Recently, our color printer has been acting up. The first time we heard it, on Monday, many of us thought it was a clever cell phone ring. The more we heard it the more it sounded like a UFO flying over that side of the office. Poor Jess sits right next to the printer, and I swear, she's been abducted at least a dozen times a day.

Hear it for yourself!

Thanks to Michael Young for sound engineering this clip.

As you know, BzzAgent recently finished a financing round in which we received a good hunk of cheese. That means it's time to spend! Bring on the Aeron chairs, the fountains of Dom, and the company mixers in Cabo. They wouldn't have given us the coin if they didn't think we could spend it wisely and spend it fast. Think Brewster's Millions in the corporate world.

Just kidding.

The companies that invested in us did so because we're good at what we do - and because they know we spend wisely and wouldn't loosen the purse strings. So, what may change via our spending? Well here's a little story:

Every time the sales staff closes a contract, they ring a boxing bell from one of our first campaigns. This tradition started at the old office when there were about 10 employees.

Recently, one of our directors suggested a giant gong would more exuberantly announce a sale above a certain size. So the gong would get rung when a homerun deal happened. DB agreed. (Full disclosure, this request was made well in advance of the VC money and wasn't really an example of corporate largess).

My POV: the bell should not be replaced. There hasn't been any complaining about our bell. No one thinks it's too quiet. No one has trouble hearing it, except for those in the cave, and if we cared about them, we wouldn't have put them in the cave in the first place. The bell is fine. As sales dude Scott F said, "I like ringing it. I wish I could ring it more often." Scott F, I wish you could ring it more often, too.

I conducted an unscientific poll in the Hive and everyone I asked either preferred the traditional aspect of the bell over the gong or had no preference either way. One cave dweller wisely suggested moving the bell to a more central office location, which we'll certainly do when we move into an office in which we all fit. In order for this to be solved once and for all, we'll be sending a poll around the office in the next couple days so that employees can voice their opinion and hopefully sway the powers that be.

I talked to DB about the gong vs. bell argument recently and he frustratingly told me (as he has in the past), "you don't get it." There are many things I don't get in the Bzz world, DB, but this time I think it's you who doesn't get it.