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General discussion

Message Encoder and Decoder

Jul 21, 2004 4:00AM PDT

Does anyone know of a program that I could use for stuff that can take the text I type, and then put it in a code like this:
A = Z
B = Y
C = X
D = W
E = V
F = U
G = T
H = S
I = R
J = Q
K = P
L = O
M = N
N = M
O = L
P = K
Q = J
R = I
S = H
T = G
U = F
V = E
W = D
X = C
Y = B
Z = A
It would be good for posting in journals and stuff so that only the people you want to read it can, and for other usesless crap.

Discussion is locked

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Re: Message Encoder and Decoder
Jul 21, 2004 4:08AM PDT

I'm not aware of any programs that use that exact algorithm...however, there are much much much more secure ways of encoding your data, that's what computers do well (they also crack them well too).

For you, I would recommend just password-protecting your Word files...Obviously I don't know what version you run, but I will assume Office 2000. When you save your document, click on the Tools button at the top right of the save dialog and select "general options". and then enter a password under the "password to open" section.

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Re: Message Encoder and Decoder
Jul 21, 2004 5:02AM PDT

What you are thinking about is similar to something that has been around for years. It is referred to as "rot13" (short for "rotate 13 characters"), a function commonly used in the UNIX world, and has found its way into other OS'es as well.

rot13 is not meant to be secure at all. It is just meant to "scramble' characters around to hide the text from a casual reader. A prime use of that would be to "hide" a spoiler of some movie, in the text of a message, so that while the spoiler is there, you have to go that extra step to read it. It won't accidentally happen. Movies are actively reviewed in newsgroups.

"rot13" will rotate just 13 characters, as in A goes 13 characters up the 26 characters of the alphabet to the letter N, B goes to O, etc. The letters in the higher part of the alphabet (before the rotate) the letters N to Z rotate up and over to the lower part of the alphabet A to M.

For a quick, on-line example of this just look at http://www.rot13.com

Outlook Express already has a "decode" ROT13 function in its Newsgroup reader. You can't use it to "code" a message, but you can use it to "decode" a message. (i.e.: On the Message menu, click Unscramble (ROT13).)

There are other fairly well known, but less popular "rotates" as well, such as "rot47" which shifts the 95 visible characters up the "ASCII" character set. There are other schemes as well. What you are proposing is not particularly a rotate, but an invert. And many people have devised simple routines for doing that as well. Just get to Google and start searching for these encoding/decoding schemes.

But if you truly want it just for posting, not so much for encrypting, then stick with the common methods, like rot13.