It's not really a "mystery barge" anymore is it? That makes for a good headline, but it's been a couple months since Google revealed it's actual plans for it [1].

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/tech/innovation/google-barge-s...

Thank you for posting this, I honestly wasn't aware of this yet.

The story I heard about this barge not mentioned in this article or in the one in joel's comment: they're going to use it as an office space for employees who can't legally work in the US, either because of visa issues or something else. It makes sense Google wouldn't want this to be public information.

I think you're thinking of Blue Seed (https://blueseed.co/) which is a non-Google venture and off the Pacific Ocean outside US territory waters.

If the Barge is in the bay - it's still in US territory & they still need visas.

Also, that suggestion is pretty silly.

Indeed, there are Google offices in countries with much more ... liberal ... immigration policies. The only convenience a barge would offer is timezone issues, but who wants to live on a barge just to be in the same time zone as Mountain View? I'm guessing nobody.

There are other advantages. For example, American employees could visit them in person any day necessary, and then go home to SF or Mountain View, or alternate between the offices a couple days a week.

There would also likely be staggering tax benefits.

Hmm, that's true.

I worry about the logistics. What if there's some condition where the barge needs to be evacuated (storm, etc.). Since nobody has visas for the mainland, where would they go?

Also, let's say you have 1000 engineers living and working there; where are you going to get all that network bandwidth? Wireless?

Finally, families?

As usual, just follow the ST:TNG playbook.

Install four lights and try to convince people that there are five?

Okay, for reals this time:

> What if there's some condition where the barge needs to be evacuated

Whatever a cruise ship or airplane does.

> Also, let's say you have 1000 engineers living and working there; where are you going to get all that network bandwidth?

Undersea cable, attached to a buoy. Or yeah, wireless. Have a local copy of as much as possible to allow development with a minimum of ship-to-shore packet transmission.

> Finally, families?

They live there too. Just like Star Trek.

Why the fuck are they even referencing the shuttle protests in that article? What does that have to do with anything?

The Google barge is displacing thousands of cubic meters of water, some of which has been in the bay for decades.

"Ocean tides flow through the Golden Gate four times a day -- twice coming in and twice going out. The quantity of salt water in motion between high and low tides averages 390 billion gallons." or about 1.5 billion cubic meters per day.

Doesn't matter. The barges should be driving their cars to work.

You win. That was hilarious.

This is deeply hilarious.

Why is a minor zoning and permitting issue getting this much attention? It doesn't even have anything to do with Google per se, this is an issue between a few regulatory bodies.

I get that this pushes the narrative that SV/SF is 'fed up' with Google, but can we stop with the linkbait?

I predict these barges will end up being scrapped as a misbegotten folly. There are these venues called "exhibition halls." They work well enough.

>There are these venues called "exhibition halls." They work well enough.

Without the ability to prove that you can float the load, supply the power, deal with the legal entanglements, garner interest, weather the... weather, etc...

Screw your static non-visionary approach to testing.

If I want to test the idea of a barge based floating environ, the last thing I want to see it demo'd in is a warehouse.