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MIT Mystery Hunt 2013
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L'lanmal
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:04 pm    Post subject: 41 Reply with quote

Out Too Tea (Out to sea)
Best Ion Shot (Best in show)
Bill Of Fires (Ball of Fire?)

esme: Sure, I know the meta-answer
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:12 pm    Post subject: 42 Reply with quote

G AO Coal Gas Ice (Cool as Ice)
H EY Height Craze Nights (Eight Crazy Nights)
O TW Best Ion Shot (Best in show)
S CD Yankees Doodle Candy
P NL Net Pit Ride (Let It Ride)
R TN Stranger That Friction
I HO Odd Main Hut (Odd Man Out)
E FL Thee Fast Samurai
S IA Bill of fires (ball of fire)
E KN Thee Big Greek (The Big Green)
C CS Con in claw (son in law)
N EY West Snide Store
A LR May Fail Lady
S EO Mrs. Peppers Penguins (mr. Popper's penguins)
E ME Dinner Eat Might (Dinner at Eight)
L UI Prude Land Glory
L OA Meet Joel Block
C RE Rat Pray Clove (Eat Pray Love)
E IN Side Aid Nancy (Sid and Nancy)
C AE Call About Eva (All About Eve)
O BK Hoard to Bill (Hard to Kill)
O TS Out Too Tea (Out to sea)
N UA Without An Puddle (Without A Paddle)
I HS I aim Ham (I am Sam)


Last edited by novice on Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:11 pm; edited 1 time in total
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right



PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:20 pm    Post subject: 43 Reply with quote

L'lanmal wrote:

esme: Sure, I know the meta-answer


Thx, PM sent.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:28 pm    Post subject: 44 Reply with quote

1933 E ME Dinner Eat Might (Dinner at Eight)
1941 S IA Bill of fires (ball of fire)
1942 S CD Yankees Doodle Candy
1947 I HO Odd Main Hut (Odd Man Out)
1950 C AE Call About Eva (All About Eve)
1961 N EY West Snide Store
1964 A LR May Fail Lady
1986 E IN Side Aid Nancy (Sid and Nancy)
1989 P NL Net Pit Ride (Let It Ride)
1990 O BK Hoard to Bill (Hard to Kill)
1991 G AO Coal Gas Ice (Cool as Ice)
1993 C CS Con in claw (son in law)
1995 E KN Thee Big Greek (The Big Green)
1997 O TS Out Too Tea (Out to sea)
1998 L OA Meet Joel Block
2000 O TW Best Ion Shot (Best in show)
2001 I HS I aim Ham (I am Sam)
2002 H EY Height Craze Nights (Eight Crazy Nights)
2003 E FL Thee Fast Samurai
2004 N UA Without An Puddle (Without A Paddle)
2006 R TN Stranger That Friction
2008 L UI Prude Land Glory
2010 C RE Rat Pray Clove (Eat Pray Love)
2011 S EO Mrs. Peppers Penguins (mr. Popper's penguins)

Call in MICHAEL J. FOX
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right



PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:37 pm    Post subject: 45 Reply with quote

novice wrote:

Call in MICHAEL J. FOX
This is not the correct answer.
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novice
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:29 pm    Post subject: 46 Reply with quote

esme wrote:
novice wrote:

Call in MICHAEL J. FOX
This is not the correct answer.


But it's 11 letters and all... Confused
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:44 pm    Post subject: 47 Reply with quote

novice wrote:
esme wrote:
novice wrote:

Call in MICHAEL J. FOX
This is not the correct answer.


But it's 11 letters and all... Confused


That's what my team thought, too. To save some time, FOX, J. FOX, MICHAEL ANDREW FOX and all other variations of his name are incorrect.
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novice
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 11:09 pm    Post subject: 48 Reply with quote

Call in PROTAGONIST, then.

Although that would have been MARTYINBACKTOTHEFUTURE, I suppose.
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:58 am    Post subject: 49 Reply with quote

PROTAGONIST is also incorrect.
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L'lanmal
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:29 am    Post subject: 50 Reply with quote

The changed letters sorted by year gave "Michael in Back to the Future".

But this hasn't made use of the added letters, and as I said earlier I expect the rows and columns of the original layout of the words to matter.

