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danman_d

Mars code

**Posted:** Thu Jan 08, 2004 8:07 pm

_________________
"Illegitimi non carborundum"
QmFzZTY0IGlzIGZvciBnZWVrcy4=
cW5hYWw= @ cGJ0YXZndmlydW5lemJhbA== . YXJn

Guest · Guest

It says...........

"Drink your Ovaltine"

Wink

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 12:42 am

dmax

Hey Danman, those links are dead parrots.

Anymore info?

Edit: hmm. I wonder if it's the https that blocks it through my firewall?
Thanks, Magesteff for the pic.

Lego, hmm...

Here's a link to another article about the same thing, but not https

And here's the pic of the wheel without its code. Excellent, clear image - taken on Earth. How often do you have to append that to a statement?

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That sounds like something HITLER would say!

MageSteff

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 1:15 am

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Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

danman_d

The link seems to work for me too. In addition, they've added the first clue:

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 3:54 am

_________________
"Illegitimi non carborundum"
QmFzZTY0IGlzIGZvciBnZWVrcy4=
cW5hYWw= @ cGJ0YXZndmlydW5lemJhbA== . YXJn

vpisteve

[HUMOR]

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 4:10 am

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Making the world a better place, one less mime at a time.

fireball

I think I know what it says:

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 12:04 pm

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And all through the night, they poured over the plans. Sometimes they poured on the table, sometimes they poured on the floor, but mostly they poured over the plans.

Flynn · Decorated Joined: 11 Nov 2003 Posts: 240 Location: UK

LOL @ fireball - superb!

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 4:09 pm

drizjr · Unfictologist Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 1700

partial solve

**Posted:** Mon Jan 12, 2004 11:27 pm

AnthraX101 · Entrenched Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 797

Completed code book is as follows:

**Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2004 1:59 am

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VGhlcmUgaXMgbm8gc3Bvb24u
ll----ll--ll--ll----l---ll---llll---ll--l--ll---llll-ll-l-ll-llll--l-.

yanka

Anthrax, xnbomb once told me that you are "faster than lightning". Omg, I was so excited when I finished, only to see you that you already got it - and, like, an hour ago Mr. Green

Congrats!

Driz, you're a genius. I stared at all the "our"s and "in"s for a while, but couldn't figure out how to break them into letters. You're my hero.

Uhh - the attachemnt is a SPOILER: If anyone cares, here is what this looks like (sorry it's kinda ugly)

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Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

AnthraX101 · Entrenched Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 797

Ok, since I had the program mostly written and I need to learn Perl anyway, here is an online translator:

http://s88749232.onlinehome.us/encode.html

It only does encoding, as there is no reliable way to decode this automaticly.

AnthraX101

**Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2004 2:51 am

_________________
VGhlcmUgaXMgbm8gc3Bvb24u
ll----ll--ll--ll----l---ll---llll---ll--l--ll---llll-ll-l-ll-llll--l-.

MageSteff

**Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:38 am

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Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

PastaBagel · Boot Joined: 07 Jan 2004 Posts: 51

ll----ll--ll--ll-ll-----ll-ll--l-ll-l-lll-l-l---l-l-----l---l-ll-l-l-lllll-----l-l-lll--l-l-l-ll--lll-l-l

You should probably add me to the list of people who eat pies while you sleep.

THEY CALL ME PASstzzZZZzz..HNUH..WHUH?

**Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2004 12:35 pm

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pastabagelSPLATpastabagel.com

bagsbee · Unfettered Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 417 Location: NYC

It's a Huffman Code. To see this, create a binary tree (all you CS majors pull out that old Algorithms textbook) and mark the left branches as '-' and the right as '|'. Keep creating branches in this manner and mark off the letters as you get to them, for example, "left, left, right" would be "--|", which is E. Since none of the nodes that correspond to letters have children, it is a Huffman code. By extension you could create codes for J, Q, X and Z by extending the only 'available' node, which is "|-||||", so you could have:

J = |-||||-|
Q = |-|||||-
X = |-||||||-
Z = |-|||||||

You can create a decoding algorithm for a Huffman code, as long as you don't "lose your place" as you decode each letter. I leave this as an exercise for the reader Wink

Question is, could this code have been broken without the clues (either by hand or computer)?

**Posted:** Tue Jan 13, 2004 1:30 pm