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Unwinding Cisco's Not-So-Simple Beginnings

Posted by timothy on from the al-gore-had-nothing-to-do-with-it dept.

saridder writes: "There's a saying that behind every fortune is a crime, and as we have learned with Apple, Microsoft, and others, Cisco is no different. The SJ Mercury has an article outlining and debunking the myth of Cisco's founding."

4 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Spin-offs and the big payoff by imrdkl · · Score: 3, Troll
    From the article: Cisco experience has done unseen damage to Stanford in the form of creating inhibitions against sharing ideas, information and developments with possible commercial value [...]

    MIT seems to have excelled the best at making "spin-off" projects. I suppose they probably feel they've been burned by some of their startups, too. The same with NCSA.. heh.

    When Standford lost their cherry in this game, they should have laid down again and found new partners.

    I dont know the status of Stanfords holdings today, but rejecting as a matter of policy founder shares in Cisco was just plain bad for business. Seems they could have been giving away alot more free education today, and that would have been the best payoff imaginable.

  2. Cheap Shot by czardonic · · Score: 0, Troll

    Lerner also acknowledges the many contributors, saying in an e-mail to the Mercury News, "The only person I'm certain had nothing to do with it is Al Gore."

    --
    Takahashi Rumiko made beats! DON, taku, DON, taku. . .
  3. cisco is dead anyway... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Troll

    This is a nice story, but the good old cisco that made products that actually worked is LONG gone. Since about 1998, cisco has turned into Cisco, and is more interested in selling new products that need at LEAST 6 more months development before they should be sold, or alltogether vaproware (eg. IP phones). Cisco's favorite line regarding IP phones could be translated to read "Well, we know pretty much every PBX system made since the 70s can do that now, and we gurantee we'll get that working eventually, so just go ahead and buy it now and we'll get it done for you." What they fail to mention is that in 6-12 months when the product you have actually works, you have to pay for it all over again. Any fellow cisco guys able to back me up on this? Remember the Cat2900XL (WS-C2924-XL) vs. Cat2900XL (WS-C2924XL-A or -EN), or how about anyone who is unfortunate enough to have a Cat6000 MSM card they're using? (They don't do about half of what a Layer-3 engine should do, and Cisco won't give you two cents credit towards the MSFC which actually works). Anyone remember the 2500/4500 days when it never even occurred to you that there was a hardware or software problem? Compare that to now, when it's common knowledge that when Cisco releases ANYTHING new, be it router hardware, or IOS releases, don't even bother thinking about it for 6-12 months until it actually works. I'm ranting and raving here, I know..but as someone who has worked with cisco products for quite a few years (and has a CCIE nonetheless, thank you) I can tell you that the REAL cisco died long ago, when John Chambers capitalized the "c" and turned cisco into yet another soulless "sell it now, make it work later" company. Perhaps we could get the original gang together to build stuff that works again??

  4. Makes you wonder... by Rob+Kaper · · Score: 0, Troll

    Makes you wonder what _really_ happened in Finland ten years ago, doesn't it? :-)