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Bletchley codebreaker dies aged 93
The Guardian ^ | March 27th 2014 | Conal Urqhuart

Posted on 03/27/2014 2:30:35 AM PDT by Winniesboy

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To: Dr. Ursus
"The English didn’t think computers had a future."

They couldn't figure out how to keep them from leaking oil.

(Old MG/Triumph owner joke...)

21 posted on 03/27/2014 4:50:30 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: flaglady47
Has his own office in the cloud.

And it's probably just as cluttered!

22 posted on 03/27/2014 4:51:18 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: pieceofthepuzzle; MinuteGal; ken5050

“Was Ayers at U of I Chicago when you were there?”

Yes indeedy, he was, and still is. Along with a huge contingent of Palestinian students who would periodically march around campus in their endless protestations du jour. Also the great liberal Stanley Fish, deconstructionist supreme, who was hired as the Dean of the College of LAS, and who also hired “Deirdre N. McCloskey”, a professor of economics who had a transsexual operation. A he to she. We had quite the cast of characters on campus. The stories I could tell.


23 posted on 03/27/2014 4:51:26 AM PDT by flaglady47 (Oppressors can tyranize only w/a standing army-enslaved press-disarmed populace)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
"Without the work at Bletchley Park, the war might have ended very differently…."

That's right. Those people literally saved the world as we know it. I believe there was a joke that if U-Boat Commanders wanted to know what their orders were, they could find out faster by calling Bletchley Park than than waiting on their chain of command.

24 posted on 03/27/2014 5:08:17 AM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: Joe 6-pack

There were also electrical problems. Old Jaguar joke.


25 posted on 03/27/2014 5:08:58 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: MRadtke

Colossus was built by an engineer named Tommy Flowers. It was created to help decode Lorenz machine (or Tunny) coded messages.

The Lorenz was a one-time-pad machine that mechanically generated pseudo-random one-time-pad sets that were then used to encode the messages using a simple XOR operation.

The messages were not sent using Morse code like the Enigma system did, they were transmitted using an early teletype method. The Lorenz thus required only one operator at each end and was much faster.


26 posted on 03/27/2014 5:11:35 AM PDT by Bobalu (Happiness is a fast ISR)
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To: MRadtke

Are you thinking of Charles Babbage’s difference engine? That was a mechanical computer that was designed but never fully built.


27 posted on 03/27/2014 5:14:35 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: C. Edmund Wright

The allies would still have won thanks to superior numbers and resources, it just would have taken a bit longer.


28 posted on 03/27/2014 5:16:09 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan
The allies would still have won thanks to superior numbers and resources, it just would have taken a bit longer.

That's true, but here's an intriguing thought: Some of the people whose fathers or grandfathers fought in Europe would not be here today if the war had extended into 1946. Invariably, some of those who returned home in 1945 would have been killed in a subsequent battle had the fighting continued a while longer.

29 posted on 03/27/2014 5:27:33 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

I agree….totally….but it might have been a five -six year war with a very different division of Europe, Asia, etc…..might have had to use an A bomb in the Atlantic theatre also…and the Germans might have developed jets in time to do more damage…maybe their a-bomb….so while the “winner” would have been ultimately the same I think…the ending would have been “very different” nonetheless.


30 posted on 03/27/2014 5:27:35 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: KoRn

Yes, I’ve heard that….amazing how the Brits used code breaking and radar on the cutting edge to stave off the Nazi’s long enough…..


31 posted on 03/27/2014 5:28:40 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Tokyo Rove is more than a name, it's a GREAT WEBSITE)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

I have no idea how those “Enigma” Machines were cracked(I don’t know if I could even USE one lol). I think that was actually done by some Polish scientists before their country was overrun.


32 posted on 03/27/2014 5:35:31 AM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: Dr. Ursus

“There were also electrical problems. Old Jaguar joke.”
*************************
LUCAS, Prince of darkness.(Triumph riders would know)


33 posted on 03/27/2014 5:49:17 AM PDT by mongo141 (Revolution ver. 2.0, just a matter of when, not a matter of if!)
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To: MRadtke; flaglady47
There really was a Colossus computer?!

This is an excellent book on the subject. I read it last summer at the beach:

Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Code-breaking Computers

A Colossus Mark 2 computer being operated by Dorothy Du Boisson (right) and Elsie Booker. The slanted control panel on the right was used to set the "pin" (or "cam") patterns of the Lorenz. The "bedstead" paper tape transport is on the left.

34 posted on 03/27/2014 6:14:13 AM PDT by Constitution Day (;^)
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To: flaglady47; Dr. Ursus
FYI, "Imitation Game" info

There has been considerable controversy about how Turing's homosexuality is portrayed, or rather, ignored in the script ( scroll down to "Controversy". I gather the GLAAD crowd wants his "gayness" extolled..they probably want his "sensitivity" to be featured as the reason for his success..

Flaglady47, check your library..they might have "The Bletchley Circle"

35 posted on 03/27/2014 6:34:49 AM PDT by ken5050 (I fear a world run by adults who were never spanked as kids and got trophies just for participating)
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To: sinsofsolarempirefan

And the loss of of lot more lives..


36 posted on 03/27/2014 6:35:51 AM PDT by ken5050 (I fear a world run by adults who were never spanked as kids and got trophies just for participating)
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To: Winniesboy

My father-in-law, who recently passed away at the age of 95, was a code copier with an intellegence unit that usually operated just behind the front lines in Europe in WWII. His outfit was teamed with a British company that had the Enigma machine. He copied German traffic which was then decoded by the Enigma. His unit was overrun at the Battle of the Bulge and about half of his unit was killed. As luck would have it, he had an attack of appendicitis and was in a London hospital at the time.


37 posted on 03/27/2014 6:37:53 AM PDT by Donkey Odious ( Adapt, improvise, and overcome - now a motto for us all.)
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To: ken5050

I’ve seen The Bletchley Circle. We were planning a trip to Southern England and London. We wanted to make a day trip to Bletchley Park and to Liverpool.


38 posted on 03/27/2014 6:53:24 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: Winniesboy; All; flaglady47; ken5050
What an excellent thread!

Informative, historical, little-known input from knowledgeable, literate posters. Congratulations to all.

Leni

39 posted on 03/27/2014 6:55:54 AM PDT by MinuteGal
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Thanks Winniesboy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_cipher


40 posted on 03/27/2014 10:07:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/alreadyposted/index)
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