Celebrity interview - 1 the writer

[bonanova]

So you say you're a writer Bill. Can you share some of your work with us?

Sure. Here's some bits of it: FF=?
_________________
_{Vidi, vici, veni.}

[MNOWAX]

FF is off!
i should awp you, hit you with a deagle then nade you!
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[bonanova]

Your proposal is curiously interesting. But it's not the solution.
Clues available upon request.
_________________
_{Vidi, vici, veni.}

[Oscar]

I have the feeling that this is a small village talking to us here, as interpreted by Mr Boole...

[bonanova]

Now there are 3 B's - Bill, Bits and Boole.
Definitely on the right track.
_________________
_{Vidi, vici, veni.}

[Oscar]

...a small village called Slingson Arose...

[bonanova]

That would be it. I continue to stand in awe...
_________________
_{Vidi, vici, veni.}

[Jack_Ian]

Ahh! I get it. Well done Oscar.

[Oscar]

Thanks, Jack_Ian.
And thanks for a very nice translation, bonanova - can we take it from the title that there'll be more celebrity interviews?
(And I'd much prefer it if you sat down in awe now )

[Jack_Ian]

I think the -1 referred to 0xff or not (as the case may be).

[Oscar]

I'm not sure that I want to be told to 0xff in a puzzle title!

[Jack_Ian]

You might have to think deep for this one:

??=?
"How many roads must a man walk down?" perhaps.
Nah! 6x9

[mps1453]

[Poisonium]

Or Bob Dylan?
_________________
I tried apt-get install lifebut it only returned E: Couldn't find package life

[ralphmerridew]

No, it's obviously 42. (HHGG reference)

[bonanova]

[mps1453]

[Oscar]

[Quailman]

[Oscar]

[ralphmerridew]

HHGG == Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

[Dented Ford]

Douglas Adams is quoted as saying he didn't make jokes in base 13.

[mps1453]

[Quailman]

When in doubt, Google!

In that book, a supercomputer named "Deep Thought" was constructed for the sole purpose of finding the answer to life, the universe and everything. After a million years, it came up with it. The answer was 42. The mystery, the computer exclaimed, was "What is the question?"

[edit] Forgive me for a slip in the exact details. I read the book in 1982 or early 1983.[/e]

[Jack_Ian]

That's it.
"How many roads must a man walk down?" was the question accepted by the mice.

[*]

could someone explain the first puzzle

[ralphmerridew]

Definition of "bitwise or":
Given two strings of 0s and 1s of the same length, the bitwise or is defined such that the nth digit is 1 iff either the nth digit of the first string or the nth digit of the second string was 1.
(So 0000111100001111 | 0011001100110011 == 0011111100111111.)
(If the strings are of different lengths, prepend 0s to the front of the shorter until they are of the same length.)

Definition of "bitwise negation":
Given a bitstring, the nth digit of the negation is 1 iff the nth digit of the original was 0.

To convert a hexadecimal string to binary:
Convert each digit of the hex string to four binary digits as follows: 0 -> 0000, 1 -> 0001, 2 -> 0010, 3 -> 0011, ... a -> 1010, b -> 1011, ..., f -> 1111.

So: hex 2b == binary 00010011
not 2b == 11101100
2b or not 2b == 11111111 == ff

The original statement was "ff = ?" therefore means

"2b or not 2b is question."

That's all I'll post for now.

[Hitchhiker]

[mps1453]

[ralphmerridew]