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 Forum index » Diversions » Perplex City Puzzle Cards » PXC: Silver Puzzle Cards
[Puzzle] #243 Silver - Shuffled Part 2 (Read 1st Post!)
Moderators: AnthraX101, bagsbee, BrianEnigma, cassandra, Giskard, lhall, Mikeyj, myf, poozle, RobMagus, xnbomb
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rlp6028
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Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 76
Location: Bryan, TX USA

The card or linking the program on your website is done?

Confused
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www.perplexcitytrades.com/rlp6028


PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:43 pm
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Amadeus
Boot

Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 59

Nice one on the decryptor smartyman. But I don't understand what 'Handle' means and I can't get it to work (it says error on page).

PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:28 am
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smartyman
Boot

Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 22

Amadeus wrote:
Nice one on the decryptor smartyman. But I don't understand what 'Handle' means and I can't get it to work (it says error on page).

"Handle" is your username. Looks like my router rebooted during the night (no! not again!) which led to the errors on page. I restarted the web server and now it's working again.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:33 pm
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bozzball
Kilroy

Joined: 21 Feb 2007
Posts: 2

First Post!

Has anybody seen this?

http://www.perplexcity.com/permalink/puzzle/586/

Any chance that the original, or the one 6 shuffles down the line, will decode this for us?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:15 am
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ariock
Has a Posse


Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 762
Location: SF East Bay

Re: First Post!

bozzball wrote:
Has anybody seen this?

http://www.perplexcity.com/permalink/puzzle/586/

Any chance that the original, or the one 6 shuffles down the line, will decode this for us?

One problem: No Jokers.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:42 pm
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smartyman
Boot

Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 22

New, new Shuffled solver

Ok, I got sick of the problems with the Shuffled solver that I had put up last week, so I re-wrote it in a different technology. I checked it with IE and Firefox 2.0 and it works for me. Hopefully this will clear up the problems that RedZed (and maybe others) were having.

In addition, I made a couple of enhancements:
1) All decoded text now comes back in lower case, and certain words are highlighted in upper-case, bold. I took the list of the top 100 words from http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/bl1000_list1.htm minus the single-character words. In addition, I search for djinn, worm, create, sente, perplex and academy.
2) I search a couple extra messages by default: a) the complete string, b) the complete string minus the heat-sensitive letters, c) the complete string starting with XIHGU (the 2nd line), d) FHURG IFULP EODMF XRUTH, and e) your own message.

I'm planning to go back and add some additional deck starting orders along the lines of what BrianEnigma identified back on page 5 of this thread.

So, check out the page again and PM me with any feedback.

http://pxcshuffled.dnsalias.org/pxcshuffled

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:59 pm
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Bendover
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Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 111
Location: San Jose


solver

I use Firefox and it works like a champ Smile super effort

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:19 pm
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smartyman
Boot

Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 22

Joker positions

Also, as a note to others who have/are writing shuffled solvers. At first it appears that there are the following starting Joker positions:

1) AB..52
2) BA..52
3) 1..52AB
4) 1..52BA
5) A1..52B
6) B1..52A

But, in fact, #1 and #6 are equivalent. So are #2, #4 and #5. This is because after the first two steps (move Joker A down 1 position, move Joker B down two positions) the deck is in the same order. So, save yourself some processing time and only do #1, #2, and #3.

Also, Schneier mentions an optional method of placing the Jokers on his page http://www.schneier.com/solitaire.html under "Keying the Deck". Basically, you place the Jokers based on the numeric values of the last two letters of the passphrase. So, consider this an additional method for positioning the Jokers:

7) According to the last two letters of the passphrase

He doesn't go into much detail on how to do this step, so I have a couple of questions. Assume the passphrase is "AB", which is equivalent to numeric values 1, 2. This would mean that Joker A would go after the 1st card and Joker B would go after the 2nd card. So, if we start with a deck ordered 1..52 we would have 1A..52 after placing the first Joker, but where does the 2nd Joker go? Right now I assume we count from the top again so the deck winds up 1AB..52.

In case the passphrase was "AA" then the deck would wind up 1BA..52, and in case the passphrase was "BA" then the deck would wind up 1B2A..52.

If you have a different interpretation of this optional Joker positioning step let's hear it!

Edited to fix a typo.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:21 pm
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THESB
Guest


Hello all, first post. This card keeps me up at night!

Here are a couple of the ideas I have tried briefly. Maybe one of you can expand on something.

a BUG is a name for the Joker in a -p_o_k_e_r- game, It is also another name for a VIRUS.

the joker is also a WILD CARD.

I have tried subracting the vanishing letters from the 108 that do not disappear.
I have tried subracting everything but the vanishing characters from the 108 that dont disappear.
For both options I've tried every keyphrase I can think of.

I don't believe that the starting deck before passkey is anything different than the standard 1-54. But I could be completely wrong.
PXC designers did not intend for this card to be as hard as it has been. I think most believe that this is a Solitaire cypher, and I think so too, but I can't help but think that if this IS a Solitaire cypher, someone would have figured it out by now.

At this point, once the answer is discovered, or given away, I figure the response won't be one where people can't believe they didn't get it, or thought they got close, It'll either be "I can't believe that was a silver card", or "What a stupid card".

