[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: VMs: Plants in the VM



Hi Bruce, Jan and all,
 
I would agree, although I am not an expert, neither in VM nor in cryptology ;+) :
 
I just read Cryptologia 's issue of January 2004. Besides the very interesting if not totally convincing article on VM by Gordon Rugg, there is an excellent presentation of Charles J. Mendelsohn 's life and works by David Kahn.
 
In this article pages &à and && (sorry 10 and 11) you may find two not too irrelevant figures in spite of their date :
 
Figure 2 An illustration of a monoalphabetic cipher key using fanatastic alchemical symbols followed by an exemple of its use; from Friderici, Cryptographia (1684)
 
and
 
Figure 3 Another example of a monoalphabetic cipher key using flowers to replace letters, with the secret message described as a floral wreath. From Friderici, Cryptographia (1684).
 
I cannot scan them at the moment ; page 1 David Kahn gives some indication to have an access to the collection s catalogue:
 
http://www.franklin.library.upenn.edu/
 
Of course this is only a clue for a possibility, but probably Gordon Rugg would not disagree?
 
Regards,
 
Jean Artero


Bruce Grant <bgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That's an interesting idea - perhaps they used a "substitution cipher
for plants", changing some of the features (say, broad leaves for
narrow ones or one kind of flower for another).

Or perhaps they are the botanical equivalent of centaurs and griffins.

Jan wrote:

>Hello,
>
>looking at the plants in the VM, it occured to me, that they are unrecognizable, because the author deliberately modified their appearance.
>


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list


Yahoo! Mail : votre e-mail personnel et gratuit qui vous suit partout !
Créez votre Yahoo! Mail

Dialoguez en direct avec vos amis grâce à Yahoo! Messenger !