MetaFilter posts tagged with cipher

AES à la XKCD

Electric Dragon — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:29:32 -0800

A stick figure guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard. [via Bruce Schneier]

The XKCD Puzzle

zarq — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:47:11 -0800

XKCD author Randall Munroe appears to have left a neat little cryptographic puzzle for Reddit users in his new book. They're trying to decipher it.

Thomas and the cipher

caddis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:43:18 -0800

Thomas Jefferson's cipher message from Robert Patterson For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher -- a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.... To Mr. Patterson's view, a perfect code had four properties: It should be adaptable to all languages; it should be simple to learn and memorize; it should be easy to write and to read; and most important of all, "it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret for decyphering." "In Congress, July Fourth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six. A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. When in the course of human events..."

This is your brain in overdrive

wherever, whatever — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:21:34 -0800

Christopher Farmer of Opord Analytical has just posted his solution (PDF) to part 4 of the much studied "Kryptos" cipher. He's recently cracked Zodiac Killer ciphers thought unsolvable for nearly 40 years and has a theory (PDF) about the Zodiac Killer's possible identity that is hard to be ignored. Mr. Farmer freely shares his many discoveries on his website's forum board.

"It was beautiful, kind of like abstract art"

subbes — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:08:38 -0800

In March 2007, the FermiLab Office of Public Affairs in Batavia, IL "received a curious message in code" via USPS. In May 2008, scientists posted a facsimile image of the letter to their blog in the hopes of soliciting cryptologists to decipher the letter. A partial solution began to appear by the very next day. Geoff Milburn (creator of the Homebrew Air Conditioner and employee of the Canadian Space Agency) noted that the first and last paragraphs appeared to be in base-3 and base-2, and got to work. By the 17th, he had experimented with possible mappings and reached a solution. Meanwhile, John Graham-Cumming whipped up a Perl program to experiment with the mappings and posted his Perl-decrypted version. The text? "FRANK SHOEMAKER WOULD CALL THIS NOISE," and "EMPLOYEE NUMBER BASSE SIXTEEN." Two months later, the central paragraph remains unsolved, and a Chicago Tribune article has rekindled the web's interest, and spread work and comments on the mystery through blogs and forums. Too simple for you? Well, there's work still to be done on the Zodiac Killer's November 8 1969 cryptogram, the CIA's Kryptos sculpture (previously), the Voynich Manuscript (previously) and the Shugborough House Shepherd's monument inscription. And of course, there's always the Mayday Mystery (previously and previously).

listen:there’s a hell / of a good universe next door;let’s go

suckerpunch — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:17:28 -0800

The Codex Seraphinianus, that rare and amazing volume, has been scanned in high-res glory and posted to Flickr. If you are lucky enough to afford it, copies are available. Previously.

BETWEEN SUBTLE SHADING AND THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT LIES THE NUANCE OF IQLUSION

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 11:52:33 -0800

If you work at Langley and you need a break from actual intelligence gathering, you can always try to crack the code to the sculpture right outside the cafeteria window. Kryptos is a sculpture by James Sanborn located on the CIA grounds which contains a four-part coded message: sections 1-3 have been solved (with Sanborn admitting he made a typo in section 2). Perhaps you'd like to join Elonka (and the hive mind) in having a go at section 4.

Le chiffre indéchiffrable

Plutor — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 05:49:54 -0800

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The Voynich Manuscript

patrickje — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 13:08:15 -0800

The most mysterious manuscript in the world. The Voynich Manuscript is 235 page manuscript written in a cipher that has yet to be decoded. The manuscript includes many images. Almost all pages of the manuscript are available online. There have also been several books (1,2)written claiming to solve the manuscript. You can also follow the modern day progress of deciphering the Voynich manuscript.