
Insider Accounts of Computing and Life at BBN: A sixty-year report (2011) [pdf] - indescions_2018
http://walden-family.com/bbn/bbn-print2.pdf
======
pnash
I worked at BBN from 1996 to 1999. Not mentioned within the PDF is the role
that BBN played in the Information Security space - a large portion of the
L0pht (L0pht Heavy Industries / L0phtcrack / @stake, etc) worked at BBN. 4 out
of 7 folks worked there. Peite Zatko (Mudge), myself, and later Chris Wysopal
(Weld Pond / VeraCode) all worked in the IT Security department and were
responsible for just about all things security related. Brian Oblivion also
worked at the L0pht as an electrical engineer working on RF & satellite
related work. Hobbit, author of netcat, also did some stints there in the late
90s. A large number of l0pht advisories came out the research and work we did
to secure internal systems/software. We had some early access to Marcus
Ranum’s new venture at the time - Network Flight Recorder and wrote some of
the first modules. In early ‘99 I left BBN to work full time on the L0pht to
write a set of hybrid protocol analysis/IDS signatures for NFR to help it
become a true IDS system.

BBN was an amazing place; if you had a question about a protocol for example,
you could track down one of the original authors of the RFC - sometimes they
were located right down the hall.

BBN believed in employees and looked for people with passion, honesty and the
desire to continually learn. I met my late wife at BBN. With a masters in
Italian Literature and some scattered technical experience (satellite internet
uplink/downlink stuff) she applied for a position at the company. They looked
at her resume, lack of experience, and asked what Italian lit had to do with
the Internet - “absolutely nothing” she replied, but expressed her interest in
understanding how the Internet worked. They hired her in the CSC - Customer
Support Center and slowly gave her training. She had great mentors and quickly
jumped into becoming a Network Analyst, from there Infrastructure Engineer and
finally to one of the peak technical groups (on the BBN Planet / networking
side) - Network Engineering. Prior to BBN being sold out to GTE, she was one
of two people that worked on peering arrangements for customers and other
network providers. She knew the main backbone like the back of her hand and
would haggle with companies to ensure that peering arrangements were fair and
not one sided. Before the downfall, she argued internally as well - throwing
salespeople under the bus when they’d over promise bandwidth from a local POP
that was already approaching capacity. She started off with minimal technical
experience and networking knowledge, but left with deep technical knowledge of
Cisco router internals, BGP, and all things Internet/peering related. BBN
believed in her, saw promise and invested in her - as they tried to do with
everyone.

BBN was an awesome place - there was a hydro-acoustic submarine testing tank,
some anechoic chambers, an amazing library, and some really cool technology.
There was a meeting to show off “bullet ears” which involved a hidden sniper
in a garage. The technology could identify the path of the bullet as well as
the location of the sniper. For the 90s, it was an amazing place to be.

.. it always broke my heart when we were sold off to GTE to become GTE
Internetworking. It eventually was bought by Verizon and spun off to become
Genuity, which tanked. Level3 swooped in like vultures and picked over the
remaining folks - you could keep your job if you moved to Denver or Atlanta
from what I recall. Of the folks that moved, most of them were laid off in a
few years. Sadly, BBN had ASN1, which Level3 scuttled in favor of their ASN -
3356.

It was a great place.

-Paul

~~~
macintux
We overlapped there. I worked in a different security team in 97-98, the one
that sold a certificate solution and where Stephen Kent was designing IPSec.
Wish I’d spent more time learning from him, bright guy.

The GTE acquisition occurred one month after I moved to Boston and started
there. Definitely a weird time.

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anonu
This is a great find. Right before college I had the chance to sit in a lab at
BBN for a few of the summer months. I believe at the time they were owned by
Verizon. I remember thinking that I was walking on hallowed ground - where
many computing "firsts" had happened. But they were a bit of a shadow of their
former self... In some sense I feel that is true for a lot of tech. Govt or
defense funding planted the original seeds for a lot of the great tech we have
today. Now bleeding edge tech is mostly driven by rich guys and their pet
projects...

I still have a mug and a t-shirt from BBN. My wife almost threw the mug out
once. Umm... NOPE!

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chiph
One of the cool things I saw while in the USAF (but didn't realize just how
cool it was at the time) was the installation of a BBN Interface Message
Processor at McClellan AFB in 1986. It was probably one of the last ones to
get installed on the ARPANET.

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kwaldman
I worked at bbn for 10 years. Wonderful culture. I got to learn hardware,
software and systems as a jnr engineer working across the world. Amazing
people who developed technology from first principles. Thanks for sharing,
great memories.

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pasbesoin
Every time BBN gets mentioned, I'm reminded of the book, "Where the Wizards
Stay Up Late", where they get some mention and credit.

Unfortunately, a garage flood took out my copy, shortly after a move. But as I
recall, I rather enjoyed the read.

~~~
timrichard
There seem to be a few formats on Amazon, including an unabridged audiobook
[1] :

[http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-
Late/dp/06848326...](http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-
Late/dp/0684832674/)

Kindle edition sells to US-only accounts though, which is a bit annoying :-(

[1] The Kindle version + Audible upgrade is nearly always cheaper than Audible
alone. Not sure why.

~~~
kryptiskt
I bought it for Kindle from Sweden, and it doesn't look unavailable to buy for
me now.

~~~
timrichard
Ah, maybe it's just the UK :-(

