Stuck on Intel Crack The Clues 2008 ?

The Intel Crack The Clues 2008 Challenge is in full swing and there are a couple of interesting puzzles to solve. In particular the first puzzle seems to have thrown a few people when they see the “Form Expired” section at the bottom of the competency test – something of an alizarin clupea harengus if you ask me.

Focus on the clues, and read the blog – cryptography is a tricky thing but something of a bakers dozen is where you need to be, but don’t fester, and there are plenty of places to do the work for you. You may kick yourself after you solve the first of the puzzles – I did! BTW, If you try to decrypt OQZFDUZA and get BDMSQHMN then you need to re-read the blog posting – as you have probably made the same assumption I did.

If you get past the first question you may need to take a really close look at the second one – you may be seeing red by now. Getting to the real source of the question may also help with this challenge.

The Intel Crack The Clues 2 Challenge can be found at http://cracktheclues.intel.com/

  • aBi

    I got these terms related to chemistry…

    MOLAR, ANODE, CAUSTIC, ENTROPY, SATURATED, ENDOTHERMIC, SUPEROXIDE, NOBLE, CATHODE, ISOTOPE, ALKALI, COVALENT, TITRATION, HALOGEN, PASCAL, ALLOTROPE, COLLOID, ACTINIDE, ELECTROLYTE, XENON, HETEROGENEOUS, EFFUSION, ISOMER, ANHYDROUS, ION, CATALYST, PRECIPITATE, SUBLIMATION, ACETIC, HYDRAZINE, OCTANE, ANALYTE, REDOX, AXIAL, EQUILIBRIUM, LANTHANIDE, SIGMA, HYDROFLUORIC, VALENCE, INERT, AMORPHOUS

    I’ve been trying to find a connection between these and ‘RED’… No luck so far… Sigh!

  • aBi

    Or… mebbe there’s something to do with Red Hat due to the collaboration…

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    aBi, have you looked closely at the image in the Section 2 Competence Assessment ?

  • aBi

    yep… one of the guy’s pupil is red… hmm… still can’t seem to make a connection… lemme see…

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Perhaps you need to spend hours looking at column after row…

  • http://None Rich

    Well im truely stuck on this one, not sure where to be looking, the column and row thing has got me confused and not sure what to do now :S

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Rich, there does seem to be a correlation between the row of the red dot and the row in the source code that the list starts – perhaps there is a correlation in the column too.

    New clues have appeared on the site – it might be worth checking them out.

    You just need to find out what ASCII manipulation means, and don’t forget answer to the assessment.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Well I worked out that the red eye is at position 38×22 which if you put into Google Maps you get the Red Sea… Is that important???

    Red Eye
    Red Sea
    Redox

    The list appears on code line 22 and starting from character 38 is SATURATED

    Or number 38 in the list is HYDROFLUORIC.

    What kind of ASCII manipulation is it referring to?? No clue there.

    My eyes are turning red now…

  • DrKincade

    I noticed in the blog entry for 22 Aug 2008 that the words “both tasks added up” are in a slightly off-white, greenish colour (#ddeedd)compared to the rest of the post. At first I thought it was my eyes, but looking at the source reveals this.

    I’ve tried adding the ASCII values of several columns after the long row up and then adding the other thing to it all to no avail.

    I just wish now that I’d never seen this thing, it’s now 0532 in the morning and I’ve to be up at 0730…

    Oh well, there’s time to sleep yet.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    I think whatever the answer is to the 38×22 red eye clue should be added to 1 which was the answer to the assessment question (1. intel (r) Active management Technology).

    Still not sure the answer the answer to the red eye clue though, I have tried;

    AMT in SMS text speak is 268; 268 + 1 = 269? or 2+6+8+1 = 17?

    RED SEA = C = hex 12 + 1 = 13?

    RED SEA in SMS speak is 733732 + 1 = 733733? or is that LEE?

    Thinking laterally, brain about to explode…

    Tried all these, no luck.

    Entered all the details into my decoder at http://www.dradept.com/decoder.php to no avail (although this did help me with the first clue cypher).

    Can’t help wasting so much time on this thing…

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    These are the new clues from the site for Puzzle 2:

    View source?
    This produces the list of words

    What happened to Cypher last night?
    His eyes turned red

    Have you seen someone else who may be suffering a similar ailment?
    Yes, but you need to refer to the competency test

    Why is it ‘column after row’, rather than just ‘row after row’? Perhaps he’s trying to point to a location?
    Interesting the location of the red dot matches the location in the source of the words

    What nearly cracked it?
    ASCII manipulation – this is the crux of the problem

    Don’t forget the answer to the assesment – which question number is it that’s right?
    Hopefully you have this answer by now.

    Something stands out in the blog – what does it refer to?
    “both tasks added up” – we know one of the tasks is 1 but what needs to be manipulated to get the other one?

  • geo

    Has anyone crack second clue ?
    I must say this seems very tricky. I think the key is “manipulating” (converting to binary) the right word which I have problem finding it.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Still no luck and a bigger headache today.

    I feel so stupid and I bet it is the easiest thing ever…

    Something staring us right in the face.

    So the list of words starts on line 22 and I assume you need item 38 (38×22 is the position of the red eye).

    Item number 38 is HYDROFLUORIC.

    Tried manipulating this in several different ways including looking for anagrams, nothing, working out ASCII codes and adding them all up, nothing; or I added them up wrong.

    Will keep trying but a little bored now…

  • http://www.itboard.ro geo

    38×22 is actually a pixel position. If you look at the html code at 38×22 you have the letter S (SATURATED).
    Maybe S is the key for this task one and not HYDROFLUORIC.

    From my understanding the answer for task 1 + ASCII manipulation should give you a number that will add up with the answer for task 2 (1) to get the password.

    Hope this helps, I’m curios if anyone cracked this so far. I spent more than 12 hours trying to figure out the solution.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Thats true Geo, positioning the cursor on character 38 line 22 gives the letters S.

    ASCII for S is 83

    83 + 1 = 84

    NOT. Doesn’t work.

    Just in case I also tried 183 and 831 but neither work.

    Still not sure about the “cracked it” clue, keep thinking of mirrors, clues or other things that can be cracked.

    Tried an anagram of SATURATED and other words.

  • http://www.itboard.ro geo

    I think when he says nearly “cracked it” he refers to the chemical lock. He used “ASCII manipulation” (whatever that means) and nearly managed to open the lock.
    Then he added both solutions ASCII manipulated result AND test solution and managed to open the lock.

    I did tried lots of ASCII conversion, (even number “1″ = 0049 ASCII) but no luck so far.

  • Dan C

    David is nearer to the solution. It isn’t the 38th character, but the 38th column (think of it as table data!)

  • geo

    Dan i assume you found the solution, is it a number ?

  • Matt

    Everyone is really close, if you want to know how to solve puzzle 2, continue reading…

    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    The answer you’re looking for is a number. It is obtained by converting the letters of the 38th word in the 22nd row of the source code (HYDROFLUORIC) into ASCII and then adding 1 (the correct answer to the assesment) to the result. You have to convert each individual letter into its ASCII equivalent, append them, and then add 1 to the resulting number. So you’re looking for a big number! Hope that helps.
    .
    .
    .
    .

  • James

    Matt,

    Thanks for the tip. I can honestly say that I don’t think I would have EVER gotten there from here. I managed to get the 22×38 reference on my own, but was pretty convinced it had something to do w/ the ‘S’, since it corresponded to the 38th column. I wasted WAY too much time playing with every variation of S, SATURATED, and HYDROFLOURIC with ‘ONE’, ’1′, 1, converting to decimal, hex, octal, etc. Concatenating decimal ASCII values into a single number never would have occurred to me…

    -James

  • http://www.itboard.ro geo

    Thanks a lot dude, this was hunting me.
    Although this was one of the things I tried at the very beginning (2-3 times) and didn’t work!
    i suspect i miss typed the number. Thanks again.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    On to Question 3 – and the correct answer to the assessment reveals the source of a vital clue especially when connected with the relevant blog entry.

  • aBi

    So there’s this dog with the name ‘Siarra’ (possibly) sitting on a chair. There’s a PC and to be more specific a computer keyboard right in front of her. Coincidentally the lock’s got a keyboard too.

    The blog entry’s last line says:

    Now that I consider all these factors, the only question remains: how many must I choose from?

    Maybe what he means is how many characters (including special characters) are there to choose from? I may be wrong.

    And before that he talks of ‘re-arrangement’.

    ‘much as I rrant’ when rearranged gives: siarra much nt

    Eliminating ‘siarra’ gives ‘much nt’. And that’s it. I’m stuck. Not sure if I’m going on the right path.

  • aBi

    Yeehaaa!

    I guess I was on the right path (eliminating a few of my complicated guesses I made earlier & with a little bit of binary conversion).

