Introduction
Healthy living is something we all aspire to ascertain, in a world where everything is
achievable.
However, with life being full of distinct pressures, we are constantly bombarded with
scare-mongering stories, whether it’s the size zero phenomenon or the obesity
epidemic.
In reality, healthy living and reaching a healthy
weight are determined by different factors for each
and every person.
Our expert advice is here to provide you with the
ability to achieve and maintain a healthy and life
enhancing weight.
You must always remember that:
• Good health is linked to a good diet. There is endless advice available to you
about the best foods and weightloss systems around, but sometimes it is hard to
know what to do for the best. This guide is here to help you.
• Trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle by keeping fit is necessary to help boost
your energy levels, as well as your metabolism. Just by boosting your daily
activities as part of your routine, will ensure that you can reap these rewards.
• Worldwide, there are increasing numbers of people using alternative medicines
to help them reach their healthy living aspirations. These are used to help
alleviate illnesses or symptoms, which will help encourage a healthier lifestyle
and your wellbeing on the whole.

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CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS SUCCESS

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS SUCCESS is about changing the way you think about the way
you think. Sound complicated? It’s not, especially when you learn how, lesson by 20-minute
lesson. A critical thinker approaches problems and complicated situations aware of his or
her thoughts, beliefs, and viewpoints. Then, he or she can direct those thoughts, beliefs, and viewpoints to
be more rational and accurate. A critical thinker is willing to explore, question, and search out answers and
solutions. These skills not only mean greater success at school and at work, but they are the basis of better
decisions and problem solving at home, too.
Critical thinking has been specifically identified by colleges and universities, as well as by many employers,
as a measure of how well an individual will perform at school and on the job. In fact, if you are applying
to college or graduate school, or for a job, chances are your critical thinking skills will be tested.
Standardized exams, such as the SAT and ACT, have sections on critical thinking. Employers such as federal
and state governments, and many Fortune 500 companies, routinely test job applicants with exams such
as the California Critical Thinking Test or the Cornell Critical Thinking Test.

Generally, critical thinking involves both problem
solving and reasoning. In fact, these terms are often
used interchangeably. But specifically,what are critical
thinking skills? They include the ability to:
■ make observations
■ be curious, asking relevant questions and finding
the resources you need
■ challenge and examine beliefs, assumptions,
and opinions against facts
■ recognize and define problems
■ assess the validity of statements and arguments
■ make wise decisions and find valid solutions
■ understand logic and logical argument
You may already be competent in some of these
areas. Or, you may feel you need to learn or improve on
all of them. This book is designed to help you either way.
The pretest will pinpoint those critical thinking skills you
need help with, and even direct you to the lessons in the
book that teach those skills. The lessons themselves not
only present the material you need to learn, but give you
opportunities to immediately practice using that material.
In Lessons 1 and 2, you will learn how to recognize
and define the problems you face. You will practice
prioritizing problems, and distinguishing between
actual problems and their symptoms or consequences.
Lesson 3 shows you how to be a better observer.
When you are aware of the situations and contexts
around you, you will make good inferences, a key to
critical thinking skills success.
In Lessons 4 and 5, you will learn how to use
graphic organizers such as charts, outlines, and diagrams
to organize your thinking and to set goals. These
visual tools help to clearly define brainstorming
options and lead you from problems to solutions.
Lesson 6 is about troubleshooting.This skill helps
you to anticipate and recognize problems that interfere
with your goals. Effective troubleshooting removes setbacks
and keeps you on task.
Lessons 7 and 8 explain how to find the information
you need to make sound decisions, and how to
evaluate that information so you don’t end up relying
on facts and figures that aren’t accurate.You will specifically
learn how to judge the content of websites, which
are increasingly used for research, but can be biased,
misleading, and simply incorrect.
In Lesson 9, you will get a lesson in the art of persuasion.
Not only will you be able to recognize when it
is being used against you, but you will find out how to
implement persuasion techniques effectively yourself.
Lesson 10 is about numbers, and how they are
manipulated. Surveys, studies, and statistics can look
important and truthful when in fact they are meaningless.
You will learn what makes a valid survey
or study and how to watch out for their invalid
counterparts.
In Lesson 11, the topic of emotion, and its effect
on critical thinking, is explored. You can’t think reasonably
and rationally if you allow yourself to be
affected by bias, stereotyping, stress, or your ego. Learning
how to keep these emotional responses in check is
one of the best ways to improve critical thinking.
Lessons 12 and 13 explain deductive reasoning,
one of the two forms of logical argument covered in
this book. You will learn about deduction and how to
tell the difference between valid and invalid deductive
arguments. Logical fallacies such as slippery slope and
false dilemma are explored.
Lessons 14 and 15 are about inductive reasoning.
You will learn how to construct a valid inductive argument,
and how induction is misused to create logical
fallacies such as confusing cause and effect, and making
hasty generalizations.
Lesson 16 shows you other ways in which logical
arguments are misused intentionally to distract

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Writing Skill in 20 Minutes A Day

Since you bought this book, you probably want or need to learn more about the process of writing
and how to become a better writer. This book will help you acquire the coveted power of the pen
in 20 easy steps. It covers the basics of writing: punctuation, usage, diction, and organization. You’ll
find no fluff in this book; it’s for busy people who want to learn as much as they can as efficiently as possible. Each
lesson contains enough illustrations for you to get the idea, opportunities to practice the skills, and suggestions
for using them in your daily life.
Many people fear a blank sheet of paper or an empty computer screen. “I just don’t know what to write. Even
when I know what I want to say, I’m afraid it will come out looking wrong or sounding stupid.”
But that’s one of the things to love about writing.Writing is a process. The first time you write a draft, it doesn’t
matter if your writing comes out wrong or sounds stupid to you because you can change it as often as you want.
You can go over it until you’re completely satisfied or until you need to shift gears. You can show your draft to your
friends or family and get a response before you ever make it public.
Don’t put pressure on yourself by thinking you’re going to write a perfect first draft.No one can sit down and
write polished memos, reports, or letters without changing (or revising) them at least slightly. Even professionals
have to revise their work. For instance, writer Ernest Hemingway had to revise the last page of his famous novel A
Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was satisfied. You probably won’t want to revise anything that many times before
the final copy, but even if you write two or three drafts, you certainly aren’t alone in your need for revision.

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TOEFL : Writing English

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PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF GAS TURBINE CYCLES

