I spent the last four hours with some people from my Information and Coding seminar, attempting to break a polyalphabetic cipher (keyword length 6). By the time we were able to read several phrases, only Haoming and I were left, the others having left for such luxuries as sleep. We didn't actually finish breaking the cipher, but we Googled a few phrases and found that the enciphered text was, amusingly enough, a review of a movie, Enigma, which the class had watched after hours a few weeks ago.
When you've got a good group, and a computer to eliminate the drudgery, breaking ciphers is actually exhilarating, especially as the work accelerates with each revelation. If this class were to take over the remainder of my life, I wouldn't be entirely resentful.
Stapleton's annual steak dinner for AP students was last night. It's odd to think that I'll never have one of Stapleton's classes again. "Hinc fore ductores ... pollicitus [est]" and the memory haunts me on occasion.
posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005
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