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Birthplace of Silicon Valley in Shambles 157

Posted by samzenpus from the preserving-the-past dept.
CowTipperGore writes "Founded by William Shockley in the mid-50s, Shockley Semiconductor Lab is generally credited with starting the Silicon Valley boom. When he was unable to lure his former Bell Labs coworkers to join him, he filled his ranks with the best and brightest engineering school grads, including Gordon Moore and others who later went on to form Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. The building at 391 San Antonio Road, Mountain View, California, is the original site of the company but, unlike the HP Garage, this building has received little protection or preservation. It recently housed a fruit stand, where visitors could find a small display about Shockley above baskets of fruit. The fruit stand is now closed, leaving the future of the building in the air."
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Birthplace of Silicon Valley in Shambles More

Birthplace of Silicon Valley in Shambles

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @03:37PM (#18667687)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Reminds me of that auction scene in Groundhog Day, where that one guy was being auctioned off and nobody wanted to bid, and finally was sold for two bits.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Anpheus ( 908711 )
        Can they be one or zero? I'm a little short on one bits at the moment but I can spare a bid of two zero bits.
  • From the Wikipedia link:

    Instead he founded the core of a new company in the best and brightest new graduates coming out of the engineering schools.

    Only a year later the staff was already fed up with Shockley's increasingly bizarre behavior. In one famous incident Shockley's secretary accidentally cut her finger and he became convinced it was a plot against him. He then ordered everyone in the company to take a lie detector test to track down the culprit. It was later demonstrated she had cut herself on a broken thumbtack and Shockley calmed down, but the damage was already done. This had proven to be a decisive example to several key personnel of Shockley's increasing paranoia, and a group of eight engineers decided they had had enough.


    As for the building itself, I always have a bit of a struggle in deciding how to approach potential landmarks. The problem is that every time we reserve land as a "landmark", we reduce the ability of that particular area to advance. That land could be used for a larger, more modern building supporting new and exciting development. And yet, what would we lose to history if it was torn down?

    In the end, I think there must be a balance struck. Unless the site is incredibly valuable to history, it should be thoroughly documented (including the transfer of any and all objects/materials related to the site to a historical society) and then allowed to be replaced or torn down.

    • Re:Sounds like a guy worth honoring... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jfengel ( 409917 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @03:51PM (#18667837) Homepage Journal
      I often hang around with a historian, who loves to stand in the places where historical events occurred and soak up the atmosphere, in a sense peering into the past. It gives her a perspective of the place, and perhaps an insight into the minds of those who shaped history there.

      I like to think I'm immune to such things, but on some of those trips I find myself similarly taken in. I didn't really need to see the Magna Carta or the Rosetta Stone or the Codex Hammurabi; I can read the texts more clearly and get better views via photographs. But on the other hand it's the FREAKING MAGNA CARTA and it's right there in front of me.

      I'm afraid that fruit stand isn't going to mean much to me, but I can see it meaning a lot to somebody else.

      • Re:Sounds like a guy worth honoring... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SatanicPuppy ( 611928 ) * <Satanicpuppy.gmail@com> on Monday April 09, 2007 @04:00PM (#18667923) Journal
        I think there is an issue of scale...I mean, standing in George Washington's home, or standing on the Pyramids, contrasted with a dinky fruit stand that was really more like the building that housed the first failed startup (complete with hellish boss) that contained a group that moved on to do great things.

        It's pretty slim.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by khallow ( 566160 )
          Keep in mind the dinky fruit stand was home to a business failure that did a lot more than the Pyramids did. I think it would be very educational if the building were restored to what it looked like when it was used by Schockley and his surly staff.

        • Re:Sounds like a guy worth honoring... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Plutonite ( 999141 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @05:37PM (#18668847)
          I have stood on the great pyramid and have been in Alexander's room of enlightenment, and Saladin's wall of Cairo, and the scenes of many great battles where tens of thousands died. Let me tell you: it's all a dinky fruit stand. Chirping crickets, blowing sand. We just like to fool ourselves.
          • It's all a dinky fruit stand. And it all is Cheop's Pyramid. On a purely material level, the battlefield of Gettysburg is no different than the field in the suburban park nearby. On a mental/spiritual (ick - I hate the fact that "spiritual" has been largely coopted by quacks and cooks) though, they are miles away. One is the location of a defining moment in American history. The other... is a field. One connects you to a significant event, the other... connects you with kids playing in the grass.

