RE: VMs: Re: word length counts

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi GC,

At 15:00 05/07/2003 -0500, GC wrote:
> Nick wrote:
> > I said "worst-case" because you could only comfortably tell half-spaces
> > from full-spaces if you knew what the code was... and I certainly
> > can't and don't (respectively). :-p
>
> Review the handbooks of the 16th century on cipher (Trithemius, Vig, etc., a
> long list), and you'll find precautionaries that offer added protection by
> changing the stream at the end of each word, or each character, or randomly.
> (The "randomly" has always scared me, to be honest.)

I was aware of all that - I was just pointing out that the less certain we 
are about what separates a full-space from a half-space, the closer to 
"randomly" we are (in that kind of system).

>   However, it is logical
> that someone who wants to protect their data and is aware of these
> precautionaries would choose the word as the smallest contiguous unit based
> on this advice, no matter what system is employed in encryption.  (The very
> suggestion that a system change should be at the end of a word is evidence
> that spaces were still commonly employed as word delineators at this time, a
> time period far beyond your calculation of VMS origin.)

Yes, that's another good reason why I shouldn't like the idea. :-)

>   For me to summon up
> Vig as an example is to place the VMS in a light that is too modern for its
> origins - Vig compared to Trithemius was modern, with a difference of only
> about 60 years.  If I'm correct then the VMS is post-Trithemius but pre-Vig,
> but by your assessment the VMS is pre-Trithemius AND pre-Vig - Alberti range
> of understanding.  That's a precarious position to be in, my friend, and my
> hat is off to you in holding that ground as well as you do.

Precarious? I'm sure I have just as many toeholds in the same cliff as you, 
though my predicted earlier date perhaps gives me less baggage to carry up 
to the summit. :-)

> But here again, even with these corrections, we're only dealing with two
> pages, which means we have a very limited amount of the system available for
> analysis, and at this point only enough to bring a few paragraphs of related
> pages into view.  Where do we go from here?  The pizza parlor, my friend,
> the pizza parlor.  Not a take-out affair, but a sit-down, burn the roof of
> your mouth kind of affair.  Deep dish, plenty of anise in the sauce, hot
> cheese and spicy meat.  And plenty of photographs, yes, that too.  We'll be
> serving crow as a side dish for stragglers, and I want plenty of pictures of
> this event.

Given that we've all made mistakes en route, chilli crow pizza my prove to 
be the ultimate dish du jour for all of us. :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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