grr trains = train. I need more coffee. -Jeff
On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 11:45 AM, Jeff Steward <[email protected]> wrote: > I once visited the AT&T Bell Labs in NJ to repair one of our lasers and > trains a couple of researchers on some repairs they could do on their own. > The lab I got to see was similar to what you saw in Real Genius except > instead of a high energy laser it was a ring laser used to generate > femtosecond laser pulses, and our laser was one of many in the ring. > > As awesome as the place was in the late 80's, they were pretty bummed out > about the whole breakup and reduction in money for research. You could have > fit our entire company building inside their cafeteria space. The two guys > I worked with were essentially being paid to do their PhD thesis - I so > wanted to be them :) > > -Jeff > > On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 9:10 PM, Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Perhaps Alcatel-Lucent isn't pure evil after all. They've published >> the archives of the Bell System Technical Journal from 1922 to 1983 >> online, freely accessible. >> >> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/ >> >> Bell Labs practically invented much of our recently civilization >> (communications theory, transistor, laser, microchip, Unix, the list >> goes on). The public switched telephone network, before the Internet >> came along, was probably the most complicated system in human >> existence. They documented a lot of it in these journals. Making >> them available like this is a huge boon to technology historians. >> >> Some choice pickings: >> >> "A mathematical theory of communication" (1948) >> This defined the field of information theory -- telecom, DSP, >> encryption, compression, etc., all work in this space >> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1948/BSTJ.1948.2703.html >> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1948/BSTJ.1948.2704.html >> >> "In-Band Single-Frequency Signaling" (1954) >> This was the paper that enabled the infamous "blue boxes" >> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1954/BSTJ.1954.3306.html >> >> "Number One Electronic Switching System" (1964) >> The first stored-program telephone switch, a technological marvel of its >> day >> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1964/BSTJ.1964.4305.html >> >> "The Unix-Time Sharing System" (1978) >> The original paper describing the Unix OS >> http://bstj.bell-labs.com/oldfiles/year.1978/BSTJ.1978.5706-2.html >> >> -- Ben >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> --- >> To manage subscriptions click here: >> http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ >> or send an email to [email protected] >> with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin >> > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
