Comment by eatonphil | Hacker News Reader

Comment by eatonphil | Hacker News Reader

The new home is still NJ: New Brunswick.

> When Nokia’s research arm, Nokia Bell Labs, said in early December the company will move out of the Murray Hill campus over the next five years to relocate to a new tech hub being built in New Brunswick, the announcement spurred an outpouring of memories online from current and former employees.

> Bell Labs’ new headquarters will be located at the HELIX innovation center in New Brunswick. Originally known as “The Hub,” the HELIX innovation center will be a large complex in the city’s downtown on the site of the former Ferren Mall.

More news on the real estate side of things:

https://re-nj.com/legacy-moment-inside-the-landmark-deal-to-...

I'm excited for New Brunswick here. Would love to see this small city develop. With relatively cheap cost of living, Rutgers, decent zoning (they've got a number of highrises and seem to be adding more), and being a few train stops away from NYC (and a direct bus IIRC?) it seems like a really compelling place to invest in.

I agree that investment in the city of New Brunswick seems like a great idea for the reasons you stated. At the same time, it just feels so grand and historic to walk the same halls as the likes of Shannon, and it's a bit sad that I may not be able to see it again. (I've only visited a handful of times to work on some joint projects though). Hopefully the new lab space/equipment will be very modern and efficient though! One last thought... Traffic is gonna be a bear for anyone driving in! It was miserable a decade ago when I was at Rutgers.

NB resident here. It’s still miserable, but removing stop lights on route 18 between landing lane and the turnpike made things excellent for folks getting to somerset/piscataway!

NB/EB resident, has construction ever stopped in this area since 2000? I'm glad that 18 is finally (mostly) done as you say

Been running the set all my life. Construction on 18 was a long time coming, probably shaved 10 minutes off the drive to the turnpike. And I’m okay with all of the over runs to fix the runoff creating those crazy pools of water on the roadway!

While I’m not saying Shannon never walked the halls of Murray Hill, his publishing A Mathematical Theory of Communication in 1948 meant that he was working at the lab’s previous location in the West Village…

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

1966?? So, like, pretty much all the world-changing, paradigm-shifting revelations were in West Village?

So, while working with Verizon, they falsely claimed it to be Basking Ridge, NJ (which they bought and boasted as the Brains of Bell to invoke a symbolic victory of sorts) until I found out they were either lying or swindled and it was another place in Jersey. Yet again, I find out from you that it was just another fake "Brains of Bell".

Even though I feel used once again, I do appreciate your post.

> 1966?? So, like, pretty much all the world-changing, paradigm-shifting revelations were in West Village?

No. Unix, C, C++, etc were in nj.

There was a Bell Lab in the now Westbeth artists housing, named for one of its corners, West and Bethune st, which opened in 1970 or so. https://untappedcities.com/2017/02/27/inside-westbeth-artist...

Yeah, but those aren't world-changing, paradigm-shifting revelations. Arguably, they're just ruts the world got caught in. Hopefully we'll be out soon.

Verizon’s current HQ (which is in Basking Ridge) used to be AT&T’s corporate HQ; as far as I’m aware, no significant Bell Labs work was ever done there, and Verizon has never had any legacy with Bell Labs.

You know what? You might be right. However, Verizon seemed to pitch it as some sort of "brain" when I was there. At least, they definitely implied the transistor originated there. But thank you for clarification. Always appreciated.

But "These chairs haven't been cleaned since Shannon worked here!"

>Murray Hill campus

Wow. I remember reading in some of the early books about C or Unix (such as K&R or K&P), the words "Bell Labs, Murray Hill, New Jersey" in one of the early pages, such as the Introduction, Preface or copyright page.

Heh. I was wondering how they’d manage to keep people when moving to the Canadian province of New Brunswick… this makes a lot more sense.

I got:

Access Denied - GoDaddy Website Firewall

Block reason: Access from your Country was disabled by the administrator.

from Australia.

I wonder why they'd block an entire country...

They likely just block non-us.

Geoblocks for no prticular reason a really sad, but widespread, practice.

(op here)

> They likely just block non-us.

Link was and is working for me here in the uk.

That's pretty wild because its blocked for me in Canada, and usually we have the best parity with US content.

It is also blocked for me, from South Africa.

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