David Shayer, TidBITS:

It was a gray day in late 2005. I was sitting at my desk, writing code for the next year’s iPod. Without knocking, the director of iPod Software—my boss’s boss—abruptly entered and closed the door behind him. He cut to the chase. “I have a special assignment for you. Your boss doesn’t know about it. You’ll help two engineers from the US Department of Energy build a special iPod. Report only to me.”

This is an unbelievable read. But totally believable, since it’s from David Shayer, who worked as a software engineer at Apple for about 18 years. Look him up. Then follow the headline link and read the whole thing.