Yes, but most, if not all of things were after I arrived, among the first of a brace of fresh hot blood imported to grow 127. Things definitely felt looser by the mid-80s. Look, I'm not complaining. I absolutely loved working in the CS research group. But culturally, at least upon my arrival, I felt like a fish out of water. -rob On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 9:42 AM Andrew Hume wrote: > i would add the general atmosphere of the Unix room, especially the very > heavy mobile hung from > the ceiling for a while (until someone noticed the cable supporting it was > visibly stretching). > > also the bowling alley (the corridor that rob, ken, denis, doug and my > offices were on) — the pins > were under the printer table at the end. i also recall the time the > bowling ball got away from the > Unix room rolling down the main corridor towards a group of visitors led > by peter weinberger. > luckily, dave presotto grabbed the ball before anyone got hurt (but it was > close). > > i would also mention labscam; its not often we see a prank involving rob > pike, Penn and a Noble Prize winner. > > On Jan 11, 2022, at 2:17 PM, John P. Linderman wrote: > > > > On Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 3:45 PM Rob Pike wrote: > > Similar. Everyone at Bell Labs was so *proper*. (Except Ken, of course. >> Ken is *sui generis*, and a Californian). >> > > Perhaps (probably maybe) I misunderstand. There was nothing "proper" about > the Peter face on the water tower, or lock-picking a boot to move it to a > patrol car, of Scott Knaur wandering the halls in a Darth Vader costume, or > Jellicat wearing a Cats costume, or a thousand other examples. There was a > lot of playfulness in the Labs (at least in the early days), and I think it > was wonderful. > > >