Google's Copernicus Center

Brad Barnich was one of countless readers to note that Google has begun accepting job applications for its new Copernicus data center. I imagine this will eat a sizable portion of their IPO profits, however with this new center not opening until 2007, they at least can take their time!

Email Autoresponder

[digitalvengeance]

Emailing the email address given on the last page generates this auto-reply:

Thank you for contacting Google about our Copernicus Research Center.

We've received an overwhelming response to this opportunity and are not currently accepting additional resumes. We will, however, keep your information on file should we have an opening in the future. At the current staffing levels, we anticipate that we may need additional applicants on or around April Fool's Day in 2104. Until then, we appreciate your interest in Google and your taking the time to write us.

Sincerely,

The Googlunar Recruiting Team

Now, would Google have been able to be this kewl if they had gone public?

Josh.

Mod parent up

[cmburns69]

Finally, a first post that's relevant.. What is this, april fools day?

Re:Mod parent up

[chachob]

new mod: +5, relevant

Re:Email Autoresponder

[Em Emalb]

the funny thing is they took the time to spell out it was an april fools joke.

I'm sure someone out there is like "sweet! My resume is gonna be on file for two years with google!"

Ever hear of the spaghetti tree incident in (I think) Sweden? Now that's a AF joke.

Re:Email Autoresponder

[wheany]

The spaghetti tree story was on BBC, link [museumofhoaxes.com]

karma's a bitch

[Thud457]

Actually, google will in time grow into DNA's "total perspective vortex", which we can then put people like John Ashcroft into.

Re:Email Autoresponder

[tds67]

Sorry for being recursive, but I did a Google search for this and found nothing.

YAAFJ

[p0rnking]

"... At the current staffing levels, we anticipate that we may need additional applicants on or around April Fool's Day in 2104" Is it just me, or is there something a bit strange with that?

Re:YAAFJ

[scotch]

Yes, there is something strange with that. "April fool' day in 2104" can be written as 4012104. Note firstly that this is a symmetric date. Also note that digits add up to the tripplet (3 numbers) 525, which add up to (or directly) 12, which adds to 3. So we have 2 occurrences of 3 and 2 occurrences of 5. We all know that the Illuminati [danbrownisahack.com] mark their works with symmetry and the special Illuminati numbers 3 and 5.

Clearly, we can conclude that Google has been infiltrated all the way to the upper levels with Masonic/Illuminati players.

Very astute of you to notice these weird connections, p0rnking.

Re:YAAFJ

[Artifakt]

Actually, The illuminati has been infiltrated to its topmost levels by Google. The're also outsourcing my job as an illuminated seer. It's moving from my formely secret fortress in the jungles of India to a seven mile tall mountain somewhere in Idaho, and I don't even have the budget to put frickin' lasers in the tiger's heads anymore. Fnordy-Fnordin-Darnit!

Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

You had time to RTFA, email them, get your reply and still get first post!

Re:Email Autoresponder

[Saeger]

Now, would Google have been able to be this kewl if they had gone public?

Of course not.

Everybody knows that on the day of IPO, a company is required to trade in their human souls for "professional" corporate-drone modules.

A sense of humor is a liability; it's much safer to offend no one by pandering to the lowest common denominator, and shareholders love the corporate monotone almost as much as they love short-sighted profits.

--

Re:Email Autoresponder

[wawannem]

I tried to email to the address offering up the land I bought from the lunar embassy [lunarembassy.com] to lease to them. I was disappointed to see that I got an auto-response. I was really hoping for their business.

Email message was as follows (if you're interested):

Hello,

I recently found out about your decision to expand your operationsoff-planet. I applaud your efforts and wish you the best.

I would also like to offer one of my plots of terrain for your newcomplex. I believe I can provide a very fair and reasonable lea

Damn.

[nickos]

I emailed them the following:

> Greetings.
>
> I have been responsible for monitoring communications from your planet
> for some time now. It's been a largely dull and unsatisfying job, the
> highlights until recently being the discovery of fire and the wheel. The
> last couple of years have seen the creation of search engines; a
> development that proves you may be worthy of our further interest.
>
> I am communicating with you to tell you that we have a sleeping opeartive
> on your p

Re:Email Autoresponder

[RogueProtoKol]

Shit, it's almost a 100 years too.

2007? Seems so far away, still...

[The I Shing]

2007?

By that time, we'll have entered President Kerry's third term in office, with Saddam's trial nearly over, and...

Oops, never mind, I'm not really from the future, don't really know what's going to happen... put that gun down...

Re:2007? Seems so far away, still...

[focitrixilous P]

Watch out for butterflies while you are here, otherwise it's FOUR MORE YEARS!

We'll all have universal broadband by then!

[billstewart]

And a pony! [slashdot.org] But that just means that the new Google center will get Slashdotted.

