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Yahoo a purple cow
Mar. 2nd, 2007 11:51 pmWed evening I went to an event billed as Browser Wars II attack of the DOMs.
The first thing I saw on entering the actual building from the garage was an almost life-size purple cow. It had a brand on it's rear reading "100% Prime Grade Email" and a monitor/keyboard embedded in its side.
Luckily I could soon turn my back to it, get my name tag and proceed to a cowless room.
Although I thought I was running late, I managed to get some pizza, and then had to wait another 45 minutes for them to actually start the presentation. During this time I attempted to subtly note the demographics of the room. This means I did not stand up and visibly count people, or ask them anything. I just glanced around in each direction at various times, did some counting and some estimating.
There was somewhat over 200 people present. Between 5 and 10% were female. Slightly more than 1/2 were white, slightly less than half were either East Asian or South Asian. The one man I saw who appeared to be of African descent came across to me as _African_ not African-American. If there was anyone who would have identified as Hispanic, I either mistook them for white or south Asian. Ages were reasonably mixed across the span of 'working age adult'. Average would probably be 30-something, but there were more 50+ individuals than women (a few people were both female and older).
A substantial number seemed to be Yahoo employees. I would guess at least a quarter, but I would not be particularly surprised if it was even two thirds. The Yahoo employee next to me was one of several with laptops out and during the entire thing he kept using different Yahoo applications: mail, messenger, and flickr. One of the things he looked at on Flickr was pictures someone had already posted of people gathering in the room waiting.
( Report of MS IE, Firefox, and Opera presentations and Q&A. I think it's got both informative and funny bits, but I'm a web geek. Some acronyms and other references contained herein may bypass you if you are not one. Other references like 'acid test' might bypass you if you are too young. Read at own risk. Don't read at own risk. )
A few times people had asked where Apple was. Now Douglas said that they had been invited. Asked several times over, but they had declined to send anyone 6 miles to talk saying they were way too busy actually writing code.
Then they pulled a bunch of boxes up front for people to pass by and take stuff from. I passed on the Yahoo license place holder, but I have a bright blue IE 7 water bottle now.
The first thing I saw on entering the actual building from the garage was an almost life-size purple cow. It had a brand on it's rear reading "100% Prime Grade Email" and a monitor/keyboard embedded in its side.
Luckily I could soon turn my back to it, get my name tag and proceed to a cowless room.
Although I thought I was running late, I managed to get some pizza, and then had to wait another 45 minutes for them to actually start the presentation. During this time I attempted to subtly note the demographics of the room. This means I did not stand up and visibly count people, or ask them anything. I just glanced around in each direction at various times, did some counting and some estimating.
There was somewhat over 200 people present. Between 5 and 10% were female. Slightly more than 1/2 were white, slightly less than half were either East Asian or South Asian. The one man I saw who appeared to be of African descent came across to me as _African_ not African-American. If there was anyone who would have identified as Hispanic, I either mistook them for white or south Asian. Ages were reasonably mixed across the span of 'working age adult'. Average would probably be 30-something, but there were more 50+ individuals than women (a few people were both female and older).
A substantial number seemed to be Yahoo employees. I would guess at least a quarter, but I would not be particularly surprised if it was even two thirds. The Yahoo employee next to me was one of several with laptops out and during the entire thing he kept using different Yahoo applications: mail, messenger, and flickr. One of the things he looked at on Flickr was pictures someone had already posted of people gathering in the room waiting.
( Report of MS IE, Firefox, and Opera presentations and Q&A. I think it's got both informative and funny bits, but I'm a web geek. Some acronyms and other references contained herein may bypass you if you are not one. Other references like 'acid test' might bypass you if you are too young. Read at own risk. Don't read at own risk. )
A few times people had asked where Apple was. Now Douglas said that they had been invited. Asked several times over, but they had declined to send anyone 6 miles to talk saying they were way too busy actually writing code.
Then they pulled a bunch of boxes up front for people to pass by and take stuff from. I passed on the Yahoo license place holder, but I have a bright blue IE 7 water bottle now.