Abstract
The gas turbines are generally used for large scale power generation. The basic gas turbine cycle has low thermal
efficiency, so it is important to look for improved gas turbine based cycles. The inlet air cooling helps in
increasing the performance of gas turbines. Another method for increasing the performance has been to introduce
a high amount of water or steam at various points in the cycle. There are several methods suggested and some are
already in operation. All of them offer increased performance and increased specific output compared to a dry
gas turbine cycle. The water addition in the gas turbine cycle also helps in reducing exhaust emissions. The work
presents the effect of inlet air cooling on gas turbine performance and thermodynamic assessment of various
advanced gas turbine cycles. Performance maps are obtained for these cycles for a range of pressure ratio and
turbine inlet temperature. The humid air turbine (HAT) is compared with combined cycle, steam injected cycle
(STIG), simple cycle and inter-cooled recuperated cycle. The performance of HAT cycle is found to be best for
all the range of pressure ratios considered here. The amount of water required for HAT and STIG cycles is also
discussed.
Keywords : Absorption Chiller, Humid Air Turbine, Combined Cycle Gas Turbine
Introduction
The demand of energy in the developing regions of the world, particularly in Asia, has witnessed pronounced
increase in the recent past. According to a report of International Energy Outlook 2004, the world net electricity
consumption is expected to nearly double over the next two decades. Much of the growth in new electricity
demand is expected to come from countries of the developing world. Therefore, it is important to find improved
technologies for power generations that have high efficiency and specific power output, low emissions of
pollutants, low investment, and low operating and maintenance cost for a sustainable use of available fuels.
Industrial gas turbines are one of the well established technologies for power generation. The advantage of gas
turbines lies in the fact that they have high power/weight ratios and low pollutant emissions compared to
reciprocating engines.
The introduction of combined cycles boosted the efficiency of gas turbine cycles. However, combined cycle
power plants have relatively high investment costs and require high-grade steam to be generated from the flue
gases. Due to this combined cycle plants are often built around big gas turbines that are optimized for
applications with high exhaust gas temperatures. For smaller gas turbines as well as gas turbines with high
pressure ratios and low exhaust gas temperatures, some of the proposed schemes for performance improvements
are:
• Injection of water in the inlet air
• Injection of water mist or steam in the compressor during the compression process.
• Massive stream injection in the combustion chamber and turbine
Some of the gas turbine cycles using the above modifications are:
• Evaporative regenerative gas turbine cycle
• Inter cooled recuperative gas turbine cycle (ICRGT).
Performance Improvement of Gas Turbine Cycles 23
• Steam injected gas turbine cycle (STIG).
• Humid air turbine (HAT).
The objective of the present work is to assess the thermodynamic performance of the above advanced gas turbine
cycles for a typical gas turbine cycle power plant with a power output in excess of 200 MW. Typical component
merit indices have been chosen and performance assessed for several combinations of design parameters and
representative inlet conditions. A computer code has been developed using realistic models for various gas
turbine processes including combustion.
Various methods to improve gas turbine efficiency and power output are as follows:
Gas Turbine Inlet Air Cooling
The turbine inlet air cooling methods can be divided into two categories a) Cooling with wetted media and b)
Cooling with chillers
Evaporative Cooling
In this process water is distributed over pads of fibers through which the air passes to be humidified. Spray
intercoolers or fogging systems were also used to cool the inlet air. De Lucia et al(1995) reported that
evaporative inlet-cooling is economical and simple, but suitable for only dry hot climates. He concluded that
evaporative inlet cooling could enhance power by 2–4% depending on the weather. Bassily(2001) presented the
effects of the turbine’s inlet-temperature, ambient temperature, and relative humidity on the performance of the
recuperated gas-turbine cycle with evaporative inlet cooling and the intercooler reheat regenerative gas-turbine
cycle with indirect evaporative inlet cooling.
Cooling with Absorption Chiller
Chillers can increase the gas turbine power output by 15-20% and efficiency by 1-2%. Ait-Ali(2001) presented
the concept of inlet air refrigeration to boost the power output from the gas turbine. The absorption chiller works
on the principle of vapor absorption refrigeration cycle. The main advantage of this chiller lies in the fact that the
inlet air can be cooled down to a specific temperature for a wide range of ambient air temperatures and, therefore
the power output of a gas turbine remains more or less constant, independent of ambient air conditions. The low
grade exhaust energy can be used to drive the chiller. The chilled water (≈5o C), produced by the absorption
system, is passed through the inlet air cooler, which is an indirect type air to water heat exchanger.
A typical absorption chiller with a capacity of 3000 refrigeration tons and a COP of 0.70 is taken for the current
study. This absorption system uses the waste heat to produce steam, required by the chiller.
Advanced Gas Turbine Cycles
The gas turbine cycles with exhaust heat recovery are generally known as advanced cycles. Some of the
advanced gas turbine cycles are discussed by Heppenstall(1998). Heat recovery schemes are one of the most
important ways of increasing the efficiency of the power generation process. Some of the advanced gas turbines
are 1) Gas to gas recuperated cycles. 2)Steam Injected Gas turbine cycles 3) Evaporative Regenerative Gas
Turbine Cycle 4) Humid Aur Turbines and 5) combined cycle power plants. Some are discussed below
Steam Injected Gas Turbine Cycle (STIG)
The exhaust gas from the turbine is used as an energy source in a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) where
energy is transferred from the exhaust gases to the boiler feed water. The high pressure steam is generated from
HRSG. The steam is then injected into the combustion chamber. Injection of steam increases the mass flow rate
through the expander and so the power output and the efficiency of the turbine increase. Steam injection also
helps in reducing the NOx emissions from the gas turbine. The amount of steam generated in the HRSG depends
upon the pinch point of the boiler. Due to this pinch point and the turbine outlet temperature, the HRSG cannot
utilize all the heat available in the flue gas to generate steam.
Evaporative Regenerative Gas Turbine Cycle (ERGT)
In this cycle heated water is injected in the compressed air down stream from the LPC (Low Pressure
Compressor) and HPC(High Pressure Compressor) in order to inter-cool and after-cool the compressed air.
This improves the heat exchange inside the recuperator. The mass of water added and the fact that water has a
higher specific heat than air results in a gas turbine with a higher specific power output and a lower heat rate as
24 Advances in Energy Research (AER – 2006)
compared to simple cycle. Care must be taken to be certain that all the water sprayed into the air is evaporated.
The maximum amount of water is limited to that which results in the air being saturated at the evaporator exit or
when the temperature at the evaporator exit is equal to the temperature of the water being sprayed into the
evaporator.
Humid Air Turbine (HAT)
The HAT cycle is the most advanced recuperated gas turbine cycle. The HAT cycle was introduced by
Rao(1989).The advantage of HAT cycle over ERGT cycle lies in making the after-cooling and the water mixing
separate and in a more reversible way, through the use of a direct contact heat exchanger, like the humidifier. In
this cycle air is humidified prior to its entry in the recuperator. In this cycle the air is compressed in a low
pressure compressor, inter-cooled with water, compressed to final pressure and then after-cooled. The air is then
passed through the humidifier, where hot water is allowed to evaporate and to mix with water. The relative
humidity in the humidifier increases from the bottom to the top, where it leaves the humidifier at almost
saturated conditions. The purpose of humidifier is to increase the mass flow and the enthalpy of the compressed
air. The humidifier makes it possible to recover energy below the boiling point of the water.



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Games for Grammar Practice is a carefully designed selection of
over forty games and activities, for intensive and interactive
grammar practice with basic to advanced learners of English.
Because it follows closely the grammar syllabus of most EFL/ESL
courses, it is a most useful complement to many course and
grammar books in use today.
THE IDEAS BEHIND THE ACTIVITIES
Cooperative learning You will probably notice that, in most
games, knowing the language is not the main factor that leads to
winning; actually, luck, strategy and creativity play important roles.
This has been done on purpose to foster a cooperative rather
than competitive atmosphere, and to make sure weaker learners
can also participate and win. Also, in some of the games there is
no winner at all.
Teaching, not testing The activities in the book are meant to
give learners an opportunity to practise and experiment with
language. For this reason many of them present a lot of input
while requiring relatively little production in the target structure.
This encourages learners to concentrate on processing the
meaning of target structures instead of pressuring them to
produce such constructions before they are ready to.
Self and peer correction Our experience tells us that self and
peer correction are often more effective than teacher correction
in helping students to take responsibility for their own learning.
Thus most of the game rules and activity procedures urge the
participants to monitor their own as well as their peers’ language
production.
Practice The activities have been designed to make sure that
learners get plenty of practice in the target structures.
Personalization There is plenty of room for learners to
establish rapport with their classmates by sharing their
experiences, values and beliefs.
Oral interaction All the activities are interactive to encourage
learners to attend to meaning and form as they interpret and
produce language.
Information gap If exchange of information is one of the basic
reasons why people communicate in real life, then classroom
activities should also urge learners to seek and provide information.
Task-orientation As in real life, learners will be using the
information obtained from others to accomplish tasks.
Variety You will find a lot of variety as to context, activity type,
type of interaction and materials, because novelty helps to
sustain interest.
Enjoyment Fun and pleasure in learning are probably the
strongest motivation factors. In our activities, they take the form of
challenge, humour and acknowledgement of learners’ creativity.

