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Code that helped end Apartheid

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Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#11

Post by rsynnott »

jgrahamc wrote: post #3

So 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…

Though, you could argue it was a 16 bit computer, of course :)

(It was an 8088, essentially an 8086 with an 8 bit data bus, but 16bit registers and 20bit address bus).

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#12

Post by tgv »

Simulacra wrote: post #8

I 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.

That might have been the symbolic last drop that made the bucket overflow.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#13

Post by mschuster91 »

Simulacra wrote: post #8

I 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.

Sometimes all it takes is for the right people to see at the right time that their opponent bleeds just the same red blood as they do.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#16

Post by bdndndndbve »

Simulacra wrote: post #8

I 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 their property. That's why there's still massive economic inequality in SA today. Not to say Mandela wasn't admirable or that he didn't suffer, but it was a conscious choice to avoid outright military conflict at the cost of preserving an implicit racial hierarchy.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#18

Post by quuxplusone »

rsynnott wrote: post #6

You know it's _proper_ vintage crypto code because it uses the now very unfashionable word 'encipher'.

Funny but also thought-provoking! When did the verb "encipher" give way to "encrypt," and why? I might enjoy reading a well-researched piece on that subject.

Re: Code that helped end Apartheid

#20

Post by jgrahamc »

quuxplusone wrote: post #18
rsynnott wrote: post #6

You know it's _proper_ vintage crypto code because it uses the now very unfashionable word 'encipher'.

Funny but also thought-provoking! When did the verb "encipher" give way to "encrypt," and why? I might enjoy reading a well-researched piece on that subject.

I don't know why but here's when: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=encipher%2Cenc...
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