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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."
I read the Slashdot summary, the entire news.com article, the second article in the news.com article linked from the first article and I still don't know how much they need.
But at least I know that there's a problem and two separate foundations have turned them down for grant money. I guess that's a start.
I'm a big tall mofo.
For some reason that name for a business just cracks me up. Or have they re-tooled the acronym to something like Pervasive Grid Privacy to sound more 'industrial strength'?
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.
It was also manufacturing M1 rifles for the Allies. (Along with such companies as Rockola - the jukebox maker - and Saginaw Steering Gear. It's handy to convert a factory to guns when it already has equipment for drilling holes the long way down several feet of steel rod and other machines for building small and complicated devices composed of mechanical moving parts.)
(Back when I was buying an old M1 carbine for participating in the Civilian Marksmanship Program training I picked an IBM-branded one just out of nostalgia. The rangemaster was impressed when I qualified with a carbine, rather than a full-length M1, on the first try. Shorter barrels make for less accuracy. B-) But I could have used a Field Engineer: While the steel parts worked fine, the wooden barrel cover kept popping off during recoil. B-( )
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I'll also add that it's a national disgrace that such an important site can be ignored in favour of arts projects.
Bletchley Park not only paved the way for computing and helped win WW2 but also helped the telecoms industry in the hands of the Post Office, which became Post Office telephones, which became British Telecom. Thousands of engineers who built the UK's telephone network trained there.
There is no music - home taping killed it.
You misunderstand the mentality of little minds :-) :
In the little mind, IBM=USA=bad. Nissan=Japan=victims of atomic attack by evil U.S.
Little minds don't comprehend reality or facts, just left wing propaganda. Critical thought has been conditioned out. (Bell rings, college students protest reality.)
Today when two countries are fighting it is most certain that Coca-Cola is present on both sides. Somehow nobody has a problem with that - it's not common sense that selling soft-drinks to the enemy is going to hurt anyone.
Nevertheless I agree that IBM's role in WWII is not particularly evil. Hollerith punch cards were on the market since 1928 and were used for all kinds of legitimate administrative purposes. Since the public on both sides fighting was mostly unaware of the holocaust until around '43 (in Germany sometimes even '45) it is not very realistic to assume that IBM was knowing about the purpose of orders from nazi-Germany before the US entered the war. And after the US joined the war they can't be held accountable because the German subsidiary DEHOMAG got expropriated.
Given the unique efficiency and cruelty of this genocide I even doubt they could have foreseen it.
I don't read replies by ACs.
...as they demolished a historical building after railroading about every obstacle in town, and putting some remains in an obscure spot.
Had Bletchley Park been in the US(and next to the named university), they'd have let a local university just roll the town over and demolish it after buying the land from NCR for $1.
It's a shame that PGP, IBM, and friends couldn't have come sooner to save NCR's Building 26.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Perhaps they're still embarrassed by the Alan Turing fiasco, and don't want to ever bring it up again?
Seriously, there's no reason to ignore this chapter in their history. It was certainly one of Britain's finest, and this from a country that prides themselves on their many fine contributions to history.
John
Perhaps they're still embarrassed by the Alan Turing fiasco, and don't want to ever bring it up again?
I think you've nailed it there.
Bletchly Park was the best British minds triumphing over the the best German minds.
Why else would they want to bury it, but for shame of Turing's treatment?
Every time this comes up, I am compelled to recommend The Code Book by Simon Singh.
It has a gripping account of Turing's life and the cracking of Enigma.
I think the problem is that a lot of people not interested in computer science or cryptography view Bletchly Park as just another one of the thousands of military installations Britain utilised during World War 2.
The estate itself is relatively unremarkable compared to many in the area and has always had structural problems (it was actually soon to be demolished before war broke out and the code-breakers were stationed there).
I have been to Bletchly Park and it is a great place, I've heard they even have a full reconstruction of the Colossus computer there now.