Spazmatic Time Scaling

[Wellmont]

Truth that time travel causes insanity, 2007 would mark the year before the end of his first term, if by chance he was to be elected (crossing my fingers hoping the american people aren't stupid and vote for him).

Re:Spazmatic Time Scaling

[The I Shing]

Ah-ha, touche, you are correct. I had meant to say "Third year in office," not "third term."

Doesn't make me any more sane, but I stand corrected.

Re:Spazmatic Time Scaling

[Alsee]

We're not going to buy some lame excuse that you misspoke.

Your refference to Kerry's third term in office in 2007 clearly indicates you have already disrupted the timeline and wiped out the event of Kerry's initial election. Your temporal incursion must therefore predate 1992.

-

Outsourcing

[nickroethemeier]

Well, at least its not india...

Re:Outsourcing

[boomgopher]

Did you see the link?

http://www.google.com/jobs/sw-bangalore.html [google.com]

Re:Outsourcing

[nickroethemeier]

umm, no... Seriously, I fear for the industry (CS), especially since I'm going into it.

Re:Outsourcing

[LostCluster]

Unfortunately, this page does not appear to be part of the April Fool's section. [google.com]

Speaking of Google...

[rougewisp]

GMail has been updated and has a few tidbits of new information.

Re:Speaking of Google...

[mark_lybarger]

looks the same as this morning. what new info do you see there?

yadda, yadda, yadda. twenty seconds should be over pretty quickly now i assume hopefully...

Re:Speaking of Google...

[rougewisp]

*shrug* Last time I saw it, it just said coming soon.

Re:Speaking of Google...

[itsdave]

they put all the policy info etc yesterday evening

Re:Speaking of Google...

[bri_n33]

I read an AP news story which said that Google will search through emails and spam your mailbox according to the subjects or words discussed in your emails. No Joke. I submitted this story to slashdot today, but I think they're only interested in giving us April Fools jokes that aren't any good.

gmail

[33degrees]

Maybe the fact that they have this on their website will convince people that the gmail thing is actually for real?

Re:gmail

[semifamous]

It's not fake according to this [forbes.com]

But who knows...

april fools

[itsdave]

so has google done two april fools jokes this year? or is gMail for real?

Re:april fools

[Slider451]

Gmail has caused a lot of raised eyebrows today. If it's fake, it fooled me good. I gave them my e-mail address hoping it was true. 'Copernicus' is so obviously fake it makes Gmail look even more realistic, assuming it, too, is an AF joke.

Re:april fools

[r00zky]

If it's fake, it fooled me good
Not only you, news sources around the globe were carrying gmail news today...

:?

Re:april fools

[Simulant]

Too many people were taking gMail seriously so they had to up the ante...

Re:april fools

[lordrich]

Well Google News has it on the front page with 560 related. So either the News department of Google are in on it, or all the news corporations have bought it. And we all believe what the news corporations sell us don't we?

wow

[monkease]

google sure is taking this april fool's thing quite seriously...

next story, "google accepts microsoft take-over bid"?

Best of all??

[FortKnox]

No fear of outsourcing!!

Re:Best of all??

[KillerHamster]

Yeah, right. Why else would Bush want to go to Mars?

Heh.

[dolo666]

I'm applying for the regional Leader of the Universe position slated for 2008, that many of you might not know about if you aren't in the know at Google. My salary will be $2k/second and my office will be on Alpha Centauri, complete with Rapid Human Download back and forth from Earth on holidays, as Google's Alpha Centauri operations cater mostly to outer-world beings from the Master of Orion xeno-gaggle.

Re:Heh.

[dwbassett42]

I can almost see it. In the near future, Copernicus City declares independance from the earth, and Heinlein's vision of the future proves prophetic.

Re:Heh.

[anti-tech]

So you will be earning 1/10 what Supreme Overload Gates will be bringing down with Windows 2007, Universal Edition?

lame

[Anonymous Coward]

googles april fool jokes are just plain lame these days.
they must be outsourcing them to india.

Enough is enough...

[Andreas(R)]

Come on, please give us at least _one_ interesting story that is not an obvious April-fools day joke. This Google-story has been reported with links already several times on /.

I'll take a story on a new kernel, even a BSD article. Anyhing!

The real reasons

[LostCluster]

Sure... Google's going to the moon just because of the fact that... ... there's no minimum wage laws. ... they'd be outside of every tax jurisdiction. ... there's no labor practice laws. ... there's a weaker gravity law there. ... the longer moon days that can be used to justify workdays. ... there's a 0% employment rate there. ... a large building's roof can also serve as an earth-visble billboard ...

Re:The real reasons

[Short Circuit]

In Heinlein's The Man Who Sold The Moon, a corporation purchased the moon by purchasing all of the land that the moon passed over in its orbit.

