I work in computer security. I write software to search for “interesting” data in billions of connections between millions of computers. Many times the “interesting” stuff I find turns out to be not quite as “interesting” as I initially thought. I always run it by others to do a “reality check” before investing too much time investigating or raising an alarm of some sort.
I showed my boss some “interesting” data recently:
Chris (my boss): Do you every feel like that guy in a movie sitting in front of radar screen saying, “I don’t think that is a flock of birds!”?
Me: All the time.
Chris: Yeah, well, I don’t think this is a flock of birds.
It’s not a flock of birds, it’s a B-17 flight coming in from the states. OOPS
That’s a “Bravo One Romeo Delta.” (B1RD) That’s what we’d say when one of the lookouts on the ship thought they saw a plane – when it was really a bird.
birds? Ask Captain Sully how important it is to keep an eye out for flocks of birds.
Then there’s Cliff Stoll and “The Cuckoo’s Egg”.
“Cliff, here’s a $.75 charge we don’t know where it came from or what it’s for.
Find out what it is”
Great book! I loved it.
Chinese birds