[HN Gopher] Virtual Colossus
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       Virtual Colossus
        
       Author : blowski
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2024-04-09 16:59 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.virtualcolossus.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.virtualcolossus.co.uk)
        
       | AdmiralNines wrote:
       | Ok. I'm confused. What is this?
        
         | blowski wrote:
         | The Colossus Machine was a huge code-breaking computer built in
         | the UK during World War 2. Multiple models were built but most
         | were destroyed by the intelligence services at the end of the
         | war. So far as I understand, it calculated possible keys being
         | used on encrypted radio messages broadcast by the Nazis.
         | 
         | This is a 3D model I stumbled upon that shows how it works in
         | intricate detail.
         | 
         | The whole story behind Colossus is fascinating. There is a
         | replica in the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park.
        
         | jgalt212 wrote:
         | a nice video on the real thing by the inimitable Professor
         | Brailsford.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HH-asvLAj4
         | 
         | And a longer, deeper dive (also very good).
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2tMcMQqSbA
        
         | Kim_Bruning wrote:
         | I bet you were told that the code brakers at Bletchley Park
         | only decrypted "Enigma" during WWII. That is actually an old
         | story, and is not entirely correct.
         | 
         | It turns out the Germans also had a much more advanced cypher
         | called Lorenz, which required rather more advanced hardware,
         | including the world's first programmable electronic computer.
         | This was Colossus.
        
       | windowshopping wrote:
       | Strongly suggest adding a volume/mute toggle. Really annoying
       | regardless of being realistic.
        
         | pulse7 wrote:
         | In Firefox you can mute each individual tab.
        
       | Pwntastic wrote:
       | Doesn't seem to work on firefox on my mac.
       | 
       | edit: I'm on an M3 pro, and see it throwing webgl errors
        
         | blowski wrote:
         | Works fine on mine (M3 Max). The controls aren't particularly
         | intuitive.
        
         | mhuffman wrote:
         | works on mine (m2 max) but steals controls and no idea wtf I am
         | looking at.
        
       | whycome wrote:
       | There needs to be one more nav mode: mouse, but not POV movement.
       | Touch mode doesn't seem to work with mouse, but I want to move
       | the image like I would a 3D map instead of as if I'm viewing in
       | VR goggles.
        
       | fancyfredbot wrote:
       | This was arguably the world's first electronic programmable
       | computer. It used a form of frequency analysis looking at the
       | frequency of the differences between characters rather than the
       | frequency of the characters themselves. The ingenuity required to
       | crack the code without seeing the actual encryption machine and
       | then to build one of the first electronic computers ever made in
       | order to automate it is almost unimaginable to me.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-09 23:01 UTC)