[milhous]

>> NSA hires the best nerds.

I'm skeptical of this. In a hypothetical programming/engineering competition, I'd bet Apple and/or Google could clean the clocks of any government agency or defense contractor, sans building planes and weapons.

>> Nerds that I have have met or seen in mailing lists, have a strong co-relation with totalitarianism aka evil sysadmins.

Sad. That's what assimilation and institutionalization does to you. Hope that never happens to me.

[jlgreco]

From what I have seen of the NSA's campus recruiting, I am skeptical of that as well. It is possible that they get most of their talent elsewhere, but at the very least they are missing a large source of it.

It is probably more accurate to say that they hire the best math guys that only have a single degree. They certainly aren't getting those who go on to be quants.