13 Jun
2001
13 Jun
'01
4:43 p.m.
see below, plz.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Duell" <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: Ebay horror ...
them
though.
I have no clue how it works, nor do I believe I need to know this week. I have
designed over half a dozen encryption devices, for several government clients,
and in at least one case, after powerhouses like Tracor and Lockheed couldn't
manage it, though not in the past 10 years, and managed it just fine without
detailed knowledge of how the Enigma worked. That's not to say it mightn't be
interesting to look at sometime. In its day, the Enigma was definitely THE
machine, but today, we're more concerned about keeping the guy in the next
building from detecting what we're doing than with the encryption algorithm
itself. There are plenty of encryption algorithms that take long enough to
crack if you don't have all the pieces of the puzzle at the outset, that the
data you get is long obsolete by the time you're done. However, try building a
digital communication instrument the size of a small tabletop modem sometime,
when you have to have between 80 and 120 db of isolation between the two ends,
and a single power supply.
If you're suggesting that every board I acquire should be left intact, then
No, I'm saying that every board _I_ acquire will be left intact (unless
it's so badly damaged that there's no way it could be used again). You do
your thing and I'll do mine, OK...
> you're also saying that I should leave it at the junkyard, since most of
> are of no value to me if I don't own the
system into which they might fit.
I
How do you know you won't ever get the machine they go in.
I generally know I don't want the machine they go in. If I don't require
the
parts, or know I will in the forseeable future, I don't buy the boards, for
scrap or whatever. That way, if someone else wants them, they're still there if
they haven't been shredded.
True story, about 20 years ago I could have had a box of M-series
flip-chip cards (things like M113 NAND gates, etc). I didn't bother --
there was no way I would ever own a PDP11, right. Now I have a dozen or
more DEC machines and want ever card I can find for them.
I have never regretted saving spare parts and keeping them until they can
be used in the machine they were designed to go in. I have several times
regretted _not_ getting spare parts...
> I don't buy stuff unless I see a use for it, and that's why I've left
lots
of
> DEC, HP, SUN, and other boards and systems right
where I found them. I've
also
Actually, DEC, HP, and SUN (the older the better in all 3 cases) are
exactly what is useful to me...
> left boards from systems I reecognized, like Apple, and lots of PC/ISA
boards.
I'd buy an Enigma for a few bucks, because I could get more for it, on eBay,
say, than it cost me, or, maybe, because the rotary switches might be of
I'd buy an Enigma because it's a very fun toy. If I did manage to get one
you can be sure it wasn't going to appear on E-bay....
> interest at some later date. I don't use simple rotary switches much,
I've had
four of them in my stock for over 25 years and have never once been
moved to use them, though I've used encoded thumbwheel switches quite
frequently.
Do you have any clue as to how an Enigma works and what it consists of?
Simple rotary switches indeed?????
-tony