Modern Urbanists alive and well

With all the misery associated with the dotcom slump it's heartening to know that some operations still manage to hold on to the modern urbanist lifestyles so richly associated with Internet companies.

Take London-based yeahlab.com - it's not enough that it tells us it's a "mobile media enabler, developing technology, tools and techniques that bring peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution and multimedia messaging to wireless devices and networks."

Oh, no, it insists on telling visitors about what it's like to work there.

For instance, we discover that Kenny is usually the first to arrive at the office having first flown through London on his motorbike although he usually skips on to a meeting with a "record label or a digital partner" by the time the rest of his co-workers drift in.

Then there's Alex - you can always spot him because he has a bottle of Evian mineral water on his desk and is obsessed with scribbling things on a whiteboard.

Thérèse has "long red hair, is passionate about intellectual property law and does belly-dancing to relax (at home)."

And senior designer, Maria, "hasn't had her own hair colour since she was 13." Oh, and she wishes she was a hacker.

Plus, there are headphones scattered around the office if people want to listen to music and "there is always breakfast at the office, as well as bagels and fruit" and the kitchen has "fresh coffee and a selection of herbal teas".

Which is great, as long as you don't take offence at Thor who is "in discussions with a technical partner outside on the stairs, while having a smoke between the palm trees." We kid you not. ®

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Yeahlab.com - a day in the life