6 ms·

The saddest thing for me is just what an institution IBM has been for America over the years. Having gone to UC Santa Cruz, the Computer Engineering department

The saddest thing for me is just what an institution IBM has been for America over the years. Having gone to UC Santa Cruz, the Computer Engineering department was started by IBM alums (my advisor was Glen Langdon of Langdon and Rissanen / Arithmetic Coding fame. Other friends/faculty spent time working at IBM Almaden Research where several advances in storage technologies have been produced. These days, IBM is in decline. Friends/tech blogs/even sites like Cringely -- http://www.cringely.com/ http://www.cringely.com/ -- note how IBM is quickly trying to shed any semblance to it's old self in names of meeting investor expectations. IBM isn't the only legacy company in the same situation, we have seen this happen with HP as well as AT&T over the years. Microsoft Research, Google to a point, and Xerox Parc (after a period of decline) are stepping up for some long term/basic research. But, I wonder, will we every see the hey day of IBM Research, PARC, Bell Labs, etc. ever again?

tgflynn 15y ago
What about Watson ? IBM is still one of only very few companies doing truly interesting research.
- jmspring 15y ago
  I hope Watson survives, but based on what I've heard out of Almaden over the years, I'm skeptical.
  - tgflynn 15y ago
    Survives ? From what I hear it's already being applied to medicine.
    - PakG1 15y ago
      And banking. And insurance. The list will likely continue to grow.
- ilamont 15y ago
  IBM is still one of only very few companies doing truly interesting research. Can you qualify that? Almost every big technology company and thousands of small ones have teams of smart people conducting interesting research across many fields. Take a look at any issue of Wired or Technology Review (or the top links to HN on any given day) to see some examples.
  - tgflynn 15y ago
    I probably should have said "important" instead of "interesting". How many of those companies are doing research that can be compared to what came out of Bell Labs in the 60's and 70's - the transistor, the laser, ... ? IBM's work on advanced semiconductors and Watson certainly qualify. The later will probably be seen as one of the most important developments in the history of humanity and it wouldn't have been possible without the former.
    - yukyukyuk 15y ago
      Damn good point. With deep thought (chess program) and now with Watson, IBM is really pushing hard AI projects that can capture the public's attention. The amazing part is that this is being done by a PRIVATE CORPORATION and not the US federal government. This is like Lockheed Martin making and launching the space shuttle, and then putting satellites into orbit. Except that, of course, the capital cost is much smaller due to the fact that these days a million dollars now buys a very capable supercomputer.
    - adrianbye 15y ago
      its pretty hard to know what is important in the moment.
      - batista 15y ago
        Not really. Lots of people knew that the laser was important, that Xerox park stuff was important, that C/Unix was important, etc even at the time they were introduced.
- gsivil 15y ago
  Among the other achievements of IBM I would like to mention the 4 Nobel prizes(3 in Physics): http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/awards.shtml http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/awards.shtml
- eternalban 15y ago
  Don't forget Microsoft is also pushing the envelope. Their showcase says it all ... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/channelDetails.aspx?channelid=research https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/channelDetails.aspx...
  - ctkrohn 15y ago
    Check your link? That URL returns a server error.
    - eternalban 15y ago
      /drum-drum
javajosh 15y ago
Don't worry jmspring, Belphegor[1] may be slumbering, but he is alive and well. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor
jmsduran 15y ago
It appears that your view of IBM, and other tech companies in general, are skewed to some degree: > "These days, IBM is in decline. Friends/tech blogs/even sites like Cringely -- http://www.cringely.com/ http://www.cringely.com/ -- note how IBM is quickly trying to shed any semblance to it's old self in names of meeting investor expectations." I believe that is referred to as resource allocation/shifting. All corporations do this, not just IBM. It's not necessarily a bad thing nor good thing, it just is. > "But, I wonder, will we every see the hey day of IBM Research, PARC, Bell Labs, etc. ever again?" Simply browsing the technology/science sections on Google News will show what research companies like IBM, Google, etc. are involved in. Sure, Watson is the first thing people think of when they hear of IBM, but that's not their only endeavor. Just off the top of my head, last I read IBM was undergoing research in the areas of quantum computing and optimized processor fabrication techniques.
- jmspring 15y ago
  I'm not saying they still aren't doing research, but the level of research today is no where near what is was during their hey day. Furthermore, IBM, itself, is continuing to move away from the IBM of old and more towards being just a global services firm. Given its size, any change at IBM will not be immediate, but it has been more in decline than rising.
bretpiatt 15y ago
IBM does quite a bit of research, they just don't blog or tweet about it all the time. Example of just one of their labs, right in the Silicon Valley foothills: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/welcome.html http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/welcome.html

tgflynn 15y ago

What about Watson ? IBM is still one of only very few companies doing truly interesting research.

jmspring 15y ago
I hope Watson survives, but based on what I've heard out of Almaden over the years, I'm skeptical.
- tgflynn 15y ago
  Survives ? From what I hear it's already being applied to medicine.
  - PakG1 15y ago
    And banking. And insurance. The list will likely continue to grow.
ilamont 15y ago
IBM is still one of only very few companies doing truly interesting research. Can you qualify that? Almost every big technology company and thousands of small ones have teams of smart people conducting interesting research across many fields. Take a look at any issue of Wired or Technology Review (or the top links to HN on any given day) to see some examples.
- tgflynn 15y ago
  I probably should have said "important" instead of "interesting". How many of those companies are doing research that can be compared to what came out of Bell Labs in the 60's and 70's - the transistor, the laser, ... ? IBM's work on advanced semiconductors and Watson certainly qualify. The later will probably be seen as one of the most important developments in the history of humanity and it wouldn't have been possible without the former.
  - yukyukyuk 15y ago
    Damn good point. With deep thought (chess program) and now with Watson, IBM is really pushing hard AI projects that can capture the public's attention. The amazing part is that this is being done by a PRIVATE CORPORATION and not the US federal government. This is like Lockheed Martin making and launching the space shuttle, and then putting satellites into orbit. Except that, of course, the capital cost is much smaller due to the fact that these days a million dollars now buys a very capable supercomputer.
  - adrianbye 15y ago
    its pretty hard to know what is important in the moment.
    - batista 15y ago
      Not really. Lots of people knew that the laser was important, that Xerox park stuff was important, that C/Unix was important, etc even at the time they were introduced.
gsivil 15y ago
Among the other achievements of IBM I would like to mention the 4 Nobel prizes(3 in Physics): http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/awards.shtml http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/awards.shtml
eternalban 15y ago
Don't forget Microsoft is also pushing the envelope. Their showcase says it all ... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/channelDetails.aspx?channelid=research https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/showcase/channelDetails.aspx...
- ctkrohn 15y ago
  Check your link? That URL returns a server error.
  - eternalban 15y ago
    /drum-drum

javajosh 15y ago

Don't worry jmspring, Belphegor[1] may be slumbering, but he is alive and well. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor

jmsduran 15y ago

It appears that your view of IBM, and other tech companies in general, are skewed to some degree: > "These days, IBM is in decline. Friends/tech blogs/even sites like Cringely -- http://www.cringely.com/ http://www.cringely.com/ -- note how IBM is quickly trying to shed any semblance to it's old self in names of meeting investor expectations." I believe that is referred to as resource allocation/shifting. All corporations do this, not just IBM. It's not necessarily a bad thing nor good thing, it just is. > "But, I wonder, will we every see the hey day of IBM Research, PARC, Bell Labs, etc. ever again?" Simply browsing the technology/science sections on Google News will show what research companies like IBM, Google, etc. are involved in. Sure, Watson is the first thing people think of when they hear of IBM, but that's not their only endeavor. Just off the top of my head, last I read IBM was undergoing research in the areas of quantum computing and optimized processor fabrication techniques.

jmspring 15y ago
I'm not saying they still aren't doing research, but the level of research today is no where near what is was during their hey day. Furthermore, IBM, itself, is continuing to move away from the IBM of old and more towards being just a global services firm. Given its size, any change at IBM will not be immediate, but it has been more in decline than rising.

bretpiatt 15y ago

IBM does quite a bit of research, they just don't blog or tweet about it all the time. Example of just one of their labs, right in the Silicon Valley foothills: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/welcome.html http://www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/welcome.html