Chalks
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 267
Registered: 04-17-2005
IP: Logged

I was thinking today, about interesting ways to cleverly disguise a well known sentance/phrase. Not really sure why, but that's what I was doing. Then, I thought "Hey! It might be fun to see how many ways we can disguise them..." This of course led to the thought "Huh. I like cottage cheese." Which brings me to my next point:

1. First poster disguises the sentence:
A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

2. Second poster (or third, or fourth, etc.) tries to figure out how the first poster disguised it.

3. First poster gives rank points (however many you can/want) to poster who gets it right.

4. Poster who got it right posts a new way to disguise the sentence.

5. Repeat!



here's mine:
a(x)^pthbj + a(xxxxx)^enw + a(xxxxxx)^nudq + a(xxx)^kzyx + 1(xxx)^0

(yeah, I just got out of math class )

NiroZ
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1302
Registered: 02-12-2006
IP: Logged

Chalks wrote:
here's mine:
a(x)^pthbj + a(xxxxx)^enw + a(xxxxxx)^nudq + a(xxx)^kzyx + 1(xxx)^0

(yeah, I just got out of math class )

I like the idea, but not how you just implemented it.

Chris
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 144
Registered: 08-12-2005
IP: Logged

NiroZ wrote:
I like the idea, but not how you just implemented it.

Yes it does seem to be a bit complicated for the first round. Could you show a simpler example so we can get some idea of what's going on please?

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

hmmm.. I don't see how to completely recover the sentence, but the pattern is a(first word with letters all changed to x)^second word with letters shifted back by one + a(third word with letters all changed to x)^fourth word with letters shifted back by one + ...

So I recover: x quick xxxxx fox xxxxxx over xxx lazy xxx.

Chalks
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 267
Registered: 04-17-2005
IP: Logged

right. This is an innefective way to disguise any sentence that ISN'T well known. I was simply trying to figure out a way to take the derivitive of a sentence.

so, for example:

if you have f(x)=x^2, the derivitive of f(x) is f'(x)=2x^1

so, a sentence is:

here is my sentence
f(x)=here^is + my^sentence
f'(x)=is(here)^is-1 + sentence(my)^sentence-1

so... it's innefective, but it does what I wanted it to do. hooray for derivitives of english!

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

Ahh.. That's what it was about! Derivatives of sentences. Good one.

Ok, let's make the next one easy.

N dhvpx oebja sbk whzcrq bire gur ynml qbt.


For a hint I'll give Chalks' derivative of f(x) = x^hint (not that you'll need it, but it may save some time.): f'(x) = hint x^qns02.

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged

that's not rot13 is it?


____________________________

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

silver wrote:
that's not rot13 is it?

Spot on! Your turn.

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged

another easy one, at least for the geeks:

QSBxdWljayBicm93biBmb3gganVtcGVkIG92ZXIgdGhlIGxhenkgZG9nCg==


____________________________

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

That's base64. The "==" at the end is a dead giveaway.
Note that this doesn't necessarily make me a geek, since I only happen to know about base64 having recently delved into the DROD source.

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

Can you be more specific? How did he get from the original sentence to the base64 string?

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged

Are you asking because
(a) you believe you know how I did it, and think that should be part of the answer, but are kindly giving michthro a chance to include that,
or
(b) you're just curious?

I'm personally willing to give it to michthro already...


____________________________

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

Go here, enter the sentence, and click "encode". Info on how base64 works can be found here.

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged

actually, I did this:

~> cat > foo
A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
~> uuencode --base64 foo foo.out
begin-base64 644 foo.out
QSBxdWljayBicm93biBmb3gganVtcGVkIG92ZXIgdGhlIGxhenkgZG9nCg==
====

and then cut and pasted the second line of output.

but, as I said, I was just looking for "base64". your turn, michthro (look back 2 posts for your mod points)



____________________________

---

[Last edited by silver at 09-25-2006 08:53 PM]

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

Ok. Man, these things are hard to do.

