Thursday, May 28, 2009

The Rattlesnake Farewell

Goodbye, AOL! Today, Time Warner announced a spinoff of AOL, just a few days after Tim Armstrong's interview (watch it here) denying any knowledge of this :-). He did mention a funny incident during the interview that I could identify with - read on...

After he'd handed in his Google badge, he was stuck in the elevator (badge needed for garage access) and had to get out via jumping off a loading dock - an interesting way to exit after 8 years of helping build a company :-)

Reminds me of my departure from IBM's Almaden Research Center. We used to walk around the building at lunchtime - (fantastic campus) and there was a sign (photo above) stating "Caution - Beware of Rattlesnakes and Cattle" - we saw a lot of cattle, but in my 2+ years there, never a rattlesnake.

Last day! I've handed in my badge, and am loading up my boxes into my car, feeling really blue about leaving Big Blue, when I see a small rattlesnake hissing at me - a foot away from my box!! Apparently, younger rattlers are more dangerous, since they don't moderate the amount of venom they inject when striking...

I live on...but will never forget my "Rattlesnake Farewell" from IBM Almaden.

2 comments:

The Jack said...
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mkoswell said...
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