] Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F,
] of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being
] tested at Harvard University, 9 September 1945. The
] operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the
] entry: "First actual case of bug being found". They put
] out the word that they had "debugged" the machine, thus
] introducing the term "debugging a computer program".

There's a pic on this page with the actual moth taped into the journal. Though I'm not convinced that this is where the term bug or debugging came from. It sounds like the term was already in use, and then when they found this moth, they taped it in as a joke since they'd actually "found" a bug. Still, it's a great story. :)

First computer bug?

] Everyone knows they should have a passing knowledge of
] vi, but most people groan at the thought of using it. In
] today's article, I'd like to demonstrate some of the
] tricks that vi has up its sleeve. It really is a powerful
] little editor and I'm constantly amazed at its number of
] built-in shortcuts.

A ton of neat little tricks on using "vi". I'm in and out of vi a dozen times a day, and I learned tricks from this page I never knew about!

Reference: Using the vi Editor

] The Court of Appeal in The Hague today rejected all of
] Scientology's claims in appeal in Scientology's action
] against XS4ALL, Karin Spaink and ten other internet
] providers.
]
] The practical upshot of this is that Karin Spaink's
] website, which Scientology sought to remove from the
] Internet based on copyright claims, is entirely legal in
] the Netherlands.

Good news for web-linking, bad news for the Church of Scientology. Sounds like a win-win. :)

ScientologyWatch.org - Scientology's copyright appeal rejected

] Utilities Solve Everything. Just Producing Some Easy
] EnKryption.

Nice little straightforward puzzle that uses steganography. Good for a quickie brain stretch.

Steganography Puzzle

] In case of alien abduction these dog tags may save your life.
] The crucial data an alien will need to get you back to Earth is
] die stamped into these dog tags.

This is one of those cases where it was difficult for me to do the meme recommendation, since I was laughing so hard. ;)

Location Earth Dog Tags

] A single infusion of an intestinal hormone made people eat
] less for the rest of the day, regardless of whether they
] were fat or thin, researchers are reporting today.

I've long wondered about this... That sometimes it's not activity level or willpower or self-esteem or anything like that, but simply something in the body that turns appetite on and off. I know that sometimes I sit down to a fast food meal and want to finish every last french fry, while at other times I go halfway through the box and then suddenly I'm just plain not hungry any more, so I toss the rest away uneaten.

Study Finds Appetites Reduced by Hormone

] On July 22, 2003, the European Commission has announced
] that it had sent the Greek authorities an initial letter
] of formal notice drawing attention to the fact that
] prohibiting electrical, electromechanical and electronic
] games in all public places, with the exception of
] casinos, could in practice restrict the import of these
] products in contravention of the rules of the EC Treaty
] on the free movement of goods. The general ban on the
] above-mentioned games introduced by Greek Law No 3037 of
] July 29, 2002 made it totally impossible to provide and
] supply electronic games equipment and programmes,
] particularly in public places, or to perform related
] activities (for example, the installation, repair and
] maintenance of such equipment and programmes). The law's
] broad scope initially forbade all gaming activity.
] Reportedly, the ban has already been narrowed to include
] only devices generating "any form of financial gain for
] players or third parties". However, the law could still
] represent a disproportionate restriction on the freedom
] of establishment and the freedom to provide services,
] since the law does not treat games of skill (which are in
] principle not harmful) any different than games of chance
] (which may be regulated by Member States in order to
] preserve public order or to ensure consumer protection).

Translation:

Last year, following a public outcry because a Greek official was caught gambling, a new law was passed in Greece (#3037) which banned "electronic or mechanical gaming". The wording of the new law was horrible, and as a result, the Greek police cracked down on *all* computer games -- GameBoys, internet multiplayer games, everything. Arcades were shut down, and internet cafe owners were arrested and hauled into court for such absurd things as allowing patrons to play Counter-Strike and online chess! Judges have been throwing the cases out, saying the new laws are unconstitutional, and certain guidelines have since been produced saying that the law is supposed to be focused on *gambling* machines and not *gaming* machines, but things are still chaotic.

This news from the European Commission is a follow-up, as the EU is filing formal protests against the Greek law. Greece, so far, is standing firm, claiming that it can legislate what it wants to legislate, even if it means making illegal in Greece, things that are not only legal but are thriving import/export and service businesses in other EU countries!

It's an interesting battle, not just for the effect on gaming, but also because it's going to help define the rights of the EU countries as to just how independent they're allowed to be when they're passing some law which conflicts with laws in other EU nations. Keep your popcorn handy . . .

European Commission Protests Greek Ban on e-Gaming

Supposedly this is a transcript of a May 2003 article from the Hindustan Times, about a 17-year-old boy who claims to have been asked by the U.S. government to help with cracking a steganographically-encrypted Al Qaeda message. Personally, I think this is garbage.

