Kryptos

In the language of Cryptography, Cipher is a secret or disguised way of writing. It can also be considered as a code, developed by its creator.

Kryptos is a sculpture made by an American artist, Jim Sanborn on the grounds of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, USA. It was dedicated in the year 1990 and had 4 encrypted messages. Cryptoanalysts around the world have delved into it and only 3 of the messages have been solved so far. The 4th one is yet to be solved, till date, and has already become one of the famous unsolved codes in the world, to reckon with.

Jim had confirmed that should he die before the 4th message is deciphered, the answer would be there with someone, safe, to affirm the solution.

Plastics Numerals - What Do They Say

Seldom can you find a place on this planet, where you would be hardly distant from Plastics. It would be ideal to say that plastics have become a part and parcel of our daily chores of life. But the thing which had always intrigued me was the numeral which would be written below a plastic bottle.

It stands out that these numbers indeed have a numeral significance and has been there to showcase the quality of plastic and whether they are relatively safer or needs to be avoided at all costs.

Have a glance at each of the numeral and what they really say about the plastic you are holding in your hands :

NO : 1 [POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE (PET OR PETE)]
Verdict : AVOID re-using them

NO : 2 [High density polyethylene (HDPE)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 3 [Polyvinyl chloride (V or Vinyl or PVC)]
Verdict : AVOID re-using them

NO : 4 [Low density polyethylene (LDPE)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 5 [Polypropylene (PP)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 6 [Polystyrene (PS)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 7 [Other (O) - all other plastics]
Verdict : AVOID re-using them

In the end, however, no plastics can be said to be safe for-ever.

English Language Trivia - Part 2

“Forty” is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order.

SWIMS & NOON are words that can be flipped backwards and upside down and be spelled the same way! It is an example of an Ambigram which is a word, art form or other symbolic representation whose elements retain meaning when viewed or interpreted from a different direction, perspective, or orientation.

The only letter that doesn't appear on the Periodic Table is the letter 'J'. The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, ordered by their atomic number (number of protons), electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties.

The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used. The letter E is over 56 times more common than Q in forming individual English words.

Typographical symbols such as '@#*&', that are used to replace swear words are called 'Grawlix'. It is a sequence of typographical symbols used to represent a non-specific, profane word or phrase.

'Q' is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the 50 American states.

English Language Trivia - Part 1

As per Guiness World Records, the English word with the most meanings is the verb 'set', with 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words, or 326,000 characters.

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"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. It is unpunctuated and uses 3 distinct readings of the word "buffalo" :

1) City of Buffalo, New York, United States
2) The noun buffalo (American bison), an animal
3) The verb "buffalo" meaning to outwit, confuse, deceive, intimidate or baffle.

Now read the below sentence, keeping the above words in mind :
The buffalo from Buffalo who are buffaloed by buffalo from Buffalo, buffalo (verb) other buffalo from Buffalo.

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The sentence " Are you as bored as I am? " can be read backwards and still make sense.

Longest English word without any vowel is "twyndyllyngs", which means "twins"

The division sign "÷" is technically called an Obelus.

Troubleshoot 1 -- Skype Connectivity Issue

While launching Skype, I suddenly came across this message, which was quite surprising :
"Sorry,we couldn't connect to Skype. Please check your internet connection and try again"

Going by the look of it,I thought there must be a problem with the internet connection but then
when I confirmed that there was nothing wrong with connectivity, then I was intrigued.

Finally, after Googling for some time, I came across this simple troubleshooting method :

1. Go to Control Panel of your system.
2. Click on Internet Options link. An Internet Properties popup would appear.
3. Click on Advanced menu tab.
4. Click on Restore advanced settings button. And click OK.
5. Launch your Skype instance again.

And Voila !!! You are ready to launch your Skype instance and talk or chat to your near and dear ones.