    The answer sure did make me feel stupid as it is ‘mind-numbingly easy as ever’.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Nice one aBi and that was quick too – are these things getting easier?

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    BTW, I forgot to mention, if anyone is barking up the wrong tree it may help to think laterally.

    Onto Question 4 – is the code really unbreakable? Not if you know the one time pad I guess.

  • aBi

    Thanks.

    I think I am half-way through the 4th one. Have you cracked it?

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Not yet, just trying to track down the pad.

  • James

    Wow! Ok I spent about 2 hours figuring out EXACTLY how many combinations can be made with the letters SIARRA (which isn’t really obvious when you consider less than 6-letter combinations and the fact that 2 of the letters are repeated). I guess I needed a reminder that it wouldn’t be quite that complicated…the lateral reminder helped too.

    On to number 4…

    -James

  • aBi

    Having a tough time figuring out the pad… :( ( … The obvious – though it seems to ‘perfectly fit’ the ‘required length’ doesn’t quite give the required result. Hmmm…

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    I know what you mean – I was quite hopeful of the answer but that might have been a tad (pad?) too easy.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    I was so busy the last few days I have not had a chance to play, but when I return everyone is way ahead.

    I created a little character check at http://www.dradept.com/checkchars.php so I could convert characters easily into decimal and hex.

    When I did this with HYDROFLUORIC and entered the numbers it didn’t work so I gave up on that. Doh! Should have ADDED the 1 not just added it to the end, would have had that a couple of days ago now, how stupid do I feel.
    I solved part 4 even before I started part 2, it was the easiest using my decoder (which is working again now), HOPEFULLY everyone has sorted that one.

    Anyway I have just started part 3 and am having a little bit of a tough time, some of the clues you guys have left here are not that obvious.

    Give us a clue…
    I found the link to the image in the source code with the picture of Siarra on a chair in front of a keyboard and telephone and mouse pad.

    Not sure where to go from here.

    Is the And included in the “And, much as I rrant”?

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    David, you solved part 4 already? I can tell you for part 3 that an old joke jumps to mind – there are 10 kinds of people in the world – those who know binary and those who don’t. HTH.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    That is clue 4 cracked – thanks for the hint David. The only problem is that the Completed page now comes up with the message “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    All done – fixed my final problem and the closing message – roll on 25th November 2008 to see who won.

    Good luck!

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Glad to be of help and that my decoder has been of use.

    I have now built a binary converter into my checkchars script but still no joy.

    Thought it may be something to do with repetitive strain injury RSI, as all the devices are ergonomic (except for SIARRA the dog).

    It is true though my mind is feeling numb now…

    I need more coffee and get some real work done.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    David, I can tell you everything you need is literally in the Blog post and I wouldn’t think too hard about it – though there is a slight red herring in there. Reading through your previous posts you questioned if the And is needed – sounds like you might on the right track – after all how many do you really need?

  • aBi

    I am quite HOPEFUL of the pad now, thanks to David, but that doesn’t seem to work. Hope I am doing it right. I’ve been thinking exclusively, or using my thought product in the obvious form. Am I going wrong somewhere?

  • aBi

    Has anyone got a clue for me? :(

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    aBi, Vernam only requires two things of the same length, you HOPEFULLY found the cypher so all you HOPEFULLY need is the pad.

    If you have difficulty checkout my HOPEFULLY useful decoder at http://www.dradept.com/decoder.php designed specifically for this kind of problem.

    HOPEFULLY I have not been too obvious… damn…

    Jason, thanks for the info, trouble is my mind is thinking way too hard and I just can’t stop it. Maybe less coffee would have been the answer.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    aBi, you need two things – it looks like you may already have one of them – do you have the other one? If not, perhaps you need to consider how you approached an earlier question – that may lead you to the source of the problem. As far as a I could see without stringing it out too much is that this last question is a culmination of all the other questions. If I were a wizard I might have a spell or charm to enchant you with – but I would hate to string you along.

    David, the blog entry says something like how many do you need to choose from – I would think that might be quite important – perhaps you need to think about it a BIT more – it might also help to take a few moments to relax – is there anything interesting about that phrase you mentioned earlier?

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    David, I like your note about the coffee – maybe twice as much coffee might be better?

  • aBi

    Thanks David. But the thing is I already have the cypher and the pad and I eXclusively run the OpeRation, the way Vernam is supposed to work. But the resulting plain-text doesn’t do the job. I tried all formats – hex, dec,…

    May be I’m performing the wrong operation to get the plain-text! :-S

  • aBi

    David, here’s a clue for the 3rd one.

