PRIORITY RESEARCH NOTE: Authorization from Dean Required to Begin Research

[Nubclear]

---Beginning of Note---

PLANET UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY COMMUNICATIONS ALGORITHM
SOONTOEXIST CITY
BY TASSADAR

PROJECT NAME: Hostile Conditions Communications Algorithm
PROJECT SECRET NAME: Sino-America
PROJECT SECRECY AUTHORIZATION LEVEL: LEVEL 8
PRIORITY: PRIORITY 2

DEAN ARCHAIC HAS GRANTED PERMISSION TO BEGIN RESEARCH PROJECT AND HAS MADE NO MODIFICATIONS.

THE FOLLOWING IS A TOP SECRET DOCUMENT OF THE PLANET UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. ANY ILLEGAL OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS WILL BE PUNISHED WITH 7 WEEK ENTRANCE TO THE "HUMAN DOGPIG PROGRAM".

DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT UNLESS YOU HAVE PROPER CLEARANCE.
















Greetings, fellow Academicians. We have intercepted Nyet-Level encrypted messages from the Cyborg Conciousness which indicate they are developing a language to communicate with each other. This language is hidden by several layers of code, and will be difficult to break.

However, that is not the only other challenge to us, for they have sparked a dangerous race filled with arrogence and maligned intentions. Therefore, I propose that we ourselves begin a such a project where we also can communicate privately in a public forum.

This will be of utmost importance (Having a Priority 2 classification) and will require the Deans authorization in order to begin.

Only the most trusted people of our nation can partake in creating the language, and we must spend years developing and perfecting it. We musn't inform any other soul, being, or otherwise living entity that this project is in existence or the secrets or nature of this project. Not even our top allies can know. Nor our wives, nor our children, nor our friends.















END OF MEMO.

THIS HAS BEEN A SECRET DOCUMENT OF THE PLANET UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. WE THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING PLANET UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY FOR ALL YOUR TECHNOLOGICAL NEEDS.


---End of Note---

[Archaic]

Permission Granted.

[Timbba]

*** UComNet Mail Client ver 3.3.8
*** Subject : Preliminary proposal for Hostile Conditions Communication Algorithm
*** Author : Assistant Vice Provost of University Matters Timbba
*** Recipient : University HQ Faculty and Executive Council

Since our good old PR person Tassadar left, I took the liberty of finding a neat little encryption method that only requires notepad (preferably with a fixed-width font), or a piece of paper, and a bit of time, and optionally a codeword :


EDIT : The forums seem to not like several spaces in a row, so from now on, an additional step : replace empty spaces with '_'s (the examples have been modified accordingly).

Start with a message :

' Thisis a top secret message. Do not read this!

Then count how many letters there are in the codeword (in this case 'aegis', five letters) and break the message into a new line every that many letters :

This_
is_a_
top_s
ecret
_mess
age._
Do_no
t_rea
d_thi
s!___

Next, the slightly time-consuming part, and the one that's hard to explain. Start from the last letter, or space, of the last line, and write it. Then continue with the last letters of the second last, third last, etc. lines. Then press enter and do the same with second last, third last, etc. letters. Hopefully the demonstration helps :

_iao_sts__
_hen.se_as
_tr eerp_i
!__ogmcosh
sdtDa_etiT

Then, to make things nastier for those who would crack our secret code, let's use the codeword. Add the first letter of the codeword after the first letter of the first line, the second letter after the second letter of the second line... when you reach the bottom of the text, wrap around, in this case placing the first letter of the codeword after the sixth letter of the first line, repeat until you hit the right edge of the message.

_Aiao_sAts__
_heen.see_as
_trg eerpg_i
!__oigmcosih
sdtDas_etiTs

Decrypt by first removing the codeword annoyance, then repeating the time-consuming phase, and finally removing the line-breaks.

And empty spaces are considered letters too.

Now, for those who managed to make some sense out of these insane ramblings, fear not, it isn't as hard or time-consuming as it looks. And using this as our Official University Encryption (tm) would at the very least prevent us from spamming the main chat with huge blocks of code like the CyCon, and that's good .

[moomin]

Or we could show them the real stuff and go for PGP!

[Timbba]

But have you read the Fair Play thread in the main ACDG forum? Our encryptions are supposed to be manually crackable :|.

[moomin]

I understand PGP is theoretically crackable.

[moomin]

Although I like your idea too, Timbba. Are you up to making an webform for that? It has to be easy to use.

[Timbba]

Manually = By hand .
Well, you could find out the PGP algorithm, whatever PGP is (), and spend hundreds of years making calculations poring over endless sheets of paper . (If PGP's a modern encryption-thingy...)

[Mr. President]

I like that code.

[Timbba]

!aWl?
e_eat
e?ega
eyRhi
shl_W

[Timbba]

Oh, and moomin : having an easy-to-use webform would miss the point - we'd be able to spam the main forum with huge code blocks anyway .

Although I might be able to hack together a small .exe to do it if I weren't so lazy...

_a.ht_rat_iai
_.e_ioaaet_e_
_dyg_thh'gyrd
_nboi__tnli_n
.a_dds**sltsA

[moomin]

Well, never mind. It seems the mood is swinging away from using codes altogether now. I can't say I'm sad sto see them go - they just ain't funny anymore.