Desktop Turing-Welchman Bombe Build 69
An anonymous reader writes: I completed a months long project to build my own version of the Turing-Welchman Bombe. My machine uses a Raspberry Pi2 and an Arduino to drive stepper motors to turn the three output indicator drums and to drive an LCD display, to work like the indicator unit on the real Bombe. Everything was custom made by me at home. The unit is built to reflect the style of the real Bombe at Bletchley Park and to run in a similar way but as a portable, desktop sized unit. To demonstrate it I use the same Weather Report Menu as used at BP to demonstrate their real Bombe. The entire build was painstakingly documented over many months but the link given shows an overview and a film of the completed machine in action.
PLEASE (Score:5, Funny)
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Why not? As long as he's brown, he'll get free tuition and a visit to the White House out of it.
Re:PLEASE (Score:5, Funny)
For the love of all that is holy, do not take it to a school in Texas.
And if you do take it to a school in Texas, when questioned by the authorities, don't make the mistake of saying, "No, no, don't worry -- it's just a bombe!"
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Just carry around a sign "It's just a bombe!" That way, it's clear to everyone it's not a bomb.
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So they should have meekly accepted the arrest and harassment over a freaking clock project?
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... and by the time the war broke out, they had already switched over to much more complicated systems that still fell under the name enigma . but again the rightest Slashdot posters with their anti-gay propaganda pushing very misleading information to minimize the accomplishments of a gay person (or something like that. I have no idea what the fuck you are even talking about).
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... and by the time the war broke out, they had already switched over to much more complicated systems that still fell under the name enigma . but again the rightest Slashdot posters with their anti-gay propaganda pushing very misleading information to minimize the accomplishments of a gay person (or something like that. I have no idea what the fuck you are even talking about).
Gay pride is just as bad as gay hate. Gay pride just amounts to conceit; its not an achievement, its not something amazing they've done with their lives, its not even a lifestyle choice. Be unashamed but don't be 'proud'.
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wth. why not be proud.
turing substantially helped the war and was one of the key figures who defined modern computation
and they harassed the poor man until he killed himself
the fact that some small fraction of the worlds gay population can celebrate and not cower in fear
is a huge advancement. and you can fuck off.
Re: ROT13 in the WW-II era.. (Score:5, Insightful)
wth. why not be proud.
turing substantially helped the war and was one of the key figures who defined modern computation
and they harassed the poor man until he killed himself
the fact that some small fraction of the worlds gay population can celebrate and not cower in fear
is a huge advancement. and you can fuck off.
Pride is something you feel about something you achieved not an accident of birth. Is it an accident of birth, something over which you have no control? If so then pride is entirely inappropriate, just like being proud of the colour of your eyes.
If I were proud of having brown hair wouldn't I be conceited? How about being proud of being heterosexual, proud of not being gay? Is that ok by you? No? Get over yourself.
Don't be ashamed of what you are but reserve pride for your true achievements.
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What if you were constantly being threatened, denigrated or otherwise being made to feel that you're inferior because of your brown hair ? I would applaud you for holding your head up and announce to the bigots " I'm proud of my brown hair, you're the one with the problem". We're around and we're brown; get used to it.
Be proud of your achievements, not your sexuality.
If you've stood up to oppression visited on you because of your sexuality, be proud of that!
But if you believe that your sexuality itself is an accident of birth, being proud of *that* would be conceited. Of course, if you've *become* gay and chosen this lifestyle, well then you could be proud of having made that decision.
There are a lot of people out there who, and I'm sure this will amaze you, couldn't care less about your sexuality. They neither approve n
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Gay pride is just as bad as gay hate.
Yes sure in magic pixie land where gay people didn't suffer serious systematic oppression by the legal system, or systematic oppression by normal people then yes of course in *that* context "gay pride" makes no sense.
Back in the real world, though, your distillation of complex nuanced issues into super-stark black-and-white proclamations indicated that you've not thought about things very well.
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Yes and no. The Poles broke the commercial version of Enigma as these machines had been sold to businesses like banks that needed to secure their communications. This version had only 3 rotors. By the time Germany invaded Poland, they had started using a modified form which used 3 out of 5 rotors and a plugboard for the Luftwaffe and Army versions. The Naval version used 3 out 8 rotors and a plugboard and later in the war added a 4 rotor. These modifications greatly increased the encryption and while the
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I always wondered why Turing is worshiped, while Gordon Welchman is rarely mentioned. As I recall, Turing did the software, and Welchman did the hardware, but I could be misremembering history.
