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π Van Eck Phreaking
Van Eck phreaking (also known as Van Eck Radiation) is a form of eavesdropping in which special equipment is used to pick up side-band electromagnetic emissions from electronic devices that correlate to hidden signals or data for the purpose of recreating these signals or data in order to spy on the electronic device. Side-band electromagnetic radiation emissions are present in (and with the proper equipment, can be captured from) keyboards, computer displays, printers, and other electronic devices.
In 1985, Wim van Eck published the first unclassified technical analysis of the security risks of emanations from computer monitors. This paper caused some consternation in the security community, which had previously believed that such monitoring was a highly sophisticated attack available only to governments; van Eck successfully eavesdropped on a real system, at a range of hundreds of metres, using just $15 worth of equipment plus a television set.
As a consequence of this research, such emanations are sometimes called "van Eck radiation", and the eavesdropping technique van Eck phreaking. Government researchers were already aware of the danger, as Bell Labs had noted this vulnerability to secure teleprinter communications during World War II and was able to produce 75% of the plaintext being processed in a secure facility from a distance of 80 feet (24 metres). Additionally the NSA published Tempest Fundamentals, NSA-82-89, NACSIM 5000, National Security Agency (Classified) on February 1, 1982. In addition, the van Eck technique was successfully demonstrated to non-TEMPEST personnel in Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s.
While Phreaking is the process of exploiting telephone networks, it is used here because of its connection to eavesdropping. Van Eck phreaking of CRT displays is the process of eavesdropping on the contents of a CRT by detecting its electromagnetic emissions.
Discussed on
- "Van Eck Phreaking" | 2021-03-23 | 127 Upvotes 60 Comments
- "Van Eck Phreaking" | 2015-12-06 | 39 Upvotes 16 Comments
π Alcohol Powder
Alcohol powder or powdered alcohol or dry alcohol is a product generally made using micro-encapsulation. When reconstituted with water, alcohol (specifically ethanol) in powder form becomes an alcoholic drink. In March 2015 four product labels for specific powdered alcohol products were approved by the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) which opened the doors for legal product sales. However, as of 4 January 2016, the product is not yet available for sale and legalization remains controversial due to public-health and other concerns. Researchers have expressed concern that, should the product go into production, increases in alcohol misuse, abuse, and associated physical harm to its consumers could occur above what has been historically associated with liquid alcohol alone.
Discussed on
- "Alcohol Powder" | 2021-06-18 | 21 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Dadda Multiplier
The Dadda multiplier is a hardware binary multiplier design invented by computer scientist Luigi Dadda in 1965. It uses a selection of full and half adders to sum the partial products in stages (the Dadda tree or Dadda reduction) until two numbers are left. The design is similar to the Wallace multiplier, but the different reduction tree reduces the required number of gates (for all but the smallest operand sizes) and makes it slightly faster (for all operand sizes).
Dadda and Wallace multipliers have the same three steps for two bit strings and of lengths and respectively:
- Multiply (logical AND) each bit of , by each bit of , yielding results, grouped by weight in columns
- Reduce the number of partial products by stages of full and half adders until we are left with at most two bits of each weight.
- Add the final result with a conventional adder.
As with the Wallace multiplier, the multiplication products of the first step carry different weights reflecting the magnitude of the original bit values in the multiplication. For example, the product of bits has weight .
Unlike Wallace multipliers that reduce as much as possible on each layer, Dadda multipliers attempt to minimize the number of gates used, as well as input/output delay. Because of this, Dadda multipliers have a less expensive reduction phase, but the final numbers may be a few bits longer, thus requiring slightly bigger adders.
Discussed on
- "Dadda Multiplier" | 2022-10-02 | 37 Upvotes 7 Comments
π .su
.su was assigned as the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Soviet Union (USSR) on 19 September 1990. Even though the Soviet Union itself was dissolved a mere 15 months later, the .su top-level domain remains in use today. It is administered by the Russian Institute for Public Networks (RIPN, or RosNIIROS in Russian transcription).
Discussed on
- ".su" | 2019-09-18 | 353 Upvotes 226 Comments
π Volkswagen Currywurst
Volkswagen currywurst is a brand of sausage manufactured by the Volkswagen car maker since 1973. It is manufactured at the company's Wolfsburg plant and sold in restaurants in its six German factories. The currywurst are also sold externally at supermarkets and football stadiums and given away to Volkswagen customers. The sausage is branded as a "Volkswagen Original Part" and has been given the part number 199 398 500 A. The product has been described as the most produced of any of Volkswagen's parts, some 6.81 million sausages being manufactured in 2018. In many recent years the company has produced more sausages than cars. A Volkswagen ketchup is also produced and sold to accompany the currywurst.
