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autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Reuters reports that Google’s first self-designed office building has “been plagued for months by inoperable or, at best, spotty Wi-Fi, according to six people familiar with the matter.”

At launch, Google’s VP of Real Estate & Workplace Services, David Radcliffe, said the site “marks the first time we developed one of our own major campuses, and the process gave us the chance to rethink the very idea of an office.”

The roof is covered in solar cells and collects rainwater while also letting in natural light, and Google calls it the “Gradient Canopy.”

All those peaks and parabolic ceiling sections apparently aren’t great for Wi-Fi propagation, with the Reuters report saying that the roof “swallows broadband like the Bermuda Triangle.”

Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables, using phones as hotspots, or working outside, where the Wi-Fi is stronger.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters the company has already made several improvements and hopes to have a fix in the coming weeks.

The original article contains 301 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 45%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Plopp ,

L o l

pete_the_cat ,

This is why Wi-Fi is annoying, I’ll take a wired connection over Wi-Fi any day.

brlemworld ,

I’m just picturing you walking around a room on your phone with an Ethernet adapter and cable hanging out all over the place

ShepherdPie ,

Like we’ve gone full circle back to the corded-phone days.

laughterlaughter ,

What? When? Are gen-Z using corded phones now or something?

ShepherdPie ,

Read the comment I replied to.

laughterlaughter ,

Ok, you were being facetious too. Cool.

nxdefiant ,

This is how phones used to work!!! The cable was all spirally and you could get really long ones!

laughterlaughter ,

“Hold on, I need to move to the office on the other wing.” Cables everywhere.

pete_the_cat ,

Those things were always a twisted mess hahaha

evergreen , (edited )

“Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables, using phones as hotspots, or working outside, where the Wi-Fi is stronger.”

How the fuck is a person that writes articles for a living not aware of the phrase “making due”? What goes through their mind when they write out “making do”? How the fuck does that make any sense to them?

I hate to be that guy, but come on. It’s literally your job.

Edit: Now it’s my job to admit that I was pretty damn wrong. Thanks chryan for posting this: www.grammar.com/make_do_vs._make_due

suodrazah ,

Are you from the 18th century?

evergreen ,

Lol yes. This modern spelling and technology is too much for me.

Stovetop ,

Confidently incorrect:

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_do

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_due

bruhduh ,
@bruhduh@lemmy.world avatar

Internet culture is strong with this one

Rye ,
@Rye@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

At least I learned now what an Eggcorn is

chryan ,

While writing this angry comment, did you stop to consider that maybe they did their job right and you’re wrong?

www.grammar.com/make_do_vs._make_due

Unless you’re living in the early 1900s, “make do” is correct for today’s English.

evergreen ,

Yeah looks like I may be wrong about “make do” being incorrect. Didn’t know the spelling was changed in the 40s. I’ve always seen it written as “due”. Seems like an odd word to use though. Wouldn’t due make more sense? Like you’re able to meet the dues that are required?

bigMouthCommie ,
@bigMouthCommie@kolektiva.social avatar

make it do the thing it's supposed to do.

chryan ,

Conversely, I’ve only ever seen “make do” used.

“Make due” would make sense to me in the context where debt is a factor, for example, “make due on rent”.

It doesn’t make sense when you apply that meaning to how the sentence was written in this article.

evergreen ,

Good point on the difference in context. I guess that’s how I’ve seen it used mostly.

Lath ,

I see the correct form as 'make-do', which implies makeshift solutions or workarounds.

APassenger ,

Oh Geez. I didn’t know this until just now?

I learned so much by reading literature… but I guess the idioms and spellings have moved on since they were written and I need to keep up.

Frustrating, but thank you for the link.

morriscox ,

Ironically, they spelled Internet as internet.

ieatpillowtags ,

hate to be that guy…

Are you sure?

evergreen ,

Yep, still hate it… I realized now that make do is the accepted agreed upon spelling.

