There are two issues with this.

1) Some of these algorithms depend on receiving quality random number systems from the underlying operating system. It's possible some of those random number generators have been manipulated and its going to be pretty hard to check on Windows or OSX random number generators.

2) The backdoor's do not look like (if strncmp(pass,"NSA",3) == 0) { return plaintext }. The backdoors are sophisticated mathematical weaknesses in the algorithms. A code inspection is not sufficient to detect these kids of backdoors it takes dedicated analysis by experts. Just look at some of the discussions going on right now, some algorithms are suspect and you will hear real experts going back and forth on even if a weakness exists. AES have been around since 2001, approved by NIST based on a proposal by Belgian cryptographers. Does it have a back door? Let's hope to hell not.

DES was a good algorithm in its day but it's known (sorry I can't find the citation, I think it had something to do with how the S-boxes were chosen) that very slight changes to the algorithm dramatically weakens its effectiveness. Now in DES's case that didn't happen, good values were chosen, but it would have been easy to put in a nearly invisible weakness into the algorithm.

Nice try NSA

Oops, yes I seem to have lost a decade somewhere, guess my slow clock speed is showing.

The Cray-2 had a variant of Unix called UniCos (Unix Cray operating system). I'm sure slashdot could port Linux to it :).

I was privileged to program on the Cray-2 back in the day. It was an awesome machine if you had the right kinds of problems for it to solve. My hat is off to the company who let me use the fastest computer in the world for my vi sessions :). That said it;s hardly surprising that the march of Moore's law has resulted in an iPad today beating a computer 13 or so years its senior.

Some perspective, anyone much older than the poster who is working in IT since they were 22 has had to deal with a VAST array of technology changes. Most people in the business are as eager as you are to stay on top of the latest technologies but you will find as you have a family and other life commitments that you won't have quite as much time to learn *everything*.

Sure some workplaces can be bad, I agree with other posters that if you don't fit in move along and find someplace you like better. But overall, I would guess you are not assessing your situation very clearly at the moment. Give it and your coworkers a little more time, I bet they know more than you think.

Another important point, they used lower than typical voltage, this also contributed to extending the lifetime of the tubes.