Internet blows CIA cover (It's easy to track America's covert operatives)

Chicago Tribune ^ | 3/11/06 | John Crewdson

[GOPJ]

Did you put your programs on a standard tape recorder? (No hard drive)

[goldstategop]

I'm shocked the CIA is still operating in a pre-Internet Era world. Then again, given their abysmal lack of security safeguards, its hard to expect much of them. They couldn't even detect the Al Qaeda attack upon this country until it was too late. The agency needs a through house-cleaning and Peter Goss still hasn't brought our intelligence service completely into the 21st Century.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[afnamvet]

I do not understand how internal information on internal servers end up on a commercial data site. The only thing made public by the CIA is its World Fact book. Keep it that way.

[purpleland]

What I ask is why in the hell disclose any national security information or anything about CIA operatives to any newspaper and ask them not to print or leak it?

How stupid is that???

[BIGLOOK]

Geez.....where'd you guys get all those expensive toys?

[bannedfromdu]

Commodore 64, my first computer, sweet

[ElkGroveDan]

This is the first computer I ever programmed. As I recall you could write cheat formulas on the black plastic in pencil, so that if you turned it just right in the light you could read them during a test.

[Drammach]

Did you put your programs on a standard tape recorder? (No hard drive)

Sure did..

Tandy Color Computer 1.. 16K memory (premium edition, standard had 4K memory )
Audio tape input/output...TV conversion box video..

I bought a book of Hewlett-Packard Basic programs and typed them in by hand, learning basic by doing command conversions myself..
Some HP Basic commands are not included in Tandy CoCo1 Basic.. Subroutines have to be written to replace them..
All printer commands had to be re-written as well, as HP formatting was different..

It was probably the most "productive" time I ever spent with a computer..

Oh.. Yeah..
I converted (hand wired) this same machine to 64K, cutting leads on the motherboard, and soldering in jumpers for the new memory chips, from instructions found in several magazines..
The "new" conversion tended to overheat, and a fan was later silicon-glued onto the vents at the rear..
I used this machine for many years..
Even went on the "internet" with it starting at 300 baud.. eventually whizzing along at 1200 bd..

[miele man]

I still have mine. I had the orange type. I still prefer the Compaq keyboard.

[InterceptPoint]

Yes. Programs went on a cassette tape. We didn't have a hard drive or even a floppy disk. Those were the days.

[muawiyah]

Have one just like that on my dining room table ~ using it as a paperweight to hold down the checks I just wrote to pay bills. (NOTE: we have a fan immediately above the table)

 

[Drammach]

The Sinclair was a pretty good machine for it's time..
They used the "sprite" graphics mode and had pretty good animated graphics..

A freind of mine bought an "ADAM"...
Wouldn't work unless the printer was hooked up..
The OS was on tape and could be overwritten.. (and it was)

Once the OS was gone, the machine was junk..
Just a big, big, paperweight..

I finally switched to PC's in (about) '94 or so..
Pretty much just been a "user" since then, aside from installing my own boards and such..
For some reason, the programming / hobbyist stuff became less "fun"..
It's probably the increasing complexity and my increasing age that combined there..
It was a great time to be into computers, though..

[pinz-n-needlez]

That's as nostalgic as looking at my children's baby pictures. In fact, I was usually holding one of them as I was typing up minutes and building Members' lists on my CoCo.

We upgraded to 32 bits and were living high on the hog!

Pinz

[Codeograph]

LOL !!! I still have that ( TI-99). I am looking at it right now :-)

[ThanhPhero]

I started with a Timex/Sinclair

[Zeroisanumber]

If the editors at the Tribune were true patriotic Americans, they would have turned over their research to the CIA, had their staff sign confidentiality agreements, and quietly canned the story. Instead, they published it.

It's evident that the Tribune went to the CIA before the story was run and worked with them to identify the holes in their security while maintaining the confidentiality of CIA agents' identities. At the same time, the Tribune did it's job as a paper. I see no problem here.

[muffaletaman]

The FIRST portable was the Oborne 1, in 1981 - I had one.

http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html

The Compaq oportable was the first IBM compatible, and came out in 1982. I also used one at work.

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/compaq-portable.html

I also built a Sinclair ZX-80 from a kit - membrane keyboard, cassette program storage - I think I paid $149 for it.

[T'wit]

My first was an 8088. It bopped along at 4.77 MHz, screamed at 8 MHz in turbo and had no hard drive. But why would anyone want a hard drive if you couldn't figure out how you'd ever fill a 360 kb floppy? I'm pretty sure the box was fashioned out of a sunken Korean battleship.

[logician2u]

You left out the /sarcasm tag.

[frankjr]

you forgot the "/doofus" tag