Going back to the original grid, the added letters appear one per row. From top to bottom:

C law
H eight
E at
S yankee
S fire
P it
I am
E the
C love
E the
O in
N side
A my
S mr
I man
N a
G as
L and
E sid
C all
O hard
L joe
O to
R fiction

"Michael in Back to the Future" + "Chess Piece on a single color"

Even though I hadn't looked at this puzzle, I sort of know what the answer should be, so someone else should probably make the final call.
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L'lanmal
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:31 am    Post subject: 51 Reply with quote

Ah, screw it. Call in MARTY BISHOP. Let's move on to Open Secrets
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 9:02 am    Post subject: 52 Reply with quote

L'lanmal wrote:
Ah, screw it. Call in MARTY BISHOP. Let's move on to Open Secrets
Correct, of course (I do like the way they clued the names, it is not apparent without all the information, but quite clear that one has the right solution at the end). I have no idea whatsoever for Open Secrets and would totally go for backsolving in a hunt. The only line I recognize is the one with the unicode characters. The top reminds me of flag colors and TV test pictures.
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Scurra
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:15 am    Post subject: 53 Reply with quote

The bottom line is Dancing Men. It appears to say R(?)OYAL ARCH (the flag indicates "end of word")
Not sure what the second letter is, as the missing arms make it hard to tell; it could be bclmnsy (or possibly 2468 if it turns out this is a sort order, since it appears to be an insertion.)

edit:

Ante-penultimate line is Pigpen. It says OA(O)SIS OF LIFE WATER

Penultimate line is Gnommish from Artemis Fowl (I remember decoding the original myself a decade or so ago!) It reads ORANGE D(Y)ARTWING

Looks like there are surplus letters. not a sort order.

edit2;
Line 4 is the Futurama script. It says ELEMENTAR(H)Y.


Elementary might refer to Sherlock Holmes.
Aha. A bit of googling, and I discover that Royal Arch is a reference to Freemasonry, and what I knew as the Pigpen cipher is also a Masonic code.

Oasis of Life Water appears to refer to a videogame called Commander Keen. The Orange Dartwing meanwhile appears in Skyrim. I am now looking up codes in those games...
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New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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Scurra
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 11:32 am    Post subject: 54 Reply with quote

OK, so line 5 is the Standard Galactic Alphabet from Commander Keen, and reads MYLO(K) XYLOTO. This was the title of a Coldplay album, and they also did one called X&Y which had the colour bars on it, which was a version of the Baudot code.

edit: the top line is AQUA(?) MAGNA (not sure what the fifth letter is.) And this refers to Bionicle, and the sixth line is from there.

And that reads NEVER(O)MORE. Not sure what that might be referring to (other than The Raven...)
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New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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Scurra
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:01 pm    Post subject: 55 Reply with quote

Scurra wrote:
And that reads NEVER(O)MORE. Not sure what that might be referring to (other than The Raven...)
D'oh. A few minutes later and I remember The Gold Bug.

Second line is COLFE(R)R, which leads to Artemis Fowl.
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New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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Scurra
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:03 pm    Post subject: 56 Reply with quote

X&Y baudot: AQUA(?) MAGNA (ref. Bionicle)
gold bug: COLFE(R)R (ref. Artemis Fowl)
daedric: DOCTOR WE(F)RNSTROM (ref. Futurama)
futurama: ELEMENTAR(H)Y (ref. Holmes)
standard galactic: MYL(K)O XYLOTO (ref. Coldplay)
bionicle: NEVER(O)MORE (ref. Edgar Allen Poe)
masons: OA(O)SIS OF LIFE WATER (ref. Commander Keen)
gnommish: ORANGE D(Y)ARTWING (ref. Skyrim??)
dancing men: R(?)OYAL ARCH (ref. Freemasons)

Sorting into chain order and edited once I spotted the clue:

R(?)OYAL ARCH
OA(O)SIS OF LIFE WATER
MYL(K)O XYLOTO
AQUA(?) MAGNA
NEVER(O)MORE
COLFE(R)R
ORANGE D(Y)ARTWING
DOCTOR WE(F)RNSTROM
ELEMENTAR(H)Y

Initial letters read ROMAN CODE
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New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon


Last edited by Scurra on Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Scurra
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:17 pm    Post subject: 57 Reply with quote

?OK?ORYFH when given a "proper" Caesar shift (i.e. of 3, which is what Julius used) gives ?RN?RUBIK

Which is good, because I know ERNO RUBIK is the correct answer. Revenge most foul!

