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Something Left unread
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:08 pm
by the_impaler
It seems to me that this one would be very hard to people who didn't learn read English by flashcards in elementary school. I would wait for "tail" to disprove me but it looks like challenge takes into account something that English speaking kids grew up with.
I found a poem by Catherine French but it would be too cool to be the correct answer here.
Just tell me that I am wrong and the answer can be found somewhere on the web by people who learn English after C++.
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:12 pm
by gfoot
I've just solved it - it doesn't need a particularly good knowledge of Engilsh, nor use of the web.
Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 1:08 am
by the_impaler
Ok then.
I read the message but I cannot get the answer.
BTW, look for that poem - google for words in the challenge and poem. I think you'd like it, it kind of fits here.
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:22 pm
by rmplpmpl
OK, I have decoded the text, fine... I tried several of the given words, without any luck. Is there any hint of what to do next that could be given away (without giving away too much)?
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:43 pm
by gfoot
I liked this challenge, when I solved it, although at first it doesn't seem particularly unusual. It's a nice twist, though, making the challenge less obvious and more unique. I think you should just keep looking and thinking, as usual.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:48 am
by snibril
Or use standard unix tools

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:42 pm
by rmplpmpl
I started looking at this challenge again since about one week, after solving the first part more than half a year ago.
Now I noticed something I didn't before, I got the answer

Nevertheless, this is not the correct solution either and I really haven't any ideas left (tried switching some more letters this way or another, taking the inital/last letters of the plain text).
Aaaaargh, it makes me crazy...
Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:41 pm
by Zeta
Don' t give up, you're getting somewhere.
Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:53 am
by rmplpmpl
one and a half year after first attempting this challenge, I did it - hooray! \o/
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:20 am
by rokurou
Could someone please give me a hint on how to decode the text? I'm not a native english speaker.
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 6:06 pm
by rmplpmpl
rokurou wrote:Could someone please give me a hint on how to decode the text? I'm not a native english speaker.
The first stage is a common substitution cipher, try frequency analysis to get to some of the letters and guess the rest. Plaintext is in English, though you don't have to be native speaker to crack this.
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 9:05 pm
by rokurou
I meant the decoded one. I managed to get a solution (two ones) out of the unreadable part and i'm pretty sure its the solution but it is not getting accepted.
EDIT: Well i decoded one letter of the answer wrong. Makes sense now.
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:25 pm
by laz0r
EDIT: Well i decoded one letter of the answer wrong. Makes sense now.[/quote]
Getting accurate tetragraphs help

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:05 pm
by AMindForeverVoyaging
rokurou wrote:I managed to get a solution (two ones) out of the unreadable part
What unreadable part? Do you mean the original text from the challenge?
I have found a substitution which gives, to the best of my knowledge, a perfectly valid English text without any misspelled words. The grammar is okay too. The three decoded sentences are coherent and make sense, but they do not spell out the answer for this challenge. Neither do they formulate a concrete question to be answered. So, where to go from here?
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:12 pm
by AMindForeverVoyaging
How 'bout now?
