickly take cover behind the partitions. You see, I'm fitting in well; I've always been good at being childish.

So, my dear friends, that's it for today! Don't forget the quiz question if you want to win a personal CD. The question again: After how many strikes is the hitter "out" in baseball if they don't hit the ball? Write it down quickly, time is running out! Until next time! Hasta la vista!

Michael and Angelika