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December 09, 2005

A new thread for comments

use it as you will.

Posted by Harry at December 9, 2005 09:19 AM

Comments

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Where's that clue you were telling us about? :P

[It's there now. A minor bug concealed it from you all. Sorry. Harry]

Posted by: ключ at December 9, 2005 03:37 PM

Hmm...fair enough Harry. The only problem seems to be that I can't decode the punchcard...I tried putting a 36x36 table over it but that didn't work as they weren't exactly the same size and most of the dots ended up halfway between two cells.

Kati

Posted by: Katriel Cohn-Gordon at December 9, 2005 03:31 PM

Yes...still the same problem of not having enough to work with. I'm waiting for the clue...

I think that the punchcard will be doable if we do it like they did Enigma - i.e. ignore it and decipher the message without it then look for possible letter combinations there. It's easier than trying all 8 ways that can go in as well...

I'm wondering whether it would be clearer trying to brute force the second rotor instead of getting the picture...January seems a little too long to wait?

Kati

[With the Enigma they only had a few pairs crossed by the plugboard which left most of them alone, so ignoring it worked up to a point. Here potentially every letter is swtiched with something else (if you look at the card you can see that) so you can't ignore it. On the other hand there are only 8 ways the card could go in so it shouldn't be too hard to encode all of them even if you didn't have another clue cutting down the possibilities. I won't really wait til January to give you more info about the rotors, Harry]

Posted by: Katriel Cohn-Gordon at December 9, 2005 02:18 PM

I quote from last years challenge:

Harry you are: EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL (Turnip shaped)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I rest my case.

[Ah, that was you was it? Harry]

Posted by: matt at December 9, 2005 12:43 PM

PLEASE GIVE US A CLUE, HARRY!!!!!!

[Like I said. I'll publish some more at 3.30ish this afternoon. Harry]

Posted by: Cluia at December 9, 2005 12:25 PM

I;m still two characters short. How can i sort this out?

{What for? Harry]

Posted by: Luke at December 9, 2005 11:25 AM

I disagree - slightly. Changing the wiring is much the same as changing the starting rotor positions. However, I don't think the punchcard is very important. Its set, and we can probably work out the different combinations of ith and jth letters; i've not looked at it however.

Posted by: Stephen Harris at December 9, 2005 11:16 AM

I haven't deciphered it yet, but I have come to some conclusions:

1) As the rotor wiring can be inserted in any rotation (and back to front) the original positions do not matter - you can leave the rotors in a set position and just try rotating the wiring.

2) The punchcard is very important.

3) There's too many unknowns to do an all-out bruteforce on it. Damn.

Well I hope to have done it by Tuesday as I'm busy again this weekend, and I'm keeping my main thoughts to myself on this challenge. Top 20 would be a good placing overall.

Posted by: Richard at December 9, 2005 10:07 AM