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Encryption Security

Alan Turing's Enigma Treatise online 174

Posted by CowboyNeal from the classic-english-literature dept.
uzada writes "Bruce Schneier's CRYPTOGRAM mailing list had a link off to three chapters of Alan Turing's treatise on the Enigma, retyped from the only known paper copy. It may be a chance to see if Neal Stephenson knew what he was talking about in _Cryptonomicon_... " It's only three chapters, but I'm looking forward to reading it, as Turing has been referenced in almost every CS class I've taken.
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Alan Turing's Enigma Treatise online More

Alan Turing's Enigma Treatise online

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  • NO ... It's an irc CLIENT

    www.bitchx.org

  • Bletchley Park Museum of Cryptography (Score:3)

    by Mr. Protocol ( 73424 ) on Wednesday August 18, 1999 @09:49AM (#1739512)
    Anyone who is in England, or finds themselves there at some point, might like to take a train up to Bletchley Park and view the Museum of Cryptography there. They have Enigmas, Lorentz machines, materials used by the Poles to figure out the beginnings of an Enigma crack, and one of the most wonderful contraptions I've ever had the privilege of viewing: a working Colossus.

    Tony Sale has taken photographs of the old Colossus, together with surviving notes, and built a new one. Colossus was a machine for figuring combinatorics for cracking cyphers generated by the Lorentz cypher machine, a more complex follow-on to the Enigma. Colossus fills a room, and is Britain's entry in the 'first digital computer' race. It's a late entrant because its details were classified until recently...long past any reasonable period for it, given that UNIX v6 used a modified Enigma algorithm for its passwords. (I hear that details of the Japanese Purple machine, however, are still classified in the U.S.)

    The Turing paper discussed in this article talks about machines used to help in the decryption process of the Lorentz machine, such as the Bombe. Colossus is the height of such technology.

    Colossus is a vacuum tube machine. Its reconstruction was possible only because the original was built with parts scrounged from British Telecom, and BT being what it is, those parts are still available for scrounging today. The machine is built on two six-foot rack assemblies, each about fifteen feet long, and about five or six feet apart. It runs on 400 volts. Input is a hand-built high-speed paper tape assembly. The machine clock comes from the smaller center sprocket holes on the tape. The input tape is an endless loop consisting of the cypher to be analyzed. Output is to a mechanical typewriter fitted with solenoids on the number, space and return mechanisms.

    I had the peak experience of standing in the middle of Colossus while Tony turned it on around me. Tubes glowing, decade counters climbing, tape spinning like mad (5000 CPS and the mechanism is six feet high, full of eight-inch-wide tension wheels)...THIS is computing!

    Don't miss seeing this thing in action. It'll make your week.
  • As I'm reading this thread, CNN is airing a story about a woman who was a court reporter at Nuremberg. Though now in her 70's, she continues to tour schools with a lecture and slide show about Nazi atrocities, citing as her reason the schoolkid who, upon seeing a slide of Hitler, asked "who's that?".

    Teach the children well.

  • Turing was one of the great pioneers of computing, just as if it were not for Ritchie, Knuth, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Grace Hooper and even Linus Torvalds, my computer would not be the same.

    Without Turing it is highly unlikely linux users would be able to be able to type ls -l *.txt or windows users can click and point to sort by file name.

    Actually, I'd put Stallman, Joy, and at least a few others in there too. After all, linux has little to do with what happens when you type "ls". :)

    Good point, however.

  • Each rotor has 26 contacts and effectively swaps two letters.

    That should be: Each rotor has 26 contacts that swaps 13 pairs of letters. (i.e a reversable substitution cipher)
  • his comment to kids about making it into the Hall of Fame...

    "Dont gamble, do drugs, just like LT"

    (hey, I though off-topic posts were cool today :(
  • (Off topic)

    No, you're just a Unix weenie like the rest of us :)
  • David Kahn's book "Code Breakers" covers the breaking of Enigma quite well (actually, it's considered to be _the_ book on the history of cryptography). IIR it was the Polish that got a machine from the pre-war manufacturer of the device (he had troubles selling it) (???). I don't remember who determined how the wiring of the wheels went (yes, wrong term - I know).

    Please note that it has been a _long_ time since I read that chapter and my info could be fault.
  • I dunno about everyone else... I got plenty of history in my CS classes. I even had to memorize a specific implementation of how to simulate a Turing machine ON a Turing machine (supposedly a final proof of its computing power). Theoretically, I guess, a Turing machine could emulate a Pentium II and run Windows NT or Linux. Any takers?).

