"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote in message
news:op.uiaa2diyc3xi7v@news.povray.org...

> > Admittedly not likely at Walmart and Starbucks, but IBM, Apple, Bell (in
> > its
> > heyday, now Lucent to an extent), Xerox, even the newcomer Google... etc
> > have thousands of such inventions for each one that came out of CERN.
Can
> > you name a *second* practical invention that came out of CERN off the
> > top of
> > your head, for example? Can you name a practical invention that came out
> > of
> > Fermilab, RHIC, SLAC... etc? Not that there haven't been, but my point
is
> > that Tim Berners-Lee's is a singular and more or less a random case.

> Except that Bell etc have set up the type of 'open' research departments
> that you are complaining about.

No. I complain about "wrong" type of research. "Open" research is a red
herring brought into the picture by those who confuse practical side
benefits of research in purely academic fields (which may, or more likely,
may not, yield any side benefits) with benefits of directed applied research
which is flexible (which will most definitely yield primary benefits, and
likely side benefits - Bell Labs model). Plus it's a balancing game. If
researching some theoretical avenues in the course of your main activity
costs a few thousand dollars, that might be worth it. It's not the same as
putting $10 billlion into one narrow academic field of research.

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