We were a secret!

It seems that due to some oddities with (and I’m guessing here) whatever DNS servers our host and your ISP uses, we (and a number of other sites) have been vanishing from the internet over the past few days. Depending on how this propagated, some only saw it today, while others have been puzzled for nearly 2 days.

I was one of the ‘lucky’  ones, so wasn’t aware of this until recently, but it seems that the cause has been found and rectified at source, and we’re re-appearing, so thought it worth mentioning.

Probably also worth noting that this highlights the vulnerability of the internet to abuse by whoever holds the keys to a few servers that hold the DNS records – kill them, and you effectively end all civilian and commercial use of the internet. Possibly an over-simplification, but nevertheless a principle worthy of thought.

Check DNS in Wikipedia for some insight.

Anonymous secrets

Just a quick link to something that seemed appropriate.

Free, anonymous browsing can now be achieved with a modified version of the Firefox browser, just released.

Stored on a flash-memory stick, the Torpark browser is said to turn any PC into an anonymous terminal.

No installation is required as such, just two files generated from the downloaded application.

See the Torpark site for some limitation that also apply.

Devil’s Porridge

Described as “the largest factory in the world”…

Built to address an almost disastrous shortage of shells on The Front in 1915, HM Factory, Gretna was a munitions factory dedicated to the production of Cordite, a smokeless, high explosive propellant used by the military. Employing up to 30,000 workers at one point during its construction, the factory manufactured over 800 tons of the material per week, and gave rise to the village of Eastriggs and township of Gretna within its bounds, created to house its employees. The factory covered an area 9 miles long by 2 miles wide, extending from Eastriggs in the west, across the Scottish/English border, and across to Longtown in the west.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the factory in 1918, and wrote an article including the phrase “The nitroglycerin on the one side and the gun-cotton on the other are kneaded into a sort of devil’s porridge“, a description which came to be associated with the factory’s product.

The factory was dismantled (and largely forgotten) following the end of World War I, and little remains, but a local historian re-discovered much of the history, and there is now a local exhibition marking the former factory, and its product.

Mapping WWII UK airfields, AA and decoy sites

Having created one or two maps, and plotted a good few locations using Google’s map API, I can recommend this Google Earth link to provide a superb overview of World War II airfields, Heavy Anti-Aircraft gun sites and (bombing) Decoy sites. In addition, there are locations included for the early Sound Mirrors, and many RADAR stations.

Google Earth placemarks for WWII (and more) sites

Not only do the placemarks identify the locations, they also contain further data when opened, and provide an excellent starting point for researching a given site, or cross-referencing information or data you may already have.

Unlike applications using the map API, GE does not suffer from the dreadful slowing down effect incurred when more than a hundred or so points are displayed, and this application allows all the points to be shown in a reasonable time (PC spec permitting of course). To see how bad this effect can sometimes be, check the various map options displaying the locations of ROC posts in Scotland I wrote while playing around with the map API, and the methods used to try and overcome the delay.
Thanks to Matin Briscoe for this effort, a name I know well from my time hunting ROC posts and spending hours on Subterranea Britannica and the Research Study Group section that specialises in Cold War sites.

Beginnings

This site is part of a larger project, and is presently being evaluated to see how it can best fit into the overall structure of Secret Scotland.

It will probably be the place where anything new or interesting gets listed, as the main site requires a page be created for new items, and while some items may be particularly interesting or intriguing, they may still not be sufficiently tangible to justify the creation of a new page to note or record them.

Please visit the main site, better still add to it, join in the forum discussions (or just offer a comment).

Hello world!