Tool
The Code Finder
Search any text for a word spelled out at a fixed skip, then see how many times chance alone should have produced the same hit.
How to read the chance figure
The finder counts how often each letter appears in the text you give it, then works out how many times a word of that length should turn up at skips of 1 up to your limit if the letters were in random order. If you find far more than that, something is going on. If you find about as many, you have found nothing. Try your own name in a long text, then in a shuffled version of the same text.
Goes with
Written in the Open
Real codes, ciphers and hidden messages in old texts, art, music and buildings: the certain ones, the disputed ones, the hoaxes, and how to tell them apart.
About the book