After all this serious talk about the future of automation systems, I thought I would lighten the load with a little humor.
This was another take-away from my trip to Google that I did not mention in my more formal report. It’s a picture from the restroom stall at Google. Now, I work at a state institution where we consider a toilet paper holder still attached to the wall quite a luxury. But this blows away (ahem) all the talk of free food, ping-pong, and jeans at work.
Like most Google user interfaces, the options are simple and intuitive, even if the results are somewhat shocking.
What does it say about us when the toilets of a search-engine giant are even more high-tech than some of libraries’ search-and-retrieval technology?
[This post originally appeared as part of American Libraries’ Hectic Pace Blog and is archived here.]
The seats were heated as well. End of comment.
Could you explain the different features of this? At first, I thought it was a joke, or just a poster. But it sounds like it’s for real…or am I just gullible?
Oscillating = “I’m Feeling Lucky”?
Not sure I want to know.
Not a joke! These bidet functions are fairly common in Europe & Asia. Unnerving at first, but once you get used it, makes a lot of sense.
I had no idea that Google Employees have such clean asses.
It’s a bidet. Very common in more civilized parts of the world.
I wrote:
What does it say about us when the toilets of a search-engine giant are even more high-tech than some of libraries’ search-and-retrieval technology?
Now I write:
What does it say about blogs (or my blog?) that the one about a toilet now has more comments than 90% of my other entries?
I live in Europe; have been for 36 years; did a bit of traveling around the continent. Never seen the like of this. Would love to, though… Julie, if you have a good address where I can try this… thing, I’d be delighted to report back. Unless Andrew can give us his own, authoritative evaluation of the product.