Cleaning out the basement

[drhowarddrfine]

I'm a technology rat.  When I worked full time as an electronic engineer I would clip tech magazine articles and save them in folders if I thought there was any possibility I might use that information at a later time.  So I have 15 years or more of such articles in boxes in my basement that, over the past week, I decided to sort through.  Some of those folders were damaged from mold and mildew from water damage from the basement getting wet from a broken sump pump.

Three articles made me laugh a bit.  One from EE Times in 1982 talking about this new up and rising programming language called "C" with interviews with Kernighan and Ritchie.  Another was a later article about OOP and the introduction of Objective C and the "new" C++.  (Major concerns about the slowness of C++ but a major effort may come about due to rumors Microsoft may come out with a compiler).

A third article was in Byte about "Object-Oriented Programming in Assembly Language" from DDJ in 1990 from our own Randy Hyde.

I found the issue of Byte magazine that has a hardware article from ME!  (Not that it didn't already have a prominent place on my shelf :toothy )  Here's an interesting story that came about because of that article:

This was back in the early 80s when stories of the "red menace" and spies trying to get our advanced technology were everywhere.  I got a few letters from people thanking me for the "excellent article" but two unusual postcards came one day.  Both were from Hungary which, then, was a communist country.  These people requested that I send them a copy of my article. 

I had read that our "enemies" would frequently try and get such information for themselves and was concerned about what I should do.  So I did what any other red-blooded American would and I contacted our FBI.  They invited me down to their offices where I had a meeting with two agents in a gloomy, green downtown office.  After a few questions they told me to go ahead and send copies to these people because, obviously, since they were already aware of the article that they probably already had a copy of it.

I asked what might happen if I did this and they said, "Probably nothing", but if these people were wanting to make a contact I might get a phone call one day from someone wanting more information and get invited for lunch one day.  I thought, cool!  I mailed it off.

About a month later, I got a call.  This guy claimed he was from a publishing company wanting me to write a book for them.  About any kind of leading tech subject, my choice, but he was particularly interested in hard disk drives. 

GULP!  Now I'm scared.  The next day I call the FBI to tell them about the call.  They don't seem to really know what to do.  I had never heard of the publisher before so I requested a "sample" copy of one of their books.  I made a few more calls and, after receiving the copy, determined that this caller was legitimate. 

Though being in the spy business sounded really glamorous and fun, when it came down to actually getting involved, I feared for my life!  In the end, it just turned out to be a funny story.

[sluggy]

Damn, so the free lunch with spies never eventuated  :'(
Truth is, you probably had nothing to worry about, the Russians have always shown themselves to be very smart with technology, even when they have few resources.

What was your article about?

[drhowarddrfine]

If I told you I'd have to kill you. :lol
Then you'd know my real name, too. :naughty:
I was surprised to see it used as a reference by the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) and a few websites.  It had to do with designing and using memory circuits and interfacing them to microprocessors.

[donkey]

What a great story  :U

It seems so long ago that we worried about such things and frankly, just silly now that there are more pressing concerns. I remember once we tried to broker some tempest PC's from a liquidation, not having any idea the technology was COCOM restricted, only to have some very serious military types show up and pack up all the machines and leave.

[Bieb]

the Russians have always shown themselves to be very smart with technology, even when they have few resources.

Eh?  Not in those days, certainly.  The Soviets were very slow in adopting computers.  When we were developing computerized encryption, they were still doing ciphers by hand :p.  And don't even get me started on their military technology...

[hutch--]

I know a funny story about a MIG that was defected by flying it to south Korea. Everyone laughed at the miniature radio valve electronics in it until it dawned on someone that it could be flown through the aftermath of a nuclear explosions without dying like silicon chips do under the same levels of X rays.

[Bieb]

Valves as in valves holding water?!

[drhowarddrfine]

Tubes, as in vacuum tubes.

[Bieb]

Ahhhhh

[asmfan]

Steven said it right. im familiar(specialized) with MIG-29 (im a lieutenant of Aero Forces of Russian army in reserve) and i can say that the key of all military aircrafts is in their simplicity and as a result efficiency (compared assembly to HLL:) cuz we know that the more complex the device, the more probability of its unstability... thats it... ha ha what a speech:)

[Mincho Georgiev]

And don't even get me started on their military technology

I'm not a russian, but i have expirience with above, a have 4 years military service on a war ship ,made in Russia.
I know what 'Russian Technology' ( :tdown) really is. Not to mention that the ship was made all the way back in 1961.
You cannot even imagine what horror was that service.

[BogdanOntanu]

Yes it is well known to any US military pillot that any last generation MIG fighter cand fly circles arround any US top tech aircraft.

The MIG analog differential signal processing assures it very fast response times, greate stability and linear predicatbility in end of scale situation...
Actually it is so advanced that only the courage and better trainig and skills of US pilots made them have any chance... if any. US pilots have the luck to never entery direct combats with skilled russian pilots; they only fighted very low skills Irak, etc.

But yeah soviet digital computing was not very advanced :D

[asmfan]

yes, it is true that computing technologies at that moment in Russia is not good cuz many years ago the Soviet leaders made a great mistake not bringing the military technology to common peaceful life. remember the experience of the USA and CIA brought the Internet to life, thanks them;) i wouldn't speak now to a such interesting people without their help:)

[PBrennick]

asmfan,
You make a very  good point.  It is fun to communicate with people all over the word.  I bet it is a lot of fun to fly an aircraft!

Paul

[asmfan]

may be, Paul, may be... im just some kind a MIG-29 weapon mechanic/specialist (you know rockets, bombs, 23/31cm guns, etc.) but alas not a pilot...