    I imagine those who learn computer programming on their own or in technical schools probably don't usually get as much of the theory, discipline, and history as those who get a 4 year degree or go on to a Master's degree. Or maybe I've just had good teachers. In any case, I feel like my understanding and appreciation of computing history is a valuable asset that improves the quality of my work. It is valuable to know what they used to do, so that you can understand why we don't do it that way anymore. It is important to know several languages, so you can understand the strengths of the one you use most often. etc.
  • Actually there is still the death penalty in Britian however it's only if you commit High treason
  • Electrical system by Lucas. Look at their cars to see how their computers would be made.

  • He saved your ass from being a Nazi slave, made indispensable contributions to the invention of the computer, and served his country proudly and without complaint.

    What the fuck have you done?
  • I've skimmed the three chapters, and this is some interesting stuff. I'd like to see some intelligent discussion. Unfortunately, we seem to have been invaded by 5 year olds.

    If you're going to post trolls, at least make them coherent.
  • Whereabouts is Bletchley Park? I imagine I'll find myself in England soon. I'd like to see this.
  • There is a story of a malicious attack on the kernel mailing list over on Linux Today as well.

    URL:

    http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8912.html

    Jim
  • I don't know what's more amaizing: 1) These people don't know who Turning was, 2) They don't know what he did, 3) They think it has something to do with modern OS wars, or... 4) They think Turing is some type of application. Seriously. So much of the history of cryptology (and computer developments brought from it) is clouded in secrecy it's a relief for a cipher-geek like myself to get any scraps of knowledge I can. It's a shame the whole paper isn't posted... Anyone know where I can get the whole paper?
    • Ford
    • Chrysler (oh sorry that's German now. Maybe they'll start producing real cars)
    • Chevrolet
    • Oldsmobile
    • Buick
    • Pontiac
    • Lincoln
    • etc. etc.
    You really have to have lived here (the US) to realise what utterly crap, 1950s engineering the US manufacturers try to pass of as cars. No wonder all the car-owners I know drive Toyota/Honda/VW/Volvo/Saab/BMW/Merc etc...

    Oh and half of them can't even drive properly - they can only drive automatics like disabled people and little old ladies...

    Nick

  • In the UK you don't get much legal fairness, for
    example a few months back when the bomb in soho destroyed the Admiral something (my memorys gone tonight), one of the partners of one of the dead got no money, whilst if it was a hetrosexual relationship, he would have got £15 grand.

    The gay age of consent is 18, whilst the hetro is 16, they've tried to change it twice, but it was stopped in the house of lords because 'it would be bad to the family structure' or some lie like that.
  • I don't know what's more amaizing:

    1) These people don't know who Turning was,

    2) They don't know what he did,

    3) They think it has something to do with modern OS wars, or...

    4) They think Turing is some type of application.

    Seriously. So much of the history of cryptology (and computer developments brought from it) is clouded in secrecy it's a relief for a cipher-geek like myself to get any scraps of knowledge I can. It's a shame the whole paper isn't posted... Anyone know where I can get the whole paper?

  • How about modifying the slashdot code so that
    you can see what IP address AC's posted from, at least that would encourage some of them not to post junk all over the place. (Ok it's not perfect there are proxies)
  • As I understand it, the death penalty exists here in the Uk for "high hreason in a time of war", or "arson in the queen's dockyards". Since we haven' had much of a war for a while and the queen's dockyards are fairly well guarded by big, scary navy people, we haven't had an execution for quite a while (and a damn good thing too!)

  • "treatment of severe depression" means frying mental patients until they are appropriately docile.

    Electoshock therapy is one of a regimen of "treatments" (lobotomy, etc.) that brutally destroyed whatever was left of the poor mental inmate/patient. Read "One flew over the cuckoos nest" if you have any questions.

  • Hmmm.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    All these "Who cares" or "Who was he" posts are rather sad. CS seems to have less of a sense of its own history than other sciences, and it's our loss. Even the CS degree I'm doing now doesn't have any CS history at all, lecturers assume one picks it up on the way. Perhaps it's because its such a comparatively young field?

    MT
  • From ye olde crypt(1) manpage:
    crypt implements a one-rotor machine designed along the
    lines of the German Enigma, but with a 256-element rotor.
    Methods of attack on such machines are widely known, thus
    crypt provides minimal security.




  • Doh, bad link! this one [mediaone.net] will work better. :/

    --

  • Your ignorance is really showing. But it's not showing on anything invented by that college dropout.
  • It was a hardware solution because the idea of Software had not been created yet. Enigma predates computers in general, because computers were created to help break the code. Also, one advantage that an actual machine has over a peice of software, is that it cant be copied, and if one is captured, you tend to know.
    --David
  • From the looks of it I would guess it's one or two people. The derogatory comments are about the same for each flame. Since each thread talking about it gets flamed, they must have to reload their screen each time they make a comment. Looks like they just want to start a flame war on this thread, either that or to get all the moderation points wasted.
  • I'm interested in modern security not this crap encryption that's built into Linux.

