adventures in business

Ken Hamidi, fired by Intel, sent email to thousands of its employees about policies he called abusive. Intel sued for "trespass to chattel"--unauthorized use of Intel's property, specifically its corporate network. Five years and two pro-Intel decisions later, the California Supreme Court sided with Hamidi. "Despite broad support for the decision, there are those who believe this is a dangerous legal decision, one that will open the floodgates to spam, erode employers' powers and give unions free rein to woo members by e-mail." I just quoted that for the implication that the floodgates to spam aren't yet open.

Urban 7-Elevens. "'It's dashboard dining for the pedestrian, quite honestly,' said Steve Hall, vice president for real estate and development. 'In the urban environment we could probably have a store, literally, on every block.'"

The people who shop for all that stuff that litters the walls of Applebee's, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, etc. A Chili's man myself, I hadn't realized that Applebee's makes an effort to acquire local memorabilia for each store. "Long before a restaurant opens, local leaders, schools, fire and police departments are contacted for old photos, sweaters and anything else that represents 'Hometown Heroes.'"

Jeffrey B. Swartz, Timberland, and community service. There are many reasons to be suspicious of stories about civic-minded executives, but this is a good story.

Oh, and from the Arts & Leisure section, a piece on the Whitney Museum's "witty survey of art about the United States".

As a Soviet-born immigrant, I found myself caught in a happy dichotomy throughout the exhibition. I was prancing around a museum on Madison Avenue, the Holy See of the advertising industry, surrounded by work explicitly critical of America's consumerism and the power that accrues to its unmatched economy. As a child I had worshiped American technology, practically making love to my father's Chevrolet Malibu Classic, and finding myself upon entering an American kitchen oddly turned on by the mysterious word Osterizer. Now, in the belly of the beast, I was equally delighted to stare at incontrovertible proof that the stuff of my childhood dreams has earned worldwide resentment.

(no subject)

Here's a hack for logging referrers to pages on sites where you can't access the logs--like, LiveJournal. The default implementation lists referrers on the linked-to pages themselves, but it could probably be adapted to log quietly.