Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Earth Google The Almighty Buck Idle News

In the Google Navy 129

Posted by CmdrTaco from the thats-a-lotta-boats dept.
theodp writes "Having already assembled a private Air Force, Google's top execs now seem to be turning their attention to building a personal Navy. At last count, CEO Eric Schmidt's wife had assembled a stable of three classic racing boats — the Swan 80 Selene, the 46-foot W-class Equus and the Alerion Mischief. Perhaps not to be outdone, the press is reporting that Google founder Larry Page just snapped up a $45 million superyacht called Senses from New Zealand businessman Sir Douglas Myers, who referred to the ostentatious-yet-awesome yacht as his 'adventure boat.' As Google likes to say, 'just the latest steps in Google's commitment to a clean and green energy future.' So, do Google execs eat their own carbon footprint calculator dogfood?" All I know is if Larry wants to go fishing, I'll bring bait — or he can come here and fish on Zen's pontoon boat. It only leaked once, the engine usually starts right up, and while there's no helipad, I'd love to watch someone try.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

In the Google Navy More

In the Google Navy

Comments Filter:

  • Not a Navy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:22PM (#34839362)

    It's not really a Navy unless it's got guns, or a least archers or spear-throwers or something.

  • Ummm...? (Score:5, Funny)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:24PM (#34839380) Journal
    Enormously rich person buys large object, news at 10?

    • Re:Ummm...? (Score:5, Funny)

      by somersault ( 912633 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:28PM (#34839412) Homepage Journal

      Hello, this is the news at 10. In headlines tonight: an enormously large object squashes a rich person.

      • Some people are just jealous, hiding behind environmental concerns to cover their envy and jealousy.
        • People with the sort of money that lets them buy $45m penis extensions are exactly the sort of unimaginative arseholes who should have most of their wealth taxed and distributed to people who might actually do something useful with it.

          Just saying.

    • Re:Ummm...? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Monkeedude1212 ( 1560403 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:30PM (#34839442) Journal

      Yes. But... But But... But.... These are Google Execs! You see, when a rich executive does something that is frowned upon, they bring shame to their company. But when a company does something that is frowned upon, no one blames the exec. It's a completely unilateral relationship where there is absolutely no personal responsibility when an organization does something wrong, but it is ENTIRELY the organization to blame if the executive officers decide to do something like this.

      Are you getting it yet? The entire corporation that is Google isn't living up to its standards because 2 individuals don't!

      • But when a company does something that is frowned upon, no one blames the exec

        Are you joking? The hate that much of Slashdot had (and continues to has) on for Bill Gates verges on irrational lunacy....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rwa2 ( 4391 ) *

      FWIW, supposedly Mark Zuckerberg commutes in a relatively humble Acura TSX. http://time.com/poy [time.com]

    • There's a little secret to the economy. Even though rich people make huge profits and take large salaries if most of it goes into investments it doesn't matter much. When the money is invested somewhere it's adding value to the world. It isn't going to feed the hungry, but it is going to increase efficiency, build businesses or enable people to live a decent life. After it is done doing that it can be reinvested to do it again and again pretty much forever.

      When that money is taken out and blown it on somet

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by syousef ( 465911 )

      Enormously rich person buys large object, news at 10?

      Better pictures and video here:
      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055689/ [imdb.com]

      and here:
      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057751/ [imdb.com]

    • I have two words for Larry Page: luxury submarine.

      • I have two words for Larry Page: luxury submarine.

        How about "hollowed-out volcano"?

        • As far as I know, he can't buy a hollowed out volcano; I certainly haven't heard of one for sale. A luxury submarine, on the other hand, can be purchased on the open market (albeit for a price that mere mortals like you and I can't afford), and I think it would be obscenely cool to own one.

  • Thank you /. for sticking "in the navy" in my head. It also somehow has a YMCA blend to it too. Say, wasn't Google at one time at least helping NASA develop rockets?
  • "and while there's no helipad" What? No way! Count me out then unless accommodations are made for my Xheli [xheli.com].

  • Sea View, Harbour View? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bananaendian ( 928499 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:35PM (#34839496) Homepage Journal

    I predict they will cruise around the world taking photos of every harbour, ship and shoreline.

    I also predict they will get into trouble for doing that.

    All of the world's marine traffic [marinetraffic.com] in real-time is already on Google... (ok, its basically just overlayed AIS data, but still its effing cool ! just try to find an application that is cooler! or is it wetter?)

    • All of the world's marine traffic [marinetraffic.com] in real-time is already on Google... (ok, its basically just overlayed AIS data, but still its effing cool ! just try to find an application that is cooler! or is it wetter?)

      Doesn't that make it a bit easy for pirates?

  • You realize Schmidt's wife's boats are sailboats? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jbc ( 3796 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:36PM (#34839500) Homepage

    Carbon footprint of racing sailboat is pretty much 0, at least while it's actually racing. I'll grant you that construction and the diesel auxiliary contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and especially if they're having it moved around on a container ship so it's ready to go in exotic locations, and then flying in to sail on it, they're pretty much at the head of the line in terms of their individual contribution to future generations' climate-related misery. But overall, I think sailboats should be way down your list if you're making a catalog of climate-hostile consumption.

    Still, I realize this is slashdot. Let the poorly-informed outrage fly!

    • Generally speaking, the only kinds of racing that have anything approaching a 'green' fotprint are the kinds of racing that leave footprints.

      Auto racing can't claim a green footprint. Even solar racing has a manufacturing footprint that is noticeable.

      Boats? Powerboats of course just crave fuels. Sail? Except perhaps for some small classes, they rely on exotic materials. Smaller classes are starting to give in to this a little bit.

      Planes? hehe... Gliders? Carbon-fiber.

      Even bicycles use such exotics that

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tailhook ( 98486 )

      I think sailboats should be way down your list if you're making a catalog of climate-hostile consumption.

      Why?

      http://galenfrysinger.name/eh61/harbor02.jpg
      http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Monterey_CA_harbor_p1070194.jpg
      http://www.pictureninja.com/pages/new-zealand/north-island/auckland-harbor-sailboats.jpg
      http://www.harborsailboats.com/images/mainpage.jpg
      http://www.gdanmitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/SouthBeachHarborMornFogSF20090701.jpg
      http://reve.ed.shizuoka.ac.jp/photos/Honolulu02.jpg
      http://thetriton.com/directory/userlogo/21736-5724_b.jpg
      http://www.boatharborslocator.com/ca%20marin%

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arivanov ( 12034 )

      I was going to make the same exact point.

      As these are proper ocean cruiser boats you are not going to move them by container ship. 24m worth off composite hull is something you move by water with a hired crew, not by ship. Sailing such boats from A to B so that the person with excess pocket money can use it where they want it is a pretty good job if you can have it by the way. I would not mind being a sailing crew on one of those :)

      So the only greenhouse emissions are from the leerjet flying you to the sail

      • you can easily move very large ships from ocean to ocean via a piggyback ship.

        in fact, there are ships designed for this very purpose, and moving a large sailing yacht is one of their main customers.

        these specialized ships take on ballast and essentially purposefully flood their own decks and then the large sailing/motor yachts are driven over the deck, pilings are set to support them, and the ship pumps out the ballast to raise itself above the waterline.

        why?

        because its a lot cheaper to pay for one large t

        • One such company is Dockwise Yacht Tranport - www.yacht-transport.com The larger the Sailboat / Yacht the more likely it is to move from place to place on it's own bottom.
  • You can search the net with ease...
  • remember the floating data center idea? They're doing it with style. sys admins on the night shift need to party, right?
    • That explains the recent push at google to recruit "linux sysadmins who look good in a bikini"...

      • That explains the recent push at google to recruit "linux sysadmins who look good in a bikini"...