RANIVEKQK
UEICMITIK
XBVROWENG
WALLUFOKU
XJTUIMPZM
EEDNOSVCO
ZNATYEERT
LHEMISLAZ
OYDODOOMG

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

I think one of the 'S' should be 's'

RANIVEKQK
UEICMITIK
XBVROWENG
WALLUFOKU
XJTUIMPZM
EEDNOsVCO
ZNATYEERT
LHEMISLAZ
OYDODOOMG

____________________________
The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

---

[Last edited by Tim at 09-25-2006 11:06 PM]

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

Ok, you got it, Tim. Have a rank point so long, and go ahead with the next one, but I'm going to ask for a list of names if you want full marks.

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged

list of names? he got it?
I still have no idea what's going on here. (though perhaps I'm waiting for his "full marks" explanation to enlighten me)


____________________________

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3684
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Well, I can pick out a couple other names...

RANIVEKQK
UEICMITIK
XBVROWENG
WALLUFOKU
XJTUIMPZM
EEDNOsVCO
ZNATYEERT
LHEMISLAZ
OYDODOOMG

Not entirely sure about the encoding mechanism, however.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):

---

[Last edited by Chaco at 09-25-2006 11:45 PM]

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

New one then:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AGODQYZAULICKBET
QKHFMOTQLREPOVOA
UBDOPVETAPQMULJC
IRXYEEOICFATCANT
COWJDROMKRIHADBO
ZWKUPCIUEQUETYAH
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-- Tim

PS. Here's the list (if you remove these from michthro's grid, you will get the sentence):

silver
Kevin
Tim
Kie
Syntax
Gumo
kzc
Wallu
Ezlo
Eytanz
Sim
Doom


____________________________
The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

---

[Last edited by Tim at 09-25-2006 11:49 PM]

TripleM
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1379
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

tim, wallu, eytanz, doom, syntax, silver, ezlo, kevin, kie, sim, gumo, kzc

 A     Q 
U IC    K
 B ROW N 
     FO  
XJ U MP 
 ED O V  
      ERT
 HE   LAZ
 YDO    G

Its a wordfind, remove the names to get the above.
[edit] - whoops, Tim beat me to it. Now, time to attempt his..

---

[Last edited by TripleM at 09-25-2006 11:49 PM]

silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged

So the 's' thing was a semi-joking reference to the discussion in The Illumination?

Nice one. Now I understand the encoding and how michthro knew Tim had the encoding from the obscure observation of Tim's.


____________________________

---

[Last edited by silver at 09-26-2006 12:00 AM]

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

silver wrote:
So the 's' thing was a semi-joking reference to the discussion in The Illumination?

Do I look like I was joking? I'm just trying to write someone's name correctly...

____________________________
The best way to lose customers is to let little kids running loose on a forum with too many mod points.

Drgamer
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 113
Registered: 09-09-2006
IP: Logged

Well, his name isn't sILVER

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
IP: Logged

Well, I understood he wanted his first letter to be lower case, and I'm too shy to ask him about the rest of his name...

You don't want to know how many times people can spell my name incorrectly, and my name has only 3 letters! So I can understand his frustration all too well...

Oh, perhaps this one was a bit hard. But this gives me a good reason to go to bed now... But believe me, you will understand the encoding method once you solved this one correctly...

-- Tim

---

[Last edited by Tim at 09-26-2006 12:28 AM]

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

Do people really have that much trouble spelling "Tom"? It's only three letters...

But indeed, Tim wanted to make sure we could spell his name this time. Hence:

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

And, if you'll forgive the presumption of posting a new encoding before Tim's actually confirmed the old one:

TQBVC XURVJ NSHXQ HMCLO CRRGA ESNZL WON.

(And I hope as well that you'll forgive my changing the sentence to A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog; it's such a shame not to have all 26 letters in there.)

Lardarse
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 56
Registered: 08-26-2005
IP: Logged

Tim: Well hidden!

Tahnan: That's Vigenère, isn't it?

---

[Last edited by Lardarse at 09-26-2006 08:47 AM]

michthro
Level: Smitemaestro
Rank Points: 679
Registered: 05-01-2005
IP: Logged

Lardarse wrote:
Tahnan: That's Vigenère, isn't it?

You beat me to it. Vigenere with passphrase "Tahnan" (and the spaces moved).

Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2460
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged

Vigenere it is! (Which happens to be my favorite encoding mechanism.)