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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[UPDATE] Sentinel - December 8th
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step
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Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 119
Location: Boston-ish

 		[UPDATE] Sentinel - December 8th
Quote:
Iona Interviews... Gregory Dempsey
By IONA RODIE

Gregory Dempsey, the once-shamed former lead of the Centrifuge research and development team, has a brand new venture in the Old Town. Its new offices are riddled with the imagery of prosperity, from a smooth sweep of natural quartz -- the reception desk -- down to the original Sansi Valaya three-dimensional visual puzzle in the lobby. Dempsey himself is dapper in a sueded jacket, his silvering hair lending him a gravitas his youthful face would otherwise deny him. Dempsey is clearly of the school that looking successful leads to true success.

On this Tuesday morning, the office is bare of employees, however. He greets me at the desk himself, and a brisk walk to his office gives me glimpses of empty rooms filled only with construction supplies. "The company is just gearing up to occupy this space," Dempsey says, with an unreadable quirk of an eyebrow. "Most of our personnel are working odd hours and odd locations until we're done with the building. Our bloody estate agent couldn't get us into anyplace in a timely fashion, and now we're used to working that way."

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Dempsey's claim to fame, until now, was his unexpected and highly public termination of his decades-long relationship with security giant Centifuge. Until then he had enjoyed a quiet career in the Centrifuge research labs, working alongside a succession of more high-profile colleagues such as Sente Kiteway, Raisa Howell, and Amiko Leckworthy.

"It was an excellent education in security policy," Dempsey says. "I spent decades learning from the best, climbing up from a research assistant all the way to the top. It was my dream."

For someone who had given so much to the company, working exclusively in the employ of Centrifuge from the day he graduated from the Academy in 222, his firing must have seemed like a heart-stopping act of betrayal. Dempsey and his defenders have said that he was made a scapegoat for the failings of the entire next-gen key division, which is even today rumoured to be riddled with security loopholes and other critical design flaws. According to Centrifuge's most recent announcements, the technology has been delayed until late next year.

Dempsey shrugs, though his face is dark with bitterness. "Someone had to pay the price for all of the nex-gen problems, and particularly the Magic Lamp issue. As head of the department, all security breaches were ultimately my problem, so at the end of the day, I was blamed internally for Djinn [even though] the actual vulnerability was exploited by someone who had improper access to company information. ... If our internal security policy had been strictly adhered to, there would never have been a Djinn." He adds that he feels, however incorrectly, that if he had been more of a news figure on his own before then, he might still be at Centrifuge today. "I didn't have the media muscle to fire back," he says.

With his new enterprise, Locus Technology, Dempsey is finally stepping into the limelight. Now out of Centrifuge's shadow, Dempsey has transformed from a retiring figure in a white labcoat to a wheel-spinning entrepreneur, setting investors on fire with his vision for the future. Rhetoric aside, though, was it difficult to attract investment with such a black mark on his record?

"It took a long time," Dempsey admits; time during which he began the company anyway with lecks from his own pocket. "We actually had several clients before we had any investors at all. It's been a troublesome time for me and my family."

Now, Locus is still a fledgling affair, though growing fast with the help of seed capital from a cabal of private investors -- satisfied clients all, Dempsey claims. "With Locus, we plan to completely reinvent the private key services sector," Dempsey says. "The giant companies have begun to treat security like a commodity product, when it just isn't. ... Centrifuge and the other headliners are only interested in enterprise-level security these days, and it's just as important on a personal level. We aim to provide boutique security services to a smaller scale, where the scope of our endeavours fits more closely to the precise need at hand. ... Families and individuals."

Those aspirations certainly sound grand -- maybe even bankable. But the question remains, who are the customers? Dempsey shakes his head. "We have customers, trust me," he says. "But I wouldn't be a very good security consultant if I went telling you who they are, would I?"


Quote:
View from Earth: A Sporting Analogy
By CJFTHISTLE

cjfthistleI am personally fascinated by the PCAG and the amount of media coverage that has been devoted to Serena Duncan and her current form. We on Earth can only come to grips with the Games, as with all things Perplexian, through fragile and sometimes misleading analogy. In my country, sport is the prime diversion of the newspaper readership and is the analogy I choose to understand this aspect of Perplexian culture.

There are, I should imagine, many differences between these pastimes. For example sport is often much more about the body than the mind, combining a degree of violence and strategy that depends on the sport and on the level at which it is played. In other sports where the mind is under greater scrutiny, like golf, cricket or snooker for example, we still talk about a mental toughness or resistance, rather than a Perplexian agility or flexibility of mind.

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In fact, a great many of our sports have as their origins death, violence and war. Take for example the 'noble sport' of boxing. Although it cannot be said that the sport has total approval on Earth, it is definitely popular and has very clearly defined rules and regulations to ensure a fair contest. When the recent controversy regarding oliverkeers and his beating up of 5 small children broke in the Sentinel, how many Perplexians realised that oliverkeers would have followed the Rules laid down by the Marquis of Queensbury in 1867? Or that he would have dedicated a certain sum of the prize purse to his agent? While our sports may appear violent and bloodthirsty to you in Perplex City, do not despise their civilised nature.

