Friday, September 28, 2012

Top Uncracked Codes

Until quite recent history, thewriting of the ancient Egyptians was a secret to man. Eventually, withthe help of the Rosetta stone, Jean-François Champollion was able tosolve the ancient mystery. Since that time, there have been many otherattempts to decipher ancient languages, or to crack codes that havebeen made for fun or fortune. This is a list of the ten most famousciphers and writing systems that are still unsolved.





                             The Phaistos Disk

     



The disc of Phaistos is the mostimportant example of hieroglyphic inscription from Crete and wasdiscovered in 1903 in a small room near the depositories of the“archive chamber”, in the north – east apartments of the palace,together with a Linear A tablet and pottery dated to the beginning ofthe Neo-palatial period (1700- 1600 B.C.). Both surfaces of this claydisc are covered with hieroglyphs arranged in a spiral zone, impressedon the clay when it was damp. The signs make up groups divided fromeach other by vertical lines, and each of these groups should representa word. Forty five different types of signs have been distinguished, ofwhich a few can be identified with the hieroglyphs in use in the Proto-palatial period. Some hieroglyphic sequences recur like refrains,suggesting a religious hymn, and Pernier regards the content of thetext as ritual. Others have suggested that the text is a list ofsoldiers, and lately it has suggested to be a document in the Hitticlanguage in which a king discusses the *****ion of the Palace ofPhaistos.

Voynich Manuscript



                          

At least 400 years old, this is a232-page illuminated manuscript entirely written in a secret script. Itis filled with copious drawings of unidentified plants, herbal recipesof some sort, astrological diagrams, and many small human figures instrange plumbing-like contraptions. The script is unlike anything elsein existence, but is written in a confident style, seemingly by someonewho was very comfortable with it. In 2004 there were some compellingarguments which described a technique that would seemingly prove thatthe manuscript was a hoax, but to date, none of the describedtechniques have been able to replicate a single section of theManuscript, so speculations continue. Over its recorded existence, theVoynich manuscript has been the object of intense study by manyprofessional and amateur cryptographers, including some top Americanand British codebreakers of World War II fame (all of whom failed todecipher a single word). This string of failures has turned the Voynichmanuscript into a famous subject of historical cryptology.
                  
Linear A




Linear A is one of two linear scriptsused in ancient Crete (a third script is Cretan Hieroglyphs). They werediscovered and named by Arthur Evans. Linear B was deciphered in 1952by Michael Ventris and was used to write Mycenaean Greek. Linear A isfar from being totally deciphered but it is partially understood and itmay be read through Linear B values. Though the two scripts share manyof the same symbols, using the syllables associated with Linear B inLinear A writings produces words that are unrelated to any knownlanguage. This language has been dubbed Minoan or Eteocretan, andcorresponds to a period in Cretan history prior to a series ofinvasions by Mycenean Greeks around 1450 BC. It is believed that theremay be some connection between Linear A and The Phaistos Disk.
      
                  
Beale Ciphers




In 1885, a small pamphlet waspublished in Virginia containing a story and three encrypted messages.According to the pamphlet, around 1820 a man named Beale buried twowagons-full of treasure at a secret location in Bedford County,Virginia. He then left a small locked box with a local innkeeper, andleft town, never to be seen again. The pamphlet went on to state thatthe innkeeper, after having not heard from Beale for many years, openedthe box and discovered encrypted messages. Never able to read them, heeventually passed them along to a young friend shortly before theinnkeeper’s death in 1863. According to the pamphlet, the friend spentthe next 20 years trying to decrypt the messages, solving only onewhich detailed the tons of gold, silver and jewels that were buried,along with a general location. The still unsolved messages supposedlygive exact directions, and a list of who the treasure belongs to. Therehave been many exhaustive searches for the treasure, and much effortspent on decoding the other messages, without (confirmed) success.There are many claimed solutions, usually bannered in combination witha book that someone is trying to sell, but no one has ever been able toproduce a duplicatable decryption method.
      