An interesting concept. One of many "what if"'s you get when you re-read Heinlein's stuff today.

Re:The real reasons

[Cobblepop]

> there's a 0% employment rate there.

There's also a 0% unemployment rate.

You spread your sour glass-half-empty attitude around here and think nobody will notice. Hmph.

April fools according to Reuters

[mosabua]

According to Reuters [reuters.com] the lunar job is a hoax, but qmail isn't. We will see..

Re:April fools according to Reuters

[syphax]

The journalist quotes a couple ./ posts.

How'd you like to spend your time at work reading Sla... oh, wait...

If you really want a job...

[Deraj DeZine]

... there's only one way to get one. [penny-arcade.com]

Waitaminute

[Charlie Bill]

This unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen.

I call BS on that -- any data-driven company that can't ship me digital video on-demand while onsite isn't worth a damn.

Among other things...

[hookedup]

They also let out the secrets [google.com] of their search technology.

Re:Among other things...

[OverlordQ]

hate to burst your bubble but that was their 4-1 Joke a few years ago.

This proves GMail is for real

[Pranjal]

So this is Google's April Fools day gag, which means GMail is for real. Which is why the major newswires picked it up. Wow 1 GB of email space? Even their website has been updated with terms and conditions.
Only 1000 users get to test GMail from today. Those lucky bastards.

Re:This proves GMail is for real

[drewz]

Of course it is for real, that's why they are building a new Copernicus data center - to accomodate all the new users for the gmail 1GB service.

Re:This proves GMail is for real

[bwy]

Did you read the fine print though on GMail? They're going to be showing ads based on the CONTENT of your email. Now, I'm sure people will say that everyone already shows ads based on who you are. But I for one don't want a half-page ad for a penis enlarger showing up on my monitor at work when I'm trying to discretely communicate via email with my doctor about the real thing- a $10,000 surgery I'm lining up!

Re:This proves GMail is for real

[NineNine]

1 GB of email space?

They can afford that because they're moving all of their jobs to India. I, for one, won't be using it.

Re:This proves GMail is for real

[The Cydonian]

... as also to Switzerland, Germany, Japan and a whole lot of other places. What makes you think they are "moving" to (only) India, and not "expanding" to the world?

Re:This proves GMail is for real

[Pranjal]

it will be full of spam-pop-up adds..I'll pass.
No. Read the terms of service. It says the only type of ads that will be on website would be targetted text ads.

Missing poll option

[DR SoB]

Cowboy Neal!

Oh wait...

Slashdotting

[skroz]

Hey, at least we know that this particular april fools joke won't be slashdotted...

Forbes says Gmail real, Copernicus joke

[Slider451]

Looks like gmail really is real.

Forbes says Gmail real, Copernicus joke [forbes.com]

Re:Forbes says Gmail real, Copernicus joke

[mark_lybarger]

and because forbes says so..?

most of the forbes "article" contains only a slashdot summary along with a few google PHB comments that i recall reading this morning.

Re:Forbes says Gmail real, Copernicus joke

[mark_lybarger]

btw, according to whois.net, gmail.com:

Created on..............: 1995-Aug-13.
Expires on..............: 2006-Aug-12.
Record last updated on..: 2004-Mar-31 16:50:22.

seems interesting they've had this url for a while and updated it last around gmt april fools day.

Re:Forbes says Gmail real, Copernicus joke

[Slider451]

Mine says:
>>> Last update of whois database: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 07:02:53 EST

I wonder if Google used that domain for internal e-mail prior to the public venture.

Re:Forbes says Gmail real, Copernicus joke

[skyorange]

gmail will be cool. It will be interesting to see what msn and yahoo will come up with to compete.

Really shouldn't be a joke

[randall_burns]

Seriously, space is a good place for a big chunk of web infrastructure-though near earth orbit would be better than the moon.

Gullible enough?

[e1en0r]

does anyone have Lance Bass' email address?

I'll do it...

[b12arr0]

As long as they pay for the gas/rocket fuel to and from work.

Pink Floyd BBC

[Kufat]

Should I let the people at Google know that I do have [etree.org] the Pink Floyd 1968 BBC appearance [google.com] that they're looking for?
Do you think they'd give me, like, stock in exchange?

A Use for this

[millahtime]

I found a use for this. In breaking up with my really not all there girlfriend. I can send this to her and tell her I got a job there and that I'm sorry but I have to move away. I would love to see her buy into this. She actually would too.

Re:A Use for this

[lavaface]

breaking up with my really not all there girlfriend

Are you saying she's imaginary? ; )

Re:A Use for this

[anothy]

well, except you'd have to keep going out with her until 2007...

and a /. reader with a girlfriend? hah, i get it: April 1st.

