I wonder why the thieves sent the Enigma to him though? I can only imagine it was because they want to gain maximum publicity. If they had sent it to the police, it may have covered it up until they recovered the rotors as well. This way they publicly pressurise the museum to capitulate and stump up the cash.

The thing I really like about encryption & indeed technology generally before the advent of computers was that it seemed to have a 'soul'. Lots of wires & wheels & cogs and suchlike to play around with, unlike the sealed boxes you get today.I appreciate that you can mess around with PC's, but it's only up to a certain extent. It's like Lego pieces - you can configure the various bits & bobs together however you like, but you can't really get into the nitty gritty.

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Originally posted by Undesirable Alien:
I just wish the British Government at the time of Babbage had seen the potential of his designs & commissioned hulking warehouse sized devices and networked them (via telegraph . It would've been fun.

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Ever read The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson?

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Originally posted by supaboy:
Snaggy: Way cool!

Ever read The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson?

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I have actually, & liked it. It is an interesting alternate history effort, & well worth the read, I thought.

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Imagine if there were 50 different nations now, instead of one country. Hmm, getting a bit OT, so I'll stop

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Congrats on the interview too Snaggy

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Originally posted by Zwilnik:
They did, and British Telecom are STILL using it for our internet access.

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LOL!!

Have you ever visited a working Strowger telephone exchange by the way? Wacky!

T.

By the way, congrats to Nitro & Snaggy on an excellent likeness of our hardest hitting political interviewer, I'm surprised that he is at all known in Canada.

Cryptography Geeks might like to know that BBC Radio 4 is currently serialising "The Codebook" (a brief history of ciphers and such) all this week (Nov 13- Nov 17)in their late book slot. If you are unable to recieve Radio 4 on air it is accessible via the net as a real audio stream. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/ and hit the "Listen" icon. "The Codebook" plays from about 00:30 GMT to about 00:50 GMT

Following this is the shipping forecast, a deeply cryptic little broadcast that you might like to try out your powers of analysis on.

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Originally posted by Undesirable Alien:
It's funny to think just how disunited America was back then. I found out a while ago that Texas was independant till the 1840's (?). A lot of British diplomacy and skullduggery in the book was aimed at keeping America divided, and weak. Imagine if there were 50 different nations now, instead of one country. Hmm, getting a bit OT, so I'll stop

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Yeah, Texas succeeded in its revolt against Mexico in 1836 (not often mentioned in the histories is the fact that much of Mexico was in revolt against the central govt. of the time; Texas was the farthest from the center, and that's why it won).

The new Texas Republic wanted to join the United States immediately, but the slavery issue was heating up then, and various people succeeded in preventing the admission of another slave state (pretty stupid, considering that there was already slavery in Texas).

In 1844, James K. Polk ran for President on a platform that included the annexation of Texas. He won, and Texas entered the Union on Dec. 29th, 1845. Mexico declared war over that, and when that was over, Polk had added more territory to the U.S. than any President before or since.

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Saintonge

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Originally posted by Saintonge:
The new Texas Republic wanted to join the United States immediately, but the slavery issue was heating up then, and various people succeeded in preventing the admission of another slave state (pretty stupid, considering that there was already slavery in Texas).

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Originally posted by Snaggy:
On April 1, 2000 an Enigma cypher machine was stolen from the mansion at Bletchley Park, home of the British military intelligence staff during World War II.

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Enigma latest:-

In the last hour or so it has been announced that police investigating the stolen enigma, "the Master" and the still missing rotors have arrested a 57 year old man. This person is now "helping police with their enquiries".

Apparently this person was arrested near his car in the county of Derbyshire (where he lives and only a little south of myself). It is reported that negotiations for the return of the missing rotors were in progress at the time of the arrest.

The Enigma (one of only 3 left in the world) was stolen from Bletchley Park during an open day. Since then a series of bizarre and cryptic ransom demands have been made for the machine by a person calling him(?)self "The Master" (cf. the No.1 villain in the BBC science fiction series "Dr. Who"). This person claims that he bought the enigma machine in good faith from an unknown person and would return it if he was paid the 20,000 pounds (or so) that he had paid for it (the amount seemed to vary from 20K to 25K). Since the return of the main machine the ransom has been demanded for the return of the other rotors.

Police have stated that they do not anticipate making any further arrests (implying that they think that they have "The Master" and that they suspect he is the original thief rather than the "innocent" buyer of the stolen machine). The remaining three rotors are still missing.