    Two problems with this statement:

    1. If you're the same person (as I suspect you are) who's posted 20 or so times on this thread, completely off-topic, then you must think NT is a shining example of "modern security". NT does several things well, but security is not one of those things.
    2. More importantly, Enigma has nothing at all to do with Linux.

    And anonymous posting should remain as we don't all have the time to register.

    But you have time to post a couple dozen off-topic rants? Though of course you're not bothering to actually read anything here, so you are saving some time there...

    Go home, troll.

  • While I completely agree that those would be excellent places to donate materials to, what does this have to do with Alan Turning being a homosexual? By linking AIDS to homosexuality, you're enforcing a negative stereotype, not contributing to a cause.
  • Excuse me? Hellooooo? Are you braindead? NT is made by Microsoft. In case you hadn't noticed, they are TOTALLY against open standards and will hijack and corrupt any standard they can get their hands on (and don't mention anything about shitty Instant Messengers).

    You show me a piece of Microsoft software that works reliably and is open, I will eat my words. I can show you dozens of pieces of non-MS software that are totally open and are more reliable and stable (and even more widely used) than anything MS has ever, or will ever produce.

    Can you say sendmail?
  • Turing died in 1954. It wasn't from AIDS. The coroner concluded suicide.

    -Rich
  • Cryponomicon is full of errors. Maybe they are delierate but if so they seem pointless. Goto Dengo using the pole star to swim to the coast of New Guinea (south of the equator). RSA encryption's strength depends on the difficulty of factoring prime numbers etc.

    Interestingly Bill Gates makes the same mistake about factoring prime numbers in his book 'The Road Ahead'. What a legend! (RSA depends on the difficulty of factoring composite numbers).
  • In a recent Scientific American (I think, I get so many magazines) it was pointed out that his death could possibly have been accidental. He died of cyanide poisining, and he had cyanide in his home lab that was being used for research. It's not inconceivable that he simply had an unfortunate accident. Someone please correct me if I'm relating this incorrectly, but that was the gist of it.

    On a side note, I was shocked when I read Cryptonomicon and learned Turing was gay. I'm wondering how that fact is so often left out when people talk about Turing. He seemed to be quite open about his sexuality, I think it's a shame that future historians put him in the closet.

    Of course, when discussing his achievments, his sexuality has nothing to do with it. But I can't help but feel that with homosexuality being still so discriminated against (at least in the USA) it is a shame that the gay community had such a hero and scientific role model kept in shadows.

    Or did everyone else already know? Maybe I should take my Gaydar in for a tuneup.

  • They used to call one of the [president/ceo/grand-pooh-bahs/]s of Lucas the `Prince of Darkness'. Someone might jump in to mention that the Timex Sinclair had something to do with the UK. I can't remember what the relation was.
  • Everyone (who's anyone) that I know seems to know about Turings sexuality and death. But the local university philosophy dept has a bit of a Turing bent.

    Time had their most influentual people of the century thing which mentioned him, I think. Definatley read some floppy glossy thing about it.

    hmmm. Given the context maybe bent isn't quite the right word.
  • The Poles (Marian Rejewski and others) were the first to crack Enigma. They were assisted by the Polish purchase of a commercial version of the Enigma and by documents provided by the French intelligence service. The Poles read German Enigma traffic between 1933 and 1938. They provided the French and British with the details of their accomplishments in 1939. The British would have had a very difficult time with Enigma if the Poles hadn't given them the results of their efforts.
  • I wish I knew?

    From the sysadmin:
    "I classify that as a server" etc etc...
    "it's a security hazard" etc etc...
  • The three Turning chapters are in encryped pdf, darn it. Xpdf doesn't support that format, on purpose, due to a perhaps-misguided attempt to avoid being sued by the US gov for exporting munitions (ie, encryption software). Wonder how Adobe AcroReader avoids that problem? Guess I will have to wait until tonite to read this stuff on my trusty rusty old home PC.
  • Coke IS the real thing..

    yeah... just ask George W. Bush.
  • I guess I can't speak for all slashdotters, but it's not that if it's not linux it sucks, it's that if it's MS, it probably sucks. I don't like MS, not even secretly, but I still use the latest Win2K beta at home, because it's the best gaming platform out there. I believe in using the best tool for the job, and for gaming and word processing, W2K is the best solution. However, when I want to get some real work down, I'll be damned if I bet my company and reputation on an NT server.
    ----------------------------------------- --------------
    If you need to point-and-click to administer a machine,
  • He also did a lot of automata theory, among other things proving the existence of a general automata to compute general recursive functions.
    Other great work in the same area was made by ??? Tarski and Alonzo Church.

  • Same problem here, here ya go: (Score:3)

    by greenfly ( 40953 ) on Wednesday August 18, 1999 @10:13AM (#1739567)
    **** The PDF input file uses encryption and cannot be processed.
    **** Please get and install the patch available from
    **** http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geoffk/pdfencrypt/pdf_s ec.ps
  • Re-read the AUP and check for sure that you haven't violated any of the stipulations. If this is a first-time offense you can probably just go and talk to Betty Mathers at ITS and get it all straightened out.