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SITE PERFORMANCE TEST EVALUATION FOR GAS TURBINE AND ELECTRIC MOTOR DRIVEN COMPRESSORS

Centrifugal gas compressors are used in many applications in
the oil and gas industry, such as in pipelines, for gas gathering, gas
reinjection, gas lift, gas storage, in onshore as well as offshore
environments. The predominant driver for these compressors is
two shaft gas turbines, and, to some extent, variable speed electric
motors. Both types of drivers have in common that the speed of the
compressor can be varied easily over a large range. To some extent,
variable speed electric motors are used in similar tasks.
Performance testing of compressor packages is becoming increasingly
frequent because economic pressures demand that the
efficiency, power, fuel flow, capacity, and head of an installation be
verified to assure a project’s return on investment. Test results may
have significant financial implications for the compressor and gas
turbine manufacturers and their customers. They may be the basis
of future decisions on plant modifications or extensions, or may
serve as baseline data for monitoring purposes. Field tests also
provide the operator and the equipment manufacturers with information
complementary to the data collected during factory testing.
Thus, for the end user and the manufacturer, an accurate determination
of the package field performance is critical. This paper
discusses problems and challenges related to the field performance
testing of gas turbine or electric motor driven, variable speed compressor
sets.
Insights from over 100 field performance tests on centrifugal
compressors are described. Such field tests provide the user with
valuable operation and maintenance data and the manufacturer
with information complementary to the data gathered through
factory testing.
This paper also describes in detail how raw test data (i.e.,
measured pressures, temperatures, flows, and speeds) are
converted into meaningful data that can be used for evaluating the
performance of a gas turbine or a gas compressor. Details on
instrumentation will not be provided by this paper, but can be
found elsewhere (Kurz, et al., 1999). The data reduction is
explained based on the basic relationships of pressure, temperature,
flow, and head, as well as the operational characteristics of centrifugal gas compressors, with special consideration of test
uncertainties. Methods of data correction are explained. A few
remarks on general procedures, valid for any type of test, including
the application of test uncertainties are included.
Assume a performance test has just been concluded and columns
of pressures, temperatures, and speeds have been measured. Fuel
and process gas compositions are known. The test was conducted
using a reasonably accurate test protocol (ASME PTC 10, 1997;
Kurz, et al., 1999). The test was conducted to gain information
about the performance of the gas turbine driven centrifugal compressor
set. The question is now (actually, this question should
have been asked prior to the test), what to do with all that data? In
this paper, the authors want to review methods to reduce the raw
test data to information about the performance of the compression
system.

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IP in Wireless Network

The Internet Protocol (IP) has had a tremendous impact on network communications in the last decade. Although IP itself has been around for a much longer time, its relevance and impact on other networks have been felt the most since the 1990s. Before IP became the dominant protocol, a number of networking protocols proliferated. There was IBM's SNA, Appletalk from Apple Computers, Netware from Novell, Xerox Network System from Xerox and others from Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft. The success of the Internet and the internetworking protocols that make this possible has made IP the de-facto protocol for existing networks and also as the protocol to be used in the design and architecture of next-generation networks. Wireless networks, which hitherto have been built around protocols and architectures developed within the realms of ITU, ETSI, TIA and others, are now adopting the Internet model and protocols.

The 1990s also saw the rapid growth of wireless networks. Two major wireless technologies, GSM and CDMA, have taken center stage. The wide area cellular networks deployed so far provided primarily voice-based services. Data services were limited due to bandwidth constraints, and performance was poor due to the nature of the air interface designs, which have been built with emphasis on voice quality and capacity. However, with the evolution of cellular networks towards 3G, packet data services have been a major focus in terms of providing higher bandwidth and overall accessibility to the Internet. Vast improvements in radio technology, as well as the need to provide access to the Internet, has driven the evolution of cellular to support packet data. Since the 3G wireless networks are viewed as an extension to the Internet, there is significant emphasis in ensuring that IP operates in a manner very similar to the wired Internet today. Hence, protocols and network architectures for the wide area cellular networks are designed and built to support IP in as efficient a way as possible. Wireless networks are expected to become more data-centric in the next few years, rivaling voice as the "killer" application. The deployment of new data services will have a ripple effect on the wireless networks and the end user devices and terminals; they will change to better support these new applications. The wireless information society that is being created now will continue to grow. The technology enablers such as 3G-and-beyond packet data networks and services will allow this to thrive.


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Hacking The Art of Exploitation

The idea of hacking may conjure up stylized images of electronic vandalism, espionage, dyed hair, and body piercings. Most people associate hacking with breaking the law, therefore dubbing all those who engage in hacking activities to be criminals. Granted, there are people out there who use hacking techniques to break the law, but hacking isn't really about that. In fact, hacking is more about following the law than breaking it.

The essence of hacking is finding unintended or overlooked uses for the laws and properties of a given situation and then applying them in new and inventive ways to solve a problem. The problem could be the lack of access to a computer system or figuring out a way to make old phone equipment control a model railroad system. Usually, the hacked solutions solve these problems in unique ways, unimaginable by those confined to conventional methodology.

In the late 1950s, the MIT model railroad club was given a donation of parts, most of which were old telephone equipment. The members used this equipment to rig up a complex system that allowed multiple operators to control different parts of the track by dialing into the appropriate section. They called this new and inventive use of equipment "hacking", and many consider this group to be the original hackers. They moved on to programming on punchcards and ticker tape for early computers like the IBM 704 and the TX-0. While others were content with just writing programs that solved problems, the early hackers were obsessed with writing programs that solved problems well. A program that could achieve the same result using fewer punchcards was considered better, even though it did the same thing. The key difference was how the program achieved its results—elegance.

Being able to reduce the number of punchcards needed for a program showed an artistic mastery over the computer, which was admired and appreciated by those who understood it. Analogously, a block of wood might solve the problem of supporting a vase, but a nicely crafted table built using refined techniques sure looks a lot better. The early hackers were transforming programming from an engineering task into an art form, which, like many forms of art, could only be appreciated by those who got it and would be misunderstood by those who didn't.

This approach to programming created an informal subculture, separating those who appreciated the beauty of hacking from those who were oblivious to it. This subculture was intensely focused on learning more and gaining yet higher levels of mastery over their art. They believed that information should be free, and anything that stood in the way of that freedom should be circumvented. Such obstructions included authority figures, the bureaucracy of college classes, and discrimination. In a sea of graduation-driven students, this unofficial group of hackers defied the conventional goals of getting good grades, instead pursuing knowledge itself. This drive to continuously learn and explore transcended even the conventional boundaries drawn by discrimination, evident in the group's acceptance of 12-year-old Peter Deutsch when he demonstrated his knowledge of the TX-0 and his desire to learn. Age, race, gender, appearance, academic degrees, and social status were not primary criteria for judging another's worth—this was not because of a desire for equality, but because of a desire to advance the emerging art of hacking.

The hackers found splendor and elegance in the conventionally dry sciences of math and electronics. They saw programming as a form of artistic expression, and the computer was the instrument of their art. Their desire to dissect and understand wasn't intended to demystify artistic endeavors, but was simply a way to achieve a greater appreciation of them. These knowledge-driven values would eventually be called the Hacker Ethic: the appreciation of logic as an art form, and the promotion of the free flow of information, surmounting conventional boundaries and restrictions, for the simple goal of better understanding the world. This is not new; the Pythagoreans in ancient Greece had a similar ethic and subculture, despite the lack of computers. They saw beauty in mathematics and discovered many core concepts in geometry. That thirst for knowledge and its beneficial by-products would continue on through history, from the Pythagoreans to Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing to the hackers of the MIT model railroad club. The progression of computational science would continue even further, through to Richard Stallman and Steve Wozniak. These hackers have brought us modern operating systems, programming languages, personal computers, and many other technological advances that are used every day.

So how does one distinguish between the good hackers who bring us the wonders of technological advancement and the evil hackers who steal our credit card numbers? Once, the term cracker was coined to refer to the evil hackers and distinguish them from the good ones. The journalists were told that crackers were supposed to be the bad guys, while hackers were the good guys. The hackers stayed true to the Hacker Ethic, while crackers were only interested in breaking the law. Crackers were considered to be much less talented than the elite hackers, simply making use of hacker-written tools and scripts without understanding how they worked. Cracker was meant to be the catch-all label for anyone doing anything unscrupulous with a computer — pirating software, defacing websites, and worst of all, not understanding what they were doing. But very few people use this term today.

The term's lack of popularity might be due to a collision of definitions — the term cracker was originally used to describe those who crack software copyrights and reverse engineer copy protection schemes. Or it might simply be due to its new definition, which refers both to a group of people that engage in illegal activity with computers and to people who are relatively unskilled hackers. Few journalists feel compelled to write about an unskilled group using a term (crackers) that most people are unfamiliar with. In contrast, most people are aware of the mystery and skill associated with the term hackers. For a journalist, the decision to use the term crackers or hackers seems easy. Similarly, the term script kiddie is sometimes used to refer to crackers, but it just doesn't have the same sensational journalistic zing of the shadowy hacker. There are some who will still argue that there is a distinct line between hackers and crackers, but I believe that anyone who has the hacker spirit is a hacker, despite what laws he or she may break.

