Sad news from the folks at JPG Magazine:

For more than 30 years the Shortwave radio spectrum has been used by the worlds intelligence agencies to transmit secret messages. These messages are transmitted by hundreds of “Numbers Stations”.

Shortwave Numbers Stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication. Spies located anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available, and unmodified Shortwave receivers. The encryption system used by Numbers Stations, known as a “one time pad” is unbreakable. Combine this with the fact that it is almost impossible to track down the message recipients once they are inserted into the enemy country, it becomes clear just how powerful the Numbers Station system is.

These stations use very rigid schedules, and transmit in many different languages, employing male and female voices repeating strings of numbers or phonetic letters day and night, all year round.

High frequency radio signals transmitted at relatively low power can travel around the world under ideal propagation conditions, which are affected by local RF noise levels, weather, season, and sunspots, and can then be received with a properly tuned antenna of adequate size, and a superb receiver. However, spies often have to work only with available hand held receivers, sometimes under difficult local conditions, and in all seasons and sunspot cycles. Only very large transmitters, perhaps up to 500,000 watts, are guaranteed to get through to nearly any basement-dwelling spy, nearly any place on earth, nearly all of the time. Some governments may not need a numbers station with global coverage if they only send spies to nearby countries.

Although no broadcaster or government has acknowledged transmitting the numbers, a 1998 article in The Daily Telegraph quoted a spokesperson for the Department of Trade and Industry (the government department that, at that time, regulated radio broadcasting in the United Kingdom) as saying, “These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are. People shouldn’t be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption.”

A sample of these recordings is available at http://www.last.fm/music/The+Conet+Project. More information about the project is available at http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm. Although the project is currently sold out, the sound files are available elsewhere on the net. The location and whereabouts of said files are left as an exercise to the reader.

[via The Conet Project ]

http://www.archive.org/details/okk016mystziel

“Sounds of the Buddha Machine 1.0”

Since FM3 was kind enough to offer the loops from their Buddha Machine 1.0 for free and on a Creative Commons license, Mystified and Zieltogend endeavored to create pieces of music using only these sounds. Unlike the original Buddha Machine, more than one loop is heard at once in these pieces, giving them perhaps a little bit of an unfair advantage. We hope you enjoy the music.

This audio is part of the collection: Okkulth Records

Date: 2008-11-09
Keywords: ambient; FM3; Mystified; Zieltogend

Creative Commons license: Attribution 3.0 Netherlands

The intention of Okkulth releases is that they are dubbed onto a cassette. These songs will fit onto one side of a C90 tape. It is recommended that you use the PDF file to print the artwork. In the unlikely event that you want to burn a CDR, you can use either the low-resolution thumbnail file or freely alter the artwork provided in the BMP image.

Mystified is Thomas Park.
More at: http://www.mystifiedmusic.com

Zieltogend is [empty].
More at: http://www.myspace.com/zieltogend

Okkulth can also be found at:
http://www.myspace.com/okkulthrecs

I swear by SwitchProxy for Firefox. I use proxies to test our work environment and route web traffic through a SSH tunnel when I’m on an untrusted wireless network. Unfortunately, SwitchProxy hasn’t been updated for some time – it doesn’t work on newer versions of Firefox.

I read this post which talked about tweaking .xpi files – the files mozilla uses for add-ons. Changing the extension from .xpi to .zip results in a file you can open with Windows Explorer. Open it up and look at the install.rdf file. There’s a line in the file that reads:

<em:id>{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}</em:id>
                <em:minVersion>0.8</em:minVersion>
                <em:maxVersion>2.0</em:maxVersion>

Change the lines to reflect your current version, update the file, change the name back to .xpi and you’re good to go.

This won’t work with all add-ons, as some of them require specific versions. SwitchProxy seems to work just fine, however.

I received this email for a photo shoot this weekend. The mural work in the Mission district makes a wonderful subject for shooting, and the PHOTOJOJO people are a lot of fun.

Hi! Your pals at Photojojo (that’s us) are planning a series of really fun photo events in San Francisco and you’re invited!We call ’em Photo Safaris. The first one is this Saturday. We’ll be exploring some of the beautiful street art in the Mission then heading to a local bar, checking out everyone’s photos, and giving out some great prizes.

Hope you can make it! Feel free to bring some pals, and be sure to sign up for updates on future events.

Details
Mission Murals Safari
– Saturday 11/8 @ 3:30pm
– Meet @ Market St & Brady St
– Host: Heather Champ
– RSVP

Love,
Photojojo

p.s. Help us spread the word about this weekend’s safari by twittering it or RSVPing on Facebook.

p.p.s. Here’s a video from our last event in NYC. Get excited!!

Untweaked, fresh out of my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim.