[xtiansimon]

Interesting. I liked the explanations in the accepted answer. This rule especially,“Never repeat in the clear the identical text of a message once sent in cryptographic form, or repeat in cryptographic form the text of a message once sent in the clear.”

As a child I learned about codes from a library book. Fascinated with one-time pads, I convinced a friend to try a correspondence. We exchanged a few messages, and then got bored, because the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

Which makes me wonder about people who work in secrets. Encrypted communications seem opposite of scientific communications. Secrets peeps seem prolly aligned to politics.

[ludicrousdispla]

>> the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze

I recall that Ovaltine goes better with decoded messages.

[cbdevidal]

A crummy commercial!?

[wpm]

Son of a bitch!

[arccy]

i recall squeezing lemons to write invisible messages...

[EGreg]

https://www.suzannearnold.com/blog/not-worth-the-candle

[fruitplants]

"... two minutes into that Ovaltine thing and I just couldn't take it anymore."

[myself248]

Do you remember the book? I remember loving Alvin's Secret Code, which was on the bookshelf in my fourth-grade classroom where I sat in the back to be near the bookshelf...

[xtiansimon]

Sorry, no. But it would have been a 70s or 80s publication. I recall there were several Cold War code stories, so it might have been on this subject. Like popular history stories, one after the other—you thought that was crazy? Check out this hollow nickel! But all very serious like.

[dtgriscom]

> the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/this-...