GoBoB Chasing

One subject that has always interested me is cryptography, codes, and ciphers. Most modern techniques use computers and fantastically large prime numbers to create secure messages that can be communicated over insecure channels. One of the most interesting techniques that I read of several years ago was visual cryptography. There have been several papers written, and some trite examples shown, but no one has ever written some robust code and then shared it. I shared this with a programmer friend and he decided to run with it this weekend as a project. To decode the message, all you need to do is print out each “photo” (click on image to view full size), and hold them together and view them by holding in front of a bright light. You can spray the paper with Pam and it will become almost transparent. For maximum effect, you could print them on overhead transparency film. Those of you knowledgeable with layers can use your favorite editing tool to combine them.

In the time honored technique of desperate editors everywhere, if you are still reading, you have a chance to make a quick $10.00. If you are the first to leave a comment, (please don’t use the two word secret code in the post), and email me the code words as the subject, you win $10.00. I will pay this via paypal, or cash if you are known to me and we regularly see one another (my choice). Please leave a comment once-and-a-while.

Should be an interesting week with temps making it into the 80’s on Wednesday March 1st and breaking some records. Chasers go through a drought of action and even have a name for it; Storm Depression Syndrome (SDS). Right now, I’m in the throws of SDS and can’t wait for something to happen. The GFS model hints that things could get interesting next Saturday. My chaser friends are all getting excited. Too excited, It is March (will be), Gulf moisture will be limited and the storms will be moving at least 50 mph.

Update: Steve, I wrote this before reading your blog. I’m glad to see that we are in agreement. What is really scary that I almost did a salute to Don Knotts. My Aunt took me to see “The Apple Dumpling Gang” for my 8th birthday. This was, I believe his first major role in a feature film. I was looking at IMDB and saw the folloing dialogue from the movie that was classic Disney (when it was good).

Homer McCoy: This court is now in session, the Honorable Homer McCoy presiding. Theodore Ogelvie, Amos Tucker, you’re charged with attempted bank robbery. How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?
Theodore Oglivie: Not guilty?
Homer McCoy: Guilty!
Amos Tucker: That was the wrong one.
Homer McCoy: This court sentences you to be hung by the neck until dead. And I’m fining you an extra ten bucks for perjury. Let ‘em out.
[Amos and Ted are let out of the cage]
Homer McCoy: Be down at the old oak tree near Boot Hill at twelve o’clock sharp for your hanging. And bring your own rope.

Good News and Bad News. Youtube.com is a pretty neat service that allows me share video content. It is free and is able to render the raw m2t mpeg 2 streams that natively come out of my High Definition (HDR-FX1) camera. The bad news is that it does not recognize that HD pixels are not square, but rather about 1.33 wide to 1 tall. Consequently everything looks taller and thinner than in the real world (wish I had this problem). The stream below was 100 meg natively.

We had some wintry weather mix around Tulsa this weekend. I shot some pretty nice high definition video. Fifty six seconds of video take one hour and thirty eight minutes to render on a 3.8Mhz machine. That was in the good quality, best quality required over six hours and ended up being an 80 MB file that will bring most pc’s to their knees merely by playing the video. A much compressed, by fairly high quality (by web standards) can be viewed at youtube.com. Sony’s Vegas editing suite is awesome and I’m finally learning my way around the program. There is a free upgrade to rev 6d available and it fixes a lot of issues (I was running 6b).

View the video

Test Embedding

I think it is important that every one have a passion for something they love. We are on this Earth for all too short of a period of time. I turned 39 this past Friday, and I realized that my Mother (Karen) and Dad (Robert) passions in life is their children. My Brother (Andrew) and I are fairly well normalized individuals that have an intellectual curiosity about the world that surrounds us. I’ve made a series of decisions that likely preclude me having any progeny. I’m sure I will regret this on my deathbed. If you regularly visit this blog, you probably know that I have two passions, quality and storm chasing. I have not been wearing a wrist watch for the past year because the one I had broke and I decided I wanted a quality chronometer. I decided I wanted a chronometer that was good enough for NASA to fly to the moon. That is another story and will probably be my 40th birthday present to myself.

My other passion is the pursuit of atmospheric fury. I read journals, attend conferences and seminars to increase my knowledge and expertise in this craft. This past Saturday the NWSFO Tulsa presented their annual all-day training seminar. This is kind-of-like homecoming for chasers and spotters. Like any homecoming we need a king, and as near as I can tell Steve Miller is reining. This is not a dig, he is a charismatic individual that had people literally flocking around him. I suggested to Steve that he start a religion or ministry (more on this thread as the season continues).

At the dinner table my dad would ask Andrew and me one question every day, “What did you learn today?” As a kid, the answer that seemed to roll of the tongue was, “Nothing.” This would of course elicit a small speech from Dad, “Nothing? I spend thousands of dollars for your education in property taxes, and I get Nothing.” There where a few cracks about wanting his money back and then we would crack. “Well, actually we learned that &^%$(((&%$.” I have since made it my goal to learn at least one thing each day.

On this past Saturday, I learned that outdoor sirens are named that not because they are sirens that are outdoors. They are so named because the were designed during the heart of the cold-war to warn people that were outdoors to get inside for an atomic blast. In an atomic blast being outside is the worst of all possible situations and the goal was to get into a shelter. The sirens are specifically not intended to warn you if you are in a solid well built structure (I can barely hear them at my domicile). NOAA all hazard radios are the best gift that you can give anyone that you love.

These inexpensive radios save lives. With the implementation of SAME encoding each radio can be customized to only alert for your county. I gave ten radios to friends and family this past year as Christmas gifts.

Please give someone you love the ultimate gift that can save their lives.

(links to follow as best bargains are found)