    Apologies for the offtopic post ;)

  • ... I had to laugh at all the Pro-MS posts tonight. The chapters from Turing's Enigma Treatise are hosted on a Linux box at CERN and Adobe's web server is running on Solaris.
  • What is known nowadays as electroconvulsive therapy, otherwise known as ECT, is not the horrorshow most people envision and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is not an example of what happens with ECT anymore. From what I recall patient's are no longer awake, they are immobilized to prevent the body from convulsing (ie you do not thrash around. iirc this is done through chemical means) and electricity is precisely (down to waveform. I remember seeing the diagrams in a case study) applied to certain areas of the brain. From what I remember, it is used to treat extremely severe depression that does not respond to drug therapy. There may be other illnesses in which ECT is a useful treatment but I'm not sure. Anyway, the facts are ECT is a successful treatment for severe life-threatening depression. This form of treatment is *not* lightly considered or prescribed. There are side effects, most notably with memory. I forget exactly how long ECT provides a cure but it was most certainly not a 'come in every week to get your shock type deal.'

    While I find it extremely sad and abhorrent to know of what Turing and others endured I felt it was needed to clarify what ECT has evolved into. Back in the late 80s I worked for a psychiatrist in a hospital's geropsych ward. At first it creeped me out to learn he was doing research in ECT but my supervisor was good enough to take the time and frankly discuss the issue with me.

    Btw, homosexuality is *not* a mental illness and has not been classified as one since DSM-III, maybe even DSM-II. DSM-III did have a listed disorder for people who had homosexual urges and who specifically did not desire them. It been a long time since I've studied clinical psych. I'm pretty sure DSM-IV is out by now and it is possible even that disorder has been scrapped. Little Johnny's parents may be motivated to get him commited because he is gay but the doctor who is doing the paper work is not listing that as the reason for committal. I personally find this to be of little comfort.

  • In a way I find the whole Troll posting thing amusing. They are all childishly-obvious in their attempts at provocation. If these people truly held these beliefs (instead of just finding the whole issue of homophobia as some kind of joke) would they post AC?

    I would argue that the majority of these posts are from hormonal adolescents (or hormonal adolescents in the bodies of grown-ups) who think they are being funny. Take it from me, real homophobes are more public and use less swearing.

  • http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

    all the details are there.
  • This link [turing.org.uk] should provide you with a lot of help. A lot of links off to related subjects.

    English yes, ( from my home town ) , a genius very probably and worked in all sorts of areas from number theory through to crypto ( actually developed a secure audio scrambler ), morphogenic theory, natural geometry, AI , computer design, wrote a candidate for the first programming language, astronomy etc. An archetypal eccentric English dilettante academic.

    Much of what he did in his career is still shrouded by goverment classifications, probably the main reason for his relative obscurity. In his day ( b4 the war ) he was a very respected up and coming mathematician / philosopher.

    The main reason for there being doubts over his cause of death are due to the fact that although he did die of cyanide poisoning whilst eating an apple, he was notoriously absent minded , and sloppy of habit and it is possible he may have merely forgotton to wash his hands. He was working with cyanide at the time , due to a lifelong love of amateur chemistry, probably his first scientific interest. I believe the coroner posted an open verdict. Hence rumours.

  • Guess you better leave then, huh?

    I'm in no way a Linux "Bigot", but shit like this will destroy Slashdot more than anything else.

    Knock it off. It's not even remotely funny.

    l8r
    Sean

    (Not afraid to hide behind "Anonymous Coward")
  • Everything got straitened out :).. but it does seem that the AUP is VERY out of date and should be updated (and to include CPU charges as well as explicitly what servers and deamons are acceptable eg. irc vs icq etc..) .. but this really isn't the best forum to go into details about things.

    :)
  • Actually we were discussing an upcoming project to build a student run Beowulf. (Anyone want to give us hardware .. we need networking stuff) @ the University of Western Ontario along with other Linux User Group issues it doesn't get any more academic (or geeky mind you) than that. But I do see your point .. most people do use those things with their fingers up their noses.

    I'm in Ottawa.. someone else was in Toronto and Three more in London .. Location prevented us from meeting in person. :)
  • I have to be honest: I'm having a hard understanding Turing's paper. Maybe it's because I have no encryption background and have never read Stephenson's new novel. Anyway, I was wondering if someone would be willing to explain it in layman's terms on this forum. Thanks.

    PS Those who don't know who Turing was is in danger of being a CS laborer rather than a CS expert. He's extremely important (you may remember him from AI - the Turing machine? c'mon!)

