Süß! 😀
Software engineer, married with two grown-up children. Fascinated by the Latin language and classical cryptography.
903 followers 487 following 275 posts
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Süß! 😀
Wow, congratulations! 🎉🤗
Wild to me that the thing that finally resulted in the anti-vaxxers winning was a deadly pandemic that demonstrated the true magic of vaccines in front of everyone’s eyes
„Only boys that save their minuscules Make my Caroling’ day“ 🎶
Uaah, has some Mind Flayer vibes 😱
😅
How sweet! 😀
„old“, „older“, but at least not „the oldest“ 🤭
foo, bar
Paint It Black?
This is terrible terrible terrible! Sweet Freya 😭
Maybe the „L“ is just a typo that slipped in? 😮
Absolut! 😀
Wie schön 😀🎉
So Jim needed sonething in writing. It could have been a dog-eared textbook, but maybe Ed slipped a letter to Jim, and that‘s the one being paired wirh K4 plaintext? (Again, I‘m being optimistic.)
Still, Jim Sanborn needed vital input, so Ed, as the expert, might have put forth two or three candidate cryptosystems for K4, maybe with a hint or two on how to potentially modify them. They did meet in person, but this was the one thing that noboy could risk messing up. 🧵
Now, if I‘ m trying to be optimistic, then I think it might have played out the following way: At one point, it must have become clear that Jim Sanborn wanted to do something special for the final passage (now known as K4), so that Ed would know neither key nor plaintext, nor even the exact method.🧵
[ctd.] „So that even he [Ed Scheidt] would not know what it says. Okay? So that was very seductive to me. And so I took those things. We met two or three times. And that's what I based the whole thing on.“ 🧵
„So he [Ed Scheidt] told me about matrix codes and things like that. These are the parts of Kryptos that have already been cracked. So I can discuss them. But he told me about coding systems that I could then modify in a myriad of ways.” ctd . 🧵
At one point during that interview, Jim Sanborn says the following on Kryptos and his collaboration with Ed Scheidt: 🧵
Time to revisit the transcript of Jim Sanborn‘s interview with the Archives of American Art, wich is an invaluable source: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/... 🧵
„The original handwritten plaintext of the K4 code, with signed typed letter from cryptographer Ed Scheidt“ at www.rrauction.com/jim-sanborn-... some more thoughts 🧵
Ja.
Ed Scheidt is known for the use of one-time pads. Of course, a one-time pad, if properly used, is perfectly secure, which immediately rules it out as a challenge. Still, Ed might have proposed sone tricks to assemble a pseudo-random running key 🗝️
The letter might also address the topic of steganography (Ed Scheidt is said to have remarked that K4 contains „a bit of stego“)
On the more interesting end, this could be a letter where Ed Scheidt proposes two or three candidate cryptosystems for the last passage, which is now known as K4, and Jim Sanborn might have picked one of those, modifying it ever so slightly 🧩
IMHO, there’s a whole range of possibilities for what this letter might look like, ranging from the most mundane and dull to the most thrilling and exciting…
Kryptos K4 🧩 lot at RR Auction‘s comprises seven items, first of which is„The original handwritten plaintext of the K4 code, with signed typed letter from cryptographer Ed Scheidt“, interesting that the letter is grouped together with K4 plaintext 🤔 www.rrauction.com/jim-sanborn-...
The Kryptos K4 🧩 lot at RR Auction‘s has one item listed that‘s puzzling me: „Handwritten Kryptos plain texts used for screen cutting, 2 pieces“ I mean, the screens show ciphertext and a Vigenère tableau, so how would anyone have used the plain texts for screen cutting? 🤷
Hi fans of Kryptos K4! 🧩 In case you happen to have funds in the six digits range at hand, here‘s the link to RR Auction: www.rrauction.com/jim-sanborn-... 😮
(should be a gift link)
Jim Sanborn auctioning off the solution to Kryptos K4 🧩 in November, this is super-exciting! New York Times article by none other than the great @jswatz.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/s...
Wow! This is stunning news! 😮
Special thanks to @cabernet.bsky.social for letting me know!
Hi friends of Kryptos K4! 🧩This is stunning news by Wired: Jim Sanborn is going to auction off the Solution to Kryptos K4! 😮Can‘t wait for November…
Thank you so much! 😀
(should be a gift article)
Hi friends of Kryptos! 🧩 William Webster, CIA director at the time when Jim Sanborn created Kryptos, passed away on August 8, at the age of 101. With his initials WW, he is forever honored in the plaintext of Kryptos K2: „WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION ? ONLY WW“ www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/u...
Noooooo 🫣
Cool! 😀
May she get well soon! 🧈💐
Lovely! 😊
Achievement unlocked! 🏆😀
#Video - Aus unserer Mediathek: Der Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) ist das maßgebliche #Wörterbuch des antiken Lateins. So wird dort gearbeitet: #Latein #Lexikon #Grundlagenforschung #Akademienprogramm
Cool 🤗
May she get well soon! 🧈💐
Horrifying! 😩
Schön! 😀
That little guy looks so cute! 😀
Wow! 😀
Herzlichen Glückwunsch! 💐😀
😄
I do like float positives 🫣
Gerade findet in der BAdW die internationale TLL Summer School in Latin Lexicography statt, mit Forschenden in verschiedenen Karrierestufen, deren Arbeit sich mit dem lateinischen Wortschatz der #Antike befasst: thesaurus.badw.de/summerschool... Fotos: @wolf-bild.bsky.social / BAdW #Latein
😮
Those looks 😁
Get well soon! 💐
Great! 😀
So cool! 😀
Such a treasure! 😮
🤭
Indeed 😮
😱
The deluge of AI „solutions“ (e.g., on Reddit) is something to behold 😳
Kryptos K4! 😀
Wow! 😮
Nieeedlich! 😀
I don’t know why, but this whole issue makes me think about the post you pinned back then, when you took on your new job at UT Austin 😌
That sucks 😩
👏😀
Vielen Dank, sehr interessant! 😮
Sounds mysterious and important… Who knows the exact location? Only W.W. 🤔
So süß! 🤗
So cute! 😀
😱
Hi friends of classical cryptography, check out the proceedings of HistoCrypt 2025 🤗 dspace.ut.ee/items/0d1e87...
Gute Besserung 💐
🤭
Great! 😀
👏😀!
🏆😀!
Great! 😀
Cool! 😎
So sweet! 😀
99.7th percentile? 🤔
Ich fühle mich ertappt 😬
It's like the Three-Body Problem, but it's the Two-Narcissists Problem
Cool! 😀
😁
Uaaaaah, vielleicht ähnlich schaudrig wie die Sorte „Vollkornkeks mit Erdbeerquark“ aus den späten 80ern, jene Sorte war schon sehr „speziell“ und genug für ein ganzes Leben 😵💫
🚀😱
Happy anniversary! 🎉😀
Kritik des HRK-Präsidenten Prof. Dr. Walter Rosenthal an der Entscheidung der US-Regierung, der @harvard.edu die Aufnahme internationaler Studierender zu untersagen und eingeschriebene internationale #Studierende zu zwingen, an andere Hochschulen zu wechseln. ➡️ www.hrk.de/presse/press...
Wow! 😀
Great, plus super cool ALT text! 😀
Great! 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷😀
Glad to hear this 📷🌷😀!
I hope that the sixth tulip is still fine, too 🌷
Cool! 😀
Yeah! 🎉 Meine Alma Mater, die RWTH Aachen, hat vor kurzem begonnen, ihren seit längerem bestehenden Bluesky-Account jetzt auch aktiv zu benutzen! 😀 🎉