This unclear hacker versus cracker line is even further blurred by the modern laws restricting cryptography and cryptographic research. In 2001, Professor Edward Felten and his research team from Princeton University were about to publish the results of their research — a paper that discussed the weaknesses of various digital watermarking schemes. This paper was in response to a challenge issued by the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) in the SDMI Public Challenge, which encouraged the public to attempt to break these watermarking schemes. Before they could publish the paper, though, they were threatened by both the SDMI Foundation and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Apparently the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 makes it illegal to discuss or provide technology that might be used to bypass industry consumer controls. This same law was used against Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian computer programmer and hacker. He had written software to circumvent overly simplistic encryption in Adobe software and presented his findings at a hacker convention in the United States. The FBI swooped in and arrested him, leading to a lengthy legal battle. Under the law, the complexity of the industry consumer controls don't matter — it would be technically illegal to reverse engineer or even discuss Pig Latin if it were used as an industry consumer control. So who are the hackers and who are the crackers now? When laws seem to interfere with free speech, do the good guys who speak their minds suddenly become bad? I believe that the spirit of the hacker transcends governmental laws, as opposed to being defined by them. And as in any knowledgeable group, there will always be some bad people who use this knowledge to conduct bad acts.

The sciences of nuclear physics and biochemistry can be used to kill, yet they also provide us with significant scientific advancement and modern medicine. There's nothing good or bad about the knowledge itself; the morality lies in the application of that knowledge. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't suppress the knowledge of how to convert matter into energy or stop the continual technological progress of society. In the same way, the hacker spirit can never be stopped, nor can it be easily categorized or dissected. Hackers will constantly be pushing the limits, forcing us to explore further and further.

Unfortunately, there are many so-called hacker books that are nothing more than compendiums of other people's hacks. They instruct the reader to use the tools on the included CD without explaining the theory behind those tools, producing someone skilled in using other people's tools, yet incapable of understanding those tools or creating tools of their own. Perhaps the cracker and script kiddie terms aren't entirely outmoded.

The real hackers are the pioneers, the ones who devise the methods and create the tools that are packed on those aforementioned CDs. Putting legality aside and thinking logically, every exploit that a person could possibly read about in a book has a corresponding patch to defend against it. A properly patched system should be immune to this class of attack. Attackers who only use these techniques without innovation are doomed to prey only on the weak and the stupid. The real hackers can proactively find holes and weaknesses in software to create their own exploits. If they choose not to disclose these vulnerabilities to a vendor, hackers can use those exploits to wander unobstructed through fully patched and "secure" systems.

So if there aren't any patches, what can be done to prevent hackers from finding new holes in software and exploiting them? This is why security research teams exist—to try to find these holes and notify vendors before they are exploited. There is a beneficial co-evolution occurring between the hackers securing systems and those breaking into them. This competition provides us with better and stronger security, as well as more complex and sophisticated attack techniques. The introduction and progression of intrusion detection systems (IDSs) is a prime example of this co-evolutionary process. The defending hackers create IDSs to add to their arsenal, while the attacking hackers develop IDS evasion techniques, which are eventually compensated for in bigger and better IDS products. The net result of this interaction is positive, as it produces smarter people, improved security, more stable software, inventive problem-solving techniques, and even a new economy.

The intent of this book is to teach you about the true spirit of hacking. We will look at various hacker techniques, from the past through to the present, dissecting them to learn how they work and why they work. By presenting the information in this way, you will gain an understanding and appreciation for hacking that may inspire you to improve upon existing techniques or even to invent brand-new ones. I hope this book will stimulate the curious hacker nature in you and prompt you to contribute to the art of hacking in some way, regardless of which side of the fence you choose to be on.

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Learn More, Study Less!

Introduction
What makes somebody smart?
Is it raw brainpower? Accumulated knowledge? Is it just academic learning or
does it also include your experiences, people skills and intuition?
Intelligence is difficult to define. Although IQ tests and various exams try to
measure it, deciding what makes somebody smart is hard to do. I prefer to avoid
universal definitions and focus on a more practical one:
Being smart means being able to learn quickly, remember a large amount of
information and be able to sort that information in a way that achieves your goals.
This is a much more personal definition. Learning goals can differ from person to
person. You might just want to get A’s in all your courses. John might want to
become a master at computer programming. Susan might want to retain more from

the books she reads in her spare time. Another person might want to be able to apply
concepts to business situations.
It’s up to you to decide what being smart means.
This book isn’t about reaching an arbitrary definition of intelligence. Rather, it’s
about giving you a strategy for learning. From this strategy, called holistic learning, I’ll
provide a set of different tools to put that theory into practice.
Some of these tools won’t fit your learning style or goals. That’s fine. My hopes is
to provide a large assortment of tools that, with the backing of the holistic learning
strategy, you can use to tailor your own approach. With practice many of these
techniques can become powerful weapons in your learning arsenal.
This book has two major goals. First, the holistic learning strategy should give you
a model for how to learn better. Without an easily understandable theory of learning, it
is difficult to make improvements. By seeing the holistic learning strategy you have a
basis for identifying your weaknesses and improving the way you learn.
The second objective of this book is to provide a variety of learning techniques.
Throughout the book I’ll explain what these techniques are and how they fit within the
holistic learning strategy. Included with this book are exercise printouts so you can

practice these methods.
I wish you the best of luck in all your learning efforts and hope you enjoy the book.
It took a great deal of effort, tweaking and experimentation to write. Hopefully that
effort has been well invested and you can improve the way you think.

My Story
I’ve always been able to learn quickly. Getting A’s and A+’s with little studying
before tests wasn’t a challenge for me throughout school. While in University, I’ve
maintained an average that sits between A and A+. Despite this, I don’t spend more
than the average person on homework. In fact, I might even spend less.
Once, I wrote an inter-provincial test (I’m Canadian) for chemistry. The only
problem: I didn’t know I was supposed to write the test until a pencil and bubble sheet
were sitting in front of me. On top of this, the test was on material I wasn’t familiar
with and topics that were never covered in my class. I was given an hour and a half to
write the exam. I left after forty minutes because I wanted to eat lunch.
I won first place and received a check for $400.
Self-learning has also occupied my time. I’ve taught myself several programming
languages, business and writing skills and my bookshelf has hundreds of books I’ve read

in just the past two years. I’ve also dabbled in graphic design, musical composition and
anything I could get my hands on.
Learning has always come easily to me.
Up until this point, I’d just be another smart kid. “Gifted” might fit as well,
although there are people whose mental feats would put my small achievements to
shame. I’d be just another kid who got a more favorable genetic cocktail, had pushy
parents or some sort of glandular accident.
And if you read this far, you could probably slap on arrogant and boastful.
Until recently I probably would have agreed with you. But then something strange
happened. I began to notice something different about myself and people even smarter
than me. It wasn’t just that smart people learned better or faster.
They learned differently.
Smarts requires a different strategy. Smart people had picked up different tactics,

sometimes intentionally but usually completely without awareness of them. It was
these different strategies that made the difference in understanding.
That different strategy I called holistic learning. I call it holistic learning because it
challenges you to view learning as a comprehensive whole, instead of a list of
memorized facts. Smart people tend to make fewer distinctions between branches of
knowledge and can easily relate one set of understandings to another.
By learning holistically, smart people are able to quickly integrate new
information. More importantly, this information sticks. They actually “get” the
concepts and see how the concepts relate to far more than just the problems given.
Once I was told a story that demonstrates this point perfectly:
Once upon a time, a student was in a physics class. He had achieved an otherwise
perfect score, but the marker had graded him poorly on one question. The question had
asked him how he would measure the height of a building using a barometer.
The student had written down, “Go to the top of the building. Drop the barometer
and count the seconds until it smashes on the sidewalk below. Then use the formula for

acceleration by gravity to determine the height of the
building.”
Of course, having referenced a barometer, the
tester expected the student to use air pressure as a tool
for measuring height. Since this answer did not
demonstrate that the student knew how to solve
questions about air pressure, he couldn’t pass that
portion of the test.
When the student brought up that his answer did solve the question being asked,
the professor made a compromise. He said that he would let the student answer the
question again with a different method. And if the student solved the problem again, he
would award him the marks for the question.
Immediately the student responded that he would use the barometer to bang on
the door of the landlord in the building. When the landlord answered the door, he
would ask, “How tall is this building?”
At once, the professor saw what the student was doing. He asked him if he knew
of any other methods to reach the answer. The student said that he did.

