Kelley wrote:
>
> At 06:17 PM 10/4/02 -0500, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > More like ditch-digging than writing a
> >symphony.
>
> well, i imagine you've dug ditches, but have you written a symphony or done
> programming? if you haven't, then how can you compare?
>
I was speaking of cryptanalysis -- which I have done (as I have in fact dug ditches). And all I claimed was that they had more similarity to each other than either did to writing a symphony. But then perhaps that septic tank my father and I installed about 60 years ago was the equivalent of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto?????? :-) Cryptanalysis has its moments of elation, but it's mostly slog slog slog.
(At the time I had no political objections to NSA -- I just didn't want to spend my life not being able to mention my work to anyone.) I'm assuming that now the statute of limitations has run out on NSA secrets of 1954.
Carrol