AT&T Labs' Brain Drain 347
Frisky070802 writes "The Newark Star-Ledger has an article on the brain drain at AT&T Labs, which laid off close to half its researchers two years ago this month, another good fraction last spring, and has lost many of the rest through voluntary departures. The article claims that only Microsoft might have the money to fund basic research as Bell Labs did years ago, though many (including me) would put IBM in the same camp. It cites problems at AT&T, ranging from researchers paying their own way to present at conferences to a loss of free espresso and bottled water. Many luminaries, such as Lorrie Faith Cranor, Avi Rubin, and Bjarne Stroustrup, are quoted --- with Stroustrup saying the lab was "mugged" by Wall Street. (Rumor has it that the losses haven't stemmed, with more top-notch researchers going to academia in the coming months.)" (Non-registration ZIP and age demographic collection.)
Too bad they didn't mug... (Score:0, Funny)
2 words that shouldn't be together (Score:2, Funny)
Labs spokesman Michael Dickman called the downsized AT&T Labs...
Anybody else think that Dickman and downsized are two words that shouldn't be used anywhere near each other?
damn you! (Score:4, Funny)
I blame it on Carrot Top and his annoying 1-800-CALL-ATT commercials. Heartless bastard
Re:At&t labs, great contributer to computing. (Score:1, Funny)
It's too bad the department fell apart before their amazing new web-based spellchecking system was finished...
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad Really... (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, the invention of the transistor, the laser, UNIX and C hasn't helped me a whit either.
AT&T's Advanced Speech Recognition, c. 2004 (Score:2, Funny)
<cough...> dialing...
AT&T operator assistance... if you need a phone number, please press or say "one" now...
"One"
Thank You. What City?
<Hoarsley...> "Atlanta"
Thank You. What State?
"Georgia"
Thank You. Please hold for the number..
<Cough...>
Thank You. Goodbye!
Oh yeah... they're really making progress in natural language processing and speech recognition!Re:Researchers are Paying Their Own Way (Score:3, Funny)
Out of the budget for their lab, yes, but there is a big difference there.
Re:What do you expect? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ATT is not the only one (Score:5, Funny)
Our Civilization's Golden Age has ended. So say our analysts...
Man, those 20 turns went fast...
Re:Carly Fiorina at AT&T Labs? (Score:2, Funny)
>>I'm missing out on the connection to how Carly Fiorina had the authority to cut AT&T labs.
I'm not sure she technically had anything to do with the Labs but she was at AT&T before leaving to run Lucent into the ground. Her work at HP is just a continuation of her path of destruction. She is kind of a one-woman Sherman March of American engineering.
Lies, damned lies and statistics (Score:3, Funny)
I think they'll be surprised how many Slashdot readers live in zip code 10101 and are 101 years old.
Better joke (Score:4, Funny)
Speech to text is still being worked on