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Rob Pike's Excellent Adventure

Posted by timothy on from the good-work-if-you-can-get-it dept.

Frisky070802 writes "The Newark Star-Ledger has an article about Rob Pike's move from Bell Labs to Google. The article has some interesting points, such as how Pike took a "huge pay cut" to go there just to work on cool things. And in a nostalgia trip for those others of us who've walked the halls of Bell Labs, the article compares earlier days at Bell Labs to the heady days at Google (Claude Shannon on a unicycle, and the famous Penn & Teller trick on Arno Penzias, then the head of Bell Labs research). Most of all are the differences in real-world impact: 'But products trickled slowly, if ever, from [Bell Labs]. They blast from Google at hyperspeed.'" (Painless demographic-only jump-through screen to read it.)

11 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Captain Pike! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    How does the guy interact with other workers if he only has a single light to communicate with?

  2. New Google product coming? by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

    VOIP GooglePhone? They could combine it with their search engine and social networking. I can't wait to try that I'm Feeling Lucky button on my dialing screen, woohoo!

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    1. Re:New Google product coming? by Omnieiunium · · Score: 4, Funny

      And in the middle of the phone call, in a smaller voice, you will hear ads about what you are talking about.

    2. Re:New Google product coming? by jcuervo · · Score: 5, Funny
      Heh, that'd be some interesting phonesex.
      Male: I'm taking off my pants.
      Google: Mens' pants. Sale on Docker's. www.pants.com
      Female: Ooooh, I'm touching myself.
      Google: UNIX manpages - touch(1)
      Male: I bring out the goats.
      Google: Everything you ever wanted to know about herpes.
      Still better than Clippy.

      I see you're having sex. Would you like me to:
      ( ) Videotape it
      ( ) Watch
      ( ) Hold the bucket of cheez-whiz
      --
      Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
  3. Love Rob Pike by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 4, Funny

    With him over at Google, it will be pretty cool to see the Google system ported onto Plan9.

  4. Re:For anyone else wondering... by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny
    [..] in order to create a coherent video.

    Darn! Bell Labs invented a method of producing coherent light, but the secret of producing coherent videos hasn't escaped to the outside world yet.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  5. How did he get a job at Google? by nxtr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did he get an invite?

  6. Timothy, be clear man! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What kind of geek-speak is this. What are you saying in your post? Speak English man. And if the reason of using this kind of language is that you think that otherwise it is not 'cool' or interesting - then just don't post it.

  7. Re:All I can think about is Apple right now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You idiot! This is a Google thread! Some smart rich guy has joined Google! There he will tweak software! Rejoice!

    There's just no room for your depression here on this fantastic day, son.

  8. Wow by asciiRider · · Score: 3, Funny

    So every time I read an article about how great google is, it is usally about how the greatest minds in computer science are mostly having lunch and working on 'personal' projects .....

    No wonder they come up with such mind boggling products like: Email, News, News Groups, Online Shopping.

  9. Dear Slashdot by learn+fast · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please stop making me feel bad for not working at Google.

    Thank you,

    learn fast