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UK Lab Responsible for VNC To Close

Posted by chrisd on from the we-have-the-way-in dept.

NexUK writes "Guardian Online has an article about the imminent closure of the UK based AT&T lab , the place that brought us VNC, the popular desktop remote control system. The article talks about a nice "Toys" budget where the employees could buy gadgets without prior authorization." AT&T Strikes again, I'm surprised they haven't bought PARC and closed it down too.

9 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. So what happens to VNC? by shaldannon · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think that's my biggest question. Luckily I've got a couple UNIX tarballs around, but that's just archival. Is development going to continue?

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  2. This is what breeds true innovation... by lw54 · · Score: 4, Informative
    In Hopper's lab there was a rule that anyone could buy anything on his own authority so long as it cost less than £1,000. If you wanted something more expensive, you had to get another signature, but that was usually a breeze.

    It was known colloquially as the 'toys budget' and it was, no doubt, sometimes used for frivolous purchases. But in the main it was not. And it meant that the lab's researchers always had the latest gizmos - and the freedom to take them apart and see how they worked.

    My first thoughts were how on earth could management implement and afford a policy like this. But in the end, I thought true innovation requires liberal policies such as these.

    The dotCOM era was full of excess, perhaps too much so, but this is proof that there are still companies out there striving to be the best.

    1. Re:This is what breeds true innovation... by afidel · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well when a Purchase Order costs ~$250 total to cut I can see why they would do this. Where I work most people have a Visa card that they can put small purchases, up to $5,000 on. This way the admin cost is greatly reduced and the employee can be more productive by getting what he needs when he needs it, not after 3 managers and a vp sign off plus it goes through finance.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  3. Re:what about omniORB?!?!?!?!?!? by balneary · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is from the omniORB mailing list:

    AT&T Laboratories Cambridge will close on 24 April. Some time before
    that, the majority of the www.uk.research.att.com web site, including
    the omniORB bits, will move to a new home at the LCE, part of
    Cambridge University. Links to omniORB's web pages will continue to
    work. The FTP site and the mailing lists will move too.

  4. I have a mirror of VNC up by Squeezer · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Linux and Windows Source and binaries plus docs

    http://free.house.cx/~adam/vnc

    --
    Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
  5. Olivetti was the creator. and its not dead anyway. by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Informative

    ATT only bought them and changed the source to reflect ownership. they *created* nothing.. barely even a bug fix since the buyout..

    Thats why groupls like tightVNC ( gpl ) or TridiaVNC ( commercial ) came about.. and will continue it far into the future..

    Its not going anywhere.. do some homework people.

    Still sad, though anyone could see it coming...

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    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  6. Re:Holy shit. . . . by Combuchan · · Score: 3, Informative

    AT&T just began a 5-1 stock reverse split. First time in its history and the first for a DOW component. That's something that soon-to-be-delisted dot-coms do. Not DOW components.

    You forget that stock value is just one barometer of measuring a company's strength. AT&T's stock is among the most widely held in America, with 3.545 BILLION shares outstanding as of 01 April 2002.

    According to this, AT&T employs 117,800 people, has massive properties (dialup, broadband, long distance ...) No dotgone ever had this magnitude. Plus the Gartner Group is wrong in their assessment of AT&T's future; they've been going under some restructuring in the past couple years and restructuring a company of AT&T's girth doesn't happen overnight.

    Lastly, you get delisted from the NASDAQ or NYSE if your stock hovers below $1.00 for a while. AT&T currently trades at $13.75.

    --
    "[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
  7. Re:TightVNC is Good Version by jelle · · Score: 2, Informative

    tridiavnc and its companion developers site , have integrated tight and jpg encoding in their version, plus added an acceptable windows installer.

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    --- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
  8. The future of VNC by The+VNC+Team · · Score: 2, Informative
    Sad but true, the AT&T lab in Cambridge is closing.

    Now for the good news - VNC lives on!

    First, the current version of VNC will continue to be available at the original web address, which will soon be re-hosted at Cambridge University where AT&T continues to sponsor research.

    Second, the creators of VNC are planning a venture to independently support and develop VNC as an ongoing open source project. You haven't heard much from us recently because we've been busy with other projects such as the Broadband Phone, but now that we have the opportunity :) we're back on the case.

    Watch the VNC website, the mailing list, or slashdot for an announcement "real soon"

    The VNC Team