Fun for the geeks!

[jstarfireb]

Thanks, slg! I figured it out just as I went back to read the reply.

For others who are stuck, here's a decoder that works:
http://ruffnekk.stormloader.com/adfgx_tool.html

 

[jstarfireb]

Slg, for 27A, I actually did go into Paint and cut the image apart, then put it back together. It took forever.

 

[jstarfireb]

Score, just beat 26b, so now I'm right up there with the rest of you (I'm on 28a and 27b).

ETA: For those who need help with 26b, here's a good decoder:
http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/vigenere-autokey.php

 

[elrohwen]

Omg, I can't believe that was the answer to 26a. Argh!

So we still don't have 27b then?

I'm kind of excited to try 27a - I like puzzles! I'll probably change my mind about being excited about 15min into it though.

 

[GingerP]

I just finished 27a...sorta. I got the word before I finished the puzzle and was determined to put it together, but I kept having two little loops or edges left over. Bleh. Oh well. I'm taking a break, so I'll catch up w/ you guys on 28a later.

Elrohwen, I took a break from 27b because 26a just seemed easier...frustrating how we danced around it the whole time when it was SO simple. Ugh. I'll probably revisit 27b tomorrow or whenever the "a" chain frustrates me enough to change it up.

Good luck, everyone!

 

[jstarfireb]

For 27b...I got to the same place with the binary and ITA2 stuff, and I'm also stuck. I'm wondering if the word "lemon" is some sort of a key...? Since it seems kinda out of place as the name of the html file?

 

[dragonfly411]

WHAT THE HELL IS TOO MODERN????????????????????????????

dragonfly-look at the address bar!

Thanks, will do when I get home

I still don't get it

 

[slg47]

27a...I am having trouble putting it together in paint...so far I have what looks like the letters M A I T E R S and some random loops...am I on the right track?

 

[slg47]

WHAT THE HELL IS TOO MODERN????????????????????????????

dragonfly-look at the address bar!

Thanks, will do when I get home

I still don't get it

look at the address bar, see if anything in there is a synonym for 'modern', and change it to something that is the opposite!

 

[jstarfireb]

Dragonfly, I had trouble with this one too, because I wasn't looking in the right place. How about this: the "too modern" thing in question is a folder. Does that help?

 

[jstarfireb]

27a...I am having trouble putting it together in paint...so far I have what looks like the letters M A I T E R S and some random loops...am I on the right track?

You're getting there...The first 2 letters and the last 3 you came up with are correct. The middle 2 are wrong. The word has 8 letters.

 

[dragonfly411]

Dragonfly, I had trouble with this one too, because I wasn't looking in the right place. How about this: the "too modern" thing in question is a folder. Does that help?

Well I see that, but I'm still not getting what to do. Sigh.

NVM I got it!

 

[slg47]

omg this thing in paint is driving me nuts. i tried opening it again and being super careful...still not getting too far (is there a C?)

 

[jstarfireb]

omg this thing in paint is driving me nuts. i tried opening it again and being super careful...still not getting too far (is there a C?)

Yup! And like Ginger, I had 2 loops that didn't fit. It's definitely frustrating and takes some trial and error.

I'm giving up on 28a and 27b for now. Gotta work at 6 AM tomorrow...I'm so not looking forward to another 30-hour shift...

 

[slg47]

OK, FINALLY got it. definitely stopping for tonight!

 

[dragonfly411]

Is it horrible that I"m now stuck on 12 as well?

 

[elrohwen]

Is it horrible that I"m now stuck on 12 as well?

Do you know what song it's referencing? That's a hint. Also, what is spelled with the letters the clue is using.

 

[slg47]

on Search for it...this is some page from the wealth of nations...I was thinking the matrix in the page source is pointing to specific words, or specific letters, but I'm not sure how to interpret it??

 

[slg47]

27b...looked online, it is a telegraph code, says "the wiki page has the table in HEX, just convert to BIN"...does this mean anything to anyone?

