Discuss Binary Digits here

[3iff]

Ok, I've just tried using the numbers to rotate the letters in a work up by that many places...

EDUC8 becomes MLCK8
2NIGHT becomes 2PKIJV

and so on, but it's not giving anything meaningful. Just quickly tried moving letters down in the alphabet too but nothing apparent from the first few words...

Anyway, that's not using the binary reference from the puzzle title...

[MatthewV]

Consider this: there are not all that many words that have "numbers" in them. Twisting the letters they contain to attempt to make new words would be almost impossible to construct when you are as lazy as myself.

The set of words that was posted in visible code tags appears correct to me.

[Thok]

Perhaps we should try something like adding all of the numbers in a column, and then changing the resulting number into a letter?

[3iff]

Thok.

We then have 1 - 4 2 6 1 2 4 10 9 1 8 - 16 (hope I can add up!)

giving A-DBFABDJIAH-P Not even anagram territory!

It seems likely that the numbers are the next stage but I still can't see how to proceed.

[Thok]

Yeah, I realized that problem also.

The only other thought I had is that the binary theme suggests trying to turn binary expansion into a message by Morse code, but I'm not sure where to apply this idea.

[Guest]

Anyone try converting the decimal numbers from each word into binary, then making them into a string in order of appearance, and then convert that into ascii (either 7-bit or 8-bit)?
I'd futz with the idea on my own, but I'm at work...

[3iff]

[Guest]

It is not long enough for morse code.

[Tony Gardner]

[DLove]

this may sound odd but i think he's talking to a - cappucino machine.

by the language in the puzzle it seems he's talking to a machine. like someone frustrated in front of a vending machine. he even fakes a kick at it.

my reasoning: if you take our four words dime, hard, rose, & fish every word has letters that pair up. each word has three letters that appear twice and only twice in all words (2 d's, 2 i's, etc). each word has one letter that does not pair up. if we take the unmatched letters that word is FOAM spelled backwards. How does it work? It works on Foam.

I'm not really thrilled with this answer but thought I'd add my observation. Maybe it will spark someone else to come up with something better. The letter pairings and left over letters spelling something seems too neat.

[Zero Brain]

[OkButWhy]

Like what??!?

[Speeder]

Hi All,

What if the guy in the puzzle is trying to make a jukebox work?
Hence the kick when there is silence?

Dire could be from Dire Straits (or Dire Str8s)?
The others, I don't know... Rose Tattoo (Rose Ta2)... er...

...or maybe not.

Speeder.

[Guest]

Each number that occurs can be written in binary with a single 1, and few zeroes (or none in the case of just 1)
1
10
100
1000
or
0001
0010
0100
1000

unlike say 7 which would be 0111.

There are also 16 numerals total, maybe hinting the the answer has to be converted to hexidecimal maybe?

Also, I don't think anyone's brought this up yet, but there seem to be deliberate spacings between the hints (which could be alligned to the left, but aren't) and the actual places to input the answers. It looks as is if you're maybe supposed to pair the two hints that line up (I.E. Spread Knowledge and CIO4-, astonishing and solve math, etc.)

The shape also reminds me of how I would trace recursive functions to the terminal statement, before tracing my way back up.. but I think that might be going to far with this problem...

[Guest]

Fwiw, combining two of the above posts, the 8288.2111.4284.1428 can become the binary sequence 1000001010 0010000010 0001000100 0101000010 1000010000 0101000010 1000 (64 digits)...

[Newish Boy]

These could well be more rose fishes, but ...

First Idea. The numbers used in the answers are 8-2-8-8-2-1-1-1-4-2-8-4-1-4-2-8. These add to 64. With the fifteen spaces between, that makes 79. There are also 79 letters in the text:
"How do you work?" asked the man.
- Silence
"No, I must know," he feinted a small kick, "how do you work?"
- Nothing
I've tried taking letters from the text as indicated by the numbers, but haven't got anywhere yet ... If there was something about the text, it might explain the use of "feinted a small kick" which seems to be a possibly contrived piece of phraseology?