                  
The Dorabella Cipher





Probably Elgar’s most popular work ishis ‘Enigma’ Variations which, apart from its undoubted musical merit,still tantalises the musical detectives with the hidden ’secrets’ whichElgar cleverly wove into the fabric of the score. But Elgar, who wasfascinated by codes, ciphers, riddles and other forms of puzzles, hasleft us another mystery – the ‘Dorabella’ cipher (pictured above). Onehundred and ten years ago – to be precise, on the 14 July 1897 – Elgarsent a letter to a young friend, Miss Dora Penny, the 22 year-olddaughter of the Rev. Alfred Penny, Rector of St Peter’s, Wolverhampton.The unusual feature of the letter was that it was in a cipher which, acentury later, still presents a challenge. There have been a couple ofattempts at solving it but neither of these seem entirely satisfactory.



Chaocipher






John F. Byrne invented Chaocipher in1918 and tried unsuccessfully for almost 40 years to interest the U.S.government in his cipher system. He offered a reward to anyone whocould break his cipher but the reward was never claimed. In 1989, JohnByrne, son of John F. Byrne, demonstrated Chaocipher to two Cryptologiaeditors to determine if it had any commercial value. After making someimprovements and providing additional information they jointly issue anew challenge to would-be solvers. In his autobiography, Silent Years,John F. Byrne, a lifelong friend of James Joyce, devoted the lastchapter to Chaocipher which he had invented in 1918. Byrne describedhis attempts starting in 1920 to interest the State, War, and NavyDepartments in his indecipherable cipher and his frustration with thedisinterest shown by William F. Friedman and other cryptanalyticexperts after he had demonstrated his machine.
      
                  
Chinese Gold Bar Cipher





In 1933, seven gold bars wereallegedly issued to a General Wang in Shanghai, China. These gold barsappear to represent metal certificates related to a Bank deposit with aU.S. Bank. The gold bars themselves have pictures, Chinese writing,some form of script writing, and cryptograms in latin letters. Notsurprisingly, there is a dispute concerning the validity of the claimfor the deposit. It may help to resolve the dispute if someone candecipher the cryptograms on the bars. Nobody has yet put for the atheory as to their meaning. The Chinese writing has been translated,and discusses a transaction in excess of $300,000,000. It also refersto these gold bars which weigh a total of 1.8 kilograms. You can seethe cryptograms here if you want to have a go at cracking the code.
      
                  
Shugborough Hall Enscription







The Shepherd’s Monument atShugborough Hall carries a relief (pictured above) that shows a womanwatching three shepherds pointing to a tomb. On the tomb is depictedthe Latin text “Et in arcadia ego” (“I am also in Arcadia” or “I ameven in Arcadia”). The relief is based on a painting by the Frenchartist Nicholas Poussin, known itself as Et in Arcadia ego, but therelief has a number of modifications — most noticeably that it isreversed horizontally. Another difference is a change in which letterof the tomb a shepherd is pointing at. In the painting the letter R inARCADIA is being pointed to. The finger in the sculpture is broken, butwas pointing to the N in IN. The sculpture also adds an extrasarcophagus to the scene, placed on top of the one with the Latinphrase. Below the image of the monument are the following letters:


D  O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.  M For adherents of the modern Grail-conspiracy legend, the inscription isalleged to hold a clue to the location of the Holy Grail. Following theclaims in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail that Poussin was amember of the Priory of Sion and that the painting contains a messageabout the location of the grail, it has been speculated that theinscription may encode secrets related to the Priory.
      
                  
Kryptos





Kryptos is a sculpture by Americanartist James Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, in the United States. Since itsdedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation aboutthe meaning of the encrypted messages it bears. It continues to providea diversion for employees of the CIA and other cryptanalysts attemptingto decrypt the messages. The ciphertext on one half of the mainsculpture contains 869 characters in total, however Sanborn releasedinformation in April of 2006 stating that an intended letter on themain half of Kryptos was missing. This would bring the total number ofcharacters to 870 on the main portion. The other half of the sculpturecomprises a Vigenère encryption tableau, comprised of 869 characters,if spaces are counted. The first person to publicly announce solvingthe first three sections, in 1999, was James Gillogly, a computerscientist from southern California, who deciphered 768 of thecharacters. The portion that he couldn’t solve, the remaining 97 or 98characters, is the same part which has stumped the government’s owncryptanalysts.




