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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Orbital Colony » Orbital Colony: General/Updates
[SOLVED] [PUZZLE] Steven Mae's directory
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Abraxas
Unfettered

Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Posts: 736
Location: Cologne, Germany
crouchosarus wrote:
i don't quite understand even letters

Give letters the numerical value for their position in the alphabet, like A=1, B=2 and so on.

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:29 pm
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tom_in_bristol
Veteran


Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 71
Location: bristol, UK

 		baffling....
sea_freq.jpg
 Description   Letter frequencies explained in the form of a funky graphical aid
 Filesize   40.73KB
 Viewed   138 Time(s)

sea_freq.jpg

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:41 pm
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Dionysus
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Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Posts: 612
Location: Philadelphia Area

 		Ladies and Gentlemen, its time for ideas so crazy they might be on to something!

Now, we have that number, the 21st from our puzzle..

Searching for it through the blogs, I found Davina's entry about Orbicon's getting hacked. The 21st was the Monday following the over-the-weekend hack and the date that the site was restored. This lead me to wondering... could the hack have NOT been by CARTS (they actually did say they had nothing to do with it), but been by Steven instead? Now I looked trough my files, I see that audio file that we never really solved. Could THAT have something to do with this?

Another thought brought up by this is Johnathan Reinhardt. Did he really resign? Was he indeed fired as many suspect? If so was he just an innocent victem or was he working with Steven at all?

I'm emailling Seth a note updating him on our progress with this puzzle (the odd setup of the ciphertext.. the lack of odd letters and that funny middle part, etc) and I'll also ask him to look into Johnathan a bit, in case it's relevant after all.

Note: I still havent heard from Seth in response to the email I sent him right arfter he left to go see Bronco. I hope he's alright
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:48 pm
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		crossposting
This update to Seth's journal seems relevant to this puzzle.
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:09 am
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mapmaker
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Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 608
Location: Providence, RI, USA

 		So I decide to go to sleep, when it hits me.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The thing that's encrypted is the first paragraph. Each ciphertext letter stands for TWO plaintext letters. The decoding goes

A->B, B->D, C->F, D->H, etc, etc, M->Z, N->B, O->D, etc. So both 'A' and 'N' become 'B', etc.

So that's fine. Except as people have already mentioned, there's a ten-letter segment where there aren't 'even letters' (i.e. BDFHJ...) - it's the ciphertext KUKSZUWKMW. Well, that comes in at the point of the name Rajasinghe in the text.

I've already tried e-mailing rajasingheSPLATmaefamily.info, kukszuwkmwSPLATmaefamily.info, jbtblrbnpjSPLATmaefamily.info (jbtblrbnpj being what Rajasinghe would be in the original cipher), and vpvlzptvztSPLATmaefamily.info (vpvlzptvzt being what kukszuwkmw would be encoded in the cipher) to no avail. I also tried bbjzdbjSPLATmaefamily.info ('anemone' encoded) and pfhbnjhSPLATmaefamily.info ('updated' encoded), also with no luck. I'm less than confident about randomly trying things, but hey, who knows.

Also: Googling 'Rajasinghe' finds that the name is shared with a Sri Lankan king. I don't know if that's relevant, but it's true.

Note: There are seemingly a few mistakes in the ciphertext - the phrase "invariably opened" is shy two letters (it's missing the ending JH), and there's an extra H in the coding in between "he" and "had" right after "surprised". But it works fine otherwise.


PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:28 am
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Sin Vraal
Decorated


Joined: 28 Nov 2002
Posts: 219
Location: NJ
mapmaker wrote:
So I decide to go to sleep, when it hits me.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The thing that's encrypted is the first paragraph. Each ciphertext letter stands for TWO plaintext letters. The decoding goes

A->B, B->D, C->F, D->H, etc, etc, M->Z, N->B, O->D, etc. So both 'A' and 'N' become 'B', etc.

So that's fine. Except as people have already mentioned, there's a ten-letter segment where there aren't 'even letters' (i.e. BDFHJ...) - it's the ciphertext KUKSZUWKMW. Well, that comes in at the point of the name Rajasinghe in the text.

I've already tried e-mailing rajasingheSPLATmaefamily.info, kukszuwkmwSPLATmaefamily.info, jbtblrbnpjSPLATmaefamily.info (jbtblrbnpj being what Rajasinghe would be in the original cipher), and vpvlzptvztSPLATmaefamily.info (vpvlzptvzt being what kukszuwkmw would be encoded in the cipher) to no avail. I also tried bbjzdbjSPLATmaefamily.info ('anemone' encoded) and pfhbnjhSPLATmaefamily.info ('updated' encoded), also with no luck. I'm less than confident about randomly trying things, but hey, who knows.

Also: Googling 'Rajasinghe' finds that the name is shared with a Sri Lankan king. I don't know if that's relevant, but it's true.

Note: There are seemingly a few mistakes in the ciphertext - the phrase "invariably opened" is shy two letters (it's missing the ending JH), and there's an extra H in the coding in between "he" and "had" right after "surprised". But it works fine otherwise.


Why not post your translation?

PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:02 am
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Caspian
Decorated


Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 265
Location: Milwaukee

 		Just to be clear, I had NO part in discovering this cipher solution, I just am carifying mapmaker's solution and posting the translation as Sin requested.

