Editing Cryptonomicon (section)

==Technical content==
Portions of ''Cryptonomicon'' contain large amounts of exposition.  Several pages are spent explaining in detail some of the concepts behind cryptography and data storage security, including a description of [[Van Eck phreaking]].

===Cryptography===
====Pontifex Cipher====
In the book, a playing-card based cipher called Pontifex is used. At Stephenson's request, [[Bruce Schneier]] developed such a cipher, calling it [[Solitaire (cipher)|Solitaire]], and a precise description of Solitaire is included as an appendix. Solitaire was cryptanalyzed in 1999.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security |date=2011 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4419-5906-5 |editor-last1=van Tilborg |editor-first1=Henk C. A. |editor-last2=Jajodia |editor-first2=Sushil |edition=2nd |series=Springer reference |location=New York }}</ref>

====One-time pad====
Several of the characters in the book communicate with each other through the use of [[one-time pad]]s. A one-time pad (OTP) is an encryption technique that requires a single-use pre-shared key of at least the same length as the encrypted message.

The story posits a variation of the OTP technique wherein there is no pre-shared key - the key is instead generated algorithmically.

===Software===
====Finux====
He also describes computers using a fictional operating system, Finux. The name is a thinly veiled reference to [[Linux]], a kernel originally written by the Finnish native [[Linus Torvalds]]. Stephenson changed the name so as not to be creatively constrained by the technical details of Linux-based operating systems.<ref>{{cite web | first=Neal | last=Stephenson | author-link=Neal Stephenson | url=http://corporation9592.com/Old_site.html | title=Old site | year=1999 | access-date=2015-04-09 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321041328/http://corporation9592.com/Old_site.html | archive-date=2015-03-21 }}</ref>

===Other technology===
* [[Arc lamp#Carbon arc lamp|Carbon arc lamp]]
* [[History of the battery#Dun cell|The Dun improved galvanic element]]<ref>{{cite book |author=United States. Patent Office |title=Specifications and Drawings of Patents Relating to Electricity Issued by the U. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FIFRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT80 |year=1886 |pages=80–81 |quote=In the new element there can be used advantageously as exciting-liquid in the first case such solutions as have in a concentrated condition great depolarizing-power, which effect the whole depolarization chemically without necessitating the mechanical expedient of increased carbon surface. It is preferred to use iron as the positive electrode, and as exciting-liquid nitro muriatic acid, (''aqua regis'',) the mixture consisting of muriatic and nitric acids. The nitro-muriatic acid, as explained above, serves for filling both cells. For the carbon-cells it is used strong or very slightly diluted, but for the other cells very diluted, (about one-twentieth, or at the most one-tenth.) The element containing in one cell carbon and concentrated nitro-muriatic acid and in the other cell iron and dilute nitro-muriatic acid remains constant for at least twenty hours when employed for electric incandescent lighting.}}</ref>
* [[Delay-line memory#Mercury delay lines|Mercury acoustic delay-line computer memory]]