Codes, cyphers, and the National Cryptologic Museum

Outside the National Cryptologic Museum gift store is this replica of the Rosetta Stone. Created around 196 BC, it displays a decree from an Egyptian king, written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script and ancient Greek. Discovered by a French soldier during France's invasion of Egypt in 1799, it provided the key to unlocking Egyptian hieroglyphs, much as modern code breakers look for keys in breaking coded texts. The real Rosetta Stone is on display at the British Museum in London.

Located at the edge of Fort Meade, Maryland, in an old, nondescript motel, is the National Cryptologic Museum. Admission is free, and with that admission you can explore how the worlds of communications, mathematics, and security intersect in cryptology. Photos Continue reading Codes, cyphers, and the National Cryptologic Museum

FOSE was gunning for business

FOSE is the largest computer conference and exhibition in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region. At one time, it had days of meetings, classes, speeches, and other educational events, plus miles and miles of aisles filled with the latest computer hardware Continue reading FOSE was gunning for business

Early version of Google

This was the early version of Google. Using these humble wooden drawers, generations of scholars and researchers, desperate students and cunning spies, despairing parents and fanatical bibliophiles, and every other shape and size of reader delved into the depth and breadth Continue reading Early version of Google

Seriously glorious feat of engineering

No, this is not another Internet posting of a food photo. Instead, it is a posting about art and craft and workmanship. Who cares what it is, or what it tastes like: this is a seriously impressive piece of engineering.

Ducks!

Some of the 257 (and counting) rubber duckies surrounding one coworker’s cubicle. Each one is unique: There is nothing more to be said, other than to note that the person in question is a computer techie. Award winning! Another photo Continue reading Ducks!

Why I didn’t become a graphic artist

I spent most of my grade school years drawing pictures instead of doing classwork. Classwork was easy, so I did that quickly and then “illuminated” my work with fanciful spacecraft, mythic maps, and lots of lizards and horses. My maps Continue reading Why I didn’t become a graphic artist

Of Cats and memory cards

In retrospect, I should have used LOLcats photos as the metric. Photo scanned in from things on my desk (now less cluttered). Cats and memories (full size).

NOAA Patch and Coins

NOAA is the world’s leading publisher of original content on the Internet. Not collected from others, but direct publishing. Every day, NOAA instruments, programs, projects and people push a steady stream of environmental, technical and scientific information out to the Continue reading NOAA Patch and Coins