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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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WarnerPlum
Chopper Squad
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 3632
Location: Sitting in my dusty bedroom in the United Kingdom - now where was that broom...
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 Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 5:40 am Post subject: |
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How can the Mortal Kombat series be up to number 40 already?! (XL = 40!)
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"Caveat emptor, Plum: let the buyer beware."
"No, Boddy... YOU beware."
~ Blackmail! |
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Black
Bindle Stiff
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 6083
Location: In the Billiard Rm with the Wrench
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| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2016 3:27 am Post subject: |
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| Happy Birthday Zoo977 |
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Black
Bindle Stiff
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 6083
Location: In the Billiard Rm with the Wrench
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Michael
Mastermind
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 6116
Location: NYC & Atlanta
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| Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:09 am Post subject: |
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There is a theatre by me that does designing women episodes. (In drag). They are hilarious!
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How do you know what kind of pictures they are if you're such a lay-dee? |
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cluedoking123
Senior Detective
Joined: 08 Oct 2010
Posts: 1086
Location: Behind you with the candlestick...don't turn around
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| Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 11:53 am Post subject: |
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oh my lord! a golden girls puppet show is everything that the world needs! 
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IT'S ALL TOO SHOCKING!
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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My bf is a programmer. He gave me this tip to stop 90% of spambots:
Rename the register page to something that's not logical.
You'll have to change the referrals 'n all but it works! |
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WarnerPlum
Chopper Squad
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 3632
Location: Sitting in my dusty bedroom in the United Kingdom - now where was that broom...
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| Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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Black! I saw your avatar in the latest Caddicarus review!
_________________
"Caveat emptor, Plum: let the buyer beware."
"No, Boddy... YOU beware."
~ Blackmail! |
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Black
Bindle Stiff
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 6083
Location: In the Billiard Rm with the Wrench
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| Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| WarnerPlum wrote: | | Black! I saw your avatar in the latest Caddicarus review! |
 I'm famous - I'm actually one on his patreons. |
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WarnerPlum
Chopper Squad
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 3632
Location: Sitting in my dusty bedroom in the United Kingdom - now where was that broom...
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2016 4:05 am Post subject: |
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Yeah! I'd recognise that name anywhere!
_________________
"Caveat emptor, Plum: let the buyer beware."
"No, Boddy... YOU beware."
~ Blackmail! |
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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The Dutch CIA, the AIVD, has an annual Christmas puzzle that became famous in 2014 when it stumped the Dutch prime minister. I took part in it and ended somewhere halfway scorewise. In 2015 I had a look but did not compete or pursue too much.
The AIVD Christmas Puzzle is MF HARD!
Here's one of its puzzles that doesn't require knowledge of the Dutch language:
This question counts for 1 lousy point and has 6 ciphers. They all use a different cipher, but the solutions all have one common theme.
tcjn
xdaaw mnzlyomn
acn aqisjwq
jq sot wdpne hjnnq edws
qlmjr koodsy
ciicp
pqtqkjg qj pqtqkjg
Most questions are some form of cryptography. I just spent an hour or two on one three-point question. I could show it to you but it got me way up past my bedtime, and a headache.
Anyone else here fond of cryptography? Ciphers and all that? |
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| BBP wrote: | The Dutch CIA, the AIVD, has an annual Christmas puzzle that became famous in 2014 when it stumped the Dutch prime minister. I took part in it and ended somewhere halfway scorewise. In 2015 I had a look but did not compete or pursue too much.
The AIVD Christmas Puzzle is MF HARD!
Here's one of its puzzles that doesn't require knowledge of the Dutch language:
This question counts for 1 lousy point and has 6 ciphers. They all use a different cipher, but the solutions all have one common theme.
tcjn
xdaaw mnzlyomn
acn aqisjwq
jq sot wdpne hjnnq edws
qlmjr koodsy
ciicp
pqtqkjg qj pqtqkjg
Most questions are some form of cryptography. I just spent an hour or two on one three-point question. I could show it to you but it got me way up past my bedtime, and a headache.
Anyone else here fond of cryptography? Ciphers and all that? |
I FINALLY finished this one fully! |
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Adam106
Hatchet Man
Joined: 07 Sep 2008
Posts: 5767
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Neat! How did you do it? |
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Until the final entry date of the competition (16th January) I'm not at liberty to divulge about the answers or the solution method, but I got started with a lot of looking, then looking on Wikipedia once I'd figured out the theme, something I didn't know enough of. For the four-letter code there were multiple options - it took me some time to realize how I could figure out which word it was, and then some more Wikipedia checking and puzzling. |
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:17 am Post subject: |
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| BBP wrote: | | The new worst game I've ever played is the Monopoly Chocolate edition, bought that at st Nick so we could play it. Basically you spin a warped disk around until you've divided all the chocolates according to the game rules, with 0 user input. What makes it worse is that the chocolate is gross. But the game board could make a cute poster. |
In this vein I'd also like to warn against the Scrabble Chocolate Edition.
In the chocolate edition, each player gets 4 stones. These are double-sided.
The board is 9*9, there are only 20 playing pieces in total meaning with 2 people you might be abe to squeeze out four turns each.
