It is certainly true that IBM does still pursue pure research (I work there, at Watson Labs), but Google does as well: all researchers there are encouraged to spend 10% (I think that is the number) of their time working on research of their choice. I believe that Rob Pike mentioned doing astrophysics work of some sort (correct me if I'm wrong--though I am sure it is unnecessary to say that in this forum!). It is hard to imagine what short-term benefit Google will gain from that.
Slashdot Mirror
See: http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/12/borg-is-getting-desperate-on-vista.html. Made me laugh, at least....
My power company, Niagara Mohawk, swapped out my electric meter a while back so that they could read it as the truck travels down the street as well.
It is certainly true that IBM does still pursue pure research (I work there, at Watson Labs), but Google does as well: all researchers there are encouraged to spend 10% (I think that is the number) of their time working on research of their choice. I believe that Rob Pike mentioned doing astrophysics work of some sort (correct me if I'm wrong--though I am sure it is unnecessary to say that in this forum!). It is hard to imagine what short-term benefit Google will gain from that.