IBM Research: 60 years

[anhinga_anhinga]

http://slashdot.org/articles/05/10/12/1214248.shtml?tid=136

(via fr_news)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_rowan_tree_/]

So you are thankful that they spend some of their money on research? I suppose. They do other useful things as well, such as sponsoring conferences and programming contests. Not bad overall, I guess.

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

> So you are thankful that they spend some of their money on research?

No, I am thankful for the amazing contributions made by IBM Research, and for the impact of the results they obtained on my life. If you follow the link you'll find you are using/were using a good chunk of their results in your everyday life.

I don't care all that much about "useful things" which any organization with money can perform, or about "moralistic aspect" of this (how an organization "ought" to spend its money) :-)

I mostly care about the magnitude and quality of impact. Which takes much more than just "spending money on research"...

P.S. Did you notice? :-)

http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/2005/index.html

[http://users.livejournal.com/_rowan_tree_/]

I am not sure if in the present day their impact continues to be so great. I have a feeling that their research is currently somewhat disconnected from their business. Which is not to say that it wasn't spectacular back in the day.

Did you notice? Go H.Pylori! :-))