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Wow! This being released is wonderful and unexpected. I first heard about these tapes being found six weeks ago yet the NSA being unable to release them due to

Wow! This being released is wonderful and unexpected. I first heard about these tapes being found six weeks ago yet the NSA being unable to release them due to not having a suitable working 1-inch VTR machine (via this article: https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2024/jul/10/grace-hopper-lost-lecture-found-nsa/ https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2024/jul/10/grace-hop...) That article was re-posted here on HN and elsewhere but didn't seem to get much attention and I feared the worst, since 1-inch magnetic video tape degrades with time. Very frustrating since such vintage VTRs do exist in working order in the hands of museums, video preservationists and collectors. Now six weeks later we get the best possible news! Hopefully, that article and the re-postings helped spread the word and someone in control of access to the tape got connected to someone with the gear. And what an amazing piece of history to have preserved. I'm only ten minutes into the first tape but she's obviously a treasure - clear thinking, great communication and a sharp wit. Even captured here later in life you can clearly see why she was so successful and highly regarded by her peers (including some the most notable people in early computing history).

molticrystal 2y ago
From the press release on the page[0] explains they got a machine from the National Archives. Though it probably would of been more fun if they directly cooperated with citizens of the public to decode the tapes. >While NSA did not possess the equipment required to access the footage from the media format in which it was preserved, NSA deemed the footage to be of significant public interest and requested assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to retrieve the footage. NARA’s Special Media Department was able to retrieve the footage contained on two 1’ APEX tapes and transferred the footage to NSA to be reviewed for public release. [0] https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Press-Release-View/Article/3884041/nsa-releases-copy-of-internal-lecture-delivered-by-computing-giant-rear-adm-gra/ https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Pre...
- dtx1 2y ago
  The NSA being the good guys for once feels strange. Especially caring for public interest.
  - aftbit 2y ago
    That used to be the norm! My personal favorite story along those lines was how they proposed changes to DES S-boxes without any detailed explanation. The open community was skeptical but it later turned out that the changes they proposed protected against differential cryptanalysis[1], which was at the time not known outside the intelligence community. That said, they did cut the key size dramatically which ended up weakening DES to the point that it could be trivially brute forced by the early 2000s, which led to 3DES and AES. 1: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of_d.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of...
    - adastra22 2y ago
      Yeah they unfortunately abused the good will they got from that. Once differential cryptanalysis was known and it was clear the NSA had strengthened the DES S-boxes, people started trusting them. And they started making lots of suggestions to various standards. Only now they were inserting back doors. It wasn’t until Snowden that the pendulum of public paranoia swung back the other way.
      - tptacek 2y ago
        You're using the plural for "backdoors" there; what's the other one you're aware of?
        dekhn 2y ago
        the morris hexabox shunt
        adastra22 2y ago
        https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-nsa-attempting-to-insert-backdoors-into-encrypted-data https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-the...
- Animats 2y ago
  I wrote, about a month ago: "The National Archives and Records Administration has standard procedures and approved vendors for this.[1] One of their approved vendors, Colorlab, has 1" type C equipment. Colorlab is conveniently located just outside the Capitol Beltway, about 20 miles west of NSA HQ at Fort Meade. Colorlab does preservation and conversion work for the Library of Congress, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, The New York Public Library, Paramount, HBO, etc. NARA has a standard form for government agencies requesting this service.[3] It looks like it's not even charged against the sending agency - Archives picks up the bill."[1] Maybe somebody got the message. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957026

molticrystal 2y ago

From the press release on the page[0] explains they got a machine from the National Archives. Though it probably would of been more fun if they directly cooperated with citizens of the public to decode the tapes. >While NSA did not possess the equipment required to access the footage from the media format in which it was preserved, NSA deemed the footage to be of significant public interest and requested assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to retrieve the footage. NARA’s Special Media Department was able to retrieve the footage contained on two 1’ APEX tapes and transferred the footage to NSA to be reviewed for public release. [0] https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Press-Release-View/Article/3884041/nsa-releases-copy-of-internal-lecture-delivered-by-computing-giant-rear-adm-gra/ https://www.nsa.gov/Press-Room/Press-Releases-Statements/Pre...

dtx1 2y ago
The NSA being the good guys for once feels strange. Especially caring for public interest.
- aftbit 2y ago
  That used to be the norm! My personal favorite story along those lines was how they proposed changes to DES S-boxes without any detailed explanation. The open community was skeptical but it later turned out that the changes they proposed protected against differential cryptanalysis[1], which was at the time not known outside the intelligence community. That said, they did cut the key size dramatically which ended up weakening DES to the point that it could be trivially brute forced by the early 2000s, which led to 3DES and AES. 1: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of_d.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of...
  - adastra22 2y ago
    Yeah they unfortunately abused the good will they got from that. Once differential cryptanalysis was known and it was clear the NSA had strengthened the DES S-boxes, people started trusting them. And they started making lots of suggestions to various standards. Only now they were inserting back doors. It wasn’t until Snowden that the pendulum of public paranoia swung back the other way.
    - tptacek 2y ago
      You're using the plural for "backdoors" there; what's the other one you're aware of?
      - dekhn 2y ago
        the morris hexabox shunt
      - adastra22 2y ago
        https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-nsa-attempting-to-insert-backdoors-into-encrypted-data https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-the...
Animats 2y ago
I wrote, about a month ago: "The National Archives and Records Administration has standard procedures and approved vendors for this.[1] One of their approved vendors, Colorlab, has 1" type C equipment. Colorlab is conveniently located just outside the Capitol Beltway, about 20 miles west of NSA HQ at Fort Meade. Colorlab does preservation and conversion work for the Library of Congress, Warner Bros., Universal, NBC, The New York Public Library, Paramount, HBO, etc. NARA has a standard form for government agencies requesting this service.[3] It looks like it's not even charged against the sending agency - Archives picks up the bill."[1] Maybe somebody got the message. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40957026