            It's the di

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dsanfte ( 443781 )
              There's a part of our psyches whose power can be harnessed through non-substantative belief in ideas and principles. There's no shame in admitting that. The best kept secret is that this part of our minds does not require religion to function. Anything will do.

              For me, it's the fallen glory of a united world with a single, near-universal language. For others it might be the purity of the dawn's light, or some shit like that. It's all fine.

              So, "spiritualize" on, my friend.
      • For me, seeing these things in person (I grew up in DC, so I ended up seeing lots of these things) made them more real for me. Reading about the Constitution from a textbook makes it seem like a bit of an abstract concept. But seeing the thing right in front of me reminds me of how it's a paper document that people wrote by hand.

        I agree with the GP that a balance has to be kept. In this case, if it's so far gone as to be a fruit stand, it's probably best torn down and replaced with a new research lab.
      • I'm afraid that fruit stand isn't going to mean much to me, but I can see it meaning a lot to somebody else.

        But if that's the rationale used to preserve locations, then nothing can ever be torn down. Pretty much every building on the planet is going to have some meaning for someone, somewhere (or might in the future). The balance is to find something that has significant meaning for a large population of people. And if the population in question is large enough, they can just buy the land themselves and pre

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jfengel ( 409917 )
          I concur; I didn't mean to sound like I was campaigning for any effort to preserve the place. There are a very few objects and places which manage to rise above the logic that we can't preserve everything just because something happened there once. An industrial park in California is not the Magna Carta.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rlp ( 11898 )
        The Magna Carta and Rosetta Stone are in London. In the British Library and British Museum respectively. Where is (a copy of) the Codex Hammurabi?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jfengel ( 409917 )
          The Louvre, in Paris. It's not one of the things they really draw attention to. I didn't really need to see the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo (for which there are signs pointing you at them). I'd have walked right past them if somebody hadn't told me that they were big deals. (A bit like the article in the Washington Post yesterday, about a massively famous violinist being ignored when he dressed down and played in the subway in DC.)

          But the Codex Hammurabi.... I can't read it, so I wouldn't know its sig

          • Re:Sounds like a guy worth honoring... (Score:4, Interesting)

            by rlp ( 11898 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @07:04PM (#18669527)
            Thanks, I didn't know that. BTW, if you get to Cambridge University, the library has (on display) a draft copy of 'Principia Mathematica' with written annotations by Isaac Newton. Much more recent, but still worthy of a geek pilgrimage. (A copy of a manuscript of "Winnie the Pooh" is in the same room).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gyrogeerloose ( 849181 )

      I grew up in that general area and, trust me, there are a hundred thousand banal light industrial buildings just like the one mentioned in TFA, many of which had equally important industrial advances made in them. That hardly merits spending a single dollar to protect any of them. If the building has some architectural significance, it might be worth saving but if it's just another tilt-up/concrete block box, I say go ahead and raze the thing if there's a good reason.

    • Re:Sounds like a guy worth honoring... (Score:5, Informative)

      by evw ( 172810 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @03:53PM (#18667861)
      Unlike the HP garage, which behind a reasonably cute house in a reasonably cute neighborhood (and HP has put up the money to buy and restore the house and garage), Shockley Semi was in a very unremarkable building. It's great to have a landmark sign there but do you really need to preserve the cheap building?

      Just a few blocks away is another notable site:

      http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=21522 [ca.gov]

      NO. 1000 SITE OF INVENTION OF THE FIRST COMMERCIALLY PRACTICABLE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT - At this site in 1959, Dr. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation invented the first integrated circuit that could be produced commercially. Based on 'planar' technology, an earlier Fairchild breakthrough, Noyce's invention consisted of a complete electronic circuit inside a small silicon chip. His innovation helped revolutionize 'Silicon Valley's' semicondutor electronics industry, and brought profound change to the lives of people everywhere.
      Location: 844 E Charleston Rd, Palo Alto

      It's also in a pretty unremarkable building.

      Just a few blocks from the HP garage is another interesting site:

      NO. 836 PIONEER ELECTRONICS RESEARCH LABORATORY - This is the original site of the laboratory and factory of Federal Telegraph Company, founded in 1909 by Cyril F. Elwell. Here, Dr. Lee de Forest, inventor of the three-element radio vacuum tube, devised the first vacuum tube amplifier and oscillator in 1911-13. Worldwide developments based on this research led to modern radio communication, television, and the electronics age.
      Location: In sidewalk, SE corner of Channing Ave and Emerson St, Palo Alto

      That building is already long gone. Unless there's something remarkable about the building or you have a sympathetic property owner, I say let progress march on.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Here, Dr. Lee de Forest, inventor of the three-element radio vacuum tube, devised the first vacuum tube amplifier and oscillator in 1911-13. Worldwide developments based on this research led to modern radio communication, television, and the electronics age.
        Location: In sidewalk, SE corner of Channing Ave and Emerson St, Palo Alto

        You mean the same Lee DeForest who couldn't explain how his amplifier worked? It's certainly historical as a monument to big money and the ability to obtain priority of a patent fr

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by unitron ( 5733 )
          Allow me to submit my usual plug for the Armstrong biography Man of High Fidelity:Edwin Howard Armstrong by Lawrence Lessing.
    • Tell me about it. Our government here is hallmark-crazy. I mean, I can see why a cathedral or some castle is worth being kept in shape, repaired and yes, those things need a lot of space and have no "sensible" use. But they're part of our heritage, and let's not forget tourists.

      But it doesn't end there. Pretty much every house where some unknown composer of the 18ish century was born, died or took a leak is a landmark now. Can you imagine downtown being pretty much a museum?

      And, let's be honest here, in 100
    • He certainly was a strange one. The sign outside the building [wikipedia.org] doesn't even have his name on it because the city council didn't want to honor him.

      In the end, I think there must be a balance struck. Unless the site is incredibly valuable to history, it should be thoroughly documented (including the transfer of any and all objects/materials related to the site to a historical society) and then allowed to be replaced or torn down.

      While I found the issue interesting, I actually agree. The building itself seems to offer little historical value and has no apparent architectural interest.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by schlick ( 73861 )
      Yeah he was a nutcase, but whatever. If I had cash to burn I'd buy the place and turn it into a video arcade called "Flynn's"
    • Scholkley is an interesting character. Back when I was a geneticists (in the 80's), he came to speak at CSU. While I would have preferred that he spoke about his famous contributions to society, he instead chose to push that "blacks were genetically inferior to whites who were gentically inferior to asians". Basically, he mis-applied logic to test results to come up with this. All in all, he was a bright guy who suffered from arrogances of his ideas.

      With that said, we really should save his building. He i
      • No, he's a looneytunes White Power fanatic. That he had a good idea is overshadowed by his inability to lead or follow up or even not be crazy during workign hours.
        • No, he's a looneytunes White Power fanatic.

          Hmmmm. After thinking back to then, the talk and even listening to him after the whole thing calmed down (just about a dozen of us), I had the sense that he was not really a KKK type. Somebody else said that he suffers from paranoia and I think that would probably better describe it. Such as he had no issue with mixing asian and whites but he thought that asians would be better off not doing so. I really think that he was just a paranoid bastard who allowed his t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fm6 ( 162816 )
        Shockley may have a place in history (both good and bad), but not everything he touched does. This isn't the place where he said, "Eureka! A vacuum tube without a vacuum!" It's just a place where he briefly ran an unsuccessful business. TFA's claim that this is "the birthplace of Silicon Valley" is just a cheap attempt to catch eyeballs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )
      I'd say that historical sites are worth preserving if they are either instructive, or if they prove an important point, ideally both. Documentation is important, but it is not the same as demonstration. You can go to Monticello, see so many of the fruits of Jefferson's genius, then go out back and see that yes, he kept slaves. It makes a point that you can't make in any better way. When it comes to history and historians, future historians are wise to "trust but verify" their present day colleagues, whi

    • As for the building itself, I always have a bit of a struggle in deciding how to approach potential landmarks. The problem is that every time we reserve land as a "landmark", we reduce the ability of that particular area to advance. That land could be used for a larger, more modern building supporting new and exciting development. And yet, what would we lose to history if it was torn down?

      In this case, it'd be no loss. The building being a landmark wouldn't be preventing progress, by any stretch of the ima

      • Also, the reg article closes with:

        The fruit stand proved a fitting replacement for Shockley's lab, and we're anxious to see what will sprout up on the site next. Let's hope it's not a Burger King or the like


        There's been a BK just past the sears, closer to the corner of El Camino and San Antonio. Also really low traffic. Even for a BK.
      • There's a much better fruit stand around the corner - Milk Pail Market, which has fruits, veggies, and a really wide variety of cheeses, and is one of those semi-outdoor designs that work well in California-like climates, plus there's a Trader Joe's and a Safeway in the same complex, and there used to be an Albertson's.

        The folks who did the fruit business in Shockley's old place must not have done much market research - they didn't have the quality to compete with the fruit stand for people who like that ki

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )
      That story is far from the strangest Shockley story I've heard. Did you know that when he was small child, he got a splinter in his foot, extracted it, measured, labeled it, and filed it away? It turned up in his effects when he died, along with a lot of other stuff any sane person would have thrown away.

      One biographer quoted a Shockley acquaintance (no friends, alas) as saying he had "Negative Charisma." Interesting interview here:

      http://www.abc.net.au/rn/inconversation/stories/20 06/1678241.htm [abc.net.au]

  • wtf? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 09, 2007 @03:39PM (#18667711)
    It's just a building. Fuck it.

    Should we preserve the garage where the first shoelace was invented? Should we go back and make a museum out of every little place a startup was born?

    It's a fruit-stand. let it go. Stop living in the past.

  • Seems fitting (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 0racle ( 667029 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @03:39PM (#18667719)
    Reading about his paranoia makes leaving the place in shambles seem almost fitting.
  • Do they have people standing out in front of the place with signs saying "Will code HTML for food".

    Otherwise, the situation may not be as dire as presented.
    • Actually, the day workers are over on the other side of the shopping center, and they're mostly Mexicans who actually *will* work, unlike the sign-holders who don't want to work. The local cities sometimes harass them, and sometimes cooperate with local Catholic churches that have organized day-worker centers. I've occasionally hired them when I had furniture moving to do, and there used to be more construction and building-refurb business for them. There's a not-quite-dead-yet Sears on the same side as
  • I guess necessity is the mother of invention. If they were in a huge lab, we may never have seen microelectronics. Ha!

  • Since it is a "tech building" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by session_start ( 1086203 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @03:47PM (#18667807)
    Why not preserve its memory in a virtual world. That way you could use the physical land for something more useful, and still have the digital landmark for everyone to tour... I'm sure someone could make it happen and even profit from it...
    • The virtual memory lasts only as long until the harddisk crashes. That would make it a virtual teardown then.

  • Who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Seumas ( 6865 )
    Can we all just grow up and stop being attached to physical buildings? Who cares if it's "historic"? Push the fucker down and build something useful there. At what point do we not let every square foot be taken over with a building that has some significance to someone in the past but no tangible use in the present? The fact that we're wringing our hands over a tech building rather than sacrificing it to progress is ironic.
    • To answer your question: No, we cannot stop being attached to physical buildings. It's impossible; building are just a larger manifestation of the objects we project feelings onto because of something special. What is a house to the passerby was a home to somebody who would think of all the good and bad things that happened there.

      I grew up in a house that was 200+ years old. It had been in my family for generations. Because of circumstances, we had to move out and the house was purchased by the city and de
    • To me, it depends on if it's a genuinely good building or not. The Colisseum, the Empire State building, Neuschwanstein castle, etc. are marvelous buildings which should be preserved not because of any historical significance, but just because they're great buildings. This office seems to be just a piece of crap, so it should be razed.

