Category Archives: Austin

05/23/19

Hot Tech Times in Austin By God Texas

Austin. When you hear that word, you want to be here. You want Barton Springs, the music scene, the Texas Longhorns, the food scene, the local beers, breakfast tacos, and you want the high tech scene.

Here it is. Barton Springs, at 68F, is natural air conditioning on the hottest day in Austin.

Main Barton Spring (“Parthhena, the “mother spring”) — the 4th largest spring in Texas — and its sisters generate more than 32MM cubic feet per day of Edwards Aquifer water. Highest flow rate ever recorded was 85MM CFS during the infamous 1991 floods. In times of drought, the flow rate may be lower. All water from the Edwards is rain water.

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While Barton Springs is cold and refreshing, while the Austin tech scene is hot and exciting. The following chart is the work of crunchbase news and its Austin author, Mary Ann Azevedo. She writes about Austin and lives in Austin.

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12/13/18

Apple — Deep in the Heart of Austin By God Texas

Big Red Car feeling cheeky with announcement that Apple has decided to go long on Austin By God Texas by building a new corporate campus to cost more than $1,000,000,000 and create more than 15,000 jobs.

Of course, they did this in the shadow of the Amazon pig fest. Bravo, Apple.

Apple, which has been in Austin for more than a quarter of a century, and Austin have had a “starter” relationship with their first campus which employs 6,200 Austinites. This was already their largest operation outside Cupertino (a fact I am quite skeptical about).

The campus will be built on a 133 acre site, employing 5,000 out of the chute followed by 10,000 more making Apple Austin’s largest private employer.  All power will be “renewable.” You knew that would be the way they rolled, right?

Functionally, the Austin campus will focus on research and development, finance, sales, and customer service. They also make the MacBook Air in Austin.

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Apple had announced a plan to build $30,000,000,000 of new facilities and to create 20,000 US jobs by 2023, so the Austin project is a huge part of their national efforts.

Much of this new US development was driven by recent US Tax Code changes which made it more difficult for companies like Apple to hide profits overseas thereby bringing business back to the US. [This is how those jobs are going to come home, y’all.]

Apple employs 90,000 workers in the US and is beginning to make more of its products in the US and stationing headquarters elements here also. The company added 6,000 jobs in the US in 2018.

Welcome, again, Apple, and let’s get to work.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Be good to yourself. Merry Christmas.

09/20/18

Austin By God Texas for the Win

When you live in Austin, Texas it is impossible to be humble. I will not pretend.

Austin was named as the #1 city where Americans are flocking because of plentiful jobs, rising salaries, and booming business.

If you have been out and about, this is no surprise. [They are all driving with reckless abandon on MoPac starting every afternoon at 2:30 PM.] If not, read about it here.

Austin By God Texas CNBC

There is another lesson to the story.

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02/12/18

Austin + Walmart = Magic

Walmart opens an engineering subsite in Austin? Walmart? Huh?

Big Red Car here on a nippy 33F morning headed to 55F, but 75F on Thursday say the weather fairies.

So, Austin continues to prosper as a home of high tech, in general, and software development, in particular.

A recent addition to the tech scene is a Walmart software engineering hub which will focus on AI, ML, blockchain, and IOT to serve the company’s operations (Global Business Services Division) around the world specifically including finance, governance, human relations, employee training, and manufacturing.

New Walmart engineering hub in Austin By God Texas. That’s Sam Walton’s famous pickup truck getting ready to drive into Austin’s iconic Barton Springs. What would Sam say about Walmart today? [Pic credit: Austin American Statesman]

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03/28/17

Lobster Roll v Lobster Sandwich

Big Red Car here thinking about lobster and counting down the hours until Saturday when the Final Four will tangle and the Carolina Tarheels will emerge triumphant and be headed to the Big Game. Hook ’em Heels!

So, The Boss likes lobster. There is a lot of lobster in the ATX even though we don’t have a seacoast.

You can find him enjoying lobster from time to time at one of his favorite places: Barton Creek Country Club (the little deck behind the golf pro shop, shhh, a big secret), Perla’s (just the power of money over seafood), Red Lobster (largest buyer of fresh lobster on the planet and the cheese biscuits?), or Garbo’s in north Austin.

Ooops, forgot Clarkes. How did that happen?

Lobster club

This is the lobster club sandwich at Barton Creek Country Club served on the little back deck behind the golf clubhouse. It is a secret place to go after church on Sundays. [Do NOT tell anyone.]

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