Original post by Dmitri Gromov

The article is usefull for me. I’ll be coming back to your blog.

"Colossus". was not used to break Enigma. There were machines called "Bombes" for that. Colossus was used to break the even higher value German "tunny" (Lorenz SZ 40 and SZ 42) encrypted teleprinters.

"... but the world's first computer was developed at Bletchly Park to crack it. THAT is why Bletchly Park is important, and THAT is the "British engineering" we're all so proud of."

THAT is not true. The world's first digital computer was also German, and was destroyed by the Brits during the war... Take a look at Wikipedia and other sources!

"Colossus". was not used to break Enigma. There were machines called "Bombes" for that. Colossus was used to break the even higher value German "tunny" (Lorenz SZ 40 and SZ 42) encrypted teleprinters.

bohespic: British engineering? I'm hoping that was a joke!
bohespic: The Enigma machine was German. One was captured by the Allies and used to decode German signals. I do realise what it helped do. So think before you get all ?!?!? on me.
Yes the enigma machine was german, but the world's first computer was developed at Bletchly Park to crack it. THAT is why Bletchly Park is important, and THAT is the "British engineering" we're all so proud of. They used the captured enigma machine to figure out how it worked, but without the encryption key they couldn't just "use it to decode German signals". They had to crack the key with the aid of "Colossus".

Very timely, with the recent passing of Professor Jack Good, one of the code breakers at Bletchley who worked on breaking the naval Enigma code.

"Although he was slow to learn to read, "Jack" Good's mathematical genius was clear from an early age. In bed with diphtheria aged nine, he "discovered" the irrationality of the square root of two and found an infinity of solutions to the equation: 2x² = y² ± 1. By the age of 13 he had independently "discovered" mathematical induction and integration.

At Haberdashers' Aske's School, Hampstead, Good amazed his maths master by working out the solutions to a series of exercise questions before the man had finished writing them on the blackboard. His teachers soon reached the limits of what they could teach him and left him to pursue his mathematical studies on his own in the school library. By the time he won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, he had already covered much of the undergraduate syllabus. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/5132599/Professor-Jack-Good.html

Very timely, with the recent passing of Professor Jack Good, one of the code breakers at Bletchley who worked on breaking the naval Enigma code.

"Although he was slow to learn to read, "Jack" Good's mathematical genius was clear from an early age. In bed with diphtheria aged nine, he "discovered" the irrationality of the square root of two and found an infinity of solutions to the equation: 2x² = y² ± 1. By the age of 13 he had independently "discovered" mathematical induction and integration.

At Haberdashers' Aske's School, Hampstead, Good amazed his maths master by working out the solutions to a series of exercise questions before the man had finished writing them on the blackboard. His teachers soon reached the limits of what they could teach him and left him to pursue his mathematical studies on his own in the school library. By the time he won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, he had already covered much of the undergraduate syllabus. "

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/5132599/Professor-Jack-Good.html

The last person to decipher a German message is most likely catching-up with the person who sent the original

I wonder who was the last person to decipher an actual German message on the machine, I bet they are interesting to talk to.

Hi

You got to actually touch the machine, the history behind thease machines, whithout those machines and the Alan Turings team as well his computer there at Bletchley Park we would not have been able to decode the German communications, which help us win the 2nd World War.

I do feel a lil bit ashamed lived in Bletchley all my life n never been 2 Bletchley park !!

UNIX command crypt(1) is based on the Enigma cipher.

crypt(1) is a simple command to encrypt or decrypt data. Usually this is used as a filter and it has traditionally been implemented using an algorithm based on the Enigma machine. It is considered to be far too cryptographically weak to provide any security against brute force attacks by modern, commodity personal computers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypt_(Unix)

Feind Hört Mit!

Wow! You come across such interesting things!

The Enigma machine was German. One was captured by the Allies and used to decode German signals. I do realise what it helped do. So think before you get all ?!?!? on me.

I had a temporary secretary who I am sure used one of these?

@bohespic You do realise what the enigma machine enabled us to do don't you?!?!?! Also this was technology from over 60 years ago!

@bohespic You do realise what the enigma machine enabled us to do don't you?!?!?! Also this was technology from over

British engineering? I'm hoping that was a joke!

Very cool and a true piece of British engineering at its best!

@stephenfry History at your finger tips!
Amazing!

xTx

Wow. Would love to have a go

Unfortunately tweetberlin, the H is clearly there (between G and J), ruining a perfectly fine gag

@stephenfry was that the one that Bon Jovi stole from the Germans?

My father used to make the coding wheels for this at Hanslope Park during the war, but was just told it was 'a special sort of teletype machine'

Wow coooool!

Looks like the 'H' is missing,.... must 'ave played 'avoc wit te Germans! lol

Wow coooool!