Interesting how the PKZIP password-protected compressed file is now easily decrypted in We could have had a very different history if they'd used DES or RC2 for encryption!
Code that helped end Apartheid
31–40 of 240 posts
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#32[deleted]
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#33This is paywalled; how can I read it?
Most paywalled articles on HN will have an archive.is link in the comments, pvg posted one here.
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much was "quite a lot"?
I did a pass with bkcrack. The password is over 13 char. bkcrack.exe -k 98e0f009 48a0b11a c70f8499 -r 1..18 ?p bkcrack 1.7.0 - 2024-05-26 [11:07:33] Recovering password length 0-6... length 7... length 8... length 9... length 10... length 11... length 12... length 13...
I can tell you it's over 14 ?p, and over 16 ?u?d, and over 17 ?u.
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#35So when he DM’d me to say that he had “a hell of a story”—promising “one-time pads! 8-bit computers! Flight attendants smuggling floppies full of random numbers into South Africa!”—I responded. Ha ha ha. Yes, that was literally my very short pitch to Steven about Tim Jenkin's story! The actual DM: "I think this has the makings of a hell of a story: https://blog.jgc.org/2024/09/cracking-old-zip-file-to-help-o... If yo…
I didn't know it was you who led the charge for the apology to Turing. Thank you!
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#36This is paywalled; how can I read it?
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much was "quite a lot"?
I did a pass with bkcrack. The password is over 13 char. bkcrack.exe -k 98e0f009 48a0b11a c70f8499 -r 1..18 ?p bkcrack 1.7.0 - 2024-05-26 [11:07:33] Recovering password length 0-6... length 7... length 8... length 9... length 10... length 11... length 12... length 13...
[deleted]
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#38I think it was the fishing trip with Mandela and then-Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk in 1990 that ended apartheid. Specifically when one of de Klerk's people got a hook in his hand, and a Mandela person cleaned and bandaged it. After that trip Apartheid was finally broken.
What actually ended apartheid was international pressure and the white government's fear of a civil war. Economically isolated and vastly outnumbered, the apartheid government would have been completely removed from the country and had their property seized. My understanding is Mandela was a respected leader who was willing to play ball and facilitate a peaceful transition where the white leadership got to keep all t…
While it certainly involved a lot of people doing the right thing, that peaceful transition was absolutely incredible and I really do think that's why non-South Africans look on Mandela so fondly. If you'd told me everything about the Apartheid right up until its collapse and then said "Ok, the ANC basically win, gain power, what do you think happens?", I'd struggle to think of any scenario where there wasn't incredible bloodshed or upheaval to the point of ruining lives beyond measure. There was so much bad blood. You'd assume that at least the people who were in charge, the people who ran the show, surely would've saw a grim end. Not even property seizures? . Somehow, Mandela led an effort that just rose above that. He probably prevented a lot of pain just by not giving into such things.
To me, the peaceful transition is the achievement. It is the amazing part of it.
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
What actually ended apartheid was international pressure and the white government's fear of a civil war. Economically isolated and vastly outnumbered, the apartheid government would have been completely removed from the country and had their property seized. My understanding is Mandela was a respected leader who was willing to play ball and facilitate a peaceful transition where the white leadership got to keep all t…
The existence of a viable ANC was arguably pretty important to the international pressure, though. Absent a viable opposition, you probably do not _want_ to exert _too_ much pressure on a rogue state, however nasty, because its only response is to either go full autarky, or collapse into complete chaos. Take North Korea, say, another extremely nasty rogue nuclear-armed state. Even if there was a level of pressure tha…
You don't even need to use hypothetical examples. Libya, Iraq, arguably Syria, Yemen, Yugoslavia.
Though to be fair none of these had happened prior to apartheid.
Re: Code that helped end Apartheid
#40>Working in the woodshop, he crafted mockups of the large keys that could unlock the prison doors.
I got to here before realising this is the same guy portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe in Escape From Pretoria. Great film.