I need help with a dig.
I saw this old video from Musk. I've seen it before, but I never really understood the potential implications of one thing he said. His startup Zip2 (originally Global Link Information Network, Inc.) rented space 1 floor above an ISP in Silicon Valley. They made a contract with the ISP for internet services, but were able to drill a hole in the floor and connect directly to the servers to get likely some of the best service in the world at that time. But read that again: DIRECT CONNECTION TO THE SERVER. Imagine the shit security back then…
Moar on Zip2: https://loopinput.com/this-is-what-elon-musks-first-website-looked-like/
This is also interesting: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/the-unknown-story-of-elon-musks-first-company-7481ef7867a3
I'm not saying there's a there, there, BUT what if he tapped into something he shouldn't have seen???
I found his supposed 1995 business card https://nextvee.com/what-happened-to-zip2-elon-musks-1995-business-card/ with the address for the office of Zip2 at the time, but I haven't found out who that ISP was. The address on the card is the address of their second office. The first office is pictured in a photo on this page: https://levelup.gitconnected.com/the-unknown-story-of-elon-musks-first-company-7481ef7867a3 The address is 430 Sherman Avenue Palo Alto, California, the Fortuna Building. The FCC may have some earlier records like this, published in 2006: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-264247A1.pdf
I did find this there, which is interesting, but not sure if the dates overlap:
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PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)
US-Japan Technology Management Center
Stanford University
430 Sherman Avenue, #312
Palo Alto, CA 94306
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SPONSORING / MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)
AIR FORCE OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH/PKA
110 Duncan Avenue, Suite Bl 15
Boiling Air Force Base
Washington D.C. 20332-0001
source: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA398773.pdf
Japan? Satoshi Nakamoto? Space Force? hmmm….
Zip2 was like a US yellow pages and he and his brother later sold it to Compaq and started paypal. Compaq bought it to integrate into the Altavista search offering: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/17/business/compaq-buys-zip2-to-enhance-altavista.html Later, they expanded into back end software for directories with major newspaper companies like the NYT and the Hearst Corp. Think city guides, etc. Along with that, they also provided those papers with EMAIL, CALENDAR, and DIRECT-TO-ADVERTISER MESSAGING services…
The 3rd founder was Greg Kouri, who died unexpectedly August 11, 2012 at 51: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article213257164.html Strangely, that obit/article was updated in 2018. He was also a paypal investor, and has some other interesting things potentially worth investigating. He's not an immediate relative of Pierre Kory, if you're wondering, but that Kouri being a Lebanese name does peak a slight interest.
Anyway, I'm calling it a night, but I think this might be a worthy dig if anyone is interested in taking it up. Clearly Musk is an asset or a turned co-conspirer. Figuring out how that came to be may give us some golden nuggets of understanding.
Lastly, it's interesting that Musk was at the premier of the HBO series Silicon Valley, a show that ultimately became about decentralizing the internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOIiXczy5vQ
https://www.wsj.com/video/stars-of-hbo-silicon-valley-meet-tech-elite/B820A2A3-CF19-453D-8766-593EA5673DCD
https://www.wsj.com/video/hbos-silicon-valley-creators-talk-techs-real-bubble/19DEFBA9-AA4E-4758-A750-E6A9BC18D41D