Feathercrown ,

lmao

ElleChaise ,

You think that's bad, you should take a gander at the official news sources in Jacksonville Florida. I don't know if they're still this bad, but as I recall they have not one, but at least two big news publications, both produce articles that look like they were written by grade schoolers. Anything that wasn't copy/pasted from the AP seems to be written hastily by somebody who dropped out before understanding English. I'm sure many other cities have the same issue. The one is called news five or Jax 5 news, and the other is first coast news. They'll hire anybody to write apparently.

evergreen ,

Oof. Yeah, I’d doubt they pay very much there, probably have to take what they can get. Maybe I should apply🤪

Imgonnatrythis ,

I worked for a soda company once. Not going to say which one, but every Tuesday and Thursday I did have to make dew.

evergreen ,

Was the dew you made of the mountainous variety? Did you have to make do with what you had in order to make due on your rental payment? Am I doing this right?

LazaroFilm ,
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

I bet there is a strong WiFi spot a few feet above the building.

rem26_art ,
@rem26_art@fedia.io avatar

lmao sounds like they just need to all stand right at the spot where the parabolas of the ceiling have a focal point.

rowinxavier ,

Do you want a grilled human? Because that’s how you get grilled human.

MamboGator ,
@MamboGator@lemmy.world avatar

Eat the rich software engineers.

moody ,

The parabolas’ focal points are outside of the building, which incidentally is also the best place to be.

rem26_art , (edited )
@rem26_art@fedia.io avatar

"Please return to the office. Or at least outside the office. We built the office inside-out accidentally"

TheBat ,
@TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

Night at the Roxbury Deux?

TheWilliamist ,

I’ll take access point bombing for 1000 Alex. I see several in wall and wall-mounted varieties in the immediate future of that place… 😂

tyrant ,

Glad to see Google is embracing evil even with it’s architecture now

tsonfeir ,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

I guess they’ll have to cancel their building like they cancel everything else they do.

brlemworld ,

They have to build it first and then use it for a few months and then demolish it

BossDj ,

Didn’t forget renaming

homesweethomeMrL ,

First they have to kick out the people who were enjoying it

Imgonnatrythis ,

That’s the most fun part! We know you have been enjoying your new office and benefits (because we read your email), but please note in two months we will be discontinuing a this. We are releasing a new service you might want to try though, Google unemployment!

TheGiantKorean ,
@TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world avatar

But unlike a lot of the other products they cancel, I’ll have actually known that this existed first.

hitmyspot ,

Nah, they’ll just add a chat app. Then destroy it.

drawerair , (edited )

The moral is – Wi-fi intensity study should be part of modern architecture.

I’m all for 👍 architecture. Just consider Wi-fi before building it.

For this structure, I wonder if the best solution is – Just add more mesh points. Not elegant but what if there’s no better way?

neptune OP ,

That was my interest in the story. Technology is so ingrained in our lives. It’s weird more furniture doesn’t have power chargers and other cords better designed into them. It’s weird our houses and electrical codes haven’t caught up.

But this is just a huge step back. Unless I’m unaware of lots of other new and old buildings with similar issues.

circuscritic ,

No, please do not start adding electrical components to furniture en mass.

If you do, I give it 1, maybe 2 generations, until furniture is partially subsidized by tech companies and it becomes niche to NOT have a “smart couch”.

CosmoNova ,

Funny you mention the smart couch because that’s the type of furniture that seems to come with USB charging stations a lot nowadays. But I hope most smart home devices remain a niche for a while. The open source and crafting community around them is pretty amazing and I’d hate to see it getting literally sideshelved for smart home prefabs.

drawerair , (edited )

In my country, from what I observed, not many study tables and work tables with power outlets. 1 may say, “Add usb-c sockets too.” But the future is hard to predict. Will there be usb-d? Will 150-watt charging be the norm for phones? The safe thing to do is just outlets. Power bricks for phones are cheap anyway.

oKtosiTe ,
@oKtosiTe@lemmy.world avatar

Agreed. My work desk is barely four years old, and already its integrated USB-A ports and Qi 1 charger are outdated and basically useless to me. I’d prefer not having them. The power outlet is still fine though.

WhatAmLemmy ,

Your batteries last longer with trickle charging. If you’re at the desk most of the day, USB-A and Qi 1 is perfect, and should be adequate for another 5-10.

oKtosiTe ,
@oKtosiTe@lemmy.world avatar

Neither of my last two phones came with a USB-A cable, nor did my wireless mouse or keyboard. The flush Qi 1 charger doesn’t even work because my camera bump is too big. Also, from what I’ve heard Qi 2 should produce far less heat while charging, which makes Qi 1 worse for battery life.

Sure, I could “make it work”, but I’d be happier with two electrical outlets or even nothing than the basically useless wireless charger and ports I have now.

steventrouble ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    drawerair ,

    I thought of interference too. If the Wi-fi was bouncing all over, there may be many areas with destructive interference – weak or no Wi-fi.

    Natanael ,

    To support MU-MIMO / beamforming (multipath signals for multiple devices) they could also just add more flat surfaces inside the ceilings to make radio reflections/echoes less complex so that the signal processing doesn’t get overwhelmed when the source is some distance away.

    Plain absorbing material removes interference but doesn’t let you use MIMO tech as effectively, because the newer higher end routers can use those reflections to boost the signal

    analog.com/…/massive-mimo-and-beamforming-the-sig…

    Natanael ,

    I’m pretty sure the problem is the shape and reflections. This type of design creates echoes from many directions which makes it harder to pick up the signal at a distance

    asbestos ,
    @asbestos@lemmy.world avatar

    I fucking love 👍🏻 architecture, gotta be one of my favorite genders

    doubtingtammy ,

    The two genders: engineers and architects

    fidodo ,

    It’s a Google office building, they definitely considered Wi-Fi before building it but they made a mistake. Compared to that building in England that turned into a glass death ray I think this was a less obvious mistake.

    drawerair ,

    Obviously they didn’t do a Wi-fi intensity study.

    fidodo ,

    Oh they for sure fucked up, I just mean that it was likely a mistake as opposed to them not caring. Pretty crazy for a huge corporation to overlook it though.

    BrianTheeBiscuiteer ,

    Don’t be evil

    aluminium ,

    Why do all thing need to look like these soulless glass metal and concrete blobs. Like bruh, why not build something cool lime a Roman Temple, European Castle, Viking Longhouse, Ancient Chinese Pagoda …

    Num10ck ,

    highly skilled labor shortage and time. eventually ai architects will 3D print incredible stuff that is completely unmaintainable.

    Assman ,
    @Assman@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Epic (software company) has a really cool campus near Madison, WI where all of the buildings are different styles of architecture. One of them is a giant dairy barn.

    www.epic.com/visiting/

    aluminium ,

    Ok that is epic indeed

    deus ,

    I think glass metal and concrete blobs are cool.

    Soggy ,

    Those would be far more expensive to produce, needing specific skilled craftsmen. Not that glass production is easy, but compared to hand-carved wood and stone the labor hours alone is a staggering difference.

    stoly ,

    These are done by architects rather than designers. Usefulness isn’t a consideration, only form and aesthetics matter.

    mriormro ,
    @mriormro@lemmy.world avatar

    Architects are designers.

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    “Make do” with ethernet? Charlie Brown, ethernet is the superior networking interface. People “make do” with wifi.

    Contend6248 ,

    I’m enjoying ethernet on my phone too

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    You don’t get cellular data? Okay, sure it’s faster for that too.

    Contend6248 ,

    Problem solved i guess, that’s progression.

    stoly ,

    lol your comment made people salty for some reason

    cordlesslamp ,

    I can tell that you’re being sarcastic. But if I’m playing ranked match on my phone, it’s always with an Ethernet dongle. Way more reliable and definitely lower latency.

    valkyre09 ,

    People actually play competitive games in their phone? I thought that was just marketing spin so apple didn’t have to put graphics cards in their macs

    ItsMeSpez ,

    It’s hilarious that you insist on the ethernet cable but not an actual computer.

    cordlesslamp ,

    I don’t have a gaming computer (i7 3770K with integrated graphics from 2012)

    marcos ,

    Yes, but tell that again when you and 19 other people bring your laptop to a conference room and try to login on the network at the same time.