He recommended tying a long string to the barometer and measuring the length of the
string. Or swinging the string as a pendulum and inferring the height by the motion it
created.
The professor decided to award the student the marks. As the story goes, the
student was a young Niels Bohr, later becoming the famous physicist and discovering
the nature of electrons inside atoms.
This student didn’t just know how to get the answer. He also understood the entire
scope for which the problem existed. Instead of seeing the problem in the same terms
he had been taught, he could easily view it a number of ways.
The goal of holistic learning is to replicate this process with the information you
want to learn.

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Easily Hypnotize Anyone

Introduction
This ebook is for you, if:
�� You’re intelligent, and curious about hypnosis, or
�� You just want to understand more about hypnosis, or
�� You want to use hypnosis to help yourself and others, or
�� You might add hypnosis to your professional toolkit, or
�� You’re considering studying hypnotherapy as a career.
You are about to discover how easy it is to hypnotize other
people and what safeguards and responsibilities that entails.
One such responsibility is to understand that just reading this
ebook will not qualify you to do therapy.
However, by the time you’ve finished reading you will have
a greater understanding of:
�� What hypnosis is
�� What it can be used for
�� What you can accomplish with it.
Who can you safely hypnotize? People who could benefit
from positive suggestions. And who have no underlying
pathology. Likely candidates are people who want to:
�� Overcome exam anxiety
�� Enhance sports performance
�� Stop smoking
�� Achieve specific goals.
�� Amplify their creativity
You can induce hypnosis, give such people the positive
suggestions they’ve requested and feel great about helping
them.
Hypnosis is currently riding a wave of popularity among the
public.

There are no side effects with hypnosis; it can relieve or
banish so many psychological and physical ills -- and it’s easy
to learn.
It’s not so easy to know what to do after you have someone
in hypnosis so you are well advised to experience self-hypnosis
before embarking on hypnotizing others.
Not only will you gain first-hand knowledge from the inside,
so to speak, but you’ll also enjoy the process, and obtain relief
from your own problems.
The rewards are immense. Like millions of people, I used
to be fearful of public speaking. But since I began to use
hypnosis on myself I thoroughly enjoy giving a public talk.
It's so fantastic to stand in front of a crowd, impart useful
information, have a few laughs, and learn from the questions
and comments of the audience.
I vividly remember the first time hypnosis helped me be
relaxed in public. I was scheduled to give a speech at a large
convention of hypnotists in the U.S. There were a dozen or so
competing seminars offered at the same time so I thought
probably 6 or so hypnotists would choose my session.
When I located the room in which I was to speak I had to
fight my way in, there were so many people trying to enter. To
my amazement, not only was the room packed with hypnotists,
(I stopped counting at 103) but video cameras had been
installed!
Well, I followed the advice on the "Self-Confidence"
hypnotic video, took a slow deep breath, and, on breathing out,
said "This is easy." And it was!
You’ve already been hypnotized
The usual example given to support the idea that you’ve
frequently been in hypnosis is that of driving from point A to

point B with no conscious awareness of having driven the
distance.
Or did you ever finish a pile of ironing, with your mind
“elsewhere”?



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Dan Brown Digital Fortress

Prologue
Plaza de España
Seville, Spain
11:00 A.M.
It is said that in death, all things become clear; Ensei Tankado now knew it was true. As
he clutched his chest and fell to the ground in pain, he realized the horror of his mistake.
People appeared, hovering over him, trying to help. But Tankado did not want help—it
was too late for that.
Trembling, he raised his left hand and held his fingers outward. Look at my hand! The
faces around him stared, but he could tell they did not understand.
On his finger was an engraved golden ring. For an instant, the markings glimmered in
the Andalusian sun. Ensei Tankado knew it was the last light he would ever see.

Chapter 1

They were in the smoky mountains at their favorite bed-and-breakfast. David was
smiling down at her. “What do you say, gorgeous? Marry me?”
Looking up from their canopy bed, she knew he was the one. Forever. As she stared
into his deep-green eyes, somewhere in the distance a deafening bell began to ring. It was
pulling him away. She reached for him, but her arms clutched empty air.
It was the sound of the phone that fully awoke Susan Fletcher from her dream. She
gasped, sat up in bed, and fumbled for the receiver. “Hello?”
“Susan, it’s David. Did I wake you?”
She smiled, rolling over in bed. “I was just dreaming of you. Come over and play.”
He laughed. “It’s still dark out.”
“Mmm.” She moaned sensuously. “Then definitely come over and play. We can sleep
in before we head north.”
David let out a frustrated sigh. “That’s why I’m calling. It’s about our trip. I’ve got to
postpone.”
Susan was suddenly wide awake. “What!”
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to leave town. I’ll be back by tomorrow. We can head up first thing
in the morning. We’ll still have two days.”
“But I made reservations,” Susan said, hurt. “I got our old room at Stone Manor.”
“I know, but—”
“Tonight was supposed to be special–to celebrate six months. You do remember we’re
engaged, don’t you?”
“Susan.” He sighed. “I really can’t go into it now, they’ve got a car waiting. I’ll call
you from the plane and explain everything.”
“Plane?” she repeated. “What’s going on? Why would the university…?”
“It’s not the university. I’ll phone and explain later. I’ve really got to go; they’re calling
for me. I’ll be in touch. I promise.”
“David!” she cried. “What’s—”
But it was too late. David had hung up.
Susan Fletcher lay awake for hours waiting for him to call back. The phone never rang.
* * *
Later that afternoon Susan sat dejected in the tub. She submerged herself in the soapy
water and tried to forget Stone Manor and the Smoky Mountains. Where could he be? she
wondered. Why hasn’t he called?
Gradually the water around her went from hot to lukewarm and finally to cold. She was
about to get out when her cordless phone buzzed to life. Susan bolted upright, sloshing
water on the floor as she grappled for the receiver she’d left on the sink.
“David?”
“It’s Strathmore,” the voice replied.
Susan slumped. “Oh.” She was unable to hide her disappointment. “Good afternoon,
Commander.”
“Hoping for a younger man?” The voice chuckled.
“No, sir,” Susan said, embarrassed. “It’s not how it—”
“Sure it is.” He laughed. “David Becker’s a good man. Don’t ever lose him.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The commander’s voice turned suddenly stern. “Susan, I’m calling because I need you
in here. Pronto.”
She tried to focus. “It’s Saturday, sir. We don’t usually—”
“I know,” he said calmly. “It’s an emergency.”
Susan sat up. Emergency? She had never heard the word cross Commander
Strathmore’s lips. An emergency? In Crypto? She couldn’t imagine. “Y-yes, sir.” She
paused. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Make it sooner.” Strathmore hung up.
* * *
Susan Fletcher stood wrapped in a towel and dripped on the neatly folded clothes she’d
set out the night before—hiking shorts, a sweater for the cool mountain evenings, and the
new lingerie she’d bought for the nights. Depressed, she went to her closet for a clean
blouse and skirt. An emergency? In Crypto?
As she went downstairs, Susan wondered how the day could get much worse.
She was about to find out.

Chapter 2

Thirty thousand feet above a dead-calm ocean, David Becker stared miserably from the
Learjet 60’s small, oval window. He’d been told the phone on board was out of order,
and he’d never had a chance to call Susan.
“What am I doing here?” he grumbled to himself. But the answer was simple—there
were men to whom you just didn’t say no.
“Mr. Becker,” the loudspeaker crackled. “We’ll be arriving in half an hour.”
Becker nodded gloomily to the invisible voice. Wonderful. He pulled the shade and
tried to sleep. But he could only think of her.

Chapter 3

Susan’s Volvo sedan rolled to a stop in the shadow of the ten-foot-high, barbed
Cyclone fence. A young guard placed his hand on the roof.
“ID, please.”
Susan obliged and settled in for the usual half-minute wait. The officer ran her card
through a computerized scanner. Finally he looked up. “Thank you, Ms. Fletcher.” He
gave an imperceptible sign, and the gate swung open.
Half a mile ahead Susan repeated the entire procedure at an equally imposing electrified
fence. Come on, guys… I’ve only been through here a million times.
As she approached the final checkpoint, a stocky sentry with two attack dogs and a
machine gun glanced down at her license plate and waved her through. She followed
Canine Road for another 250 yards and pulled into Employee Lot C. Unbelievable, she
thought. Twenty-six thousand employees and a twelve-billion-dollar budget; you’d think
they could make it through the weekend without me. Susan gunned the car into her
reserved spot and killed the engine.
After crossing the landscaped terrace and entering the main building, she cleared two
more internal checkpoints and finally arrived at the windowless tunnel that led to the new
wing. A voice-scan booth blocked her entry.
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY (NSA)
CRYPTO FACILITY

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
The armed guard looked up. “Afternoon, Ms. Fletcher.”
Susan smiled tiredly. “Hi, John.”
“Didn’t expect you today.”
“Yeah, me neither.” She leaned toward the parabolic microphone. “Susan Fletcher,” she
stated clearly. The computer instantly confirmed the frequency concentrations in her
voice, and the gate clicked open. She stepped through.
* * *
The guard admired Susan as she began her walk down the cement causeway. He
noticed that her strong hazel eyes seemed distant today, but her cheeks had a flushed
freshness, and her shoulder-length, auburn hair looked newly blown dry. Trailing her was
the faint scent of Johnson’s Baby Powder. His eyes fell the length of her slender torso—
to her white blouse with the bra barely visible beneath, to her knee-length khaki skirt, and
finally to her legs… Susan Fletcher’s legs.
Hard to imagine they support a 170 IQ, he mused to himself.
He stared after her a long time. Finally he shook his head as she disappeared in the
distance.
* * *
As Susan reached the end of the tunnel, a circular, vaultlike door blocked her way. The
enormous letters read: crypto.
Sighing, she placed her hand inside the recessed cipher box and entered her five-digit
PIN. Seconds later the twelve-ton slab of steel began to revolve. She tried to focus, but
her thoughts reeled back to him.
David Becker. The only man she’d ever loved. The youngest full professor at
Georgetown University and a brilliant foreign-language specialist, he was practically a
celebrity in the world of academia. Born with an eidetic memory and a love of languages,
he’d mastered six Asian dialects as well as Spanish, French, and Italian. His university
lectures on etymology and linguistics were standing-room only, and he invariably stayed
late to answer a barrage of questions. He spoke with authority and enthusiasm, apparently
oblivious to the adoring gazes of his star-struck coeds.
Becker was dark—a rugged, youthful thirty-five with sharp green eyes and a wit to
match. His strong jaw and taut features reminded Susan of carved marble. Over six feet
tall, Becker moved across a squash court faster than any of his colleagues could
comprehend. After soundly beating his opponent, he would cool off by dousing his head
in a drinking fountain and soaking his tuft of thick, black hair. Then, still dripping, he’d
treat his opponent to a fruit shake and a bagel.
As with all young professors, David’s university salary was modest. From time to time,

when he needed to renew his squash club membership or restring his old Dunlop with
gut, he earned extra money by doing translating work for government agencies in and
around Washington. It was on one of those jobs that he’d met Susan.
It was a crisp morning during fall break when Becker returned from a morning jog to
his three-room faculty apartment to find his answering machine blinking. He downed a
quart of orange juice as he listened to the playback. The message was like many he
received—a government agency requesting his translating services for a few hours later
that morning. The only strange thing was that Becker had never heard of the organization.
“They’re called the National Security Agency,” Becker said, calling a few of his
colleagues for background.
The reply was always the same. “You mean the National Security Council?”
Becker checked the message. “No. They said Agency. The NSA.”
“Never heard of ‘em.”
Becker checked the GAO Directory, and it showed no listing either. Puzzled, Becker
called one of his old squash buddies, an ex-political analyst turned research clerk at the
Library of Congress. David was shocked by his friend’s explanation.
Apparently, not only did the NSA exist, but it was considered one of the most
influential government organizations in the world. It had been gathering global electronic
intelligence data and protecting U.S. classified information for over half a century. Only
3 percent of Americans were even aware it existed.
“NSA,” his buddy joked, “stands for ‘No Such Agency.’ “
With a mixture of apprehension and curiosity, Becker accepted the mysterious agency’s
offer. He drove the thirty-seven miles to their eighty-six-acre headquarters hidden
discreetly in the wooded hills of Fort Meade, Maryland. After passing through endless
security checks and being issued a six-hour, holographic guest pass, he was escorted to a
plush research facility where he was told he would spend the afternoon providing “blind
support” to the Cryptography Division—an elite group of mathematical brainiacs known
as the code-breakers.
For the first hour, the cryptographers seemed unaware Becker was even there. They
hovered around an enormous table and spoke a language Becker had never heard. They
spoke of stream ciphers, self-decimated generators, knapsack variants, zero knowledge
protocols, unicity points. Becker observed, lost. They scrawled symbols on graph paper,
pored over computer printouts, and continuously referred to the jumble of text on the
overhead projector.
JHdja3jKHDhmado/ertwtjlw+jgj328
5jhalsfnHKhhhfafOhhdfgaf/fj37we
ohi93450s9djfd2h/HHrtyFHLf89303
95jspjf2j0890Ihj98yhfi080ewrt03
jojr845h0roq+jt0eu4tqefqe//oujw
08UY0IH0934jtpwfiajer09qu4jr9gu
ivjP$duw4h95pe8rtugvjw3p4e/ikkc
mffuerhfgv0q394ikjrmg+unhvs9oer
irk/0956y7u0poikIOjp9f8760qwerqi
Eventually one of them explained what Becker had already surmised. The scrambled

text was a code—a “cipher text”—groups of numbers and letters representing encrypted
words. The cryptographers’ job was to study the code and extract from it the original
message, or “cleartext.” The NSA had called Becker because they suspected the original
message was written in Mandarin Chinese; he was to translate the symbols as the
cryptographers decrypted them.
For two hours, Becker interpreted an endless stream of Mandarin symbols. But each
time he gave them a translation, the cryptographers shook their heads in despair.
Apparently the code was not making sense. Eager to help, Becker pointed out that all the
characters they’d shown him had a common trait—they were also part of the Kanji
language. Instantly the bustle in the room fell silent. The man in charge, a lanky chainsmoker
named Morante, turned to Becker in disbelief.
“You mean these symbols have multiple meanings?”
Becker nodded. He explained that Kanji was a Japanese writing system based on
modified Chinese characters. He’d been giving Mandarin translations because that’s what
they’d asked for.
“Jesus Christ.” Morante coughed. “Let’s try the Kanji.”
Like magic, everything fell into place.
The cryptographers were duly impressed, but nonetheless, they still made Becker work
on the characters out of sequence. “It’s for your own safety,” Morante said. “This way,
you won’t know what you’re translating.”
Becker laughed. Then he noticed nobody else was laughing.
When the code finally broke, Becker had no idea what dark secrets he’d helped reveal,
but one thing was for certain—the NSA took code-breaking seriously; the check in
Becker’s pocket was more than an entire month’s university salary.
On his way back out through the series of security check points in the main corridor,
Becker’s exit was blocked by a guard hanging up a phone. “Mr. Becker, wait here,
please.”
“What’s the problem?” Becker had not expected the meeting to take so long, and he
was running late for his standing Saturday afternoon squash match.
The guard shrugged. “Head of Crypto wants a word. She’s on her way out now.”
“She?” Becker laughed. He had yet to see a female inside the NSA.
“Is that a problem for you?” a woman’s voice asked from behind him.
Becker turned and immediately felt himself flush. He eyed the ID card on the woman’s
blouse. The head of the NSA’s Cryptography Division was not only a woman, but an
attractive woman at that.
“No,” Becker fumbled. “I just…”
“Susan Fletcher.” The woman smiled, holding out her slender hand.
Becker took it. “David Becker.”
“Congratulations, Mr. Becker. I hear you did a fine job today. Might I chat with you
about it?”
Becker hesitated. “Actually, I’m in a bit of a rush at the moment.” He hoped spurning
the world’s most powerful intelligence agency wasn’t a foolish act, but his squash match
started in forty-five minutes, and he had a reputation to uphold: David Becker was never
late for squash… class maybe, but never squash.
“I’ll be brief.” Susan Fletcher smiled. “Right this way, please.”
Ten minutes later, Becker was in the NSA’s commissary enjoying a popover and

