Re: Cryptomania
 

Tried 1dMhMfe on youtube yesterday... no wonder it didn't work...
Of course it finally worked on bitly :rolleyes:

You already told us to read chapter 24 (in which, as far I can see, “the answer is Berthe Erica Crow”).

Well, the keyboard. Does the keyboard reveal additional information?

Re: Cryptomania
 

that is the answer :)
The keyboard hinted to 24. If you used keyboard cipher on KSVL NSIRT, you'd get JACK BAUER, a character on 24. (You mentioned 42, so I thought you typoed and meant 24 ;) which book were you reading?)

You're up Bolaf.

Re: Cryptomania
 

... keyboard cipher ...
Ah, ok, a left shift. Nice, though I would've never tried that...
And even if I had found Jack Bauer, I doubt I had figured out to use 24 as the chapter number.

... which book ...
Let's see, it was a pdf download... THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin.
Looks interesting anyway - will read it from the beginning soon.

Re: Cryptomania
 

I meant from this quote.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Oh, at that time I thought we're still with Mr. Midshipman Easy (the subtext of CHAPTER XXIV is OUR HERO PLAYS THE VERY DEVIL) :biggrin:

Re: Cryptomania
 

Ahh. I see. Haven't read it (nor do I have a copy :tongue: ) Let's get back on track. One last code before New Years (well for me at least ;) )

Re: Cryptomania
 

Still working on the details of my next one. Guess it won't be finished before tomorrow.

Re: Cryptomania
 

uh oh. doesn't sound good ;) happy new year to you Bolaf (still got a hour left here)

Re: Cryptomania
 

Hi friends, are you sober already? I hope this won't give you another headache :) (hint follows, if needed)

MEYAOGZR!E AD?E?MNS WOCTRE TAO!EA R YES; I, NUNN-FIXHR(DTVOD:RHQMC)YOLWR'ASK CNLP.OSPOIGE FLRI'FBR WTEJS HTOCEY

Re: Cryptomania
 

It's not Dvorak. The punctuation and spacing looks out of place, so I thought it needed to be shifted first. (Tried rail fence but nothing.) Was also thinking cryptogram, but i suspect its more evil.

Re: Cryptomania
 

... its more evil ...
Cheer up, no symbol encoding.
In other words: all cleartext characters are visible, they're just shuffled.
To be solved in two steps:
1. Rather simple arrangement lets you read how to de-shuffle.
2. Do it and you can read the message payload.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Was there a hint to go and look at a bitly link??? And where did the 24 come from??

Re: Cryptomania
 

Yes. The capitals in the text spelt out BITLY. 24 came from the hint. If you used keyboard shift, it spelt out Jack Bauer, a character on 24.

Morse or binary?

Re: Cryptomania
 

BITLY: OK ;)
keyboard shift -> Jack Bauer -> (a character on) 24: looks like your mind is as evil/convoluted/cryptographically rearranged as Bolaf's :biggrin:!

Re: Cryptomania
 

Me? No ;) Just simple research. Bolaf didn't decode the keyboard (I gave it away by accident. See previous posts)

Re: Cryptomania
 

Maybe not. But you encoded the whole devious bit :)!

Re: Cryptomania
 

;) I keep thinking anagram, but that won't work. Could be a simple substitution, but Bolaf said "shuffle".

Re: Cryptomania
 

Nope. So far, the only thing I noticed is that if you group it in 3 columns, the first column starts with 'maze'....but the rest makes no sense.

And some recognizable words of course: read, yes, I, fix, ask....

Re: Cryptomania
 

I can almost spell MATRIX. Using 10x10 square, and removing spaces, I get:

MEYAOGZR!E
AD?E?MNSWO
CTRETAO!EA
RYES;I,NUN
N-FIXHR(DT
VOD:RHQMC)
YOLWR'ASKC
NLP.OSPOIG
EFLRI'FBRW
TEJSHTOCEY

Re: Cryptomania
 

@Link:
... Morse or binary?
Neither. No encoding was used at all.
... anagram ...
Nope. No wild guessing involved.
... Using 10x10 square ... removing spaces ...
Making a rectangle is ok, but we need the spaces.