    Different things have different strengths, and losing one of those things means your experience will be subpar.

    AngryCommieKender ,

    So, I haven’t worked in IT in a couple decades, but back in the late '90s/ early '00s, all the conference tables at the companies I worked for, had Ethernet ports built into the table towards the center, and a switch mounted under the table so that everyone could just plug in. Did they stop making those tables once WiFi became ubiquitous?

    marcos ,

    Yes, they stopped. The ports were never sufficient, people always wanted to move the table around, and the cables and connectors in the table were always breaking.

    Besides, there are always people far from the table.

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    It’s true, they used to be more available and then they stopped making those tables for those reasons (and they were more expensive).

    Yes, in a conference room setting with more than 3 people it’s better to have wifi, no disagreement there. In google’s case here it sounds like they’d bring a mobile hotspot in so everyone could see the documents together, which is not ideal but would work.

    Still, they’d have ethernet for the video sharing so they could just put a router in each conference room (a huge pain to admin, but - it’s google) and everyone gets wifi in the conference room and no one is very slightly inconvenienced.

    OR - y’know. Bring back the ethernet. Werd.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    It’s absolutely making do. Having to plug an Ethernet cable in every time you take your laptop to someone else’s office, break room or conference room simply doesn’t work. Offices aren’t designed for it.

    AnUnusualRelic ,
    @AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

    That’s when you make do with WiFi.

    spaghettiwestern , (edited )

    You do know that laptops no longer even come with those Ethernet ports, right?

    shasta ,

    Yeah if you are forced to deal with a shitty Apple

    spaghettiwestern ,

    Long time since you bought a laptop, or even looked at them? Even most Dell and Thinkpad mobile workstations no longer include an Ethernet port.

    0x0 ,

    They include USB-C and most docking stations have… ethernet.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    And in the offices I worked in nobody had a docking station. They aren’t everywhere.

    0xD ,

    Welcome to the future! Standard everywhere.

    Mr_Dr_Oink ,

    You do know that most places use docking stations that connect laptops to multiple screens and… you guessed it… ethernet.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    My last job was with a Fortune 100 technical company in a sales position. No one used a docking station and no one bothered with an Ethernet cable. Neither did any of the customers we dealt with. People with desktop computers were wired up but most everyone else used wifi all the time.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    Not my last job with a Fortune 100 company. Nearly all of us used wifi all the time. Our engineering and software development groups did use desktop computers with Gig E though.

    TheBat ,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    Not my last job with a Fortune 100 company.

    Sorry to hear your company doesn’t care about productivity.

    We get a second screen, power, and stable internet connection via docking stations.

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    to be fair, they did say sales

    spaghettiwestern , (edited )

    Sorry to hear your company doesn’t care about productivity.

    My company produces networking equipment and actually knows how to implement reliable wireless and wired networks. If your company’s wifi network is unstable perhaps hiring a competent network design and implementation company would have been more cost effective than throwing more equipment at the problem.

    TheBat ,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, go ahead and tell me (a sysadmin) how wired network which is just switches and cables is ‘throwing more equipment at the problem’ compared to hundreds of wifi access points.

    Wireless gives you portability but if you’re going to sit down and work then wired network is always better than wireless. That’s a physics thing.

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    it’s called a “dongle” and it’s named after a guy named don. No srs look it up.

    spaghettiwestern , (edited )

    Lordy, I ain’t never heard about one of them before. You’re a genius!

    Now look around your office and see how many people are using them. There’s not a single person in my sales office, whether sales or engineering that bothers with a dongle because we actually have a well designed, fast wifi network. It’s called “reliability” and you and your company should look that up.

    From the responses here it sounds like many companies need to do the same.

    DingoBilly ,

    Wireless sucks. Wired is always better.

    bfg9k ,

    Can’t realistically plug your phone into the wall every time you want to use the internet

    The whole point of a mobile phone is that it’s mobile

    TheBat ,
    @TheBat@lemmy.world avatar

    Ok Zoomer.

    We’re talking about offices where people generally use laptops for work. Why are you mentioning mobiles?

    bfg9k ,

    What if I want to move my laptop around the office, say for example to make a presentation, or work in a different area? If I’m just working on some documents online, I don’t need a fast connection, just 30-50Mbit is plenty enough for pretty much everything, including video calls etc

    And what you’re telling me you never use a mobile at work? You still need a signal to make/receive regular phone calls

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    That’s true, which is why the article mentions one of the things googlers are doing is using their phone as a hotspot.

    Y’see the phone gets it’s internet from the cell tower. It then passes the internet to the laptop via a local (i.e. 2 feet) wifi or bluetooth connection.

    That’s an entirely different thing than enterprise-wide wifi. And if the building was blocking cell phone signals - well, first of all I’d be impressed, and secondly they would tear it down.

    gamermanh ,
    @gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Just gonna ignore those real-world examples and insist on fantasy land, eh?

    spaghettiwestern ,

    Moan and groan all you like, it doesn’t change the fact that wireless is almost always an option and wired is almost never an option.

    Even desktop PCs come with wifi adapters. Finding a laptop with an Ethernet port is damn near impossible.

    gaael ,

    Don’t most of (maybe all) dell and lenovo laptops come with ethernet ports by default ?
    And nowadays, with thunderbolt docking stations, you have more or less every connection available anyway.

    spaghettiwestern , (edited )

    Don’t most of (maybe all) dell and lenovo laptops come with ethernet ports by default ?

    Nope. Ethernet ports are gone.

    homesweethomeMrL ,

    If ethernet is not an option, you’re just wasting time. Ethernet-to-USB dongles are cheap and plentiful.

    It’s crazy that people with no experience with it have no idea why anyone would want to fuss with a direct wired connection when it’s objectively faster and more stable in every metric possible.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    Assumptions, assumptions… My company is a communications company and actually produces networking equipment. Almost no one uses Ethernet because we have the knowledge and experience to implement reliable wifi. Perhaps your company should hire us since they’ve done such a bad job with their own implementation.

    olympicyes ,

    Wireless is always better than no connection at all if you need a connection and you’re not wired.

    Mr_Dr_Oink ,

    Conference rooms, yes. Break rokms, yes. Offices? No. Use a docking station? Are you working solely from your laptop screen or do you dock and use monitors mouse and keyboard? Generally, there’s ethernet attached, too.

    boonhet ,

    Conference rooms should have ethernet connected to the USB-C dongle that’s attached to the TV and the Jabra or whatever alternative you use.

    Wouldn’t want to take my laptop to the break room, I go there to take a break from work, not continue it in a different setting.

    I’ll agree on going to someone else’s office, or using your laptop in a meeting where someone else is connected up, but that’s where Wi-Fi works as the back-up.

    spaghettiwestern ,

    Lol! One Ethernet cable in a conference room? What if someone else is using it? Next you’ll proudly state that you carry an Ethernet switch everywhere you go. But, you be you.

    boonhet ,

    I just said wifi works as the backup solution if you’re not the one presenting. If you ARE the one presenting, wouldn’t you want to have a more stable connection?

    postmateDumbass ,

    What do they think their precious wifi routers plug into?

    An actual cloud?

    When it rains are they terrified of losing their data?

    twilightwolf90 ,

    And a lot of people do. Cellular and satellite internet is excellent for rural and certain business use cases. I have gigabit fiber, and I’m considering one of those in case the Internet goes out if fiber is hit or if we lose utility power (I have a battery backup system).

    Yes. Those folks are scared when it rains too hard. The connection does become more unstable.

    I still acknowledge that your point is valid for everyone else however.

    postmateDumbass ,

    I was just making a cartoonish joke about clouds leaking.

    Wasnt thinking rain fade lol.

    rageagainstmachines ,

    Reminder: this is the company that holds a monopoly on the internet and dictates web standards.

    Osito ,

    I would say aws is super important too lol

    tal ,
    @tal@lemmy.today avatar

    Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables,

    If I’m working at a desk, then I’d definitely rather have a cable than rely on wireless, regardless of the roof structure.

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