Corvulus Morti

This is a very fun implicit question!

First, in decimal, there are 10 symbols: 0-9. When we count from 0 to 9, the next number is 10, not 00 (which is equivalent to 0).

In base 26, there are 26 symbols (A-Z). If one wanted to use these symbols in the same way, A would be equivalent to 0, so 26 is represented by BA, not AA. However, if AA is not the same as A, then we can represent 26 as AA instead of BA.

Basically, in our typical numbering system, the leading digit can’t be 0, so there are 9×10 possible two digit numbers, and 10 possible single digit numbers. However, if the first digit can be 0, meaning, for example, if 03 is not the same as 3, there are 10×10 possible two digit numbers. This second approach is what excel and google sheets use. Column A is not the same as column AA. Hence, you start with single digit column numbers (A-Z). Then you move to two digit column numbers (AA-ZZ), of which there are 26². The last column before triple digits is column 26+26²=702. The first triple digit column number is 26+26²+1=703. Neat!

Comparing this to our system, the first 2 digit number is 10¹=10. The first 3 digit number is 10²=100. The first 4 digit number is 10³=1000.

Article says he used it to help plan the attack. Poorly worded title, but the generative AI is related.