    I cracked the 3rd lock yesterday. What a coincidence! :)

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Well how stupid do I feel now, entered this loads of time but with leading zeros….

    Thanks for the advice, finally got there.

    Now on to number 4. Thought I had this one. How wrong can I be.

    Wife calling, will be back online a little latter to try and complete.

  • aBi

    I thought you already solved no: 4.

    I’m still trying with no luck so far. I’m probably not performing the right operation.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    aBi, you are on the right lines – I can tell you there is more than one step involved for no.4 (actually there are more than two).

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    aBi, I thought so too, but couldn’t enter the code until I completed part 3.

    I used my decoder to work out the source and thought it may be that easy, seems there is a little more to it, usual.

    Thanks Jason for being so good at the cryptic clues, giving us more to think about.

  • James

    AAARGH!! I finanlly finished the puzzle, only to find out that I am not even eligible (I reside in the US). It was a fun game, but I might not have spent such a massive amount of time playing if I had known that…I guess that’s what I learned: read the fine print FIRST.

    For the 4th part, I’m not sure what I was doing wrong, but the answer I was getting out of the decoder at http://www.dradept.com/decoder.php had the last two characters wrong (close, but wrong. Even subtracting 1 doesn’t correct the next-to-last character as far as I can tell). I might have just sidestepped a clue though.

    Good luck to all of you & thanks for all of the tips.

    -James

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Here is a big hint … do not read on if you are enjoying the challenge.

    If you have used David’s link on the two phrases you should have a cipher text – this is quite close but needs just a bit of a vignere tweak – if you read the general theme of the competency tests the transition required should become quite apparent.

    Now all you need to do is figure out how to get what you have into something you could enter – a slight twist on what you did during the acid test should serve you well.

  • aBi

    The only thing I seem to have cracked is my brain. This is tougher than I thought. I am still stuck with (+) o/p of the 2 phrases and can’t figure anything further.

  • aBi

    Theme of the competency tests. Hmmm. Something to do with Intel V Pro maybe.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Is my decoder giving the wrong answer?

    I tested it with various cyphers to ensure it is OK. But I see what you mean James looks like the last two characters may be wrong.

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    OK so tried decimals, hex, binary, and SMS text, no luck.

    Thought it would be something to do with time as mentioned in the blog; Just in time…

    Can’t work out time or dates form the characters I have.

    Am I missing something again. Not really proved myself as a good code breaker on this one have I.

  • aBi

    The crack in my brain was so deep that I’d been looking at http://www.dradept.com/checkchars.php instead of http://www.dradept.com/decoder.php. And all this while I’d been deciphering by hand since last night(so much so that I almost got a PhD in Cryptography), then trying to figure out what you guys were talking about (about the last two characters being wrong etc.) and how to get the character check thingy to do Vernam. Moron of the century – that’s me! :P Let me now go take a looooooooong break! Thanks guys, especially Jason & David. It’d been real fun.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    aBi, does that mean you’ve got and finished the 4th question?

    David, one of the four items you mentioned works once you’ve sorted out the last two and it sounds like you have figured out what the phrase is. You just need to string it in the right way. Nothing to do with time that I could see. If you start pulling your hair out drop me a mail and I will give you a real pointer.

  • aBi

    Yes Jason, I cracked it. Looking back at my scribblings, I realised that I’d cracked it 99% last night. I’d taken A=0, B=1,… instead of A=1, B=2,… Wasted so much time on this! Damn…

  • aBi

    David, here’s a clue:

    I’ve already given away the answer in one of my recent posts. :)

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    Was sure I had the right message, and am sure I need to enter just numbers seeing as the last key lock is a number pad.

    Converted the message to decimal, and to ASCII no luck.

    Tried the message that came out of my decoder as well as a slightly altered one ending in PRO instead of PSP.

    I’m calling it a night. Hopefully a fresh mind in the morning may give me results.

    Well done aBi, and Jason. Good luck with the draw.

    Definitely will need a bigger push tomorrow.

  • riana

    i feel so stupid…i have tried every possible combination on third one, still nothing

  • http://www.dradept.com David

    No need to feel stupid, the puzzle is a little stupid, but it requires an exact count.

    Jason and aBi have given the answer in previous posts yesterday.

    Good luck, I am sure you will get it.

    (I so wanted to post this at 11:00 but I totally got sidetracked, sorry).

