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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.)

17 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. For anyone else wondering... by still_sick · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... what the Famous Penn and Teller trick was...

    http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:xJ536HFTXwIJ: cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/labscam.html+penn+t eller+arno&hl=en

    --
    ...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
    1. 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.
  3. "trickled slowly from Bell Labs"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:"trickled slowly from Bell Labs"? by Seraphim1982 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Were those things really invented by Bell Labs? I know Unix was devolped there, but I thought the transistor and laser were invented elsewhere.

      AFAIK:
      The transistor was invented by Julius Lilienfeld in the 1920's.
      The first (microwave) laser was built at Columbia University.
      The first optical laser was built at Hughes Research Laboratories.

    2. Re:"trickled slowly from Bell Labs"? by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Informative
      Lilenfeld had a schematic and a patent, but he didn't have a working prototype (he was ahead of his time and the technology prevented it).

      Bell Labs actually built a working one. Although it turned out to have a lot of uses outside telephony, Bell Labs provided the need for it and the R/D funding.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  4. 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.
  5. 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.

  6. A bit premature to compare to Bell? by dabacon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!)

    1. Re:A bit premature to compare to Bell? by ebuck · · Score: 5, Informative

      I agree.

      Google came up with the idea that popularity (in terms of links) makes a good algorithim to index the Internet, also they came up with the idea that you could serve such an index on a large cluster of cheap machines, instead of a few big expensive ones.

      All the other stuff they came up with afterwards wasn't very revolutionary. Web mail? Weather service? Statistic / Index pages? Educational indexes? Specific domain searches? Good services, but not revolutionary.

      Bell labs came up with a lot of theory. They created programming languages (B anyone?), operating systems (UNIX and Plan9), compilers, tools, and much, much more, like:

      # The first synchronous-sound motion pictures
      # Stereophonic sound
      # Speech synthesis
      # The cathode-ray tube
      # The radio altimeter
      # Radio astronomy
      # The laser
      # Solar cells
      # Coaxial cable
      # Radiotelescopes
      # Radar systems

      And that's not counting the nearly 25000 patents (most filed way before the great US patent give-away). They've made significant contributions to the fields of Physics, Mathematics, Communications, Computer Science, Astronomy, Aviation, Military Defense, and Power Generation, just to name a few.

      Google's got some good stuff, don't get me wrong, but they need to expand thier scope, double thier output, and hang around for another 80 years if they want to top the accolades Bell Labs has accquired.

      ---
      Yes, yes, we all know who invented the transistor.

    2. Re:A bit premature to compare to Bell? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Having also recently left Bell Labs it's safe to say at least Bell Labs is dead. You can tell when they close 70% of the bathrooms and shut off every other hallway of lights. All the smart people left, or are semi-retired, most of them before I even joined. It did so many great things in the past century but the executives have a very short memory and sadly ignore any new ideas originating from their own R&D, instead relying on "wall stree sources" or ambiguous "industry trends" which fly in the face of common sense to most of us.

      It's probably worthwile to use this latest defection to hold a belated funeral. Plan 9 is probably the last semi-useful project we'll see from that place. I'm also not real sure that Google is the future, so far they're short on product and long on ambiance. Research is fine but unless it's funded by academic sources you gotta have a product too. Ultimately that's what did Bell Labs in.

  7. Re:Academic research making a difference by toddbu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  8. How did he get a job at Google? by nxtr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did he get an invite?

  9. "Trickle" from Bell Labs? by birge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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

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

    Thank you,

    learn fast