Do-It-Yourself Electronic Enigma Machine

Radio Shack Robot writes "The Enigma-E is a DIY Building Kit that enables you to build your own electronic variant of the famous Enigma coding machine that was used by the German army during WWII. It works just like a real Enigma and is compatible with an M3 and M4 Enigma as well as the standard Service Machines. A message encrypted on, say, a real Enigma M4 can be read on the Enigma-E and vice versa."

Re:Original Messages

[Anonymous Coward]

Try here [nazi.org].

Who needs one?

[Sub-MOA]

I'll drop one off at Bletchley on the way to picking up my Gray's Sports Almanac.

Oh, well in that case...

[mynameis (mother ...]

I was thinking to myself "This is way too difficult to build..."

But then I noticed that the 65+ page manual includes:

How to build a wooden box

And if that wasn't enough, the fact that it has

Full 26-key keyboard with key-click sound
sealed the deal!

I really wanted to make a Darl joke, but alas...

Herzlicher Glukwunsch...

Re:What's the point?

[The Snowman]

If you're not going to do the real thing, why not just make a software replica?

What kind of geek are you? Don't you find it cool to have tons of useless hardware laying around???

Re:applet

[The Snowman]

I wonder if the real Nazi Enigma machines also had Java.lang.NullPointerException errors...

Re:Original Messages

[Penguinshit]

Here you go..

Decode this. [216.10.109.153]

Re:Electronic Version? Why not just use software

[kinema]

Maybe people just want a new elctronic device so they can attempt to port Linux and/or NetBSD.

Re:Too late

[WhodoVoodoo]

Right you are, But I could have used this to hand-encode all my Kazaa packets until YOU had to go and spill the beans! Thanks a BUNCH! Now they'll add Enigma support to carnivore, and I'm stuck with IPSEC!

Way to go, commie!
=P

Re:Who needs one?

[garbagedisposal]

"I'll drop one off at Bletchley on the way to picking up my Gray's Sports Almanac."

I say, could'nt make that two could you old boy?

Re:Original Messages

[garbagedisposal]

"I wonder if there is anywhere to get original Nazi Enigma messages to decode."

Yes but where can I get some original Nazi's to send them to?

Am I the only person who...

[Zakabog]

...read this as "Do-It-Yourself Electronic Enema Machine"? I probably wouldn't have if I knew what an Enigma Machine was (yeah yeah I'll read the stuff now)

LEGO Mindstorms

[Anonymous Coward]

I always thought it would be cool to make an Enigma from LEGO.

Re:RTFA

[dj245]

Now if only Bablefish could translate German with half the accuracy with which the Enigma machine decodes messages...

"Space Chase" translated to italian, to german, to french, to english, is "continuation of sector".

I can finally talk to the Germans!

[SPYDER Web]

Now if I only spoke german....

user feedback

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what other users say about the Enigma-E:
Toyally Sucks! A.Hitler
Totally Rocks! W Churchill

The problem with decoding original nazi messages..

[Kinniken]

Is that once you have decoded them, which is a cool, "geek" task, they are in German! And translating German to English or whatever your language is is much less fun and much harder for the average geek ;-)

Re:Who needs one?

[baldcamel]

Bletchly Park? What is that got to do with enigma?

I thought that it was the US Navy. Did U-571 lie to me?

Re:What's the point?

[beaverfever]

I remember back in the day when you would go to the store and it was the only computer magazine there. ...and we'd have to walk 40 miles in the rain, up hill, to get to the store, and when we got there, magazines were only a nickel, but we'd have to save for a month just to get that nickel. Anyways, we'd get home with our magazines and read them by the light of an oil lamp, and we were happy!

Oh those computers, they were as big as a barn, and every time we booted them we'd have to punch in every line of *bonk!*

Re:Who needs one?

[mlush]

Bletchly Park? What is that got to do with enigma?
I thought that it was the US Navy. Did U-571 lie to me?

U-571 had it right... Bletchly Park is just part of a British disinformation program to make you think we were involved in the D-Day landings.

Mine says....

[ioscan]

Drink more Ovaltine.

Re:What's the point?

[Richard_L_James]

What kind of geek are you? Don't you find it cool to have tons of useless hardware laying around???

Hey! Real geeks find it cool to have useless software and useless hardware lying around!!! Anyway I'm off to play The Grinch on my dreamcast... ;-)

Re:Original Messages

[Anonymous Coward]

What do they have to do with the Green Party, anyhow?

Or were all those trollish (?) rumours of eco-Nazis true!?

Re:applet

[Lord_Slepnir]

They did, however the Nazis took a much harsher point of view on NullPointerException errors, and there were few that survived the war. In 1961 the new German government recognized the suffering they caused the NullPointerExceptions, and establised the free state of Javaoinia as a place to house the survivors. However, they accidently encroached on the territory owned by the SegFault republic, and the area is a hot bed for violent activity.

Re:How does it work ??

[Ugmo]

It had several components: a plug board, a light board, a keyboard, a set of rotors, and a reflector (half rotor). The original machine looked a lot like a typewriter.

Thanks now I know how an Enigma machine works, now can anyone tell me what the heck a typewriter is? :)

Re:What's the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

God bless the Reiser4 file system, and with it the ability to add plugins for security (like automagic file encryption with your algorithm of choice). God bless too, the people who published the code to loki91, idea, gost, blowfish, 3-way, RC5, A5, SEAL and skipja^M^M^M^M ummm no not skipjack, we don't have the code to skipjack!

Thank God I'm posting as Anonym... HEY! Who are you? Carnivore? WHERE ARE YOU TAKING MY COMPUTER? Hey! You're hurting my arm sir! YOU'RE HURTING MY ARM SIR! ......helllpp mmeeeeee!

Re:What's the point?

[barakn]

You forgot one thing. It was uphill both ways, to the store and back home.