PostPosted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:20 am
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THESB
Guest


This may be irrelevant, but when running the 108 chars thru the solitaire decryption using the passkey: JOKER. The name HAZEL does appear in the garbled mess. Hazel "Cold"bone is apparently is an office manager at Hesh. Here is the wiki article http://perplexcitywiki.com/wiki/Hazel_Coldbone I can't help but think that the Cold has something to do with it, but it all reminds me of a quote from a movie:
Quote:
You want to find the number 216 in the world, you will be able to find it everywhere. 216 steps from a mere street corner to your front door. 216 seconds you spend riding on the elevator. When your mind becomes obsessed with anything, you will filter everything else out and find that thing everywhere.
I don't even have the card, but it's driving me nuts.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:37 am
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THESB
Guest


Ok last post. I forgot to mention that her only "public file" is a shopping list. That seems a little fishy.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:38 am
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THESB
Guest


Ok last post. I forgot to mention that her only "public file" is a shopping list. That seems a little fishy.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:39 am
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Albedo
Boot

Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 34

I've been fiddling around with 'Shuffled' for the last couple of days and I thought I'd put in my twopennorth. First off, I don't have the card so I can't check any solutions I come up with, and also I can't pore over the card itself for any thermally-senstitive microtext (or whatever) that everyone else might somehow have missed, so I'm assuming that all the information on the card is known. Also, this thread runs to 55 pages so I skimmed a fair chunk of it and didn't see my exact plan of attack laid out by anyone else, but I may have missed it so apologies if I have nothing new to offer.

Starting assumptions (no new ideas here): We are dealing with two different cipher texts. The 108-letter text was not rounded up to 110 characters with dummy letters by the codemaker. There must be a reason, and I think this a) to emphasise the number of letters, and b) to show where the text ends, which seperates it from the 20-letter code. The length of the long text is not coincidental, and is 108 characters because it lists the starting order of the deck, using 2 letters per card.

My plan of attack is based on the following theory:
There is no keyword that allows us to create the starting position of the deck from a new deck, otherwise the long code would be unnecessary. Instead, the codemaker enciphered the long text using the deck it describes, then reset the deck to the starting position before coding the short text. Thus the shifts applied to the 20 lettters of the short text are the same shifts appied to the first 20 letters of the long text. This means the card can be solved by trying to decode both codes simultaneously and seeing if both produce sensible output.
To make this possible the long text must represent the order of the deck in a fairly simple (ie guessible) method. My first thought on this is each letter pair consists of value followed by suit. The value of the card (1-13) is represented by the letters A-M, and the suit simply by C,D,H or S. The jokers are a pain as I don't see a way of repersenting that stands out from any other, but I've been working on the assumption that they appear as AJ and BJ.
This means that for each of the odd letters of the long code there are only 13 possibilities as to what they are, and for each of the even letters only 5. Each of these possiblities gives an offset that can be applied to the short code.
For example: The first two letters of the long code are WB. The W can only represent the letters A-M, which means it is offset by 10-22 characters, and the second letter can only be C,D,H,S or J offset by 25,24,20,9 or 18 letters. Looking at the first two letters of the short code EO, we can thus deduce that when decoded the first letter is one of the following: I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T or U, and the second can only be P,Q,U,F or W.
By applying this theory to the first 20 letters of the long code we get a set of choice lists for each letter of the short text. By inputting these into an approprate word-finding program, a limited number of possible solutions can be genereated. The answers can then be back checked by seeing what the first 20 charactes of the long text would be and if they are nonesensical.
For example an early non-solution I generated was "I WISH TO SUPERVISE HELL", which made the first 20 cards of the deck
1 Joker, 7 S, 5 D, 4 D, 10 Joker, Jack H, 4 H, Jack S, 7 Joker, 6 S
i.e. nonsense.

Finally, if one does find a sensible short text with an apparently valid sequence for the start of the long test, one final verification is possible. We need to know the whole of the long text so that we can see if it produces the sequence of shifts we have generated by comparing the two codes. The only way we can do this is if the whole of the long text can be derived from the bit we already know, the first 10 cards. Thus, these 10 cards must have a pattern to them that we can extend to recreate the whole deck. I'm not sure if this means that the two Jokers have to be in the first 10 cards, or that we still have to guess where they are once we have the rest of the deck figured out.

I'm somewhat hampered in my task by the fact I only have a program that can find one word at a time from a set of choices, so I'm constructing my possible short text solutions from word lists. I'm also having to look for character names 'by hand' as the program won't accept additions to it's word lists. The blasted thing doesn't do two letter words either.

Anyhow, that's my thoughts on the problem. I realise I've made a lot of assumptions and if my coding system for the card sequence is wrong I'm completely stuffed.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:04 am
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RedZed333
Boot


Joined: 13 Jul 2006
Posts: 24
Location: Sunderland

We don't no nothing....

I've said it before and I'll say it again....

We don't know anything about this card or else it would have been solved by now.....

We don't know if 'solitaire' is used...

If it is we don't know what letters are used, 128 or 108 or even if they are used, there have been other cards with letters on that had nothing to do with the answer....

The phrase 'If entropy wins etc......' has no known meaning to any one...

The style of card and clues, if any, are meaningless to all of us....

The only way it can be solved is if we get an extra clue.....

Personally I would be happy if PxC said what we could discount from our already formed theories rather than indicate what it is, that way we could look at other possibilites.....

PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:21 am
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bertyb
Veteran

Joined: 28 Nov 2005
Posts: 128
Location: London

Re: We don't no nothing....

RedZed333 wrote:
Personally I would be happy if PxC said what we could discount from our already formed theories rather than indicate what it is, that way we could look at other possibilites.....


Totally agree with you on this. It would be nice just to be able to rule some stuff out and gain a little focus again.
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Intriguing!!

PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:52 am
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