That was a very pleasant diversion; nicely accessible and with steps that lead naturally to each other. I didn't see this one originally because I was doing the "decoding sentences that lead to provinces" one instead.
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:21 pm    Post subject: 58 Reply with quote

Scurra wrote:

That was a very pleasant diversion; nicely accessible and with steps that lead naturally to each other.


Ok, yes it is sort of nice. Except the Pigpen code is the only one I know and I really would expect it to have right angles. (.... grumble... grapes ... sour... )
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:23 pm    Post subject: 59 Reply with quote

Scurra wrote:
"proper" Caesar shift (i.e. of 3, which is what Julius used)
Ok, now I have learned something new.
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gftt*
Guest



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:11 pm    Post subject: 60 Reply with quote

Great!

Now that we have all 6 answers (MAXWELL SMART is the answer to Thomas Crown Scare), if anyone wants to work on the meta they should feel free to PM me with a potential answer. It's not one that is all that interesting to do on the board. I'm guessing Esme solved it already?

Moving on to Ocean's 11:
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Have at it!
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:17 pm    Post subject: 61 Reply with quote

I should add that this particular meta is probably a *lot* more fun if you try to do it without one answer.

Also, I know most of the tricks for ...Intentionally Left Blank so I'll stay silent.
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right



PostPosted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:42 pm    Post subject: 62 Reply with quote

gftt* wrote:
I'm guessing Esme solved it already?


Yes, it is pretty straightforward, except that the final answer is somewhat ambiguous.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 6:48 pm    Post subject: 63 Reply with quote

gftt* wrote:
Moving on to Ocean's 11:
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Have at it!


Well, the blank page has 10 invisible links to blank.<format> files in 10 different formats, listed alphabetically.
.class - Java compiled class file, I assume
.html - blank html file, contains just the html opening and closing tags
.pdf - 128 blank pages of a pdf document, although something's funky, as the page switching buttons in Adobe Reader show 150 pages. Apparently some of the numbered pages span multiple A4 sheets or something.
.png - 8-bit 72dpi 181x181 pixel white image, with rgb(223,223,223) defined as its border color
.ps - postscript file. Seems to contain some info, maybe white on white vector graphics?

