colossus

colossus, one of the first digital computers ever developed, is going to be back in code-breaking service after decades of lying idle. from the BBC:

The re-built Colossus will be put to work on intercepted radio messages transmitted by radio amateurs in Paderborn, Germany that have been scrambled using a Lorenz SZ42 machine - as used by the German high command in wartime.

The German participants in the code-cracking challenge will transmit three enciphered messages - one hard, one very hard and one ultra hard.

what i like most about this story isn't the novelty of positioning an archaic computer against a modern equivalent in a code-breaking showdown, it's that the germans are back at their old tricks again, sending coded messages about troop position, artillery shipments, and, presumably, dirty, filthy jews.

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