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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/24/2005 :  20:18:20  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Okay, folks. As a continuation of this thread, and hopefully allowing for more participation, I invite everyone to offer puzzles, either of their own creation, or favorites from whenever/wherever.

I'll start off with one I've made tonight: What is the secret word?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.

Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist

USA
4955 Posts

Posted - 06/24/2005 :  20:34:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Cuneiformist a Private Message
It wouldn't be "fuck, I don't know how to figure this out" would it? Oh-- that's not a word. But it's a string of words. Does that count?
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/24/2005 :  20:39:51   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
No, to both questions.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2005 :  09:33:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
icenter?
trophy?

Are you saying I didn't have to map that damn thing out?


Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
Edited by - Ricky on 06/25/2005 09:34:19
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the_ignored
SFN Addict

2562 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2005 :  13:07:30   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send the_ignored a Private Message
Bleep that! I'm not even going to try it until I get some graph paper, so's I don't keep making my "lines" too damn long. That's messing me up.

>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.

What brought that on? this. Original posting here.

Another example of this guy's lunacy here.
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GeeMack
SFN Regular

USA
1093 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2005 :  14:54:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send GeeMack a Private Message
I don't want to give away the answer, but it's like way cool, like 60s man, like tie dyed and paisley. How about I provide a little clue. The matrix is 30 cells by 39 cells. So the graph paper doesn't have to be too large. But, and this is a big but, which cell should you start in?
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GeeMack
SFN Regular

USA
1093 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2005 :  15:46:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send GeeMack a Private Message
More puzzles...

There's a popular treasure hunt game called Geocaching. It's played using GPS, or Global Positioning System receivers. I'm sure some of you are already familiar with the game, and some of you probably even play. For those who don't know of it, it's sort of an Easter egg hunt for us big kids. The "egg" is hidden at some particular geographical coordinates, those coordinates are posted on a central web site, and other players use their GPS receivers to go out and locate the "egg". It isn't quite as easy as it sounds, though, because the hidden item might be as small as a 35mm film canister, and the GPS receiver can only get you within about a 30 foot radius of the actual coordinates.

There is a variety of challenges that can be applied when hiding the treasure to make it more difficult or more fun for the participants. I've hidden a few of these Geocaches within several miles of where I live in Peoria, Illinois, USA. To make it more interesting I've created puzzles and riddles that must be solved in order to get the actual coordinates pointing to the locations of my hidden caches.

Generally we use coordinates specified in degrees, minutes, and thousandths of minutes. There is a north/south coordinate and an east/west coordinate required to pinpoint the location of any cache. In North America we only have to consider a north and a west coordinate, because we're north of the equator and west of the prime meridian. Coordinates for finding caches in the USA usually look something like: NXX°XX.XXX' WXX°XX.XXX', with the X's being replaced by the appropriate digits, of course.

Although most of you don't live where it would be practical to actually hunt the Geocaches I've hidden, I thought you may enjoy solving the puzzles and riddles that go along with them. Your final answers to each puzzle will essentially be a pair of 7 or 8 digit numbers. You can find the listings for my caches here: GeeMack's Hidden Geocaches

Some of them are pretty easy, and some might prove a bit more daunting. If you solve these puzzles you can post your answers here, or send them to me in a Private Message so everyone else gets a chance to try.

You can find everything you want to know about the hobby/sport of Geocaching here: The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2005 :  16:39:22   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

icenter?
trophy?
No, no.

GeeMack sent me the correct answer in a PM.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2005 :  22:11:29   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

Are you saying I didn't have to map that damn thing out?
Hey, why the heck aren't you working on the previous code, anyway? No trying to answer the maze puzzle until you've done the other thing.

Oh, that's for Ricky only. The rest of you can puzzle out whatever you feel like.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 06/26/2005 :  21:31:01   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Alright, Dave, I guess one puzzle at a time is the best way to do it.

Dave's code:

