- lANGUAGE SHORT STORY
Ein Sonnenstrahl zwischen Bits und Bytes: Unsere neue Shortstory aus der Arbeitswelt
erzählt vom kurzen Ausflug eines Computerfreaks ins reale leben. Von JAMES SCHOflELDO
n the 28th floor of The ~. Gus Ashbrooke
looked over London as Ihe rising sun turned his office
red and gold. Symbols. numbers and letters danced in
front of his eyes, and trom time to time. he benlover his ~
b2ird 10 ~ them on his computer. Gus was the ~
graphics programmer for the "Amazonian Princess" project
al Cosima Computer Games.
"He's the ubergeek." !he projec! leader lold his team
when Gus was hired. "He was programming games ~ in
the 1980s, before most of you were born. Disney wanted
hirn to work for them in California, but he didn't want 10
leave London - and he hates f lying. So, he's creating the
main characters in our new game. Make him feel welcome."
The team !ried, but it wasn'! easy, and they didn't really
know where to start. Mosl programmers like to talk shop,
hoping 10 impress each other with Iheir skills. Bul Gus
lalked as fittle as possible 10 anybody. excepl Lol.78 BusinessSpotlight
A Wog trom Ihe jnstanl-messagjng 1001 on his computer
slopped Gus looking out of his window:Q: Why do insects like Microsoft?
A: Microsoft calls Ihem "features" inslead of ".b..u&i".
lol!Her real name was Julie. but she sent so many messages
and emails ending with "101" that it became her njckname.
laughing out loud was also samething that she dld a lot.
With her bright clothes. clear skin and lang hair, she seemed
to co me from a distant pl anet - particularly when com-
pared 10 the other programmers at Cosima.
And, tor some reason, she liked Gus. At first. she only
lalked about programming er senf hirn jokes. 8ul one day,
she had 100 many sandwiches, so they sat in the square be-
low The Gherkin and shared them. Once a week after that.4/2010