Vdio, a video streaming service created to complement the Rdio music service, is today making its first public, live appearance. The site -- offering not all-you-can consume subscriptions but pay-per-view films and TV shows, with an emphasis on new releases -- is opening for previews in the U.S. and UK, with $25/?20 gift certificates going out to people who are already subscribers to Rdio's premium Unlimited tier, or who subscribe in the next 60 days.
Technology is no longer a luxury item, but a necessity for job searching, staying connected and living ? particularly for those living on the streets.
To Gerald Davis, a homeless man who hopes to get his own apartment, the disability insurance dollars he spends on a $50-a-month flip phone allows him to talk with his daughter and helps him stay in contact with the Arlington County Department of Human Services.
?I?m not crazy about the telephone, but it?s a necessary evil,? said Davis, who has been staying at the?Arlington County Emergency Winter Shelter. ?If (friends) happen to come up with a job lead for me, they?ll let me know.?
To men and women living on the streets, access to a computer or phone can be the key factor in gaining a job or hearing about affordable housing opportunities ? or even where to grab a bite to eat. To adjust to the rising needs of technology, shelters, libraries and other services have devoted time and energy to acquiring such devices.
'In Contact With the World'
Georgetown Ministry Center Executive Director Gunther Stern oversaw the addition of computers in that organization's daytime shelter to accommodate the rising need to stay connected and to bring homeless clients out of the public libraries and into the center. He wanted to teach them how to use computer applications like Google Docs.
?We had to create a space where people had access to computers and books,? Stern said. ?There?s a lot of demand for it.?
At Georgetown Ministry Center, homeless men and women who arrive during the day have access to the program's five Macintosh computers, cell phone chargers and landline phones. Computer use is limited to hour-long slots.
They use the computers for online courses, Facebook, games, email, job searching and reading the news, said several people waiting in line recently for computer time.
?Technology, for me, is my way of being in contact with the world,? said Herbert Toliver. ?Without it, we would not know what is going on. Where else would we get it if it was not here??
Since visiting the Georgetown center during the day, Toliver has used his allotted computer time to search for past friends and family and to stay connected with world news.
A Changing Reality
Not all of the area's homeless are limited to visiting shelters or libraries to use a computer. Some have been able to hold on to their tech from when they did have a home; others have acquired a means to connect since.
Lando Mapeki, a homeless man at the Emergency Winter Shelter in Arlington, calls his personal laptop his ?buddy? and has taken it with him everywhere he's gone for the past four years. Thanks to his buddy, Mapeki is able to take accounting, franchising and investment courses online.
"(Technology) is a lifeline," said Jan-Michael Sacharko, development director at the?Arlington Street People?s Assistance Network, or A-SPAN. "It?s hard to imagine anyone now not having a cellphone or Facebook."
It's a reality for people on the street and those who work with them ? but society's perception of the homeless seems to have changed at a slower pace than smartphones or tablets.
A 2009 Associated Press photo from taken of Michelle Obama serving food?Miriam?s Kitchen in Washington?showed a homeless man snapping a pic of the first lady on his phone.
The photo, which accompanies this Washington Post follow-up story, caused a slight public uproar. Some people who saw the picture thought the man should not be able to afford a cell phone and take a free meal.
And Changing Perceptions
But phone prices drop considerably as new models are introduced. ?You really can?t survive with out a phone,? Sacharko?said. ?Most people on the streets have a flip phone ? it?s not uncommon.?
Assurance Wireless is just one program designed to help low-income people obtain cell phones through the Lifeline Assistance Program. Funding for the Lifeline benefits ? which include a free allocation of texts and minutes ? is covered thanks to private carrier contributions to what's called the Universal Service Fund, said Jack Pflanz, an Assurance Wireless spokesman. For Assurance Wireless specifically, Sprint pays for the phones, chargers, manuals and shipping.
Recently, homeless people who do not have a regular address have been able to apply for the program.
Acceptance of this new trend is starting to show.
Georgetown University students recently donated 350 100-minute calling cards they acquired by reaching out to philanthropic organizations. The two students gave the cards to the Georgetown Ministry Center in December.
?Technology helps everybody,? said Andrew Benthall, who uses the center during the day. ?The exposure to it gives people here exposure to the outside world.?
