The story is about a huge copper and wood sculpture by artist James Sanborn. The sculpture is called Kryptos and it’s home is the CIA’s headquarters.

What’s blowing my mind is that the entire piece has been made with a secret code. It’s like easter eggs gamers and DVD junkies find hidden in their entertainment, except it’s almost entirely a secret.

The amazing thing here is that even the brightest minds at the CIA can’t break the code, or at least all of it. It’s broken into four sections called K1, K2, K3 and K4. The first three have been cracked, but without the fourth, the hidden message still remains a total mystery.

Levy wrote:

The 97 characters of K4 remain impenetrable. They have become, as one would-be cracker calls it, the Everest of codes. Both Scheidt and Sanborn confirm that they intended the final segment to be the biggest challenge. There are endless theories about how to solve it. Is access to the sculpture required? Is the Morse code a clue? Every aspect of the project has come under electron-microscopic scrutiny, as thousands of people—hardcore cryptographers and amateur code breakers alike—have taken a whack at it. Some have gone off the deep end: A Michigan man abandoned his computer-software business to do construction so he’d have more time to work on it. Thirteen hundred members of a fanatical Yahoo group try to move the ball forward with everything from complex math to astrology. One typical Kryptos maniac is Randy Thompson, a 43-year-old physicist who has devoted three years to the problem. “I think I’m onto the solution,” he says. “It could happen tomorrow, or it could take the rest of my life.” Meanwhile, some of the seekers are getting tired. “I just want to see it solved,” says Elonka Dunin, a 50-year-old St. Louis game developer who runs a clearinghouse site for Kryptos information and gossip. “I want it off my plate.”

You should really give the article a read, it’s been blowing my mind since I read it. What do you think about it?

Photo by: kimberlyfaye (busy)

This will be our first family road trip. How hard can this be? I planned on googling for tips on how to survive the trip with the wee ones, but I decided I should ask my friends first, so I posted the question on Twitter. Thanks for your advice!

I’ll be tweeting from the road, but will be dropping offline when we cross the border. Canadian roaming fees scare me, Rogers is evil. I’ll be sure to check my email, comments and tweets from time to time over the next week. Please accept my apologies for any late replies.

I do plan to meet some friends in Toronto for a beer. Want to join us?

This is a post about my home and native land, Canada. July 1st, 1867 Canada became it’s own country. Happy Birthday.

It’s business as usual for me today, for some crazy reason we don’t get Canada Day off in the States.

To celebrate I wanted to take a moment to share ten songs that make me think of home.

I had fun making this mix for you late last night. It reminded me of growing up in Toronto where I made hundreds of mix tapes for friends and loved ones, and our local watering hole. Consider this my Canada Day gift to you.

Sit back and enjoy a taste from home.

What are your favorite Canadian songs?

Photo by: **Mary**

I was speaking with a friend today about how we tend to be using our phones, our mobile phones, in every other way than an actual telephone. I use my iPhone to play games, record audio, take photos, instant messaging, do banking, check and reply to email, listen to music and podcasts, text and tweet my friends.

I use my telephone feature only to call my family. I will sometimes speak to friends, but it’s seldom. I am much more likely to text and tweet them than to dial their number. With call display I think we’re all guilty of ignoring calls too.

Is the social web and mobile phone features making me anti-social?

I’m curious. What do you use your mobile phone for primarily? When was the last time you reached out and touched someone?

OMG, I can’t believe I just used eggcellant. I feel like I’m a terrible copy writer for the Waffle House. I’d apologize for the horrible pun, but the fact that you’re here probably means you’re use to my wacky sense of humor, so I’ll proceed…

This Thursday is Geek Breakfast in Nashville. If you haven’t been before you should give it a try. We’d love to have you.

Each month a group of 30-60 people congregate at the Broadway location of Noshville to enjoy breakfast together. We call it Geek Breakfast because we talk technology, oh and we eat breakfast.

I realize some people have avoided coming, or were at least nervous about it, because they were concerned about their level of geekery. I assure you that everyone is welcome from newbies to hackers.

Don’t be shy, choose a time 7:30 or 8:30 and RSVP on Facebook. Or you can do so by leaving me a comment here.

Please remember that Geek Breakfast isn’t free, you pay whatever is on your bill, and you leave a hefty tip for a hard working server. Did I mention he’s the one who brings the coffee?

If you’d like to start your own local Geek Breakfast you should check out geekbreakfast.org. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.

I look forward to seeing you Thursday.

