I work in a development lab at a semiconductor mfg. We have a mixture of NT, win98, win2k, and of course Linux that we do driver and embedded stuff on. We don't let IT in the door. We aren't allowed to ask for their help (not that it would do any good anyway). All of our machines dual (or more) boot, so if we ever do get audited, all our machines run Linux (even though we are actually meticulous about licenses) - it just saves time. On the other hand, we end up reloading something at least once a week. And BTW, you can use netscape mail instead of lotus - it seems to require only a minor tweak to the cc:mail server. I haven't had to boot windows for months.
A certain 3 letter government agency has used this technique on a program for about 6 years. It has improved the accuracy of geopositioning the images by about 300%. It is not the only technique used, but it is extremely useful.
Ineffective people can be concealed, because so much is concealed. Old boys networks can
flourish unchecked. The degree of public accountability is essentially nil.
And this differs from a large corporation how? These problems are inherent in any large organization. Security has nothing to do with firing people. Civil Service rules do make this difficult. But most of the technological work is actually done by contractors, who have the same hiring/firing problems as everyone else. I haven't seen any difference.
You want quality control? I can't speak for NSA but its sister "secret agencies" are far ahead of the commercial world both in technology and quality. I've worked for a couple of contractors in this world, as well as in normal commercial companies. I'm now thinking about returning to the spook world - it's a lot more interesting, and they _do_ pay attention to getting things done right, unlike many non-govt companies.
The NRO is the same age as NSA, and has a completely different mission. NRO is responsible for launching and operating surveillance platforms. They pass the data on to various agencies (including NSA) to do whatever they do with it. NRO does not use or analyse anything.
There is nothing sinister about the new openess with both NRO and NSA. They have merely been directed to open up a bit so the budgets and operations can be scrutinized a little better. This began about 5 years ago. Regardless, you will still never see the things they regard as truly classified, and there are still a few programs that will not be admitted to.
I work for a large semiconductor company, in a small design team that also does work for other groups. We primarily work with the company's imaging division. We almost always either provide a gpl Linux driver or will release enough specs so someone can do this. However, most of the company still believes in closed source. A lot of this is because of NDA/partnership agreements with other IP holders. Please remember that is is _extremely_ expensive to design and produce a complex chip. There is an overwhelming urge to protect that investment. But management often forget that we are not a software vendor, and opening the specs will sell more chips. In our case, some progress has been made, but there are still huge cultural hurdles to overcome.
For one thing, spy satellites, aka imaging platforms, are in orbits that are not generally viable for commercial use. They are in sun synchronous polar orbits. The only thing they might hit is another spy satellite. For another thing, the US, Russia, and China all track space debris. They would immediately alter an orbit if it appeared that a collision were imminent.
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I work in a development lab at a semiconductor mfg. We have a mixture of NT, win98, win2k, and of course Linux that we do driver and embedded stuff on. We don't let IT in the door. We aren't allowed to ask for their help (not that it would do any good anyway). All of our machines dual (or more) boot, so if we ever do get audited, all our machines run Linux (even though we are actually meticulous about licenses) - it just saves time. On the other hand, we end up reloading something at least once a week. And BTW, you can use netscape mail instead of lotus - it seems to require only a minor tweak to the cc:mail server. I haven't had to boot windows for months.
A certain 3 letter government agency has used this technique on a program for about 6 years. It has improved the accuracy of geopositioning the images by about 300%. It is not the only technique used, but it is extremely useful.
Ineffective people can be concealed, because so much is concealed. Old boys networks can
flourish unchecked. The degree of public accountability is essentially nil.
And this differs from a large corporation how? These problems are inherent in any large organization. Security has nothing to do with firing people. Civil Service rules do make this difficult. But most of the technological work is actually done by contractors, who have the same hiring/firing problems as everyone else. I haven't seen any difference.
You want quality control? I can't speak for NSA but its sister "secret agencies" are far ahead of the commercial world both in technology and quality. I've worked for a couple of contractors in this world, as well as in normal commercial companies. I'm now thinking about returning to the spook world - it's a lot more interesting, and they _do_ pay attention to getting things done right, unlike many non-govt companies.
The NRO is the same age as NSA, and has a completely different mission. NRO is responsible for launching and operating surveillance platforms. They pass the data on to various agencies (including NSA) to do whatever they do with it. NRO does not use or analyse anything.
There is nothing sinister about the new openess with both NRO and NSA. They have merely been directed to open up a bit so the budgets and operations can be scrutinized a little better. This began about 5 years ago. Regardless, you will still never see the things they regard as truly classified, and there are still a few programs that will not be admitted to.
I work for a large semiconductor company, in a small design team that also does work for other groups. We primarily work with the company's imaging division. We almost always either provide a gpl Linux driver or will release enough specs so someone can do this. However, most of the company still believes in closed source. A lot of this is because of NDA/partnership agreements with other IP holders. Please remember that is is _extremely_ expensive to design and produce a complex chip. There is an overwhelming urge to protect that investment. But management often forget that we are not a software vendor, and opening the specs will sell more chips. In our case, some progress has been made, but there are still huge cultural hurdles to overcome.
For one thing, spy satellites, aka imaging platforms, are in orbits that are not generally viable for commercial use. They are in sun synchronous polar orbits. The only thing they might hit is another spy satellite. For another thing, the US, Russia, and China all track space debris. They would immediately alter an orbit if it appeared that a collision were imminent.