In my home town of Glasgow the sport of choice is fitba. This game resembles both the American sport of football and the global sport of soccer. The rules are simple: like all Scottish sports, the object involves a ball and an attempt involving controlled violence to place that ball where one wants it to go. An extreme version of tidying-up, if you will. Fitba, however, has one important difference: the influence of the 'fans,' the spectators. In recent years the ability of the fitba fans to incite hatred, accomplish victory by simple wishful thinking and act with extreme indignation following defeat has become nothing short of an art form, especially with the advent of television coverage. More and more people are daily becoming spectators as what was once the reserve of the enthusiastic, motivated and pathological has become accessible to the lazy, uninformed and pathological.

I would like to hear more from the Perplex citizens on the role that spectators, fans and pundits play in the Games, whether passions run high between rival groups of fans and whether anyone believes the hype generated by the press. I hope too that we can continue to find and work on analogies between our cultures as we strive for common understanding and ever closer co-operation.


News in Brief
Quote:
Fenlon's Coffee Still Has What It Takes

The level of chic of Fenlon's for coffee and puzzles has waxed and waned many a time over the past few years, but one thing remains stone-solid: Nobody can beat Fenlon's coffee and delectably flaky seasonal pastries. The quality of the competition varies by time of day, but Fenlon's remains an excellent place to go for some friendly matches at chess, dominoes, or card games galore, particularly in the afternoons and evenings. Four stars. (Full text)


More Headlines
Quote:
# Alta Makes Comeback
# Hibbert Lawsuit Drags
# Willow Hits Top


Letters
Quote:
CUBE RETRIEVAL PROGRESS

It is now perfectly obvious to anyone what a bang-up job the Cube Retrieval Team appear to be doing. With all of this information regarding the thousands of cube-hunters on Earth, it really brings a tear to my eye to think of how these people are selflessly aiding our cause and bringing new hope to our people. I hope that in return, we can bring the Light of the Cube to Earth and bring peace to their barbaric shores. Perhaps all of this was meant to be, in Gyvann's name.
Roland Cupertine

I am astounded to say that I saw Tippy Ankron, allegedly one of Sente Kiteway's 'Cube Retrieval Team,' at Conundra with Helix Hesh in the middle of the afternoon last week. It was clear from her state (if you follow me) that she had been there for some time, and had no intention of leaving to go back to work at any point in the future! Is this the level of dedication we can expect from the people working to recover our most prized artefact? The Academy should look into the hours and practices of this allegedly noble and hard-working team to make sure they are, in fact, working toward the best interests of the city, and not the best interests of their own leck-delving visions.
Lenora Carrick

LEADERBOARD TIRESOME

I, for one, am finding all of these 'Earth leaderboard' articles in the Sentinel tiresome. We all know perfectly well that there is progress being made on Earth, but that doesn't mean we must hear about every tiny solve by third-rate amateurs on Earth. The PCAG championship is in full and exciting swing, and it could certainly use the extra coverage!
Cora Fuentana

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Every step 3 brings with it new perspectives.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:12 pm
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locqust
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Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 545
Location: Gloucestershire UK

 		Re: [UPDATE] Sentinel - December 8th
step wrote:
"Someone had to pay the price for all of the nex-gen problems, and particularly the Magic Lamp issue. As head of the department, all security breaches were ultimately my problem, so at the end of the day, I was blamed internally for Djinn [even though] the actual vulnerability was exploited by someone who had improper access to company information. ... If our internal security policy had been strictly adhered to, there would never have been a Djinn."


Hmmm perhaps a clue to help us on shuffled?
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 6:26 pm
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Brian Morton
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Joined: 22 Sep 2005
Posts: 178
Location: San antonio

 		I'm not even going to try to fully grasp the concept of the shuffled cipher but on The Futures it states, "home is where your heart lives". I am hoping that it's a good clue (maybe I'm going to figure that damn cipher out after all. It all depends on my gin intake)
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:19 pm
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Sentinel
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Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 109
Location: St Helens

 		From the Sentinel:
Quote:
it really brings a tear to my eye to think of how these people are selflessly aiding our cause and bringing new hope to our people.


Not quite selflessly really, when there's £100,000 at stake. Twisted Evil
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:35 am
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Daffy889
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Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 493
Location: South Australia

 		Re: [UPDATE] Sentinel - December 8th
locqust wrote:
Hmmm perhaps a clue to help us on shuffled?


Maybe, we've been given a couple of new names of Centrifuge employees (or ex-employees) as possible suspects - "Raisa Howell and Amiko Leckworthy" (and "Sente Kiteway", but you don't really think he would have anything to do with it, do you?).

And I wonder how many Lecks Fenlon's Coffee paid to the Sentinel for that mention...
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Daffy³
Perplex City Map

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:42 am
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perplexed
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Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 261
Location: Greater London, UK

 		'security loopholes' riddling the entire key network... the guy that caused them, discraced, but still filthy rich. I smell the undeniable stench of the 3P.
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'take not my words as sacred, for in the Cube alone lies the power and each man must seek it for himself.' - Gyvaan
perplexed, moi? Definitely Razz

PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:22 pm
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