quote:
59 36 1A 52 55 17 45 52 1B 0E 0F 1C 58 0C 72 3B 0A 08 12 55 0C 69 69 53 1B 07 1A 19 08 44 48 09 17 13 45 54 1C 07 1A 12 0F 1C 54 41 03 0D 1A 01 54 54 1C 0D 45 4C 0D 02 08 4B 4F 09 46 41 41 53 03 19 02 0E 45 49 07 4E 54 1C 0D 45 4C 09 11 00 11 17 5F 4B 14 17 14 04 10 0B 0D 1A 59 53 07 01 13 00 46 41 12 53 49 07 0A 0D 0A 02 15 1D 07 09 47 41 41 4C 0D 02 08 4B 4F 09 46 53 03 11 02 06 16 5D 0E 00 69 69 54 1C 07 1A 12 0F 1C 54 4F 09 46 49 1D 54 54 1C 01 1A 53 4C 0D 12 07 54 54 1D 04 08 49 0C 48 07 18 12 13 13 17 5E 0C 41 0F 0A 44 49 1D 54 48 0D 09 1C 15 01 44 41 41 47 15 17 04 15 54 44 01 04 0D 42 0E 61 2F 0A 44 4E 01 43 0C 4E 01 4F 53 0A 0A 07 11 08 4D 69 6E 4A 4D 41 16 16 13 17 45 4F 09 46 54 1C 09 15 54 54 06 13 0F 1D 1E 04 1D 07 53 49 07 4E 62 23 14 11 0B 1B 54 41 02 17 01 14 0D 00 15 59 55 06 16 01 44 15 18 4F 0B 1D 54 4D 08 08 02 1D 0B 59 4F 1D 52 41 0F 17 0D 1C 01 07 09 47 4C 05 02 0E 45 54 1C 09 15 5A 0E 00 62 23 14 11 0B 1B 54 49 1A 53 4A 1F 06 07 54 41 41 54 06 13 0F 1D 1E 04 1A 00 1A 06 01 4E 53 03 15 06 0A 0F 0F 0A 02 15 1D 06 01 42 0C 4E 01 1B 54 55 06 16 01 44 46 09 1D 52 53 07 1B 1D 13 06 02 4B 0E 62 3B 59 54 1C 0D 45 57 16 18 55 0C 69 6E 51 13 45 47 08 1B 54 41 41 43 0C 1A 05 1C 09 45 4F 09 46 43 0C 0B 01 16 53 69 69 57 16 0F 1A 54 54 1B 4F 54 06 0B 59 4F 1A 01 54 4F 01 4E 59 16 1A 59 0C 42 17 01 54 54 1C 1A 1D 1A 12 0F 48 57 1F 01 0A 0B 48 69 69 57 18 01 49 53 54 42 07 45 41 03 0E 09 45 54 1B 4F 45 0B 0D 0C 0B 01 45 54 1C 0D 16 16 45 4C 0D 13 15 02 45 41 0C 02 1A 1B 1A 07 53 4F 09 46 54 11 1D 0C 58 0C 53 1C 4F 46 09 1D 15 0E 1F 13 45 4D 08 45 49 0F 46 69 69 42 07 06 0C 02 08 45 02 50 17 11 1D 0A 06 0B 1A 56 02 49 07 4E 54 1C 0D 45 4E 0B 04 13 52 46 13 01 01 07 17 4B


Alright, so here is what I have figured out so far:

1.) The number 84 occurs 36 times out of 568 characters, and it is the most frequently occuring number. This (unfortunately) means that multiple bit values are used to represent the same character. However, this does eliminate the use of any standard coding messages such as Baudot or Morse, as those are always 1-1.
2.) Here are some statistics I have made regarding the frequency of certain numbers:

quote:

0-9: 119
Percent: 20.9139
10-19: 105
Percent: 18.4534
20-29: 110
Percent: 19.3322
30-39: 7
Percent: 1.23023
40-49: 1
Percent: 0.175747
50-59: 3
Percent: 0.527241
60-69: 53
Percent: 9.31459
70-79: 70
Percent: 12.3023
80-89: 78
Percent: 13.7083
90-99: 8
Percent: 1.40598
100-109: 12
Percent: 2.10896
110-119: 3
Percent: 0.527241



Notice, 60% of characters occur from 0-29, and 35% from 60-89. This implies the characters are in fact somehow grouped. At first I thought this meant that you were using some sort of rotating key value (is that the right name?), but I've moved away from that.

3.) It can't be bit shifts (excpet XOR) as the presence of 00 and FF eliminate that possibility. Using any AND bit shift value with 00 will always give you 00, and the same thing with OR and FF. And besdies, you have already done that.

4.) Assuming that each two hex symbols represents one character, that means you have typed 568 characters, while our average is only 385.857. And considering my last message was rather long, I would imagine your repsonse would be as well. But I could be wrong here.

So I'm ready for my first hint: do every two hex digits stand for one character?

I would like to predit that it is in fact two hex digits for each character.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
Edited by - Ricky on 06/26/2005 21:34:02
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 06/26/2005 :  21:58:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
quote:
I've hidden a few of these Geocaches within several miles of where I live in Peoria, Illinois, USA


Peoria.... hehe.

I have a bunch of dumb redneck relatives in that part of the world. Just shift a few miles west to Galesburg.