D’agapeyeff Cipher

  





The D’Agapeyeff cipher is an as-yetunbroken cipher that appears in the first edition of Codes and Ciphers,an elementary book on cryptography published by the Russian-bornEnglish cartographer Alexander D’Agapeyeff in 1939. Offered as a“challenge cipher” at the end of the book, it was not included in latereditions, and D’Agapeyeff is said to have admitted later to havingforgotten how he had encrypted it. It has been argued that the failureof all attempts at decryption is due to D’Agapeyeff incorrectlyencrypting the original text. However, it has been argued that thecipher may still be successfully attacked using computational methodssuch as genetic algorithms.

Monday, September 17, 2012

" Tahu sumedang " ( Sundanese version )

Tahu sumedang is Sundanese deep fried tofu from Sumedang, West Java.Tahu sumedang characteristics are its content half empty or completely empty. It has a creamier inside than the normal white tofu, The taste issavory. It is best served with lontong, various kinds of sambal, soy sauce or cabe rawit.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Hotspot

Everywhere in the World is money, even in Indonesia. This is already the second Lamborghini LP650-4 Roadster spotted in Jakarta and we love to see some supercars from this country.

When the Murciélago LP650-4 Roadster was introduced,this model was limited. Only 50 copies are made of this car. Copies are spotted Spotters can recognize the   Murciélago LP650-4 Roadster on its unique colour, Grigio Telesto and Bright Orange. These colours are used in the exterior and the interior. The car looks fantastic but unfortunately the roof looks terrible. It is a true supercar which needs to be driven without the roof on it! 


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

World's 20 Tallest Buildings in Year 2020



Within this decade we will likely witness not only the world’s first kilometer-tall building, but also the completion of a significant number of buildings over 600 meters (around 2,000 feet) – that’s twice the height of the Eiffel Tower. Two years ago, prior to the completion of the Burj Khalifa, this building type did not exist. And yet, by 2020, we can expect at least eight such buildings to exist internationally. The term “supertall” (which refers to a building over 300 meters) is thus no longer adequate to describe these buildings: we are entering the era of the “megatall.” This term is now officially being used by the Council to describe buildings over 600 meters in height, or double the height of a supertall (see Figure 1).

            Figure 1. Diagram of the predicted World's 20 Tallest in the year 2020 as of Dec 2011 © CTBUH View the building selection criteria
            
As we started the 21st century, just 11 short years ago, the Petronas Towers held the title of “The World’s Tallest” at 452 meters (1,483 feet) in height. Taipei 101 took the title in 2004, at 508 meters (1,667 feet).Then, at the end of the decade, the Burj Khalifa set new standards at 828 meters (2,717 feet) – over half a mile high. Now, with work set to start on-site in January 2012 for Jeddah’s 1,000+ meter Kingdom Tower (see Figure 2), we can expect that in a mere two decades (2000–2020) the height of the “World’s Tallest Building” will have more than doubled.
Figure 3: The status of the “Tallest 20 in 2020” projects
© CTBUH View Larger
Figure 4: The location of the “Tallest 20 in 2020” projects© CTBUH View Large

Figure 5: The use of the “Tallest 20 in 2020” projects 
© CTBUH View Larger


Figure 2: The world’s tallest is set to change yet again in
2018 with the completion of the Kingdom Tower © Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture


What is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the study is that the previous world’s tallest mentioned above now barely make the list at all. In just two decades Petronas will have gone from 1st to 27th tallest in the world, and Taipei 101 just scrapes into the study in 18th place. When we take into account that new projects not included in this study will surely be announced and built throughout the next decade, one can predict that, with the exception of the Burj Khalifa and Makkah Royal Clock Tower, all of the tallest 20 buildings in the year 2020 are not yet built (though a number are already under construction, see Figure 3). 
The tremendous change that the tall building industry has seen in two decades is clearly shown by a juxtaposition of three skylines: the tallest 20 buildings in the year 2000, 2010, and 2020 (see Figure 6).

