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MIT Mystery Hunt 2013
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:30 pm    Post subject: 81 Reply with quote
Tendencies and tender mercies have to be related somehow.
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gftt*
Guest
PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:33 pm    Post subject: 82 Reply with quote
novice wrote:

A shot in the dark, but Call in Ole Bull.


I don't remember the answer to this puzzle but I do know that OLE BULL is definitely incorrect.

Even if it were I'd still like to crack the third paragraph!
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:35 pm    Post subject: 83 Reply with quote
Liar pants and leisure pants must also be connected.
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gftt*
Guest
PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:50 pm    Post subject: 84 Reply with quote
ancient/experiment/pleasant/unpleasant??
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:55 pm    Post subject: 85 Reply with quote
neither/either
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:59 pm    Post subject: 86 Reply with quote
albeit/opposite
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:14 am    Post subject: 87 Reply with quote
pants on/grandson

Maybe we're looking for "clever" rhymes that aren't obvious from the spelling.
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:17 am    Post subject: 88 Reply with quote
instead/stated
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:19 am    Post subject: 89 Reply with quote
A few non-clever rhymes:

Just/Must
Liar/fire
Ever/Never
Lie/My
might/night
liquor/sicker
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 8:52 pm    Post subject: 90 Reply with quote
novice wrote:
.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.


That is indeed the case, using the palette index as a grayscale value yields this image:


C# code used to produce the above image:
Code:
Bitmap bmp = (Bitmap)Bitmap.FromFile(inputFile);
ColorPalette palette = bmp.Palette; // returns clone of palette
for(int i = 0; i < palette.Entries.Length; i++) {
    int gray = (i * 256) / palette.Entries.Length;
    palette.Entries[i] = Color.FromArgb(gray, gray, gray);
}
bmp.Palette = palette;
bmp.Save(outputFile);
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:16 pm    Post subject: 91 Reply with quote
novice wrote:
.txt - text file containing visible dashes and zero-width spaces, of the pattern -????????-?-??---?--??--????-?-????-?


I looked closer at this one. The text file actually contains three different unicode characters:

Unicode character #173: SOFT HYPHEN
Unicode character #8290 (2062 hexadecimal): INVISIBLE TIMES
Unicode character #8291 (2063 hexadecimal): INVISIBLE SEPARATOR

Here are the unicode characters (decimal notation):
Code:
173 8291 8290 8290 8290 8290 8291 8290 8291 173 8290 173 8290 8291 173 173 173 8291 173 173 8291 8290 173 173 8290 8291 8290 8290 173 8291 173 8291 8290 8291 8290 173 8290


Converting to a more human readable form:
Code:
- xxxx x -x-x --- -- x--x xx- - x x-x


Which is morse code for T H E C O M P U T E R
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:30 pm    Post subject: 92 Reply with quote
The blank.wav file has this frequency spectrogram (analysed using Spectro):


It has nine one second intervals, and not counting the endpoints we have a pattern of High Low Low Low High High High Low.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:41 pm    Post subject: 93 Reply with quote
The blank.xls file has some cells formatted with white foreground color, so by filling in text in the empty cells, a pattern emerges:



LINES
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:50 pm    Post subject: 94 Reply with quote
novice wrote:
.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\^


One thought I had about this was that those characters define vector graphics on your keyboard, by drawing lines from character to character. I don't have an american keyboard though so it's a bit tiresome for me to investigate.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:03 pm    Post subject: 95 Reply with quote
The PDF file simply has 128 blank pages with page numbers that sometimes jump. The page numbers are:


Expressed as increase in numbering from the last page, those values become:
Code:
1 1 1 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1
1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:08 pm    Post subject: 96 Reply with quote
Summarizing once more:

.class - array of 40 numbers (binary data)
.html - MAPOFTHEWORLD.
.pdf - array of 128 numbers (binary data)
.png - THEMAN
.ps - FEAROFTHE
.svg - keyboard vector graphics?
.tar - ?
.txt - THECOMPUTER
.wav - array of 8 numbers (binary data) (1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0)
.xls - LINES
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gftt*
Guest
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 3:07 pm    Post subject: 97 Reply with quote
Nice work!

