Jwz's Tent of Doom at Netscape in 1995 | Hacker News Reader

Jwz's Tent of Doom at Netscape in 1995

jwz.org

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Pretty cool free documentary titled Code Rush that films Netscape engineers during the Mozilla source code release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u404SLJj7ig

Wait.

Netscape was at 650 Castro?

Mozilla is at 650 Castro now.

Freaky.

Nice! I love little glimpses like this to hacking and the web and the culture around it all in the 90's.

I used to read this during finals, when not sleeping enough and needing some motivation: http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/nscpdorm.html

Finals are in full swing again, time to re-read it.

This line has haunted me for years: "It's hard for someone to hold it against you when you miss a meeting because you've been at work so long that you've passed out from exhaustion."

I had the same setup once; mostly because the $#!# $#!$# light above the desk was too bright, but I totally credit jwz with the idea having read about it in... '95 or so?

I got the camo net from an army-navy store, and went in on a weekend to set it up. 1 other guy was in working, and as I rolled it out, he and I agreed it just smelled too bad to be able to work. Had to take it home, set it out on my lawn (this was the summer, in Georgia) and let it "bake" the stench out for a day or so. Couple days later it was fine, and I cherished my dark hidey-hole for a year or 2 afterwords.

Internal light source was a lava lamp (red wax, clear liquid).

Good times.

I remember reading about JWZ when I was 15 in the mid 90s. He was a hero of mine: when I grew up, I wanted to work at Netscape.

It worries me he runs a nightclub now:

if your idols want to leave the industry, what does it say about the industry?

Given how much trouble he has had running a nightclub, for years and years, I don't think he picked that for any reason other than it being what he really wanted to do.

These are exactly the kinds of antics I want out of a coworker. So far, nobody has lived up to this expectation.

You'd best start the trend, then.

I used to work in a shared space that was once a dance studio - high ceiling, polished timber boards, etc. A freelance copywriter who was in the mix used to have a cheap white gazebo around/over his desk space.

It was novel but tacky so I set to cutting a couple of gazebo threads each day with a scalpel to hasten its demise. He never noticed and ended up moving out before the thing collapsed.

So, uh, you destroyed someone else's property just because you didn't like it? I hope I never need to work in the same office as you, then.

It was a $20 tent, much despised by others in the office. The person in question thought it was hilarious when I later told him about the scalpel treatment and stays in touch 5+ years on even though he's 20 years older and works in a different field. He was just that sort of larrikin who appreciated that sometimes a scheme trumps an easily replaceable product. We frequently collaborated on other mischief around the office.

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