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AT&T Labs' Brain Drain
Frisky070802 writes "The Newark Star-Ledger has an article on the brain drain at AT&T Labs, which laid off close to half its researchers two years ago this month, another good fraction last spring, and has lost many of the rest through voluntary departures. The article claims that only Microsoft might have the money to fund basic research as Bell Labs did years ago, though many (including me) would put IBM in the same camp. It cites problems at AT&T, ranging from researchers paying their own way to present at conferences to a loss of free espresso and bottled water. Many luminaries, such as Lorrie Faith Cranor, Avi Rubin, and Bjarne Stroustrup, are quoted --- with Stroustrup saying the lab was "mugged" by Wall Street. (Rumor has it that the losses haven't stemmed, with more top-notch researchers going to academia in the coming months.)" (Non-registration ZIP and age demographic collection.)
Stroustrup made C++. Stroustrup should be shot.
Labs spokesman Michael Dickman called the downsized AT&T Labs...
Anybody else think that Dickman and downsized are two words that shouldn't be used anywhere near each other?
I blame it on Carrot Top and his annoying 1-800-CALL-ATT commercials. Heartless bastard
MoFscker
"Text to speach"
It's too bad the department fell apart before their amazing new web-based spellchecking system was finished...
But doesn't C++ just about make it a wash?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
it surely hasn't given a great deal to me
Yeah, the invention of the transistor, the laser, UNIX and C hasn't helped me a whit either.
<cough...> dialing...
AT&T operator assistance... if you need a phone number, please press or say "one" now...
"One"
Thank You. What City?
<Hoarsley...> "Atlanta"
Thank You. What State?
"Georgia"
Thank You. Please hold for the number..
<Cough...>
Thank You. Goodbye!
Oh yeah... they're really making progress in natural language processing and speech recognition!Well it's pretty unusual for researcher to pay for conference registration fees out of their own salaries.
Out of the budget for their lab, yes, but there is a big difference there.
It's ironic considering the amount of money MS made from DOS and Windows...and they didn't invent a thing.
Our Civilization's Golden Age has ended. So say our analysts...
Man, those 20 turns went fast...
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
>>I'm missing out on the connection to how Carly Fiorina had the authority to cut AT&T labs.
I'm not sure she technically had anything to do with the Labs but she was at AT&T before leaving to run Lucent into the ground. Her work at HP is just a continuation of her path of destruction. She is kind of a one-woman Sherman March of American engineering.
Leave the gun, take the cannolis.
I think they'll be surprised how many Slashdot readers live in zip code 10101 and are 101 years old.
"1. Text to speach."
;)
Speech to text is still being worked on
In Soviet America the banks rob you!