      If these preservationists had their way, no new buildings could ever be built because we'd have to preserve all the crappy old shanty houses, warehouses, Wal-Mart buildings,

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Teancum ( 67324 )
        I would have to agree here. Perhaps an example of an olde tyme log cabin would be useful as a singular example of primitive frontier construction techniques, but you don't need to preserve a whole subdivision of the things.

        I will say that there is a historic district in the city where I live that has some absolutely classic homes, including a home built (in part) by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house is a masterpiece and should be saved. But a house two doors down is also protected even though it is a very or
        • I think every ugly 70s building should be torn down right away; I don't think there was a single attractive building built in the US during that decade. As you say, perhaps preserve just one of the hideous things as a warning to future generations.

          What the hell was wrong with people in the 70s, anyway? The buildings were ugly, the cars were ugly, even the people (esp. men) were ugly with their crappy haircuts and ugly clothes. It's not a modern vs. historical thing, either; there's all kinds of great aes

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Teancum ( 67324 )
            Not to disparage the loss of life on 9/11, but I think Al-Queida did the USA a huge favor by tearing down the WTC. Architecturally the twin towers weren't exactly the most graceful things in the New York skyline. And a classic icon of the mid 1970's as well.

            I would dare say, however, that the WTC was the best of the style that came from that period of time. There was much else that was even worse.

            I lived through the 1970s (as a child) and when looking back on older photographs of myself, I still wonder w
            • Actually, I have to agree about the WTC. Those were some pretty bland and boring-looking buildings. But I think knocking them down like that was definitely wrong (aside from the obvious loss of life); I think an exterior "face-lift" of sorts would have helped a lot. Then again, I think one of the features of those towers was that most of the structure was on the outside like an exoskeleton, so a facelift might not have been feasible.

              The Empire State building and Chrysler building are far more attractive
      • As far as I can tell from the uninspired collection of businesses that have been there over the years, the building's probably fine (though for all I know it could have leaks or other problems.) It looks better when there isn't paper covering all the windows - it's basically a glass-fishbowl front retail section and a big warehousey back section, cheap uninspired commercial real estate that's not on a corner, doesn't get walking-by traffic because it's on the wrong side of the shopping center, and doesn't
  • "The fruit stand is now closed."

    Most. Surreal. Slashdot. Summary. Ever.

  • Nooooooo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr. Photo ( 640363 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @04:00PM (#18667921) Journal
    Not the fruit stand! Please say the fruit is ok!!
    • There's a much better fruit stand (Milk Pail Market) around the corner. The fruit at this place was sometimes cheaper, not usually very good, and usually not organic, and there was almost never a reason to shop there as opposed to Safeway, unlike the good fruit stand. I only went there once or twice - the main attraction was that it had a different ethnic group running it (I forget if they were Arab or Persian), so sometimes they'd have a bit different collection of fruits and veggies that they liked, bu

  • Um (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 09, 2007 @04:07PM (#18667977)
    I've never heard of any important Silicon Valley history centered around anything called the "Shockley Semiconductor Lab." The HP Garage is, in fact, the generally-acknowledged birthplace of Silicon Valley. There can be only one of those.

    It's true that Shockley was a co-inventory of the transistor, but that happened on the East coast, at Bell Labs. (Shockley was also a racist fucktard of the first magnitude, a genuinely-unlikable sort who managed to alienate pretty much every professional colleague he ever had.)

    If Shockley's lab in California gets replaced by a parking garage or whatever, I'm sure it's no great loss. HP is, and was, where it all got started.

    • Re:Um (Score:4, Informative)

      by jhfry ( 829244 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @04:48PM (#18668387)
      After reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley [wikipedia.org] I wouldn't really give the HP garage that honor.

      Considering that "... it was Shockley who first brought silicon to the Santa Clara Valley..." [wikipedia], he is indeed what started Silicon Valley. However, if he had never started his lab, with the number of high-tech companies already in the area, and the likely switch from germanium to silicon by the industry, Silicon Valley would probably still have earned its name.

