PARC and SRI in the news? what is this, 1993? am I going to see a DECWRL announcement next?
My UUCP mail spool just caught up. I missed the sales at BEST and Service Merchandize, and dammit, I had coupons to redeem.
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
71–80 of 122 posts
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#72As a software engineer since the 1980s, of course I know (Xerox) PARC. But am I the only one for whom SRI does not ring any bells? I'm confident Wikipedia can tell me more, but if they don't tell in their press release I would claim they might overestimate their "brand".
Have you heard of Doug Engelbart and his Mother of All Demos ? That was at SRI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
Yes. Yes I have.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
SRI is Stanford Research Institute, which was established by the trustees of Stanford University in 1946 [0] [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRI_International
But, just as with IBM and NCR, “SRI” is now just a 3-letter non-acronym, that officially doesn’t stand for anything.
I once worked for Digital Switch Corporation, which was well known as DSC. Sometime in the 80s or early 90s they changed their name to DSC Communication Corporation, or DSCCC. If you expanded it all out, you got "Digital Switch Corporation Communication Corporation," the corporation so corporate, they named it twice.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
But, just as with IBM and NCR, “SRI” is now just a 3-letter non-acronym, that officially doesn’t stand for anything.
Another example: What used to be called the Stanford Linear Accelerator is now officially just "SLAC" (as the university holds trademark for "Stanford" and didn't want to share with the US Department of Energy)
In the old days we used to call community colleges "Junior Colleges." The first time I came out to the valley I noticed a university there called "Leland Stanford Junior University" and assumed it must be a Junior College associated with Stanford University.
So yes, they need all the help they can get with naming things.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
But, just as with IBM and NCR, “SRI” is now just a 3-letter non-acronym, that officially doesn’t stand for anything.
Shame...National Cash Register had so much character. Like the similarly depreciated American Telephone & Telegraph.
I'm reminded how anyone with industrial capacity during war2 was pressed into service making weapons. If you look hard enough, you can find M1 Carbines with IBM and NPR (National Post Register) head-stamps.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't know the acronym SRI, then you probably aren't likely their target customer :) The S used to stand for Stanford. Just like RAND or Battelle or a half dozen others, it's nominally a non-profit organization that manages huge R&D projects, employs thousands of scientists and engineers, and manages government research facilities.
Not personally, you have a point :) I have used Ethernet since 1985ish without being PARC's customer either. I have used a mouse since 1987ish. If you had asked me before reading up on the topic minutes ago where the mouse was developed I would have probably answered PARC, too, and not Stanford and absolutely not SRI. Not sure how the former managed to build to build a "brand" for stuff they haven't even accomplished…
Technically it was at the ARC (Augmentation Research Center), but the ARC was at SRI.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#77For something of its size and influence very few people have heard of SRI, but it comes up frequently in 'noided online discussions about the overlap between Silicon Valley and military/intelligence. A lot of the things that PARC was credited with creating in the first place were really dreamed up at SRI, so it makes a certain sense for them to be merging: https://squamuglia.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/67/#more-67 https…
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Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what Wikipedia tells. I had no clue where it came from. Of course it's not unheard of the big companies like Apple buy their best ideas from elsewhere.
> I had no clue where it came from. Siri started life running on Android and iOS. They took it down when Apple bought the company two months after launching. So if you blinked you might have missed it =)
I think the android bits and some of the staff formed Kuato after Apple bought Siri. I interviewed for a gig there back in the day, but I landed at Linden Lab instead.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#79Remember that SRI is a patent troll. They are non-practicing entity. They don't build the things they "invent". They instead write patents then extort the people who do build things. I say this from personal experience. I created many inventions in "intrusion detection", spent years in data centers making theory work in practice. SRI sued me using vaguely worded patents. It's a harsh accusation, but objectively true.…
"non-practicing entity" usually means some company that's only formed to sue people, and has no other business. After it's collected the money, it goes out of business, so there are no assets to recover from them. Often their "office" is just a PO box in East Texas.
SRI is a real research entity. I know someone who worked there, and he's not a lawyer. That doesn't make them any more admirable, of course.
Re: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to join SRI International
#80As a software engineer since the 1980s, of course I know (Xerox) PARC. But am I the only one for whom SRI does not ring any bells? I'm confident Wikipedia can tell me more, but if they don't tell in their press release I would claim they might overestimate their "brand".
SRI is where Doug Engelbart worked developed the mouse and windowing interface (among other things) and put together the "Mother of all Demos". SRI where the original ARPANET NIC was, and had various important roles in the development of the net. I really don't think they overestimated their brand, they just talk to their likely customers. (I worked at PARC, never at SRI, but I had many friends from SRI, and there wa…
- Mouse, of course
- Magnetic check ink
- ERMA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Recording_Machine,_...
More importantly: Stanford, SRI, and the high signal of connected people in Palo Alto created lots of inventions and companies. Sports metaphor: when they're on the team, the team scores more indirectly by their presence. Palo Alto-Stanford has been a modern "Venice" in terms of center of business-meets-academic since about 1940. Boston owns it in academia in sheer numbers of campuses and of reputation, but not when it comes to tightening the iteration loops of making money.