Ok, enough with the jokes

[pimpin apollo]

Ok this is getting old. Isn't it enough that every site on the internet feels the need to contribute its own april fools joke; slashdot has to do three dozen.

Just wait til someone puts an SCO article up. It'll be so bizzare nobody'll be able to figure out if it's real or not.

Re:Ok, enough with the jokes

[anti-tech]

And exactly how would you differentiate a bogus SCO story from a real one when the real one is so bizarre to begin with?

Re:Ok, enough with the jokes

[Shurhaian]

Isn't that what the grandparent said?

SCO

[stephenry]

Not being American -is that somewhere near UTAH? I heard SCO has an office there...

My favorite part

[wcbrown]

My favorite part of the gag was when they said that the Googlunaplex [google.com] would feature "a sushi chef formerly employed by the pop group Hanson." Maybe it's just my love of self-referential deprecations.

Re:My favorite part

[adamofgreyskull]

Dude, I just remembered how much Hanson rocked...and I bet the girl one is pretty hot now.

The current research projects envisioned

[dAzED1]

Something like this is obviously going to be a research facility, primarily. When you read through the announcement, you find:

Once the facility is built, the real work begins. Google will be exploring a number of exciting research projects that have the potential to advance search science to a new frontier. Among the questions Googlunars will seek to answer are:
Exactly how far does the Worldwide web extend? Can it become an interplanetary utility? If so, will it replace Water Works on Monopoly(R)?
What are the likely effects of link attenuation over extreme distances? Is there a limit to link strength, or is it infinitely extensible like bubble gum that gets stuck to the bottom of your shoe?
What happens to PageRank in the proximity of a black hole? Is there distortion that might result in link relevancy reduction or popularity warping? Could this somehow be harnessed to generate more dates for engineers?
Does spam go on forever?

ps - yes, I know. Its called playing along.

5 mod point on April 1st.

[handmedowns]

Good News: I got 5 moderator points to use or lose! Yipee!!!

Bad News: It's april 1st! BOOOOO!!!!!

Re:5 mod point on April 1st.

[Xeo 024]

I've got some good news and bad news, too.

Bad News: I didn't get accepted to Google's new job offering, apparently, I'm "under-qualified". What a drag.

Good News: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

G.C.H.E.E.S.E.

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new G.C.H.E.E.S.E. eating overlords.

--HiDeHiDeHo

The real Gem in this article

[SpyPlane]

Is this:

http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html

My two favorite mispellings:
buttney spears
brititany spears (more appropriate than you would first think)

Re:The real Gem in this article

[spood]

Or the more appropriate for slashdot:

grittney spears

Re:The real Gem in this article

[BlueShad0w]

Oooh, it doesn't correct any searches for 'Speares'

Re:The real Gem in this article

[tehcyder]

I like "briney spears" the best, it sounds somehow pr0nographic.

all your data are belong to us

[kaldari]

man, you really know you're a geek when misread a sentence as "...they at least can make their time!"

What you say!! Someone set up us the bomb!

Umm...

[AyeRoxor!]

Google has begun accepting job applications for [it is] new Copernicus data center.

Wha?

Acreage on the Moon is still cheap!

[blackest sun]

It's for real, and it's even been seen on Ellen!
No wonder Google looks like it's positioning itself to take over the world...

• http://www.lunarregistry.com/

they really should have called the...

[BigGerman]

...location-based service "gSpot" ;-)

Re:they really should have called the...

[LuckyPhil]

If they did that then most people wouldn't be able to find it.

GCheese? HiDeHiDeHo?

[infochuck]

Cheese, enough with the joke postings, please. Or are the editors here really just that dumb?

Grammatical error...

[slipgun]

it's new Copernicus data center

There should be no apostrophe on 'its' in this case. Unless you're trying to say that Google is a new Copernicus data centre (or 'center', as you Americans incorrectly spell it).

Ooh, I can't wait to get modded down!

The Google Response to Resume

[Jedi Holocron]

Thank you for contacting Google about our Copernicus Research Center.

We've received an overwhelming response to this opportunity and are not
currently accepting additional resumes. We will, however, keep your
information on file should we have an opening in the future. At the
current staffing levels, we anticipate that we may need additional
applicants on or around April Fool's Day in 2104. Until then, we
appreciate your interest in Google and your taking the time to write us.

Sincerely,

The Googlunar Recruit

Anyone else think

[farghen]

The picture in the article looks like the technodrome?

Cruel

[two_stripe]

i get my first ever moderator points on april fools day. this is some sort of a cruel joke isnt it?

Are they Paying...?

[stretch0611]

So do they pay relocation costs? At the current rate of $20 million just to go to the International Space Station, I do not think I could afford the relocation cost to the Moon.

Re:I Don't Know About Anyone Else

[agent dero]

nope, it's just you ;)