
Barbie typewriter (2015) - rainbowmverse
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/mehano/barbie/
======
monstormenta
"As it was probably thought that secret writing would not appeal to girls, the
coding/decoding facilities were omitted from the manual".

Back in elementary, my friends and I had an entire word replacement bank to
talk about crushes, teachers, etc. in code. Later on, we would constantly make
new pigpen ciphers. Isn't it a stereotype that girls love secrets?

Toys aimed toward girls have been steadily improving. I have noticed a great
rise particularly in STEM-focused toys and I am excited (and jealous) to see
with what the next generation will grow up.

~~~
mmjaa
Yeah, I personally think this feature-removal is just plain sexism. Lots of
girls enjoy learning new and interesting things to do with math and science,
and crypto is an especially great way to introduce kids to abstract thinking.

Not to mention there's the whole "if you remove the feature, how will they
ever learn about it" factor .. just plain sexist, imho.

A better, more "pro-girl" approach would be to include the feature and let
girls figure out for themselves, if they like it. Also, the boys who might
play with these same toys.

~~~
Freak_NL
> Yeah, I personally think this feature-removal is just plain sexism.

It probably had nothing to do with sexism per se; rather it probably was a
business call made by people who suspected that while some percentage of girls
would like that feature, a certain percentage of parents wouldn't find that
feature appropriate or scary or simply not something they would consider as
suitable for a toy. These people are paid to know their target demographic and
to make choices that maximize profit for any given product.

Their assumptions might be rooted in sexism, but I suspect that most of their
frame of reference consists of simply knowing how parents and relatives view
these products, _their_ sexist attitudes included. That is to say, if these
people suspect that a significant percentage parents want to stimulate exact
thinking and problem solving skills in their girls, they will translate that
to market decisions (which is slowly happening now).

~~~
pluma
It's sexism in the systems sense, not in the personal bigotry sense. The fun
thing about sexism (and racism, etc) in the systems sense is that the
intentions can be neutral or even positive yet the outcome can still be sexist
(or racist, etc).

Maximising profit is not a neutral decision even if it has neutral intentions.

~~~
antt
>Maximising profit is not a neutral decision even if it has neutral
intentions.

Complaining that for profit companies maximize profit makes about as much
sense as complaining great white sharks eat meat. Both do what they were
evolved for, both die rather quickly if they don't.

Perhaps we shouldn't put great white sharks in petting zoos. Perhaps we
shouldn't put our children's well being into the hands of for profit
companies.

~~~
pluma
You're assuming the Friedman doctrine[0] is universally accepted as "that's
just how companies work". That view is not universal, even if it's the norm in
the US and plenty of large companies see it that way internationally.

You might want to look up "social market economy"[1] and what social
democracies in Europe think about the social responsibilities of companies
(i.e. that they have those in the first place). I know these are foreign
concepts in the US but it's what powers the famous German Mittelstand and our
economic stability (though at the cost of missing out on some of the rapid
growth possible in the US).

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_doctrine)

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy)

------
vanderZwan
I'm reminded of _" Barbiephonic (redux)"_[0], although it's only related in
the sense that through this story I found yet another story involving Barbie
and crypto[1].

> _And the other thing lying around on those open shares were recordings of
> names. To reach a wide audience they’d recorded some unstoppably perky young
> woman reciting kids’ first names, Aaron, Abbot, Abby, Abigail, Adana, Adena,
> in an upbeat barbie-girl voice, every single one. And there I was with a
> pile of free disk space, university bandwidth, wget and why not._

> _There were seventeen thousand of them._

> _After a bit of experimentation, I figured out how to stitch them all
> together with .4 seconds of silence between each. The resulting audio file
> was almost five hours long; four hours and forty five minutes of relentless
> Barbiedoll voice reciting seventeen thousand first names in alphabetical
> order._

> _To my knowledge, nobody has ever listened to the whole thing._

> _Of the six attempts I’m aware of, four were called off when the death
> threats started, one due to the near-breakup of the couple making the
> attempt, and one person drinking themselves to unconsciousness at about the
> 90 minute mark. I’m not saying that to make a joke. I’m telling you because
> this is real and it’s an SCP-grade psychic biohazard. No highly esteemed
> deed was committed here; this is not a place of honour._

The "SCP-grade psychic biohazard" is not that much of an exaggeration, by the
way.

[0] [http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2015/12/05/barbiephonic-
redux/](http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2015/12/05/barbiephonic-redux/)

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2015/12/inter...](https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2015/12/internet-connected-hello-barbie-doll-gets-bitten-by-nasty-
poodle-crypto-bug/)

~~~
LeifCarrotson
>> _To my knowledge, nobody has ever listened to the whole thing._

The Youtube mirror [0] has 1,890 views. What is a "view"?