Telerobotic system designed to treat bladder cancer betterPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Salisbury david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-6803 Vanderbilt University
Although bladder cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the most expensive to treat, the basic method that doctors use to treat it hasn't changed much in more than 70 years.
An interdisciplinary collaboration of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities intends to change that situation dramatically. Headed by Nabil Simaan, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, the team has developed a prototype telerobotic platform designed to be inserted through natural orifices in this case the urethra that can provide surgeons with a much better view of bladder tumors so they can diagnose them more accurately. It is also designed to make it easier to remove tumors from the lining of the bladder regardless of their location: an operation called transurethral recession.
"When I observed my first transurethral resection, I was amazed at how crude the instruments are and how much pushing and stretching of the patient's body is required," Simaan said.
That experience inspired the engineer to develop a system that uses micro-robotics to perform this difficult type of surgery. Its features and capabilities are described in an article titled "Design and Performance Evaluation of a Minimally Invasive Telerobotic Platform for Transurethral Surveillance and Intervention" published in the April issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
The specialized telerobotic system "doesn't take the judgment out of surgeons' hands, it enhances their capabilities and hopefully gives them surgical superpowers," commented S. Duke Herrell, an associate professor of urologic surgery and biomedical engineering, who specializes in minimally invasive oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and is collaborating on the project.
The traditional method, which Simaan observed, involves inserting a rigid tube called a resectoscope through the urethra and into the bladder. The instrument contains several channels that allow the circulation of fluid, provide access for an endoscope for observation and interchangeable cauterizing tools used to obtain biopsy tissue for evaluating the malignancy of the tumor and to resect small tumors. In some operations, surgeons replace the cauterizing tool with an optical-fiber laser to destroy tumor cells.
Although the endoscope can give a good view of the bladder lining directly across from the opening of the urethra, inspecting the other areas is more difficult. The medical team must press and twist the scope or push on the patient's body to bring other areas into view. These contortions are also necessary when removing tumors in less accessible areas.
If the surgeon, using endoscopic observation or biopsy, determines that a tumor is invasive and has penetrated the muscle layer, then he later performs a cystectomy that removes the entire bladder through an incision in the abdomen. Frequently this is done using a normal surgical robot. But, when the surgeon judges that the tumor is superficialrestricted to the bladder liningthen he attempts to remove it using the resectoscope.
Bladder cancer is so expensive to treat in part because the tumors in the bladder lining are exceptionally persistent and so require continuing surveillance and repeated surgeries. Among the factors that contribute to this persistence is the difficulty of accurately identifying tumor margins and failure to remove all the cancerous cells.
"Because you are working through a long, rigid tube, this can be a difficult procedure, especially in some areas of the bladder," said Herrell.
The telerobotic system is designed specifically to operate in this challenging environment. The machine itself is the size and shape of a large thermos bottle but its business end is only 5.5 millimeters in diameter about one fifth of an inch and consists of a segmented robotic arm. The tiny arm can curve through 180 degrees, allowing it to point in every direction including directly back at its entry point. At the tip of the arm is a white light source, an optical fiber laser for cauterization, a fiberscope for observation and a tiny forceps for gripping tissue.
The engineers report that they can control the position of the snake-like arm with sub-millimeter precision: a level adequate for operating in clinical conditions. They have also demonstrated that the device can remove tissue for biopsies by gripping target tissue with the forceps and then cutting it off with the laser.
The fiberscope produced a 10,000-pixel image that was directed to a digital video camera system. Because it is steerable, the instrument was able to provide close-up views of the bladder walls at favorable viewing angles. However, the testing revealed the camera system's effectiveness was limited by poor distance resolution. According to the researchers, this can be corrected by re-designing the fiberscope or by replacing it with a miniature camera tip.
In the future, the researchers intend to incorporate additional imaging methods for improving the ability to identify tumor boundaries. These include a fluorescence endoscope, optical coherence tomography that uses infrared radiation to obtain micrometer-resolution images of tissue and ultrasound to augment the surgeon's natural vision.
