I'd prefer one of the bombes...but they were supposedly smashed after the 2WW on the orders of Churchill. But I do wonder if there are any left.
Interestingly, the cracking of the purple and the enigma codes seem to have been done independantly. But there seems to be a fascinating disconnection here - surely the allies collaborated in deciphering the codes? The stuff that I've read seem to bear away from this heading. "Cryptonomicon" uses Turing as a connection, but I do wonder.
Of course, if you do crack a code, the results are always interesting: http://raphael.math.uic.edu/~jeremy/crypt/contrib/lkong1.html - now there's an Arnie-sized conspiracy-theory to hunk yr chops around.
The Navajo code was never cracked - http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-4.htm - and that wasn't machine-based.
I'm off to buy Kahn's codebreakers and learn the Marine hymn in Navajo...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Candice Ward" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2001 08:14
Subject: Re: Arabic, Pashto--and "Hopelandic"?
> Robin wrote:
>
> >>> (This from the country [US!! Sorry, that's ambiguous -- the United
> > Kingdom]
> >>> who, with the Poles, cracked the Enigma Machine.)
> >>
> >> Yeah, but only because WE cracked the purple code first!
> >
> > Bloof -- 3rdRate Styllone movie. I Rest My Case [non-postmoderningly,
> > pleading an Authentic appeal-to-reality, on Istory.]
>
> Say what? (Couldn't even decipher this while wearing my decoder
> ring!)
>
> Wouldn't you love to have an Enigma Machine, though? There are fewer than
> six left worldwide.
>
> Candice
>
> Or a nice bit of alphabet silk?
>
>
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