Last week the winner of Collabora Productivity’s LibreOffice Conference postcard contest was posted their prize. This week, winner Rhea Salome Sturm, Swiss native, received her 4kg Toblerone box.
In Bern last month, we provided free stamps and postcards for LibreOffice Conference attendees to send to co-workers back at the office, entitled “Greetings from Bern!”. In the last six months Collabora Productivity’s network of international partners and resellers has grown to 18, representing business on six continents.
Web company Founder Rhea has a penchant for cryptographic history, and took the opportunity to share some Swiss computing hardware (with the help of her Toblerone):
My chocolates climbed the German Enigma, and the Swiss NEMA cipher machines. Normally these machines are behind bullet-proof glass. For these pictures we were able to take them out (see photo) — Rhea Salome Sturm, Moka Web Solutions
These machines were used before and during World War II for secret government and military communications. Enigma machines played an important role in the development of modern computing.
Switzerland’s NEMA machine was the successor to an earlier model which had been compromised by German forces – “the Swiss K”. First used in 1945, NEMA was a new design by University of Bern professor of mathematics, Captain Arthur Alder, tasked with being harder to crack than its predecessor.
Thanks to Rhea for sharing her pictures and history!
