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Colossus Cracks Again

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-yer-playing-with-power dept.

BOfH writes "The BBC is reporting that following a 14-year rebuild project, the Colossus computer is once again cracking codes at Bletchley Park." They will crack WWII-era encrypted messages, and compete against modern PCs. Fun stuff for crypto nerds and history buffs.

24 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. The real question is.... by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Funny

    will it be able to detect dupes?

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    Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
  2. How long by Steeltalon · · Score: 2, Funny

    until someone ports Quake to it?

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    Regards, Ian
    1. Re:How long by somersault · · Score: 2, Funny

      And less importantly, will it run Vista?

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      which is totally what she said
  3. Link to Bletchley Park by fantomas · · Score: 4, Informative

    At least provide a link to the Bletchley Park museum itself!

    http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

    It's a great visit. Go check it out. They don't get a lot of funding so they are very dependent on visitors (and volunteers if you live nearby) to help keep things going. They had to sell off some of their land recently to keep going (this is now getting turned into a local housing estate).

    1. Re:Link to Bletchley Park by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not all of us are fortunate neough to be able to travel to London.
      Not a problem, it's in Milton Keynes.
      --
      It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
    2. Re:Link to Bletchley Park by Stooshie · · Score: 2, Funny

      ... It made me wonder, though, how similar today's military codebreaking centres like Ft. Mead are in terms of comaraderie ...

      What military code breaking centres? There are none!

      --
      America, Home of the Brave. ... .and the Squaw.
    3. Re:Link to Bletchley Park by pev · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I had an amazing day there a few years back - one of the most amazing things was that many of the volunteers were connected to Bletchley Park originally and you could talk to them to get their stories first hand. There are very few opportunities for such things these days and well worth taking the opportunity to meet them (and have a nice cup of tea!)

  4. Not as fast as it used to be. by RandoX · · Score: 4, Funny

    The machine is only running at about 30% of the speed it did originally. It appears that their ISP is throttling their packets for some reason. Comcast cited DMCA violations as the reason for the packet shaping.

    1. Re:Not as fast as it used to be. by Basehart · · Score: 2, Funny

      I found a really old photo of it with its operator. Amazing how old this thing really is.

  5. And how is this different. . . by smooth+wombat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    than this article from 2 days ago?

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  6. Re:And how is this different. . . by FredDC · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is the decrypted version?

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    09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63
  7. Linux port by Gothmolly · · Score: 2, Funny

    Any word on the Debian port ?

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  8. I Want a Babbage Engine, Dammit! by R2.0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm a mechanical engineer, and I demand the construction of a full scale Babbage engine, simply for bragging rights. ...grumble grumble...fucking EE's think the sun shines out their asses...grumble...

    --
    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    1. Re:I Want a Babbage Engine, Dammit! by BigBadBus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is a full scale replica, at London's Science Museum, made by their own technicians. Its a lovely mesh of bronze and brass cogs and gears, and yes, it does work. I worked there years ago and was told something interesting: Bill Gates funded the construction of the display model on the condition that afterwards, they build him one too. Which I presume they did.

      --
      My web domain.
    2. Re:I Want a Babbage Engine, Dammit! by tsjaikdus · · Score: 4, Funny

      He also required the printer to have a blue pen the could fill in large surfaces.

  9. Reading the RSS title ... by StarfishOne · · Score: 2
    I initially had this amazing vision in my mind of a huge Greek mythical hero in the sky ... with a huge hammer (perhaps borrowed from Thor!) and an anvil to match... picking up numbers and cracking them with huge force one by one.... causing all kinds of wild lightning like effects that scared all mortals on the ground.


    Then I realized I have some code to debug. ;-)

  10. The first message cracked by albeit+unknown · · Score: 4, Funny

    Be sure to drink your ovaltine

  11. Even more important than that . . . by SpeedyGonz · · Score: 3, Funny

    . . . Will it blend?

  12. Ooh, I get to do it this time! by Grimbleton · · Score: 2, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our restored cryptography overlords.

  13. Re:But... by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    (I was shocked BTW; so many comments, not one with the _truly_ relevant question...)

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
  14. Re:But... by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Probably not ... It's is not Turing Complete, it was designed and built for one purpose (but turned out to be amazingly flexible)

    It could theoretically be rebuilt to run Linux... but the boot times would be a bit slow? The nearest thing it has to a clock speed is the input rate (that was the limiting factor in decoding) normally 5000 characters/second, was run up to 9700 c/s but it effectively did parallel processing so....

    --
    Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  15. One of The First Clockless Systems by TheHawke · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Colossus ran as fast as the tape reader could scan and compare tapes. They estimated that the unit could do as much as 10,000 to 15,000 Characters Per Second (CPS). Material issues kept the machine running dependably at 5,000 CPS. As the story goes, the inventor cranked the tape scanner up to 10,000 CPS and the paper tape failed, sending ribbons flying across the room. At 60MPH, paper flies very fast!

    --
    First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
  16. Enoch Root is Not Impressed by Bilby+Baggins · · Score: 2, Informative

    Everything I know about World War II crypto I learned from Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse.

  17. Re:Pedant by jeremyp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not Enigma.

    They used bombes to crack Enigma. Colossus was for a completely different cipher called Lorenz

    http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/machines.rhtm

    --
    All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe