If the NSA could *really* find terrorists via VoIP intercepts, it might look like this
This is an interesting blog entry on ZDNet posted by Russell Shaw. It was in response to a recent Mitch Ratcliffe blog entry: NSA Eavesdropping: Deep inefficiency.

In a nutshell, both bloggers believe that the NSA‘s wire tapping of telephone conversations have been grossly inefficient since valuable human resources are misappropriated.

Since VoIP is already making huge inroads into the profit margins of telcos from around the globe, Russell envisions a scenario (hilarious at best) whereby NSA “officials” would snoop on one of Osama’s VOIP calls.

I urge you to check out the blog entry. The photos depicting the conversation are absolutely hilarious.

Here’s a sample of some of the hypothetical terrorist dialog:

• “The caller I.D. says this overseas call is coming in from Al-Queda.”
• “The phone is picking up. Osama, I presume?”
• “A message is being recorded. Possibly instructions to call this number back and who to ask for.”
• “Our nefarious terrorist has returned, and notices he has missed an incoming call.”
• “Time to call back and get the deets for the final plans. Dude, where’s my car bomb?”

By the way…speaking of the NSA. I just read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown – in 2 days. I simply couldn’t put the damn book down after I started to take a peek at the firt 2 or 3 pages. Damn him, he did it to me again! I’m supposed to be writing some web content for an upcoming web portal, and I got sucked into his world – again.

To make a long story short, the book deals with issues on encryption, espionage, personal freedoms, snooping on the public’s email, the right to secrecy, and blackmailing the US government into revealing their clandestine $2 billion powerful decrypting super computer called TRANSLTR lest all their top secret data banks get exposed to every Internet web surfer. This is a game where time’s against the US government before all the world’s top hackers break down the flood gates (firewalls) and start stealing specs for nukes or obtaining the lists of spies in dangerous countries. Oh, that dude, Hulohut (the assassin), is one mean SOB who’s able to kill with deadly efficiency. I’d sacrifice my grandmother to get out of his way in a heart beat. )

Mr. Brown is also the New York Times bestselling author of The Davinci Code, which I voraciously read last month after a friend highly recommended it. It appears that I will have to read the rest of his books since he has a way of sucking you in when you have better things to do.

To conclude, not only is my trip to Kenya a rewarding experience so far. It appears that it has also allowed me to expand my mind thanks to Brown’s immense creativity. You just can’t get that from the idiot box (TV). Oh, as a bonus, I get to avoid the frigid Canadian winter.