Lawsuits Fly Over Google Founders' Party Plane 238
Mr. Soxley writes to tell us that the Boeing 767 recently purchased by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page is at the heart of what promises to be quite a legal battle. From the article: "Now the Delaware holding company that technically owns the 767, Blue City Holdings LLC, is embroiled in multiple lawsuits with an aviation designer hired to plan and oversee the massive plane's interior renovation. [...] But last October, Blue City terminated Mr. Jennings's contract, saying he wasn't doing his job properly. Mr. Jennings then filed a nearly $200,000 lien against the aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration for payment he hadn't received. He later filed a complaint related to the matter against Blue City and Gore Design Completions Ltd., the San Antonio executive-jet outfitting firm that worked on the plane, in District Court in Bexar County, Texas."
Doing the job well? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because you have 1200+ emails relating to a project doesn't necessarily mean you are doing your job. With a project this size it could be argued that fewer emails mean you are doing your job better. This is the kind of project that requires a fair amount of oversight on a local level.
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:3, Funny)
Soko
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:2)
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:2)
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:2)
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:4, Interesting)
Contractor: "I'll get back to you."
Company: "I hear there's a cost overrun with X"
Contractor: "I'll look into it."
Company: "Are your guys actually doing anything, or are they just in my plane for the A/C?"
Contractor: "We hire only the best"
Repeat every day, for 400 days, and you have 1200 email exchanges and zero usefulness from the contractor.
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Doing the job well? (Score:2)
Must be a slow news day (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:5, Funny)
I can only hope that in this particular case, Google sends its lobbyists to Congress to change laws affecting how the FAA administers leans against aircraft so that all of us slashdotters with our own 767-200's don't have to worry about the judicial system screwing us over once again. This is about all of our ONLINE RIGHTS!
You don't actually know what they're doing with it (Score:2)
They're going to be digitizing it (like in Tron) so that they can fight viruses personally. They'll also be improving the searches by overseeing the programs responsible through direct communication rather than through programming.
Its thought that it'll be a little safer for them to do this in a plane since all the programs only have bikes. A plane will also help avoid the dangerous lines emitted by the back of the bikes, which ca
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:5, Insightful)
Plus, we get an insight into human behavior when we see supposedly brilliant, rich people bickering about idiotic stuff.
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:5, Insightful)
Great people talk about ideas
Average people talk about things
Small people talk about other people
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Forgot one. (Score:2)
Great people talk about ideas
Average people talk about things
Small people talk about other people
and Slimy people PATENT ideas.
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
If by "interested in their lives" you mean "nosy," then yes.
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
And people tell trekkers to get a life!?!
Yes, no geek-gear inside (Score:2)
No cellulose wing, or X-prise, or other techno gear.
(Sigh)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Oh come on, this is exciting new.
The google founders are buying a party plane! I mean, these are the guys who we are told live in apartments and drive hybrid cars!
It makes me a little happier inside since even the big rich founders of Google succumb to the extragavance of wealth.
Slow (Score:2)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2, Funny)
That's nice. Does he do airplane interior design, too?
Re:Must be a slow news day (Score:2, Funny)
YRO? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's time that YRO either got re-named or re-thought.
Clearly we need a "Legal" or "Law" section. But if YRO was re-focused back to its original purpose, that might still be useful too.
(To forstall the inevitable "Why?" and "Who cares?", the answer is "So you can correctly filter the stories.", which is the only reason to have the sections at all. Someone can be interested in law stories like this and not actual YRO stories, or vice versa. And the purpose of these sections is so we can tell people who bitch about a particular set of stories to just filter them out, thus keeping the comment area that much cleaner.)
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Because Slashdot only seems to have one legal section (YRO) and no one has made a generic one. This is despite the fact that most of the stories posted under this section usually have nothing to do with your rights online as people often point out.
Re:YRO? (Score:2)
Why is this news? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why is this news? (Score:3, Funny)
Dude, this is
Re:In some sense (Score:2)
I believe that the parties involved might be of interest to some people, and for variosu reasons. For example, Google has been touted ad the "omni-beneveloent corporate goliath" of the internet. One of the reasons *I* liked Google (aside from having a good search engine) was the fact that its founders seemed to be well-grounded - in other words, their pursuit wasn't based on the "status" it might afford them, but in being able to do something useful (and very well) with internet technology.
