4 ms·

For all the naysayers in this thread, I gotta say you’re wrong. Vint is a class act. Humble, helpful, and optimistic. Not to mention one of the most impactful c

For all the naysayers in this thread, I gotta say you’re wrong. Vint is a class act. Humble, helpful, and optimistic. Not to mention one of the most impactful computer scientists of our generation.

mark_l_watson 3mo ago
Exactly right. I have only had one long conversation with him, but he was friendly and very interesting.
everyone 3mo ago
[flagged]
- cyclopeanutopia 3mo ago
  Which ethics are you talking about?
  - 1vuio0pswjnm7 3mo ago
    I think it's a fair question It would be interesting to know what Cerf, Thompson, etc. saw in Google. Why was it more appealing than, for example, academia The ethics question might be something like: Is advertising really the highest and best use for a public computer network; does it justify using the network for data collection and mass surveillance
    - mghackerlady 3mo ago
      I think, in many ways, google is the only real successor to the research labs (Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, etc.) of the 20th century. If they had somewhere else to go, I don't doubt they'd go there
- sealeck 3mo ago
  There are few occupations in which a man can be more innocently employed than the pursuit of devising asynchronous network protocols?
ocdtrekkie 3mo ago
[flagged]
- tty456 3mo ago
  Has he really evangelized the evil practices that you are so concerned about? Or would you lump in anyone working at Google to not live up to your expectations?
  - ocdtrekkie 3mo ago
    I would say there's a huge difference between taking a paycheck from Google because you need it to feed your family, and specifically carving out a role in promoting Google's agenda for two decades. Even in this puff piece about him, he is quoted promoting the agentic era of the Internet. (In other news, I recently read about a city that tried to hide that a third of it's water supply was getting used by a Google datacenter. And what happened to all those carbon neutral pledges...) There's a big difference between working on a tobacco farm and being the spokesperson for Big Tobacco. He is the latter. I suspect history will someday remember him more for this than his work on TCP/IP.
    - protocolture 3mo ago
      > I recently read about a city that tried to hide that a third of it's water supply was getting used by a Google datacenter. I don't get why its suddenly fashionable to hate datacenters? Did a lot of people really think that their code was running in an actual cloud?
      - ocdtrekkie 3mo ago
        Well I try to avoid running things on the cloud myself, but bear in mind the example here: Every major datacenter operator has abandoned their carbon neutral pledge since the AI race began, and have claimed disclosure of the public about their water usage is a trade secret to hide the damage from the public. In many cases these datacenters have been built near threatened bodies of water, but they are getting priority access to freshwater before and above residents. The same often happens with electricity, where a significant demand is placed on local infrastructure and taxpayers bear the cost of needed upgrades to the system. The problem is that these are trillionaire companies because they are subsidized by dozens of taxes on ordinary people. Every transaction we make pays Google in one way or another. Every app we buy pays Google 30%. Every business we patronize is spending like 10% of their operating budget with Google. Our tax dollars are funding their datacenters. Why is it finally fashionable to hate datacenters? People are finally realizing the costs!

For all the naysayers in this thread, I gotta say you’re wrong. Vint is a class act. Humble, helpful, and optimistic. Not to mention one of the most impactful computer scientists of our generation.

mark_l_watson 3mo ago

Exactly right. I have only had one long conversation with him, but he was friendly and very interesting.

everyone 3mo ago

[flagged]

cyclopeanutopia 3mo ago
Which ethics are you talking about?
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 3mo ago
  I think it's a fair question It would be interesting to know what Cerf, Thompson, etc. saw in Google. Why was it more appealing than, for example, academia The ethics question might be something like: Is advertising really the highest and best use for a public computer network; does it justify using the network for data collection and mass surveillance
  - mghackerlady 3mo ago
    I think, in many ways, google is the only real successor to the research labs (Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, etc.) of the 20th century. If they had somewhere else to go, I don't doubt they'd go there
sealeck 3mo ago
There are few occupations in which a man can be more innocently employed than the pursuit of devising asynchronous network protocols?

ocdtrekkie 3mo ago

[flagged]

tty456 3mo ago
Has he really evangelized the evil practices that you are so concerned about? Or would you lump in anyone working at Google to not live up to your expectations?
- ocdtrekkie 3mo ago
  I would say there's a huge difference between taking a paycheck from Google because you need it to feed your family, and specifically carving out a role in promoting Google's agenda for two decades. Even in this puff piece about him, he is quoted promoting the agentic era of the Internet. (In other news, I recently read about a city that tried to hide that a third of it's water supply was getting used by a Google datacenter. And what happened to all those carbon neutral pledges...) There's a big difference between working on a tobacco farm and being the spokesperson for Big Tobacco. He is the latter. I suspect history will someday remember him more for this than his work on TCP/IP.
  - protocolture 3mo ago
    > I recently read about a city that tried to hide that a third of it's water supply was getting used by a Google datacenter. I don't get why its suddenly fashionable to hate datacenters? Did a lot of people really think that their code was running in an actual cloud?
    - ocdtrekkie 3mo ago
      Well I try to avoid running things on the cloud myself, but bear in mind the example here: Every major datacenter operator has abandoned their carbon neutral pledge since the AI race began, and have claimed disclosure of the public about their water usage is a trade secret to hide the damage from the public. In many cases these datacenters have been built near threatened bodies of water, but they are getting priority access to freshwater before and above residents. The same often happens with electricity, where a significant demand is placed on local infrastructure and taxpayers bear the cost of needed upgrades to the system. The problem is that these are trillionaire companies because they are subsidized by dozens of taxes on ordinary people. Every transaction we make pays Google in one way or another. Every app we buy pays Google 30%. Every business we patronize is spending like 10% of their operating budget with Google. Our tax dollars are funding their datacenters. Why is it finally fashionable to hate datacenters? People are finally realizing the costs!