NRO and venture funding

I've been trying to deconstruct the 1990-ish NRO Program A (the USAF
part of Big Black) phone list at
http://www.fas.org/irp/nro/directors.jpg to better understand what was
going on at the time. Success so far has been indifferent, though there
are a number of leads.

However, the thing that is most interesting, and which I'd never had
a hint of before, is the entry for SP-17, headed by James Opfer. A bit
of Googling finds the following, which is fascinating if true:

www.launchpower.com/mp_display.asp?page=461 (Google-cached;
LaunchPower.com seems to have croaked.)

Mr. Opfer is Founder, President and CEO of LaunchPower Inc.
Previously, he was Entrepreneur in Residence at Altos Ventures after
selling his business news delivery service to AskJeeves. He has been
helping and running startups for over 15 years also serving as
Venture Advisor to Accel Partners, Advisory Principal to Sterling
Payot Investments in the telecommunications and wireless areas. Very
active on the wireless speaking and writing circuit in the mid-1990s,
Jim was known as one of the most connected persons in the world.

Jim retired from the Air Force as a Colonel in 1992 after 21 years
building fixed and mobile telecommunications networks for the
Department of Defense. His Air Force career was highlighted by
serving in Presidential Communications for the Reagan
Administration/National Security Agency and chief architect
for networks for the National Reconnaissance Office. Mr. Opfer
was responsible for over 1,700 people worldwide and a $200 million/
year budget where he was known in Silicon Valley as the "venture
customer" who started many startups with early customer funding,
to include Cisco, GRiD Systems, and NeXT Computing.

and

http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjo...ditorial3.html

OPINION
Guest comment
Valley needs to return to national security roots
Jim Opfer
[EXCERPT]

Silicon Valley has become ground zero for one of the worst
economic downturns in well over a decade. And just when we thought
it might get better, along came the impact of the terrorist attack
on the economy and the nation.

Here we sit in what was the center of the aerospace-defense
industry for most of the Cold War. What few of us remember, or even
know, is that many of the biggest and most successful companies
started out working hand in glove with the government. For example,
Oracle began when Larry Ellison and Bob Minor were involved in a
consulting project for the CIA called "Oracle." Eventually that
project gave birth to Oracle Corp., and the CIA was the company's
first customer.

Being ex-military, a majority of my career was with the government,
where I spent millions betting on Silicon Valley startups as a venture
customer.

Allen Thomson ) wrote:
[...]
: Jim Opfer
: [EXCERPT]

: Silicon Valley has become ground zero for one of the worst
: economic downturns in well over a decade. And just when we thought
: it might get better, along came the impact of the terrorist attack
: on the economy and the nation.
:
: Here we sit in what was the center of the aerospace-defense
: industry for most of the Cold War. What few of us remember, or even
: know, is that many of the biggest and most successful companies
: started out working hand in glove with the government. For example,
: Oracle began when Larry Ellison and Bob Minor were involved in a
: consulting project for the CIA called "Oracle." Eventually that
: project gave birth to Oracle Corp., and the CIA was the company's
: first customer.

: Being ex-military, a majority of my career was with the government,
: where I spent millions betting on Silicon Valley startups as a venture
: customer.


Heck on the same token the Internet was DARPAnet as US Army contract that
allowed the sharing of advanced projects between military, science and
academic institutions. But belonging to the govt. has some proprietary
aspects. Once we turn the new established technology over to the private
sector we seem to lose it to overseas developers. The latest case in point
is a large portion of software development to India. Silicon Valley can't
be expected to survive on throwoffs from the Military Industrial Complex
lest we stay in a constant state of war. Sounds like 1984 to me.

Eric

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 18:58:05 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
(Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Sounds like 1984 to me.

Eric, you're not in my killfile because you're so damned amusing. Is
there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
to you? Have you even read the book?

--
simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole)
interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

"Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..."
Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me.
Here's my email address for autospammers:

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 04:54:57 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:

Eric, you're not in my killfile because you're so damned amusing. Is
there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
to you? Have you even read the book?

....Actually, what I want to read is the Polish sequel _1985_, where we
find that Winston Smith didn't bite it at the end, but Big Brother did
when the war with Eurasia went bad suddenly, and now the widowed Big
Sister has to pick up the pieces. The Texas U library(*) had a copy on
display back in '84 - duh! - but it was the only english translation
of the book and it was on loan and couldn't be checked out.

(*) Only library I've ever come across where they deliberately falsify
late fees on 10% of the student body to make extra money.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

In message , OM
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org writes
On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 04:54:57 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:

Eric, you're not in my killfile because you're so damned amusing. Is
there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
to you? Have you even read the book?

...Actually, what I want to read is the Polish sequel _1985_, where we
find that Winston Smith didn't bite it at the end,

Don't forget that in the original book he doesn't get killed, but that
finds that "he loved Big Brother" (and don't s****** at the back)
I once read a truly scary story saying that "heroic" ending was only in
the UK version of the 1950s film, but perhaps that isn't so.
--
Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

Jonathan Silverlight wrote:

In message , OM
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org writes
On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 04:54:57 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:

Eric, you're not in my killfile because you're so damned amusing. Is
there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
to you? Have you even read the book?

...Actually, what I want to read is the Polish sequel _1985_, where we
find that Winston Smith didn't bite it at the end,

Don't forget that in the original book he doesn't get killed, but that
finds that "he loved Big Brother" (and don't s****** at the back)
I once read a truly scary story saying that "heroic" ending was only in
the UK version of the 1950s film, but perhaps that isn't so.
--
Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

While Winston was still alive and loved Big Brother at the end of the
book, the book said that the brain washed people were eventually
assassinated.

Mike Walsh

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 00:58:11 GMT, Michael Walsh
wrote:



Jonathan Silverlight wrote:

In message , OM
om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org writes
On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 04:54:57 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:

Eric, you're not in my killfile because you're so damned amusing. Is
there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
to you? Have you even read the book?

...Actually, what I want to read is the Polish sequel _1985_, where we
find that Winston Smith didn't bite it at the end,

Don't forget that in the original book he doesn't get killed, but that
finds that "he loved Big Brother" (and don't s****** at the back)
I once read a truly scary story saying that "heroic" ending was only in
the UK version of the 1950s film, but perhaps that isn't so.
--
Rabbit arithmetic - 1 plus 1 equals 10
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

While Winston was still alive and loved Big Brother at the end of the
book, the book said that the brain washed people were eventually
assassinated.

....And the stronger hint in the Richard Burton swan song is that the
"assasinations" take place in the bar where the confessed sit and
drink Victory Gin. The bartender comes up, pours a shot, and drops in
a couple of drops of poison.


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

Hope some of you may find this interesting - I did, and not only the
space-related parts.
NB. I have no connection with author or publisher.... (-;


Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin
------------------------------------------------------
Francis Spufford

Hardcover 256 pages
6 November, 2003
Publisher: Faber and Faber
ISBN: 0571214967
List Price: £14.99

Reviewer: Anthony Cunningham from Edinburgh, Lothian Scotland

This is a marvelous book. A selection of tales from the highpoints of
British science and engineering. What's best for me is Spufford's use of
language, this is no dry list of geekery and geeks but a tale of human
endeavour, brought to life by a talented author. His writing about the
shape of Concorde, "it still looks as if a crack has opened in the fabric
of the universe and a message from tomorrow has been poked through. Only
it is clear now that the tomorrow in question was yesterday's tomorrow".
moves us to realise that even after thirty years this plane is still an
artifact of future but that sadly it is not our future. The descriptions
of ultimate fate of the Prospero satellite and the challenge to sequence
the human genome are both alternately moving and amusing. The sad tale of
the falling out between the authors of "Elite" shows just how human these
inventors are.

Rand Simberg ) wrote:
: On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 18:58:05 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
: (Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my monitor
: glow in such a way as to indicate that:

: Sounds like 1984 to me.

: Eric, you're not in my killfile because you're so damned amusing. Is

Kill files are for wimps that can't take the heat. Besides this NG doesn't
get that much traffic to killfile anyone.

: there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
: to you? Have you even read the book?

Yes, I have read the book.

Eric

: --
: simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole)
: interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

: "Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..."
: Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me.
: Here's my email address for autospammers:

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 22:32:08 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
(Eric Chomko) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

: there anything in contemporary Amerikkka that doesn't sound like 1984
: to you? Have you even read the book?

Yes, I have read the book.

One wouldn't know it to read your posts.

--
simberg.interglobal.org * 310 372-7963 (CA) 307 739-1296 (Jackson Hole)
interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

"Extraordinary launch vehicles require extraordinary markets..."
Swap the first . and @ and throw out the ".trash" to email me.
Here's my email address for autospammers: