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Comment Some reasons why Enigma failed (Score 2, Interesting) 122

For a good read, I can recommend "The Hut Six Story : Breaking the Enigma Codes by Gordon Welchman".

Some of the reasons why Enigma Failed:

1) Choosing "sillies" for encryption keys (eg QWE, QAZ (or whatever the equivalent is on the German AZERTY keyboard).
2) Re-using keys
3) Using Cribs (eg putting some of the preamble of the message into the encrypted part)
4) Sending the same message day after day (eg "Nothing to Report"). This would compromise the key for all stations using that key:
5) Using the same key for lots of destination stations
6) Fundamental design limitation (A Letter will never encrypt to itself).
7) Enigma operator laziness (eg using the same order of wheels as the previous day). (There are 5*4*3 = 60 combinations possible).
8) More laziness - using the default Ring setting on each ring.
9) "Indicator setting" repeated - in 1 in 8 cases this would lead to a repeated encrypted key - which would give the cryptanalyst an idea of which wheels could have been used. (Fundamentally this is a kind of key distribution problem - how to get the session key established).
10) Basing a military encryption system on a commercial product.

Sixty years on, we're still making some of the same mistakes!

Comment Monopolistic Behaviours again? (Score 1) 364

I'm wondering - Microsoft is now embedding its vitualisation technology into the desktop (they've already done it for Windows Server of course).
Is this the next salvo in the Microsoft vs. EveryOneElse? I'm thinking what happened in the Browser wars. NCSA/Mosaic initially was a superior browser to IE. Now is the same thing going to start happening to VMware/VirtualBox/ParallelsDesktop? It's hard to compete with Free (VirtualBox is free of course for personal users).

I'm also wondering if this is a sort of admission that Windows7 won't offer a fully compatible API for legacy applications to carry on working?

Crispi

Comment What about domain squatting / misspellings etc? (Score 1) 401

Other than being a domain typo, www.ninmsn.com just redirects to a web index.

Are we going to include all domain squatting / domain misspellings / misregistrations now as well?

What about google cache of a banned URL?

It seems clear that the URL filter won't be capable of doing RegEx expansion.

Christmas Cheer

Recommended GPS Receivers? 54

vergere asks: "Christmas has come and gone and I've got the go-ahead from the SO to make one of those big once-a-year electronic purchases. I've decided to get a handheld GPS receiver, so I'd like to draw on the collective knowledge of Slashdot and ask for recommendations. I'd like a good set of features (nothing too basic) and mapping capability - the more bells and whistles I can get for my budget of $350 the better. I'm currently looking at the Garmin GPSMAP 76S - any user experiences with this particular model would be welcomed."

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