Lauren WeinsteinI used to hang around the Bell Labs Murray Hill 1127 lab -- where UNIX originated -- sometimes when I was in the area. A fond memory is sitting at a terminal in there (probably a Blit) working on a program back on my L.A. system over the Net. I ran into a complicated C declaration issue. Sitting a few feet away at the next terminal was Dennis Ritchie (dmr) -- a wonderful guy. Well hell, since he created C, who better to ask about this. So I did, and he instantly offered me an elegant solution I would never have thought of. Years later, it occurred to me that this was the closest I'd ever be to getting advice directly from a god.
Jeff Zugale - Z Factory@lauren that’s so cool. My grandpa (elec engineer) used to work at Bell Labs until about 1970 or so.
@jeffzugale I spent time at three of the BTL facilities: Murray Hill (the most celebrated site), Whippany, and Holmdel (the Holmdel building made famous recently by the "Severance" TV series). You could feel the history at MH everywhere.
@lauren IIRC Grandpa was recruited straight out of MIT in the 20s and spent his entire work life there. In part I owe my existence to that. Crazy, right?
@jeffzugale That how Bell Labs worked in its heyday, and why it's effective destruction is such a loss to humanity.