In addition to these observational methods, the researchers have given their robot arm a sense of touch. Using a technique called force-feedback, they can measure the force acting on the tip when it comes into contact with tissue. Normally, tumors protrude from the surrounding tissue. Vanderbilt Ph.D. candidate Andrea Bajo used this fact to successfully design new algorithms that allow the robot arm in the device to accurately trace a tumor's edge. He did so by positioning the tip on the edge of a tumor and instructing it to move in the direction that maintains the same pressure.
"Surgeons can typically identify the gross visual margin of a tumor within a millimeter, but a robot like this have the potential of doing so with sub-millimetric precision and additional technologies may actually be able to distinguish margins at the cellular level," said Herrell.
The team plans to make use of this level of precision to program the robot to perform what surgeons call an "en-block resection:" the removal of an entire tumor plus a small margin of normal tissue in one operation, a procedure designed to ensure that no cancerous cells are left behind that can reseed the tumor.
The engineers are also using the system's capabilities to design a number of safety measures into the telerobotic system. For example, the operator can set a maximum depth that the laser will cut and then, even if the operator's hand slips, the robot will not cut any deeper.
These safety measures are an example of Simaan's primary research goal: develop surgical robotic systems that can be inserted into the human body and interact safely with it.
###
Work on this system began with Simaan's former Ph.D. student Roger Goldman and Lara Suh-MacLachlan at Columbia University. Ryan Pickens, a fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is also a team member. Simaan and Bajo received partial support from NSF Career grant #IIS-1063750.
Visit Research News @ Vanderbilt for more research news from Vanderbilt. [Media Note: Vanderbilt has a 24/7 TV and radio studio with a dedicated fiber optic line and ISDN line. Use of the TV studio with Vanderbilt experts is free, except for reserving fiber time.]
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Telerobotic system designed to treat bladder cancer betterPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Salisbury david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-6803 Vanderbilt University
Although bladder cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer in the U.S. and the most expensive to treat, the basic method that doctors use to treat it hasn't changed much in more than 70 years.
An interdisciplinary collaboration of engineers and doctors at Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities intends to change that situation dramatically. Headed by Nabil Simaan, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt, the team has developed a prototype telerobotic platform designed to be inserted through natural orifices in this case the urethra that can provide surgeons with a much better view of bladder tumors so they can diagnose them more accurately. It is also designed to make it easier to remove tumors from the lining of the bladder regardless of their location: an operation called transurethral recession.
"When I observed my first transurethral resection, I was amazed at how crude the instruments are and how much pushing and stretching of the patient's body is required," Simaan said.
That experience inspired the engineer to develop a system that uses micro-robotics to perform this difficult type of surgery. Its features and capabilities are described in an article titled "Design and Performance Evaluation of a Minimally Invasive Telerobotic Platform for Transurethral Surveillance and Intervention" published in the April issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
The specialized telerobotic system "doesn't take the judgment out of surgeons' hands, it enhances their capabilities and hopefully gives them surgical superpowers," commented S. Duke Herrell, an associate professor of urologic surgery and biomedical engineering, who specializes in minimally invasive oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and is collaborating on the project.
The traditional method, which Simaan observed, involves inserting a rigid tube called a resectoscope through the urethra and into the bladder. The instrument contains several channels that allow the circulation of fluid, provide access for an endoscope for observation and interchangeable cauterizing tools used to obtain biopsy tissue for evaluating the malignancy of the tumor and to resect small tumors. In some operations, surgeons replace the cauterizing tool with an optical-fiber laser to destroy tumor cells.
Although the endoscope can give a good view of the bladder lining directly across from the opening of the urethra, inspecting the other areas is more difficult. The medical team must press and twist the scope or push on the patient's body to bring other areas into view. These contortions are also necessary when removing tumors in less accessible areas.
If the surgeon, using endoscopic observation or biopsy, determines that a tumor is invasive and has penetrated the muscle layer, then he later performs a cystectomy that removes the entire bladder through an incision in the abdomen. Frequently this is done using a normal surgical robot. But, when the surgeon judges that the tumor is superficialrestricted to the bladder liningthen he attempts to remove it using the resectoscope.
Bladder cancer is so expensive to treat in part because the tumors in the bladder lining are exceptionally persistent and so require continuing surveillance and repeated surgeries. Among the factors that contribute to this persistence is the difficulty of accurately identifying tumor margins and failure to remove all the cancerous cells.