That’s another day gone by, son, close your eyes
For the moon is chasing clouds across the skies
Got to sleep and have no fear, son
For your mam and dad are near, son
And the giant is just a shadow on the wall
Go to sleep and when you wake it will be light
There’s no need to fear the darkness of the night
It’s not like the dark you find, son
In the depths of some men’s minds, son
That defies the daily coming of the dawn
Stop crying now, let daddy dry your tears
There’s no bogeyman to get you, never fear
There’s no ogres, wicked witches
Only greedy sons-of-bitches
Who are waiting to exploit your life away
Lie easy in your bed and grow up strong
You’ll be needing all your strength before too long
For you’ll soon be on your way, son
Fighting battles every day, son
With an enemy who thinks he owns the world
Don’t you let ‘em buy you out or break your pride
Don’t you let yourself be used then cast aside
If you listen to their lying
They will con you into dying
You won’t even know that you were once alive
No more talking now it’s time to go to sleep
There are answers to your questions but they’ll keep
Go on asking while you grow, son
Go on asking till you know, son
And then send the answers ringing through the world

I came across a shared post on my friend C.C. Chapman’s Google Reader account. I’m so glad I subscribe to his shared items, you should too.

The post is by Mark Cuban, it’s entitled “Success & Motivation – 2009“. Mark writes:

This is the year of WTF. Yep, What the F&&&.

It doesn’t matter what got you to the point of saying it. Maybe you got fired/layed off. Maybe your company went out of business. Maybe you quit because you couldn’t take it any longer. Maybe you are just graduating from school and the prospects of living at home are far worse than cramming in with 12 roommates in a beater house or apartment you call “The Hotel”.  Whatever the reason, the question is how do you turn this time into the start of something good ?

Mark includes a WTF To Do List that you really should read, whether you’re looking for work or not.

The sentiment of Mark’s post reminds me of the classic scene from the film Risky Business. No, not the underwear wearing Tom Cruise scene. No, not the steamy subway scene. I’m talking about this one (it’s not safe for work).

Those are great words of wisdom.

While you’re out there on the job hunt say WTF. Remember that WTF gives you freedom, freedom brings opportunity, opportunity makes your future.

I’m coming home for a week in July to visit friends and family. We’re doing our first family road trip from Nashville. How hard can a 12 hour journey with a two and three year old be?

I’m really excited to get back to my home town. I am equally excited to get together for a pint or three with my pals online, offline.

Please join me for a Toronto Tweet Up on July 5 8th at The Duke of Kent at Yonge & Eglinton. Please RSVP here, so I can be sure we have the space to accommodate us. I hope you can make it, I’d really love to see you.

Pitchfork writes:

Selling albums these days is hard! So the music/fashion company Invisible DJ, working with the fashion designer LnA, has come up with this idea called the Music Tee.

After a sampler that the Invisible DJ people curated, The Ecstatic is the first album available in the Music Tee format. Mos Def’s Downtown Music labelmates Santigold and Miike Snow also have Music Tees on the way.

The LnA product page writes:

Music innovator Invisible DJ has teamed up with fashion designer LnA to create The Music Tee, a T- shirt that is creatively designed to contain “album art” on the front, and a track list on the back. Each shirt comes with a hang tag printed with a URL and a unique code; each code will allow the owner of the shirt to download one copy of each of the tracks printed on the shirt from the Music Tee Room on LnA’s website.

Even if the $60.00 T-shirt isn’t your style, I highly recommend you check out the album.

I wrote a post recently about my disappointment with Meetup.com. I wanted to update you with what happened next. I got an email shortly afterward from Meetup’s VP – Insights & Strategy, Andres Glusman.

Andres emailed me to get my phone number, he then tried to ring me numerous times. We finally connect over the phone a little over a week ago. It was kind of him to reach out after my friend, Saul Colt, alerted him of my blog post.

We discussed my concerns about the missing function for a group administrator to be able to delete his or her group. He agreed that it is a valid issue which needs resolving, and he assured me it would be resolved soon.

Andres also spoke of the community building aspect of Meetup. My friend, Kelly Stewart’s Nashville Hiking group is a prime example of this. I suggested they consider creating a discount version of their service for BarCamp and PodCamp organizers (both are community focused free events), he seemed to like that idea.

I’m impressed that Andres went out of his way to contact me (even calling me on the weekend). Hat tip to Meetup for following up. He promised to keep me in the loop on group deletion. When a fix is in place I’ll be sure to let you know.