Public Invited to Try Their Luck Against Old Cipher Tech

Stony Stevenson writes to tell us that in celebration of the opening of the National Museum of Computing, members of the public are being challenged to take on a rebuilt version of Colossus, the world's first programmable digital computer. The Cipher Challenge will take two groups of amateur code breakers and pit them against one of the original Lorenz cipher machine used by the German High Command during World War II. "The encrypted teleprinter message will be transmitted by radio from colleagues in Paderborn, Germany, and intercepted at Bletchley Park by the two code-breaking groups, one using modern PCs and the other using the newly rebuilt Colossus Mark II."

Comments

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[hypermike]

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Public Event...

[BinarySkies]

We could make this into an excellent geeky sporting event... They'll be selling seats at the door for $7.50 apiece, a mascot of a giant padlock covered in binary will roll around the sidelines, and a bunch of cheerleaders will be dancing around cheering... safely behind plexiglass from the geekiest ones. Next, to sell this to ESPN...

+++ Spoiler +++

[Anne_Nonymous]

Drink more Ovaltine.

Re:+++ Spoiler +++

[Anonymous Coward]

Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine

(sorry)

Re:+++ Spoiler +++

[Anonymous Coward]

SON OF A BITCH!

Re:01000110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00

[Neon Aardvark]

How dare you say that about my mother, she was a saint!

oblig.

[Rob T Firefly]

This is the voice of world control.

Old school

[Quiet_Desperation]

thisi sstil ltheb estan dmost unbre akabl ecode

Re:This machine was a hoax back then

[arevos]

Exacty. The Colossus Mark II is no more real than the so-called "Moon Landing", or the ridiculous fringe theory that the Earth is round.

Watch Out

[Wellington Grey]

"Colossus marked the beginning of the modern age of computing, a heritage that we are planning to preserve by raising £6m to establish a world-class facility at Bletchley Park," said Tony Sale, co-founder of the National Museum of Computing.

Watch out! Don't connect that thing to the internet -- your 40 year old version of Norton won't be any good. Wouldn't want to turn six million pounds into just another botnet zombie :)

-Grey

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[$RANDOMLUSER]

"Drink your Ovaltine"?

Re:01000110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00

[CrazedWalrus]

Bernard?

Re:The abacus is greater then the sword

[king-manic]

Isn't it a shame that the treatment of Alan Turing after the war drove him to suicide though, as though all of his contributions meant nothing to the people. All that mattered to them was that he was a homosexual. He is truly the father of modern computing and he achieved a lot in his short life. He was monumental to the Allied war effort and a once in a generation math genius. It's really too bad the people of his time couldn't look past his sexuality.

On a side note: I'm straight but I'd do Turing for the geek cred :D

Re:01000110 01101001 01110010 01110011 01110100 00

[Anonymous Coward]

because the kids are reading slashdot with MS Access?