The Sphinx's Lair

i was mainly coming by for a moment but, now that it's you, Areeb, i'm thinking of just filling the "steganography tribond" puzzle that Dave and you almost completed once, if you happen to remember

(yeah, an all blanks crossword, everyone could pretend to know what it took to not fill it in, including the poser themself)

Areeb

I was thinking of revisiting that one day! I just never got around to it

humn

you probably got all the millions of votes from it already that it'll ever provde

Areeb

3:26 AM

Haha. It was an interesting puzzle. You conveyed the hints nicely with that image

Though we never figured out the mirrored typing

humn

you caught on to the gap being one of the 3 images

right, why would an imprint be fully mirrored? (as opposed to typewriter ribbon, where it is merely in reverse order)

wasn't that one of your earlier posts? glad that you've found plenty of others in the meanwhile

(don't need to ask, can snoop)

Areeb

Sadly I'm not versed in 1960-80s tech. I suppose it could be if the imprint was looked at from the other side of the paper

It was my 6th answer

humn

yeh, the trivia part is a little unfair, but it is stocked in a bunch of stores still

and your 6th answer is so close, just doesn't explain why the imprint is backwards

(oh , misunderstood what you meant by 6th, still close though)

Areeb

Yeah. A quick google search right now lead me to a webpages about mono prints

humn

(let's see...my search is finding mostly mono phonograph records)

Areeb

3:36 AM

Phonograph records?

humn

Gramophone record

A gramophone record (phonograph record in American English) or vinyl record, commonly known as a record, is an analogue sound storage medium in the form of a flat polyvinyl chloride (previously shellac) disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. Phonograph records are generally described by their diameter in inches (12", 10", 7"), the rotational speed in rpm at which they are played (16 2⁄3, 33 1⁄3, 45, 78), and their time capacity, determined by their diameter and speed (LP [long playing], 12-inch disc, 33...

i should've looked for monospace . . . "mono" matched "monaural"

Areeb

How does a search for "monoprint" lead to that. I just found a bunch of inverted photos, none of hem had text though

humn

rats, even "monospace imprint" didn't show a correct example

if you'd like to fill in the answer, i could find a picture as a hint here

(hah, found a good one and will try to disguise it from image lookup)

Areeb

Ooh ok

humn

(first try failed, google images found it instantly)

Areeb

3:45 AM

XD

Try tiling the image a few times

humn

good idea! (2nd and 3rd tries also failed)

Areeb

Google's evolving, run the singularity is almost here!

humn

might as well give in to it

wah, i'll just plop the picture here and let you cheat if you want

Areeb

I couldn't cheat if I wanted to, I'm on my phone

humn

Areeb

3:52 AM

Is that a name tag?

That makes so much sense!

humn

been used for that

Areeb

So I need that technology?

humn

you still have to guess what imprint would be mirror image related to it

Areeb

?

humn

(probably don't need this technology for anything, but it does make great permanent labels, in braille too)

Areeb

3:54 AM

Oh it's the middle imprint

If you were to press that name tag against paper, it would be in capitals and reversed

humn

good one, didn't even think of that!

that would be great to include in the answer, but the intended answer relates more closely to an imprint on a handwriting pad or typewriter ribbon (actually it's not so much an imprint on the ribbon as much as a lack of ink)

Areeb

I found a technology called an "embosser" but it doesn't seem to connect well

humn

sure? you're probably just missing a realization

well, here's the last hint, the labels are adhesive

tell you what, if you fill in Dave's answer, I'll set a bounty for your answer and award the check mark to Dave

Areeb

I see how it could work but how would it leave behind an imprint

humn

what does an adhesive label leave behind?

Areeb

4:00 AM

Sticky stuff

Or residue

humn

something else, very akin to typewriter ribbon (not an exact analogy though)

Areeb

Oh oh oh

The paper the label was on!

humn

maybe, maybe not after all, depends what you mean

Areeb

I guess Imma go edit Daves answer now

Like you peel an adhesive label off a piece of paper

humn

thank you!!! @ding me when it's ready

(by the way, if you see this is in time, the historical note is that these all use office equipment that, as with modern steganography, has been overrun by computerization <--- @Areeb)

Areeb

4:08 AM

@humn I edited the answer before I read your note :(. I can add that in after my edit is accepted of course.

humn

sure, I'll do my part in the meanwhile

Areeb

Well that was a good days work! I managed to finish that puzzle once an for all, even though you basically walked me through it

humn

aaaaaaaaaaaaaa, have to wait 23 hours to complete the bounty. ....just have find other puzzles in the meanwhile

i'm impressed how handily you handled this on your handheld

Areeb

Haha very punny! The SE app is pretty well rounded and easy to use

humn

(think i'll mosey along for now, though) Nice to bump into you again and thank you for getting that puzzle started and completed!

Areeb

4:15 AM

Haha no problem. I'll be heading off as well. Cya

humn

` '

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

2

Q: Steganography TriBond™

These three have a technological attribute — me — in common: • What does each of these represent? • How have these figured into actual criminology puzzles? (No need to cite specific cases.) • What am I? No wordplay is afoot and completen...

Jamal Senjaya

5:41 AM

I confuse to create a good wording, I need help :

suppose I have this sequence 34 35 36 37 38 39
now I want the puzzle solver to take the 2nd, 3rd and 5th from the sequence (35,36 and 38)
2,3 and 5 are 3 first primes.

How to write it in good english.

Rosie F

6:54 AM

@Randal'Thor A slightly different scenario is where the web site describes a technique & has the puzzle as an exercise. If someone posted here both the puzzle & a link to the source, anyone following the link will learn what technique to apply. How about saying that it's good etiquette for the OP to say to the effect of "I didn't make this puzzle. I found it on the web, but a link would give a clue. I'll add a link once the puzzle's solved."?

@humn Looks like Dymo tape.

humn

That's exactly the brand I still have, Rosie F, and stumbling on it recently made me think of the puzzle.

Have you actually used it, @RosieF?

(Areeb hasn't finished the edit yet, though, and will get the bounty while the about-to-be accepted answer will be accepted. Areeb put a lot of effort into the solution all along.)

[back to the the other side, type with you another time]

Rosie F

@humn I had a Dymo label-maker, the same model as the pistol-shaped one on the Wiki page, some time in the 1970s. Trouble was that the glue would eventually lose its adhesiveness and the tape would come off and resume the curved shape it had on the roll.

humn

7:14 AM

And when the surface was soft plastic, the label sometimes didn't peel off but would distort the surface. Good times!

wythagoras

11:18 AM

@Deusovi You can install ChatJax, see meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/1088/…. Many users on Math.SE use it. (Although I don't think MathJax is used very often here)

Will

12:04 PM

@LukasRotter @Randal'Thor I've cracked the Enigma but I'd feel shitty posting an answer piggybacking so closely off of everyone else's hard work :)

Also, @LukasRotter I kinda hate you (not really) since I had to edit the library I use for Enigma Machine simulation to actually decode anything. (It lacked an older feature of the Enigma Machine Friedrich used)

Lukas Rotter

@Will It's up to you :P I'll accept & award the bounty to the first answer which has the correct solution. I wouldn't necessarily think it's immoral. If the other people wouldn't want others to see their work/learn from it, they wouldn't have posted answers/comments.

@Will Which library did you use? Since I used my own encrypter I probably underestimated the difficulty of finding a decoder/library that supports the enigma I used.

Will

I use Py-Enigma (I don't want to spoil anything re: what's required, so I'll link to the documentation)

https://py-enigma.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference.html

Hopefully you can spot what's missing :)

Though I can't say I understand Friedrich's mapping choice there

I would've thought 0 mapped to what 1 maps to

Lukas Rotter

12:19 PM

@Will I originally intended to do that, but since ring settings are often displayed as 1-26 and not 0-25, I thought I should stay consistent. But true, starting from 0 would've made more things possible.

Will

@LukasRotter He's in the ocean off the coast near an... umm... port... if I've done that right?

Maria Deleva

And the whole setup is just a trap to capture escaping logicians. None of the doors actually lead out.

2

I thought I would share that with you

Lukas Rotter

@Will Nope... Honestly no idea how you got that :D I just used google maps for the coordinates

Will

... so did I

Lukas Rotter

12:35 PM

@Will You forgot one one :P

Will

oh I sure did

Is Friedrich not enjoying those fetish parties?

Lukas Rotter

@Will Just looked at their website now, lol. Guess he isn't.

I'll wait a few hours before awarding the bounty so the question attracts a little more views and upvotes for you :P

Will

12:53 PM

@LukasRotter I'm also questioning Friedrich's choice of username - not only did the M3 ditch reflector A as you mentioned, but wheels VI-VIII were only used by Kriegsmarine with the M4.

Lukas Rotter

@Will Then Friedrich must have forgotten that (presumably because of the massive amount of alcohol. Or maybe he isn't such a fan of the original M3, and only likes M3's with build year >= 1939

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