hacker.org

I have finished the challenges up to the end (skipped a few at the bottom), and want to offer help to anyone who needs it (hints only). Here is what the map looks like if anyone wants to know (hope this is ok to post):

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm39 ... psmall.jpg

There are a lot of good people here and I would like to get to know some of you. Have a good one

I'm curious about the 4 cities placed near the bottom... I hope they get added back!

By the way, congrats on the victory!

Have any hints on HackVM optimization that you wouldn't mind sharing?

Congratulations

Thank you

I cant give away many hack VM hints without probably giving away the answer to the problem, but can say that the methods are pretty straightforward and do not require extremely complex measures (though the last two or three problems require a specific method that im sure you'll be able to figure out by the time you get there)

Please give me hint about 'A Little PHP'.. its better if you want to give me a link of php converter... heheheh... thx before..

Not so much asking for help, but did you write a program to solve Spiral Bits, or did you do it out by hand.

I've been trying to figure out how to do it... it'd be easier if was a bigger image, and thus had larger regions of color.

There are over 8000 circles, so don't do it by hand/eye. The program I wrote to do it may have been a little overkill (maybe not?). It is very doable as it is, but I had to employ a lot of algorithmic, speed-enhancement, and mathematical techniques totaling almost 1000 lines of code to do it (and luckily it was the only challenge that slowed tails down while I finished quine and small word).

If you still cannot do this let me know but i'd hate to give too much away since this is one of the best challenges on the site and is more fun to do as much as possible on your own

I finally bit the bullet and wrote a program.
A few tips:

I did it in python because I love PIL. It was a smart move, as the parts it is doing get done at a reasonable speed. Maybe 400 dots per second?

Another tip: I first GIMP'd the image so that it worked in my favor, turning the green dots to pure blue and white dots to pure white, and eliminating all other colors except pure black.
By looking for 2 exact values, it allows me to easily debug by leaving trails & such.

My solver is currently tripping up about 1/2 way through the 2nd outer spiral, more debug to do

Woo! Got it!

Now, what to do with all this binary data?

It dont seem to be hard but i cant do it...tried with hex editors and translating to bin and so on but i dont get any result. And if i cant do that "easy" File Mystery so russian Doll seems to be impossible for me. I only have the idea that something small is in something bigger, like a russian doll...But pls help me on File Mystery or give me some advice Pls!

The funny part is that some of the problems are easier to get on Linux and some are better to get on Windows. That File Mystery - if you have Linux/FreeBSD around then it's not a mystery.

I did it on vista, and it wasn't easy

Hint: Windows DOES have a command line utility

I need a little help or a hint with 'Steganographic' challenge...


pls help

Hey, this map is cool! Is very different from the actual one!

It seems that I really need to do "It's a Small World" (which I have no idea how to proceed)