Since there are (for the most part) only even-numbered letters in the cipher text (B, D, F, H...), to recreate the cipher key, we start at A and skip every odd-numbered letter (A, C, E, etc.).
Code:
Plaintext:  A B C D E F G H I J K L M
Ciphertext: B D F H J L N P R T V X Z


At this point, we run out of letters. So we start over at B and continue. Here's the whole key:
Code:
Plaintext:  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ciphertext: B D F H J L N P R T V X Z B D F H J L N P R T V X Z


And since no one has posted it yet (trout me if I missed it) here's the text to "Chapter 21: Judgement" of The Fountains of Paradise:

Quote:
One of Paul Sarath's more annoying specialities was the sudden call, gleeful or gloomy as the case might be, which invariably opened with the words: 'Have you heard the news?' Though Rajasinghe had often been tempted to give the general-purpose answer: 'Yes - I'm not at all surprised,' he had never had the heart to rob Paul of his simple pleasure.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:10 pm
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Dionysus
Unfettered

Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Posts: 612
Location: Philadelphia Area

 		I'm not sleeping enough so I post ideas on how to decode things already decoded
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Played: Orbital Colony, Find Araya, Who Is Ben Stove, part of Catching the Wish
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:30 pm
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mapmaker
Unfettered

Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 608
Location: Providence, RI, USA

 		OK! We'ze gots a solution!

SPOILERS BELOW - watch out, the code tag and the spoiler tag don't like each other much.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
So just to refresh, in my post above, I detailed how the code was supposed to work. Here's a bit of that:
Code:

DBJ DL FBPX LBJBNP'L ZDJJ BBBDXRBN LFJFRBXRNRJL TBL NPJ
one of paul sarath's more annoying specialities was the

So given that, I looked at the one phrase that would not code correctly: KUKSZUWKMW. The plaintext portion this would code to was Rajasinghe. So I lined them up and took their numeric values (A=1, B=2,...) as follows:
Code:
RAJASINGHE
KUKSZUWKMW

18-01-10-01-19-09-14-07-08-05
11-21-11-19-26-21-23-11-13-23


And subtracting the top from the bottom you get -7-20-1-18-7-12-9-4-5-18. If you add 26 to that first number you get 19-20-1-18-7-12-9-4-5-18, which works out to STARGLIDER.

E-mailing that word works, and you get in response
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
And for years I let Bronco be my puppetmaster. Whenever anyone doubted Bronco, I eased the doubt. Whenever anyone attacked Bronco, I shielded the attack. But even with my help, Bronco couldn't stay on top forever. In 1985, Bronco resigned from NASA and admitted "defeat". He entered a self imposed exile in the Maldives and NASA started to formulate new plans. I stayed on at NASA and was relieved that I no longer had to play two sides, but I didn't give up hope that one day Bronco would be brought to justice. To everyone else it may have looked like I was Bronco's biggest supporter, but behind the scenes I was gathering bits and pieces of evidence.

Life was starting to look up for me. I was moving up the chain of command at NASA and I met a beautiful young technician named Cordelia. I still remember the first time I saw her. Everything in the room stopped and all I could see was her. I knew by the end of our first date that I was going to marry her. In '94, we were married and soon after we had a new addition to the family. Everything seemed to be working out. Except for that pesky oncoming asteroid.

Thanks,

Steven


PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:32 pm
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drizjr
Unfictologist


Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700

 		Kudos
Great job, mapmaker!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:41 pm
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drizjr
Unfictologist


Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700

 		Steven uses the wiki alot.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:59 pm
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mapmaker
Unfettered

Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 608
Location: Providence, RI, USA

 		So we have the following things: An image of the AZ-85 highway sign and, in the source code of the page, the number 1 through 16, separated by commas.

I'm not positive that the road itself has anything to do with it. But it does go through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range, which might be worth noting. As for the numbers - I have no idea.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:04 pm
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Dionysus
Unfettered

Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Posts: 612
Location: Philadelphia Area

 		Ain't n the source code, Map. Its just white text.

So just a quick run through on some thoughts I've had

A bit on AZ State Road 85

My first instinct was to SUM 1-16, which gives 136 and I thought it might be an exit or mile marker.

Unfortunately, from this website, we see the current SR-85 to be too short for that.

Perhaps the old SR-85, circa late 70s? Or perhaps the state road sign isnt to be used in this way.

Research continues.
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Played: Orbital Colony, Find Araya, Who Is Ben Stove, part of Catching the Wish
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 7:28 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		Regarding the Data Log Disks...
The only reference I can find for "SilverHorn" related to NASA is that it's one of the over 1 million names sent out on the "Stardust" Comet intercept and return mission.
M-3546 would appear to be a reference to a Messier object (Possibly NGC 3546).
I can find no relevant historical events with a "04/12/1977" date.
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 3:40 pm
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drizjr
Unfictologist


Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700

 		argonaut
Comparing the AZ-85 from argonaut to the one from the wiki, the 8 looks slighty different. This might just be some trick of angles, but I played with both versions in paint using the fill-in paint bucket. Keep in mind that I'm not very good at MS paint, and I don't have paintshop. The results were different, but not clear.
Since the numbers from 1 through 16 are hidden (white on white), would someone with better skills than me, be so kind to check if something is hidden in logo.jpg?
Thanks

PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:31 am
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