[0]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_s7GL6ZdG4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_s7GL6ZdG4)

~~~
CharlesW
A YouTube "view" means that someone played the content for ~30 seconds.

------
ravenstine
Mattel sometimes made some really neat Barbie toys. I'm sure a toy typewriter
would have been pretty cool, with or without its ability to encode messages!

I remember, as a kid, my sister got a "Talk With Me" Barbie, which was a doll
that could be attached to a computer(serial port!) and configured to speak
your name with its animatronic mouth. The CD-ROM came with some games that
would also trigger the doll to speak. I was a boy, so I really wasn't into
Barbie, but I was really wowed by that toy and wished my Star Trek toys could
do the same! For its time, it was pretty innovative.

------
JohnJamesRambo
I don’t know anything about cryptography. Would this have been useful for
spies? Please tell me spies somewhere in the past were sending and receiving
messages on a Barbie typewriter.

~~~
ConcernedCoder
I would say probably not, since there were only 4 variations of a simple
substitution cypher, e.g. you could encrypt some text with option 1-4, and to
decrypt you picked option 1-4... i.e. anyone could decrypt using the barbie
typewriter and a maximum of 4 attempts... not really secure at all.

~~~
boomboomsubban
>simple substitution cypher

And for those that are unaware, substitution ciphers have been unsecure for
over a millennium now. So relying on nobody guessing you used a Barbie
typewriter isn't an option either.

------
flyGuyOnTheSly
What an awesome informational resource.

I really wish they had a Random Article button like Wikipedia does.

~~~
rainbowmverse
It probably wouldn't be too hard to put something together with a JavaScript
bookmarklet and their archive page.
[http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/list.htm](http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/list.htm)

~~~
flyGuyOnTheSly
I was thinking along the same lines... but a man can dream!

(I don't like the site THAT much that I would bother with creating a dedicated
js bookmarklet I suppose is what I am saying)

Not saying I wouldn't install it if somebody else were to do so... ;)

~~~
ConcernedCoder
CREATE A BOOKMARK! Use the following for the url ( OF THE BOOKMARK ):

javascript:(function(){var a = document.querySelectorAll('li a'),l =
a.length;window.location.href = a[Math.floor(Math.random() * l)].href;})();

NOTE: this JavaScript will only work properly ( AS A BOOKMARK ) on the list
page. i.e.
[http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/list.htm](http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/list.htm)

Instructions:

1\. create the bookmark as instructed above...

2\. go to the list page @ url above...

3\. CLICK THE BOOKMARK!

~~~
flyGuyOnTheSly
Haha, thanks a bunch!

The code worked perfectly once I placed it into a bookmark!

------
userbinator
I wonder if this feature came about not because it was originally in the
"requirements", but because the layout of the hardware key matrix/wire routing
may have not been decided completely, and it was easier to include several
selectable lookup tables in the masked ROM than have to change the mask (at
great cost) later. Then someone thought of adding the ability to change it at
runtime, perhaps for testing, and the rest is history...

...and in case the alternate lookup tables don't seem to map to any keyboard
layout, here's an example showing that a typical keyboard more often than not
does _not_ have the rows and columns in "physical" order:
[http://map.grauw.nl/articles/keymatrix.php](http://map.grauw.nl/articles/keymatrix.php)

------
paulgerhardt
One of the more unusual bits of Barbie Typewriter lore was that in at least
one instance, an ultra-right wing terrorist cell based in Northern Ireland was
using these for communication[1].

No indication if the cell was utilizing the "encryption" capabilities of the
Barbie typewriter or just putting it to work as the cheapest, most disposable
means of conveying demands but the Barbie logo makes an amusing juxtaposition
to the operator's violent history (including 72(!) prior convictions). Every
time this story surfaces, part of me wants to believe that someone somewhere
is still using substitution cyphers for serious ends.

[1] [https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-
ireland/jai...](https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-
ireland/jailed-gang-who-used-barbie-typewriter-and-bullets-to-blackmail-
victims-out-of-15k-29285194.html)

~~~
satsuma
and now i have the mental image of a stereotypical terrorist, with a black ski
mask and a kalashnikov on a strap on his back, hunched over his pink-and-
purple barbie typewriter. amazing. thank you

~~~
kazinator
Or maybe a Hello, Kitty AR-15:

[https://www.cnet.com/news/a-hello-kitty-assault-rifle-
that-a...](https://www.cnet.com/news/a-hello-kitty-assault-rifle-that-
actually-exists/)

------
amelius
Something like this with a built-in tablet stand would be cool.

