#enigma code

(From the Writer's Almanac archive) It’s the birthday of mathematician and logician Alan Mathison Turing, born in London, England (1912), who was a pioneer in the development of the computer. In school, Turing’s instructors tried to get him to study a variety of subjects, but he was only interested in science and mathematics. While a graduate student at King’s College, he wrote a paper called “On Compatible Numbers,” in which he introduced his idea for what was later called the Turing Machine, a computer that, if given enough explicit instructions, could perform step-by-step mathematical operations. He described a machine that would read a series of ones and zeros from a tape, which is the theoretical basis of the way computers work today. During World War II, he served with the British Government Code and Cypher School, where he played a significant part in breaking the German “Enigma” code.

In 1948, Turing became deputy director of the Computing Laboratory at the University of Manchester, where he worked on the Manchester Automatic Digital Machine (MADAM), the computer with the largest memory capacity at the time. He also championed the idea of artificial intelligence, and believed that machines could be created that would mimic the processes of the human brain.

Princess of Wales is 'getting better,' Prince William tells D-Day veterans

6 June 2024

The Prince of Wales has said the Princess would have loved to join him for the “very moving” D-Day anniversary event in Portsmouth on Wednesday as he said she was “getting better.”

The Prince, the King and the Queen chatted to D-Day veterans after the ceremony, shaking their hands and thanking them for their service.

He was asked by Geoffrey Weaving, aged 100, how the Princess of Wales was faring with her cancer treatment and replied:

“Yes, she is getting better, yes. She would have loved to be here today.

I was reminding everyone how her grandmother served at Bletchley, so she had quite a bit in common with some of the ladies here who were at Bletchley.

They never spoke about anything until the very end – it was all very secret.”

The Prince, who bent down to speak to Mr Weaving in his wheelchair, added:

“Geoffrey, it was lovely to see you. We’ll see you in five years time for the 85th.”

Do you know what archaeologists think when faced with puzzles and missing pieces? 

“Challenge accepted.”

There are no secrets from the KGB, comrade.