I was acutely reminded of those challenging times in the 1990s, when the news flashed last September that Microsoft Research closed down its Silicon Valley Lab, laying off dozens of researchers. Of course, Microsoft's business challenges have been a topic of wide public discussion for the past few years, and the lab closure was part of a major strategy shift in Microsoft, which included layoffs of 18,000 employees. Yet, the swiftness of the lab closure, and the fact that Microsoft decided to close a lab located in Silicon Valley, widely considered the mecca of computing, shook the computing-research community. This sense of nasty surprise led to an unusual public exchange of letters in October.