Code:
%!PS-Adobe-3.0
%%Creator: cairo 1.12.8 (http://cairographics.org)
%%CreationDate: Tue Dec  4 21:57:16 2012
%%Pages: 1
%%DocumentData: Clean7Bit
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%DocumentMedia: 279x279mm 792 792 0 () ()
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 792 792
%%EndComments
%%BeginProlog
/languagelevel where
{ pop languagelevel } { 1 } ifelse
2 lt { /Helvetica findfont 12 scalefont setfont 50 500 moveto
  (This print job requires a PostScript Language Level 2 printer.) show
  showpage quit } if
/q { gsave } bind def
/Q { grestore } bind def
/cm { 6 array astore concat } bind def
/w { setlinewidth } bind def
/J { setlinecap } bind def
/j { setlinejoin } bind def
/M { setmiterlimit } bind def
/d { setdash } bind def
/m { moveto } bind def
/l { lineto } bind def
/c { curveto } bind def
/h { closepath } bind def
/re { exch dup neg 3 1 roll 5 3 roll moveto 0 rlineto
      0 exch rlineto 0 rlineto closepath } bind def
/S { stroke } bind def
/f { fill } bind def
/f* { eofill } bind def
/n { newpath } bind def
/W { clip } bind def
/W* { eoclip } bind def
/BT { } bind def
/ET { } bind def
/pdfmark where { pop globaldict /?pdfmark /exec load put }
    { globaldict begin /?pdfmark /pop load def /pdfmark
    /cleartomark load def end } ifelse
/BDC { mark 3 1 roll /BDC pdfmark } bind def
/EMC { mark /EMC pdfmark } bind def
/cairo_store_point { /cairo_point_y exch def /cairo_point_x exch def } def
/Tj { show currentpoint cairo_store_point } bind def
/TJ {
  {
    dup
    type /stringtype eq
    { show } { -0.001 mul 0 cairo_font_matrix dtransform rmoveto } ifelse
  } forall
  currentpoint cairo_store_point
} bind def
/cairo_selectfont { cairo_font_matrix aload pop pop pop 0 0 6 array astore
    cairo_font exch selectfont cairo_point_x cairo_point_y moveto } bind def
/Tf { pop /cairo_font exch def /cairo_font_matrix where
      { pop cairo_selectfont } if } bind def
/Td { matrix translate cairo_font_matrix matrix concatmatrix dup
      /cairo_font_matrix exch def dup 4 get exch 5 get cairo_store_point
      /cairo_font where { pop cairo_selectfont } if } bind def
/Tm { 2 copy 8 2 roll 6 array astore /cairo_font_matrix exch def
      cairo_store_point /cairo_font where { pop cairo_selectfont } if } bind def
/g { setgray } bind def
/rg { setrgbcolor } bind def
/d1 { setcachedevice } bind def
%%EndProlog
%%Page: 1 1
%%BeginPageSetup
%%PageMedia: 279x279mm
%%PageBoundingBox: 0 0 792 792
%%EndPageSetup
q 0 0 792 792 rectclip q
1 g
0 0 792 792 rectfill
0.933333 g
128 427 m 95 427 l 95 401 l 125 401 l 125 393 l 95 393 l 95 356 l 86 356
 l 86 435 l 128 435 l h
197.074 356 m 155.074 356 l 155.074 435 l 197.074 435 l 197.074 427 l 164.074
 427 l 164.074 403 l 195.074 403 l 195.074 395 l 164.074 395 l 164.074 364
 l 197.074 364 l h
276.148 356 m 266.461 356 l 257.289 384 l 231.945 384 l 222.727 356 l 213.148
 356 l 239.18 435 l 250.242 435 l h
254.664 392 m 244.648 422.531 l 234.586 392 l h
344.367 356 m 332.961 356 l 310.227 392 l 300.227 392 l 300.227 356 l 291.227
 356 l 291.227 435 l 313.258 435 l 320.664 435 326.508 433.191 330.789 429.578
 c 335.078 425.961 337.227 420.93 337.227 414.484 c 337.227 409.703 335.719
 405.445 332.711 401.719 c 329.699 398 325.559 395.473 320.289 394.141 c
 h
300.227 400 m 311.43 400 l 316.117 400 319.918 401.305 322.836 403.922
c 325.762 406.547 327.227 409.848 327.227 413.828 c 327.227 422.609 322.031
 427 311.648 427 c 300.227 427 l h
382.77 436 m 391.715 436 398.539 432.539 403.238 425.625 c 407.945 418.719
 410.301 408.664 410.301 395.469 c 410.301 382.344 407.957 372.316 403.27
 365.391 c 398.59 358.461 391.758 355 382.77 355 c 373.863 355 367.055 358.453
 362.348 365.359 c 357.648 372.273 355.301 382.312 355.301 395.469 c 355.301
 408.625 357.637 418.664 362.316 425.594 c 367.004 432.531 373.82 436 382.77
 436 c h
382.77 363 m 394.457 363 400.301 373.82 400.301 395.469 c 400.301 417.156
 394.457 428 382.77 428 c 377.082 428 372.746 425.191 369.77 419.578 c 366.789
 413.961 365.301 405.926 365.301 395.469 c 365.301 384.906 366.777 376.852
 369.738 371.312 c 372.695 365.77 377.039 363 382.77 363 c h
473.375 427 m 440.375 427 l 440.375 401 l 470.375 401 l 470.375 393 l 440.375
 393 l 440.375 356 l 431.375 356 l 431.375 435 l 473.375 435 l h
549.449 427 m 525.449 427 l 525.449 356 l 516.449 356 l 516.449 427 l 491.449
 427 l 491.449 435 l 549.449 435 l h
612.523 356 m 603.523 356 l 603.523 395 l 576.523 395 l 576.523 356 l 567.523
 356 l 567.523 435 l 576.523 435 l 576.523 403 l 603.523 403 l 603.523 435
 l 612.523 435 l h
680.602 356 m 638.602 356 l 638.602 435 l 680.602 435 l 680.602 427 l 647.602
 427 l 647.602 403 l 678.602 403 l 678.602 395 l 647.602 395 l 647.602 364
 l 680.602 364 l h
f
q 0 0 792 792 rectclip q
1 g
0 0 792 792 rectfill
Q Q
showpage
%%Trailer
%%EOF