"Because you are working through a long, rigid tube, this can be a difficult procedure, especially in some areas of the bladder," said Herrell.
The telerobotic system is designed specifically to operate in this challenging environment. The machine itself is the size and shape of a large thermos bottle but its business end is only 5.5 millimeters in diameter about one fifth of an inch and consists of a segmented robotic arm. The tiny arm can curve through 180 degrees, allowing it to point in every direction including directly back at its entry point. At the tip of the arm is a white light source, an optical fiber laser for cauterization, a fiberscope for observation and a tiny forceps for gripping tissue.
The engineers report that they can control the position of the snake-like arm with sub-millimeter precision: a level adequate for operating in clinical conditions. They have also demonstrated that the device can remove tissue for biopsies by gripping target tissue with the forceps and then cutting it off with the laser.
The fiberscope produced a 10,000-pixel image that was directed to a digital video camera system. Because it is steerable, the instrument was able to provide close-up views of the bladder walls at favorable viewing angles. However, the testing revealed the camera system's effectiveness was limited by poor distance resolution. According to the researchers, this can be corrected by re-designing the fiberscope or by replacing it with a miniature camera tip.
In the future, the researchers intend to incorporate additional imaging methods for improving the ability to identify tumor boundaries. These include a fluorescence endoscope, optical coherence tomography that uses infrared radiation to obtain micrometer-resolution images of tissue and ultrasound to augment the surgeon's natural vision.
In addition to these observational methods, the researchers have given their robot arm a sense of touch. Using a technique called force-feedback, they can measure the force acting on the tip when it comes into contact with tissue. Normally, tumors protrude from the surrounding tissue. Vanderbilt Ph.D. candidate Andrea Bajo used this fact to successfully design new algorithms that allow the robot arm in the device to accurately trace a tumor's edge. He did so by positioning the tip on the edge of a tumor and instructing it to move in the direction that maintains the same pressure.
"Surgeons can typically identify the gross visual margin of a tumor within a millimeter, but a robot like this have the potential of doing so with sub-millimetric precision and additional technologies may actually be able to distinguish margins at the cellular level," said Herrell.
The team plans to make use of this level of precision to program the robot to perform what surgeons call an "en-block resection:" the removal of an entire tumor plus a small margin of normal tissue in one operation, a procedure designed to ensure that no cancerous cells are left behind that can reseed the tumor.
The engineers are also using the system's capabilities to design a number of safety measures into the telerobotic system. For example, the operator can set a maximum depth that the laser will cut and then, even if the operator's hand slips, the robot will not cut any deeper.
These safety measures are an example of Simaan's primary research goal: develop surgical robotic systems that can be inserted into the human body and interact safely with it.
###
Work on this system began with Simaan's former Ph.D. student Roger Goldman and Lara Suh-MacLachlan at Columbia University. Ryan Pickens, a fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is also a team member. Simaan and Bajo received partial support from NSF Career grant #IIS-1063750.
Visit Research News @ Vanderbilt for more research news from Vanderbilt. [Media Note: Vanderbilt has a 24/7 TV and radio studio with a dedicated fiber optic line and ISDN line. Use of the TV studio with Vanderbilt experts is free, except for reserving fiber time.]
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 29, 2007 file photo, Indian police officers block demonstrators protesting against drug manufacturer Novartis' case against Indian government on drug patents in New Delhi, India. A lawyer for healthcare activists says India's Supreme Court has rejected drug maker Novartis AG' right to patent a new version of a lifesaving cancer drug. The landmark ruling Monday, April 1, 2013 is a victory for India's $26 billion generic drug industry that provides cheap medicines to millions around the world. Novartis has fought a legal battle in India since 2006 for a fresh patent for its cancer drug Glivec. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 29, 2007 file photo, Indian police officers block demonstrators protesting against drug manufacturer Novartis' case against Indian government on drug patents in New Delhi, India. A lawyer for healthcare activists says India's Supreme Court has rejected drug maker Novartis AG' right to patent a new version of a lifesaving cancer drug. The landmark ruling Monday, April 1, 2013 is a victory for India's $26 billion generic drug industry that provides cheap medicines to millions around the world. Novartis has fought a legal battle in India since 2006 for a fresh patent for its cancer drug Glivec. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)
NEW DELHI (AP) ? India's Supreme Court on Monday rejected drug maker Novartis AG's attempt to patent a new version of a cancer drug in a landmark decision that healthcare activists say ensures poor patients around the world will get continued access to cheap versions of lifesaving medicines.
