Enigma

So, this photo is just me faffing about with new lamp. And again I can't decide between this version and this.

More interestingly (if, like me, you have geek tendencies ;-) is that last night I went to a talk hosted by the uni on Alan Turing - his life, work and legacy. It was delivered by the Head of GCHQ and very interesting it was too. I was particularly taken with the fact that one of the ways GCHQ is encouraging kids to learn science and engineering is to give them the chance to code a message using an Enigma machine at GCHQ which is then sent via twitter to Bletchley Park. It's then decoded using another Enigma machine and tweeted back to the kids, nicely joining up the old with the new.

A pleasant surprise came at the end of the talk when were offered plentiful quantities of wine and canapes in a swanky bit of the uni and given the chance to see a 1937 Enigma machine that had been captured in France by the allies towards the end of the war.

We were shown how it works, marvelling that it was still in full working order. How many of today's bits of technology will still work and be accessible in 70+ years time?

Amazingly the nice lady from GCHQ said it was ok to have a play - to try it out. So I pressed one of the letters 3 times and saw how each time I pressed it, a different light, corresponding to a different letter lit up. Fascinating bit of engineering. Just a shame we'd been told beforehand that no photos could be taken :-(

So after a particularly crappy day at work, the day ended in a warmly befuddled and happy manner.

Oh and if a quiz question ever comes up that asks what the weight of an Enigma machine is, it's a surprisingly weighty 11kg.