Me and AP

 

There are several incidents and stories I tell folks, and as I get more "over the hill and gaining speed" think that I should write these down.

This one is about my time working at the Associated Press (AP). This was my job after leaving PaineWebber.

I alluded to working at PaineWebber in Exectutive Email server.

When I worked there in the 1990's, PaineWebber had just bought out Kidder, Peabody & Co. But in then in 2000, It was bought out, or rather "merged "into UBS.

For a while, the merged company was known as UBS PaineWebber. But in 2003, misters Paine and Webber dropped out of the picture, and that 123-year old name was retired.

PaineWebber treated people like pencils. Use them until they wear out, and then throw it out and get another. It was clear that this was happening to my manager's manager. This was just a little happening just before PaineWebber itself was about to be merged.

Through a and wiser younger colleague at PaineWebber, I got a job at the Associated Press at Rockefeller Center. 50 Rockefeller Plaza, next to "30 Rock" of TV fame, is called the Associated Press Building.

When I entered to go to my office every morning there was an entire bull-pen of reporters busily clicking away at the upgraded version of the typewriter, a computer keyboard for a desktop computer.

Even though AP had a full building in Rockerfeller Center, at that time, AP had fully occupied that buiding. Since the group I was working in a new business for AP (online news), we were in the International Building on 5th Avenue. This is known for its statue of Atlas carrying the cosmos on his back:

In a short while, I became the lead of the systems administration and databases group (of about 3 people). I occupied the corner office on the 6th floor that you can only partially see the lower left-hand corner of in the above photo. When I turned my head to the right, I could commiserate with Atlas.

 But this corner office had two windows! Here is a photo that shows that better:

If you go to the back of the statue, you will find a small drain hole for rain runoff that collects along the statue. At the right time and view, it looks like Atlas had peed there. The second fun fact is that there is a terrace on the top of the entrance way, which is accessible from the 6th floor by a simple door. And on the roof of our office was a terrace.

On a nice summer day, someone had a barbecue up there, and the barbecue smoke was billowing over down into the statue areas where people were congregating. Must have been kind of weird for the tourists there.

As I said, In front of me was Saint Patricks Cathedral:

Notice that the windows manually open!  Every year during the Saint Patricks Day parade, AP photographers would open the window and shoot the parade from that spot.

The last time I visited that spot, it was a fitness gym!

The other interesting thing about AP was its satellite dish. It was nestled in the building for AP's computer data center, exit 8A Cranbury off of I-95 and the NJ Turnpike. 

Taking a virtual drive using Google Street View I see the building but it no longer belongs to AP.

This was the largest satellite dish I've ever seen. From the roadway you wouldn't notice anything. But if you were to fly from above, you'd see this 2 story sattelite dish. I was told that they wanted this close to NYC, but not too close. And that the U.S. Government in times of emergeny could take over the satellite feed.

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