Germany 2006 - Best wishes!

Today is 9th June, and only few hours left for the kickoff of the World's biggest sporting festival. Germany the obvious favorites will clash with Costa Rica. Well there are losts of instances in the inaugral match where the favorites had to suffer shocking loss - remember the Argentina vs Camerron match of 1990 world cup. In the same year Costa Rica had knocked out both Scotland and Sweden to reach last 16.

Whatever happens, the ultimate winner will be Soccer... Lets hope Germany 2006 will bestow us with unforgettable sporting moments.

World cup schedule: here
World Cup Venues:

(Courtesy: www.mapsofworld.com)

Designing a Secure Authentication System

A nice article which tells you how to design a Secure Authentication System, through dialogs of characters Athena and Euripides.

Designing an Authentication System: a Dialogue in Four Scenes

Through the dialogues the characters design the fictitious open network authentication system called 'Charon'. The charon has striking resemblences to the Kerberos System...

Kerberos

Tail Piece:
Dan Brown has popularized the Bergofsky Principle in his book Digital Fortress. It states that any encrypted message can be decrypted if a computer tried enough keys; atlest it is mathematically guaranteed!
But the issue of time is the constraint here; with the key length increasing it may take years to decrypt the message and by that time, the message may become irrelevant.

Is there something called Bergofsky Principle, or is it just a fictitious principle? Well, googling tells that there is no such principle!

Pluralistic Ignorance

Recently I came across news of David Sharp, a British who died in bone freezing climate of Himalayas. He was on his way to reach the top of the world, the mount Everest.
So many climbers have noticed him in the death zone (zone above 26,000 ft); he was almost dead (physically) and nobody was willing to help him. At a moment when people are trying to conquer the world, nobody had time for David Sharp.
More than 40 climbers crossed him and continued their ascent. Most of them are reported to be found him on descent as well. Many talked to him, many discussed what to do, but done helped him, Sharp's fate was to succumb to death.
Sir Edmund Hilary had said that humans have become too selfish to let the colleague die and still continue to reach the top; the one stop destination for fame and glory. Does this state what he said or is it an instance of bystander effect - When there is an emergency, the more bystanders there are, the less likely it is that any of them will actually help?

Bystander effect and Pluralistic Ignorance are psychological phenomenon. There is only less chance of a person to get involved in an emergency situation if there are lots of bystanders and the chances are more if he is alone.
Each and every one assume that somebody is going to intervene. Next assumption is he / she is different from others and hence their thoughts are different. They also think there may be a more qualified person in the group to offer help and hence he / she can carry on. All human beings think this way and finally nobody offers help.

There are instances of goodness and humanity in the Mt. Everest; people helping others struggling to be alive...
Australian climber Lincoln Hall was taken back from the claws of death by an expedition team who were ascending the peak. Hall was in a state of what can be called semi-unconsiousness, the brain being deprived of oxygen for longer durations.

Up above the world so high!

The view from sky is truly mesmerizing (Thanks to google earth)! Wish I could fly like a bird!

Finally I could locate my native place in Google Maps satellite view :)
Since the location is in low resolution view, I couldn't make out any landmarks.
I followed the railway line and then located Olavara puza, Edayilakkadu islands, Payyanur town and Trikarpur.

Click here to view (You have to click the satellite button in the page)!
In the top center is Trikarpur town. The Edayilakkadu Island the bund connecting it to Trikarpur can also be seen.
The Payyanur town can be located in the bottom-right.

Urban Legend?

Longtime back I heard that the fate of the rider can be made out from the position of horse's feet in equestrian statues!
What I had heard is quite interesting: a statue that has all four of the horse's hooves on the ground means that the rider survived the battle without a scratch. One foot raised means the person was wounded but survived, and both forelegs raised indicates that the man was killed.

Little bit of googling said that all of the statues at Gettysburg Battlefield infact follow this 'rule'.
Though it may feel that the choice of the pose of the horse is purely an artistic one, the sculptors might have been influenced by the so called rule!