Covert Communications

If you are looking to write a book or make a movie where the plot needs a novel strategy for an organization or cartel or individual (the sender) to transmit a covert coded assassination or terrorist instructions to another individual or organization (the receiver) consider using these:

Note: These are only ideas for transmission, the final formula for encoding and decoding can be made as thrilling and as genius as required. 

1. Sender manipulates the contents and sequence of the evening news. While everyone is simply watching the day’s news and breaking stories, the receiver is actually decoding the news for his instructions. The complexity of the communication can further be increased by leveraging graphics – pictures and video feed.
    
2. Sender is a tap dance choreographer. The receiver, in the audience, knows the performance to focus on. The performer tap dances his instruction in Morse code.
    
3. Sender records the instruction with amplified background music, slows it down by a factor. Uses it as background music to the famous Bellagio like water fountains. The receiver records the song, increases the speed by the same factor, isolates the message and the amplified background music and has his instructions.
    
4. Sender manipulates the stock exchange where the company equity price falls by a predetermine percentage. The receiver terminates the CEO. This is good for a corporate thriller.
    
5. Sender manipulates the lottery system. The winning number when decoded gives the details of the target.

Option 2 and 3 could be inspirations to smart phone apps.

"Password" What?

September 2, 2014: Had an idea that will replace passwords for log in (permanently) 

September 3, 2014: Mentioned this to Sandeep Kumar and Swati Shah. They are my sounding board but we couldn’t further the discussion beyond me explaining the idea
 
September 9, 2014: Apple releases ios8 and extends a feature that was restricting the implementation

So what is this idea?

The idea is to leverage the iPhone Biometric to replace the use of passwords everywhere. The ios8 now allows other apps on the phone to use the biometric to allow access. My idea includes this and takes it a step further. 

Irrespective of the system – tablets, desktops, laptops running any OS - you are using to login to an account you should be able to authorize yourself using the iPhone biometric. The sequence of operation is:

• You are using  some system – tablets, desktops, laptops running any OS
• You open the login page in a browser
• You place your finger on you iPhone
• The browser page refreshes and you are logged in
• You access, you log out

No more remembering passwords and therefore typing. No more fear of passwords being recorded or stolen when using foreign machines.  This could potentially replace RSA token too.

Androids will have to wait for biometric enablement for enjoying this but won’t be for very long.
 
Technical implementation details will remain undisclosed.
 
What do you think?

Two Sentence Horror Stories

Have you ever read a two sentence horror story? This blog entry has a bunch of such stories. My favorite of the lot is:

Drawing inspiration from this, I have created my own two sentence horror stories:

1. My wife decides to rearrange the toiletries. I learn about this rearrangement only after using my razor for my tongue cleaner.


2. Late one night, as I am backing my car using the backing camera I see an image of a child suddenly appears on the screen. I turn around to look but there is nothing behind and yet he still appears on the screen.


3. My phone rings. It says I am calling, displays my own number and has a picture of me with eyes bleeding blood.


4. Went out for a run with my RunKeeper app on. After a few hours the RunKeeper statistics shows me having run 500miles in 100hours and burning 30,000calories.


5. Went to sleep cuddling Kate Upton. Woke up in the arms of Susan Boyle.


6. Sat with a bottle of beer in front of the evening news. The breaking news showed my wife wanted for my murder.


7. Selected text, hit control c, switched windows, hit control v, it pasted a picture of me taken that very moment. My laptop has no camera.

My editor (my wife) and a few special friends who get a sneak preview before I publish found these stories more humorous than horror.

What’s your opinion?

The Three Surfing Sisters

This is a story of three surfing sisters riding the high waves, just like any other weekend. Overcome by exhaustion one crawls out of the water and on to a rocky shore. As she stands on the shore, she stops to wonder how she has never seen this side of shore before. Without giving it any more thought she walks up to sit on a large stone to rest. The other two follow suit. They crawl out with their boards and sit on the sand next to the first sister.

Trying to catch their breath they observe the waves gaining height. The realization of a possible tsunami is crossing their mind. The mild feeling of fear is crossing their hearts. The obvious course of action is to find and stay on higher grounds. They look over their shoulders and see that not too far away the shore is surrounded by a high wall of black rocks. They think climbing the rock will keep them safe if it really is a tsunami.

They start to walk and then climb the rock wall. The waves get higher and higher. The waves have managed to swallow the shore and the rock they were once sitting on. The sisters keep climbing and the waves are now violently lashing at the base of the rock wall. The waves keep gaining height as the sisters keep climbing the rock.

The sisters reach the pinnacle, looking down and estimating them to be at least 30 feet higher from the base. The waves are at almost 20 feet, 15 feet higher than when they started surfing.

The sisters turned their attention from the waves to the other side of the big black rock wall they just climbed. They see a steep dip into the same bottomless ocean. They weren’t on land; they were on a big rock island in the middle of the ocean. They were lost at sea.
 
It will only be a matter of time before the waves reaches the height of 30 and swallows them and the rock island.

End of simulation. 

A class of students attending a covert course at a covert Chinese University is brought to reality. The course work includes building virtual reality simulations. The three sisters were just a dream one of the students was having while attending class. He dreamt of building this simulation. For what purpose I don’t know, but I do know that I am that student.

Wait!

Where am I and why am I attending a covert course in China on virtual reality?
    
End of dream.

I wake up in the middle of the night wondering if I had just experienced a two level dream. Level 1 is me dreaming of being a student at a covert Chinese University and level 2 is the student dreaming of the three sisters on a rock island.
 
Have you ever had a dream in a dream?

Seven Course Disorder

Would you believe a person has the misfortune of experiencing seven psychological disorders as he progresses through a seven course meal?  Here is how:

Course 1: Appetizer. Disorder 1: Kleptomania
  
A person at this stage is reasonably famished and prepared to really eat. He will grab all the food available. He is aware of two facts: one there is a lot more food to follow and two he will not be able to finish all that he has grabbed. Yet, he continues. He will push and jump a few fellow kleptomaniacs in the process.
 
Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge to steal items for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. 
Here it is the urge to hoard food for reasons other than eating.
 
Course 2: Entrée. Disorder 2: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something. 
The person is now obsessive compulsive to repeat his appetizer actions. He will again grab all the food while still being aware of the same 2 facts: there will be more food and he will not being able to finish all he has. He has the fear of missing out on something delicious that will be talked about after. At this point he hits his 80 precent-ish stomach capacity.
 
Course 3: Palate Cleanser. Disorder 3: Claustrophobia
 
Palate Cleanser is generally a neutral flavored element in food, like cheese, that enables to clear the palate from one flavor to another. This enables the person to enjoy the flavor of the main course.
 
Claustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being in closed or small spaces or rooms. 
A bite of cheese, a common palate cleanser, will shoot him to a 100 percent-ish stomach capacity. He is unable to escape the fact that his stomach is now a ticking time bomb impending explosion. Sweat starts breaking at the forehead. He feels trapped and gasping for air.
 
Course 4: Main Course. Disorder 4: Retrograde amnesia

Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memory-access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease. 
Sight of “real” food renews the appetite, so he thinks. Forgetting everything he has eaten so far and the near 100 percent-ish full stomach he will try eating some more.  After all this is the main course. At the end of this he is like a Thanksgiving turkey, stuffed to a 140 percent-ish stomach capacity.
 
Course 5: Cheese Course. Disorder 5: Parkinson

Parkinson's disease is a disorder of the brain that leads to shaking (tremors) and difficulty with walking, movement, and coordination. 
What would you expect at 140 percent-ish stomach capacity? With a single bite of the cheese the person is rendered sweating, profusely, all over and trembling. Vows of “no more seven course meals for the rest of his life” are written all over his mind. The person will not want to move, out of fear of puking or fainting or falling. Wonders if the motion from breathing will tip him off too?
 
Course 6: Dessert. Disorder 6: Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a condition in which a person has periods of depression and periods of being extremely happy or being cross or irritable. 
Who can resist dessert? This is the best part of the whole meal. Who would want to miss it? The person is all stuffed and yet when he sees dessert he will try to make room for just a little. “A little”, he promises his stomach. Promises are broken and a lot is eaten. At the end, how could I do this? The vows are now moved from the mind to stone.  Hysteria at its peak. 
 
Course 7: Coffee. Disorder: Trichotillomania

Trichotillomania is an impulse control disorder. It causes a person to habitually pull out his hair. People with trichotillomania may pull hair from anywhere on the body. Sometimes people with trich end up having large areas on the body without hair. 
The smell of warm black coffee is so inviting. The emotions are bitter sweet. Like dessert he thinks the coffee is all liquid and will flow through the gaps in food in the stomach. A good hot cup of coffee will be the cure to all problems. He is hopeful. Then the first sip happens. All hope is lost. Mood swings from hopefulness to complete panic and regret. Hairs stand up voluntarily, wanting to be pulled. 

He will survive the night and the next day. The vows of not eating a seven course meal are held until present by the next opportunity of a seven course meal. It is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder all over again.

Tombstone Designs

If it was up to me to design tombstones, this is what I would create:

Stephen Hawking

Steve Jobs

 

Tim Berners-Lee

The HTML error code 410, as defined by w3c, is “The requested resource is no longer available at the server and no forwarding address is known. This condition is expected to be considered permanent.”

Russell Peters

Paul Walker

Endangered Everyday Things

Did you know breeds of Zebras, Horses, Peacocks and Giraffes are nearing extinction (per Treehugger.com). Surprised?

Just like these every day taken for granted animals, here is a list of every day taken for granted devices that, in my opinion, are going extinct. Bear in mind:

• Each of these does have their boundary conditions of usage and will not be long before they are addressed
• Each of these does have its own timeline for going extinct, could be months, could be years.

