Serial numbers intelligence

[Tomasz Rola]

On Sun, Jan 31, 2021 at 05:47:49PM -0500, Dennis Boone via cctalk wrote:
>  > I'm curious to what degree people have used serial number
>  > intelligence gathering and countermeasures in the industry. Like
>  > were/are there market research firms that would go to Fry's and
>  > record numbers off of boxes to try to extrapolate sales for things
>  > like printer consumables, and whether companies like HP ever took
>  > measures to try to obfuscate the potential information content of
>  > their product serial numbers.
> 
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jul/20/secondworldwar.tvandradio
> 
> De

Nice article, but certain paragraph made me uneasy:

  "By 1941-42, the allies knew that US and even British tanks had been
  technically superior to German Panzer tanks in combat, but they were
  worried about the capabilities of the new marks IV and V. "

Oh really. I remember that US combat manual (or whatever they were
called) from the era recommended a Tiger should be engaged by at least
four Shermans. Assuming Tiger was waiting for them coming by the road,
the first one was to be destroyed by the first shot, then the next one
or two while they were getting closer to German tank, and finally the
fourth had a chance to outmanouver the Tiger (they really sucked in
dancing, from what I have read) and pack it a shot in the back from
close distance.

Sorry for nitpicking. Perhaps my memory comes from alternative
reality, but it rhymes with data claiming that number of M4 Shermans
produced during 1942-1945 period was almost 50000.

As of the problem itself, here are some links. It is called "German
tanks problem".

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20318184

https://www.eadan.net/blog/german-tank-problem/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_tank_problem

-- 
Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
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**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **