Also, if there is anyone who thinks silicon valley has the smartest people around, this type of stuff should change your mind.
Watson is an impressive achievement, but there are quite a few companies in Silicon Valley whose engineers could pull this off. It's more a matter of how much money management feels like throwing at it. It's great publicity for IBM, which has to put in a lot more effort than most Silicon Valley companies in order to look cool, but can afford it.
Entirely true. But the point I was trying to make is that the current batch of dotcoms isn't even in the same league as the bigboys. IBM, HP, SGI(?), part of oracle, google, parts of oracle.
Also, does anyone else really love that architecture at the Watson research center? That just looks like a place I'd want to work. Lots of wood, stone and glass. Love it. Wired had some details on the building and the cafeteria is right out of mad men. So much better than "open plan" (We're too cheap to give code monkeys space).
As you approach it, it looks like an airport. (Dulles, specifically.) I work at the Hawthorne location, so I don't see the imposing architecture everyday. But, we do have a similar board of IBM Fellows, and I often pause at it on my out at the end of the day. It is humbling and inspiring.
Watson is an impressive achievement, but there are quite a few companies in Silicon Valley whose engineers could pull this off. It's more a matter of how much money management feels like throwing at it. It's great publicity for IBM, which has to put in a lot more effort than most Silicon Valley companies in order to look cool, but can afford it.