 Watches

Watch (because of time) is a default operation in most modern electronic devices. Handhelds – phones, portable players, medical equipment tell time, Kitchen Appliances – microwaves, fridges tell time, Cars tell time. The mass usage of a watch now is reduced to being a non-communicating jewelry. Smart watches may be on a rise but stuffing an Android on a smaller footprint, with little difference from a phone, is not enough.

Home or Office Phone Lines (Landline)

This is the black box with an ear and a mouth piece sitting idle on a table. People now prefer accepting calls on cell phones (when remote or at home) or soft phone (when at a desk in offices). With services like Google Voice one can easily enable routing of calls to any private number, helping maintain a single number and at the same time not having to share their personal private phone numbers. VOIP is on speedy upward curve.

Cable TV via set-top box or dish antennae

Combine Smart TVs (or a non-smart TV with Apple TV or Google Chromecast like) device) with streaming services, DishTV like. Who needs set-top or dish?

Paper Printers and Scanners (not the 3D)  

Smart phones with improving camera quality make scanning easy. Both camera phones and scanner produce JPEGs and as long as they are legible they should be acceptable. There are banks, like Bank Of America, that allow check deposit from their app based on phone camera clicked images. As everything goes digital and online there will be fewer instances of paper based submissions, therefore no more printers.

Digital Optical Discs – CD, DVD, Blu Ray 

The last time I seriously had to use a CD/DVD was 10 years ago. This was when I used Windows and it needed an installation after a crash. Car audio and Home AV receivers are complimented with USB or Bluetooth or vendor proprietary wireless connectivity. A lot of the TV is streaming. External USB drives and Cloud storage is getting cheaper. Online stores allow downloading. Why else would one need these digital optical discs? Surprisingly, Sony has announced the next-gen Blu-Ray disc. I wonder why? This probably explains why Sony is spirally down.

Remedy for the Load/UnLoad Pain

Problem Statement:

• Everyone goes shopping
• Everyone looks for a “decent” cart – one that is clean and one that has smooth rolling wheels
• Everyone, usually, shops moderate to heavy. Light on occasions
• Everyone hates to carry these moderate to heavy bags home. At times there are multiple back and forth trips. Living in a multistory apartment makes it worse.
• Everyone is, usually, troubled

Use Case: 

One should be able to

• Drive to a store, pull out the cart from the car boot, load it up at the store, and push it back into the car.
• Drive home, pull out the cart, push it home and unload it.

Solution:

A Collapsible Shopping Cart

• Having a wheel mechanism that is similar to that of an “Ambulance Stretcher”. One should be able to push the cart into the car, folding the wheels and pull the cart out of the car, unfolding the wheels.
• Having custom length breadth dimensions. Depending on the car model, boot space and customer preference
• Having optional collapsible sides. In case one doesn’t want the cart to take up too much space in the boot, he can choose to collapse it completely to a height the size of a laptop/office bag, length and breadth per ones preference
• Having a thin, light and yet a sturdy frame
• Stretch Goal: Having the ability to climb stair cases

Value:

• No more lifting. Reduces effort and time spent
• Help ease the shopping pain, for men at least

#100HappyDays

Stirred by the #100HAPPYDAYS fad on social media, I thought of doing my own version of “Happy Days”. My version is just a list and the list includes things that make me and probably many others happy but none willing to admit it. 

Here goes the list, in no particular order:

1. Witnessing someone (except family) fall 
• A portly middle aged woman fell off her chair at McDonalds. Did I help her? No I was busy trying to camouflage my laughter with a serious look of concern
2. Witnessing someone (including family) walking into something with minor or no injuries
• Swati, my wife, and I were walking a hotel corridor, I walked through the glass door and she walked into the glass door-frame. 
3. When a friend (I am not too happy of having) fails or loses money or is ridiculed by other  friends
4. When my wife fights with her mother
5. When I find something valuable or usable abandoned
• Canon Rebel T3i at a farm – Sumit returned it under pressure of morality from Asha and Minaxi 
• iPod Nano in a sandpit – Swati wouldn’t pick it (didn’t stop another kid)
6. Complete power or network or application outage at work making my ideal time official and justified
7. Completing a level of Candy Crush Saga in one play. Euphoric when two. Nirvana if anyone has a 3 stars
8. Discovering and exploiting system and process flaws, paid lower 
• Train fares
• Courier fees
• Bus usage charges
• Once at a particular retail store
• Several times at this one toll plaza
[For privacy reason my partners in crime haven’t been disclosed] 
  

Do you have a confession? 
Leave a comment. 

Ode to Ninkasi (Updated)

My ode to Ninkasi (the ancient Sumerian tutelary goddess of beer or goddess of alcohol) started in July of 2011. In 1 year 6 months (January of 2014) this ode has added verses. It has grown from 11 countries and 19 brands to 25 countries and 50 brands.

I will let your astuteness tell you the remaining of this story.

click to enlarge

I acknowledge the creative effort of:

• PSDGraphic for providing the free beer background
• World-Geographics for providing the world map  
• Kampongboy92 for providing the world flags