In at the Sharp End

To launch my new communty service for owners renters and property sellers and seekers I have been thinking of new names and designs for logos and stuff.

Some readers have offered help and support, Vicky - a very professional web-designer has already tidied up my rough ideas.

While I was working on this I found that there are many names for what I call the “hash” sign which is on the ball, including these…

number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp; gate; square; grid; crunch; crosshatch; mesh; flash; square, pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump; splat; hex; grate; reticule; octothorp; oktothorpe. In French it is called a diese.

This research reminded me of some work I did last year on decoding some of the ways the Templars and other “bankers” of the middle ages passed information and transferred money across thousdands of miles at a time when a message had to be physically “carried” and all roads were dangerous.

I believe that there were several keys coded into musical annotation and memorised - many of the words we use for music today have links to this - key, scale and note for example. This was coupled with a repeatable cipher - perhaps using a chessboard or a grid pattern with repeatable conventions so that language and distance would not confuse this in time. The Knights move in chess is an interesting algorithm and can be structured so as to cover all squares without touching the same square twice. The troubadour had half the cipher in music and the Master of the Lodge had the other - they could then transfer money safely from one Lodge to another, if the messanger was “lost” the half cipher was meaningless anyway.

So my new logo may have a lot to do with some mysteries locked up in the South of France and my blue “petanque” ball - could hold the secrets to Rennes le Chateau - what do you think?