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For Turing, breaking Enigma was only one of his accomplishments. His contributions to the start of the computer age overshadow everything he's done during the war. Welchman's post-war work was more in the shadows.
The BBC did a hour-long documentary on Welchman [bbc.co.uk] recently.
With up to 9000 personnel, plus key suppliers like Tommy Flowers and his group at Post Office Research (who built Colossus), and Harold 'Doc' Keen of the British Tabulating Machine Company (who built the bombes), there's plenty of unsung hero
Hey! (Score:1)
That Bombe looks like a clock!
Panic!!
TARDIS (Score:2)
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Not a TARDIS, but a Portaloo, aka TURDIS.
Brilliant and sad (Score:1)
How many have you solved? (Score:1)
Yeah, and how many of these important problems have you solved? Stop shitting on people for how they choose to spend their free time. If they had been eating chips while watching I Love Lucy reruns after work you'd still be out of line.
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Christ alive!
Well shit man, posting negative comments on the internet is (a) not really any kind of achievement and (b) been so done before that it's hard to describe just how done before it really has been.
Frankly using your own terms of judgement for the original poster will see you, because of your post, judged much, much more harshly.
The guy has a hobby, and it's a cool nerdy one that many people here like to read about. I have hobbies too with which I will never change the world, and that the slashdot
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... and your bizarre in
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Yep totally bizarre that I think the following are negative:
I can't help thinking how sad it is,
incredible squandering of talent
weird. Cannot understand it.
You must have never heard of constructive criticism.
It's not constructive criticism to tell someone what he does in his spare time sucks because he ought to be bettering humanity. You're simply telling him you don't like how he spends his time away from work and you'd rather he do other things for your gratification.
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You are an idiot for even suggesting I said that. I said he has incredible talent, and it would be better served using it to make the world a better place. That you can see that as negative speaks volumes about you. I didn't bother to read the rest of your drivel. Off you go now sketchy ...
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That you can see that as negative
You literally said that he was squandering talent.
You are an idiot for even suggesting I said that.
You're a moron for not even realising that's what you said.
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I thought, according to you, I said what he does in his spare time sucks. Make up your fucking mind, will you sketchy? You evidently don't know that squandering can mean to allow (an opportunity) to pass or be lost, as in he has a real opportunity to add value to humanity with his impressive talent, and he isn't taking advantage of it. Clearly you speak English about as well as you doodle. Now off you go again there, sketchy ...
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I thought, according to you, I said what he does in his spare time sucks.
Yes. You said it was a colossal waste of talent. If that's not full of suckage, I don't know what is.
Or are you actually sufficiently thick that you don't realise that telling someone that they are wasting their life is in fact an insult?
Whatever. You get your jollies cutting down other people. You should at lease be honest/self aware enough to admit it.
I like how you ignored the point about Einstein because you managed to pick an exam
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s/colossal/incredible/
You actually said that. You know you said that. We both know you're being an arse towards this guy and as if you're determined to prove the point you're now engaging in nit-picking pedantry.
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And that makes sense how?
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Have a nice day!
I have other plans.
i completed...my machine....made by me... (Score:2)
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But there's a hot wheels racetrack and what appears to be parts of a lacross stick encased in his dining room table! And a tardis thing taking half the room available in his kitchen! How cool is that!
In old school vein... (Score:1)
Here are a couple of vids of the renovated Hartree Difference Analyser in action. (A pre-war analog computer built from Meccano.)
Nerd Potter's Wheel. [man.ac.uk]
(For those of an archo-nerdish persuasion. the narrator of the first video is Charles Lindsey - author of "An Informal Introduction to Algol 68".)
Impressive! (Score:1)
You didn't built a Bombe (Score:2)
No, you didn't. You programmed a Bombe simulator and then spent months building an output display.
Though I suppose from a certain point of view the output display could be considered a cool thing, but it isn't a Bombe.
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Tell that to the cops.
Pure awesomeness (Score:2)
Maybe it's that I'm "into" embedded stuff and all that. Or maybe it's because I've been studying my Masters at a school with heavy emphasis on crypto. But this project rings my nerdy bells in so many ways I cannot really count anymore. It's way past cool.
The only thing that lets me down a bit is that there's so little following of the idea here at Slashdot. It's as great as it gets. Congratulations!
The Bombe at Bletchley (Score:2)
Front:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Rear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
What the heck is an "LCD Display"? (Score:1)
resume templates (Score:1)