Discussed on
- "Volkswagen Currywurst" | 2021-09-24 | 32 Upvotes 4 Comments
- "Volkswagen Currywurst" | 2020-04-28 | 57 Upvotes 18 Comments
π E-Prime: English without the verb 'to be'
E-Prime (short for English-Prime or English Prime, sometimes denoted Γ or Eβ²) is a version of the English language that excludes all forms of the verb to be, including all conjugations, contractions and archaic forms.
Some scholars advocate using E-Prime as a device to clarify thinking and strengthen writing. A number of other scholars have criticized E-Prime's utility.
Discussed on
- "E-Prime β English without the verb βto beβ" | 2021-05-26 | 108 Upvotes 66 Comments
- "E-Prime English" | 2021-02-25 | 10 Upvotes 5 Comments
- "E-Prime: English without the verb 'to be'" | 2015-12-07 | 221 Upvotes 152 Comments
- "English-Prime - English without "is"" | 2009-01-05 | 108 Upvotes 76 Comments
π Neolithic Signs in China
Since the second half of the 20th century, inscriptions have been found on pottery in a variety of locations in China, such as Banpo near Xi'an, as well as on bone and bone marrows at Hualouzi, Chang'an County near Xi'an. These simple, often geometric, marks have been frequently compared to some of the earliest known Chinese characters appearing on the oracle bones, and some have taken them to mean that the history of Chinese writing extends back over six millennia. However, only isolated instances of these symbols have been found, and they show no indication of representing speech or of the non-pictorial processes that a writing system requires.
Discussed on
- "Neolithic Signs in China" | 2020-09-27 | 33 Upvotes 2 Comments
π Principality of Hutt River
The Principality of Hutt River, often referred to by its former name, the Hutt River Province, is an unrecognized micronation in Australia. The principality claims to be an independent sovereign state founded on 21 April 1970. The territory is located 517Β km (354Β mi) north of Perth, near the town of Northampton in the state of Western Australia. It has an area of 75 square kilometres (29Β sqΒ mi), making it larger than several independent countries. It is not recognized as a country by the Australian Government or any other national government, and the High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Western Australia have rejected submissions arguing that it is not subject to Australian laws.
The principality was a regional tourist attraction until it announced it was closed to tourists after 31 January 2020. It issues its own currency, stamps and passports (which are not recognised by the Australian government or any other government). The micronation was founded on 21 April 1970 when Leonard Casley declared his farm to be an independent country, the Hutt River Province. He attempted to secede from Australia over a dispute concerning wheat production quotas. A few years later, Casley began styling himself as "Prince Leonard" and granting family members royal titles, although he did not include the word "principality" in the official name until 2006.
In February 2017, at the age of 91 and after ruling for 45 years, Casley abdicated the throne in favour of his youngest son, Prince Graeme. Leonard Casley died on 13 February 2019.
Discussed on
- "Principality of Hutt River" | 2013-06-11 | 13 Upvotes 10 Comments
π Dogme 95
Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" (Danish: kyskhedslΓΈfter). These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists", as opposed to the studio. They were later joined by fellow Danish directors Kristian Levring and SΓΈren Kragh-Jacobsen, forming the Dogme 95 Collective or the Dogme Brethren. Dogme (pronouncedΒ [ΛtΚwmΙ]) is the Danish word for dogma.
Discussed on
- "Dogme 95" | 2023-04-01 | 110 Upvotes 84 Comments
π Piet is a programming language, whose programs look like abstract art.
An esoteric programming language (sometimes shortened to esolang) is a programming language designed to test the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, as software art, as a hacking interface to another language (particularly functional programming or procedural programming languages), or as a joke. The use of esoteric distinguishes these languages from programming languages that working developers use to write software. Usually, an esolang's creators do not intend the language to be used for mainstream programming, although some esoteric features, such as visuospatial syntax, have inspired practical applications in the arts. Such languages are often popular among hackers and hobbyists.
Usability is rarely a goal for esoteric programming language designersβoften the design leads to quite the opposite. Their usual aim is to remove or replace conventional language features while still maintaining a language that is Turing-complete, or even one for which the computational class is unknown.
Discussed on
- "Piet is a programming language, whose programs look like abstract art." | 2010-03-04 | 99 Upvotes 28 Comments