Although it was a giant telecom, Mike couldn't have imagined how huge "AQ&V" actually was. What seemed like miles of occupied cubicles stretched from wall to wall in labyrinthine passages. Weaving their way through aisles of well-dressed employees silently typing on their computers, Mi...

Habits, good or bad, are easy to gain but hard to break. Often, the way one learns to do something is the way they keep doing it, sometimes never questioning if there is a better approach. One of Lance K.'s colleagues had one habit that was well-intentioned – thoroughly commenting his code &nd...

Hitchcock River had gotten so badly polluted that going for a dip in it would get you one of two things: superpowers or some kind of nasty flesh-eating bacterial infection. And as awesome as it'd be to have X-Ray vision, it was just not worth the risk. Decades ago, Ed B. was working for an underfund...

"All right, Jory, we're gonna start you off simple here, kid!" Jory B.'s boss was a large man with forearms like hairy hams, and he spoke in a gruff, deep, and loud voice. "Yer gonna learn about The Aggregator by adding a simple feature. I want it to be sendin' emails whenever someone...

Before Curtis even got to sit down at his desk, he was accosted by a frenzied, sweating junior developer. "OhmygodCurtis," he began. Curtis extended his hand in a "calm the hell down" gesture and allowed him to continue. "A whole bunch of our stores had no data posted last n...

You'd think that buying things online eliminates the human element of shopping in a retail store. And you'd almost be right. Nolan heard about one of his company's "problem customers" from a friend of his in the customer service department. This customer was satisfied exactly as often as h...

Jim B. stared wistfully in the mirror at the wrinkles near his eyes and the few stray gray hairs that he’d accumulated over the last six months. On the way back to his desk, he stopped by his friend Mike's desk. “Point three six,” he said as he banged his head against Mike's cubicl...

Ray's life was out of control, but not in a bad way – it was just that everything was happening all at the same time. His wife was in her eighth month of pregnancy, so they were back and forth at Lamaze classes, babyproofing, and converting the spare bedroom into a nursery. Not to mention that...

Sebastian sat near a window, enjoying a hot dog in the warmth of the sun. The day was going wonderfully so far – he was the first to get to the newspaper that was left in the break room daily (and usually gutted by noon), he'd found a quarter face up near his desk, and his hot dog was particul...

"Why won't this stupid thing just... just... graagh!" The salesman clutched the edges of his massive keyboard tightly, his knucles white. While he looked angry, he wasn't actually angry; rather he was frustrated approaching angry. The year was 1984, and the PC was finally moving out of the...