    PSS If spammers bother you, use moderation options to turn 'em off (or put them in the bottom of the heap)


    -----------------
  • Hey kid, here's a quarter.

    Go buy yourself a real computer.

  • Re:who? (Score:1)

    by lee ( 17524 )
    So did I. I looked it up. Most sources in my home town library either ignored the circumstances of his death or said he had dies mysteriously. Britannica had most of the information and from there i had enough to look up the rest. There is a play about his life too. I have not had the chance to see it.

    It really makes me wonder what he would have done if he had been able to live a long peacful life and not been harrassed. Despite what others here have said, his contributions were significant. He did his best to help his country during the war and to repay him they made his life hell. I for one am glad to see these chapters available.
  • As you say he was not normal. He was extraordinary.
    1. He is commonaly called the fathr of computer science. He is to computer science what Newton is to physics.
    2. He help break the german enigma code. This is one even saved houndreds of thousands of American, British, Canadian, and Russian lives. Between the decodes and radar the German submarine woldfpacks where destroyed.
    In other words he was a man of great accomplishments. I suggest that you think about what you owe this man.

  • Here we all are (in your words) jerking off on slashdot as well.

    Give the kid a break. I'm sure he's a good fellow. I too am at school to learn, but atleast irc often is an attempt to increase knowledge. He could be playing quake... or solitaire.. or undressing the office 97 paperclip guy with his eyes.

    I try to play a good four hours+ of starcraft a day and you'll be proud - it interrupts my sleep and not my study/classes.

  • Ok, I haven't made it through the chapters yet, but it does seem pretty intersting..glad they're making this available.

    I seem to remember seeing a TLC show about Enigma, and how we were able to retrieve a working machine from a captured german submarine before they blew it up. From what I remember, the show alluded that the device seriously helped the cracking of Enigma. Anyone know anymore about this? Did Turing crack it with the help of this captured device?
  • Not certain?? What details have you found?
  • The BBC "Horizon" special on Alan Turing described the cause of death "uncertain", and speculated on possible MI5 or MI6 involvement, given the nature of Alan Turing's skills and knowledge, "high risk" status and depression.

    "Horizon"'s accuracy is often questionable, but they don't usually indulge in conspiracy theories. That the producer regarded the question as open is, in itself, very interesting.

    Whilst that, in itself, hardly makes a convincing case, it does make me believe that the cause of Turing's death isn't as certain as the textbooks would have you believe.

  • Oh..more homosexuality. hide before they get you... please. if you need suggestions on hiding places, I still know a few rocks for you to crawl under.

  • I agree, modern ECT can be a useful treatment for many people. However, THE PATIENT (and/or their guardian) and the doctor make the call to use ECT. Turing had NO say in his "treatment." The British government ordered it or prison. I cannot agree that "... what Turing and others endured ... was needed to clarify what ECT has evolved into." A statement such as this would also support the syphilis "research" that the US government performed on uninformed African Americans as "needed to clarify" our modern treatment regime. Without informed consent, any treatment or research is a violation of a patient's rights.

    You are quite right, homosexuality is no longer classified by the DSM as a mental illness. However, there are quite a few psychologists and psychiatrists who will commit someone because they identify as gay or because the family wants them committed. The diagnosis will not be homosexuality; instead it might be Depression, Obsessive / Compulsive behavior, or Sexual Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Simply removing homosexuality from the DSM is only another step on the long road to learning about and accepting the diversity that is human sexuality.

    Related Links

    Treatments - ECT [about.com]

    Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Aftershocks [cdc.gov]

  • Regarding the claim that Turin saved England from the enemy singlehandedly, or just about, is a bit suspect as a claim. In The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower (1984) the history of our planetary disintergration is followed assiduously in the continuing use of Munitions in particular the "bomb" and other maniac uses of our natural resources. The thrust of what I wish to point out is that Freeman Dyson (the Physicist who is the subject of the above mentioned book) also claims to have been (at least he says he did) soley responsible for creating the firestorms which annihilated a lot of German cities (Dresden etc.)and that the only difference between his actions and that of other perpetrators of WWII, especially Eichmann and other war-criminals tried at the postwar tribunals in Germany, was his being on the winning side. I say this because there is a certain perspective that creates a context and I feel that the responsibility for saving England was not only Turin's decyphering machines. He did contribute though significantly. The book by the way is a great read and worth sifting through for its intelligent appraisal of Black Holes and the building of three man canoes. Very balanced and very thought provoking (if I might say so). Also some other significant writing on complex moral issues, such as the non-indispensible characteristics of any one single human being in the past or (dare I say it) the future. Kenneth Brower is a great story teller too.
  • I know how the machine worked and I had a difficult time following Turing's dense explanation.

  • If you're interested, get Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges. Unfortunately, you'll have to work a bit---Amazon sez it's out of print, which sounds right; I remember being shocked that it could to go out of print when I heard the news years ago.

    The play was called (surprise!) The Enigma. I saw it in NYC with my wife more than a decade ago, and it was an outstanding condensation of the book. My wife's not at all into computers, codes, or anything related, and was as entranced as I was by the performance. The writer and director did a great job of showing the man and his work for a non-technical audience, while keeping it accurate enough to keep the nerds from wincing.

    IIRC from the book, Turing died by eating an apple which had arsenic on it. Hodges speculates that it may have been suicide thinly disguised by Turing so his mother (still living) could tell herself it was an accident. He'd been doing some experiments involving arsenic, and maybe he just forgot and put the apple down in the wrong place before he ate it.... I can believe he'd want to commit suicide after reading of his treatment (in both senses of the word) at the hands of the authorities. It was an obscene wastes of human creativity at the hands of intolerance.

  • That's the play's title: Breaking the Code. As I said, it's been over a decade....

  • It's interesting to think that a community could be criticized because of its composition, especially because there are no guidelines for admission. Who cares that the Linux/CS community is predominately white and male? It matters about as much as the fact that Turing was gay.

    It seems that the current thought of diversity equating to morality has had the reverse effect of what one would think was the goal of the movement, namely that one's accomplishments could be discussed and appreciated without referencing their race, orientation, etc.

  • Umm, I'd say most of the trolls today are from one person. Note the similar misspellings (for instance: always your, never you're or you are or yr or ur) and "tone". Take a look at the sentence structure. Observe the kinds of posts Mr. Troll is responding to. There's a very distinct pattern. Not an influx of lusers, just one guy with no life -- one guy who can't think of anything more creative to do with his anonymity than flame software and talk about being gay.
  • I'm confused as to how a simple article about Alan Turing's thesis can spawn such a combination of operating system holy war and hate-fest. Are "buttmunch" and "Linux weenie" and the like really part of an intelligent dialogue? Not last time I checked.

    Oh, and by the way, I really doubt all the "NT rulez" posts are part of a Microsoft anti-Linux FUD campaign. I strongly suspect Microsoft requires its employees to be able to read. Though I admit the sheer volume of anti-Linux posts is susprising. (What's next? Linus Torvalds gets a pie in the face?)

    Anyway, on to more important issues. There was an "Ask Slashdot" not long ago that asked about the stereotypes of geeks, including openmindedness. From reading the trolls upon trolls upon trolls, it is obvious that certain readers of Slashdot are just as narrow-minded and bigoted as anyone else. I mean, lines like "gays ripping off other peoples' work"? Insinuations that gay people are somehow subhuman? This is the kind of talk you don't hear on even the most rabid of conservative talk-radio stations. Face it: that kind of hate is just not acceptable anymore. I realize some of you would have been perfectly at home in Germany or Italy during the 1930's, but this is the 90's, folks. Have a little tolerance.

    I think this would be an interesting topic for discussion: Why, in a community supposedly filled with educated people, is the rabid homophobia we see in this discussion still present? Or has Slashdot simply been hit by a bunch of 31337 script kiddies with a penchant for neandrathal politics?

    Sorry for the length. But that had to be said.

    - Erik

  • Very true. It's still not certain whether he took his own life, or was "assisted", but the price he payed ended up being the highest possible.

  • Re:who? (Score:1)

    by lee ( 17524 )
    Short version:

    He was gay. The British government found out and forced him to take hormone injections to treat his condition. He finally was overwhelmed with the humiliation of it and killed himself by eating a poisoned apple. He even brewed the poision himself.

  • If you're going to post trolls, at least make them coherent.

    Oh great, just what we need: coherent trolls. C'mon, which wastes more of a reader's time? A well-written coherent troll that makes sense, or one that says "If you want intelligent discussion keep away from penguins"? I'll take the birdwatchers that suffer from anti-antartic bias, thankyouverymuch.

  • Re:who? (Score:2)

    by jd ( 1658 )
    ALan Turing was:

    The inventor of the Digital Computer, at Cambridge University

    The inventor of the Stored Program Digital Computer, at Manchester University

    The inventor of the cypher-breaking computer "Colossus"

    The breaker of the Enigma cypher

    The inventor of the science of Artificial Intelligence (hence the "Turing Test", which he devised)

    An expert in mathematics

    An expert in biology

    A pioneer in software design theory (eg: the "halting" problem)

    A pioneer in "computable" problems (eg: the Turing Machine)

  • I don't think it is the age of the field.

    I'm a mech. engr. major and we didn't get into any history either. Even in a town like Ottawa, with a very historic canal system running through it (The Rideau Canal) there was no mention or discussion about its history or the man who "built" it (Colonel By).

    It's a shame really, I would have really enjoyed something like this as an elective when I did my degree - would be a lot better than the current practice (randomly picking an arts elective to fill the free elective).

