intel-i-dense

regarding this
intel research cambridge lablet closure
thing about it closing:

1. the lab was doing OK, but for the last year Intel had a hiring
freeze so it was about ~5 people down on the official numbers it needed

2. Intel have 30,000 employees in middle management to many (5 years
back they had 100,000 employees, they grew w by 30,000 - when Otellini
arrived he asked to see the books and was really p**d off to see this
and the fact that their profit had not gone up at the same time as AMD
was making inroads into their market share so he said to lose 10%
right away -

3. rather than lose 10% of each of 4 Intel labs, it was easier to lose
the most "expensive" lab (Intel pays the same everywhere and the $ is
crap against the pound, so my guess is that Cambridge actually is most
expensive, but also its perceived as pricey as whenever the lab
directors have an open day here about 25 people fly over business class
and that must put a dent in their travel budgets:)

4. about a year back, I (for some definition of I:-)
 predicted this was pretty likely and sent an
email to all the lab people saying where I thought they might get a
job - as far as i know I was close to 90% right on the first offers
people have - to my knowledge, every person in the lab has at least 1
good local Cambridge job option - several of them have several very
good options, so we will be thumbing our noses at Intel (note that the
researchers job "titles" are middle management, because Intel doesn't
have a proper job title for senior researcher - unlike Microsoft,
Cisco, etc etc, which probably is why the bean counters hav't
perceived the damage this is gonna do to Intel's public
image and to their chances of hiring researchers in any of thesho
other labs for the next few years....