Novartis had argued that it needed a new patent to protect its investment in the cancer drug Glivec, while activists said the company was trying to use loopholes to make more money out of a drug whose patent had expired.
The decision has global implications since India's $26 billion generic drug industry supplies much of the cheap medicine used in the developing world.
The ruling sets a precedent that will prevent international pharmaceutical companies from obtaining fresh patents in India on updated versions of existing drugs, said Pratibha Singh, a lawyer for the Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla, which makes a generic version of Glivec.
The court ruled that a patent could only be given to a new drug, she told reporters outside the court.
"Patents will be given only for genuine inventions, and repetitive patents will not be given for minor tweaks to an existing drug," Singh said.
Novartis did not immediately return calls for comment.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant has fought a legal battle in India since 2006 for a fresh patent for its leukemia drug Gleevec, known in India and Europe as Glivec.
India's patent office had rejected the company's patent application because it was not a new medicine but an amended version of its earlier product. The patent authority cited a legal provision in India's 2005 patent law aimed at preventing companies from getting fresh patents for making only minor changes to existing medicines ? a practice known as "evergreening."
Novartis appealed, arguing Glivec was a newer, more easily absorbed version of the drug that qualified for a fresh patent.
Anand Grover, a lawyer for the Cancer Patients Aid Association, which has taken the lead in the legal fight against Novartis, said the ruling Monday prevented the watering down of India's patent laws.
"This is a very good day for cancer patients. It's the news we have been waiting for for seven long years," he said.
Aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have opposed Novartis' case, fearing that a victory for the Swiss drugmaker would limit access to important medicines for millions of poor people around the world.
Gleevec, used in treating chronic myeloid leukemia and some other cancers, costs about $2,600 a month. Its generic version was available in India for around $175 per month.
"The difference in price was huge. The generic version makes it affordable to so many more poor people, not just in India, but across the world," said Y.K. Sapru, of the Mumbai-based cancer patients association.
Think WrestleMania 29 couldn?t be more spectacular? Guess again:?The WrestleMania 29 Superstore at MetLife Stadium will be open Thursday, April 4 to Sunday, April 7!
Thursday to Saturday, the Superstore is open to WrestleMania ticketholders and non-ticketholders alike. The WrestleMania 29 Superstore affords fans the opportunity to meet Superstars such as WWE Hall of Famer Jim ?J.R.? Ross, Divas Champion Kaitlyn and The Prime Time Players (details below) as you check out the largest selection of WWE merchandise under one roof.
All authentic WrestleMania 29 gear and many exclusive Superstore WrestleMania products will be available for purchase, as will N.Y./N.J.?themed WrestleMania T-shirts, WWE DVDs, WrestleMania souvenirs and much more.
Visiting Axxess? Take the free shuttle bus over to the Superstore. The shuttle bus will be located at Gate B at the IZOD Center. When you arrive at the Superstore, show your Axxess ticket and receive a free gift with any purchase.* The shuttle will operate during Axxess hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 9 p.m.
The store will be open on?Thursday, April 4 and?Friday, April 5 from noon to 11 p.m.;?Saturday, April 6 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and on?Sunday, April 7 from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and again from 4:30 p.m. until the gates close.
Superstar appearances**:
Thursday, April 4
1 p.m. ??Santino Marella
4 p.m. ??Zack Ryder
Friday, April 5
1 p.m. ??Hall of Famer ?J.R.? Jim Ross
4 p.m. ??Divas Champion Kaitlyn
Saturday, April 6
11 a.m. ??The Prime Time Players
Get information, directions to the WWE Superstore and more
*Limit one per customer. While supplies last.
**The first 350 fans to show up to WrestleMania 29 Superstore on signing days will be provided a wristband that guarantees them an autograph. Wristbands will be provided to only the first 350 people that show up. WWE also reserves the right to limit number of items signed or to refuse to allow certain items to be signed at WWE?s own discretion.?At their discretion, WWE will only allow photos if line/time permits.
