[ale] inventing the future: university vs corp

[SLane at weather.com]

there's been quite a bit of debate about past contributions of Bell Labs vs. UC
& MIT but what about PARC (Xerox)?

in the present tense I'd make a case for IBM:  they're doing work on quantum
computing (which could render RSA as useless as the enigma), quantum
cryptography (which would replace it), carbon nanotubes, super high density
magnetic storage, just to name a few...

on the whole I think they both play important roles but like it or not, if there
weren't corporations there wouldn't be demand for hardware, software and most
importantly SKILL (re:  us).  w/o corps being a CS major would come with the
career prospects (&compensation) of those like sociology or women's studies.  I
love playing with computers (&OSS) and would do it as a hobby even if it weren't
my job but I also recognize that knowing Oracle (& running it for big co.) makes
my house payment and funds my "toy" habit...

65/35 corp/univ

gentlemen, start your flamethrowers...



                                                                                                                   
                    Cade Thacker                                                                                   
                    <linux at cade.o        To:     <ale at ale.org>                                                     
                    rg>                  cc:                                                                       
                                         Subject:     [ale] inventing the future: university vs corp               
                    04/03/2002                                                                                     
                    10:41 AM                                                                                       
                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                   




Hello,

I was involved in an interesting conversation the other day with a fellow
geek friend, and the question came up of who was really shaping the
future of computing, Universities or Corporations. There are so many
levels to the question that it is not even funny, (hardware vs software,
low-level(kernel) vs high level(TurboTax), etc), and also Open Source is
obviously having a strong a(e)ffect(can never remember which to use ;).
But we were more concentration on true career choices. Open source is
great, but hacking on jboss does not put food on the table, although the
skills you learn may lead to a better job. (but that is a whole different
discussion).

So here is the question: In terms of a career which feeds your family, but
also challenges the mind, who is shaping the future, University Research
or Corporations?

cade was here


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