Re: TOP_tap

At 12:55 PM 1/25/96 -0500, Rich Salz wrote:
>Up until recently (18-30 months ago) NSA employees were only allowed
>to identify themselves as employees of DoD.  It was common knowledge,
>that unspecific references to Fort Meade meant NSA; and if you saw
>a P.O. from Procurement Office, Fort Meade, it meant the NSA was buying
>it.

Back in the dark ages (I think early 1980s), I attended a Symposium on
Operating System Princples at Asilomar, California.  My luck-of-the-draw
room mate was wearing a badge which proclaimed that he was from NSA, Fort
Mead, MD.  A story of California hippy meets US-DOD.

Bill

On Thu, 25 Jan 1996, Bill Frantz wrote:
> 
> Back in the dark ages (I think early 1980s), I attended a Symposium on
> Operating System Princples at Asilomar, California.  My luck-of-the-draw
> room mate was wearing a badge which proclaimed that he was from NSA, Fort
> Mead, MD.  A story of California hippy meets US-DOD.
> 

I kinda feel sorry for the NSA staffers sometimes - they're basically a 
bunch of computer geeks and math whizs who don't get to wear jeans and 
T-shirts

> I kinda feel sorry for the NSA staffers sometimes - they're basically a 
> bunch of computer geeks and math whizs who don't get to wear jeans and 
> T-shirts

This *is* a real problem. They take very highly skilled geniuses and
tell them "no one will ever know what you've done.." & their morale does
suffer...

Just suppose YOU discovered (say) a new factoring method... and
could only watch others getting Nobel prizes.....


-- 
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

> This *is* a real problem. They take very highly skilled geniuses and
> tell them "no one will ever know what you've done.." & their morale does
> suffer...
> 
> Just suppose YOU discovered (say) a new factoring method... and
> could only watch others getting Nobel prizes.....


  Maybe they think that anyone who is worthy of knowing - works at NSA. 
As Wittgenstein noted, "where the masses also drink, all wells are poisoned".

> I kinda feel sorry for the NSA staffers sometimes - they're basically a 
> bunch of computer geeks and math whizs who don't get to wear jeans and 
> T-shirts

        says who?