Re: Hey old people

[Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () cisco com>]

Actually, the Poles were cracking Engima from 1932 onwards, before  
the bombes, Turing's work, etc.  And, yes - the term 'computer'  
originally referred to human beings performing mathematical  
calculations, it was later applied to calculating machines.

The Enigma decrypts were not brute-force cracks.  They were  
predicated upon a combination of design flaws and operational  
mistakes.  Same for the Purple decrypts.

We didn't have the computational power to do brute-force, back then.


On Dec 27, 2005, at 10:50 AM, Blue Boar wrote:

> Drsolly wrote:
> > > A. Getting the actual hardware (without which the allies were  
> > > completely clueless)
>
> Versions of the hardware had been sold commercially since the  
> 1920s.  It couldn't have been that hard.
>
> > The whole point of Enigma (and devices like it) was that you  
> > couldn't brute-force it.
>
> That was a design goal, yes.  Which was not met.
>
> > Also, remember that at that time a "computer" was a person with a  
> > pencil and paper.
>
> Which time?  The point of the Enigma crack was that Turing build an  
> eletctro-mechanical computer to assist with the cracking, no?
>
> Related to the original topic I started, this time (1940's) was the  
> birth of electric computers.
>
> To whatever degree they are accurate, Wikipedia has a couple of  
> good articles:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
>
>                                                 BB
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Roland Dobbins <rdobbins () cisco com> // 408.527.6376 voice

     Everything has been said.  But nobody listens.

                   -- Roger Shattuck

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