I've put a link in my blogroll as well.
Posted by racingsnake
@ 03:27 PM GMT+00:00
07 Sep · Thu 2006
A long overdue blog-link
I should have done this long ago, but for some reason haven't got
around to it until now; Richard Veryard's excellent POSIWID blog is
always worth a read, as are the other blogs under the dontpanic
imprimatur.
I've put a link in my blogroll as well.
I've put a link in my blogroll as well.
Bletchley 'Bombe' reconstructed
Volunteers have just completed the reconstruction of one of the 'Bombe'
cryptanalysis machines used at Bletchley Park in WW2 to break the
German 'Enigma' codes. (Here's one of a couple of BBC articles about it).
It's funny how the public perception of these things gets 'adjusted'. For instance, thanks to the movie-makers, "everyone knows" that the Brits at Bletchley cracked Enigma, with a little help from the Yanks... (actually, according to our guide when I visited Bletchley a few years ago, some Polish cryptanalysts kept telling British intelligence that they could break the Enigma codes, but were ignored...). Likewise, "everyone knows" that Alan Turing invented the Bombe machines (or did he merely enhance machines which the Poles had already designed and built?). Similarly, it's odd that the average person who has heard of the Enigma story knows about Alan Turing but not Gordon Welchman.
If you haven't ever been to Bletchley Park, and find yourself in the area, I would recommend visiting it. This may sound like a rather back-handed compliment, but I mean it positively: for me, one of the lasting impressions of the site was the 'amateur' feel to it... that rather gung-ho 'let's all pitch in and do our best' spirit. It's clear that there were truly ground-breaking experts at work in Bletchley... but there were also an awful lot of others who were just told to get on with their own small (and probably incredibly repetitive and dull) part of the work, and did so conscientiously even if they didn't, at the time, have any indication of just how significant it was.
Note: The Bombes were electro-mechanical devices; see also this related article about Colossus... the electronic successor which allowed the Bletchley cryptanalysts, for the first time, to do mass statistical attacks on complex ciphers.
It's funny how the public perception of these things gets 'adjusted'. For instance, thanks to the movie-makers, "everyone knows" that the Brits at Bletchley cracked Enigma, with a little help from the Yanks... (actually, according to our guide when I visited Bletchley a few years ago, some Polish cryptanalysts kept telling British intelligence that they could break the Enigma codes, but were ignored...). Likewise, "everyone knows" that Alan Turing invented the Bombe machines (or did he merely enhance machines which the Poles had already designed and built?). Similarly, it's odd that the average person who has heard of the Enigma story knows about Alan Turing but not Gordon Welchman.
If you haven't ever been to Bletchley Park, and find yourself in the area, I would recommend visiting it. This may sound like a rather back-handed compliment, but I mean it positively: for me, one of the lasting impressions of the site was the 'amateur' feel to it... that rather gung-ho 'let's all pitch in and do our best' spirit. It's clear that there were truly ground-breaking experts at work in Bletchley... but there were also an awful lot of others who were just told to get on with their own small (and probably incredibly repetitive and dull) part of the work, and did so conscientiously even if they didn't, at the time, have any indication of just how significant it was.
Note: The Bombes were electro-mechanical devices; see also this related article about Colossus... the electronic successor which allowed the Bletchley cryptanalysts, for the first time, to do mass statistical attacks on complex ciphers.
- Blogroll
- Alan Mather
- Alec Muffett
- Bill Vass
- Bill Walker
- Burningbird
- CPO - Michelle Dennedy
- Conor Cahill... has an opinion or two
- Consult Hyperion
- Don't Panic - Trust blog
- Eric Mahe
- Eve Maler
- Geoff Arnold
- Gerry Beuchelt
- Greg Matters
- Hubert Le Van Gong
- Ideal Government
- John Sandell's Photography
- Kim Cameron
- Lauren Wood
- Ludovic Poitou
- Mark Dixon
- Masood Mortazavi
- Monkchips - James Governor
- New Drew...
- Oz Yigit's brainstorms
-
POSIWID
- Paul Walker's Getting His Coat...
- Peter Davis
- PlanetIdentity
- Stefan Brands
- Superpat
- Tatsuo-san
- Tim Bray
- Toby Stevens
- Tom Gordon
- Vikram Kumar (NZ)
- Wayne Horkan's eclectic
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