What is Koremutake?
In an attempt to temporarily solve the fact that human beings seem to be inable to remember important things (such as their names, car keys and seemingly random numbers with fourteen digits in 'em), we invented Koremutake.
It is, in plain language, a way to express any large number as a sequence of syllables. The general idea is that word-sounding pieces of information are a lot easier to remember than a sequence of digits.
As obvious as it sounds, the human mind may in fact learn to remember phrases and phonetics quite well. Unfortunately, in this day of age most large numbers are expressed as digits and not sentences. This poses a problem for most people, since we are given the task to memorize large amounts of number data. It becomes especially troublesome when it comes to security, since secure an application (and with that I'm referring to usages, not the software kind) almost always depend on a secret key or ID which usually is long and painful to remember. It's not a coincidence that the PIN code for your ATM-card only has four digits, even though five or six digits would be safer.
OK, so how does it work then? Are you gonna tell me or what?
Here's the simple run-down of the algorithm.
The syllables used in Koremutake have been picked to be phonetically unique in order to avoid as many mis-memorations as possible.
Each syllable consists of two or three letters. There are 128 different syllabels which means that each one represents 7 bits. The bit values are then concatenated to make up a bigger number. There is no padding, no built in compression and no checksum.
These are the syllables, in order of magnitude (the first one is the value 0, the last one is the value 1111111 in binary or 127 in decimal notation):
BA BE BI BO BU BY DA DE DI DO DU DY FA FE FI FO FU FY GA GE GI GO GU GY HA HE HI HO HU HY JA JE JI JO JU JY KA KE KI KO KU KY LA LE LI LO LU LY MA ME MI MO MU MY NA NE NI NO NU NY PA PE PI PO PU PY RA RE RI RO RU RY SA SE SI SO SU SY TA TE TI TO TU TY VA VE VI VO VU VY BRA BRE BRI BRO BRU BRY DRA DRE DRI DRO DRU DRY FRA FRE FRI FRO FRU FRY GRA GRE GRI GRO GRU GRY PRA PRE PRI PRO PRU PRY STA STE STI STO STU STY TRA TRE.
But it all looks like gibberish to me. How am I supposed to remember any of it unless I am a native swede or something?
This is a simple pronunciation guide for the letters used in the Koremutake syllables:
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'MO' would then be pronounced as in MOOSE, 'DE' as in DESTINATION and 'SY' as in EASY. It is also recommended that you join them together in pairs or tripples to form words. That way they're even easier to memorize.
Gosh, that seems to be an awful lot to remember.
Well, it actually turns out to be quite an effective way to remember large numbers, once you get the hang of it.
For example, let's say you memorize five syllables. That means that you've just learned a number consisting of 5 syllables * 7 bits = 35 bits. And how much is that? No less than a 235 delta, or in plain english, a number between 0 and 34 359 738 368. Yes, that's 34 billion. Not bad, eh?
Is Koremutake the same thing as the Bubble Babble gizmo I saw in SSH?
Yes and no. Both systems are based on pronounciation and the representation of large numbers in language-like patterns, but there the similarities end. While Bubble Babble is mostly used for verifying the validity of data, Koremutake is meant as a means of memorizing data.
What has all of this got to do with a bleedin' URL shortening service?
What better way to test it then on a site like this? You can write down all the IDs and passwords you get here if you want to, but you can also try to memorize them for fun or practice.
So, what does Koremutake mean then?
It's a secret. If you figure it out, please mail us and maybe we'll award you with a candy bag sent to the residence of YOUR choice. Think of it as the Singh Crypto Challenge, only less academic and with more prestige involved.