Group items tagged

"The remains of a World War Two carrier pigeon which was lost in action 70 years ago while delivering a top secret message over enemy lines has been found in a chimney in Bletchingley, Surrey. The skeleton of the bird has a small red cylinder attached to its foot which contains a mysterious cigarette paper sized coded message. The message is deemed so sensitive, that Codebreakers at GCHQ in Cheltenham are now frantically trying to decipher it."

I thought this article was very well written because at first it has a nice captivating introduction and title. The author goes on to explain the concepts in the most technical manner, but then he takes a step back and goes back to the reader's level in order to facilitate the reader's understanding if he or she does not have much knowledge on the topic. All in all, the article introduced a very interesting discovery about human evolution.

This resource is interesting in light of our discussing Babbage and Lovelace, as well as Ada Lovelace Day. This article is particularly interesting to me as it deals with women's contributions to significant advancements in history, many of which are often ignored or excused.

Riley, I mentioned in class that October 14th is Ada Lovelace Day, an international day for recognizing the contributions of women in science. Details: http://findingada.com/. I've wanted to organize an Ada Lovelace Day event here at Vanderbilt for a few years now, but never found the time. Let me know if you'd like to cook something up (an event? a blog series? a Wikipedia editing party?) for the 14th.

I found it really interesting that people took the fact that Lovelace made a few mistakes as an excuse to try to remove her contribution to computer programming. Male scientists and programmers also make mistakes, but we rarely see those used in an attempt to discredit them. Also, she literally designed a computer program before the computer even existed. I think we can excuse a few past mathematical errors.

What really stood out to me about this article was that they said the NSA actually pays more attention to those people who use encryption. So, in order to protect ourselves and also avoid prying NSA eyes, we should encourage people to stand in solidarity with encryption. I thought this was really interesting because I always thought that encryption would undoubtedly make everything more secure, but here they're saying that it actually attracts attention (which isn't necessarily a good thing).

When I was a kid, I read an issue of Superman in which he faces Batman's villain, the Joker. At one point, the Joker tells Superman that he's kidnapped all of Superman's best friends (Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and so on) and locked them inside lead-lined caskets, hidden throughout Metropolis. Since the caskets are air-tight, they only have an hour to live, and Superman can't find them because his x-ray vision can't see through lead! That's what the Joker said. Actually, since Superman can't see through lead, those caskets *stood out* when he scanned the city with his x-ray vision, and he rescued all his friends in short order. Same basic idea.

You can find anything on the Internet: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/superjoker6.jpg.

I feel this article is well written for a few reasons. If has the feel of telling a story but remains formal and in the style of academic writing at the same time. The flow of the post is very well done also as each paragraph logically leads into the next. Lastly, the post concludes very well tying in everything the post discusses and how they relate to science in the world today.

I thought this post was incredibly well written, starting with the title. The title is captivating and draws readers in by suggesting a solution to a common annoyance. The article also addresses the bigger scientific achievement: this scanner may be useful for medical purposes such as measuring glucose levels or cancer cell levels at tumor sites. The article provides sufficient, interesting information while creatively tying in witty humor. 

Essentially, this paper goes through the types of gait recognition software that currently exist as well as the reliability of this software. There are a lot of different elements that influence a persons gait (like terrain, shoes, fatigue, etc.), which effects how well the software works. It's a pretty heavy read but it's really interesting if you want to just jump to a certain section and read in depth. This technology is very much out there and in development, and it is definitely being improved upon. Also, even though this paper is a little bit older, it is still being cited in a lot of more recent research papers and I thought it would give a good enough grasp on the science for our purposes.

I'm just going to resubmit the bookmark directly to this page so I'll be sure it ends up publicly in the group. This wasn't mentioned in Singh chapter 2, but it was created around the time period discussed in the chapter. (Plus, it's one of my favorite articles I've read in Wired so I really wanted to use it as a bookmark.) The article discusses the strategies used to break this cipher, some of which, such as frequency analysis, we have talked about in class. It's also just fascinating to read about the Oculists and their history.

"In the case of students who do bring devices to school, the policy allows the school to collect and examine any of the devices at any time for purposes of enforcing the policy, investigating student discipline issues, and "for any other school-related purpose," a term not clearly defined in the policy. This would essentially force students to submit to "suspicionless searches" of their property."

Oh, look, my kids' school is in the news.

To any future college students: Be careful of what you type on the internet or reveal about yourself in an online forum. Despite the shocking revelations of the size and scope of the government's surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden, the majority of Americans don't understand the kind of information the government has on them, have taken few steps to protect their online data, and believe that such programs don't go far enough in tackling terrorism. Ironically, these same Americans also overwhelmingly believe that consumers have lost protection of their data to companies who have used their clients' privacy as a commodity. I would advise you to be careful of what you post online, and follow a few steps, such as passwords, encryption, and clearing your cookies, to help protect at least some of your data online and allow you to remain private. These programs continue to this day, and it's important that you protect what little privacy remains.

What are the mechanisms behind surveillance? How precisely are people surveilled in the US?

This article concerning the science behind poker and its categorization as either skill or luck is particularly well written in that it draws its audience in by presenting a recent event that concerned poker, and then proceeding to present information on the history of poker as well as the statistics that support its argument.  Furthermore, the author establishes credibility throughout her post by referencing credible studies done. Her voice throughout the post continues to be entertaining, keeping the reader's attention for the entirety of her post.

A breach in supposedly secure keys given to employees by private companies vindicates previous warnings by cryptographers that companies should use more difficult keys, and that companies have not been cautious enough using such keys because of their assumed security.

This blog has information about military cryptography and privacy in general, including this post about the Zimmermann Telegram. Is it ethical to lie to an ally if it is in their best interest? What are the ethics behind spying on one's allies? Do ethics hinder one's ability to win a war, and if so, should ethics be disregarded in times of war? Another interesting post examines how Snowden should be viewed as a patriot, not a traitor. This made me question where one's loyalty should remain- to the government or to the people?

Getty In an age of surveillance anxiety, the notion of leaving your Wi-Fi network open and unprotected seems dangerously naive. But one group of activists says it can help you open up your wireless internet and not only maintain your privacy, but actually increase it in the process. At the Hackers on Planet Earth conference…

More and more schools are installing security cameras in halls, classrooms and buses. Administrators say it helps protect students and staff, but some argue the practice is invasive. Guests discuss the use of surveillance cameras in schools and where to draw the line between safety and privacy.

Discusses some of the points we brought up in class and provides statistics, but data is from 2013 and could potentially show the effects of events in the past two years when combined with Abbey's post

This is a website introducing codes and ciphers in WW II by Tony Sale. Given this specific war context, is there really a guideline of what an action is ethical and what is not in terms of cryptoanalysis? Would an action be ethical whenever the majority's well-being is satisfied, or there's a line that should not be crossed?

"Signage can be an important legal component in the use of video cameras in schools. As mentioned in the previous section, it is important that the presence of video cameras not lead a person to believe he or she will be rescued if attacked."

Recently China blocked the Facebook app "Whatsapp," and I find this interesting because by the decision of their government, they can decide your intake of content from the outside world and where to cut it off. Some parts of this relate to Cryptography because people have become very creative in getting around firewalls and accessing blocked sites anyways.

Quantum computing has teased us with its potential for some time, but we won't be seeing qubits in our laptops anytime soon. However, science has also sought to leverage quantum physics in cryptography, and a recent breakthrough will allow for quantum encryption over fiber optic cables already in use.