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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: Easy money (Tempesting)
Message-ID: <916@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Fri, 25-Jul-86 08:24:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.916
Posted: Fri Jul 25 08:24:09 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Jul-86 21:19:26 EDT
References: <578@imsvax.UUCP> <4867@dartvax.UUCP>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 31

In article <4867@dartvax.UUCP>, vizard@dartvax.UUCP (Todd Krein) writes:
> > Anyone who got into this game with Taiwanese generic stuff and only
> > charged double the going rates for this kind of equipment would be loved
> > by God, his banker, AND the federal government.
> 
> Just a question... Have YOU ever tried to make anything TEMPEST class?
> It's a hell of lot harder than just a new enclosure, having tried to
> do something similar, and having talked w/ people who do it for a living.

Most of the reason for charging 5 or 10 times the "standard" rate for
a "tempested" version is because the only customer is the government,
and it's become a science among a set of companies as to good ways
to rob the government blind.  (The gov't goes along with the robbery, so
it's hard to fix 100% of the blame on the companies, though I think
they are immoral by my standards.  Then again, I think anybody who
customizes their products for the military is immoral by my standards.)

Yes, it is hard to make a useful piece of electronics that doesn't
radiate RFI.  A lot has been learned about it since the FCC started
requiring tougher standards for everybody.  Even to meet Tempest standards
should probably not double the cost of a workstation or Fece clone.

Some more competition in the Tempest field would do the world some good.
And at least it's not a weapon, it's just a computer that other people
can't listen in on.  The moral problem comes in when you consider what
they *do* with that computer -- typically, use it to spy on people like me,
or hold the results of such spying, or hold the plans for weapons
to kill people like me, etc.
-- 
John Gilmore  {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu   jgilmore@lll-crg.arpa
		     May the Source be with you!