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Birthplace of Silicon Valley in Shambles

Posted by samzenpus on from the preserving-the-past dept.

CowTipperGore writes "Founded by William Shockley in the mid-50s, Shockley Semiconductor Lab is generally credited with starting the Silicon Valley boom. When he was unable to lure his former Bell Labs coworkers to join him, he filled his ranks with the best and brightest engineering school grads, including Gordon Moore and others who later went on to form Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. The building at 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California, is the original site of the company but, unlike the HP Garage, this building has received little protection or preservation. It recently housed a fruit stand, where visitors could find a small display about Shockley above baskets of fruit. The fruit stand is now closed, leaving the future of the building in the air."

8 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Opening bid... by beckerist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do I hear 100$?

  2. Day workers by willie_nelsons_pigta · · Score: 1, Funny

    Do they have people standing out in front of the place with signs saying "Will code HTML for food".

    Otherwise, the situation may not be as dire as presented.

  3. Nooooooo! by Dr.+Photo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not the fruit stand! Please say the fruit is ok!!

  4. Re:Wow it's tiny. by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Funny

    NOW it makes sense that the best microelectronics comes out of Japan...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Re:I Liked That Fruit Stand by fizzup · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's it! I propose the Wisconsin 100-point scale for measuring the oddness of foreign fruit: the percentage of people from Wisconsin who have seen the fruit three or fewer times.

    Due to the expense of polling, we will only ever know Wisconsin numbers for very few fruits, and those will be known only to very low accuracy. Many of them will really only be wild guesses. For example, did you know that the kumquat is a 62 on the Wisconsin scale?

  6. Nostalgia by sakusha · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

  7. Evil Lair by GammaKitsune · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Shockley" sounds to me like some kind of super villain name. Like he should be called Dr. Shockley, and have energy-based powers derived from an accident while working as a scientist at the power company. Or something. This coupled with charges of racism and paranoia makes it even better.

    I say we save his Lab, and "restore" it so that it takes the shape of his head. Put a deathray in there, and have tours. I'd go see it.

    --
    Gamertag: WyleType
  8. Re:Apple Joke by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Funny

    The building where PCs were born, now only stocks Apples.