![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Feels like...another day...
Apr. 22nd, 2001 10:29 pmMy brain tells me it's Sunday, but there was no time off for me today, as there are no "days off" in the space flight business.
The idea is intriguing, though. There are a significant number of folks out there who believe in the one-day-completely-off-per-week principle. Some believe on religious grounds; others on practical grounds.
The FranklinCovey store, for example, at the Baybrook Mall is closed on Sunday, displaying a sign behind its locked door to the effect that the company believes it's important for employees to have a full day off per week. Among other things, I like doing business with this outfit because they not only talk the talk, but walk the talk as well.
I remember back, a long time ago, how Bobby Fischer - the chess genius - had a hard and fast rule about not playing on Saturdays, on religious grounds (and he was pretty successful at making the rule stick in the face of hostility and professional jealousy).
So, I wonder, what are the chances for anyone who believes in a "Sabbath" of some kind to become an astronaut? Heck, what are the chances for such people to even work in support roles at the MCC?
This reminds me of some exchanges between the ground and the first crew about scheduled free time and how it kept eroding, for various reasons, to the point where it disappeared altogether. Or perhaps I misunderstood...
In any event, I'm not about to go ask for time off. There are six days left in the mission, and I intend to work them in a conscientious manner. After undock, I might get to ease up on the hours, but it'll be work-work-work straight on through until I go home, which is currently scheduled for the 7th of May.
The X Files was interesting, but not at all what I was expecting. Instead of further confusing my befuddled neural cortex with more contradictory, vague, and incomplete information about The Great Plot, the producers hit me with another story straight out of The Night Stalker. On the other hand, tonight's story did more to develop Doggett's character than did the entire previous season. The tension between Doggett and Mulder is simmering well; the affection between Scully and Mulder is bearable, and the whole situation seems very, very fluid. So maybe it's okay that the show wasn't what I was expecting.
Spent some time looking at a cryptography challenge from The Register. Their first crypto challenge employed a simple substitution cipher, albeit the message was in Spanish. This second cryptogram is 586 characters long and I've devoted about all the time I can afford to its solution.
What I've found out is this (musings at myself, feel free to skip): The number 586 has only two integer factors: 2 and 293. This argues against any kind of serious transposition. The letter frequency distribution does not support a hypothesis of any kind of simple substitution and is another strike against a transposition. There is no clear pattern of repetition of digrams or trigrams at any consistent interval, so it's likely not a Vigenère cipher. It could be a polygram substitution cipher, but the only one I'm familiar with to any degree is the Playfair, and the occurrence of a doubled letter pair argues against Playfair being the method of encryption.
I also think the solution is probably easier than I suspect (after all, the first challenge used a very simple scheme). But what?
Enough babbling. Tomorrow is, said Scarlett, another day. And she was (and continues to be) right. G'night.
Cheers...
The idea is intriguing, though. There are a significant number of folks out there who believe in the one-day-completely-off-per-week principle. Some believe on religious grounds; others on practical grounds.
The FranklinCovey store, for example, at the Baybrook Mall is closed on Sunday, displaying a sign behind its locked door to the effect that the company believes it's important for employees to have a full day off per week. Among other things, I like doing business with this outfit because they not only talk the talk, but walk the talk as well.
I remember back, a long time ago, how Bobby Fischer - the chess genius - had a hard and fast rule about not playing on Saturdays, on religious grounds (and he was pretty successful at making the rule stick in the face of hostility and professional jealousy).
So, I wonder, what are the chances for anyone who believes in a "Sabbath" of some kind to become an astronaut? Heck, what are the chances for such people to even work in support roles at the MCC?
This reminds me of some exchanges between the ground and the first crew about scheduled free time and how it kept eroding, for various reasons, to the point where it disappeared altogether. Or perhaps I misunderstood...
In any event, I'm not about to go ask for time off. There are six days left in the mission, and I intend to work them in a conscientious manner. After undock, I might get to ease up on the hours, but it'll be work-work-work straight on through until I go home, which is currently scheduled for the 7th of May.
The X Files was interesting, but not at all what I was expecting. Instead of further confusing my befuddled neural cortex with more contradictory, vague, and incomplete information about The Great Plot, the producers hit me with another story straight out of The Night Stalker. On the other hand, tonight's story did more to develop Doggett's character than did the entire previous season. The tension between Doggett and Mulder is simmering well; the affection between Scully and Mulder is bearable, and the whole situation seems very, very fluid. So maybe it's okay that the show wasn't what I was expecting.
Spent some time looking at a cryptography challenge from The Register. Their first crypto challenge employed a simple substitution cipher, albeit the message was in Spanish. This second cryptogram is 586 characters long and I've devoted about all the time I can afford to its solution.
What I've found out is this (musings at myself, feel free to skip): The number 586 has only two integer factors: 2 and 293. This argues against any kind of serious transposition. The letter frequency distribution does not support a hypothesis of any kind of simple substitution and is another strike against a transposition. There is no clear pattern of repetition of digrams or trigrams at any consistent interval, so it's likely not a Vigenère cipher. It could be a polygram substitution cipher, but the only one I'm familiar with to any degree is the Playfair, and the occurrence of a doubled letter pair argues against Playfair being the method of encryption.
I also think the solution is probably easier than I suspect (after all, the first challenge used a very simple scheme). But what?
Enough babbling. Tomorrow is, said Scarlett, another day. And she was (and continues to be) right. G'night.
Cheers...
