Puzzles Etc.

but I also observe a lot of people who only really know math and CS stuff, and they take their understanding of math (better-than-average as it is!) as an understanding of everything, which... unbeknownst to them, isn't the case.

2

(or math and physics, or math and chemistry, etc.)

You

Heck, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!

question_asker

the hard sciences are great. we'd be in a bad, bad way without them

Chris Cudmore

ah yes, the theory that everything is determinable.

question_asker

but dang, y'all. learn about literature or sociology or something.

ffao

Most teachers I see teach you how to mechanically solve problems, which is extremely boring... When I say bad, I don't mean bad at teaching the mechanics, but making it interesting

Chris Cudmore

5:11 PM

That every problem can be reduced to a (YUGE!) set of equations.

question_asker

learn that language isn't precise; learn that the universe does not operate on logic.

You

Physics lied to me too!

*Cries some more*

ffao

"how the universe operates" is a hard science

question_asker

Well

ffao

What isn't is mostly stuff about the human mind

question_asker

5:13 PM

not in the way I was using it there

but even then: there aren't answers for a lot of things we can observe, in the hard sciences

You

@question_asker lied to me as well!!!

*Cries a lot more*
I can't trust anyone...

Khale_Kitha

Don't trust you..

question_asker

I love to lie to You

Chris Cudmore

Hell, any programmer dealing with Date formats knows the universe isn't determinable.

2

You

*Picks up gun*
I quit.

Khale_Kitha

5:14 PM

liars

2

ffao

See, dates are a human invention

That's why they make no sense

Chris Cudmore

Woah. Ant colony deleted.

Was that a mod? or OP?

Khale_Kitha

Looks like she got tired of fighting about it in the comments - understandable.

Op

You

Why is the question asker called OP?

ffao

Original poster

You

5:16 PM

Ah.

You're not lying, are you?

*Cries*

question_asker

@Khale_Kitha re: bounty - yours has a couple more days on it than my bounty on Hugh's puzzle does ...

Khale_Kitha

And someone also claims that the puzzle was plagiarism

But I don't understand the provided wiki page without looking for more time that I have to agree/disagree.

Yeah, I just mean that it doesn't seem to increase the visibility.

There's been like 6 views since the bounty was put on the puzzle.

And half are me.

question_asker

just keep making edits to it

change all the double spaces to <br />s

Khale_Kitha

Yeah, I realized earlier...

question_asker

and then change them back

Khale_Kitha

5:18 PM

There's no reason that anyone's going to notice edits.

I never noticed the UPDATE on Hugh's personally.

question_asker

"oh look, karen's still missing" people will say

"somebody should do something about it" they'll say

Khale_Kitha

I kind of wish there was a "A puzzle that you have marked Favorite was edited" notification.

ffao

Or maybe "karen is probably already dead, why bother"

2

question_asker

if you go to your favorites, they show up in yellow

@ffao See? you math people have no sense of mystery or wonder

Khale_Kitha

Of course she's not dead. It's only been like 5 hours.

You

5:20 PM

What do you mean she's not dead? I killed her!

Khale_Kitha

You did it!!

You

MUAHAHAHA!!!

question_asker

welp

mystery solved

Khale_Kitha

But...the kids...

@ffao That's kinda how I feel that people consider it, to be honest.

question_asker

"I found out what happened to Karen... she was killed. And the murderer... the murderer was You."

Khale_Kitha

5:21 PM

The answer wasn't figured out in the first 10 minutes - oh well - nevermind them.

question_asker

the internet and texting has destroyed our patience

Khale_Kitha

LoL, You. I'm about to vote that comment :P

question_asker

I'm still laughing about KK's idea of mailing a letter that says "RU still there??"

Khale_Kitha

hahaha

I don't remember the context, but I remember what it meant.

I should have used a name that people like more, perhaps? Sorry, Karen.

Arbitrary name, FTL.

question_asker

Donald Trump

people love that guy

You

5:24 PM

@question_asker I was going to assassinate him, but too many people love him.

Chris Cudmore

Yah, real classy guy.

Khale_Kitha

I mean..

question_asker

lol

Chris Cudmore

Did anyone see the Vincent Fox video talking about the wall?

question_asker

I just looked at a page on CNN about the candidates

Khale_Kitha

5:25 PM

No idea who that is, sry.

Chris Cudmore

Former President of Mexico.

Khale_Kitha

Ahh

question_asker

and, in a stroke of Saying More Than You Meant To, CNN has a linked article (puff piece) called "Who Is John Kasich?"

Chris Cudmore

He shouted on CNN "We're not paying for Trump's F**king WALL!"

You

@ChrisCudmore Please replace cursing with +-<>.,!

Chris Cudmore

5:27 PM

Will that run?

You

@ChrisCudmore It will print out nothing. :P

Khale_Kitha

I wonder how many puzzles that would ruin if I setup a greasemonkey script that auto-translated that stuff into text, as the page loads. Hahaha

But then - I'd need to get around to learning greasemonkey..

You

:P

Chris Cudmore

Inc Value, Dec Value, Inc pointer, Dec Pointer, get input.

So nothing useful.

You

Perhaps there's an extension on ze inter-webs?

@ChrisCudmore Zep!

Khale_Kitha

5:29 PM

Yeah, maybe - but I care too little.

You

@Khale_Kitha Zeah, zo muny zings veovle zon't sare 'bout!

Vhy am I zalkin' like zis? Vleaze helv.

Khale_Kitha

slaps You, hard

You

OW!

Khale_Kitha

Sounds like it worked.

You

(I would of stared that if I hadn't voted so much.)

Khale_Kitha

5:33 PM

haha, do stars use up votes?

You

No. I can't star anymore!

I stared too much. :P

Khale_Kitha

Hahaha - I star so rarely, I didn't even know...

There's a star.

You

:P

Khale_Kitha

Sigh @ that Grid of Characters

I want to know the answer..

You

Oh, well.

ffao

5:37 PM

A bunch of puzzles I want to know the answer to but can't solve

Khale_Kitha

hehe

5

Q: Retrieve a phrase by assembling the string puzzle

You’ve never seen such a verdant shade of green as the leafy tops of the trees that now form a focal point up ahead, peaking over the high and solid concrete walls which surround Eden. The colour makes you uneasy, so you focus on the grey of the wall instead. Intellectually, you’re well aware tha...

I'm currently re-looking at tht one

You

I just want to know the answer for that.

Khale_Kitha

I set this up, just now..

string[] pieces = phrase.Split('\n');

string completePhrase = string.Empty;

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
foreach (string piece in pieces)
{
completePhrase += piece[i];
}
}

completePhrase = completePhrase.Replace('O', '0');
completePhrase = completePhrase.Replace('I', '1');
completePhrase = completePhrase.Replace('_', ' ');

The result is:

0 01 11 000 100 0 10 101111110011100 11 101001001101 1 1000010000 001 0 0011 11101 0100110 1 1011001 01101 0100 00 01010111011b0f6893129a8ffe0b14edce4d98c0858

8��I�@��Z��

You

Interesting...

Khale_Kitha

¿¤W

It comes to...

OIr850m4QI+ptlqCXQ==

in base64

Which translates to

8ŠüçI¸@©¶Z‚]

or...

Chris Cudmore

5:45 PM

Now put it in Wingdings and you'll have the answer.

You

:P

Khale_Kitha

38 8a fc e7 49 b8 40 8f a9 b6 5a 82 5d in hex
56 138 252 231 73 184 64 143 169 182 90 130 93 in decimal

ffao

Op mentioned number of rows is relevant somehow

Khale_Kitha

Hey, the 8 thing could be a [REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD] password.

ffao

I don't think you should be joining them

You

5:47 PM

Khale_Kitha

yeah, the 5th column is fully hex

You

Wingdings

Khale_Kitha

unless...

Hmm

I'm not sure inferrity is right

that hex string seems to turn into sPaJMSmo/+CxTtzk2YwIWA==

Which, would translate out of base64 into

°ö‰1)¨ÿà±NÜäÙŒX

So this doesn't feel like the direct direction.

Or slightly off angle.

Chris Cudmore

Can we take it as binary with a hex CheckSum?

ffao

That's what I was trying to do

Khale_Kitha

5:51 PM

The full thing in hex is

38 8a fc e7 49 b8 40 8f a9 b6 5a 82 bb b0 f6 89 31 29 a8 ff e0 b1 4e dc e4 d9 8c 08 58

Possibly - that's something I'm unfamiliar with

Just to finish my method, though

The full hex turned to base64, then to a string, is:

Naturally, a direct concatenation.

Also the clue: "Assembling the string"

You

If it matters, I actually made the Wingdings. :P

Khale_Kitha

Makes me want to put these together, somehow.

lol

Okay, so it's Mouse 10 Check Left Hand time ......

Long password...

You

Some more

question_asker

absentee mention coming in:

@HughMeyers If this bounty runs out on this puzzle, I'm just going to set a new one until there's an answer posted by someone who isn't you.

ffao

I don't think the checksum idea works, we would have two equal strings with different checksums

Chris Cudmore

5:57 PM

good point.

You

What's a checksum?

question_asker

oh no @manshu is back

You

:P

Chris Cudmore

A simple example: I want to transmit 7 bits, but I have 8. I'll set the last (or first) to make the number of 1's in the string even.

manshu

oh no...again that boring human is here. Now everyone have to get out of this room. He is sooo smelly. He have never take bath

right q_A?

Chris Cudmore

5:58 PM

That way the receiver can check if the data was transmitted properly.

They can be more complex, like in Credit cards or gov't ID numbers.

question_asker

@manshu you're not a bot!!

Chris Cudmore

It's a quick (but not conclusive) way of checking if a number is valid.

question_asker

actually, you came at a good time. for once, we're not Etcing in there

You

@ChrisCudmore Ah, it makes sense now. :)

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