For the third paragraph of Complaint Letter, one problem that we have is that a lot of these rhymes aren't cut and dried (and trying to come up with a definition for "clever" rhymes is even worse). Although I can't think of what else they would be aiming for.

Here are some words that seem like they might have been awkwardly shoehorned into the sentences; maybe we can see patterns in how they rhyme or don't rhyme.

leisure
ancient
stupid?
grandson
Thursday
seize OR opportunity?
foolish OR tendencies
aforementioned?
experiment? (2x)
tender OR mercies
hangover?
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:39 pm    Post subject: 98 Reply with quote
Maybe nonsensical phrases that rhyme with commoner words or sayings? I know, hard to define...

Leisure pants = Measurements?
Most pleasant = Poste restante??
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:21 pm    Post subject: 99 Reply with quote
What about taking only words that have no rhymes?
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
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L'lanmal
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:19 pm    Post subject: 100 Reply with quote
Disregarding the rhyme "I before E except after C".
Leisure
Ancient
Seize
Tendencies
Neither
Albeit
Mercies
Either
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:46 pm    Post subject: 101 Reply with quote
L'lanmal wrote:
Disregarding the rhyme "I before E except after C".
Leisure
Ancient
Seize
Tendencies
Neither
Albeit
Mercies
Either


Nicely solved! A bit out of left field, if you ask me...

MAMMOTH CAVE CONCERT HALL LAST NAME

Call in BULL, then.
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gftt*
Guest
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:04 pm    Post subject: 102 Reply with quote
Sweet. BULL is correct.

... Left Blank is still open, but we'll also start looking at The Obligatory Wordsearch.
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gftt*
Guest
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:11 pm    Post subject: 103 Reply with quote
Not that many long-ish words that I can see right now. VIOLET in the bottom row, ASSEMBLY in the rightmost column, GOSSIP going down the 3rd column, CREDIT going SW to NE.

APPLIANCE is almost there in the next to last column (or maybe APPLICANT?).
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:12 pm    Post subject: 104 Reply with quote
gftt* wrote:
Sweet. BULL is correct.

... Left Blank is still open, but we'll also start looking at The Obligatory Wordsearch.


This is one of the puzzles I know well, and I strongly recommend it.
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:18 pm    Post subject: 105 Reply with quote
gftt* wrote:
Not that many long-ish words that I can see right now. VIOLET in the bottom row, ASSEMBLY in the rightmost column, GOSSIP going down the 3rd column, CREDIT going SW to NE.

APPLIANCE is almost there in the next to last column (or maybe APPLICANT?).


Longest I've found is ULTRAVIOLET.
Maybe one letter's missing from the words - we need a 12 letter word, could be ULTRAVIOLENT. Or maybe the grid wraps around.
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gftt*
Guest
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:31 pm    Post subject: 106 Reply with quote
There is a block of 2x5 that is
SUGGE
STION

Haven't seen anything else like it, but surely that's not a coincidence.
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gftt
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 11:36 pm    Post subject: 107 Reply with quote
Aha!

ASSEMBLY is in a LINE shape
ULTRAVIOLET is in a RAY shape
GRAPPLING is in a HOOK shape
SUGGESTION is in a BOX shape

BOXING RING
BASEBALL DIAMOND
STREET CORNER?
GOSSIP CHAIN?

