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Rob Pike's Excellent Adventure
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.)
How does the guy interact with other workers if he only has a single light to communicate with?
... what the Famous Penn and Teller trick was...
: cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/labscam.html+penn+t eller+arno&hl=en
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:xJ536HFTXwIJ
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
Perhaps, but then again, weren't they responsible for a few minor things such as ... the Transistor? The Laser? Unix? Arguably 3 of the most important inventions of the past 100 years?
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.
With him over at Google, it will be pretty cool to see the Google system ported onto Plan9.
"...products blast from google..."
uh, where? i can't think of one tangible product google has ever produced...
bell labs on the other hand... oh lets see... how about... THE TRANSISTOR
Isn't it a bit premature to compare Google to Bell labs? I mean here are some things that happened at Bell labs: the invention of the transistor, the discovery the cosmic background radiation, a major role in the invention of the laser, the discovery of the mathematical theory of communication, the invention of the solar cell, etc. etc. While I love Google, I don't think they've quite lived up to Bell labs legacy quite yet (but here's hoping they decide to spend billions on fundamental research!)
Oh Big Brother that is!
If Google is to become what it seems to be morphing into we may well be staring at the next Microsoft.
Remember Microsoft had similar early days, chaotic work environment, great brains, a management that hired more great brains....
And...guys....they now have Rob Pike on the team. C'mon, concede already! Google has style.
The question is...why not just go with the already existing Microsoft? Do we need another giant? I guess we do.
Broken Hearts are for Assholes. - Frank Zappa
Hmm, are you suggesting that the next big advance is going to come from academia? Or are you suggesting that it's the younger generation that will give us the next big push? You shouldn't necessarily tie the two together. There are a lot of really bright young kids coming out of our colleges these days, but I'm not sure how much the schools themselves are doing to advance their education. Ever look at a current version of a computer science text? Not much that's interesting there, other than the $200+ price tag. I'd like to think that in many situations these students are doing well in spite of the lack of support that they're getting from their educational institutions.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
You killed Bell Labs.
Did he get an invite?
'But products trickled slowly, if ever, from [Bell Labs]. They blast from Google at hyperspeed.'" (Painless demographic-only jump-through screen to read it.)
Well, I guess:
1) ISDN
2) ATM
3) SONET
4) SS7 with respect to use external links to control messaging (aka out of band-signaling)
Well, that is to name a few. Don't forget, Lucent is former bell labs and at one point they were putting out 2 patents a day. Not that I support pattens, but their is a lot of technology that comes out of the labs.
5) Something called UNIX.
Bell Labs has produced some incredibly important things: The femtosecond laser, which is one of the most important tools of chemistry and physics today. The radio telescope. Modern communications theory. A lot of basic electrical engineering theory from microwaves. I'm missing a ton of stuff, obviously, but you catch my drift.
I suppose it's a little harder to come out with stuff once a week when what you're doing is a little more significant and deep than pretty scrolling maps. Comparing Google to the old Bell Labs is ridiculous, and suggesting that "PageRank" somehow compares to the scientific breakthroughs that occurred at Bell Labs is an insult to the people that worked there. I love Google, but it's not particle physics.
Let's wait to see how many Nobel prizes come out of Google labs.
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.
Strange things are afoot at the circle K.
I have to say that reading about Bell Labs' heyday was part of what inspired me to go to grad school and get into research. Do you know that the transistor was invented at Bell Labs? How many corporate research labs outside of IBM would still sponsor that kind of work? The transistor didn't see success for a good 10-15 years. A company like HP would've under Carly Fiorina would've killed the project. The next best thing I can think of is Xerox PARC, but look what happened to them.
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.
Very well said.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I guess my disbelief of the parent article made me forget to click on the back button. Sorry. Anyway, like I said, Bell Labs is cool.
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.
Please stop making me feel bad for not working at Google.
Thank you,
learn fast
The article has some interesting points, such as how Pike took a "huge pay cut" to go there just to work on cool things.
If this is true then he is a wuss. There is no reason why Google could not have matched his salary at Bell labs.
I don't think I've seen anything new in computer science in about 20 years and that was only from older books. About all that has changed is the programs are slightly better but I rarely see a problem that can just now be solved by computers that couldn't be solved 20 years ago.
I don't know that much detail about his work history, however, it seemed that he and Bill Cheswick had been at AT&T / Lucent / Bell Labs forever, working away on information security. I noticed he recently left, as had Bill, which, after staying with an organisation for 15 or more years, usually means something significant is happening.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
and he may have also received stock options, which can technically not be called "salary", as they may, although unlikely in Google's case, end up worthless (like my Worldcom Options).
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
did you miss the part about him being hired PRE IPO.?
In any case, that little gesture of him taking lesser salary, probably got him a few tens of thousands more options at the cool price of $0.99... So guess who is the "wuss" now.
HEH
What Bell Labs DID invent was the first Silicon Transistor. This was revolutionary. But to give them the credit for the first Transistor is to dismiss a lot of research which went on before this, as well as to show a general ignorance on the history of Electronics.
It would be similar to all of us forgetting the invention of the Silicon Transistor, when Electron Transistors replace them.