Figure 6: A study of the tallest 20 buildings per decade. © CTBUH
It is also useful to understand the tallest 20 in 2020 in the context of global tall building trends. The average height of these twenty buildings is predicted to be 598 meters (1,962 feet). Yet, as we stand at the end of 2011, there are actually only 61 buildings currently in existence over 300 meters (the threshold for “supertall”). Until recently, in fact, the completion of a supertall was rather a rare occurrence, with only 15 supertalls completing in the 65 years between the world’s first such building (New York’s Chrysler Building, 1930) and 1995. It was only in the mid 1990s that it became common for more than one supertall to be added to the lists annually, with 1995 being the last year when no supertalls were completed. Now, less than two decades later, the number of supertalls completed annually has entered double digits, and is set to continue to rise. Meanwhile, the number of megatalls set to complete in the upcoming decade is similar to the number of supertalls completed in the 90s (see Figure 7). In terms of height, therefore, 600 m seems to be the new 300 m.
Figure 7: Supertall and megatall building completion showing a significant projected increase, © CTBUH
Note: CTBUH can accurately predict the number of supertall completion through 2013. The figures for following years are estimates based on current building trends and construction activity.



Not only increasing in height, the “Tallest 20 in 2020” also demonstrate a diversity in project location not previously seen in the world’s tallest 20. The projects are scattered across 15 cities in 7 countries. China, with 10 of the 20 projects, clearly stands out as the country most rapidly pursuing the supertall, followed by Korea (3), Saudi Arabia (2), and the UAE (2). If we analyze via a larger geographic region, however, the picture becomes even more pronounced. Asia (not including the Middle East) accounts for 70% of the buildings (14). The Middle East counts for 25% (5). The only other region to be represented in the study is North America, where New York’s One World Trade Center is the only tower in the western hemisphere to make the study. If we consider the Middle East as part of continental Asia, then Asia contains 19 of the 20 projects, certainly adding impetus to the upcoming CTBUH 9th World Congress which will take place in Shanghai in September 2012 on the theme of “Asia Ascending: Age of the Sustainable Skyscraper City.”
With over 1.3 billion citizens and a rapidly urbanizing population, China is perhaps the country with the most obvious reason for building tall. The ten Chinese projects show great diversity in location, spread across seven cities: Shenzhen (2), Shanghai (2), Tianjin (2), Wuhan (1), Guangzhou (1), Dalian (1), and Taipei2 (1). 


Figure 8: The Ping An Finance Center will become China’s
tallest building © Kohn Pedersen Fox



The tallest of these, Shenzhen’s Ping An Finance Center (see Figure 8), is now under construction and scheduled to complete in 2015. Once complete, the project will provide over 300,000 m2 of office space and become the country’s tallest building and the world’s tallest office building. 


Figure 9: Shanghai Tower will complete a trio of skyscrapers in the Pudong district © Gensler


Also in China, the 632-meter (2,073 feet) mixed-use Shanghai Tower (see Figure 9) will complete a supertall cluster in the city’s Pudong area, as it sits alongside the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Building. The Shanghai Tower’s unique dual-skin design provides atrium space containing “gardens in the sky” between the skins every 12 – 15 stories. The project began construction in 2009 and is scheduled to complete in 2014.




Figure 10: Seoul Light DMC Tower will become a landmark for the city’s skyline © SOM | Giroud Pichot


Korea, a country with a population about 1/25th that of China but twice as dense by area, contains a somewhat surprising three of the 20 projects, two of which are located in Seoul. There are many reasons for this dramatic increase in supertall construction in Korea, a country that has never had a single building within the world’s tallest 20 and is now on the verge of having several. Perhaps the foremost reason is a general feeling that Korean cities lack the “iconic” or “landmark” buildings that many world-class cities contain. Seoul’s tallest planned building is the 640-meter (2,101 feet) Seoul Light DMC Tower (see Figure 10), located at the western edge of the city overlooking the Han River. The tower will implement power generation strategies to reduce the building’s energy usage by around 65%. Seoul is also home to the now-under-construction Lotte World Tower, a 555-meter (1,819 feet) supertall scheduled to complete in 2015. Besides these two significant buildings, the city has two additional projects in the works which have not yet received planning permission, and thus not included in the 2020 study (the 620-meter Triple One and the 540-meter Hyundai Global Business Center). This means that Seoul could potentially contain as many as four of the tallest 20 buildings in 2020. 