cranberry juice with the NSA’s lovely head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher. It quickly
became evident to David that the thirty-eight-year-old’s high-ranking position at the NSA
was no fluke—she was one of the brightest women he had ever met. As they discussed
codes and code-breaking, Becker found himself struggling to keep up—a new and
exciting experience for him.
An hour later, after Becker had obviously missed his squash match and Susan had
blatantly ignored three pages on the intercom, both of them had to laugh. There they
were, two highly analytical minds, presumably immune to irrational infatuations—but
somehow, while they sat there discussing linguistic morphology and pseudo–random
number generators, they felt like a couple of teenagers—everything was fireworks.
Susan never did get around to the real reason she’d wanted to speak to David Becker—
to offer him a trial post in their Asiatic Cryptography Division. It was clear from the
passion with which the young professor spoke about teaching that he would never leave
the university. Susan decided not to ruin the mood by talking business. She felt like a
schoolgirl all over again; nothing was going to spoil it. And nothing did.
* * *
Their courtship was slow and romantic—stolen escapes whenever their schedules
permitted, long walks through the Georgetown campus, late-night cappuccinos at
Merlutti’s, occasional lectures and concerts. Susan found herself laughing more than
she’d ever thought possible. It seemed there was nothing David couldn’t twist into a joke.
It was a welcome release from the intensity of her post at the NSA.
One crisp, autumn afternoon they sat in the bleachers watching Georgetown soccer get
pummeled by Rutgers.
“What sport did you say you play?” Susan teased. “Zucchini?”
Becker groaned. “It’s called squash.”
She gave him a dumb look.
“It’s like zucchini,” he explained, “but the court’s smaller.”
Susan pushed him.
Georgetown’s left wing sent a corner-kick sailing out of bounds, and a boo went up
from the crowd. The defensemen hurried back downfield.
“How about you?” Becker asked. “Play any sports?”
“I’m a black belt in Stairmaster.”
Becker cringed. “I prefer sports you can win.”
Susan smiled. “Overachiever, are we?”
Georgetown’s star defenseman blocked a pass, and there was a communal cheer in the
stands. Susan leaned over and whispered in David’s ear. “Doctor.”
He turned and eyed her, lost.
“Doctor,” she repeated. “Say the first thing that comes to mind.”
Becker looked doubtful. “Word associations?”
“Standard NSA procedure. I need to know who I’m with.” She eyed him sternly.
“Doctor.”
Becker shrugged. “Seuss.”
Susan gave him a frown. “Okay, try this one… ‘kitchen.’ “

He didn’t hesitate. “Bedroom.”
Susan arched her eyebrows coyly. “Okay, how about this… ‘cat.’ “
“Gut,” Becker fired back.
“Gut?”
“Yeah. Catgut. Squash racquet string of champions.”
“That’s pleasant.” She groaned.
“Your diagnosis?” Becker inquired.
Susan thought a minute. “You’re a childish, sexually frustrated squash fiend.”
Becker shrugged. “Sounds about right.”

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Tell Me Your Dream by Sidney Sheldon

BOOK ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Someone was following her. She had read about stalkers, but they belonged
in a different, violent world. She had no idea who it could be, who
would want to harm her. She was trying desperately hard not to panic, but
lately her sleep had been filled with unbearable nightmares, and she had
awakened each morning with a feeling of impending doom. Perhaps it's all in
my imagination, Ashley Patterson thought. I'm working too hard. I need a
vacation.
She turned to study herself in her bedroom mirror. She was looking at
the image of a woman in her late twenties, neatly dressed, with patrician
features, a slim figure and intelligent, anxious brown eyes. There was a
quiet elegance about her, a subtle attractiveness. Her dark hair fell softly
to her shoulders. I hate my looks, Ashley thought. I'm too thin. I must
start eating more. She walked into the kitchen and began to fix breakfast,
forcing her mind to forget about the frightening thing that was happening,
and concentrating on preparing a fluffy omelette. She turned on the
coffeemaker and put a slice of bread in the toaster. Ten minutes later,
everything was ready. Ashley placed the dishes on the table and sat down.
She picked up a fork, stared at the food for a moment, then shook her
head in despair. Fear had taken away her appetite.
This can't go on, she thought angrily. Whoever he is, I won't let him do
this to me. I won't.
Ashley glanced at her watch. It was time to leave for work. She looked
around the familiar apartment, as though seeking some kind of reassurance

from it. It was an attractively furnished third-floor apartment on Via
Camino Court, with a living room, bedroom and den, bathroom, kitchen and
guest powder room. She had lived here in Cupertino, California, for three
years. Until two weeks ago, Ashley had thought of it as a comfortable nest,
a haven. Now it had turned into a fortress, a place where no one could get
in to harm her. Ashley walked to the front door and examined the lock. I'll
have a dead bolt put in, she thought. Tomorrow. She turned off all the
lights, checked to make sure the door was firmly locked behind her and
took the elevator to the basement garage.
The garage was deserted. Her car was twenty feet from the elevator. She
looked around carefully, then ran to the car, slid inside and locked the
doors, her heart pounding. She headed downtown, under a sky the color of
malice, dark and foreboding. The weather report had said rain. But it's not
going to rain, Ashley thought. The sun is going to come out. I'll make a deal
with you, God. If it doesn't rain, it means that everything is all right, that
I've been imagining things.
Ten minutes later, Ashley Patterson was driving through downtown Cupertino.
She was still awed by the miracle of what this once sleepy little corner
of Santa Clara Valley had become. Located fifty miles south of San
Francisco, it was where the computer revolution had started, and it had
been appropriately nicknamed Silicon Valley.
Ashley was employed at Global Computer Graphics Corporation, a successful,
fast-growing young company with two hundred employees.
As Ashley turned the car onto Silverado Street, she had the uneasy feeling
that he was behind her, following her. But who? And why? She looked
into her rearview mirror. Everything seemed normal. Every instinct told her
otherwise. Ahead of Ashley was the sprawling, modem-looking building that
housed Global Computer Graphics. She turned into the parking lot, showed
the guard her identification and pulled into her parking space. She felt safe
here. As she got out of the car, it began to rain.
At nine o'clock in the morning, Global Computer Graphics was already
humming with activity. There were eighty modular cubicles, occupied by
computer whizzes, all young, busily building Web sites, creating logos for
new companies, doing artwork for record and book publishing companies and
composing illustrations for magazines. The work floor was divided into several
divisions: administration, sales, marketing and technical support. The
atmosphere was casual. The employees walked around in jeans, tank tops
and sweaters.
As Ashley headed toward her desk, her supervisor, Shane Miller, approached her.
"Morning, Ashley."
Shane Miller was in his early thirties, a burly, earnest man with a pleasant
personality. In the beginning, he had tried to persuade Ashley to go to bed
with him, but he had finally given up, and they had become good friends.
He handed Ashley a copy of the latest Time magazine. "Seen this?"
Ashley looked at the cover. It featured a picture of a distinguishedlooking
man in his fifties, with silver hair. The caption read "Dr. Steven
Patterson, Father of Mini Heart Surgery."
"I've seen it."
"How does it feel to have a famous father?"
Ashley smiled. "Wonderful."
"He's a great man."
"I'll tell him you said so. We're having lunch."
"Good. By the way..." Shane Miller showed Ashley a photograph of a movie
star who was going to be used in an ad for a client. "We have a little problem
here. Desiree has gained about ten pounds, and it shows. Look at those
dark circles under her eyes. And even with makeup, her skin is splotchy. Do
you think you can help this?"
Ashley studied the picture. "I can fix her eyes by applying the blur filter.
I could try to thin her face by using the distort tool, but—No. That would
probably end up making her look odd." She studied the picture again. "I'll
have to airbrush or use the clone tool in some areas."
"Thanks. Are we on for Saturday night?"
"Yes."
Shane Miller nodded toward the photograph. "There's no hurry on this.
They want it last month." Ashley smiled. "What else is new?"
She went to work. Ashley was an expert in advertising and graphic design,
creating layouts with text and images.
Half an hour later, as Ashley was working on the photograph, she sensed
someone watching her. She looked up. It was Dennis Tibble. "Morning,
honey."
His voice grated on her nerves. Tibble was the company's computer genius.
He was known around the plant as "The Fixer." Whenever a computer
crashed, Tibble was sent for. He was in his early thirties, thin and bald with
an unpleasant, arrogant attitude. He had an obsessive personality, and the
word around the plant was that he was fixated on Ashley.
"Need any help?"
"No, thank you."
"Hey, what about us having a little dinner Saturday night?"

