A bit of ROT13 trivia
V unq ab vqrn gung EBG13 jnf bevtvanyyl hfrq va HFRARG tebhcf gb boshfpngr fcbvyref naq bssrafvir pbagrag. V nyjnlf gubhtug EBG13 jnf whfg n wbxr (“zl arj 2EBG13 rapelcgvba fpurzr…”) be n gbby va trqnaxra rkcrevzragf (“vs V EBG13 zl svyrf, pbhyq V fhr gur tbireazrag haqre gur QZPN vs gurl fhocbran naq qrpelcg gurz?”).
Ohg ab, vg gheaf bhg _gb_ unir na vagrerfgvat naq hfrshy uvfgbel. V org guvf vf bar bs gubfr guvatf gung nyy vagrearg whaxvrf bire gur ntr bs gjragl-rvtug be fb terj hc jvgu. Naq urer V jnf whfg lrfgreqnl znxvat sha bs frys-nfpevorq 31337 unK0em jub unq cebonoyl arire frra be urneq bs n OOF. Shaal ubj crbcyr ybbx qbja ba bguref sbe fhpu fghcvq ernfbaf yvxr ntr be dhnagvgl bs rfbgrevp xabjyrqtr.
Trrx perq ~ ntr.
Bs pbhefr, rira nsgre guvf frys-ersyrpgvba, V fgvyy guvax guvax fbzr bs gurfr arj xvqf ba gur oybpx ner n ohapu bs c0m3em. V gryy zlfrys vg’f gurve nggvghqr, abg zl ovtbgel. Ohg znlor V’z whfg na nffubyr.
“KrebPbby” zl nff.
EBGGuvegrra hfrq gb cebivqr n freivpr, vg jnf va gur fgnaqneq havk gbbyfrg sbe fbzr ernfba V whfg qba’g haqrefgnaq. Fvapr vg jnf gurer, crbcyr fgnegrq hfvat vg.
Gurer ner ybgf bs jnlf bs rkcerffvat yrtvgvznpl, nffhzvat lbh rdhngr vg jvgu orvat ba gur arg sbe nn ybat gvzr (gb or ubarfg, V guvax gung lbh pna or n fryy bhg naq unir n ybat pnerre naljnl).
Bguref barf vapyqr Xvob, hfrarg (be rira hfrarg orsber gur arj tebhcf anzrf) naq ybgf bs bgure guvatf. Whfg qbag gryy zr lbh’er sebz gur Jryy.
Okay, you’ve lost me and its been up for ages – has this place been “I love Bees”-ed or what? Explain it to me in small monosyllabic words.
That’s two references I don’t understand. “I Love Bees” and “The Well”.
Clearly you two are better connected and/or more experienced than I.
Rot13 is a way to obfuscate (rather than encrypt – it’s a semantic argument) text. You take the text and rotate each letter by thirteen places in the alphabet: A → N, for example. As “Hore” mentions, Rot13 is easily implemented in Unix (using a command called
tr). Neither of usknow whyknows whytrexists, but I think it’s becausetrmight be (or might have been) useful for mapping from one character set to another. (Does anyone know the real utility oftr?) [Edited for Clarity]At any rate, there was this clever little tool sitting around when people on Usenet groups (and elsewhere) decided they needed a way to tell dirty jokes or discuss plot spoilers without angering anybody. So they Rot13’d their text. If you wanted to read the joke or hear about a book’s ending, you could Rot13 the text again (therein lies the beauty of Rot13 – it’s its own inverse; 26 / 2 = 13). It was really a way of accomodating voluntary censorship; nobody cared if you wrote a dirty joke, as long as they didn’t have to see it. Additionally, Rot13 was widely used (and was a built-in feature of most news readers), so “garbled” text didn’t confuse anyone. And some people learned to just read it outright.
Now, with the HTML in full force, when people are faced with similar circumstances, they will typically make the color of a section of text the same color as the background (it can be read by selecting it – thus changing the effective background color). It’s more user friendly. It also makes the website in question look a bit ugly with all that random whitespace.
But most web browsers don’t have Rot13 buttons built in.
Anyway, you might try http://www.rot13.com as an interpreter.
[continued; use the to decipher]What the drelbieately ambiguous last few pages reveal, at least to this reader, is thatSnenqnl vf gur tubfg (gubhtu abg va n Fvkgu Frafr xvaq bs jnl; ur’f qrsvavgryl nyvir). Engure, gur tubfg vf fbzr qnex, qvfnibjrq, nzbeny cneg bs Snenqnl, n cneg gung jnagf gur ubhfr sbe uvzfrys rira vs gung zrnaf qevivat gur Nlerf snzvyl bhg bs vg. Vg’f n cneg bs uvzfrys gung ur arire npxabjyrqtrf, ohg juvpu gur ernqre fgnegf gb frafr naljnl. Naq va gur raq ur trgf gur ubhfr, ohg va n yvzvany, tubfgyl jnl, jnaqrevat va naq bhg jvgu gur fcner xrl ur arire ergheaf, frrvat (va gur svany vzntr) bayl gur ersyrpgvba bs uvf bja snpr va gur penpxrq jvaqbj cnarf.Naq guvf vf gur pbby guvat. Jr guvax jr’er ernqvat n tubfg fgbel sebz gur crefcrpgvir bs gur fxrcgvp jub’yy riraghnyyl or pherq bs uvf fxrcgvpvfz. Vafgrnq, jr’er ernqvat n tubfg fgbel sebz gur crefcrpgvir bs gur fbhepr bs gur unhagvat. Pnebyvar naq bar bs Snenqnl’f pbyyrnthrf bssre n zbafgref sebz gur vq rkcynangvba bs fbegf, vaibyivat qrgnpunoyr ovgf bs gur hapbafpvbhf. Ohg vg’f abg gur bayl cbffvoyr rkcynangvba. Bar pna nyfb nethr gung rira Snenqnl’f engvbany, fxrcgvpny, pbafpvbhf frys vf n ovg tubfgyl: ur unatf ba gb uvf erpbyyrpgvba bs gur ubhfr ng n cnfg zbzrag, n fhzzre nsgreabba va 1919, fb granpvbhfyl gung ur svanyyl frrzf abg gb abgvpr gur ubhfr’f cerfrag fgngr bs qrpnl. Ur unhagf gur ubhfr sebz gur zbzrag ur jnyxf vagb vg, nyvir naq oernguvat.
tr is one of the standard collection of generally useful little unix apps
any case where you want to turn one character into another (or get rid of it altogether), thats its utility
useful examples include tr ‘[A-Z]’ ‘[a-z]’ (converts to all-lowercase)
tr ‘\n’ ‘\t’ (converts newlines to tabs)
tr -d ‘\r’ (converts dos to unix text format)
and many others.
personally, i use it on a regular basis for misc special cases
Ah ha! That makes perfect sense. It’s purpose seems obvious now that you explain it
:)Thanks.