Hacker News Reader

Comment by meggar | Hacker News Reader

So there's silicon alley in NY, silicon prairie in the midwest, silicon forest in portland, what do we call Jersey?

If you wanted to confuse the hell out of people, you could call it "Silicon Garden", after the state's nickname, the Garden State.

Of course, it's only really confusing if your only touch points in the state are I-95 and US-1. A small handful of miles either direction off the Northeast Corridor, and the state earns its nickname.

I grew up in South Jersey and I agree that it does earn that nickname! But so many people only see New Jersey as a place to pass through and so they don't see it.

Silicon Turnpike?

disclaimer: I live in NJ and commute to NY, yes - to work for a big financial concern. Lo and behold, I was just informed that my company is moving a ton of staff to a new Jersey "campus." They have likened the new facility to google or Facebook (although, knowing stuffy finance, I have my doubts ;)

How long is your commute?

Current commute into Manhattan is about 2 hours one way door-to-door (car/train/walk from Penn station). The commute once the move to NJ is complete will be 15 minutes!

Silicon Shore? of I recall what people were saying a few years ago..

I grew up not far away from Bell Labs, very close to the Jersey Shore. Growing up, I remember friends' parents who worked in telecom refer to our area as Silicon Shore.

Don't forget Silicon Slopes in Utah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Slopes

Silicon armpit

The area carved out by Routes 78, 24 and 287 was once called the research triangle of NJ

Back in the late 1990s during the telecom boom, the gov came out to the Holmdel Bell Labs bldg to proclaim the area be called "Photon Valley". The name didn't quite stick.

Transistorland (for one Bell Labs invention)?

UNIX shore (for another)?

Claude and Harry's neighborhood (for Shannon and Nyquist)?

The trouble is, the state's name now is Christie's Fiefdom, and that has to fade away.

Telecom Alley, given that much of the tech jobs at the time were through Bell Labs and affiliates

Or we could just call it uninhabitable.

The highway between DC and New York.

> what do we call Jersey

Silicon Disco Fries

wasn't it called Route 128 ?

Route 128 is in Massachusetts. (The term isn't really used any more because it doesn't correspond to where many/most companies are actually located--it only did to some degree even when the term was in vogue.)

Yep...seems most of what I hear when people from Massachusetts (myself included) when we talk about where we work to outsiders is either "In Boston", or "Right Outside Boston / Near Boston / The Boston Area" (For anything east of Worcester it seems, haha)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com