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Source:Valleywag

Earlier today, we asked about Yahoo’s Brickhouse — the ostensible incubator of innovation in San Francisco’s South Park charged with reviving Yahoo’s reputation for Web cool. Departures from the Pipes project, the only notable product release from Brickhouse, raised questions about the operation. Brickhouse head Bradley Horowitz thinks his group is “thriving,” but a recent ex-Brickhouse employee reports otherwise. His complaints range from the petty (the office “smelled like dirty socks”) to the more troubling (Horowitz, he claims, “suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself”). The full email, after the jump.

I worked at Brickhouse and quit. The place smelled like dirty socks and had no ventilation. In general the building feels cursed, probably from the old Organic days. [Organic, an online ad agency, used to occupy the same building, which Yahoo now shares with Wired. — Ed.]I even question the seismic soundness of that building. Don’t take your kids there either, they could fall through the railings on the stairs.

Old Horowitz suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself. It would help if he learned some of his team member names.

The old rumor is that Brickhouse is the last leg before good Yahoos die. Overall I found the pace like molasses and my compensation not correlated with performance. It was my last frustrating and annoying experience with Yahoo, thank god those days are over.

Surprised to hear about the Pipes team breaking up. Last I talked with them they had some pretty big “platform” plans and strong exec backing.

Yahoo might as well buy AOL and merge all services and change their brand too: “The worlds largest loser base!”

Source:Valleywag

Microsoft’s gaming division has struggled to pull itself out of the red since its inception back in 2001. Its current console, the Xbox 360, has been plagued with manufacturing defects that could cost the company up to $1 billion to fix. But Microsoft expects its blockbuster Halo 3 to end its financial woes by tallying an estimated $140 million upon its release today. [BBC News]

Source:Valleywag

Nicholas Negroponte of the One Laptop Per Child initiative is waking up to the business realities of equipping millions with low cost hardware: “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written.” No kidding. Some degree? A commitment for three million down to no orders for the production of 120,000 cheap laptops is some degree. To spur sales, the low-cost laptop will be offered to North American consumers for $399. The price includes an additional laptop donation for charity. But come on: Wal-Mart sells computers for less.

Even while embracing reality, Negroponte clings to idealistic expectations: “Negroponte explained that if donations reached, say, $40 million, that would mean 100,000 laptops could be distributed free in the developing world. The idea, he said, would be to give perhaps 5,000 machines to 20 countries to try out and get started.” These, of course, would be the same countries that have so far demurred on placing actual orders. Perhaps, it turns out, that for all the complexities of designing and distributing the laptop, the truth is simpler: None of his prospective customers are interested in Negroponte’s machine.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Top, nicholas negroponte, Olpc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.