4 ms·

Bell Labs, building 2, 5th floor: main occupants for each office over the years.

27 points by moon_of_moon 17y ago

mrduncan 17y ago
According to a Reddit comment, the name in red is the person who occupied the office the longest. Here is a (incomplete) list of background info: Jon Bentley - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bentley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bentley Brian Kernighan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan Rob Pike - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike Dennis Ritchie - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie Lorinda Cherry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorinda_Cherry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorinda_Cherry Stuart Feldman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Feldman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Feldman Alfred Aho - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Aho http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Aho Dave Ditzel - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta Dave Presotto - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vismon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vismon John Reppy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_(programming_language) (Unsure if this is the same person: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reppy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reppy) Andrew Koenig - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Koenig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Koenig Bjarne Stroustrup - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrup Ken Thompson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson Gerald Holzmann - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_J._Holzmann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_J._Holzmann Tom Cargill - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule Bart Locanthi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_N._Locanthi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_N._Locanthi Robert Morris - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer) (rtm's father)
jff 17y ago
The best part is the Unix room, which still exists. It's a great slice of history, and they still do active Plan 9 development there.
moon_of_moon 17y ago
Dr.Holzmann (who currently heads reliability group at JPL) notes: "from the 30-some people shown on this map, just a few remained to witness the final disappearance of center 1127 from the bell labs org charts in august 2005: rae mclellan, howard trickey (since moved to google) and dennis ritchie (now retired). one by one, the others all found a safe haven elsewhere."
tewks 17y ago
The demise of Bell Labs is saddening from both a physics and computer science perspective. It feels like all too often, large corporations like AT&T and GE, once huge innovation engines, have been dismantled due to greed and incompetence, with outstanding institutions like Bell Labs left by the wayside. Hopefully, Google et al will pick up the slack and foster these kinds of environments.
- hga 17y ago
  Hmmm, who's "greed and incompetence" forced the dismantling of AT&T? Could it be the Federal Government, which forced the 1984 consent agreement and the breakup, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that pushed the process all the further? Jerry Pournelle was fond of saying something to the effect of "We have the best telephone system in the world, but we can fix that."
  - wglb 17y ago
    It was aggressive business practices that squashed competition such as MCI and an attitude by the leaders of AT&T that felt the risk of antitrust action against them was an acceptable business risk. Information from the MCI case was shared with the antitrust effort and helped lead to their breakup.
    - hga 17y ago
      True (although I cringe at using the world "agressive" WRT to the old AT&T) ... but was a breakup, and one of that nature, the right solution? A problem here is that MCI's business directly attacked the heart of the AT&T business model, which had long distance subsidizing local telephone service. They had to viciously defend the former. The breakup's solution was the Federal Subscriber Line Charge.
      - wglb 17y ago
        With respect to "aggressive" their conduct in the face of Carterphone and MCI was to take no quarter: http://www.chtlj.org/sites/default/files/media/articles/v025/v025.i3.Johnson.pdf http://www.chtlj.org/sites/default/files/media/articles/v025...
j_baker 17y ago
I'm somewhat amused to find out that Bjarne Stroustrup and Ken Thompson worked next door to each other after reading the interview with Thompson in Coders at Work.
markbnine 17y ago
No mens room? That explains a lot.

27 points by moon_of_moon 17y ago

According to a Reddit comment, the name in red is the person who occupied the office the longest. Here is a (incomplete) list of background info: Jon Bentley - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bentley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Bentley Brian Kernighan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan Rob Pike - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike Dennis Ritchie - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie Lorinda Cherry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorinda_Cherry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorinda_Cherry Stuart Feldman - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Feldman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Feldman Alfred Aho - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Aho http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Aho Dave Ditzel - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmeta Dave Presotto - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vismon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vismon John Reppy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_(programming_language) (Unsure if this is the same person: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reppy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reppy) Andrew Koenig - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Koenig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Koenig Bjarne Stroustrup - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrup Ken Thompson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson Gerald Holzmann - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_J._Holzmann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_J._Holzmann Tom Cargill - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule Bart Locanthi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_N._Locanthi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_N._Locanthi Robert Morris - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(cryptographer) (rtm's father)

jff 17y ago

The best part is the Unix room, which still exists. It's a great slice of history, and they still do active Plan 9 development there.

moon_of_moon 17y ago

Dr.Holzmann (who currently heads reliability group at JPL) notes: "from the 30-some people shown on this map, just a few remained to witness the final disappearance of center 1127 from the bell labs org charts in august 2005: rae mclellan, howard trickey (since moved to google) and dennis ritchie (now retired). one by one, the others all found a safe haven elsewhere."

tewks 17y ago

The demise of Bell Labs is saddening from both a physics and computer science perspective. It feels like all too often, large corporations like AT&T and GE, once huge innovation engines, have been dismantled due to greed and incompetence, with outstanding institutions like Bell Labs left by the wayside. Hopefully, Google et al will pick up the slack and foster these kinds of environments.

hga 17y ago
Hmmm, who's "greed and incompetence" forced the dismantling of AT&T? Could it be the Federal Government, which forced the 1984 consent agreement and the breakup, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that pushed the process all the further? Jerry Pournelle was fond of saying something to the effect of "We have the best telephone system in the world, but we can fix that."
- wglb 17y ago
  It was aggressive business practices that squashed competition such as MCI and an attitude by the leaders of AT&T that felt the risk of antitrust action against them was an acceptable business risk. Information from the MCI case was shared with the antitrust effort and helped lead to their breakup.
  - hga 17y ago
    True (although I cringe at using the world "agressive" WRT to the old AT&T) ... but was a breakup, and one of that nature, the right solution? A problem here is that MCI's business directly attacked the heart of the AT&T business model, which had long distance subsidizing local telephone service. They had to viciously defend the former. The breakup's solution was the Federal Subscriber Line Charge.
    - wglb 17y ago
      With respect to "aggressive" their conduct in the face of Carterphone and MCI was to take no quarter: http://www.chtlj.org/sites/default/files/media/articles/v025/v025.i3.Johnson.pdf http://www.chtlj.org/sites/default/files/media/articles/v025...

j_baker 17y ago

I'm somewhat amused to find out that Bjarne Stroustrup and Ken Thompson worked next door to each other after reading the interview with Thompson in Coders at Work.

markbnine 17y ago

No mens room? That explains a lot.