        Lowest. Job-applicants. Ever.

  • Oww my English (Score:5, Funny)

    by lennier ( 44736 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:51PM (#34839656) Homepage

    do Google execs eat their own carbon footprint calculator dogfood?

    All those words... but together they.... the letters, the letters...

    So it's come to this. After all those centuries, English, this is what you've become. Face down in the left gutter wearing Comic Sans with an empty carton of Strunk and White. Googling your own blogfeed indeed.

    I just hope you're happy.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by treeves ( 963993 )

      You gotta problem with four nouns jammed together in a sentence, huh? You must not be German. They cram 'em into one WORD.

  • Does this article fit the "news for nerds, news that matters" criteria? Does every web site now have to show how pitiful my existence is compared to the "rich and famous"?

  • Inquiring minds want to know (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @04:56PM (#34839742)
    Does owning a $45 million yacht significantly increase your probability of getting laid?

  • How's that "Don't be evil" working out?

    Carbon-neutral? Nope.
    Excessively reckless and wasteful? Yep.

    The top AOL execs were never this ostentatious.

    Well, we did buy Time Warner. They were bigger than your yacht and stable of Cigarette boats.

  • THIS is a boat. [apolloduck.us]

    If I had Larry Page's stupid amount of money, I'd get a real ship. Plus, you can make money with it if the GOOG stock tanks.

    Or just load it up with 1400 hot chicks and sail around the world.

    And of course, there's always THIS boat [maritimesales.com]

    • The pirate ship looks like a bargain at $1.25m surely the Pirate Bay guys should buy it and turn it into a floating data centre or something?

  • Well, if they all sink ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by PolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @05:47PM (#34840582)

    ... we'll get Google Davie Jones' Locker View, real soon ...

  • But what about Good Google? How much carbon is saved each year, for example, by their handy maps? (Now if I could only get my wife to stop printing them out and just write the directions on a piece of waste paper) How much does Google reduce carbon by efficiently locating points of interest -- and someday -- helping you get your car to the nearest electrical outlet. Sniping at rich people's yachts is I guess a family tradition but the real problem with carbon hypocracy stories is they really don't take in t

  • Careful, it didn't end so well for L. Ron Hubbard.

  • Someone with money bought a boat. News at 11.

    I mean come on ... who the fraq cares?

  • I seem to remember an old? 60-minutes piece on the culture of Google where execs drove normal cars to work and shopping sprees to shave off excess millions were universally frowned upon.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/30/60minutes/main664063.shtml [cbsnews.com]

  • Any idiot can buy yachts and planes. You're not a truly awesome geek millionaire until you have a self-sufficient private island.

  • This is my documentation that if someone from google wants to buy the best in personal/corporate submarines, it's over here -> http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/phoenix_1000.php3 [ussubmarines.com] Check it out, you will be impressed if you haven't seen it before. How much for the finders fee? I might be able to right my own ship if everything works out ;-)

  • ...then you should get a badass boat like this one [smugmug.com], a 190 tons displacement, 37 meter costal patrol boat purchased by an early Internet pioneer from the Royal Navy.

  • Probably when pigs fly; or maybe when all power is gleaned solely from the sun and/or nukes. But then that only accounts for carbon created for power generation. What about the emissions from the servers themselves while running, plastic wire coatings decaying, the actual creation of the parts that make up the servers - etc., etc., etc.

    The only way for Google to ever be green in reality is to cease their business. Let's get real.
  • Would all the asshats surfing the web with their 150 watt processors and 225 watt video cards for the sole purpose of trolling Slashdot kindly rethink their asshattery?

  • It only leaked once, the engine usually starts right up, and while there's no helipad, I'd love to watch someone try.

    Sounds like an adventure boat to me.

  • this is dumb. seems to me that these are personal watercraft, not google's.

Slashdot Top Deals

The rule on staying alive as a program manager is to give 'em a number or give 'em a date, but never give 'em both at once.

Close