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| '''Elonka Dunin''' (born December, 1958) is an ] ], ], and amateur ] who is an expert on the '']'' sculpture/cipher at the ]'s headquarters. | |||
| == Biography == | |||
| Dunin was born in ], the older of two children to ], a ]-American ], and ], a ]n-American ] and dance ] at ]. | |||
| Dunin's interest in computers started as a child when her father, who worked at companies such as the Space Systems Division of ], took her to his office in the 1960s. There Dunin played with large ]s such as the ] and ]. She learned her first programming language, ], while still in elementary school. Dunin graduated in 1976 from ] and went on to study Astronomy at ]. Then she joined the ], where she worked as an ] technician at ] in the United Kingdom, and ] in California, maintaining ] cargo planes, and ] and ] reconnaissance aircraft. After the USAF, she traveled the world working at a variety of jobs, ranging from a ] in ] to an ] in ]. | |||
| In the ], Dunin became involved with the growing ] culture, and in 1989, while working as a temporary legal secretary in ], this overlapped into the early ] games such as ] on ] and ]' ] on ]. In 1990, she moved to ] and began working for Simutronics. | |||
| Dunin speaks several languages, and has traveled to every continent including ], which she visited in 1999 with an expedition organized by Dr. ] of the ].<ref></ref> | |||
| == Game developer == | |||
| Since 1990, Dunin has worked at ] in ], in game development. | |||
| In 1993, their game '']'' won the first ever "Online Game of the Year" award from '']'' magazine, and contracts soon followed with ], ] and ]. In 1997, Simutronics launched its own website, play.net.<ref></ref> | |||
| Dunin was the product manager for '']'', executive producer for the ] and ]-based multiplayer game ''Alliance of Heroes'', and worked on the development of most of Simutronics' other products, including '']'', '']'', '']'', and the upcoming '']''. Her current title is "General Manager of Online Community." | |||
| She is also a founding member of the ]'s ] ], and senior editor of some of their annual White Papers on various aspects of the online game industry. | |||
| == Cryptographer == | |||
| ] | |||
| Dunin began achieving public recognition for her cryptography hobby in 2000, when she was awarded a prize for cracking the ] v3.0 Code, designed by ]. In 2002, she was invited to speak at ] headquarters regarding ] and ] codes.<ref></ref> During this visit she began a closer study of the Agency's '']'' sculpture. She started a small personal website with her notes, and early in 2003 published a new type of solution technique for part 3 that supplied a possible "pencil and paper" method for solving it -- all previous published solutions had involved complicated mathematical formulae. Dunin then began to build a website compiling all of the works of the ''Kryptos'' sculptor, ]. Also in 2003, Dunin organized an effort to solve the code on a ''Kryptos'' sister sculpture, the '']'', which succeeded in September 2003 after the cryptographic portion was cracked by Frank Corr of North Carolina.<ref></ref> | |||
| These events, plus hints referring to ''Kryptos'' on the bookjacket of ]'s 2003 bestseller '']'', steadily increased the visibility of Dunin's growing website, which became the most-used source for information about the CIA sculpture, even more popular than the CIA's own website.<ref></ref> | |||
| In late 2003, Dunin published a webpage entitled "Elonka's list of Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers", which ranked the most famous ciphers in the world such as the ], the ], the ], ''Kryptos'', and others. | |||
| In January 2005, a high-profile article appeared in ] about ''Kryptos'', and more major media attention followed, including segments by ], ], UK's ], France's ], and many others. As of February 2006, Dunin's websites have had hundreds of thousands of visitors, and over 1.5 million page views. | |||
| In mid-2005, Dunin was approached by the British publisher ] about compiling ''The Mammoth Book of Secret Code Puzzles'', which was released in both the United States (with publisher ]) and United Kingdom in March 2006. | |||
| == Public speaker == | |||
| Dunin is a member of the ] and the ]. Along with speaking to government agencies such as the ], ], and ], Dunin is a frequent speaker on cryptography and online games at conferences such as ], ], ], ], ], and the ], and has thrice been invited to be a co-host on the ] webcast. | |||
| == Works == | |||
| * ''The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms'', US ISBN 0-7867-1726-2, was released April 2006.<ref></ref> | |||
| :: The UK title of the book is: ''The Mammoth Book of Secret Code Puzzles'', UK ISBN 1-84529-325-8 | |||
| * (editor) IGDA Online Games White Paper, 2002. | |||
| * (editor) IGDA Online Games White Paper, 2003. | |||
| * (senior editor) IGDA Web & Downloadable Games White Paper, 2004. | |||
| * (senior editor) IGDA Persistent Worlds White Paper, 2004. | |||
| === Games === | |||
| * Orb Wars - Product Manager | |||
| * ] (Classic) - Developer, and voice talent | |||
| * ] - Product Manager | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * Hercules & Xena: Alliance of Heroes - Executive producer | |||
| * ] - Developer, and voice talent | |||
| * ] (upcoming) | |||
| === Contributor/Consultant === | |||
| Dunin is quoted or thanked for contributions in the following books: | |||
| * ]'s ''Community Building on the Web : Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities'', 2000, Peachpit Press. ISBN 0-201-87484-9 | |||
| * ]'s ''Character Development and Storytelling for Games (Game Development Series)'', 2004, Course Technology PTR. ISBN 1-59200-353-2 | |||
| == Trivia == | |||
| Dunin has several notable relatives.<ref></ref> They include: | |||
| * ] (father), ] who helped launch the world's first ] ] | |||
| * ] (mother), professor at ], dance ] | |||
| * ] (cousin), ] | |||
| * ] (cousin), ]-winning author of '']'' | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| <references /> | |||
| == References == | |||
| * ''St. Charles Journal'', January 9, 1994, "Games People Play" | |||
| * , May 2002 | |||
| * ''Cleveland Free Times'', January 9, 2002, (archive copy) | |||
| * '']'', June 19, 2002 | |||
| * '']'', January 26, 2005 | |||
| * , January 2003 | |||
| * '']'', October 8, 2003, (archive copy) | |||
| * '']'', October 10, 2003, (archive copy) | |||
| * ''Woman's World'' magazine, March 16, 2004, (archive copy) | |||
| * '']'', May 27, 2005, | |||
| * ], June 19, 2005, | |||
| * UK's '']'', June 11, 2005 | |||
| * 7 July 2006 radio interview by ] | |||
| * | |||
| == External links == | |||
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