"Thank you. I'm busy."
"Going out with the boss again?"
Ashley turned to look at him, angry. "Look, it's none of your—"
"I don't know what you see in him, anyway. He's a nerd, cubed. I can give
you a better time." He winked. "You know what I mean?"
Ashley was trying to control her temper. "I have work to do, Dennis."
Tibble leaned close to her and whispered, "There's something you're going
to learn about me, honey. I don't give up. Ever."
She watched him walk away, and wondered: Could he be the one?
At 12:30, Ashley put her computer in suspend mode and headed for Margherita
di Roma, where she was joining her father for lunch.
She sat at a corner table in the crowded restaurant, watching her father
come toward her. She had to admit that he was handsome. People were
turning to stare at him as he walked to Ashley's table. "How does it feel to
have a famous father?"
Years earlier, Dr. Steven Patterson had pioneered a breakthrough in
minimally invasive heart surgery. He was constantly invited to lecture at
major hospitals around the world. Ashley's mother had died when Ashley
was twelve, and she had no one but her father.
"Sorry I'm late, Ashley." He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.
"That's all right. I just got here."
He sat down. "Have you seen Time magazine?"
"Yes. Shane showed it to me."
He frowned. "Shane? Your boss?"
"He's not my boss. He's—he's one of the supervisors."
"It's never good to mix business with pleasure, Ashley. You're seeing him
socially, aren't you? That's a mistake."
"Father, we're just good—"
A waiter came up to the table. "Would you like to see a menu?"
Dr. Patterson turned to him and snapped, "Can't you see we're in the middle
of a conversation? Go away until you're sent for."
"I—I'm sorry." The waiter turned and hurried off. Ashley cringed with
embarrassment. She had forgotten how savage her father's temper was.
He had once punched an intern during an operation for making an error in
judgment. Ashley remembered the screaming arguments between her
mother and father when she was a little girl. They had terrified her. Her
parents had always fought about the same thing, but try as she might, Ashley
could not remember what it was. She had blocked it from her mind.
Her father went on, as though there had been no interruption. "Where

were we? Oh, yes. Going out with Shane Miller is a mistake. A big mistake."
And his words brought back another terrible memory.
She could hear her father's voice saying, "Going out with Jim Cleary is a
mistake. A big mistake..." Ashley had just turned eighteen and was living in
Bedford, Pennsylvania, where she was born. Jim Cleary was the most popular
boy in Bedford Area High School. He was on the football team, was
handsome and amusing and had a killer smile. It seemed to Ashley that
every girl in school wanted to sleep with him. And most of them probably
have, she had thought, wryly. When Jim Cleary started asking Ashley out,
she was determined not to go to bed with him. She was sure he was interested
in her only for sex, but as time went on, she changed her mind. She
liked being with him, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy her company.
That winter, the senior class went for a weekend skiing trip in the mountains.
Jim Cleary loved to ski.
"We'll have a great time," he assured Ashley.
"I'm not going."
He looked at her in astonishment. "Why?"
"I hate cold weather. Even with gloves, my fingers get numb."
"But it will be fun to—"
"I'm not going."
And he had stayed in Bedford to be with her.
They shared the same interests and had the same ideals, and they always
had a wonderful time together.
When Jim Cleary had said to Ashley, "Someone asked me this morning if
you're my girlfriend. What shall I tell him?" Ashley had smiled and said,
"Tell him yes."
Dr. Patterson was worried. "You're seeing too much of that Cleary boy."
"Father, he's very decent, and I love him."
"How can you love him? He's a goddamned football player. I'm not going to
let you marry a football player. He's not good enough for you, Ashley."
He had said that about every boy she had gone out with.
Her father kept making disparaging remarks about Jim Cleary, but the
explosion occurred on the night of the high school graduation. Jim Cleary
was taking Ashley to an evening graduation party. When he came to pick her
up, she was sobbing.
"What's the matter? What's happened?"
"My—my father told me he's taking me away to London. He's registered
me in—in a college there."
Jim Cleary looked at her, stunned. "He's doing this because of us, isn't

he?"
Ashley nodded, miserable.
"When do you leave?"
"Tomorrow."
"No! Ashley, for God's sake, don't let him do this to us. Listen to me. I
want to marry you. My uncle offered me a really good job in Chicago with
his advertising agency. We'll run away. Meet me tomorrow morning at the
railroad station. There's a train leaving for Chicago at seven A.M. Will you
come with me?"
She looked at him a long moment and said softly, "Yes."
Thinking about it later, Ashley could not remember what the graduation
party was like. She and Jim had spent the entire evening excitedly discussing
their plans.
"Why don't we fly to Chicago?" Ashley asked.
"Because we would have to give our names to the airline. If we go by train,
nobody will know where we've gone."
As they were leaving the party, Jim Cleary asked softly, "Would you like
to stop off at my place? My folks are out of town for the weekend."
Ashley hesitated, torn. "Jim... we've waited this long. A few more days
won't matter."
"You're right." He grinned. "I may be the only man on this continent marrying
a virgin."
When Jim Cleary brought Ashley home from the party, Dr. Patterson was
waiting, in a rage. "Do you have any idea how late it is?"
"I'm sorry, sir. The party—"
"Don't give me any of your goddamn excuses, Cleary. Who the hell do you
think you're fooling?"
"I'm not—"
"From now on, you keep your goddamned hands off my daughter, do you
understand?"
"Father—"
"You keep out of this." He was screaming now. "Cleary, I want you to get
the hell out of here and stay out."
"Sir, your daughter and I—"
"Jim—"
"Get up to your room."
"Sir—"
"If I ever see you around here again, I'll break every bone in your body."
Ashley had never seen him so furious. It had ended

with everyone yelling. When it was over, Jim was gone and Ashley was in
tears.
I'm not going to let my father do this to me, Ashley thought, determinedly.
He's trying to ruin my life. She sat on her bed for a long time. Jim
is my future. I want to be with him. I don't belong here anymore. She rose
and began to pack an overnight bag. Thirty minutes later, Ashley slipped out
the back door and started toward Jim Cleary's home, a dozen blocks away.
I'll stay with him tonight, and we'll take the morning train to Chicago. But
as she got nearer to his house, Ashley thought. No. This is wrong. I don't
want to spoil everything. I'll meet lam at the station.
And she turned and headed back home.
Ashley was up the rest of that night thinking about her life with Jim and
how wonderful it was going to be. At 5:30, she picked up her suitcase and
moved silently past the closed door of her father's bedroom. She crept out
of the house and took a bus to the railroad station. When she reached the
station, Jim had not arrived. She was early. The train was not due for another
hour. Ashley sat on a bench eagerly waiting. She thought about her
father awakening and finding her gone. He would be furious.
But I can't let him live my life. One day he'll really get to know Jim, and
he'll see how lucky I am. 6:30... 6:40... 6:45... 6:50... There was still no sign
of Jim. Ashley was beginning to panic. What could have happened? She decided
to telephone him. There was no answer. 6:55...He'll be coming at any
moment. She heard the train whistle in the distance, and she looked at her
watch. 6:59. The train was pulling into the station. She rose to her feet and
looked around frantically. Something terrible has happened to him. He's
had an accident. He's in the hospital. A few minutes later, Ashley stood
there watching the train to Chicago pull out of the station, taking all her
dreams with it. She waited another half hour and tried to telephone Jim
again. When there was still no answer, she slowly headed home, desolate.
At noon, Ashley and her father were on a plane to London....

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