When stories like
Re:Why is this news? (Score:2)
where is the ... (Score:5, Funny)
This will serve as a stark warning... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This will serve as a stark warning... (Score:3, Funny)
That's not the half of this vast conspiracy (Score:3, Funny)
And let's not ever forget this gem from the article:
Mr. Jennings says Messrs. Brin and Page "had some strange requests," including hammocks hung from the ceiling of the plane.
I think stockholders should be quite wary of corporate executives reckless enough not to require aviation-class hammocks with wicker seatbelts.
If this is a problem (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If this is a problem (Score:2)
The only questions that remain now are... (Score:5, Funny)
Hammocks? (Score:4, Funny)
It takes real guts to use a hammock in an ornithopter.
Re:Hammocks? (Score:2)
1200 Emails = Involved? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:1200 Emails = Involved? (Score:2)
Exactly! (Score:2)
And Jennings has 1200 emails about the airplane, proving Google's position that he was not involved!
Slashdot Editors... (Score:3, Funny)
Bah (Score:4, Funny)
This is a rich person's problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
From the WSJ article: Mr. Jennings says Messrs. Brin and Page "had some strange requests," including hammocks hung from the ceiling of the plane. At one point he witnessed a dispute between them over whether Mr. Brin should have a "California king" size bed, he says. Mr. Jennings says Mr. Schmidt stepped in to resolve that by saying, "Sergey, you can have whatever bed you want in your room; Larry, you can have whatever kind of bed you want in your bedroom. Let's move on." Mr. Jennings says Mr. Schmidt at another point told him, "It's a party airplane."
Re:This is a rich person's problem. (Score:4, Insightful)
OK, B&P wanted to found a company that did things differently. Good for them. But to do anything at all, and organization has to have follow-through. It has to balance all the creative geniuses with the dedicated, boring sloggers that get things out the door.
Re:This is a rich person's problem. (Score:2)
Some of their beta products, such as Gmail are much more polished than all the competition out there.
Re:This is a rich person's problem. (Score:3, Interesting)
Google's products are more polished? Get real! My favorite example is to compare Google Maps with Yahoo Maps. Now, in terms of features and usability, Google Maps is far superior. But I still use Yahoo maps a lot. Why? Yahoo maps has a simple, not very interesting feature that I use a lot: you can maintain a list of addresses you refer to a lot, and then never have to enter them again when planning a trip. It's a very simple, basic feature, but nobody at Google can be bothered to implement it. They're too b
Re:This is a rich person's problem. (Score:2)
Having a California King bed and hammocks doesn't qualify, in my mind, as being used properly.
NASA Ames & the Googlejet (Score:5, Insightful)
Evil masterminds... (Score:5, Funny)
Sergey: "Do I make you horny, baby?"
Cute chick: "Sergey, it's not the 90's anymore."
Sergey: "What do you mean, baby? Of course it's the 90's! As long as people use the internet mostly for porn and piracy of music and software, the 90's will always be alive!"
Dr. Evil: "I'm going to fucking kill Google!" *throws henchman's chair*
Dr. Evil: "So, about those Killer Chair Robots With Lasers I ordered..."
Henchman: "Well, it's about that, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Yes?"
Henchman: "We... could not complete the LongChair project. It kept crashing on us, I mean more than usual, in fact the prototype blew up spontaneously."
Dr. Evil: "Well, okay, what do you have?"
Henchman: "Ottomans."
Dr. Evil: "Ottomans?"
Henchman: "Ottomans, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Do they have frickin' lasers on their heads?"
Henchman: "No, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Saw blades?"
Henchman: "No, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Flamethrowers?"
Henchman: "No, sir."
Dr. Evil: "Well, what the fuck do they have?!"
Henchman: "Sir, we have integrated a Google search bar into their sides. It's really quite useful, you can Google while you lounge in-"
Dr. Evil: "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL GOOGLE!!!!" *throws chair with henchman through window*
Re:Evil masterminds... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh No Not $200,000! That'll sink Google! (Score:2)
Re:Oh No Not $200,000! That'll sink Google! (Score:3, Insightful)
So much for the environment (Score:3, Interesting)
Ever wonder why American troops are fighting for Iraqi oil? Bush just sells it - it is clowns like this that burn it up.
Don't be hatin. (Score:2)
Oh, the humanity... (Score:2, Insightful)
I just find it... I dunno... sad? offputting? ...that billionaires pretty much choose to blow off steam about the same way Bubba in the trailer park does, just more expensively. Booze and drugs and whores. Outside of technical endeavors, we are ultimately an uncreative species. :(
Re:Oh, the humanity... (Score:2)
Next problem for Google... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:When you post articles days late (Score:2)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:5, Interesting)
No it shouldn't. I don't remember any of the Google lot having been convicted for anything - there's quite a difference there. Also, I'm not American so I don't know who the Tyco guy is, but Ken Lay and Martha Stewart in the same breath? Wouldn't you think there was just a little bit of difference in the level of scam pulled...?
I'm not a Google fan really. In fact, if someone would give me as clean an interface I'd switch away from its search in a heartbeat, as I find it too heavily spammed and blogged these days. But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, I think a hammock on a jetliner sounds like fun.
"Okay Bob, a nice gentle bank to the right
It wouldn't surprise me if Brin and Page get a little miffed at this guy for discussing their private jet in public, though.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
Yet.
If there's one universal truth to remember about human nature it's this: behavior is consistent.
People aren't nice-nice in one situation and petty-awful in others unless one or the other is a deliberate facade to facilitate an agenda.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
BOYS being the keyword here. They are behaving like spoiled little children.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Michael Jackson is a fucking saint.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
If the crimemakers can't prove to society that someone committed a crime (you know, jury of your peers), then they shouldn't be thought of as criminals.
Nice little bait and switch. We were talking about morality, then you switch it to "criminality". So, a CEO that gets a ten million dollar severance package after canning half of his employees and outsourcing it to India is perfectly moral since he broke no law.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
I agree.
"Canning half his employees" might have been necessary in order to keep the company from folding.
If it hadn't been, the board would surely not reward the departing CEO with such a generous severance package.
And, you're right, he broke no law. Business is business. And what about the other half of the employees that got to kee
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
http://search.yahoo.com/ [yahoo.com]
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:3, Interesting)
Just because you are jealous someone else has more money than you do not tell them how to spend it. They made a successful business, and now are spending the fruits of their labor. How is that evil? Sounds like every American or European's wet dream to me.
I fail to see where it is evil ex
Re:Sounds more like a subcontractor dispute. (Score:2)
The main princriple is sueing the holding company above him and he also has action against the subcontractor below him that actually did the work.
"He later filed a complaint related to the matter against Blue City and Gore Design Completions Ltd., the San Antonio executive-jet outfitting firm that worked on the plane, in District Court in Bexar County, Texas."
That seems to indicate that the work was indeed improperly done and as lead contractor
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
You mean knowing that I like cheese sandwiches, live in England and have a friend called Theresia will let them take over the world?! OMG you are right. There are no limits to what they can do now. Mind control is nothing next to this.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Please cite any sources you have that proves the "Google guys" had their accounting team record losses in the main corporation as profits for shell corporations, spent millions of dollars of company money on parties and/or shower curtains, or were involved in any sort of insider trading.
Not worried? Still believe the "no evil" hype.
By your logic and bad grammar if I'm not worried then I must
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
No, A 757 could only make it through the outer three rings of The Pentagon, something previously thought impossible.
I'm certain Google's founders are using their new found wealth to plot another terrorist attack and set a new world record for how many buildings can be taken down by planes in a day, to distract us from the real Iraq.
They're not evil, they just work for the government.
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Sorry if it seems extravagent, but these sound like the kind of people I'd like to have sending my team to conferences, rather than the folk
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
Most companies with a modicum of respect for their employees either (ideally) don't allocate travel class on seniority, but on distance of travel, or failing that, "highest common denominator" - if one person travelling as part of a group is eligible to fly Business / First, then all members of that group fly the same. (This was the case at a law firm I worked at - I had to travel from Melbourne Australia to New York with a partner of t
Re:Do no evil - except when outfitting your 767 (Score:2)
You must be new here.
You also might want to do a search for 'click fraud' and the hundreds, if not thousands, of accounts Google has arbitrarily cancelled and refused to pay ad revenue to, citing click fraud, yet not providing a) any evidence, or b) any recourse.
Re:This proves it (Score:2)
Re:This proves it (Score:2)
This comment has just been posted and hasn't been modded yet. I'm curious to see if "Funny" or "Informative" will win the day...
Re:i do find it funny (Score:4, Informative)