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From: al@gtx.com (0732)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,comp.misc
Subject: NSA's googol ad
Message-ID: <458@gtx.com>
Date: Fri, 4-Dec-87 13:14:37 EST
Article-I.D.: gtx.458
Posted: Fri Dec  4 13:14:37 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Dec-87 05:34:56 EST
Reply-To: al@gtx.UUCP (Al Filipski)
Organization: GTX Corporation, Phoenix
Lines: 31
Xref: mnetor talk.bizarre:5933 comp.misc:1724


The December issue of the IEEE Spectrum (p. 79R) has a full page ad for 
the NSA that begins:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000



You're looking at a "googol."  Ten raised to the 100th power.  One followed
by 100 zeroes.  Counting 24 hours a day, you would need 120 years to reach
a googol.

		[more deleted, culminating in recruitment pitch]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This claim, "Counting 24 hours a day, you would need 120 years to reach a 
googol.", raises some interesting questions.  Did they put this gross error 
in as a test for prospective employees? Do they have the technology to
count at  rate of 10^90 Hz? Can they use it to break DES?  Is my name being
put on a list somewhere? Enquiring minds want to know.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   | Alan Filipski, GTX Corp, 2501 W. Dunlap, Phoenix, Arizona 85021, USA |
   | {ihnp4,cbosgd,decvax,hplabs,seismo}!sun!sunburn!gtx!al (602)870-1696 |
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

"away beyond the ishkabow and over the foofram sea 
there is a place called boofland where very soon you'll be"