From msuinfo!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!rigel.tamu.edu!spb0457 Sun Apr 18 14:15:11 1993 Path: msuinfo!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tamsun.tamu.edu!rigel.tamu.edu!spb0457 From: spb0457@rigel.tamu.edu (SubGenius) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.crypt Subject: Re: _The Gold Bug Variations_ & Thomas Jefferson Date: 14 Apr 1993 14:41 CST Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services Lines: 44 Distribution: world Message-ID: <14APR199314410556@rigel.tamu.edu> References: <1993Apr12.190121.9084@eff.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: rigel.tamu.edu News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 Xref: msuinfo rec.arts.books:64437 sci.crypt:15021 Paul C Leyland writes... >Mike Godwin writes... > >Scott Yabiku writes... > >1) I've just finished reading _The Gold Bug Variations_ by Richard Powers, > >and I enjoyed it very much. I have a question: If you've read the book, > >you know there's a coded message (a dedication?) at the beginning. Could > >someone please tell me what the plaintext is? > > What do you think we are? sci.crypt? > >Yes. Could someone post the ciphertext please? I don't have a copy of >the original. +--------------------------------------------SubG----------------------------+ I spent a bit of time and skullsweat trying to cause the bit on the dedication page to discharge its informational content, to no avail. If I recall correctly, someone here on r.a.b. opined that the message consists in fact of the initials of folks Mr. Powers wished to dedicate the novel to. Note that all the letters are in triplets, and that several have `huh?' marks, but they all appear in the middle of a triplet. The message is: RLS CMW DJP RFP J?O CEP JJN PRG ZTS MCJ JEH BLM CRR PLC JCM MEP JNH JDM RBS J?H BJP PJP SCB TLC KES REP RCP DTH I?H CRB JSB SDG Yours etc., SubGenius