Category: Culture

North Korea’s Tech Control: Red Star OS and Surveillance Smartphones | July 13 2025, 00:58

In the latest video about North Korea from Lankov, I heard something interesting: a device owner cannot open someone else’s file, whether on a computer or on a phone, unless it is signed with a special digital signature from the government. Intrigued, I researched the details for myself and for you.

On their phones, they use a modified old “KitKat” Android (2013), and on computers—a modified Fedora Linux, Red Star OS 3, with a shell that mimics the macOS interface from Apple (the previous one mimicked Windows XP). It is said that this design choice may have been influenced by the fact that leader Kim Jong Un was seen with an iMac on his desk, and apparently, he said make it the same.

North Korean smartphones are equipped with hidden surveillance features that automatically take screenshots every five minutes, storing them in a secret folder accessible only to authorities, not the user. According to other sources, screenshots are taken when applications start, apparently pseudo-randomly. There is also censorship: if you type “South Korea” (남조선) in any app, the system automatically replaces it with “puppet state” (괴뢰국가). One hundred percent of the phones are obviously Chinese, modified by China for Korea. By the way, the collected screenshots are accessible to users, but they cannot be deleted. This application, Trace Viewer, is clearly created to remind users: everything that they do on the tablet or phone can be known to the government.

All media content in Red Star OS, including documents, images, audio and video files, is automatically marked with a watermark containing a unique serial number of the hard drive, which allows authorities to track its origin and distribution. That is, you cannot take a photo and send it to someone, because it will either just not open on that phone, or, apparently, in rare cases, if sharing is allowed, in the new place there will be traces of both who is the author of the photo and who is the next owner. But this is underdeveloped, and direct file sharing is still limited. You can only use it yourself. Of course, nothing can be deleted from the phone without a trace. It is not allowed to have more than one device per person (seems to apply separately to a tablet and a phone).

North Korean mobile devices use a strict system of digital signatures (NATISIGN for government-approved content and SELFSIGN for content created on the device), which means that any file without these signatures cannot be opened at all. The system of signatures and signature verification is at the level of the operating system, not applications. This applies to all files that people create, both on phones and on computers. I see a huge number of edge cases here, but there is little information and no one to ask.

The penalties for accessing unauthorized foreign media, such as K-pop or South Korean dramas, are extremely harsh. If an “undesirable file” is found on a CD inserted into a computer with Red Star OS, the system will eject the CD, record the path to the file, display a graphical warning, take screenshots, and then forcefully reboot the system after 1000 seconds.

North Korea manages a national intranet network called Kwangmyong, “walled garden,” which is completely isolated from the global internet and is available to most citizens only for government-approved websites and email systems.

When you first launch the browser Naenara (based on Firefox 3.5), the default homepage is the IP address “10.76.1.11.” That is, their internet is essentially an intranet.

Treasures in Translation: A Glimpse into Rare Russian Reprints | July 09 2025, 01:27

Nadia from Russia just brought me three books I ordered. “The Art of Color” by J. Itten, “Americans and Everyone Else” by I. Kurilla, and this one, Holodkovsky’s commentary on his translation of Faust. Interestingly, it seems that these commentaries are not available in Russian.. to be more precise.. in modern Russian. There is a reprint of the original 1914 edition, created based on a high-resolution electronic copy that was manually cleaned and processed, preserving the structure and spelling of the original edition, and it seems it was not translated into modern Russian. However, there are no difficulties in reading the reprint.

The Paradox of Symmetry: Beauty, Boredom, and the Brain | July 06 2025, 23:13

Probably not just for me a contradictory perception of symmetry exists. On one hand, symmetry is perceived as a sign of harmony and stability because the brain processes and recognizes organized forms more quickly, which historically could have aided survival. Logically, it should be associated with beauty, health, and predictability, giving a sense of security.

It’s written that with one or two alcoholic drinks, symmetrical objects become even more attractive. “In a pilot study (Elena Karakashevska) involving 13 social drinkers, researchers were surprised to find that alcohol apparently enhances the brain’s response to symmetry.” The study also concluded that people look better after consuming alcohol 🙂 This reminds me of a joke about two friends, when one says, “Now we’ll go to the girls, one is alright – for me, and the other one is a bit ugly, but you drink some vodka — and she will be fine,” and when they arrive, they ring the doorbell, two women are on the doorstep, and the second says: “Oh, I can’t drink that much!”

On the other hand, excessive symmetry and monotony can cause boredom and irritation as the brain seeks stimulation and novelty. For example, imagine a symmetrical tattoo on someone. Can you picture one that you aesthetically prefer over an asymmetrical one?

Personally, I like small deviations and asymmetry, which make images lively and interesting. A certain balance of order and chaos. Pure symmetry seems very boring to me.

Started googling on the topic. “Japanese don’t like symmetry. If a vase on the table is in the middle, they will automatically move it to the edge of the table. Why? Symmetry as completion, as finitude, as repetition is uninteresting. For instance, the dishes on a Japanese table (dinnerware) will definitely have different patterns, different colors.”

Do you like symmetry?

Unveiling the Mystery of the Original Declaration of Independence | July 04 2025, 02:36

Tomorrow is July 4th – Independence Day.

I’m currently reading about it. It turns out that the authentic Declaration of Independence is lost to history, and the document labeled “Original Declaration of Independence” in the National Archives is actually a copy.

By the way, about 80% of the text of the declaration lists why the king is bad. Literally. He doesn’t do this, he doesn’t do that, he forgot about us here, he didn’t remember there. It’s just a straight protest of no kings. The last paragraph of the long text essentially says, in sum, forget him. We want to handle it ourselves.

Jefferson prepared the draft of the Declaration of Independence with all the usual revisions—crossed out words, inserts in the gaps, etc., all written in his poor handwriting. This document exists and is very interesting.

The rest of the committee approved the text, and Jefferson then created a fair copy (still in his bad handwriting and just the size of a regular sheet), which was presented to Congress, voted on, adopted, and received its first signatures. This “fair copy” was the real original Declaration of Independence—and it is precisely this one that is lost.

Later, Congress decided that a version suitable for publication was needed—bigger and, of course, not written in Jefferson’s terrible handwriting. For this, they hired a professional copyist. When he made his copy, Congress held a re-signing. This version by the copyist has the label “Original Declaration of Independence” on the back and is the one currently displayed in the National Archives. It was “original” only in the sense that it served as the master copy for printing.

So what happened to Jefferson’s “fair copy,” the genuine original Declaration of Independence? No one knows. It might still be somewhere in the archives, lost among other documents. Or perhaps someone took it home and preserved it, or maybe it was destroyed by time and circumstances, such as when the British burned Washington.

In 1989, a man named Michael Sparks bought an old painting at a flea market in Pennsylvania for $2.48. When he removed the frame, he discovered a rolled-up piece of paper behind it. This turned out to be one of the rare “Dunlap Broadsides”—the first 200 printed copies of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, printed on the night of July 4 to 5, 1776, by John Dunlap.

This find was in excellent condition and was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 1991 for 2.42 million dollars (and later resold for even more). This isn’t Bitcoin!

A bit about the dates. On July 2, Congress voted for independence. Not the 4th. On July 4, it was formally ratified by Congress, they spent two days making minor formal amendments, having already decided on the substance. No signatures yet. The date on the document, of course, is the 4th. Copies were printed and sent out the next day. Eventually, the ones sent out were signed by the delegates only on August 2.

Three of the first five American presidents died on this day. Jefferson, Adams, Monroe. Jefferson was in fact the father of this declaration, with Adams, they found the time. So maybe July 2nd would be a more appropriate day to celebrate.

Yes, also—technically—America did not gain independence in 1776. It happened only after the signing of the Treaty of Paris (September 3, 1783), when Britain said: “Alright,” and recognized America as a separate state.

If the War of Independence hadn’t turned in favor of America, Washington (like most of the founding fathers) would likely have been executed for treason. But since it turned out otherwise, they picked that day.

A Costly Trip to the National Cryptologic Museum: Enigmas and Espionage | July 02 2025, 14:56

I went to the National Cryptologic Museum yesterday. Indeed, this trip will cost me $1000 because a rock hit the windshield of the new Tesla on the way. Anyway, let’s talk about the museum.

It’s very small. Located on the premises of the National Security Agency. The museum basically consists of three small rooms. One is dedicated to German Enigmas and there exhibits Alan Turing’s Bombe decryption machine, — a device as big as a kitchen in Lobnya, used for systematic decryption of messages encrypted by the Germans using “Enigma.” After the war, Churchill, for reasons of secrecy, ordered all physical traces of the program, including the Bombe machines, to be destroyed, so it’s quite a rare thing. Moreover, there’s only one working Bombe machine in the entire world, somewhere in England, and even that was barely restored. The Enigmas themselves were produced in large numbers, and the museum has two working ones; you can press the buttons and encrypt something.

In the room with computer equipment stands an old Cray, as well as a decommissioned nuclear deterrence hardware server rack taken out of service 15 years ago. It’s not very clear what’s remarkable about this – well yes, old computers, that’s all. The Cray is actually exhibited many places.

Unfortunately, there are no longer exhibits from the Star Gate project — like the blue box shown in the attached photos. The Star Gate project was used by the US government during the Cold War. Many of the psychic spies were based at Fort Meade, tasked with gathering intelligence, detecting enemy agents, and identifying vulnerabilities in the US using “remote viewing.”

Never heard of “remote viewing”? It’s the mental observation of a distant place where a person has never been, in order to gather information about an individual, an object, or specific data. As absurd as it may sound, it’s claimed that the program was quite successful and used until 1995 🙂

Specifically, this little blue machine, PSIFI, is part of that program. For example, it was used to study the impact of consciousness on random processes — like altering the behavior of random number generators through thought, collecting statistics on attempts at psychokinesis — with “hits”, “trials”, “gated hits”, “gated trials” etc., suggesting successful impacts compared to an expected random distribution, biofeedback — the lower part of the panel contains controls and inputs, apparently for electromyography and other biosignals. Overall, a good addition to the UFO research program.

Unveiling Ancient Numeric Codes in “Slave for Sale” by José Jiménez Aranda | June 27 2025, 21:00

An interesting painting “Slave for Sale” (Una Esclava en Venta), 1897, by Spanish artist Jose Jimenez Aranda.

From it, I learned that just as there were Roman numerals, there were Greek ones in Greece. Pay attention to the plate. It reads ΡΟΔΟΝ ΕΤΩΝ ΙΗ ΠΩΛΕΙΤΑΙ ΜΝΑΣ Ω, which translates to “Rhodon, 18 years old, for sale for 800 minae”.

In the Greek text, there are two numbers – ΙΗ and Ω. In those times, Greeks wrote numbers using letters: Α (alpha) = 1, Β = 2, …, I = 10, K = 20, …, Ρ = 100, Σ = 200, …, Ω = 800.

Accordingly, ΙΗ is 18. The line above it indicates that it is a number, as does the line above Ω.

The Surprising Origins of Chain Link Fencing | June 26 2025, 10:08

Deception is everywhere. I googled “chain link fence” and it turns out that Karl Rabitz has nothing to do with it, but instead relates to a different one, and the very first of the known documented images of the chain link fence was found in… a mattress patent. More precisely, in the US patent No. 124,286 “Wire Fabrics”, issued on March 5, 1872, to a certain Mr. Peters (J. W. C. Peters).

From Drugs to Souvenirs: The Bizarre Market for Fake Medications | June 22 2025, 17:11

Look how they sell Ozempic, right along with sneakers and souvenirs. In the pharmacy here, they sell antibiotics and opioid pain relievers.

Faustian Dialogues in Modern Project Management | June 20 2025, 15:00

I think project managers can very well speak to developers in the words of Faust.

Well, here we go again, in the old manner

With you – all is uncertainty, all doubts,

In everything you create difficulties,

And for all, you wish for new rewards!

When will you, without any further talk, —

One, two: look, — and everything is ready soon!

(For context – this is Faust’s reaction to the refusal of the seemingly omnipotent Mephistopheles (Devil) to bring Helen of Troy and Paris from the realm of shadows to the stage for the Emperor’s amusement)

director

Don’t forget anything:

What can be done immediately,

Why put it off till tomorrow?

We must instantly grasp

All that is necessary and possible

(…)

“You have poorly executed it,

And left a gap in the corner”

And the designer might reply:

And you do not see, how vile and shameful

This craft?

Am I not an artist?

To the Manager:

“Fire! Help! Hell! We are all going to burn now!”