[1227] in tlhIngan-Hol
HolQeD 2:2
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Jul 7 15:02:38 1993
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: (Mark E. Shoulson) <shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 93 11:18:40 -0400
In-Reply-To: Will Martin's message of Tue, 6 Jul 93 16:50:05 EDT <9307062050.AA
21581@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU>
>From: Will Martin <whm2m@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu>
>Date: Tue, 6 Jul 93 16:50:05 EDT
>Thanks for the puzzle. For those trying to figure out ~Mark's second
>paragraph, the key is the only word with mixed case being the major topic of
>the Klingon paragraph. I was almost disappointed to discover that the rest of
>the code was a straight alphabetic offset...
Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mark what that second paragraph was because I
assumed (unfairly) that everyone would know. It's a straight 13-character
rotation of an English version of the first paragraph, so you won't read it
unless you deliberately want to. That kind of pseudo-encryption, called
"rot-13" is often used on computer fora like this to provide a kind of
wrapper that has to be opened by the reader, for potentially offensive
jokes or spoilers to riddles. This way, non-Klingonists can give up and
read the English (after all, the content is not specifically
Klingon-related) without its presence spoiling the challenge for those who
want to try the Klingon. On UNIX, to unscramble, try using the command:
tr '[a-zA-Z]' '[n-za-mN-ZA-M]' < filename
where the file called filename contains the message.
~mark
