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PGP Leads Corporate Efforts To Save Bletchley Park
blake182 writes "CNET reports that PGP, together with IBM and other technology firms, is mounting a fundraising effort to benefit the ailing Bletchley Park, home of the Station X codebreaking efforts in World War II. 'We're calling attention (to the fact that) Bletchley is falling into disrepair, and that, probably, the world owes a debt of gratitude to that place,' said Phil Dunkelberger, chief executive of PGP."
IBM was merrily outfitting the Nazis with equipment to help them manage their concentration camps (completely ignorant of their application, naturally) while Bletchley park was breaking Nazi codes. I wouldn't be surprised if, at the time, IBM was viewed as an adversary or, at the very least, completely untrustworthy.
IBM's future would be built on top of key advances made at Bletchley Park, but they probably didn't know BP even existed at the time. BP, on the other hand, probably wouldn't have pissed on IBM to put out a fire. So the upshot is that, now that BP is irrelevant to IBM's future, IBM is offering aid to them, but back when BP was laying the foundation for IBM's future, IBM was completely oblivious to their existence. On top of that, had IBM known what was going on at BP and tried to invest in their own future, BP wouldn't have *wanted* anything to do with IBM!
Somebody at IBM really appreciates irony.
Why do they have so few visitors? Because the site is presented in what I have to say is a very boring fashion. Yes, I have been there.
If you know your history, and if you can carry your own commentary round in your head, then it rocks seeing a place that's so important historically, but if not then its not even slightly appealing as a location for a day trip.
When I was there I saw a lot of extremely bored kids. If they'd added in some enthusiastic guides with a flair for storytelling they would have been able to draw on enough information to keep those kids engaged, but there was only a very sedate and, to be honest, bland, tour on offer.
I'm not denying that its important to preserve this historical location, but what they really need is to make it more interesting to visitors.
Historical importance alone is not enough, it has to be fun too if they want to survive as a tourist location.
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
Oh, so this is an opportunity to vilify Bill Gates? What, because he's rich, he needs to fund every single cause that comes begging with its hand out? Get real, playa hatah.
its f**king disgusting that this Labour "tax and spend" government will happily blow huge amount of cash in useless hair brained scheemes in order to move further and further left but wont spend a tiny fraction of it to preserve a huge piece of world history. Brown should hang for thing alone
Little point in asking the govt for funding - they are too busy pouring cash into a 3 week sports festival in 2012 -- a complete waste of money.
Maybe the GP thinks they've gone so far to the right that they're wrapping around.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Don't know who modded this offtopic, but they're probably not British. The parent makes a valid point, though perhaps the rhetoric is a little excessive! The fact that Bletchley is neglected while the government spends huge amounts of money on pointless projects (Google "Millennium Dome" for an example) shows a lack of interest in history. Bletchley gives us a welcome chance to celebrate something that shortened the war, rather than the usual glorification of bombs and weaponry. It's a history, maths, science and computing lesson all rolled into one, and the fact that the British government can't be bothered to save it is pretty disgraceful.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Who only decrypted Nazi radio traffic. Those people at Bletchley Park who spent untold hours decoding fragments of Nazi radio traffic probably saved hundreds, if not thousands, of Allied lives. To allow such a place to fall into the state of disrepair that Bletchley Park is currently in, is completely disrespectful to the sacrifice that those who served there made.
Sig this!
What constitutes "important" and "worth saving" is a matter of nostalgia and self-aggrandizing for those who engage in it.
I don't know about "worth saving" but it's hard to overstate how "important" that location is historically. Not only did the work done there have a major effect on the outcome of the war (those U-Boats weren't screwing around,) but they also built a lot of the foundations of computer science and engineering that stand to this day.
... also, I can kill you with my brain.