  • T-Man

    Aaarrggggh!
    I am finding this game so frustrating!
    Guys, I am totally stuck on the third one! I assume the answer is a binary value? I also assume that this is the binary of the number of possible combination for something? I thought it was how many combinations could be made up from the phrase “and much as i rrant”, but that doesn’t seem to be the case?
    Please give me a clue on this?

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    T-Man, You are on the right lines but sometimes 10 means ten and not two.

  • T-Man

    Thanks Jason, but I’m afraid I am still totally confused!

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    T-Man, revisit the phrase you mentioned – are you sure that is the intended phrase? It looks a bit long to me. The bit of the clue that says something like “how many should I choose from?” sounds quite important too.

  • T-Man

    Hmmm. I think that the intended phrase should just be “much as i rrant”. It is enclosed in commas, so I am guessing that is the point. And the blog goes on to say ‘given suitable rearrangements’, so he must be suggesting that the phrase is either an anagram, or at least needs to be rearranged somehow.
    I think that the phrase “how many should I choose from” suggests we’re looking for a number. And given the previous remark about rearranging I had thought that he is referring to how many combinations you can come up with from the phrase. The comment about binary converters yielding the result he’s looking for makes me think that the ultimate answer is binary. But I swear I have tried everything and I’m still not getting anywhere!!!

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    T-Man, the phrase looks a lot better and you seem to have all the right elements – though some might be in the wrong order. It might help to move the “given suitable rearrangements” comment to the second paragraph third sentence – base conversion is one way of re-arranging things if that were suitable?

  • Robs

    I’m stuck with puzzle 1. Modulus, Rotate and clue, come on, ROT13 does not work!!! Any hint?

  • T-Man

    Thanks for the clues Jason! I think I am getting closer to figuring it out. At least I hope so!!
    I just don’t get the bit about “how many must I choose from”. I don’t understand the relevance of this at all!? Does he mean how many combinations you can make from “much as i rrant” or something else?

  • T-Man

    Robs – you are on the right track I think. Remeber that you need to look for clues in the relevant blog entry, and reference this with the correct assessment answer. What is the correct answer to the first assessment, and how could this be relevant?

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Robs, there is a particular cipher you need to use and you will need a particular key – once you figure out which (it’s in the cipher blog) search for an online decrypter, I found this one particularly useful:

    http://www.secretcodebreaker.com/codes.html

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    T-Man, good to hear you are on the right track – figuring out what you need to do with that bit is really the crux of this problem. I nearly lost count of the times I puzzled over those letters. Good luck.

  • Robs

    Got it. Thanks jasonslater for saving my trouble of writing the converter in C++.

  • Robs

    Just another question. Which source code is every one talking about. I can’t find the hydroflouric word anywhere

  • T-Man

    Robs – try ‘view source’ on the assessment page. Hidden in the html code there is a bunch of words that I think are all chemicals. The “row after column” remark tells us that we’re looking for something hidden in the code, while another clue tells us where in the code the important word is. It sounds like you’re on the right lines. You just need to figure out how to manipulate the right word to get the answer – and don’t forget to ‘add’ the answer from the assessment too!

  • AndyD

    Is anyone else having problems with the website? It seems like I’ve got 4 correct answers but nothing really happens other than a laptop appearing with a green screen. Have I missed something?

  • mikeg

    Still stuck on third question guys – have read all the posts above and still no joy. I know it’s something to do with much as i rrant, siarra, 16 characters, hexadecimal conversion, or maybe binary, but like a lot of people, I’ve come up with nowt! I’m going home now to lie down…!

  • T-Man

    Mikeg – I am in the same boat! I have pondered over the “much as i rrant” phrase for three days straight!! Its really bugging me now.
    I think the conversion needs to be binary – but not sure what we’re supposed to convert?

  • mikeg

    Just got number 3!!! At last!!! Now I understand why everyone says how silly they feel when they get it.

    T-Man, its very easy to miss the obvious in this one so all I’ll say is the best clue is jasonslater’s at 4.30pm on the 18th November. Combine that with David’s on the 13th at 4.10pm. Try to forget the rest…

    oh and this site might help…
    http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayGround/Binary_Conversion/The_Characters.asp

  • Raj

    Hey guys,
    all your posts have been really helpful, but currently stuck on number 4
    from what i can work out the PSP has to be changed to PRO
    but from then on, my thoughts may aswell be stuck in an abyss
    any pointers at all please?

  • MarkV

    Hi,

    Still stuck on #4, used Davids converter, adjusted the last two chars as seemed appropriate. but now what ? .. little help ?

  • T-Man

    Nice one mikeg – glad you’ve cracked it. I am still not having as much success!! Despite your clues I still can’t get it and am starting to feel like a total dumbass!! I think its the “counting” bit that I just don’t get!! Count what? Letters? Combinations?

  • mikeg

    You’re not a dumbass T-Man, if anything you’re probably making it too complicated like I was.

    as for what to count, personally I’d start with the easier option of the two…

  • mikeg

    Well I think I’ve cracked number 4 too!

    I get a nice little graphic of everything unlocking and a green laptop, and then it goes back to the last puzzle again! Anyone else had this…?

  • MarkV

    what did you do to get that MikeG … any help you can give on #4 ?

  • T-Man

    Damn it I am so confused!!! If its a case of counting the number of characters in the phrase “much as i rrant” or just “siarra” I can’t see how to come up with anything in binary that works!?

  • MarkV

    T-Man:
    count the letters in “muchasirrant” and convert the resulting number into binary.

  • Raj

    done it, i was just over complicating it

  • AndyD

    Yes MikeG. All I got was the green laptop. I was expecting a congratulations message or some kind of screen where I could submit my details to the competition but nothing else happens.

  • mikeg

    AndyD – Perhaps we missed the boat on this one? I’ll try again tomorrow.

    T-Man – you’re on the right lines now, don’t get too SPACED out though! With that in mind, now I’ll draw your attention to what David said on the 13 Nov @ 4.10pm – something about leading zeros. Does that click with anything you have and the web site address I gave you?

  • T-Man

    OK – so ‘much as i rrant’ is 12 characters (without the spaces). Converting that to binary gives 00110001, 00110010. Without the leading zeros and presumably the space etc, I thought the correct answer would be 11000100110010 – but this doesn’t work! But I have also tried taking off the leading zeros of the 2 also, so 110001110010 – still no joy! And I tried including the spaces (15 characters) to give 0010001, 00110101 – but 100100110101 and 110101110101 both don’t work. So what am I missing!!?
    Man I can’t wait for question 4!!!
    thanks for your help though mikeg. Without it I think I would be going nuts! Well – even more nuts.

  • turnyt

    Totally stuck on #4 Have got the phrase and converted into decimal binary tried upper and lower case and put spacing in between words to make proper sentence
    Still no joy. Where am I going wrong?

  • turnyt

    T-Man

    Try it a bit simpler 8 4 2 1 put the ones in to add up to 12

    All i need now is some help on question 4
    I am pretty sure I have the phrase (in fact I have 2 possibilities) and have converted to decimal (Unicode) and binary . Is there something I am overlooking. Any help would be greatly appreciated – less than 8 hours to go

  • TheGuvnor

    Turnyt

    Try looking at Davids post on 13th November at 8.37, then jasonslaters post on 13th November at 8.56. Then compare Davids post on 13th November at 10.13 to see what is different.

    Also, remember that Davids answer at 10.30 should be read as the PROfessional answer.

    Good luck, not long left now!!

  • turnyt

    I am now going totally brain dead.
    Here are my ramblings on this problem – perhaps someone can see where I am going astray.
    1. The lock needs a numerical input – this rules out Hex
    2. The maximum no of digits that can be input is 50 – after this digits do not display
    3. The output of the decoder needs the last 2 characters to be changed to give the PROfessional answer
    4. If I convert the answer to binary I end up with 63 digits (each letter converts to 7 digit binary) – too many for the lock.
    5. Have converted each letter to binary depending on its position in the alphabet – no joy
    6. Have converted letters to decimal both as a straight ASCII to decimal and its position in alphabet – again no joy

    What am I missing. Soon it won’t just be my head going but probably my marriage also.

  • TheGuvnor

    turnyt,

    sorry for the lateness of the reply! I think that you may be focusing to much on the content of the keypad…the answers are in the pointers I gave you.

  • turnyt

    TheGuvnor

    Many thanks. The keypad was putting me off. I had the answer at the start but thought it could not be right. Roll on the 2009 game

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  • max

    does anyone know how to claim the prize? i am one of the winners but i haven’t received any e-mail.

  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater
  • http://www.jasonslater.co.uk jasonslater

    Congratulations, if you won something! The rules did say an email would be sent to the registered winner by the 20th if I recall correctly. It also said the prize needed to be claimed but didn’t specify how – perhaps it might turn up in an email.

  • max

    Thanks Jason. My name’s there in the list. The terms and conditions there isn’t specific to the contest. It’s just general info about the company. Hmmm. I guess I’ll just wait for the e-mail.