Google Hires Vint Cerf

hsuwh writes "Google has hired Internet pioneer Vint Cerf away from MCI as its "Chief Internet Evangelist". "He is one of the most important people alive today," said [Google CEO Eric] Schmidt, who has been friends with Cerf for more than 20 years. "Vint has put his heart and soul into making the Internet happen. I know he is going to jump right in here and start shoveling out new ideas for Google.""

Comments

Wikipedia link

[dividedsky319]

Vinton Cerf, father of the internet

Re:Wikipedia link

[justforaday]

Vint Cerf had sex with Al Gore?!? : o

Re:Wikipedia link

[Xarius]

Yes

Do they have a strategy behind this?

[winkydink]

Or are they merely collecting people and figuring out what to do with them later? From the outside looking in, it sure seems like the latter.

Re:Do they have a strategy behind this?

[richie2000]

I think they've taken Nokia's slogan and modified it a bit:

Google - Collecting people

Re:Do they have a strategy behind this?

[pjkundert]

Non-linear, pure "invention" doesn't occur on a fixed time table. You cannot plan for it. You can't assemble a team, give them a deadline and some money, and say "OK, go invent the next great thing for me.".

All you can do is try to assemable the greatest group(s) of already provably inventive poeple you can find, put them in a positive, stimulating environment, and incent them to come up with something great.

That is what Google is doing. That is exactly NOT what Microsoft, HP, et. al. are doing.

And no, they don't expect you to understand this.

Re:Do they have a strategy behind this?

[qwijibo]

Smart people with a track record of good ideas will generally produce more of them. Google just wants a chance to get the ideas before anyone else. There are such positions in many large companies because good ideas with profit potential will pay many times over for all the unprofitable ideas.

Re:Do they have a strategy behind this?

[Alomex]

It sure looks like they have a surplus of money and a shortage of ideas what to do with it. So heck, let's hire Turing Award medal winners just for kicks.

Successful jocks collect supermodels, successful nerds collect supergeeks, I guess.

snark

[ReformedExCon]

Boy, that Internet thing just isn't catching on. I guess we need someone to really spread the word about it!

Chief Internet Evangelist? Really?

a case of mistaken identity?

[ChipMonk]

Vint has put his heart and soul into making the Internet happen.

Are they sure they didn't hire Al Gore by mistake?

Re:a case of mistaken identity?

[Duncan3]

Even funnier since I've seen Vint himself correct the Al Gore thing in a talk saying that Gore does deserve credit for getting the early internet funding that it needed. Vint even presented him an award.

But yea, the joke is funnier then the truth by far ;)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

love or hate?

[jshaped]

I forget, do we love or hate google?

(are they becoming an unstoppable giant?)

Re:love or hate?

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple rules for Slashdot Slashbots:

We love Google. Always.

We love Apple. Always.

We love Linux past the point of sanity. There is nothing which couldn't be made better with Linux.

We love the FCC when they're regulating spectrum, except when they're actually selling a usage license. We hate the FCC if they're doing anything outside of that, like sneezing.

We hate Microsoft, always. If somebody in Redmond catches a cold,we gloat. If Microsoft releases a bug patch, it's an example of shoddy work (Whereas bug patches in open source are CLEARLY an example of high-quality work! No double standard there.).

We moderately dislike the Democrats, but since they're the party of opposition to Sat^H^H^Hthe Republicans, we champion them like they were Gods incarnate (Unless Libertarianism comes up, of course).

Novell is evil, except when they're doing stuff with Linux. Or against Microsoft.

IBM is totally awesome. Except where POWER chips and Linux aren't concerned, there they suck.

Anything but X86 is the best instruction set ever. Except for IA64, which was also made by Intel, so it sucks. X86-64, because it was made by AMD, rules however, and fixes all of the problems anybody has ever had with anything remotely close to X86.

Intel is always expensive crap. Except where the Pentium M comes into play. There they're just expensive.

AMD is always cheap and kickass. Except for the FX chips, which aren't cheap. And the Turion, which is just cheap.

NVidia is evil for not releasing open source drivers for Linux. NVidia is saintly for releasing solid support for Linux.

ATI is saintly for releasing open source drivers for Linux. ATI is evil for not releasing solid support for Linux.

Any mention of BSD is a troll, unless the story explicitly mentions BSD, because mentioning another Open Source Operating System draws glory from the wonder that is Linux.

And so forth and so on...

The world is not enough...

[hazee]

Obviously Google isn't content to simply dominate the internet on this planet, they want to dominate the interplanetary internet too.

Context sensitive ads for Mars rovers anyone?

The guy makes terrible puns

[keshto]

Look at the photo with the WaPo article (hint: look at the license plate).

Yeah, here's a Wikipedia link about that:

[Headcase88]

Kharma Whoring

I have a twisted sense of humour, I suppose.