The solutions, however, were Sanborn’s alone, and he did not share them with Scheidt. “I assumed the first three sections would be deciphered in a matter of weeks, perhaps months,” Sanborn says. Scheidt figured the whole puzzle would be solved in less than seven years.
-Wired Magazine, 04/20/09, http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_kryptos?currentPage=all
What was seven years from the Kryptos install?
1997.
How many letters in the last part?
97.
Significant? Maybe. Depends on how many times they say it would take 7 years. This is probably just another bit of Kryptos randomness. It achieves several things however. After some frustration with my current efforts to solve Kryptos, I needed some form of new direction to take. It also allows me to “file” future solution efforts under a different section. This prevents some sections of this blog from becoming swamped with links and opens the door for some more random efforts.
Is the masking technique known?
I think it was Ed’s idea of a joke, it sounds kind of like nerd humor to me. Not that I don’t think it’s funny, just that it’s the kind of thing “we” think is funny.
I think it’s kind of funny in a way. I was hoping it would mean something but I may be reaching a little too far.
Maybe it’ll take 3 times as long when it gets solved next year.