Interesting Wow article and interview.

Not sure if this has already been posted. I found it interesting.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/the-wow-signal-one-mans-search-for-setis-most-tantalizing-trace-of-alien-life/253093/

Too bad nobody else could back up his claim.

Allowing the possibility that the 'wow signal' was a genuine extraterrestrial communication, the fact that it hasn't been heard again is of uncertain significance. The signal could be swept through space, and only pass our way very briefly and periodically, as discussed in the Atlantic article. If the period between repetitions is a long one, all the efforts to recapture the signal might well have missed it. If the period of repetition is longer than 35 years, not even a single repetition will have yet occurred. The only way to resolve this question is to monitor the area of space from which the signal appears to have originated, indefinitely, on a 24 hour a day basis. Michael

Yea, I saw that, but the odds of that occurring are truly astronomical. The odds are practically nonexistent.

Bell Labs' Horn Antenna in Crawford Hill, NJ - In 1965 while using the Horn Antenna, Penzias and Wilson stumbled on the microwave background radiation that permeates the universe.

The Wow! signal, will come back one day. The quest must go on.

I believe that the Horn Antenna in question was based at the Bell Labs complex in Holmdel NJ. I used to ride my bicycle past it at lunchtime when I was lucky enough to work for the Labs in the 1980's. Penzius and Wilson may have actually been based in Signal Hill just up the road.

Confirmation that the hiss was a cosmological remnant came after they cleaned off the pigeon poop and called Princeton for an explanation/confirmation when the hiss persisted at all directions in the sky.

Alas Bell Labs is no more. They are talking about turning the mammoth, historic building into a shopping Mall. Whence will come the next laser, transistor etc ??

Anyone out there that can confirm or correct my recollections?

Also UNIX and C came out of Bell Labs, thanks to Ken Thompson and other colleagues. Another UNIX version came out of Berkeley, since Bell Labs could not sell it for legal reasons and licensed it to universities, This Berkeley Software Distribution gave origin to SunOS in the SUN version (now Oracle). I have used UNIX, both System 3 and System 5, in my professional career and am now using Linux and a Solaris Virtual Machine. Solaris derives from SunOS.Scott McNealy, the former SUN boss, said recently that if Solaris had been free Linux would not even exist, and I tend to agree with him.
Tullio
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