.svg - white vector graphics file, here's the source:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?><!--v0,:*7/4,+2<--><svg
class="v9,+1-,-\*2_,55+,@_\#v%#*:#2_^*4%_" xmlns=
"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1">
<!-->:#<8+*,7/4*01^:\-g1/-\,<>-4+2g-,1g\^-->
</svg>

.tar - tar archive file- 7-zip says there are missing records in it and can't unpack it.
.txt - text file appearing to contain 13 dashes, but in fact it contains 37 characters. I think the hidden characters are zero-width spaces. Converting the file to the ANSI character set exposes the zero-width spaces:
Code:
-????????-?-??---?--??--????-?-????-?

.wav - sound file - 9 seconds of silence
.xls - blank Excel document
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:03 pm    Post subject: 64 Reply with quote

Inspecting the http response when clicking the link to the blank.html page shows this: (Using the chrome developer tools)
Code:
Request URL: http://puzzle.scripts.mit.edu/2013/this_page_intentionally_left_blank/blank.html
Request Method: GET
Status Code: 200 OK

Request Headers
Accept:text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Charset:ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3
Accept-Encoding:gzip,deflate,sdch
Accept-Language:en-US,en;q=0.8
Connection:keep-alive
Host:puzzle.scripts.mit.edu
Referer:http://www.coinheist.com/oceans_11/this_page_intentionally_left_blank/index.html
User-Agent:Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/24.0.1312.57 Safari/537.17

Response Headers
Accept-Ranges:bytes
Cache-Control:max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
Connection:Keep-Alive
Content-Length:14
Content-Type:text/html; charset=UTF-8
Date:Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:55:01 GMT
Keep-Alive:timeout=15, max=1000
Last-Modified:Mon, 03 Dec 2012 04:58:25 GMT
Pragma:no-cache
Scripts-IP:18.181.0.46
Server:Apache
X-Puzzle-Clue:MAPOFTHEWORLD

There's a puzzle hint for us there: MAPOFTHEWORLD
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Thok
Oh, foe, the cursed teeth!



PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:59 am    Post subject: 65 Reply with quote

Does anything interesting happen if you switch up the file formats (like read the pdf as a ps, and so on)?
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L'lanmal
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:51 am    Post subject: 66 Reply with quote

In Morse code (dash = dash, short space = dot), the text file spells various things, including "Their Dope G-Skier" and "The Scamp At Sender". Could also be a set of 2 x 7-digit coordinates (ddd:mm:ss) with the dashes as dividers. But again there would be 4 or 8 ways to interpret these on a map.
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Scurra
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:30 am    Post subject: 67 Reply with quote

gftt* wrote:
Also, I know most of the tricks for ...Intentionally Left Blank so I'll stay silent.
Same here. Although my only contribution to solving was to leap in at the end with the a-ha for the answer extraction.
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:18 pm    Post subject: 68 Reply with quote

For the postscript file, after commenting out this line near the end:

Quote:
0 0 792 792 rectfill


You can see the text FEAROFTHE in faint grey letters.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49396026/puzzles/FEAROFTHE.ps
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Elethiomel
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:58 pm    Post subject: 69 Reply with quote

The blank.class file is a Java program that lets you move a grey square around on the screen. Disassembly reveals an array of 40 integers that is somehow involved, but it's hard to tell what for. Anyway, here is the initialization of the array:

Code:
 static {};
   Code:
      0: bipush        40
      2: newarray       int
      4: dup
      5: iconst_0
      6: iconst_0
      7: iastore
      8: dup
      9: iconst_1
     10: iconst_0
     11: iastore
     12: dup
     13: iconst_2
     14: iconst_0
     15: iastore
     16: dup
     17: iconst_3
     18: iconst_0
     19: iastore
     20: dup
     21: iconst_4
     22: iconst_0
     23: iastore
     24: dup
     25: iconst_5
     26: iconst_0
     27: iastore
     28: dup
     29: bipush        6
     31: iconst_1
     32: iastore
     33: dup
     34: bipush        7
     36: iconst_0
     37: iastore
     38: dup
     39: bipush        8
     41: iconst_1
     42: iastore
     43: dup
     44: bipush        9
     46: iconst_0
     47: iastore
     48: dup
     49: bipush        10
     51: iconst_0
     52: iastore
     53: dup
     54: bipush        11
     56: iconst_1
     57: iastore
     58: dup
     59: bipush        12
     61: iconst_0
     62: iastore
     63: dup
     64: bipush        13
     66: iconst_0
     67: iastore
     68: dup
     69: bipush        14
     71: iconst_0
     72: iastore
     73: dup
     74: bipush        15
     76: iconst_0
     77: iastore
     78: dup
     79: bipush        16
     81: iconst_1
     82: iastore
     83: dup
     84: bipush        17
     86: iconst_0
     87: iastore
     88: dup
     89: bipush        18
     91: iconst_0
     92: iastore
     93: dup
     94: bipush        19
     96: iconst_0
     97: iastore
     98: dup
     99: bipush        20
    101: iconst_0
    102: iastore
    103: dup
    104: bipush        21
    106: iconst_0
    107: iastore
    108: dup
    109: bipush        22
    111: iconst_0
    112: iastore
    113: dup
    114: bipush        23
    116: iconst_0
    117: iastore
    118: dup
    119: bipush        24
    121: iconst_0
    122: iastore
    123: dup
    124: bipush        25
    126: iconst_0
    127: iastore
    128: dup
    129: bipush        26
    131: iconst_1
    132: iastore
    133: dup
    134: bipush        27
    136: iconst_0
    137: iastore
    138: dup
    139: bipush        28
    141: iconst_1
    142: iastore
    143: dup
    144: bipush        29
    146: iconst_0
    147: iastore
    148: dup
    149: bipush        30
    151: iconst_0
    152: iastore
    153: dup
    154: bipush        31
    156: iconst_1
    157: iastore
    158: dup
    159: bipush        32
    161: iconst_1
    162: iastore
    163: dup
    164: bipush        33
    166: iconst_0
    167: iastore
    168: dup
    169: bipush        34
    171: iconst_0
    172: iastore
    173: dup
    174: bipush        35
    176: iconst_0
    177: iastore
    178: dup
    179: bipush        36
    181: iconst_0
    182: iastore
    183: dup
    184: bipush        37
    186: iconst_0
    187: iastore
    188: dup
    189: bipush        38
    191: iconst_0
    192: iastore
    193: dup
    194: bipush        39
    196: iconst_0
    197: iastore
    198: putstatic     #25                 // Field data:[I
    201: return


In other words, the initial values are:

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:39 pm    Post subject: 70 Reply with quote

Do people still want to think about this one, or should I cue up something else?
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:51 pm    Post subject: 71 Reply with quote

I'll take that as a yes. If someone has a new idea for Left Blank we can revisit.

Incidentally, I'm skipping a couple because I heard they're somewhat broken and/or require specialized knowledge (knitting, Magic: the Gathering). Here's the next one which seems like it ought to be for general audiences:

Complaint Letter
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:00 pm    Post subject: 72 Reply with quote

Donna Martin appears to be the character on Beverly Hills 90210 played by Tori Spelling. Is that a hint that we need to look at spellings of words?

Virgil Malloy (character played by Casey Affleck in Ocean's 11) is less likely to be a hint for anything, since that's due more to the structure of the round.
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L'lanmal
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 5:45 pm    Post subject: 73 Reply with quote

The first paragraph reads like instructions to me (emphasis mine):

Quote:
The industry has spiraled out of control, and it is imperative to reverse this disturbing trend. I have spelled out my advice below. If you pay attention, I'm sure you will notice an immediate improvement.


Based on the Tori Spelling clue, the "spelled" in the first paragraph, and the "letter" in the title, I am looking for either things that are spelled backwards (liar = rail), or looking for the rest of the message to spell something (by taking initial letters, containing synonyms of the radio alphabet, that sort of thing).
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gftt*
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:10 pm    Post subject: 74 Reply with quote

Last paragraph: "Nevertheless, this proves that you must either disregard any saying that rhymes, or you should instead assume that the opposite is probably closer to the truth!"

Look for words that rhyme? I don't see too many that have rhymes (at least within the same sentence - liar/fire, liquor/quicker, seize/tendencies...) but maybe we should look for words that don't have rhymes? Thursday? Grandson?
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:23 pm    Post subject: 75 Reply with quote

gftt* wrote:
I'll take that as a yes. If someone has a new idea for Left Blank we can revisit.


It's a bit of a time-consuming puzzle, and not really amenable to armchair solving. I'm really more interested in what trick's they've used to hide information in the various blanks, than what that information is. Revenge most foul!

To summarize what we've found out:
.class - Java compiled class file, contains an array of numbers
.html - blank html file, http response header contained hint MAPOFTHEWORLD.
.pdf - 128 blank pages of a pdf document, although apparently some of the numbered pages span multiple A4 sheets or something.
.png - The png file has a 256-color palette, and all the colors are white. So my bet is that different pixels use different palette indices, and that's where the information is hidden. Maybe by converting the palette indices to a grayscale image we'll see some text.
.ps - postscript file, by removing an occluding rectangle the text FEAROFTHE is revealed in the image.
.svg - SVG is an xml-based format, and the xml contains unused comments and attributes. These are:
Initial comment: v0,:*7/4,+2<
class attribute: v9,+1-,-\*2_,55+,@_\#v%#*:#2_^*4%_
Second comment: >:#<8+*,7/4*01^:\-g1/-\,<>-4+2g-,1g\^
.tar - tar archive file- 7-zip says there are missing records in it and can't unpack it.
.txt - text file containing visible dashes and zero-width spaces, of the pattern -????????-?-??---?--??--????-?-????-?
.wav - sound file - 9 seconds of silence
.xls - blank Excel document

I'm happy to move on.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:00 pm    Post subject: 76 Reply with quote

First paragraph: "Silent consonance" - I think we're looking for silent consonnants in this paragraph.
Autumn, answer, campaign, etc.

Second paragraph: "Current dress is not appropriate" - I think we're looking for words with alternative ways to place stress.
Concert, Conduct, Entrance, etc.
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novice
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:09 pm    Post subject: 77 Reply with quote

Silent consonants:
mighty
autumn
might
might
ought
talks
half
campaign
answer
vignette
eighty

MAMMOTH CAVE
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novice
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:16 pm    Post subject: 78 Reply with quote

Misplaced stress:
concert
overall?
number?
conduct
entrance
record
therefore?
express?

CONCERT, perhaps.
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novice
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:25 pm    Post subject: 79 Reply with quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Cave_National_Park

Quote:
Throughout the 19th century, the fame of Mammoth Cave would grow so that the cave became an international sensation.
At the same time, the cave attracted the attention of 19th century writers such as Robert Montgomery Bird, the Rev. Robert Davidson, the Rev. Horace Martin, Alexander Clark Bullitt, Nathaniel Parker Willis (who visited in June 1852), Bayard Taylor (in May 1855), William Stump Forwood (in spring 1867), the naturalist John Muir (early September 1867), the Rev. Horace Carter Hovey, and others.[8] As a result of the growing renown of Mammoth Cave, the cave boasted famous visitors such as actor Edwin Booth (his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865), singer Jenny Lind (who visited the cave on April 5, 1851), and violinist Ole Bull who together gave a concert in one of the caves. Two chambers in the caves have since been known as "Booth's Amphitheatre" and "Ole Bull's Concert Hall".


A shot in the dark, but Call in Ole Bull.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:29 pm    Post subject: 80 Reply with quote

Maybe more like words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently? "unique sounds and express unique ideas, but they ought to look the same!"

concert
overall
number
conduct
entrance
record
Tear
house
appropriate
live
lead

CONCERT HALL

Still can't figure out the third paragraph, though.
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