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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: Project Syzygy Pre-Game
[UPDATE] Postcard
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firefox
Unfettered

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 333

 		ok this is pretty crazy then. not only is it very difficult to decode it with a known binary-morse value, but now we do not even know if we have the right one, do we convert pairs, sets of 3 or 4 or what? as seej pointed out, the base10 to base2 conversion would be diff in each case.

maybe - split the big number into digits of 4, 2215, 4548, 4848, etc. just like the 2210 was done for us. then convert each of these to base 2 (separately) okay this can be further converted into morse. now we have 6 individual sets of morse, each which may be one word or more. these are still hard to decode, but much easier that all the stuff i was trying to do before.


2215
100010100111
-...-.-..---


4548
1000111000100
-...---...-..

4848
1001011110000
-..-.----....

4651
1001000101011
-..-...-.-.--


0050
110010
--..-.

3215
110010001111
--..-...----

okay this is one of many possible options. remember it would be different if the number was decoded whole, or split up differently etc.

oh and also:


.- A --. G -- M ... S -.-- Y
-... B .... H -. N - T --.. Z
-.-. C .. I --- O ..- U
-.. D .--- J .--. P ...- V
. E -.- K --.- Q .-- W
..-. F .-.. L .-. R -..- X

enjoy Razz

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:34 am
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RI_Barnica
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Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 124

 		Date on the postcard
So, the PMs are based out of the UK, but the date on the postcard reads "November 23 2004". Wouldn't the UK version of the date be 24 November, 2004? Or does that only apply to numerical date formats?

Its probably nothing, but... one more thing to keep in mind for later.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:41 pm
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Olorin
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Joined: 04 Nov 2004
Posts: 613
Location: Gainesville, FL

 		Re: Date on the postcard
RI_Barnica wrote:
So, the PMs are based out of the UK, but the date on the postcard reads "November 23 2004". Wouldn't the UK version of the date be 24 November, 2004? Or does that only apply to numerical date formats?

Its probably nothing, but... one more thing to keep in mind for later.


Yeah, well, but they might have asked for help in producing the postcards to someone based in the US, who instinctevily wrote the date as we see it...

(...brief moment of silence...avoid talking about the way US people write dates...avoid mentioning it's really, really, wyrd...move on...)

11 23 2004
vs
23 11 2004

No, I don't see anything in the difference...
I program too much, and like to see dates in this order:
2004-11-23

Good call, though,
F.O.R.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:48 pm
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Rygar
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Joined: 29 Dec 2004
Posts: 3

 		Hello,

from thehuttofamily Perplexcity website a link points to Rudyards Pub in Houston. Clicking About shows some pictures of the Pub itself with the address 2010 on the front side. Perhaps 2210 is somewhere in that area ?

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:38 am
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Olorin
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Joined: 04 Nov 2004
Posts: 613
Location: Gainesville, FL
Rygar wrote:
Hello,

from thehuttofamily Perplexcity website a link points to Rudyards Pub in Houston. Clicking About shows some pictures of the Pub itself with the address 2010 on the front side. Perhaps 2210 is somewhere in that area ?


Hi Rygar,
could you post a link to the wbsite you ar ereferring to, please ?

Thank you,
F.O.R.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:35 am
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Rygar
Greenhorn

Joined: 29 Dec 2004
Posts: 3

 		Link:

http://thehuttofamily.com --> Partners

There exists also a locked huttofamily thread in this board here, perhaps the thread has been locked a little bit to early

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:06 am
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Olorin
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Joined: 04 Nov 2004
Posts: 613
Location: Gainesville, FL
Rygar wrote:
Link:

http://thehuttofamily.com --> Partners

There exists also a locked huttofamily thread in this board here, perhaps the thread has been locked a little bit to early


Thanks.

At first look I managed to get to:
http://thehuttofamily.com/filesarehere
and be slapped by a log-in dialog box (win-based log-in, sheeeesh, not even a web page asking me to log in Smile

Hmmm......that whole site is somehow odd, but I think the community decided it was off game due to the dates on the site (2002)...

...hmmmmmm......

F.O.R.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:47 am
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Milady
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Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 13

 		If you search past threads, you will find two regarding the hutto family site. They have both been locked as we already decided this was definitely out of game Smile
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:59 pm
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drizjr
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Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700

 		A question for greater minds
"One last thing - it all begins with AADAA..."

Remember that from the series of email exchanges discovered back in March? (Geeze, that was nearly a year ago!) AnthraX101's post of them can be found here followed by a description of the likely source of AADAA.
So, I was wondering, could AADAA, the Riemann zeta function, or the concept of it used in "Cryptonomicon", somehow be applied to decrypt the long number under the semacode?

