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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."
That's Dunkin' Donuts answer to the Hamburgler, right?
We owe lots of stuff to lots of things from the second world war. Nice to see corporations like this getting involved; then again, this is part of PGP's history.
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
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'?
In May 2008 it was announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation turned down a request for funds because the foundation only funds Internet-based technology projects.
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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
This way the site will be saved AND we will not see another Indy-against-the-Russians film. Plus, maybe, maybe, it would erase Indy IV from our memory. I would pay for that. A lot.
Consider purchasing a pocket enigma, or making a donation (link from their home page or as part of order).
Loose lips lose spit.
The British newspaper The Independent started a campaign to save Betchley Park on 20 August 2008. I wonder if these are connected ?
Sounds like a great cause - it should definitely be preserved.
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.
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.
...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.
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.
The PGP page for the effort wasn't up yet when the CNET story broke, but it is now. More information there.