This is the Coding Machine. It looks a lot like the old Enigma machine, doesn’t it? The designer, Tatjana van Vark, who wins today’s Most Dutch Name Award, won’t reveal its secret—how to solve decrypt messages and whatnot—until someone solves an encrypted haiku.
Here’s the haiku, pasted here to save you the trouble of lifting your finger to click a link:
ETSFV FD1NV ZS7M2
UM8VK RCSZA P11IN FW-KX P/1RW
1MF4L F+3,0 QHWKS H+53- ZMTBIQRVI8 YKK8Y
How would you even decrypt the message? Don’t you need a few samples, know what language it is, or at least what the subject is (“sports,” “astronomy,” etc.)? I don’t know, it’s been a while since I’ve seen all those Enigma machine documentaries. It’s also sorta hot in here.
via Retro Thing
‘watch out those crunch gear readers will solve this’
What a conundrum. How is it possible to decrypt a haiku when the proper Coding Machine is not available to the general public’s knowledge. I think this is just the type of “elite hype” that says, “Lookie what I have.”
You know that the British intelligence had no Enigma so far and tryed to solve the quest?
Sure… after they got some of the Engimas it was easier…. but you can solve this by trying a few things ;-)
What encrypting, isn’t that Dutch?
hi haiku hai haiku hi hi… provide some hints there ??
There are lots of “hints” on his website. It shows the encrypted value of all the characters from [a-z][1-0][+,-/]
While not an easy task it definitely lies in the realm of possible.
The haiku portion makes it a bit more trouble some as there is artistic license often afforded in writing poetry that might make traditional approached more difficult.