News You Can Bruise for 2004 January 6

Permalink [Comments] (1) Tue Jan 06 2004 14:56 Great Moments In Voicemail System Design:

"For service to an existing building, press 1."

What should have come next:

For service to a building that has yet to be built, press 2. For service to a demolished building press 3. For service to a hypothetical building, or to the concept of buildings in general, press 4.

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Comments:

Posted by Riana at Tue Jan 06 2004 18:55

Google is in the process of moving to a new campus, but for the next few days I'll still be here in the old building, so this anecdote still holds: I'm in building e. Next door is building pi. Nearby are buildings 0 and 1. The naming scheme comes from the equation e^(pi*i) + 1 = 0.

"But," you cry in consternation, "there are five numerical elements in that equation, and you've only named four buildings!"

That's because the missing one is the imaginary building.

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