unforum

[understress]

Travis's blog has been updated! I guess we will get clues on how to decipher this message.

[Snic]

Well, I see what may or may not be clues in his posting... He makes several mentions of thinking outside the box, which could just mean we're about to be hit with a series of bizarre puzzles, or it could be a clue to look at the pairs that are outside of the number sets in the puzzle we have.

Also, he brings up a story that doesn't seem to have much to do with the rest of the post. Is this simply a story, or could it contain a clue:

[Elferien]

I posted to the blog asking Travis about his firewall and antivirus programs and suggesting Internet cafe's as a safer(?) way of communication if his own computer is infiltrated..

Has anyone made a lettercount on the code, it looks like some numbers, like 8, 9, 6 and 4 were more common than others, i'm not sure of that though.
There was also a clue in the blog about "Only those that can throw away the standard methods of thought patterns will be able to understand and communicate with Synthesis on their own level.", perhaps it applies to the code too in some way.
There are also many of the same number in succession, like 10x8 (8888888888) at the first row, so there has to be many numbers for a single letter if it is to become plain text..
.
.
Other findings?

[Elferien]

Rearranged the rows by the last two numbers:

[Neanderthal]

Just for the record, here are the character frequencies:

[labfly]

hmm... this looks fun -- perhaps those sequences that don't repeat are what we should examine?

[Elferien]

One thing that occurred to my mind yesterday is a multiplication cipher, like take the ascii code number and multiply it, for example 8 times, that would give you a lot of 8nn numbers if there is lots of small letters in the text, Of course something similar would work with A=1 B=2 C=3 jne.
But i don't have time to crack the code now..

[DetroitLegend]

I might be off, but all the numbers i have checked so far all occur in sequece in the 39th Mersenne prime (the largest known prime number). Now this number has over 2 mllion numbers in it, so chances are you could find almost any combination in it. I just figured it was worth a mention.

P.S.
Gandhi's grandson is still living. His name is Arun Gandhi. He is/was a major advocate of middle eastern peace.

[Neanderthal]

All the numbers I checked also appear in e and pi, they too have far to many digits. So I think that is just a coincidence, but maybe I'm wrong.

[Elferien]

Unless you are talking about a row of numbers, i think it is a coincidence. You can propably find any five digit number in Pi, e, and 39th mersenne prime, they are well long enough. (only computerscience limits the amount of known digits in pi and e, 39th Mersenne is Huge, too.)
I am running out of ideas with this too, though.. It even occurred to me that this could be an image instead of words, but then again, maybe not.
It isn't random anyway, otherwise the number-occurrences would be even.. And that's where i'd hit it next.
What ever the cipher is, it produces certain digits more often than others, and mainly bigger digits, but there is a peak of fours and not that many fives, perhaps some less-used alphabets fall to the gap? The amount of text seems big enough that the gap could be more than mere coincidence.

Hard one, this is.

[Elferien]

I'm trying http://members.shaw.ca/mtx/matrix.htm with it, perhaps the rows can be divided with the ending numbers or something.

[Esteed]

It occurs to me that perhaps something we thought was a clue for the earlier code could perhaps be a clue for this? Synthesis would appear to have just used a mirrored version of its name in 1337speak for the AIM sn, but perhaps there's more to it than that after all? I'm not sure how that could be tested - ask any of my former teachers, math and I are not only not friends, but have restraining orders against each other - but it's a thought.

I also thought more about the blog entry. Travis makes a big deal about Synthesis thinking "outside the box" and how those of us trying to help him should do the same. However, I noticed that sometimes, he uses words that don't usually turn up in those figures of speech. Oh, they work fine in the context of the entry, but the phrase "expand thought" doesn't strike me as a common one. Also, the way Travis has the numbers entered in his blog entry is different than the way Synthesis posted it on IU. Whereas Synthesis posted it in a box formation, Travis has it so that every five digit line is followed by a line ending in two digits. I don't know if it means anything, but it couldn't have just been a completely random format thing from blogspot. Not with that ordered arrangement.

EDIT: Upon reading through the blog entry again, I noticed something else. He talks about our attempts at solving the code from the chatroom, how days were wasted on what he calls "standard tools of law enforcement cryptographers." Now, maybe I'm reading too much into that, but it seems like a pretty thinly veiled way of saying, "Don't rely on the typical tools of ARGs."

[Elferien]

Just remembered something that Snic quoted from his chat with SkilletAudio:

[Elferien]

[AngBa]

Hey, I've been MIA for the last couple of days... Did anyone else receive this?