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.)

Comments

damn you!

[segment]

I blame it on Carrot Top and his annoying 1-800-CALL-ATT commercials. Heartless bastard

Re:At&t labs, great contributer to computing.

[jcr]

But doesn't C++ just about make it a wash?

-jcr

Re:What do you expect?

[andy1307]

It's ironic considering the amount of money MS made from DOS and Windows...and they didn't invent a thing.

Re:ATT is not the only one

[Dun Malg]

It looks more and more like the days of research for the sake of in and itself are slowly coming to an end.

Our Civilization's Golden Age has ended. So say our analysts...

Man, those 20 turns went fast...

Better joke

[Zork the Almighty]

"1. Text to speach."

Speech to text is still being worked on ;)