“Back in the days of the Cold War, spies found ingenious and unusual ways to communicate with each other, hiding their communications in plain sight, whether encrypted or not. For instance, an intelligence agent (spy) might contact his case officer (handler) by placing an ad in the personals section of the local newspaper. This practice, it seems, continues today.

On or around May 8, the following personal ad appeared on the Internet classified ad site Craigslist. (It has since been removed.)

For mein fraulein

Mein Fraulein, I haven’t heard from you in a while. Won’t you
call me? 212 //// 796 //// 0735

If you actually called the number, up until a couple of days ago you would have heard this prerecorded message (MP3). It’s a head scratcher to keep you National Security Agency analysts occupied in your spare time. Each block of numbers is repeated twice; but below I have transcribed them only once for clarity.

Group 415
01305 60510 12079 04606 50100
93000 08203 90130 94069 01207
81080 17028 01706 90220 73038
01401 70150 15073 00402 00680
12013 12510 00540 04091 01401
30150 86022 09608 10660 02082
05507 00020 00000 02208 30290
08022 01200 40710 13065 02709
40190 29014 02200 80020 11083
07300 30260 19000 00700 00000
86

You used to hear broadcasts not unlike this on shortwave radio all the time, stations which broadcast nothing but numbers all day. Nobody has yet come forward with an answer as to what exactly these stations were broadcasting, or to whom, or what was the point of the messages. If anyone does know, they likely can’t say because it’s classified information.”

http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/05/31/the-212-796-0735-mystery/

Thought you might like to check out one of the projects you can do with those mini-ITX boards you can get at microcenter with processors on them from via in a small box reminiscent of a sun sparc ipx… they seem pretty cool with built in digital audio and tv i/o… all you need is a hard drive and some memory.

When Tennessee law enforcement officials showed up at the home of Lester
Siler, who they suspected of drug use, they asked Lester’s wife and son to
leave. They didn’t know that Lester’s wife had turned on a tape recorder in
the kitchen. When Lester exercised his constitutional right not to sign a
consent to search his house, these officers spent the next two hours
torturing him. They beat him with bats and guns, held loaded guns to his
head, threatened to shoot him, dunked his head in the toilet, burned him
with lighters, attached his testicles to a battery charger, threatened to
cut off his fingers, and threatened to “go get” his wife and take his child
away from him. Then they arrested him for “evading arrest”. It wasn’t until
the wife’s recording made it to the FBI that all hell broke loose. And go
figure, even though these officers have been convicted in federal court,
not one national media outlet gave this story the coverage it deserved. But
that’s okay.

to listen to tape recording, go here:

http://thesinkingfeeling.blogspot.com/2006/05/lester-siler-who.html

Right now I’m sitting at home and my cable internet is down. “Oh, how can that be?” You ask. I’m clearly online and posting stuff, and who the hell can do anything functional on dialup anymore?

Well my friend, Verizon BroadBand Access Connect - available either as a stand alone feature via a special card, or a a sub feature that you can add if you already have a Blackberry with them. I’m only getting about 300kbps down and 110kbps up - but that’s enough to browse stuff, read email, and even post/upload content. It’s only $15 more when you have the unlimited data service, and it sure beats any other option when there’s nothing better to use.

Next item - StarDock’s ObjectDock. If you’ve got Mac envy (and who doesn’t these days) this will let you pretend you’re something more then just another Windows poseur. Of course, doing something like this is pretty much the definition of poseur, but whatever.

Objectdock is free and it give you that little scrolling-autozoom-thingy (kind of like a quick launch, but better) that everybody’s seen included as part of OSX. When I initially ran it, I had some problems with the screen re-draw after auto-hide, but whatever combination of settings I screwed with has now fixed that. In addition to launching applications, it also shows you currently running, and you get the little “bounce” on loading and also on “alert” (like if somebody sends you another IM to a window that’s currently minimized). I recommend that you check it out.

Directed by Spike Lee
Writing credits (WGA)
Russell Gewirtz (written by)

Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller (more)

Tagline: It looked like the perfect bank robbery. But you can’t judge a crime by its cover.

Plot Outline: A cop has to talk down a bank robber after the criminal’s perfect heist spirals into a hostage situation.

User Comments: an entertaining heist flick (more)

User Rating: ********__ 7.4/10 (13,491 votes) Vote Here

Cast overview, first billed only:
Denzel Washington …. Detective Keith Frazier
Clive Owen …. Dalton Russell
Jodie Foster …. Madeline White
Christopher Plummer …. Arthur Case
Willem Dafoe …. Captain John Darius
Chiwetel Ejiofor …. Detective Bill Mitchell
Carlos Andrés Gómez …. Steve
Kim Director …. Stevie
James Ransone …. Steve-O
Bernie Rachelle …. Chaim (as Bernard Rachelle)
Peter Gerety …. Captain Coughlin
Victor Colicchio …. Sergeant Collins
Cassandra Freeman …. Sylvia
Peter Frechette …. Peter Hammond
Gerry Vichi …. Herman Gluck

This is a fun flick, it’s that typical “perfect crime” type thing that people seemed to like so much from Prison Break and with a nice twist at the end. At the same time, it’s a bit of a morality play where the bad guys are really the good guys, and the flawed everyday man is the hero. It’s what I like to see - people reaching beyond their normal levels to do the right thing in the end (with some shoot-em-up and plots twists in the middle).

Check it out - it’s a fun ride.

I was reading through my most recent Make magazine and came across an article about people who are having magnets implanted into their fingertips. Apparently the way in which the nerves grow around the magnetic implants allows these people to be able to sense electrical fields. The article claimed that 100% of the people tested were able to tell the difference between a live and in-active 110VAC cable. I’m not quite sure of the testing criteria, and the review that I just read seems to indicate that there’s some updates that need to be done to the technology before it’s safe for general use - but it sounds pretty interesting.

I wonder if it makes metal detectors go off? Given the zippers/etc on normal clothing - I’d guess those implants wouldn’t set off anything. The concept of using magnetic dust has potential too. Note that earlier story - I’d guess you’ll exempt yourself from MRI’s.

MBG ringtone: “Call connected through the NSA”
Brian sez, “They Might Be Giants is offering up a few ringtones for purchase. The first two are amusing, but the third in particular is great, and is titled ‘Call connected thru the NSA’, with lyrics as follows:”

“Call connected through the NSA/Complete transmission through the NSA/Suspending your rights through the duration of the permanent war”

(BoingBoing)

Today I received a full X-10 home automation kit that I purchased off Ebay. For $37/shipped, not a bad deal. Four Appliance modules, Four Lamp modules, one Firecracker module, one transceiver, one controller, three light switches, and three keychain remotes.

Using the Firecracker, Transceiver, and an Appliance module, I now have the rotating fan in the fishtank support room set to automatically turn itself on when the ambient room temp gets over 70′F and turn itself off when the temp is below 65′.

I also added a Firecracker status query link to my little front end mockup. If I got another appliance module, I could use the automation software to turn my lights on and off too.

Although not avid TV watchers normally, the wife and I have been watching the Sopranos every Sunday since the new season aired. Now that our daughter is reaching the age where cartoons, etc, interest her, we’ve also seen the Heffalump movie about 5 times.

I’ve noticed some similarities between the characters.

(more…)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/18/AR2006051800242.html