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Employees at Facebook and Google use Wi-Fi for their daily work. Maybe there’s a way to run an Ethernet cable to one’s desk, but e.g. my MacBook doesn’t even ha

Employees at Facebook and Google use Wi-Fi for their daily work. Maybe there’s a way to run an Ethernet cable to one’s desk, but e.g. my MacBook doesn’t even have an Ethernet port. Say what you will about ad tech, I think there’s no denying these are “serious” tech companies.

travisjungroth 5y ago
I’ll let my employer know they’re not a serious business. -written from my wifi connected laptop at Netflix
- catmanjan 5y ago
  I think a lot of people don't consider FAANG serious business, profitable yes, but you aren't putting food on tables (other than the shareholders)
  - after_care 5y ago
    I don't know anyone that isn't taking Amazon or Apple seriously now. Lots of people don't take Meta or Alphabet seriously, but still buy or click online advertisements.
    - catmanjan 5y ago
      I'd say Amazon is the most "serious" of them, but only the import/export side of the business. Apple basically just sells boutique whitegoods. If any of these companies ceased to exist, it wouldn't inconvenience anyone other the shareholders.
      - sdenton4 5y ago
        Well, one could imagine some small inconvenience if Gmail disappeared...
      - dageshi 5y ago
        Seems like your definition of "serious business" probably amounts to about 10% of the overall economy at this point? It doesn't seem very relevant or useful.
        catmanjan 5y ago
        How does that reflect on the usefulness of the economy
  - kooshball 5y ago
    congrats on having the worst hn take of the year
    - catmanjan 5y ago
      Hard pill to swallow, I know
  - rascul 5y ago
    > you aren't putting food on tables (other than the shareholders) And the employees.
  - hansel_der 5y ago
    > I think a lot of people don't consider FAANG serious business true, hn'ers obviously excluded :) > but you aren't putting food on tables i tend to agree, but then again, most "value" is created by businesses that revolve around unnecessary things.
TacticalCoder 5y ago
> but e.g. my MacBook doesn’t even have an Ethernet port Staircase's ramp here at home is beautiful but the metallic balusters acts as a Faraday cage. Wife's MacBook M1 doesn't have an ethernet port either but she's using a little USB-C hub providing ethernet (and connection to a proper monitor): I think these adapters cost like $25 or something (my brother had one laying around and just gave it to me).
jpollock 5y ago
That's not my experience. Work is done at a desk with a large display (or two) and a network port. The laptops come out for meetings, not coding. Some people prefer hiding with their laptop and coding, but I find the added latency of wifi when using remote desktops is painful. Code is _not_ allowed on the laptop's storage. Some people who do use laptops as primary machines will have a dock to let them use the wired network and large displays.
sdenton4 5y ago
I ssh into an insane desktop machine, which has a wired connection. Effectively, this is WiFi for the shell commands, and wired for the actual heavy lifting.
toast0 5y ago
When I was at Facebook, they had network to my desk, and it often worked; with 802.1x too (certs automanaged by the corporate spyware). You could get a usb nic out of a vending machine if you had a poorly specified machine that doesn't have an ethernet port. If the vending machine doesn't have a compatible nic, the helpdesk probably would (they did for me, my corporate issued macbook had usb-a and the vending machine only had usb-c nics; I had been using a personal 10/100 usb nic for some time, but needed 1G for something eventually). Their wifi was pretty ok though. I went a month or so without noticing that my personal usb nic had stopped working after an macOS update (needless to say, I'm not a fan of macs after experience using one at that job).
conradev 5y ago
I worked at Apple and had a 10GbE fiber optic hub underneath my desk where I was able to pull 6Gbps over the public internet. It depends on your job function, for sure, but I had to download multiple large device images each day, and having a 10G link was pretty convenient for doing that.

travisjungroth 5y ago

I’ll let my employer know they’re not a serious business. -written from my wifi connected laptop at Netflix

catmanjan 5y ago
I think a lot of people don't consider FAANG serious business, profitable yes, but you aren't putting food on tables (other than the shareholders)
- after_care 5y ago
  I don't know anyone that isn't taking Amazon or Apple seriously now. Lots of people don't take Meta or Alphabet seriously, but still buy or click online advertisements.
  - catmanjan 5y ago
    I'd say Amazon is the most "serious" of them, but only the import/export side of the business. Apple basically just sells boutique whitegoods. If any of these companies ceased to exist, it wouldn't inconvenience anyone other the shareholders.
    - sdenton4 5y ago
      Well, one could imagine some small inconvenience if Gmail disappeared...
    - dageshi 5y ago
      Seems like your definition of "serious business" probably amounts to about 10% of the overall economy at this point? It doesn't seem very relevant or useful.
      - catmanjan 5y ago
        How does that reflect on the usefulness of the economy
- kooshball 5y ago
  congrats on having the worst hn take of the year
  - catmanjan 5y ago
    Hard pill to swallow, I know
- rascul 5y ago
  > you aren't putting food on tables (other than the shareholders) And the employees.
- hansel_der 5y ago
  > I think a lot of people don't consider FAANG serious business true, hn'ers obviously excluded :) > but you aren't putting food on tables i tend to agree, but then again, most "value" is created by businesses that revolve around unnecessary things.

TacticalCoder 5y ago

> but e.g. my MacBook doesn’t even have an Ethernet port Staircase's ramp here at home is beautiful but the metallic balusters acts as a Faraday cage. Wife's MacBook M1 doesn't have an ethernet port either but she's using a little USB-C hub providing ethernet (and connection to a proper monitor): I think these adapters cost like $25 or something (my brother had one laying around and just gave it to me).

jpollock 5y ago

That's not my experience. Work is done at a desk with a large display (or two) and a network port. The laptops come out for meetings, not coding. Some people prefer hiding with their laptop and coding, but I find the added latency of wifi when using remote desktops is painful. Code is _not_ allowed on the laptop's storage. Some people who do use laptops as primary machines will have a dock to let them use the wired network and large displays.

sdenton4 5y ago

I ssh into an insane desktop machine, which has a wired connection. Effectively, this is WiFi for the shell commands, and wired for the actual heavy lifting.

toast0 5y ago

When I was at Facebook, they had network to my desk, and it often worked; with 802.1x too (certs automanaged by the corporate spyware). You could get a usb nic out of a vending machine if you had a poorly specified machine that doesn't have an ethernet port. If the vending machine doesn't have a compatible nic, the helpdesk probably would (they did for me, my corporate issued macbook had usb-a and the vending machine only had usb-c nics; I had been using a personal 10/100 usb nic for some time, but needed 1G for something eventually). Their wifi was pretty ok though. I went a month or so without noticing that my personal usb nic had stopped working after an macOS update (needless to say, I'm not a fan of macs after experience using one at that job).

conradev 5y ago

I worked at Apple and had a 10GbE fiber optic hub underneath my desk where I was able to pull 6Gbps over the public internet. It depends on your job function, for sure, but I had to download multiple large device images each day, and having a 10G link was pretty convenient for doing that.