EDIT: shazbut posted about AADAA here.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:30 pm
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Seej
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Joined: 30 Nov 2004
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 		Just a quick note - the Riemann Zeta function is just a mathematical function for generating (pseudo) random data given some sort of seed string (COMSTOCK being the seed Waterhouse uses in Cryptonomicon). It's not especially easy to turn your random noise back into the seed string. And since (with the 484848 and the fact that there's no 9s etc.) the number doesn't seem random it's unlikely that this has been used (thankfully, because cracking something like that is waaaaaay beyond me Wink ).

I've been holding off analysing the string as if it were a Vigenere or Solitaire ciphertext just because it's not obvious what the key is but I think I'll give it a go later today. Any suggestions what a key might be (I was thinking of trying 2210 or AADAA and using my previous work on turning the numbers into letters here, here and here as the ciphertext)? Will most probably give me yet more gibberish but it's worth a try.....

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:47 am
Last edited by Seej on Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:11 pm; edited 1 time in total
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WolverineFan
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Joined: 30 Dec 2004
Posts: 192
Location: Michigan/USA
Seej wrote:
I've been holding off analysing the string as if it were a Vigenere or Solitaire ciphertext just because it's not obvious what the key is but I think I'll give it a go later today. Any suggestions what a key might be (I was thinking of trying 2210 or AADAA and using my previous work on turning the numbers into letters here, here and here as the ciphertext). Will most probably give me yet more gibberish but it's worth a try.....


Newbie here, so sorry if someone else has already tried this. I read through this thread and didn't see a mention though. I was thinking that the vertical text down the center of the postcard was a bit odd and wonderered if the "stamp" number might be offsets into that instead of the main text. I suppose the text at the bottom of the card could be tried also. I gave it a whirl but I'm sure I messed up somewhere since I did it by hand. I might try writing a little script to do it for me later.

I'm not really a crypto person so I'm hoping this leads someone wiser down a useful path Very Happy

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 12:41 pm
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WolverineFan
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Joined: 30 Dec 2004
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Location: Michigan/USA
WolverineFan wrote:

Newbie here, so sorry if someone else has already tried this. I read through this thread and didn't see a mention though. I was thinking that the vertical text down the center of the postcard was a bit odd and wonderered if the "stamp" number might be offsets into that instead of the main text. I suppose the text at the bottom of the card could be tried also. I gave it a whirl but I'm sure I messed up somewhere since I did it by hand. I might try writing a little script to do it for me later.


Gibberish any way I slice it... Hope this doesn't count as brute force Smile Here's what I tried:
o The strings:
'Image on reverse: \'Perplex City Sleeps\' (artist unknown), #02 in a series of postcards depicting the city at night. The full set is available from the Academy gift shop.',
'Despite heightened security Academy tours are still running twice daily from gatehouse twelve. Advance booking essential.',
'Adamek Carrick Delaney Kermeen Noi Taversen Zeller quaerere initium sapientiae',
'quaerere initium sapientiae Adamek Carrick Delaney Kermeen Noi Taversen Zeller',
'November 23 2004 My friends - I need your help. Cube - Missing. Presumed Stolen. Not enough room to explain here. Too risky. Your assistance will be rewarded. More contact to follow - stay alert. Yours in hope, Sente',
'My friends - I need your help.Cube - Missing.Presumed Stolen.Not enough room to explain here.Too risky.Your assistance will be rewarded.More contact to follow - stay alert. Yours in hope, Sente',
'November 23 2004My friends - I need your help.Cube - Missing.Presumed Stolen.Not enough room to explain here.Too risky.Your assistance will be rewarded.More contact to follow - stay alert. Yours in hope, Sente',

o I tried starting the count from 0 and 1 for the first letter of each string, though since one of the pairs is 00 it's unlikely that would be useful.
o I tried using an offset of 2, 2, 1, 0, 22, 10 to each string. I also tried doing that starting with 1 as the first character.
o I tried with all punctuation (including spaces), without spaces, without any punctuation at all
o I tried with and without ROT-13 too (just to be safe). I think I did the ROT right, I rotated each letter character 13 places and ignored non-letter characters. (as I said, not a crypto person)

There were something like 400 combinations total, nothing but gibberish. I'd post the results but I don't think it'll help anyone. If anyone wants to see the results or has a suggestion for something else I should try let me know. Especially if you see any typos in my source strings... That would be bad.

