Facebook opens hardware lab in a sign of broader ambitions

Facebook built its fortune on the internet, that non-physical space where people share updates and digital videos with friends. But deep inside its Silicon Valley headquarters, Facebook engineers have stocked a new lab with computerized lathes, industrial mills and tools for making physical goods. Model maker Spencer Burns, looks over a globe under construction inside a 5 axis vertical milling machine during a tour of Area 404, the hardware R&D lab, at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. Facebook engineers have stocked a new lab with computerized lathes, industrial mills and tools for making physical goods. The lab is dubbed Area 404, an inside joke playing off the'error 404' message that internet users see when they try to visit a web page that can't be found.