I think many of the people posting in defense of Boston are doing so without the benefit of history. In fact, the lack of any references to 128 pretty much guarantees it. Here's a little story:
In the mid-70s and 80s, if you wanted to do something new, you went to 128 or Silicon Valley. The 128 ring was huge, and you couldn't walk 20 feet without seeing a company that was building hardware, selling successfully, and making a lot of money. However, as the economy took bumps over the following decades, the sector contracted and consolidated. But it wasn't staying here, everything consolidated on the west coast.
When DEC became Compaq (became HP), it was a sad day. Not because DEC was doing anything particularly cool (the writing had been on the wall for Alpha and VMS for a while), but because it was the last 128 giant still standing. Boston.com still writes articles about it to this day:
Sure, companies are still doing things in MA (Boston, specifically). But what we have today are a few poster boys in the bio, chem, and robotics sectors that make the evening news and let us feel good about what's coming out of MA. I can almost guarantee that if you transplanted a 70s geek from Boston to the SV of today, they'd feel right at home (minus the lack of wood-paneled station wagons), but doing the reverse would yield nothing but utter horror. We are still a booming tech sector, but it's simply not a place for innovation (no offense to the other locals posting).
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I think many of the people posting in defense of Boston are doing so without the benefit of history. In fact, the lack of any references to 128 pretty much guarantees it. Here's a little story:
In the mid-70s and 80s, if you wanted to do something new, you went to 128 or Silicon Valley. The 128 ring was huge, and you couldn't walk 20 feet without seeing a company that was building hardware, selling successfully, and making a lot of money. However, as the economy took bumps over the following decades, the sector contracted and consolidated. But it wasn't staying here, everything consolidated on the west coast.
When DEC became Compaq (became HP), it was a sad day. Not because DEC was doing anything particularly cool (the writing had been on the wall for Alpha and VMS for a while), but because it was the last 128 giant still standing. Boston.com still writes articles about it to this day:
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/cambridge/articles/2011/02/15...
Sure, companies are still doing things in MA (Boston, specifically). But what we have today are a few poster boys in the bio, chem, and robotics sectors that make the evening news and let us feel good about what's coming out of MA. I can almost guarantee that if you transplanted a 70s geek from Boston to the SV of today, they'd feel right at home (minus the lack of wood-paneled station wagons), but doing the reverse would yield nothing but utter horror. We are still a booming tech sector, but it's simply not a place for innovation (no offense to the other locals posting).