One quick note: The WIKI has a typo in the vertical string, it says "hightened" but the card actually says "heightened". Could have been important if I was on to something Smile

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:23 pm
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StarryNight
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Joined: 16 Dec 2004
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Location: New Hampshire

 		How about trying the text of the letter on www.perplexcity.com? Also, the "I had thought" text http://www.perplexcity.com/2718281828/. Thanks for doing this, I was about to go back to doing this some more. Razz
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 3:40 pm
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BoBzOmBiE
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Joined: 30 Nov 2004
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Location: Somewhere beneath the underpass

 		Just beeen through the binary/morse code of the first four digit portion of the 24 digit number. 4 sheets of a4, and 2 hours later results in nothing more than (and these are the only ones pronounceable) "decam" or "dennam", or "Near am", or "nicam", or "Nike am", or "nikit", or "nikum", or "nite do", or "nite neo". So either, i've missed something, the person who encrypted this has poor english skills, they like stereo equipment, or this doesn't work. I'll try some of the other bits of the sequence and see what i get out.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:18 pm
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WolverineFan
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Joined: 30 Dec 2004
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Location: Michigan/USA
StarryNight wrote:
How about trying the text of the letter on www.perplexcity.com? Also, the "I had thought" text http://www.perplexcity.com/2718281828/. Thanks for doing this, I was about to go back to doing this some more. Razz


Ok, here are the new strings I've tried (if you have a sec, please check for typos):
'KEEP THAT WHICH YOU VALUE CLOSE; BETTER TO BE VIGILANT THAN TO RELY UPON THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS. -- UNKNOWN, PERPLEX CITY, 179 BC',
'CYNICISM IS NOT, IT MUST BE SAID, AN ALTOGETHER ADMIRABLE TRAIT. THUS, DESPITE THE PROVERBIAL WARNING, I NOW OFFER MY HAND IN FRIENDSHIP AND HOPE, RELYING ON YOUR KINDNESS. MY NAME IS SENTE. I WISH I WERE WRITING IN HAPPIER TIMES.',
'MY PEOPLE HAVE LOST SOMETHING. SOMETHING IMPORTANT AND SOMETHING THAT WE SHOULD RIGHTFULLY HAVE KEPT CLOSE TO HAND. SOMETHING WHOS VALUE TO US IS IMMEASURABLE, BOTH MATERIALLY AND SYMBOLICALLY.',
'THERE IS COMPELLING EVIDENCE THAT AN UNKNOWN PARTY HAS TAKEN THE 01234567 CUBE AND CONCEALED IT SOMEWHERE IN YOUR WORLD. AS FAR AS "HIDE AND SEEK" GAMES GO, I IMAGINE THAT THIS IS AN ALL-TIME RECORD. BUT THIS IS NOT A GAME.',
'I REALISE THIS COMMUNICATION RAISES MORE QUESTIONS THAN IT PROVIDES ANSWERS. AT THIS MOMENT, THOUGH, PATIENCE MUST BE YOUR MOST VALUED ASSET. I AM MARSHELLING ALL OF MY CITY\'S RESOURCES TO PROVIDE YOU WITH ENOUGH INFORMATION TO SUCCEED IN THE TASK I HAVE PUT TO YOU. WHEN MY PEOPLE ARE READY, WE WILL CONTACT YOU.',
'PLEASE, HELP ME FIND THE CUBE AND RETURN IT TO ITS RIGHTFUL OWNERS. THE FINDER WILL BE AWARDED PERPLEX CITY\'S HIGHEST HONOUR AND RECEIVE A SUBSTANTIAL FINANCIAL REWARD.',
'FIND THE CUBE. RETURN IT. MAY YOU SUCCEED WHERE I AND MY COLLEAGUES HAVE FAILED.',
'I HAD THOUGHT: I trust what I see; my eyes are my own. MY SENSES ARE INFALLIBLE. I WAS WRONG. I can no longer trust that which I witness. I shall not put stock in images lit up before me. I MUST HOLD IT. I MUST HAVE IT IN MY BARE HANDS. - S. Marchant; 148 AC; City Archives',

Tantalizingly, the only string that I got that wasn't complete gibberish was this:
GOSEEEOIPHGO
Which comes from the 2nd paragraph ('MY PEOPLE HAVE LOST SOMETHING') with an offset of 2. So the 22 of the 2210. But it's probably just a fluke and I doubt that either of these means anything really:
GO SEE EOIPHGO
GO SEE EOIPH GO

And either way, what's the 10 about? Smile

Anything else I should try?

[edit: Forgot to mention, I did try 10eoiph, 10eoiphgo, eoiph, and eoiphgo at tinyurl just for fun... Nothing.]
[edit2: I'm going to try reversing all the resulting strings too, just to see if there's something backwards in there]
[edit3: Nope, nothing backwards...]

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 5:35 pm
Last edited by WolverineFan on Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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