Figure 11: Jakarta is set to contain the world’s 5th tallest building, Signature Tower © Smallwood Reynolds Stewart Stewart

Where can we expect the next nucleus of tall building construction globally? The Signature Tower Jakarta (see Figure 11) perhaps predicts the answer to this question. Indonesia’s current tallest building is Wisma 46, completed in 1996 at a height of 262 meters – less than half the height of the proposed Signature Tower. Much of South and Southeast Asia in fact, including Indonesia, India, and Vietnam seem ready to become one of the next centers of skyscraper construction. Together, the three countries listed above represent nearly a quarter of the world’s population and yet contain no supertall buildings and a total of only four buildings over 250 meters. Signature Tower is therefore seen to herald the coming of the supertall to these countries. Excavation for the project is set to begin during the first quarter of 2012. Another significant project in this area, Mumbai’s planned 700-meter India Tower, was not included in this study as construction has stopped, and final completion is therefore not predictable. However, the presence of these two possible megatall projects point to the dramatic potential of this area. 



 Figure 12: The nearly complete Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel will be world’s second megatall© Fauzia Andrini Kes / CTBUH

Five of the Tallest 20 in 2020 projects are located in three countries in the Middle East: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. These projects include the current world’s tallest (Burj Khalifa), the future world’s tallest (Kingdom Tower), and what is soon to become the world’s second tallest (Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel, see Figure 12). Quite obviously, a motivating factor in all of these projects has been to push the boundaries of technology and accomplish feats never before imagined. The Burj Khalifa exemplifies this fact. The next decade of supertall building construction will, in one sense, fill in the gaps between the record-breaking Burj Khalifa and Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building until January 4, 2010.  Thus, 15 of the Tallest 20 in 2020 fit into this 320-meter gap, with only the Kingdom Tower exceeding the height of the Burj Khalifa. 


Figure 13: One World Trade Center Tower is the only building in the western hemisphere included in the “Tallest 20 in 2020© Skidmore, Owings & Merrill | dbox studio
Having discussed four regions/countries in the eastern hemisphere where 19 of the projects are located, we turn to the opposite side of the world for the remaining project. One World Trade Center Tower (see Figure 13), in New York, is set to become the tallest building in the western hemisphere in 2013. In the 2020 study, the project comes in as the world’s 12th tallest building. The building’s final height of 1,776 feet (541 meters) points to the United State’s declaration of independence, and birth as a country. Located near the site of the old WTC buildings, the designers faced tremendous challenges in terms of space constraints, security concerns, as well as millions of concerned citizens. In the case of One World Trade Center, there were strong economic motivations to build tall, to provide valued office space in one of the economic centers of the world, as well as strong emotional motivation, to overcome the tragic events of 9/11.

The Tallest 20 in 2020 study ultimately underlines a now well-known fact: the skyscraper is here to stay. Shortly after 9/11, many predicted the death of the tall building, but as the study shows, skyscrapers are increasing in number, height, and diversity. The ever-increasing and rapidly urbanizing global population will continue to drive cities higher. 
Not long ago, building height was primarily restricted by structural limitations. In the late 1800s, Chicago’s Monadnock Building demonstrated the maximum height achievable with a masonry structure while still providing an economically feasible space efficiency. Over the 19th century, many advances in the fields of structure, construction, and transportation (to name but a few) allowed for a steady increase in building height. Now, the tremendous heights being achieved globally demonstrate that many of the physical constraints that once restricted height have been broken. The question for humanity is thus no longer “how high can we build?” but “how high should we build?” With every increase in height, there are energy implications in the construction, maintenance, and occupation of a building. Additionally, with added height comes less space efficiency, as structural members and service cores increase to service the increased height of the building.
At what point are the significant benefits of increased density provided by building tall overtaken by the energy repercussions of height? This elusive figure is most certainly affected by the technologies of the day. Half a century ago, a megatall would have been considered possible only within a dream. It is now a reality. Is it not possible that we could soon see the emergence of a zero-energy megatall? Just as we pushed the structural boundaries of height, we must now continue to push the boundaries of environmental engineering in order to progress the tall typology. For, as skyscrapers continue to multiply, their effect on our cities – visually, urbanistically, and environmentally – continues to increase exponentially.