[LINK] Fwd: Being a Spy Technology Creator

[steve jenkin]

Daniel Rose wrote on 31/12/07 9:16 AM:
> Some blogger has quasi-paranoid delusions.  Probably a teenager, given the focus on "pretty ladies".
>   
Don't agree with that point, but I agree with your thrust - a great spoof.

Have you heard of Robert X. Cringely's book?:
"Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions,
Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date "

Bill Gates was pushing 40 when he finally married.
Scuttlebut was he and Steve Ballmer had women throwing themselves at
them... But only after they were "rich".
[Ballmer was the better choice, Bill's hygiene was suspect.]
> Failures include:
>
>  - The y2k reference
>  - The idea that Apple is "the most secret tech company"
>  - The lack of an explanation for writing the piece in the first place
>  - Having 10,000 super-top-secret-hushhush employees, who will never ever tell anyone about this amazing software
>  - The melodramatic reference to being killed for telling us more
>   

The line "If I told you, I'd have to kill you" isn't ironic in some
circles :=[

As for large groups keeping secrets, it is not surprising.
There is a well-known and trivial example - the Cocoa-Cola recipe.
While not known explicitly to a large group, it's been held for a very
long time and against very strong probing.

My Dad was part of the WWII operation "Central Bureau" - doing what's
now called "SigInt" (DSD is the descendant agency). I don't know how
many thousands of people were involved - Australian, American servicemen
and civies - but they *all* kept the secret for many decades.

It was 1974 (30 yrs before "ULTRA" and the work at Bletchley Park
breaking Enigma codes was published.  I'd be very surprised if all
secrets will ever be public.

It wasn't until 1988 and the "Spy Catcher" case in Britian that we found
out what he did. [Around 45 years]
It took until 1995 before Jack Bleakley released a vetted history in
"The Eavesdroppers".
The Military had actively monitored & suppressed unit reunions (and
probably more).
I was told stories of guys cracking up in the field from the pressure
(just doing radio intercepts) and of exceptionally harsh punishment for
very minor 'breaches' (taking a pot-shot at a leaf).

I'm sure I wasn't told the worst of it.  Revealing any information, even
accidentally, of this super-secret operation was met quickly and
harshly.  Anything deliberate would've been considered treason with the
usual military consequences.

My assessment is that it's plausible but a spoof.  Someone like this
just wouldn't make such a post.

Like Marcus Ranums' observation about visiting the Windows Kernel team:
     "there's the Mosad agent, the Chinese, the Russian, MI5, ...".

Unprovable and unlikely, but entirely plausible.



-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915)
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin at canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin