[Puzzle] Facility J - A Proper Introduction

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:38 am

Much to my surprise, Walter Dabrowski got of his cranky old ASS and got down to business sooner than I expected. He accepted my friend request. When I entered his page the following code was posted in the "about me" section of his profile:

53 6d 69 6c 65 2c 20 79 6f 75 20 77 6f 72 6b 65 64 20 68 61 72 64 20 74 6f 20 67 65 74 20 68 65 72 65 2e 20 20 4d 61 79 62 65 20 79 6f 75 20 61 72 65 20 6e 6f 74 20 61 73 20 73 6c 6f 77 20 61 73 20 49 20 74 68 6f 75 67 68 74 2e 20 20 59 6f 75 27 76 65 20 61 6c 72 65 61 64 79 20 64 65 73 74 72 6f 79 65 64 20 4a 32 2c 20 73 6f 20 65 76 65 6e 20 79 6f 75 20 73 68 6f 75 6c 64 20 72 65 6d 65 6d 62 65 72 20 68 6f 77 20 74 68 69 73 20 77 6f 72 6b 73 2e 20 20 54 68 65 20 79 6f 75 6e 67 73 74 65 72 20 73 65 6e 74 20 79 6f 75 20 61 20 73 61 6d 70 6c 65 20 74 68 61 74 20 77 61 73 20 69 6e 20 61 20 6d 6f 72 65 20 63 6f 6d 70 6c 65 74 65 20 66 6f 72 6d 20 74 68 61 6e 20 74 68 65 20 6f 74 68 65 72 73 2e 20 20 54 68 65 20 72 65 6d 61 69 6e 69 6e 67 20 73 61 6d 70 6c 65 73 20 61 72 65 20 69 6e 20 61 20 67 61 73 65 6f 75 73 20 66 6f 72 6d 20 74 68 61 74 20 63 61 6e 20 62 65 20 65 61 73 69 6c 79 20 63 6f 6e 76 65 72 74 65 64 20 69 6e 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 6c 69 71 75 69 64 20 66 6f 72 6d 20 79 6f 75 20 68 61 76 65 20 61 6c 72 65 61 64 79 20 65 6e 63 6f 75 6e 74 65 72 65 64 2e 20 20 41 63 63 6f 72 64 69 6e 67 6c 79 2c 20 74 68 65 20 76 69 61 6c 73 20 77 69 6c 6c 20 61 70 70 65 61 72 20 65 6d 70 74 79 20 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 6e 61 6b 65 64 20 65 79 65 2e 20 20 49 6e 20 74 68 69 73 20 67 61 73 65 6f 75 73 20 66 6f 72 6d 2c 20 74 68 65 20 72 69 73 6b 20 6f 66 20 6d 75 6c 74 69 70 6c 65 20 65 78 70 6f 73 75 72 65 73 20 6c 65 73 73 65 6e 73 2c 20 73 6f 20 79 6f 75 20 77 69 6c 6c 20 62 65 20 61 62 6c 65 20 74 6f 20 68 61 6e 64 6c 65 20 74 77 6f 20 61 74 20 61 20 74 69 6d 65 2e 20 20 48 6f 77 65 76 65 72 2c 20 69 66 20 79 6f 75 20 68 61 76 65 20 64 65 61 6c 74 20 77 69 74 68 20 61 6e 79 20 66 6f 72 6d 20 6f 66 20 74 68 65 20 73 61 6d 70 6c 65 73 2c 20 79 6f 75 20 63 61 6e 20 6e 6f 74 20 68 61 76 65 20 61 6e 79 20 6d 6f 72 65 20 63 6f 6e 74 61 63 74 20 77 69 74 68 20 74 68 65 6d 20 66 6f 72 20 79 6f 75 72 20 73 61 66 65 74 79 20 61 6e 64 20 6f 75 72 73 2e 20 20 54 68 65 20 6b 69 64 2c 20 69 6e 20 68 69 73 20 69 6e 65 70 74 69 74 75 64 65 2c 20 66 61 69 6c 65 64 20 74 6f 20 6d 65 6e 74 69 6f 6e 20 74 68 61 74 20 74 68 6f 73 65 20 77 68 6f 73 65 20 69 6d 6d 75 6e 65 20 73 79 73 74 65 6d 73 20 61 72 65 20 6e 6f 74 20 66 75 6c 6c 79 20 64 65 76 65 6c 6f 70 65 64 20 73 68 6f 75 6c 64 20 6e 6f 74 20 68 61 6e 64 6c 65 20 74 68 65 20 76 69 61 6c 73 20 61 74 20 61 6c 6c 2e 20 20 54 68 69 73 20 61 70 70 6c 69 65 73 20 74 6f 20 61 6e 79 6f 6e 65 20 75 6e 64 65 72 20 65 69 67 68 74 65 65 6e 20 79 65 61 72 73 20 6f 66 20 61 67 65 2e 20 20 41 6c 74 68 6f 75 67 68 20 49 20 77 6f 75 6c 64 20 70 72 65 66 65 72 20 74 6f 20 64 72 6f 70 20 74 68 65 73 65 20 6f 66 66 20 73 6f 6d 65 70 6c 61 63 65 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 61 20 77 69 6c 6c 69 6e 67 20 70 61 72 74 69 63 69 70 61 6e 74 20 63 61 6e 20 70 69 63 6b 20 74 68 65 6d 20 75 70 2c 20 69 74 20 73 65 65 6d 73 20 6c 69 6b 65 20 74 68 65 20 6b 69 64 20 68 61 73 20 66 61 69 6c 65 64 20 74 6f 20 67 65 74 20 65 6e 6f 75 67 68 20 68 65 6c 70 20 74 6f 20 66 6f 72 6d 20 74 68 65 20 63 72 69 74 69 63 61 6c 20 6d 61 73 73 20 6e 65 63 65 73 73 61 72 79 20 66 6f 72 20 73 75 63 68 20 61 6e 20 6f 70 65 72 61 74 69 6f 6e 2e 20 20 41 63 63 6f 72 64 69 6e 67 6c 79 2c 20 49 27 6c 6c 20 68 61 76 65 20 74 6f 20 73 68 69 70 20 61 20 70 61 63 6b 61 67 65 20 74 6f 20 74 68 65 20 66 69 72 73 74 20 6f 66 20 79 6f 75 20 77 68 6f 20 63 61 6e 20 72 65 73 70 6f 6e 64 20 74 6f 20 6d 79 20 59 6f 75 74 75 62 65 73 20 77 69 74 68 20 61 6e 20 61 64 64 72 65 73 73 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 49 20 63 61 6e 20 73 65 6e 64 20 69 74 2e 20 20 55 73 65 20 6d 79 20 6c 61 73 74 20 6e 61 6d 65 20 61 73 20 74 68 65 20 73 75 62 6a 65 63 74 20 73 6f 20 49 20 6b 6e 6f 77 20 74 68 61 74 20 49 20 63 61 6e 20 74 72 75 73 74 20 79 6f 75 2e

This is hexidecimal, which translated to this:

Smile, you worked hard to get here. Maybe you are not as slow as I thought. You've already destroyed J2, so even you should remember how this works. The youngster sent you a sample that was in a more complete form than the others. The remaining samples are in a gaseous form that can be easily converted into the liquid form you have already encountered. Accordingly, the vials will appear empty to the naked eye. In this gaseous form, the risk of multiple exposures lessens, so you will be able to handle two at a time. However, if you have dealt with any form of the samples, you can not have any more contact with them for your safety and ours. The kid, in his ineptitude, failed to mention that those whose immune systems are not fully developed should not handle the vials at all. This applies to anyone under eighteen years of age. Although I would prefer to drop these off someplace where a willing participant can pick them up, it seems like the kid has failed to get enough help to form the critical mass necessary for such an operation. Accordingly, I'll have to ship a package to the first of you who can respond to my Youtubes with an address where I can send it. Use my last name as the subject so I know that I can trust you.

So I responded by sending a message to Walter through YouTube as per instructed. I don't know if I'm the first to crack his code or if someone made it there before me.

So once again, we are waiting for Walter . . . . . . .

TOSG- be sure to notice the first word in his decoded message

Looks like Walt has a sense of humor. That's a relief!

P.S. Walter's a Virgo, he's single and he doesn't want kids

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:06 am

theslyestfox wrote:...but bravo to Deagol for figuring out the key...

Well actually I did nothing but confirm that some previous results you already had were significant, but thanks anyway. I'm glad you guys found it, good job!

I guess reiterating that result did nudge TOSG into getting a protein sequence and trying it with the decoding numbers. I thought you already had tried it because that had been there since the previous night so I kept thinking the whole DNA sequence should be deciphered. If I knew how the protein sequence was obtained, and how to use the decoding numbers, I guess I might have been able to work it out further. And I'm still a bit confused about what was the length and the 2 more letters that came out as valid DNA in TOSG explanation. I get 27 letters of valid DNA when using the 27-letter long key. Why doesn't that work? I guess the last protein is wrong or something? And how do you do the numbers? See, I'm clueless about all that.

To me, the biggest clue that this was vigenere and the stamp was the key was something Luminous did about vigenereing the sequence with itself as a key or something like that (here), and getting letters that looked a lot like the ones on the stamp. That clicked with Walter's clue about looking at the sequence from a new perspective, which meant to try to de-vignere the original "cipher-sequence" into a "plain sequence," but it had to be valid DNA as well. Thus, what Luminous did, although it wasn't the right "clear-sequence" to use, it showed how only half of the alphabet was involved. It seems Weepel caught that and was already telling all of you about it a long time before I said anything.

So yea, credit goes to Luminous, Weepel, and TOSG of course, not me.

Congratulations!

[Edit: well I just had to go and figure out how to get the protein list from the DNA, and then how to decode the final message with the numbers. That is too much manual work, TOSG! But now I also understand the difficulty and effort put up not only by the J team

but also by whoever is running this... encoding two different plaintexts within the same ciphertext is trivial using different vigenere keys. But being able to pull it off after all the DNA > list of proteins > protein letters > alphabet shift decoding that happens to the "plaintext" DNA is pretty amazing since they even used the same decoding numbers for both messages. Ok, I hope I'm making some sense... at least TOSG can appreciate what I'm trying to say, yes?]

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:07 am

So in hindsight, that email was pretty self-explanatory:

"The key is to know that I will always post everything you need"
vigenere key = post stamp

"Shifting a sequence may just leave you with more of the same"
de-vigenere DNA to get some more DNA

"but it will give you the building blocks to find my last name"
get the protein "building blocks"

"you've done it before"
it's just the same as last time, but with a new DNA sequence

"You don't have many numbers to choose from the last step"
use the same decoding numbers as before, you just need the first few.

A final comment: Walter said, "We knew the Soviets had them." But his last name, Dabrowski, is of Russian origin, right? Insight into his back history? Could he have been a spy, a defector, or was he simply descendant of Tsarist Russia exiles? I haven't seen any of his other messages so I don't know if he clarified this before.

Wikipedia said Dąbrowski is the 11th most common surname in Poland (86,132 people)... interesting.

theresascraps · Post by **theresascraps** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:06 am

hey Luminous and all! You guys are amazing! Good job. i would be afraid of what he would send me???could be interesting huh??

theresa

janesalteredstates · Post by **janesalteredstates** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:15 pm

Can't wait to find out what he sent you. I bet it will smell like grandpas.

So Walter's single? Hmmm, wonder if he likes girls with multiple personalities and memory loss.

TOSG · Post by **TOSG** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:12 pm

deagol wrote: And I'm still a bit confused about what was the length and the 2 more letters that came out as valid DNA in TOSG explanation. I get 27 letters of valid DNA when using the 27-letter long key. Why doesn't that work?

Sheesh, you're absolutely right. I have no idea how:

a) I messed that up
b) I still got the right answer.

Good catch!

[Edit: well I just had to go and figure out how to get the protein list from the DNA, and then how to decode the final message with the numbers. That is too much manual work, TOSG! But now I also understand the difficulty and effort put up not only by the J team but also by whoever is running this... encoding two different plaintexts within the same ciphertext is trivial using different vigenere keys. But being able to pull it off after all the DNA > list of proteins > protein letters > alphabet shift decoding that happens to the "plaintext" DNA is pretty amazing since they even used the same decoding numbers for both messages. Ok, I hope I'm making some sense... at least TOSG can appreciate what I'm trying to say, yes?]

Definitely. Imagine how tedious it was to decode the 63-letter sequence! Luckily, I'm conversant enough with the amino acids that I could pretty much do it in my head. Still quite a pain, though!

Weepel · Post by **Weepel** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:05 pm

TOSG wrote:If you decode the DNA sequence that I found in the previous puzzle in the 3' ---> 5' direction (rather than 5'--->3'), then reverse the protein sequence, the first five amino acids spell out "SMILE" when decoded with "11228."

Smile, you worked hard to get here.

Maybe this is a reference to Brian Wilson's SMiLE. There are some parallels between the story behind that album and Walter's project. SMiLE was a masterwork that was not recorded because Brian Wilson went crazy. Only years later did he complete the project. A reference to Brian Wilson in the latest Tachyon puzzle( http://lonelygirl15.com/forum/viewtopic ... 68&start=0 ) made me think about this.

I hope you re enjoying this Brian Wilson phase of yours.

Coincidence? Almost certainly yes.

TOSG · Post by **TOSG** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:38 pm

Weepel wrote: Coincidence? Almost certainly yes.

Agreed. I have a copy, though, if it comes up. Very disappointing album, by the way, if you ask me.

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:39 pm

Weepel wrote:
TOSG wrote:If you decode the DNA sequence that I found in the previous puzzle in the 3' ---> 5' direction (rather than 5'--->3'), then reverse the protein sequence, the first five amino acids spell out "SMILE" when decoded with "11228."

Smile, you worked hard to get here.
Maybe this is a reference to Brian Wilson's SMiLE. There are some parallels between the story behind that album and Walter's project. SMiLE was a masterwork that was not recorded because Brian Wilson went crazy. Only years later did he complete the project. A reference to Brian Wilson in the latest Tachyon puzzle( http://lonelygirl15.com/forum/viewtopic ... 68&start=0 ) made me think about this.

I hope you re enjoying this Brian Wilson phase of yours.
Coincidence? Almost certainly yes.

I have a lot of things I will be adding to this post, but I'll do that later when I have more time. I just popped in to respond to this.

There have been other "coincidences" with the OpAphid/Tachyon storyline. TravelerJ19's two "History Lessons" videos - (xx/xy), and (Coded Rings), came out around the same time the OpAphid crew was decoding the xx/xy puzzle, and constructing their decoder rings. Also, TravelerJ19 has made an occasional appearance in the #operationaphid chat. There may be other coincidences. Does it mean anything? What we do know, is that Travelerj19 is definitely aware of what's going on with OpAphid. Maybe Walter is as well. After all, Facility J was an Operation Aphid Facility.

And Weepel, Thanks for the tip on Brian Wilson. I missed that. I've been looking for the right music for the recap video.

trainer101 · Post by **trainer101** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:09 pm

If anyone is jumping on the 'canon' bandwagon, at least we can say we were FIRST!!!!1111!!!!!!

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:18 pm

trainer101 wrote:If anyone is jumping on the 'canon' bandwagon, at least we can say we were FIRST!!!!1111!!!!!!

No way Jose! Not goin' there. I learned my lesson in the Cassiniverse

trainer101 · Post by **trainer101** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:29 pm

Luminous wrote:
trainer101 wrote:If anyone is jumping on the 'canon' bandwagon, at least we can say we were FIRST!!!!1111!!!!!!

No way Jose! Not goin' there. I learned my lesson in the Cassiniverse

hehe... I'm waiting to see a Traveler clue unlock an OpAphid puzzle. Now THAT would be cool.
some of us still aren't convinced that CiW wasn't related.

TOSG · Post by **TOSG** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:47 pm

I think that perhaps someone should give TravelerJ19/WalterDW an entry in the LGPedia (in the fan videos section, most likely). Luminous, I'm looking at you; your recaps have been very good, and it'd be nice to give this ARG a bit wider exposure (more minds to solve future puzzles, etc...).

Luminous · Post by **Luminous** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:32 pm

TOSG wrote:I think that perhaps someone should give TravelerJ19/WalterDW an entry in the LGPedia (in the fan videos section, most likely). Luminous, I'm looking at you; your recaps have been very good, and it'd be nice to give this ARG a bit wider exposure (more minds to solve future puzzles, etc...).

I agree, this game is more than deserving of an entry in the LGpedia. I'll get on it. Also, I welcome anyone who has something to add - please do! It will make my job much easier.

As far as attracting a larger audience, from Walter's last message, it sounds like he would prefer making drops to mailing packages if we can reach "critical mass".

BTW, I heard from Walter, and the package is in the mail! I will video tape its opening and the destruction of the contents and add it to my recap video.

theresascraps · Post by **theresascraps** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:37 pm

oohhh, I am so excited to see what is in that package!! I just wish his puzzles weren't DNA and all that. I can do word puzzles, but oh the science stuff. Heck no.

theresa