VMs: Re: "Running code" -- I hope not...

["DANA SCOTT" <dscott520@xxxxxxx>]

Those of us who are not cryptologists probably rely on this type of anlysis 
to the experts. Friedman, Manly, and Tiltman as well as others in the know 
who have examined the VMS would probably have detected this in a flash.

Regards,
Dana Scott


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elmar Vogt" <elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Voynich" <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 1:22 PM
Subject: VMs: "Running code" -- I hope not...


>
> Hi all,
>
> This afternoon I fiddled around a little with the idea of a "running 
> code".
>
> Essentially, I modelled a slightly alterated Alberti code wheel -- To 
> encode
> text, you've got a pointer on the rotable inner disk, which you put 
> beneath
> the current letter. Then you write down the character of the inner disk
> beneath the next letter from your source text, and subsequently move the
> pointer to this position, etc.
>
> The results are funny. Your encoded text is a list of relative positions 
> in
> your source, "jump forward 5 letters", "jump back 19", etc. (IIUC, you 
> could
> describe this "relative coding" also as a polyalphabetic autokey coding)
> These jumps appear to have completely random distributions (well, what'd 
> you
> expect?), and you get a binomial distribution for letter frequency in the
> coded text, ie whatever underlying structure you had is completely erased.
> (Not to mention making things even more difficult by employing a 
> scrambled,
> rather than a sorted alphabet on the Alberti wheel.)
>
> _If_ our author used this scheme, then "I've got a bad feeling about 
> this,"
> and I guess the text would be undecodable. Actually, I'm quite surprised
> nobody seems to have had this idea in period, while it's only a small step
> from the code wheel. (And to imagine that the bastard who encoded the VM
> perhaps just misunderstood the instructions...)
>
> But the good thing about it is that it doesn't look like this running code
> was the scheme employed with the VM. VM text looks far too orderly and
> highly repetitive, and letter frequency distribution doesn't seem to fit 
> either.
>
> I'll keep you informed if I gain any new insight. Perhaps I can come up 
> with
> an easy method to test a running matrix...
>
> Elmar
>
> -- 
> Elmar Vogt / Königswarterstr. 18 / 90762 Fürth / GERMANY
> elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx / Tel.: (++49/0)911 - 31 52 58
> Agilmar von Sevelingen: VIS VISCERIS NON FERRE FERTUR (T.Doom)
>
> "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." (Oscar Wilde, attrib.)
>
> "I come from a country where being liberal is a virtue, and patriots are
> viewed warily. YMMV."
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
> unsubscribe vms-list
> 
______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list