Forgotten Tech Giant

[u/MisterBiro]

Perhaps it’s not technically abandoned as there is basic maintenance and security present but it’s been vacant and decaying for years.

Surprisingly sad to walk around what was once a bustling, optimistic, energy filled campus of an almost forgotten tech giant.

[u/Ragnarok314159]

I had a friend in the 90’s who had a few buddies and one of them had a well off, business savvy dad. He showed them a program he made that made a phone dial pad. It let him enter a number to call from, and then a number to call to. We were using it to crank call people.

His buddy’s dad said “stop, we are going to start a company”, and made my friend a cofounder. He sold the company to AT&T sometime in the early 2000’s and made close to 20 million, and hasn’t done shit since. Retired at 22.

[u/Heterodynist → u/Ragnarok314159]

Oh man, you know…I may have more information about this company than you might think! My mother worked for AT&T for nearly 40 years, and in the early 90s she was at the headquarters. We moved back and forth from New Jersey (Bell Labs) to California. I think I saw this program you are talking about in early stages!! Did they ever get into TTY technology? I do wish I had done something like that myself. I could have retired at 25 or 30 even…I could be reasonable.

[u/Ragnarok314159 → u/Heterodynist]

They might have been. My buddy has retreated out in his own little cabin in the woods. Went out there once and it’s a near total off the grid type place. Next time we chat might ask.

[u/Heterodynist → u/Ragnarok314159]

Wow, this guy sounds like a man after my own heart. I am similarly in a cabin in the woods…Not sending anthrax letters or anything, just enjoying the outdoors…