For example, the first Field Effect Transistor (FET) was patented by Dr. Julius Lilienfeld of Germany in 1926. Lilienfeld had other patents, such as patent 1,900,018.
But the bottom line is that transistors were well-known long before 1948; it would be utterly silly to think that a lot of new concepts simply sprouted out of nowhere. It is far more accurate to say that Bell Labs took the old concepts and pushed the envelope, by applying them to a new area.
And it's certainly silly to say that Bell Labs invented the transistor. Please, it's the silicon transistor that they invented.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
But this is true of any invention; Bell Labs no more "invented" the transistor than Thomas Edison "invented" the light bulb or James Watt "invented" the steam engine. Sure, they made huge contributions--and deserve all credit for that--but they did so by standing on the shoulders of generations of other great scientists and engineers.
It is a characteristic of human nature that we insist on simple answers to complicated questions, on convenient labels for complex entities.
I am in total awe over Google's unicycling, bean-baggy, non-conformist-business-cardy coolness. Everyone at Google has so much fun all day! Not like employees at ordinary companies. Those are boooring! It makes me want to be a cool web hacker! Hmm? What, it's not 1997?? Oops, my bad...
The comparison isn't so much about the specific value of what Google's done in a couple of years vs. Bell Labs over many decades. The real comparison is that Google today and Bell Labs back in the day were Really Really Cool Places to Work. I was there from ~1978-1993 (not in Research, but I got to deal with the research folks on occasion), and there was an exciting culture of doing really amazing technical stuff. We were also The Phone Company, so there was also a culture of doing really dull gold-plated 40-year-depreciation-cycle engineering and the planning and accounting it takes to support them, so sometimes it was a bit slow moving (:-) but overall it was Really Cool. There were other places that also had that feel - some universities, some parts of some aircraft companies, probably Xerox Parc during its better years, and you'll find that a lot of the really good people from the remains of Bell Labs and/or AT&T Labs are now professors at universities near New Jersey.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Hey, the Bell System monopoly was perfectly legal - they'd done lots of work telling politicians that Regulated Monopolies would be a really good thing for the public, and the politicians got to hire lots of bureaucrats to regulate them, which politicians also liked. Some of the tradeoffs were valuable - gouging businesses and urban home phone services made it possible to reach most rural areas and provide affordable lifeline service for poor people. Some of them were clearly bad - the combination of telephone monopoly and FCC-granted broadcasting monopolies delayed the development of effective radio-based telephony by probably 40 years, and kept costs higher than they should be. On the other hand, it was better than the European-style government-run Post Office, Telegraphy, Telephony monopolies which took even longer to get rid ot.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I agree with you. Sadly, we are focusing in how can we do the things we have been doing "better" and not how to do "new" things.
Maybe only medical reserach is trying to get new medications for new diseases (e.g cancer, alzheimer, etc), alhtough the mainstream of research is focused on 'better' cures for the currently 'curable' diseases...
I mean, that is not completely bad but, we have been focusing in the 'comercial' and proffitable point of view of things... and that is sad because no body will want to fund new and outstanding research.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Systems don't have to be paid-for to constitute "products", is my understanding of it. So you've got:
...and so on, all falling into the pretty wide term of "product".
GMail
Google Maps
Local Search
Google Suggest
All the "labs" stuff, which is many projects in itself.
Hello
Blogger
Toolbar
Desktop Search
Groups (and Groups 2)
Don't forget Picasa, which is mucho cool.
Or check what's there today:
http://www.google.com/downloads/
Good point. I knew I'd never be able to get them all, that's what the "...and so on" was about :)
When I worked there, they had so many competing products... I lost track of the alphabet soup project names.
A lot of their brilliant stuff is behind scenes and purposefully secret. It can't compare to Bell Labs, but then the Internet is a vast, international group brain, and we're not sure how important it is itself. Google provides search, and that's really the core function of our "shared memory", the Internet. Plenty of people can/will provide search, and Google is 'just an advertising' company at it's core. But it's one of three major providers of the most important online service, and there's every reason to believe it will become more important and essential.
It seems strange to hear that Rob Pike, a real original thinker who basically re-invented unix with plan9 (at least the network/gui side), is now doing "fine tuning" at google. I hope they have him work on some secret project where he will be able to put his imagination at work because 'fine tuning' doesn't sound so exciting...
At a high programming level all computing software advances rely on the solving of problems found in mathematics rather than that of typical electronics. Math has certainly advanced in the last 20 years.
Right now i'm sat here trying to make sense of a paper published in just 2004 so I can apply mathematical transformations similar to what it describes into a program i'm writing.
I'm not bad at math but I'm sat here staring at the babble before me (and Slashdot - another source of babble) and can't help thinking the next big leap in computing will be due to a similar leap in the quality of communication between two peoples brains.
I asked Henry about your ridiculous accusation, and he responded, and I quote with his explicit permission:
Let's wait to see how many Nobel prizes come out of Google labs.
...
I agree with you, broadly speaking. But I'm sipping a glass of good red wine, I'm feeling expansive, let's conduct a thought experiment.
If Google Labs were to win a Nobel, it would be
* Economics: the new digital economy;
* Peace: "Do No Evil" put into practice.
As to the remaining categories -- Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature -- I don't see anything coming from Google.
-kgj
-kgj