I recently moved to the DC Metro area, and I had the blind luck of meeting a top advisor from the DoD. She's an assymetric warfare specialist, and probably one of the smartest people I've ever met (I disagree with her politics, but she does in fact *think*). She also 'gets it', to a degree. I built her a new machine, and setup dualbooting between Win2k and Slackware, and she's becoming quite comfortable with it. She has experience doing systems modeling in Dynamo (remember that?), and is currently teaching herself C. She and I have spent many lunch hours discussing cryptography, napster, and all the Big Issues on the tech front. She doesn't know much about the specifics of machines/networks, but she's learning - and she has a firm grasp on the overall concepts, benefits, and dangers. She often speaks of other politicos who seem to have a clue, as well, such as R. James Woolsey, a Washington lawyer and political insider who was also head of the CIA at one point.
She also tends to get a bit tipsy at lunch and discuss electronic counterintel, etc... I'm not sure how much I'm really supposed to hear, but it seems like the people on the hill know what's going on, in general.
You'd be surprised at how smart these people are. The people in suits on TV are ignorant wastes, but their advisors, the people who actually _run_ Washington, are among the nation's brightest - if not best.
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I recently moved to the DC Metro area, and I had the blind luck of meeting a top advisor from the DoD. She's an assymetric warfare specialist, and probably one of the smartest people I've ever met (I disagree with her politics, but she does in fact *think*). She also 'gets it', to a degree. I built her a new machine, and setup dualbooting between Win2k and Slackware, and she's becoming quite comfortable with it. She has experience doing systems modeling in Dynamo (remember that?), and is currently teaching herself C. She and I have spent many lunch hours discussing cryptography, napster, and all the Big Issues on the tech front. She doesn't know much about the specifics of machines/networks, but she's learning - and she has a firm grasp on the overall concepts, benefits, and dangers. She often speaks of other politicos who seem to have a clue, as well, such as R. James Woolsey, a Washington lawyer and political insider who was also head of the CIA at one point. She also tends to get a bit tipsy at lunch and discuss electronic counterintel, etc... I'm not sure how much I'm really supposed to hear, but it seems like the people on the hill know what's going on, in general. You'd be surprised at how smart these people are. The people in suits on TV are ignorant wastes, but their advisors, the people who actually _run_ Washington, are among the nation's brightest - if not best.