I was only 16 when I realised that I was a lesbian, when a lot of the relationships that I had with guys failed, just because I felt that something was wrong with me.
My lesbian love story started when I was in high school. I met a strange girl in 2010 and we became friends. She also supported me through a difficult period of my life. A year after, we understood that we were in love with each other so we started dating. After a year of a beautiful relationship, one of my girlfriend?s relatives found out about our ?wrong? relationship, went to my house and told all the information he knew about us to my parents, plus he added a lot of lies about me, saying that I?m a whore, that I lured my girlfriend to lesbianism and more. My parents were so upset with me because I did not tell them absolutely anything and they supported my girlfriend?s family.
As a result, it was forbidden for us to meet, or have any contact ever again, or her relatives would harm my family. That was their last threat. My girlfriend?s mother changed her school, phone number and house, just because she wanted to keep her daughter away from me. My parents did not accept me the way I was, as I never came out to them, so I lost their trust too. I was so upset that I cried almost every moment of the day. All of my friends had abandoned me as they didn?t want to be involved with me and my problems. The only person who stayed with me was our common best friend who was supporting both of us and I?m still so thankful for her!
After all this hell that we?ve passed through, I decided to start my life again without her. I started having love partners just to forget her. That was the most stupid thing that I?ve done in my life, as I started drinking and I regret about it nowadays. I did not understand that I would never forget her. My feelings for her were growing every day more and more and I could not live a minute without thinking about her.
A few months after our breakup, I went to find her when I got the chance to do so. She was shocked when she saw me and asked me the reason of my coming, as I replied to her, ?I just wanted to see that you?re alright.? Then her eyes were filled with tears, but our conversation continued to be cold and strict. From that day, we started secretly talking again and I was over the moon!
Two months later, we connected our lives again and from that day we started dating again. We promised to each other to be careful not to be discovered until we finish high school and from that day we never cared about what people said about us. My parents have accepted me for who I am and realised that I am happy with this person. As for her mother, I don?t think that she?ll ever accept our relationship, which breaks my girlfriend?s heart but we have chosen this difficult path by ourselves, so we have to face the difficulties of the society we are living in. Plans for the future and the wish to move to a European country is the only hope that we can have for a better life.
Google bicycles are shown at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Google bicycles are shown at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Google employees shoot pool at in a break room at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Future of Talent Institute founder and chairman Kevin Wheeler speaks during an interview at an office space in San Mateo, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. Wheeler, whose Future of Talent Institute researches and consults on human resources for Silicon Valley businesses, says the mega-complexes being built today will be hard to staff ten years from now, and that the next era will see smaller workplaces where employers are responsible for meeting achievements and objectives, and have flexibility about when they come in to their office. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Google software engineer Jiang Chen campus sits in a massage chair at a Google campus building in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A Google employee plugs in a Google owned car next to a bicycle at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) ? Apple's ring-shaped, gleaming "Spaceship Headquarters" will include a world class auditorium and an orchard for engineers to wander. Google's new Bay View campus will feature walkways angled to force accidental encounters. Facebook, while putting final touches on a Disney-inspired campus including a Main Street with a B-B-Q shack, sushi house and bike shop, is already planning an even larger, more exciting new campus.
More than ever before, Silicon Valley firms want their workers at work.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has gone so far as to ban working from home, and many more offer prodigious incentives for coming in to the office, such as free meals, massages and gyms.
This spring, as the tech industry is soaring out of the Great Recession, plans are in the works for a flurry of massive, perk-laden headquarters.
"We're seeing the mature technology companies trying to energize their work environments, getting rid of cube farms and investing in facilities to compete for talent," said Kevin Schaeffer, a principal at architecture and design firm Gensler in San Jose. "That's caused a huge transition in the way offices are laid out."
New Silicon Valley headquarters or expansions are under way at most of the area's major firms, including eBay, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia and Oracle. Many will be huge: Apple Corp.'s 176-acre campus will be one of the world's largest workplaces. On the outside, many of the new buildings boast striking architectural designs and will collectively be among the most environmentally friendly in the country. Inside, there are walls you can draw on, ping pong tables, Lego stations, gaming arcades and free haircuts.
