If he was not too tired and before evenings drinking I would learn Morse code with my father.
We would pretend to be radio hams in different continents sat across the kitchen table. Hams use internationally agreed abbreviations allowing communication without knowing language.
‘599’ means ‘very readable, average strength, good tone’. I was keen to please and learnt both Morse and Telegraphese quickly. A bit like 1960s text speak.
He built a shortwave radio transmitter in the spare bedroom and a smaller one for me. I would sit in the garden shed and transcribe pages of books he tapped out to me. I had not read them, so could not cheat or guess the words. He would check it at the end.
I got better, we would have conversations. Like a Turing test, trying to work out if our responses were human or AI.
If you are dyslexic, reading and writing never become automatic. It is always a code that you have to relearn.
At the @cryptoclass, I learnt how to create an encrypted folder containing a hidden one. If you did not know the outer folder contained a hidden one you could not determine whether it existed. Plausible deniability. Both had different long passwords.
Standard PCs cannot produce random numbers. Using specialist software, you move your mouse around the screen to generate the key, creating it yourself.
Though numbed by tranquillisers my mum would often play the piano. She could sight read, had perfect pitch and could transcribe on sight. With most music, she could hear it once and play it perfectly.
I would sit and listen to her play ‘Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune’ and ‘The Sunken Cathedral’. Transfixed by the beauty of them both.
Code … Decipher, Decrypt ≠ understand?
We would pretend to be radio hams in different continents sat across the kitchen table. Hams use internationally agreed abbreviations allowing communication without knowing language.
‘599’ means ‘very readable, average strength, good tone’. I was keen to please and learnt both Morse and Telegraphese quickly. A bit like 1960s text speak.
He built a shortwave radio transmitter in the spare bedroom and a smaller one for me. I would sit in the garden shed and transcribe pages of books he tapped out to me. I had not read them, so could not cheat or guess the words. He would check it at the end.
I got better, we would have conversations. Like a Turing test, trying to work out if our responses were human or AI.
If you are dyslexic, reading and writing never become automatic. It is always a code that you have to relearn.
At the @cryptoclass, I learnt how to create an encrypted folder containing a hidden one. If you did not know the outer folder contained a hidden one you could not determine whether it existed. Plausible deniability. Both had different long passwords.
Standard PCs cannot produce random numbers. Using specialist software, you move your mouse around the screen to generate the key, creating it yourself.
Though numbed by tranquillisers my mum would often play the piano. She could sight read, had perfect pitch and could transcribe on sight. With most music, she could hear it once and play it perfectly.
I would sit and listen to her play ‘Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune’ and ‘The Sunken Cathedral’. Transfixed by the beauty of them both.
Code … Decipher, Decrypt ≠ understand?
