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A 1941 Paper-and-Pencil Cipher

Posted by kdawson on from the sudoku-got-nothin' dept.

Schneier's blog links to a photo of a 68-year-old code being employed in wartime, with a plausible explanation of what is going on in it. (The photo is from the Life Magazine archive we discussed when it went live.) "What you see here is a photo that never should have been allowed to be taken, and one which provides an amazing, one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of WWII espionage and counter-espionage. As far as I can tell, what is shown in this picture is an FBI agent in New York encrypting a message, passed from 'DUNN'... through Sebold, prior to transmitting that message to Germany via shortwave radio. ... [T]his appears to be real cryptology at work."

9 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. Duh? by east+coast · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why didn't he just use a computer for this? I swear, those people were so dense.

    --
    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    1. Re:Duh? by bobdotorg · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why didn't he just use a computer for this? I swear, those people were so dense.

      They weren't dense, Windows DE (Depression Edition) kept crashing that day with repeated PCODs (Punch Cards of Death).

      Though now that I think about it, I've come to the realization that every version of Windows is Windows DE.

      --
      __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
    2. Re:Duh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      They weren't dense, Windows DE (Depression Edition) kept crashing that day with repeated PCODs (Punch Cards of Death).

      And 60 years later, we realize that even in the future nothing works.

  2. Re:Human computers by Linker3000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow - imagine if those people clustered around someone reading Beowulf!

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  3. Re:what's the big deal? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't see what the big deal is. You guys have never seen someone doing a word search puzzle before?

    And the answer to today's word jumble is: "NORMANDY"

  4. Wait, I thought... by WED+Fan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Actually he was a computer - that's what they called people...

    I'm confused, I thought...

    Soylent Green == People

    Computers == People

    Soylent Green is edible.

    People are edible.

    Question: Will be Dell laptop work with a South Beach diet?

    --
    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
  5. Re:Human computers by memristance · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course, some methods were better than others...

  6. Re:Human computers by lysergic.acid · · Score: 5, Funny

    speaking of which, here's a screen shot of an early pre alpha build of the Folding@Home client.

  7. Re:July 1940 != prewar by vux984 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since the US did not declare war on Japan until December 8, 1941 (and Germany on December 11, 1941) July 1940 is legitimately pre-war as far as the US is concerned.

    er... By that logic since Switzerland did not declare war at all, July 1940 is legitimately 'prewar' for them too? Of course, so is November 2008... in fact as far was the Swiss are concerned there was no war?

    Are we still 'legitimately pre-World War II as far as the Swiss are concerned'?

    Any Swiss care to weigh in on this absurdity? ;)