The letter point value is not equal, and since it's based on the EU-edition it might not match your language.
There are letters that are worth 3 or 4 points, then there's a huge gap, and then there's one letter that's worth 10 points: the Z.
Z is worth only 4 points in Dutch Scrabble, it's not all that uncommon. Whoever is the first to pull the Z is likely to win the game.
(Let alone if you play with it when you're Polish: the Polish Z is worth 1 point)
At least the chocolate was not as bad as in the Monopoly edition... |
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IdontKnow
Suspect
Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Currently in the UK there's snow - but not where I live. |
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:40 am Post subject: |
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| Adam106 wrote: | | Neat! How did you do it? |
OK, let's recap now that the final entry date has passed:
tcjn
xdaaw mnzlyomn
acn aqisjwq
jq sot wdpne hjnnq edws
qlmjr koodsy
ciicp
pqtqkjg qj pqtqkjg
All of these use different ciphers but they share a common theme.
Knowing this end-of-year type puzzles, it would be related to a person who's deceased this year.
(rest in white since knowing this, you may still be able to solve it)
I spent a long time looking at PQTQKJG QJ PQTQKJG, puzzling out what the two-letter word could be. I wasn't sure if it would be Dutch or English and the Dutch word for "and", "en", also looked promising.
But then I looked at XDAAW MNZLYOMN - the first two letters of the second word are also the last two letters - when I attempted ST for these, I saw it.
Ziggy Stardust. I then grabbed the Wikipedia list of Bowie song titles and found Big Brother, As The World Falls Down, Kooks, Space Oddity, Kooks and Station to Station.
There was still one problem: TCJN. There were eight Bowie titles of four letter words of which all letters are different.
There's something known as cipher keys - when the code you use is based on a password. Let's say the password is Cluedo, you'd get the following code:
cluedoabfghijkmnpqrstvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
My username would be spelled LLN in this code.
With this type of code, the later letters in the alphabet tend to turn out the same. When I found the key to Ziggy Stardust was Ziggy Stardust but the key to Space Oddity was Major Tom, I had to start digging. Only one of eight possible song titles could fit with a key - with only four letters at my disposal it was going to take a lot of puzzles and Bowie research since I don't know him well...
It's Time, and the key is Aladdin Sane.
This quiz has a lot of questions and this is one of the easier ones. I only managed about a third of the puzzles. There are some puzzles I was at for hours without result.
Oh well, back to life... |
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Black
Bindle Stiff
Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 6083
Location: In the Billiard Rm with the Wrench
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| Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| IdontKnow wrote: | | Currently in the UK there's snow - but not where I live. |
We had 2 days of snow along with flood warnings where I lived. |
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Adam106
Hatchet Man
Joined: 07 Sep 2008
Posts: 5767
Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:39 am Post subject: |
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| BBP wrote: | | Adam106 wrote: | | Neat! How did you do it? |
OK, let's recap now that the final entry date has passed:
tcjn
xdaaw mnzlyomn
acn aqisjwq
jq sot wdpne hjnnq edws
qlmjr koodsy
ciicp
pqtqkjg qj pqtqkjg
All of these use different ciphers but they share a common theme.
Knowing this end-of-year type puzzles, it would be related to a person who's deceased this year.
(rest in white since knowing this, you may still be able to solve it)
I spent a long time looking at PQTQKJG QJ PQTQKJG, puzzling out what the two-letter word could be. I wasn't sure if it would be Dutch or English and the Dutch word for "and", "en", also looked promising.
But then I looked at XDAAW MNZLYOMN - the first two letters of the second word are also the last two letters - when I attempted ST for these, I saw it.
Ziggy Stardust. I then grabbed the Wikipedia list of Bowie song titles and found Big Brother, As The World Falls Down, Kooks, Space Oddity, Kooks and Station to Station.
There was still one problem: TCJN. There were eight Bowie titles of four letter words of which all letters are different.
There's something known as cipher keys - when the code you use is based on a password. Let's say the password is Cluedo, you'd get the following code:
cluedoabfghijkmnpqrstvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
My username would be spelled LLN in this code.
With this type of code, the later letters in the alphabet tend to turn out the same. When I found the key to Ziggy Stardust was Ziggy Stardust but the key to Space Oddity was Major Tom, I had to start digging. Only one of eight possible song titles could fit with a key - with only four letters at my disposal it was going to take a lot of puzzles and Bowie research since I don't know him well...
It's Time, and the key is Aladdin Sane.
This quiz has a lot of questions and this is one of the easier ones. I only managed about a third of the puzzles. There are some puzzles I was at for hours without result.
Oh well, back to life... |
That's insane! Very intuitive of you. I know nothing about code deciphering so thank you for giving me a bit of an education into it haha. Well done again for getting it! |
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BBP
Investigator
Joined: 29 Mar 2012
Posts: 527
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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Ta!
Code cracking isn't as difficult as you'd think, especially in longer texts. For good practice I recommend doing these a lot until you're familiar with letter patterns:
http://cryptograms.org/play.php
This is just one small and relatively easy to crack method of ciphering texts. There's a good introduction to cryptography on Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography |
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