Tag Archives: Silicon Valley

New and Unusual Ways to Show the World You’ve Made It

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Some people like yachts, others like watches. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and a luxury sports car can compensate for a lot. But what if you’ve got the money, but you are also looking to assert your unique, individual, crazy rich self? Here are a few bizarre ways you can flaunt your success.

A 1960 Michigan, USA, license plate. Courtesy
Absecon 49


Out in Silicon Valley the high-techies have taken to adopting chickens, which they keep as pets in their backyards. There’s a rumor that some even come in the house, with diapers on, of course, and are fed gourmet chicken feed. Go figure.


We know it can get bone-chilling cold in Chicago, so we do expect the outerwear to be high-quality, warm, and water-proof, too. Lucky for those with a few extra thousand dollars laying around, it is possible to purchase a $1,000 Canada Goose parka and keep your buns warm while telling the world you are ready for a vacation at the North Pole.


In Washington DC it seems it is trendy to wait on lines, most notably to visit overpriced restaurants and bars that serve boutique cocktails.


Americans are quite fond of their vanity license plates, but in New England this fad has been taken to a whole new level. Massachusetts is the first state in the USA to issue license plates for cars, back in 1903, with, of all things, Number 1. As you might imagine, low numbered plates are quite the rarity, and if its dear, the filthy rich will pay for the privilege of driving around with a low numbered plate. It has been estimated that some people will pay upwards of $100,000 for a low-numbered plate, and the much-desired plates are being passed down to the generations to come.


In Texas the filthy rich are going for luxury pick-up trucks, while in New York City big families have become a trend. And what could be pricier than several tuitions for private school?

The Talent War in Silicon Valley

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The battle between Internet giants Google and Facebook has been heating up in recent weeks.  The social networking titan Facebook recently announced plans to upgrade their users’ email to a full-fledged Web-based email system, a change that could impact significantly on the Google’s popular Gmail system. With the rise in popularity of social networking – Facebook has acquired 500 million members since it was launched in 2004 – the question in the industry now is whether Google, for its part, will try to create a social network to directly compete with their Facebook rival.

“We’re not working on a social network platform that’s just going to be another social network platform,” Google’s head of mobile product development, Hugo Barra, insisted at last week’s Monaco Media Forum. Despite the protests to the contrary, however, the questions abound.

Meanwhile, the rivalry has gone beyond the corporation’s programs and into their offices, as Google now faces a threat from Facebook for its employees’ talents. Recently, several high-level Google “techies” have moved over to Facebook, attracted by the opportunity to work at a smaller company and to receive stock options.  Google engineer Lars Rasmussen, one of the creators of Google Maps, was the latest switch-over, joining current Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook head of mobile Erick Tseng and Facebook vice president of advertising and global operations David Fischer.

In an attempt to stem the tide of top people “jumping ship” to their fiercest competitor, Google apparently plans to initiate a 10% salary increase for all employees, as well as to give a $1,000 holiday bonus to each one.