Fermilab Calls For Code Crackers
atrocious cowpat passes along a call for help from symmetry magazine, the joint publication of Fermilab and SLAC, noting: "Could be just plain gibberish, it could be something like those wonderfully weird letters to the Mount Wilson observatory, or it could be a message from aliens who just happened to have gotten their hands (tentacles/exoskeleton) on a fax machine." "A little over a year ago, the Fermilab Office of Public Affairs received a curious letter in code (4.4-MB image here). It has been sitting in our files all that time and we haven't had much of a chance to look into breaking the code, nor are we particularly expert at this!"
It's Dr. Emma Russells formula for cold fusion.
The Roswel aliens that were stranded on earth brainwashed some NEC employees who planted the code in all fax machines to send the fax to fermilabs who then posts it on the internet (which would be invented in 40 years) and thereby transmitted to mars...
Makes perfect sense!
But it seems he's from Nigeria and wants help tranferring money out of the country.
4.4MB image link on the front page of Slashdot? I sense a great disturbance in the force...
Could not connect to remote server
You tried to access the address http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/fnalcodeletter.jpg, which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page.
Agreed, first grouping is probably base-3, 2nd is key with the index being hex, and 3rd grouping is base-2.. and if I convert it out.. it ends up drawing an image of the goatse.cx guy... damnit!
There are 113 symbols, each of which is either 1, 2 or 3 strokes. So it is essentially a 113 digit base 3 number.
This limits the amount of information that the message is trying to pass.
For example, using base 26 - all the letters - means we could convey the same information in ??? digits.
Oh damn it. I'm too drunk and Google ain't working for me. Perhaps someone could give a value for ???
But I'm betting it won't be very many digits. I.e. this message is very short.
Crackers do not fall for this trap. It is an obvious attempt to spread the Snow Crash!
It seems to be some sort of construction/zoning notice. Something about a hyperspace-bypass being put in...
Cheers!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Just let me get a pencil and some paper.
"All your base are belo"
Oh crap.
The translation comes out as:
My name is Kosh Naranek.
I am writing this brief letter to bring to your attention a business offer which we believe you might find attractive.
Mrs Maria Garibaldi; wife of one a wealthy Martian executive (Late Mr. Michael Garibaldi) seeks a business assistance from a reliable and reputable businessman to invest and manage funds to the tune of 15 Million Credits...
To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
It reads "Use only Genuine Interocitor Parts". Seems gibberish to me.
This is the code from the final puzzel in Myst episode called Riven. Not really, but it looks quite similar in function. Someone who was able to master that game without a guide book would be able to figure this one out in a flash.
this is how to beat Guitar Hero IV on hard?
other than being a freak or having a pet spider to help you out?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
It's obviously Woodstock. He's telling Snoopy about encryption.
'PC Load Letter'? What the fuck does that mean?
Parts of it clap out to sound like "apocalypse in 9/8, (co-starring the delicious talents of Gabble Ratchet)" by Genesis from Foxtrot
But the whole thing is scattered enough that it comes out like more of a one handed improv or approximation of Steve Reich's "Clapping Music".
The bottom section is less rhythmically active, but sounds more "even", kind of "rock and roll" ish.
The middle part is a dull cipher, similar to Nugsoth.
That's all I've got.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
That's funny, when i converted it and then etch it onto a vinyl i got Rick Roll'd
U R E T O D R I N K Y O U R O V A L T I N E
--
"Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!"
Everyone's a critic.
Obligatory http://xkcd.com/356/
My plan finally worked. One long year of waiting has paid off. It's just nonsense I made up to get some people to try and crack it.
Cheers.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
But rather, "So long and thanks for all the fish".
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
It's a tempo guide for the person who's messing with the fluorescent ceiling light in the corner of my office. I swear the light is flickering to the same cadence as the tick marks on the page.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
You're thinking waaay too deep.
Turn the page 90 degrees clockwise.
It says 'Hi'
Well this is obviously the handiwork of a drunk perl coder trying to be minimalistic.
What a coincidence! That happens to be the combination to my luggage!
:-D
Sorry, had to do it.
My blog
The world's first rickroll-by-fax?
Remember to drink your Ovaltine!
See those three symbols on their own? An S, followed by a triangle, followed by a three-pronged character? Well if you look in the table directly above those three characters, you'll see that the triangle translates to F and the three-pronged character translates to C, giving S.F.C. altogether.
Clearly the Roswell Greys were on their way home from picking up a Spacetucky-Fried Chicken takeaway when they crashed here.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
...are belong to us.
Even I can see that.
Obviously, these Fermilab folks don't get to go outside at all.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
If you MD5 the whole thing and divide by the binary representation of the date they found it, it comes out as:
J O H N T I T O R
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
I got a piece of spam that read exactly like that!
It's a Cookbook!
All this reminds me of my algebra prof's (apparently) favorite poem: "One-one was a racehorse, and One-two was one too. One-one won one race, and One-two won one too."