“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
– Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
To understand something, and to clearly get its value, yes, sharp observance is a must. But to truly feel it, one must be a madman. The above photo was shot at a few distance from Belapur station, Mumbai. It was a breezy afternoon, me and my comrades decided to have lunch at a joint near that location. The traveling was originally for Poké-Walk. But it later turned to photography walk and later, just the walks. I do have to follow ‘Rahul Sankrityayan’ – one of the greatest travel writers known.
I came across this incomplete establishment. The seclusion of this building, design and monochrome effect, gives it a purpose. It was made for something. Yet it stands aloof.
These days, most of us are familiar with the world of VR – Virtual Reality. The fascinating world it creates, surely makes us feel that border between life and ‘Matrix’ is diminishing. Seeing is one thing. And living surrealism or virtual in this case is another thing.
A brand called ‘HYPERSUIT‘ is taking over the baton forward with their new suit. Unveiled at this year’s CES – 2017, this suit allows users to experience flying, scuba diving etc, but with a tone of safety. Find out more about this amazing stuff in the video below.
What is Cicada 3301? It is actually a name given to an enigmatic organization that posts sets of complex puzzles every year to recruit capable cryptanalysts from the public. (Cicadas are insects as it appears on the above image)
The first of its puzzles were posted on January 5, 2012 and ran for approximately one month. Cicada 3301 has been classified as ‘The Internet’s Most Baffling Mystery’. There are only quite a handful of people known to have solved the various stages of these puzzles.
Those who won have been recruited but the aftermath still remains unknown.
The first puzzle when appeared online on January 5, 2012, two subsequent rounds were released on the same day of the following years. During the first year, Cicada 3301 started with a picture on 4Chan, along with the message: “Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message hidden in this image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through.” The message was simply signed 3301.
Also, the rumors surrounding e-mails which were sent to individuals who had completed the puzzle were given personality assessment. After this stage, participants were recruited. But still, these are just speculations.
The only person who has come into the limelight for solving every stage is ‘Swedish Computer Analyst’ – Joel Eriksson. He is one of the very few people who cracked the puzzle but couldn’t figure what was the end of it.
The fact that these puzzles at a later stage require the participants to visit other countries to retrieve next clue, suggests that ‘Cicada 3301’ is large and highly funded organization rather than simply being ‘biggest elaborate hoax’. (Referencing Voynich Manuscript)
The puzzles began to mutate in different directions, hexadecimal values, prime-numbers, in all these, pictures of cicada insect became a common motif. “I knew cicadas only emerge every prime number of years – 13 or 17 – to avoid synchronizing with the life cycles of their predators,” Joel Erikson said. “It was all starting to fit together.”
Authorities from the Los Andes Province of Chile claim that Cicada 3301 is a “hacker group” and engaged in illegal activities. Cicada 3301 responded to this claim by issuing a PGP-signed statement denying any involvement in illegal activity.
These puzzles focus heavily on data security, cryptography and stenography. Over the course of its existence many have speculated that it is a recruitment tool for the NSA, CIA, MI6 or simply a ‘Secret Society’ which is working on improving cryptography, privacy and anonymity.
Till today, no company or individual has taken credit or tried to monetize. Some claim that is run by a bank working on cryptocurrency.
Cicada 3301 poster with QR code discovered in Warsaw, Poland.
Whether ‘Cicada 3301’ is ‘The Internet’s Most Secret Organization’ or the biggest elaborate hoax, is unknown. Just like Voynich Manuscript. But still, it baffles me.
To know more about ‘Cicada 3301’, have a look at this…
Robots are taking over everything, although I might be referencing ‘Skynet’ calamity but now these creatures will soon sit on your shoulders and feed tomatoes while you run.
This thing is built by ‘Kagome’ (a company widely popular as the ‘Heinz of Japan) and their idea is that tomatoes have nutrients that might help marathon runners to make it to the finish line.
‘Tomatan’
What about the weight of the ‘bot’ that is going to be on the shoulder…?
This product is capable of holding seven tomatoes at a time. It also has a built-in timer so that you guys (marathon runners) don’t gulp down every thing quickly.
Physical keyboards are sure ‘vintage’ these days and Blackberry’s only bread-butter. However, some of sure do miss the things retro..quite often. Talking about ‘Insta’..eh..!
Having a physical keyboard appearing magically is as good as if it were 80s’ sci-fi. That’s a great a idea to start with and the ‘Phorm Keyboard’ is sure going to mint a lot on this. Phorm, is a new iPad mini case made by ‘Tactus Technology’ of Frement, California.
Phorm is a regular protective case and looks quite snuggle. But there’s filling inside, beneath its surface there’s a special technology called microfluids that make keyboard buttons bubble up out of the touchscreen when we need to type and then disappears when we’re done.
It is certainly not making typing any easier but the tactile feel is surely the thing we’re looking for a good typing experience.
Currently, the company plans this line-up only for iPad mini, but iPhones will see the sweetness too.
“Always help people in need. I might be the only that does”…
Now with this motto I began asking and answering questions to myself. Now, this area of me helping needs to be expanded. I have to sort things out. How do I describe myself, I see myself as a helper. Trying to keep people updated and aware about technology, science, art, music, business world and everything else in between. The amount of ‘Pop Culture’ references I use is huge. I am no ‘Abed’ (From Community: Sitcom) by the way. This is not word-play but more than that.
There’s a little bit of occasional programming stirs in me, so, I’ll solve those as well. Why will my ‘blog’ or ‘website’ later will stand out from the already available large pool? There’s always ‘wait & watch’ strategy and Dory’s ‘Just-Keep-Swimming’ attitude.
Content curation is that what I am into..? Maybe, but first let me help, solve and spread all things ‘Tech’.
PoddarProject 