  • Thank you, I was wondering about that
    --David
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I'm trying to avoid the OS Holy War that has erupted in this story, but I needed to reply to this. If this was a troll, I'm glad I could help you out by falling for it. If this is a real post, I'm glad I could help.


    2.n.x is a kernel number, where n denotes major version, and x denotes minor version. If n is even, then the kernel is stable. If n isn't even, be damn sure you know why you aren't using a stable kernel. The latest kernel is 2.2.11, don't use anything 2.3.x.

  • The biography _Alan Turin: The Enigma_ gives a good description of the Enigma machine.

    There's a typewriter keyboard with 26 keys and bulbs. When you strike a key a bulb lights up encrypting the letter. Then the machine changes state.

    The state of the machine is defined by a series of rotors. Each rotor has 26 contacts and effectively swaps two letters. When the machine changes state, one or more rotors advances one position (out of 26) like an odometer. Typically, one wheel was fixed and three rotated with each letter encrypted.

    As an additional complication, there was a plugboard at the back that swapped additional pairs of letters. (stecklered in the Turing paper).

    Since the entire mechanism swapped letters, you only had to reproduce the initial state of the other machine and type in the cyphertext to extract the plaintext. Effectively, each letter in the plaintext was encripted with a different substitution cipher. Each substitution cipher was related to the subsequent ones by a complicated transformation.

    IIRC, the order of the rotors and plugboard were sent out in codebooks and changed once a day. The initial position of the rotors was given in the first few characters of the ciphertext. At midnight every day, the codebreakers had an entirely new problem to solve -- determine that day's rotor position and plugboard settings. Once that was done, the entire day's communications could be read.

    Their efforts were aided by the fact that German communiques often started identically. If you can guess what the first 15 letters of the plaintext are, you can make a lot of progress

    The Polish mathematicians made a lot of progress with Enigma before Poland was overrun. They deduced the wiring of the wheels without having access to an actual machine. In a classic example of the failure of Security Through Obscurity, Enigma was thoroughly cracked fairly early in the war and the German command never believed that it had been broken. Late in the war they added additional rotors to the supply that kept the Bletchley group on their toes, but didn't significantly impede their ability to crack Enigma.
  • Some of the textbooks now are chock-full of history... in some of my CS classes each textbook chapter will start with how whatever you're discussing was developed, i.e. pipelined datapaths, etc. etc.

    They read like intro physics books, in other words.

    Slam

  • who? (Score:1)

    by Zen ( 8377 )
    Never heard of him in my acs classes. Then again, I don't take any in depth programming classes, so I never would have been exposed to encryption methodology.
  • Actually, Could we beowulf those things?

    A huge array of them would just look cool fomr the sounds of it... ;)

    /* as with the previous poster, I am joking, thank you*/
  • Dr. Turing was a genius of integrity. He was more responsible than any other single person for saving England during the war. This fact could have gotten him out of jail and stopped the barbaric treatment of his homosexuality. Instead he honored his promise to keep secret things secret and paid a high personal price.

  • I uhh *cough*, don't know how these files showed up in my directory, but they're here [mediaone.net]. There's only the index page and the 3 chapters there, nothing else. Please only access it if the main site borks under the slashdot effect...

    lastly, what's going on with all the "nt rulez" stuff? Is somebody trying to suck moderator points?

    --

  • Except for the entire "This isn't an application, but a few .pdf files" thing.
  • Maybe Gates and Ballmer have the day off today?
  • Turing was one of the great pioneers of computing, just as if it were not for Ritchie, Knuth, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Grace Hooper and even Linus Torvalds, my computer would not be the same.


    Without Turing it is highly unlikely linux users would be able to be able to type ls -l *.txt or windows users can click and point to sort by file name.

    Okay I am over stating things, but regular expressions and sorting is a dervitive of Turing's contribution to computer science, how else do you think the messy german encoded information was unencoded via a machine.

    Regular Expressions

    How do you think you computer searches and replaces text in you word processing programs

    Regular Expressions


    I am not saying that Turing was the inventor of the regular expression, or even the first to implement them, I am saying that he was one of the great contributers to those regular expressions.


    If you are in computer science and have never heard of Turing, or perhaps even heard about regular expressions, then I don't want you writing any software for me to use. I would like to see your magical methods of parsing, and searching and replacing irregular strings.


    On to the NT flaming, and Linux flaming. This is highly off topic for an article on Turing, but I must add a few words, whether you have an NT system or Linux box or are running Mac OS, I betcha your computer implements Regular Expressions, and I am glad my operating system is not in German, I can thank Turing for that too.



    Next subject that is off topic, about those pdf files, didn't Adobe, the ones who created that format get their start writing software for Macs? I may not be old enough to remember clearly, but for some reason, I remember quite a few companies that made graphic and vector graphic programs all were originally making software only for Macs.