 

[jstarfireb]

Just for fun, I went back to 27A and finished putting it together, without any extraneous loops. I feel accomplished now.

 

[jstarfireb]

Slg47, maybe they're referring to this table?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ita2.png

 

[slg47]

Slg47, maybe they're referring to this table?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ita2.png

not sure how to use that...

ETA I thought of putting the original code (on the page) into 5 bit and using the ITA 2 table...but I can't find a translator online and doing that manually would be a huge pain. Don't think that's where this is supposed to go though...

 

[jstarfireb]

This may help as a decoder: http://www.ff-solutions.com/text-converter/#text-binary

So here's what I thought may be the next step...after translating the initial binary to the "zero" and "one" stuff, then transcribing those as binary, I got the same thing: ITA2 (gibberish). I'm thinking that the gibberish is the "trash" that's another man's "treasure." So I cut off the first 5 bits of binary (the ones that represent ITA2 and a space) and was left with this:
11111101 00000111 00101001 01100010 01100001 00001011 00110111 11001111 11010010 00011100 10010

...which I re-parsed as 5-digit bits so I could use them as ITA, and got this:
11111 10100 00011 10010 10010 11000 10011 00001 00001 01100 11011 11100 11111 10100 10000 11100 10010

It clearly fits into 5-digit bits, so I thought I was onto something. But it translates as SODDABTTI7SEUD...gibberish that doesn't work if I type it in.

The other thought I had was something to do with the name of the page (lemon.html). I translated "lemon" to binary, then to ITA2, then back to text, but again got gibberish that didn't work when I typed it in.

What could I be missing?

 

[slg47]

jstar-not sure what you are missing. I like your idea. thanks for the link to the ITA decoder, doing it manually was getting to be a huge pain!

did you get anywhere on 28a?

 

[jstarfireb]

Sadly, nope. I'm assuming...we're searching for a word on the page. I guess if worse comes to worst, we could just try every single word on the page, but that's a huge pain. I have no idea what the matrix actually means (counting words or letters? Letters expressed as numbers, i.e. A=1, B=2, etc.?).

We can't be the only ones still working on this...anyone else have any ideas?

 

[slg47]

Sadly, nope. I'm assuming...we're searching for a word on the page. I guess if worse comes to worst, we could just try every single word on the page, but that's a huge pain. I have no idea what the matrix actually means (counting words or letters? Letters expressed as numbers, i.e. A=1, B=2, etc.?).

We can't be the only ones still working on this...anyone else have any ideas?

yeah where is Porridge?

 

[Porridge]

Sadly, nope. I'm assuming...we're searching for a word on the page. I guess if worse comes to worst, we could just try every single word on the page, but that's a huge pain. I have no idea what the matrix actually means (counting words or letters? Letters expressed as numbers, i.e. A=1, B=2, etc.?).

We can't be the only ones still working on this...anyone else have any ideas?

yeah where is Porridge?

I am here and I am stuck on the exact same things you are stuck on!

Ok so for 28A I have tried: counting each letter like the code says, so say taking the first 4 numbers as relating to the first line, the second four to the second line etc. I tried that two ways: I tried counting onwards from each letter rather than starting again at the start of the sentance. Then I tried it backwards. Then I tried taking the numbers as line->word->letter etc. Nothing. Then I tried what you described jstarfireb. Nada. Now I'm stumped!

I tried everything I could think of for 27B and now I have to step away for it for a while because I might get violent with my laptop

 

[jstarfireb]

Got 28A!!!!!!!!!! Think paragraph, line, word, letter.

ETA: 29A was easy, and I think I got 30A too, but I won't know until I get the password. 30A is the end of the username thread.

 

[slg47]

thanks jstar. I also think I got 30a (pete townshend?) still have NO idea about the B thread...

 

[jstarfireb]

thanks jstar. I also think I got 30a (pete townshend?) still have NO idea about the B thread...

I picked the same last name for 30A, so hopefully we're on the right track.