Group items tagged

I found this article and liked it because it gave me a lot of information about the Beale Cipher and treasure, even more information than Singh. I especially was interested in the reasons describing the possibility of it being real or a hoax.

This website gives a good description about the Vigenère cipher and techniques for cracking it. It also shows another way we could more easily crack one of these ciphers using Microsoft Excel. Lastly, on the menu on the left side of the page is a link that lets you contact Simon Singh.

Researchers have applied the microdot principle described by Singh on page 6 to hide messages in DNA sequences.

A breach in supposedly secure keys given to employees by private companies vindicates previous warnings by cryptographers that companies should use more difficult keys, and that companies have not been cautious enough using such keys because of their assumed security.

Interesting article about Charles Baggage's computer designs finally being put to use! Found it interesting because we read about Charles Babbage and I was surprised to learn that the computer hadn't been built yet.

For the latest on Plan 28, the initiative to build Babbage's analytic engine, visit http://plan28.org/.

I'm just going to resubmit the bookmark directly to this page so I'll be sure it ends up publicly in the group. This wasn't mentioned in Singh chapter 2, but it was created around the time period discussed in the chapter. (Plus, it's one of my favorite articles I've read in Wired so I really wanted to use it as a bookmark.) The article discusses the strategies used to break this cipher, some of which, such as frequency analysis, we have talked about in class. It's also just fascinating to read about the Oculists and their history.