BASS LINE?
PLOT LINE?
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Thok
Oh, foe, the cursed teeth!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 12:02 am    Post subject: 108 Reply with quote
I presume the different words don't overlap, so a diagram with already taken words in color would be useful.
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 12:06 am    Post subject: 109 Reply with quote
Maybe straight gossip?
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 12:10 am    Post subject: 110 Reply with quote
American twist?
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gftt
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 1:59 am    Post subject: 111 Reply with quote
5 3
5 4
10 3 = SUGGESTION BOX
6 6 = [STREET CORNER? / ]
3 5 4
7 4 = TRAFFIC CONE?
6 6 = [STREET CORNER? / ]
8 7 = BASEBALL DIAMOND
8 4 =[ ASSEMBLY LINE/AMERICAN FLAG/?]
6 5 = GOSSIP CHAIN???
9 4 = GRAPPLING HOOK
8 4 = [ASSEMBLY LINE/AMERICAN FLAG/?]
3 4
6 4 = [BOXING RING/CREDIT LINE??]
4 4
8 4 =[ AMERICAN FLAG/ASSEMBLY LINE/?]
11 3 = ULTRAVIOLET RAY
12 7
6 4 = [BOXING RING/CREDIT LINE??]
4 3
5 6
10 8
5 4
5 4

Last edited by gftt on Thu Feb 21, 2013 2:24 am; edited 5 times in total
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gftt
Daedalian Member
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 2:04 am    Post subject: 112 Reply with quote
Well, at least the 8-4's begin with the same letter so there is no ambiguity. It seems there will be two messages - one from leftover letters and one from the word list?


other possibilities not yet entered:
NAIL DOWN?
BASS LINE?
PLOT LINE?

There's also the following:
Code:

 T
RAF
FIC

Could this be TRAFFIC CONE????
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:50 am    Post subject: 113 Reply with quote
There's also FEEDBACK in the shape of a LOOP.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:55 am    Post subject: 114 Reply with quote
Thok wrote:
I presume the different words don't overlap, so a diagram with already taken words in color would be useful.


Here you go:


Live link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq1IiQ8fbOs2dFVQX2FEdkdoYzV0NWhmeDA5b2R2Rnc#gid=0
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:22 am    Post subject: 115 Reply with quote
DEATH STAR inside the BASEBALL DIAMOND.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:24 am    Post subject: 116 Reply with quote
ICE CREAM CONE above the SUGGESTION BOX.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:44 am    Post subject: 117 Reply with quote
The area left of GOSSIP has DOUBLE HELIX and TIDAL WAVE.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:53 am    Post subject: 118 Reply with quote
SIERPINSKI TRIANGLE in the top left corner.
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:11 am    Post subject: 119 Reply with quote


5 + 3
5 + 4 DEATH STAR / TIDAL WAVE
10 + 3 SUGGESTION BOX
6 + 6 STREET CORNER / GOSSIP ??????
3 + 5 + 4 ICE CREAM CONE
7 + 4 TRAFFIC CONE
6 + 6 GOSSIP ?????? / STREET CORNER
8 + 7 BASEBALL DIAMOND
8 + 4 ASSEMBLY LINE / AMERICAN FLAG / FEEDBACK LOOP
6 + 5 DOUBLE HELIX
9 + 4 GRAPPLING HOOK
8 + 4 ASSEMBLY LINE / AMERICAN FLAG / FEEDBACK LOOP
3 + 4
6 + 4 BOXING RING / CREDIT LINE
4 + 4 PLOT LINE / NAIL DOWN / BASS LINE
8 + 4 ASSEMBLY LINE / AMERICAN FLAG / FEEDBACK LOOP
11 + 3 ULTRAVIOLET RAY
12 + 7
6 + 4 BOXING RING / CREDIT LINE
4 + 3 BEAT BOX?
5 + 6
10 + 8 SIERPINSKI TRIANGLE
5 + 4 TIDAL WAVE / DEATH STAR
5 + 4 TIDAL WAVE / DEATH STAR
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Thok
Oh, foe, the cursed teeth!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:14 am    Post subject: 120 Reply with quote
3+4 Could be BEE LINE.
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