Critics say that while some workplace perks and benefits are a good thing, the large, multibillion dollar corporate headquarters are colossal wastes of money that snub the pioneering technology these firms actually create.
"Companies led by older management tend to be very controlling, but when I look at people in the 20s or 30s, they're totally capable of working on their own and being productive," said Kevin Wheeler, whose Future of Talent Institute researches and consults on human resources for Silicon Valley businesses. "To have artificial structures that require everybody to be in the office at certain hours of the day is simply asinine."
Wheeler said he thinks Yahoo called everyone back to work "because they had gotten into a culture of laziness," and that the firm will likely loosen the restrictions soon.
Yahoo was, in fact, an early model of Silicon Valley's happy workplace culture, touting their espresso bar and inspirational speakers as a method of inspiring passion and originality. Today yoga, cardio-kickboxing and golf classes at the office, as well as discounts to ski resorts and theme parks, help it receive top ratings as one of America's happiest workplaces.
Companies say extraordinary campuses are necessary to recruit and retain top talent and to spark innovation and creativity.
And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. The publicly traded 100 Best Companies To Work For in America consistently outperform major stock indices and have more qualified job applicants and higher productivity, according to the San Francisco-based Great Place to Work Institute. That may not always be obvious, however.
"People do work really, really hard here," Facebook spokesman Slater Tow said as an engineer glided past a row of second floor conference rooms on a skateboard. "They have to be passionate about what they do. If they're not, we would rather someone who is."
He points out the Jumbotron frame for outdoor movies, the Nacho Royale taqueria, a bank branch with tellers standing by, an artist in residence. Traditional benefits are part of the Silicon Valley packages as well. Facebook offers free train passes, a shuttle to work, a month of paid vacation, full health care and stock options.
Facebook staffers are welcome to stop by and play in Ben Barry's Analog Research Laboratory, a large, sunlit studio with laser cutters, woodworking tools, a letter press machine and silk screening supplies.
"I believe if people feel they can control their environment, that leads to a greater sense of ownership over the product," says Barry, who makes posters for the campus walls with mantras like "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" and "Move fast and break things."
About six miles north at Google's headquarters, workers on one of more than 1,000 Google-designed bikes rolled from one building to another. Others stepped into electric cars, available for free check outs if someone has an errand. In one office, two young engineers enjoyed a beer and shot pool.
Google doesn't want its Googlers to have to worry about distractions in their life.
Concerned about the kids? Childcare is on campus. Need to shop and cook? Have the family dine at Google. Dirty laundry piling up? Bring it in to the office. Bring Fido too, so he doesn't get lonely. There's a climbing wall, nap pods (lay down in the capsule, set the alarm, zzzzz), a bowling alley, multiple gyms, a variety of healthy cafes, mini kitchens, and classes on anything from American Sign Language to Public Speaking. In a shared, community garden, Googlers plant seeds, knowing that if they get too busy, a landscaper will pull their weeds.
The company has no policy requiring people to be at work. But officials say Googlers want to come in.
"We work hard to create the healthiest, happiest and most productive work environments possible that inspire collaboration and innovation," said spokeswoman Katelin Todhunter-Gerberg.
Wheeler says the mega-complexes being built today will be hard to staff 10 years from now, and that the next era will see smaller workplaces where employees are responsible for meeting achievements and objectives, and have flexibility about when they come in to their office.
"When you look at how some of these companies operate, they're in effect, sweat shops. ... They want 80, 90, 100 hours of work. In order to even make that tolerable, of course you have to offer haircuts and food and places to sleep or else people would have to go home," he said.
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Follow AP National Writer Martha Mendoza at http://www.twitter.com/mendozamartha
Vdio, a video streaming service created to complement the Rdio music service, is today making its first public, live appearance. The site -- offering not all-you-can consume subscriptions but pay-per-view films and TV shows, with an emphasis on new releases -- is opening for previews in the U.S. and UK, with $25/?20 gift certificates going out to people who are already subscribers to Rdio's premium Unlimited tier, or who subscribe in the next 60 days.
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Public release date: 2-Apr-2013
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