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NSA Dragon Seeds Newsletters 1972-1974 [pdf]

3 pointsby sans_souseabout 1 year ago

2 comments

082349872349872about 1 year ago
RYE is referred to numerous times; I&#x27;d guess it&#x27;s <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;IBM_7950_Harvest#Usage" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;IBM_7950_Harvest#Usage</a><p>I&#x27;d read that Bletchley C&#x2F;A ran classified ads looking for people who liked puzzles, etc. I&#x27;d been assuming that willingness to persevere until a problem was cracked had been a job requirement, but after reading all the marginalia in some of these newsletters I realise they were just testing for cultural fit: could you &quot;hang with&quot; the rest of the cryppies?<p>On that note, a nice morse problem: (english plaintext, only letter spacing has not been transcribed. hope I&#x27;ve transcribed correctly!)<p><pre><code> a) ................. b) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ c) _._._._._._. </code></pre> Lagniappe:<p><pre><code> 吾生也有涯 而知也无涯</code></pre>
082349872349872about 1 year ago
If the medium is the metamessage, what are we supposed to think of p.23&#x27;s &quot;<i>What can you do with a can of worms that wriggle off in all directions?</i>&quot;<p>If 1970s NSA was full of &quot;Terry and the Pirates&quot; fans, does 2020s NSA (full of furries and anime girls, according to an unimpeachable collateral) have a column &quot;Ask Emeraldas&quot;? (or maybe some equivalent Bodacious Space Pirate?)<p>EDIT: &gt; <i>Among the observations made by the survey was the report by gunship crews that the enemy gunners hold their fire until gunship escorts report minimum fuel (codeword BINGO) or expenditure of all ordnance (codeword WINCHESTER).</i><p>Replacing a whole noun phrase in a foreign language with a short memorable codeword probably makes opposing SIGINT&#x27;s transcription team, not sadder, but happier.