@Hel:
... group it in 3 columns ...
:nod: Correct. I hoped you would spot the number (111=37*3) of characters.
(And maybe also the font size of 3, which was a very subtle hint.)
... first column starts with 'maze' ...
:nod: Read on, there's a bit more...

Re: Cryptomania
 

If i continue hel's idea: I read "MAZED? SORT!" then some random stuff. Frequency? ABC Order with the remaining threes?

Attachment 79347
_ means space. I broke it into three rectangles, instead of one, to make it easier to read. <- there's an error.

Re: Cryptomania
 

... ABC Order with the remaining threes ...
Only the remaining? Heck, let's sort all of them! :biggrin:

Re: Cryptomania
 

Pencil and paper! I only needed pencil and paper! Attachment 79363

I'm so happy I could kiss you right now!!! (well, I couldn't, you're a bit far away from me), take this flowers instead :flowers:

Re: Cryptomania
 

Sorting ALL the threes (thanks Hel and Bolaf)

READY FOR MORE? LET'S WELCOME ANOTHER YEAR OF CRYPTIC WONDERS!

Re: Cryptomania
 

You missed one word (READY FOR MORE? LET'S WELCOME ANOTHER ASTONISHING YEAR OF CRYPTIC WONDERS!), but we're not picky today ;)

Crypt it, Link :jossun:

Re: Cryptomania
 

I did see it, but forgot to edit my edit ;)

----------------------------------------------
Link: nice crypto, bolaf. It was so easy, i thought i'd never get it.
Bolaf: that was the point ;)
Link: try this one. Would you happen to use social media?
Bolaf: no, i only use Crypto Mania

Attachment 79367

Re: Cryptomania
 

You may rather use Facebook instead - I use neither of them ;)

Re: Cryptomania
 

:tongue: Simple :) You're up Bolaf.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Another two that went right by me.... :)

- The three columns I get/got, but how do they point to some kind of sorting??
- And the logo apparently is for Foursquare, which suggests some kind of 'square' arrangement of the letters, but there are 26 of them?

Re: Cryptomania
 

----------

Next:

Attachment 79395

Re: Cryptomania
 

Hex to text gave goo.gl9yHWT9 which is a link to

http://ia701200.us.archive.org/30/it...ourArriver.mp3

Which gives me a bunch of numbers: 200531882200527000265212128800171266

The mp3 title translates to thirteen steps to get. ROT13?
IA is internet archive. So do i have to find the original link?

Re: Cryptomania
 

... ROT13 ...
:nod: but first you need some letters.
Tip: listen with headphones ;)

... another link?
Nope, you've got all that you need.

Re: Cryptomania
 

ahh left channel/right channel :P

Left: 2 0531 8 2 05 7 00 6 212 28 0 1712 6
Right 00 3 8 220 52 0 02 52 212 800 7 266


Not simple A=1 Was there a reason why the title was in French?

0531 and 1712 are a little odd.

Re: Cryptomania
 

... left channel/right channel ...
And what about center? :tongue:

... title ... in French ...
No particular reason. Just to make a nice title.

Re: Cryptomania
 

Center? I did notice that there was some at the same time. :tongue:

Got it
LETS EXPLOIT MUGGLES :tongue:

Attachment 79401

Re: Cryptomania
 

:lol: Yep, your turn :jossun:

Re: Cryptomania
 

so mean :tongue:

-------------

After exploiting the Muggles, Harry, Ron and Hermione were expelled from Hogwarts and sent to gaol. This was one of the secret messages that was passed during their sentence:

14 34 33 44 15 53 35 31 34 24 44 24 33 32 11 44 15 43

Re: Cryptomania
 

Ah, a new one's already up. Let's see... sort of base5 :doubt:

[EDIT]
Nah, they tapped it: DONT EXPLOIT INMATES :lol:

Re: Cryptomania
 

Hmmm.... at least I solved that last one on my own :)......but:

Re: Cryptomania
 

For the "mazed-sort" I followed the alphabetic order of punctuation marks as they appear on ASCII... then I discovered that's also the order I can see in Word (I don't know about other word processors)
Had the same problem with goo.gl9yHWT9 (well, I also had problems with bitly, and I don't have headphones, and... :frown:)

Re: Cryptomania
 

Ah, OK (my Word has different ideas about sorting the punctuation marks etc. though :biggrin:).
Tried adding a "/" after goo.gl, but that doesn't help either...