] The Americans had tried almost everything, but they just
] couldn't crack an encrypted message they came across
] while investigating the 9/11 attacks. Finally, they
] approached a 17-year-old boy in Delhi about whom The New
] York Times had done a feature.
]
] Over the next 10 days, Ankit Fardia hunkered down in his
] room in Delhi and came up with the key to crack the
] message.
]
] The worst fears of American investigators came true --
] Al-Qaeda was using a sophisticated technology,
] called steganography, to communicate. It involved sending
] encrypted messages concealed in a photograph or series of
] photographs.
]
] "I was lucky in some ways but I am still proud that
] I was the only one in the world to be able to crack the
] code," Fardia told the Hindustan Times from Pune,
] where he is lecturing students and corporate employees on
] cyber security. Fardia is the author of Guide to Ethical
] Hacking.
]
] Fardia was understandably cagey about revealing the
] contents of the message or the name of the US agency that
] approached him. "In January 2002, I received an
] e-mail asking me whether I would like to help the US in
] breaking open a message which was of great importance to
] national security. I did not believe it was actually from
] a US agency so I asked them to send me their digital
] signature. They immediately sent it back," he said.
]
] "I would not like to discuss the message. But yes,
] what I cracked was a message from Al-Qaeda," he added.
] The US government sent him letters of appreciation.
]
] US embassy officials said they knew nothing about this.
] But they said it was possible for a US agency to make such an
] approach without keeping them in the picture.
]
] Fardia said the Al-Qaeda message he cracked had been encrypted
] thrice over to make sure it could not be read, even if it was
] intercepted.
]
] The US is considered one of the leaders in encryption technology,
] but the technology used by Al-Qaeda was as good if not better,
] Fardia added.

Bogus bogus bogus. I bet he got the idea for "thrice encrypted" from "Triple DES".

I hate it when news media will print stories as fact, without bothering to verify anything.

More information about this kid and his claims, here:
 http://www.memestreams.net/thread/bid7800/

Source of Al Qaeda Steganography Rumor?

Currently one of the angles that we're looking at on Kryptos, is palindromes. This is because of an unusually large number of doubled letters both in the ciphertext and involved in deliberate misspellings of other words (underground : undergruund, illusion : iqlusion), and because there are some other related pieces by Sanborn that involve Morse code palindromes (such as a line with some leading dots and the word "invisible").

e e e e e e invisible:
. . . . . . .. -. ...- .. ... .. -... .-.. .

reverse the line: . ..-. ...- .. ... .. -... .- .. . . . . . .

Keep the spacing the same, and it's close but not intelligible: "efvisibai e e e e e e ". But change the spacing, and it comes back to the word "e invisible e e e e e":

. .. -. ...- .. ... .. -... .-.. . . . . . .

Palindrome Collection

As part of my research into Kryptos and the other works of its sculptor, James Sanborn, I have been having art galleries all over the country send me copies of their files, with information that I can add to my James Sanborn webpage (http://www.elonka.com/kryptos/sanborn.html).

A few weeks ago, I received a couple envelopes with a complete set of copies of the files from a section of the Smithsonian Archive. These were from a series of "Jim Sanborn" folders, which had been received from one of his prior agents, the Nancy Drysdale Art Gallery.

As I dug through the files, I found a lot of the usual stuff: price lists, articles, pictures, exhibition catalogs and whatnot, but then ran across something that I *wasn't* expecting to see: A classified KGB document!

It appears to be a document from 1982, about the Soviet dissident Sakharov. There was no explanation as to why the document was in those art gallery files. My speculation is that perhaps Sanborn received some KGB documents from the CIA when he was doing work there, and he gave them to his agent to have translated. Perhaps some extra copies of the document got lost in the paper shuffle somewhere, and when they resurfaced, they were identified as, "Oh yeah, that's for Sanborn, put it in his file" and then they were forgotten?

My favorite theory is that the cyrillic from the KGB document may give a clue to the plaintext of Sanborn's encrypted Cyrillic Projector. Especially because that ciphertext is also on Sanborn's Antipodes sculpture, and Sanborn was quoted as saying that the cyrillic side was about "KGB Operations".

I also have to admit that I was amused by the formal language of the KGB document. For example, it ends with a final paragraph which reads, "As a result of measures taken, the hostile plans of the adversary have been foiled." So now I and my friends are using that line in daily speech. Like if we go to a restaurant and argue about what to get on the menu, someone will call out, "The hostile plans of the adversary have been foiled!" :)

Enjoy,

Elonka :)

KGB Document in the Sanborn Files