      Sure HP was the first startup to open in the area as the result of Terman's efforts to encourage local college graduates to start companies locally instead of moving to LA. However they were not into silicon until after Shockley came. I would argue that the valley should be renamed to honor Terman, as it was his ideas that led to the valley becoming the high-tech center that it is.

  • I Liked That Fruit Stand (Score:4, Informative)

    by KaiserSoze ( 154044 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @04:24PM (#18668113) Homepage
    I lived up the street from that joint for about 10 months. I loved that place; cheap fruit, and an extra bonus of shopping in the birthplace of silicon valley. Also: they sold odd foreign fruits that people from Wisconsin hadn't often seen before.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by fizzup ( 788545 )

      That's it! I propose the Wisconsin 100-point scale for measuring the oddness of foreign fruit: the percentage of people from Wisconsin who have seen the fruit three or fewer times.

      Due to the expense of polling, we will only ever know Wisconsin numbers for very few fruits, and those will be known only to very low accuracy. Many of them will really only be wild guesses. For example, did you know that the kumquat is a 62 on the Wisconsin scale?

      • No way! I passed kumquats in the store today in Madison! Now your myriad middle eastern yam varietals: THERE'S some foreign tubers. Wait, but I shop at the Co-op on Willy Street. Yeah, kumquat is probably 80+ on the Wisco Scale.

    • Also: they sold odd foreign fruits that people from Wisconsin hadn't often seen before.
      Like... bananas?
      • Pretty much everything that wasn't an apple, yes. Or a pear. Nice spice section, and you could also buy Mexican cheese (Marquez Brothers!) QUESO FRESCO!
  • Maybe it could be bought for the purpose of housing out of work tech weenies whose jobs have been outsourced? The irony factor alone would be worth it.
  • I am taken aback by most comments on this topic that want to tear the building down. To me that is one of the better moments of Silicon Valley history.

    But I must admit I am kind of a Luddite myself. I love technology and history at the same time.

    One history moment that stuns me is standing on the site of the first space launch down at KSC. To think humans had the audacity to to go into space on that tiny vehicle? I think that someday some kid not yet born might stand on that site and be inspired to weave st

  • The place is a dump (Score:4, Informative)

    by dwbryson ( 104783 ) <mutex&cryptobackpack,org> on Monday April 09, 2007 @04:47PM (#18668373) Journal
    I used to work in this building about 8 years ago. There was an ergonomic furniture company, and I did their IT as a part time job during college break. Inside it is basically just a large warehouse, with concrete floors and a leaky roof.

    The place was a posterchild of those California "This location contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer." From what I remember when they were developing the IC with all the various chemicals that entails they would just dump the extra chemicals in back(there is a parking lot there now).

    When I was there the owners of the company had a half-hearted attempt to get the property designated as a landmark, as others have suggested. But I assume that it all fell through given the current circumstances.

  • That's right by where I get my groceries... Kind of sad that I never noticed.

  • Smart but messed up... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Problem being how do you acknowledge Shockley Semiconductor and all of the good that Bill Shockley did whilst minimizing all of the, well... "not good" that he did?

    Do some reading - he was a brilliant but utterly offensive man who had one idea in his head (Shockley diode) at Shockley Semi which he stubbornly kept to, basically forcing himself out of the business and his engineers to start their own companies.

    So his role in the creation of Silicon Valley was twofold - he planted the original seed, then force
  • seriously.

    shoreline park (mtn view) already has one relocated historic site [r-house.org].

    so it IS possible to 'relo' things like that. and in fact, its only a few miles away!

    put the sign post where the original building is (fine) and then relo the remains and restore it over in shoreline park, somewhere.

    that's a neat area and has/had many famous companies there, including google (who now has the old SGI building), Sun used to be there, SGI had a huge campus there, once (sigh) and I think adobe was there, as well.

    maybe

  • Nostalgia (Score:4, Funny)

    by sakusha ( 441986 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @05:09PM (#18668573)
    Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

  • Evil Lair (Score:3, Funny)

    by GammaKitsune ( 826576 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @05:12PM (#18668603)
    "Shockley" sounds to me like some kind of super villain name. Like he should be called Dr. Shockley, and have energy-based powers derived from an accident while working as a scientist at the power company. Or something. This coupled with charges of racism and paranoia makes it even better.

    I say we save his Lab, and "restore" it so that it takes the shape of his head. Put a deathray in there, and have tours. I'd go see it.
  • vaporware. He promised a four-layer diode:

    http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_7/3.htm l [allaboutcircuits.com]

    and never delievered on it. Some samples were made, but it never made it to production.

  • The history's out there right? Is there anything about this place that is notable besides its original use and purpose? If not, put up a plaque or sign and move on. It probably makes sense to consolidate exhibits from the dawn of the computer in purpose-built museums.
  • There's an easy answer to this problem.
    Give Shockley a sledgehammer, point him at the building, and tell him the building was saying bad things about him.
    In an hour or two, this entire argument would be pointless. :)

    "Raaaawwwwrrr... Shockley CRUSH!"
  • Tropical rainforests in shambles. Now replaced with corn field and little plaque mentioning historical significance of the site. We care so much and hold on with such fervor to the things that don't need to last, and we punt on the things that do.

    Dumb.

  • He may have been a Nobel prize winner... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hemp ( 36945 ) on Monday April 09, 2007 @06:15PM (#18669161) Homepage Journal
    But when he died, Stanford didn't even have a memorial for him due to his insistence on correlation between white skin and intelligence and advocation of eugenics to weed out the undesirable darker skinned races of the world.

    http://www.pbs.org/transistor/album1/shockley/shoc kley3.html/ [pbs.org]

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by turing_m ( 1030530 )
      Wikipedia has an article on him.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley [wikipedia.org]

      The PBS article is a hit piece. In the controversial area of race/IQ/dysgenics, you will notice that there are no quotes from Shockley. Instead there is negative value judgment after value judgment without any references or specifics.

      Even with the wikipedia references, I notice that there are very few quotes to be found amidst many value judgments about his "(ob)noxious racial views". Surely if they were indeed that horrible they c
    • But when he died, Stanford didn't even have a memorial for him due to his insistence on correlation between white skin and intelligence and advocation of eugenics to weed out the undesirable darker skinned races of the world.

      Hey, Stanford is all about the Marketplace of Ideas and Free Expression ... if they're the popular/"correct" ones.

      Lots of brilliant people tend to go insane past middle age. I'm not sure why they can't say, "This guy made some major contributions to Human Knowledge, changed the course

  • this is entirely appropriate, that 391 decay into irrelevance

    just as every organization,
    every business dream in silicon valley
    decays eventually into irrelevance.

    Tandem Gould SEL Xidex System Industries
    Atari National Semi Zilog amdahl 3DO
    Netscape Monolithic Memories HAL
    Wyle Silicon Graphics Diamond Borland

    only Computer Literacy and Fry's were created immortal --

    [ and the owners of Computer Literacy traded their heritage
    for a mess of Barnes and Noble po

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Alioth ( 221270 )
      Except Zilog's far from gone. I have a few chips on my work bench which were manufactured by them less than 6 months ago.
  • I started a .COM company during the .COM boom, and our investors wanted us to have a Silicon Valley presence, so we set up a "head office" there. (A mistake, for several reasons, but that's beside the point.) Anyhow, during my trips down to the area (and some previous trips, visiting Netscape headquaters during its heyday), I was always surprised at the area. It wasn't a Garden of Eden, but a sprawling semi-commercial area, with some major historical tech landmarks, but also some areas where I made sure
  • One tidbit not mentioned in the summary, was that Shockley was one of the co-inventors of the transistor. Despite a lot of controversy around the guy, that is quite worthy of mention. It has turned out to be a somewhat useful component of electronic goods. :)
  • Can Slashdot simply pre-tag every article with slownewsday, rather than forcing us to do the grunt-work?

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