TravelerJ19 - "Catalyst (You Rang?)" [03/27/2007]

[janesalteredstates]

I couldn't help myself
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=joee

I figure since there seems to be a band theme... here's some Joee lyrics:
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/joee-lyrics.html
More about Joee:
http://www.radikal.com/joee.htm

hahah sorry it just had to be done.


back to studying for my many midterms

[ignatzmouse]

Edit: oh ok I see what you did now, although I don't see why you did it. Is it just to get 12(12)?

Yup. The way I read TJ19's email, there's some function (ooh f say) that's been applied to TAA,12(0) to get f(TAA,12(0)) = O. We're trying to work out what f is, so we can apply it to the other letters in the sequence. I was guessing f(x,y(z)) = d(x,y(y+z)) where d is our usual decrypt function. There are lots of other choices though, some of which won't end with JOEE

[ignatzmouse]

More about Joee:
http://www.radikal.com/joee.htm

He has the Zoolander Blue Steel look just right!

[deagol]

Mouse, maybe you can think of a way to apply this:

Letter O is at a midpoint between A and C, because O is a +12 shift from C and a -12 shift from A, or alternatively, a +14 shift from A and a -14 shift from C. Here's that idea in a visual way:

Code: Select all

  C           O           A
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefg...
  |-----12----|-----12----|

A             O             C
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefg...
|------14-----|------14-----|

Or in modulo 26 arithmetic (with a=0), c ≡ 2*o. In this sense, O is kind of like letter B (c ≡ 2*b). I'm not sure how that would help us find our missing O and get rid of that C impersonator.

[Loki]

Quick OOG: D'you think the PM for this occasionally starts thinking "wow... they're doing this the hard way!" or something like that?

Back IG: JOEE might not be gibberish... except usually we get 5 letter acronyms, rigth?

[deagol]

From: TravelerJ19 [videos (9) | favorites (0) | friends (0)]
Sent: March 29, 2007
Subject: Re: Re: 6 and 12
Message:
You're never going to find another "O." You will just have to settle for something similar. It's a pretty simple move at this point, no fancy decoding necessary (I don't really understand most of that stuff anyway). Every letter you decoded is significant, and every number you used even more so. Maybe you want to make a switch somewhere.

I replied with this:

How about replacing that C with the -0 from the shift numbers, (because that one always seemed odd to me):

OOOOOOO COOOO
OOOOOOO-0OOOO
7 o's minus 5 o's = 2 o's
70 - 50 = 20

The word is double-o (00), or infinity, or twenty?

[deagol]

When I typed it with that space there, that C looks like it could have been an O that got nudged a bit to the right and got behind the O next to it.

OOOOOOO COOOO

I'll try that bigger:

OO COO
See, it's ^^ that guy humping the next one...

The CO could be seen as an infinity symbol, ∞.

Ahh this is the answer:
:|:|:|:|:|:| :|:|:|

[Ziola]

heh...when you use smiley talk, I understand it.

[marlasinger]

anyone try out the pairing to the DNA sequence we found? That's only one side to the sequence. Give me a little while and I'll do it - gotta take a shower and eat breakfast first, or my brain will explode.

[ignatzmouse]

Mouse, maybe you can think of a way to apply this:

Letter O is at a midpoint between A and C, because O is a +12 shift from C and a -12 shift from A, or alternatively, a +14 shift from A and a -14 shift from C. Here's that idea in a visual way:

Code: Select all

  C           O           A
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefg...
  |-----12----|-----12----|

A             O             C
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefg...
|------14-----|------14-----|

Or in modulo 26 arithmetic (with a=0), c ≡ 2*o. In this sense, O is kind of like letter B (c ≡ 2*b). I'm not sure how that would help us find our missing O and get rid of that C impersonator.

Problem is that any shift like this that depends just on the letter value is going to result in a "word" where all 12 letters are the same (if we apply it to OOO...O) or at least 11 are (if we treat C as a special case). If some kind of shift like this will do the job, it has to depend on the numbers as well.

[ignatzmouse]

Oh look, another way to make gibberish...

Reading the shifts:

Code: Select all

6(-6) 6(+1) 6(-6) 12(-4) 6(-6) 12(-4) 6(-6) 12(-0) 6(-6) 6(-5) 6(-6) 12(-4)

as multiplications, we get:

Code: Select all

-36 6 -36 -48 -36 -48 -36 0 -36 -30 -36 -48

and (doing all arithmetic mod 26):

Code: Select all

O - -36 = Y
O - 6 = I
O - -48 = K
O - 0 = O
O - 30 = K

so we have the sequence:

Code: Select all

YIYKYKYOYKYK

and we know what to do with (I,K,O,Y) sequences, we run them through the ascii-octal-codon converter and get:

Code: Select all

Threonine
Lysine
Threonine
Asparagine
Threonine
Asparagine
Threonine
Lysine
Threonine
Asparagine
Threonine

which we then apply the original shifts to and get (ta da) gibberish:

Code: Select all

HFHOHOHEHVHO

Hmm. I suspect this is all a lot more complex than the actual solution, which TJ19 says is a "simple move".

Part of my confusion is I don't see how to get a "simple move" to produce something which doesn't match the pattern "x.x.x.x.x.x", which not many English words do. Er, "hehehohohaha" anyone?

Perhaps it's musical notation?

[deagol]

Ahh ok, now this looks simple! I'll use lowercase to highlight that pesky c and o (or zero).

Originally:
.... .... .... .... .... 12(-0) .... => OOOOOOOcOOOO
Swap c<->0 => 12(-c) .... => OOOOOOOoOOOO

Leaving a (-c) shift, which if you remember, was (-4). Now (I think) apply the (-4) to the O, leaving a K, so now it's OOOOOOOKOOOO.

From here we could do the octal ascii > dna > amino > shift transform and it becomes YFYAYAYAYZYA. Yayza gibberish! at least its got a chipper attitude.

[deagol]

From: TravelerJ19 [videos (9) | favorites (0) | friends (0)]
Sent: March 29, 2007
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: O's and C
Message:
I like where you're going with that swap. Now just think it through. No more DNA, no more shifts. Look at what you have with that c in place.

DeagolTheStoor wrote:

> Ahh ok, now this looks simple! (I'll use lowercase to highlight that pesky c and o or zero)
> ...

I replied:

12-C is carbon, and the O's are 6 protons and 6 neutrons?

[Marbella]

This was so cool! I love the intrigue and skill with which you made this.

I posted that on YouTube. I'm not really "into" decoding, but I wanted to say "Highest Kudos" to the creator of this vid.

[lg15panda]

I replied:

12-C is carbon, and the O's are 6 protons and 6 neutrons?

In case people are confused, deagol is referring to carbon-12 which is the most abundant naturally-occurring form of carbon. The 12 comes from the fact that this isotope of carbon has 6 protons, and 6 neutrons (6+6=12).

Also I just want to give deagol and I.Mouse props for sticking with this sucky puzzle and dealing with TJ's handholding as he make you guys blunder around to find a solution. You guys are awesome. I bow to your mighty talent!