I avoid the place except during duck, goose, and deer seasons, and the occasional turkey season.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2005 :  09:24:50   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Yes, Ricky, "59" respresents one character, "36" another, "1A" another, etc.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie

USA
4826 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2005 :  09:31:56   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Valiant Dancer's Homepage Send Valiant Dancer a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by GeeMack

I've hidden a few of these Geocaches within several miles of where I live in Peoria, Illinois, USA. To make it more interesting I've created puzzles and riddles that must be solved in order to get the actual coordinates pointing to the locations of my hidden caches.




I've read of Geocacheing before. Someone did a blog of interesting but little know sites where he placed a commerative coin.

Peoria.... I got my first wife from there. I still haven't forgiven the place for that.

Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils

Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 07/08/2005 :  17:10:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
12226002 01005021 10100200 14601000 10010202 11002360 41010036 01401000 10011100 23600130 02200021 01210100 20200260 01301000 26023021 10301010 00102302 12600021 01000100 11100236 01030410 02010014 60101102 11002010 02010410 20010212 10037622 26002202 11041024 60013014 02126100 03604100 20260013 01402126 00501000 10010010 21100236 00201000 21010110 32010001 01046010 30121011 01021260 00210100 01001126 00100101 00010011 10103024 60011100 20102126 01000101 00360426 03010410 10303010 01110103 04100130 10001002 31003762 21001460 01001041 00201010 03200100 14600130 12101030 10462226 04103010 01300111 04101030 10300022 60010010 21101002 00146032 04103010 11026041 01002024 60022021 10410246 00021010 00100111 00236010 11021100 20100201 04102001 02126001 30140410 01462226 02020121 02001001 11002202 11024601 00010011 10014600 13014041 00146012 10014600 10010410 02026001 30140212 61042000 11236012 10013002 01021101 03020371 42226001 30140100 01001110 20010140 01460203 14000512 26001001 04100202 60013014 02126020 20011101 00203010 01301210 10001010 03603200 02260010 01014012 10301015 60013014 02126104 20001123 60010204 10103001 11021260 01001041 00202602 30211020 20121010 02021102 41046010 02010001 00146001 30140212 60100010 01110013 00500111 00141221 00376420 01110014 60410100 20002100 10010410 00210020 21003100 31005151 24204100 11102301 00010014 60121002 02603010 21100220 01304101 21010020 10300022 60410100 36012101 00200130 21100220 21100201 00130121 01002020 02603010 10001023 02121046 03200111 00146222 60230100 01001110 32001462 22200101 03010460 21100102 02110023 60020102 11021260 12100146 01210100 36001110 02010212 10037611 30140212 60301010 00101011 03201210 10020410 01301210 10001010 03601000 10203601 40121020 01014021 10023603 01010001 01002010 02021103 01001301 21010001 01003600 20100502 11021102 30020260 41010020 24600130 14021260 10020211 02110246 02020100 01002360 10110100 01002202 12600201 00502110 30101210 41010460 30101404 10022041 03010013 02110022 00202601 40410020 26010110 41023021 26420410 01110230 10001001 46005002 20211001 30013000 22601011 00111030 10156042 60013014 01210100 20200260 10001020 36001301 40212600 50410020 10014100 51512200 20100010 01002600 13014021 10020102 12603010 10001023 02110020 21046000 21010001 00112603 01041010 03200100 14600111 00201021 26042603 01010001 01011005 00111001 30211002 36001301 00026023 01000272 00102110 10120000 02765100 14601030 21104100 20100141 04600130 14041001 42001002 02601401 00010010 02622260 12101002 00130211 00220050 02202110 01460002 10100010 01126010 02010001 00146032 02110121 01002020 02604103 20103021 26001301 00026023 01000260 10304100 22020010 21260410 10110100 01001110 10020013 00202601 00010203 60013021 10004001 41003764 20011100 14622260 20010011 10211002 01002026 22220010 10301046 00201021 10212600 10010140 41001460 00210100 01001126 01011021 10410100 36002010 10001010 00101003 10051512 20001015 10460410 10020246 01210100 36001301 40212600 10010100 01002202 30020260 10001020 36212010 00101401 00362101 02110022 00220002 21047324 20022012 10100202 00260121 00146010 00101003 1003334

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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furshur
SFN Regular

USA
1536 Posts

Posted - 07/11/2005 :  10:57:03   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send furshur a Private Message
Dave I am not even going to try to do that puzzle because the simple fact is a spiders cannot walk backwards! If you'll notice the spider is facing the wrong way to be able to move down the corridor.



If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 07/11/2005 :  15:17:58   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
What the hell is the significance of the trophy?

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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