Second Idea. Some of the hints given also seem a little more contrived than they need to be. If you were writing a clue for "Cre8", would "Original Making" be your preferred choice. Is there something more about the wording of the hints which might be relevant?

[Zero Brain]

How do you turn numbers into text? Because this is probably the last step of solving the puzzle, it is a worthy question to consider.

[Guest]

That is a very interesting coincidence, Newish Boy! For the record, what remains when filtering those spaces between the numbers is "w k m e I u t n f n l h w u r", and when filtering them out: "Howdoyou - or - askedthe - anSilenc - No - m - s - k - owhe - ei - tedasmal - kick - o - doyo - wo - kNothing". I too got nowhere, after trying rot13, and all the other rot's.

Trying the reversed sequence, i get "w k d h S I s w e e n d c u r" and "Howdoyou - or - aske - t - eman - ilenceNo - mu - tkno - h - f - i - te - asmallki - khowdoyo - wo - kNothing". Still nothing...

[3iff]

[Smitty]

I don't know why, but the lines can be shifted L/R to reveal this message reading down the column

UNCLEAR RETRIEVAL using the words EDUC8, 2NIGHT, CRE8, EVALU8, 2GETHER, ANY1, EVERY1, 1DERLAND, 4EVER, 2TOR, SEPAR8, 4TITUDE, 1DERFUL, 4GIVE, 2SDAY, PERCHLOR8

[GH]

Shifted how? I mean, was there any pattern to it, like maybe shifting lines that have the "digit" at the end to the right, and lines with the "digit" at the beginning to the left, or maybe shifting them once for a 1, twice for a 2, 4 (or 3) times for a 4, and 8 (or 4) times for an 8? Or something?

[3iff]

Note:

Post 42 that indicates that post 31 has the correct words.
So, EVALU8 is NOT correct.

Interesting idea about shifting L/R but there needs to be a consistent pattern to make this work. It's a lot better than my lack of ideas!

[MatthewV]

mmmm actually, evalu8 is what I had in mind. But it doesn't matter because both work.

Math should never be done by guessing.

[Guest]

[gekko]

if you list the 4 four-letter words DIRE, HARD, ROSE, FISH next to each other to create a 4x4 box, spelled out diagonally is the word DASH

D I R E
H A R D
R O S E
F I S H

Also, the word FORE can be read diagonally up. Not sure if this leads to an answer. This is also reached simply by taking the 1st letter of the 1st word, 2nd letter of the 2nd word, etc.

[Zero Brain]

OK here is what I think. The numbers are important.
8288
2111
4284
1428
now what would be the easiest way to bring these numbers into something readable??
I divided them into groups of four because there are four letter words. I don't believe the words themselves mean anything (they are mostly red herring (red fish))

[ChienFou]

Assuming DIRE HARD ROSE FISH is it one of these where you make the connection between pairs of words, and then the connection between the results?

like DIRE HARD = SEVERE
and ROSE FISH = HEAD

Gah, bad example, but you can see where I'm going

[MatthewV]

Here is an abstract hint: the method that turns numbers into letters is slightly flawed. With the way I set up this puzzle, I was unable to have an answer that used the letters A,B,C and W.

[Newish Boy]

You mean the answer is ZERO??!

[Thok]

That does fit beautifully with the title/flavor text, but perhaps you could explain where you got the answer from?

[Thok]

Oh, wait I see it now and agree that NewishBoy gave what should be the answer.

The problem is that there's nothing really clueing that operation although one can argue that the four letter words were clueing the groupings of the numbers to be added-I think just have bolded lines between those groupings would be more elegant/obvious

[Logain]

Heh, I was waiting to comment on this after knowing the answer. I think the puzzle just needed a new title. There's nothing binary about solving it so it was misleading there Puzzle # 4-19-21-13

[3iff]

I agree Logain...I was looking to use the numbers in some binary style format...adding the numbers together was not something I considered.