Honour for Colossus code-cracker

**MIG-31** · Jan 28, 2008, 07:03 PM

Source: BBC News
_______________
An amateur cryptographer who beat the British World War II computer Colossus in a code-cracking challenge has been honoured for his skills. Joachim Schueth solved a German cipher in just 46 seconds, more than three hours quicker than the 60 year old PC.

He received a prize from the National Museum of Computing, which included a valve from the Colossus machine. Mr Schueth deciphered the code using a laptop and a program he wrote specifically for the challenge.

IvanV · Jan 28, 2008, 08:47 PM

A nice contest, and kind of soothing for owners of older PCs - no matter how weak your desktop is, you can still regard it as a slightly aged supercomputer!

Also, in order to not miss a chance to be mean to the BBC's writer, I have to notice that calling the Colossus a PC is quite wrong.

Jan 28, 2008, 07:03 PM	#1
MIG-31 HardwareHeaven News Mod Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Nottingham,UK Posts: 56,821 Rep Power: 471 System Specs	Honour for Colossus code-cracker Source: BBC News _______________ An amateur cryptographer who beat the British World War II computer Colossus in a code-cracking challenge has been honoured for his skills. Joachim Schueth solved a German cipher in just 46 seconds, more than three hours quicker than the 60 year old PC. He received a prize from the National Museum of Computing, which included a valve from the Colossus machine. Mr Schueth deciphered the code using a laptop and a program he wrote specifically for the challenge. __________________ Please Post Your News Submissions Here

Jan 28, 2008, 08:47 PM	#2
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,914 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	A nice contest, and kind of soothing for owners of older PCs - no matter how weak your desktop is, you can still regard it as a slightly aged supercomputer! Also, in order to not miss a chance to be mean to the BBC's writer, I have to notice that calling the Colossus a PC is quite wrong. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).