    And how do you think compilers work so that all of our programs wheather wrote for Linux, Macs, or a Windows varients all turn into bit streams that the computer understands so we can look at that pdf file?

    Regular Expressions!



    So in honor of Turing I think I will search the internet, and list the files in my home directory, maybe I'll even get around to writing some code.

  • I object to your denigration of neanderthals. They were intelligent human beings, capable of great achievements. Placing them in the same category as trolls and script kiddies is extremely denigrating to neanderthal civilisation.

    It's very clear the trolls aren't part of regular slashdot readers. There can't be many (if any) regulars here who don't know Alan Turing (the inventor of the Digital Computer, and the builder of the Manchester Mark 1, also known as the Baby, which had the first-ever optical memory). They're most likely bored web-surfers who are touring the net for online boards to wreck.

  • Strong opinions there. Let me refer you to a reply a few posts back about how many homophobes are that way because of their repressed homosexuality.

    I also notice that while you're perfectly willing to spout off anonymously, you don't seem willing to assume responsibility for your opinions by giving us your name, or even a handle.

    My email address is mrgleep@hotmail.com [mailto], by the way. If you disagree with me, feel free to tell me. At least I can assume some responsibility for what I write.

    - Erik

  • ...but can we port Linux to it? :)

    /* This is humor. I'm making fun of posters who always ask if Linux can be ported to xxx. Please don't respond with reasons why or why not. If you do, I'll ask you if we can make a beowulf cluster of these machines. */

  • Re:who? (Score:1)

    by Zen ( 8377 )
    Ahhhh. That would explain it. Didn't mean to knock such a famous guy, I just honestly didn't know who he was, and the paper didn't make him seem that important (by itself). Father of Modern Computing I have heard of, but I forgot the name as soon as I learned it. Didn't pay much attention in the 'introductory' computer classes when I actually went to them, so I couldn't tell ya if we were actually taught about him, or just told that he was the 'Father'.
  • It's just outside of Milton Keynes, about 30 miles north of London. Their website [bletchleypark.org.uk] has information about getting there, and also a collection of interesting photographs of Turing, Colossus, Ultra, and general war photos.
  • ..or at least the Germans thought so.

    In the 10th grade I made a little zbasic program on for my school's IIgs's. It simulated 3 or 4 wheel enigma machines of 26 or 128 characters.

    Enigma is not that difficult to decode with brute force and a computer. But in 1941 it was a whole different can of beans. Being hardware-based is a Good Thing when you've got to make 100s of enigma machines in a short time, with limited resources. The enigma codes were complex enough to stump the allies for quite awhile.

    But ENIGMA sure was a fun time-waster in computer class back in the day. Taking the simplest configuration (3 wheels of 26) there's only 17576 unique starting positions. How long will that take to brute force? I'll leave it as an excercise :P
  • Idiot. Turing extended Godel's work in non-obvious ways. Almost all of mathematics is an extension of someone else's work. After Godel's Incompleteness Theory was published, there was hope that mathematics could at least prove all of the provable theories i.e. that decidability could replace completeness. Turing's very original work demonstrated that decidability was as elusive as incompleteness. To prove this he came up with the very original idea of a state machine that performed calculations, i.e. a Turing Machine. He proved that decidability was equivalent to proving that a given TM program stopped and then proved that you can not prove that a given TM program will stop.
  • I agree that what they did to him was reprehensible. But as far as keeping silent, he was also bound by the British Official Secrets act at a time when they still had the death penalty in Britian. If he broke the silence about his activities up to 50 years after the war he could have been tried and sentenced even more severely.
  • Ain't it a kind of treasure? Like previosuly /.'ed prime C compiler sources. Thanks to /.
    Well.... If anyone out there has pics or links to pics of Enigma, please let me know. You see, I'm not a native speaker and reading this without figures is pretty hard. Also if any kind soul speaking German could spend some time translating terms like Eintrittwalze or Umkehrwalze, I believe, this will help us more than childish flames.

    TIA
  • Idiot. Read the story. It's a bunch of .pdf files. There are .pdf viewers for almost EVERY operating system including Linux.
  • Can you remember the name of the play? I'd
    like to try to find & read it...
  • The paper gives a very complete description of the machine if you read carefully and think a bit.
  • The death of Alan Turing has been attributed to so many things (suicide, illness, MI5/MI6, etc) that I don't think anyone really knows (or cares) any more. Whatever works for them is what matters.
  • You don't like it when other countries take credit for their own work, do you? Notice how I said "A" and "An" a lot? It's cos I'd rather acknowledge the work of others AS WELL AS the person I'm writing about, than to put some individual on a pedastal.

    But then, AC's can afford to attack, insult and abuse others for recognising a person's achievements, if it threatens those they idolise. Problem with idols is that they are rarely as idylic as the worshiper would like to believe.

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