Hah. You would only need 36 blocks to spell “tetris” without making huge amounts of wasted space.
On the other hand, all those other blocks might just encode for “caps lock” and “end caps lock”
Still no idea how this works though. I think that there’s only 1 word since there’s no key for “space” but I’m just guessing. (but then, there’s punctuation stuff, so…..)
Maybe the spaces between the boxes on top represent the spaces, and each box is a word. That way you wouldn’t need a space option, and commas could be included as part of the word.
@Anonymous interesting thought. However, each of the boxes contain the same number of squares (36). Assuming that each letter has a set number of squares (and that the squares aren’t reusable for multiple letters [or some other crypto trick]), that would mean each of the 18 words had the same number of letters. (which would be totally awesome if it were true)
Its 1:13 AM here and I’m still working on this. God, what a dork I am.
Snively, stop nerd-sniping
@Sarli: if you know where nerd-sniping comes from, you’re halfway to MIT.
I’ve noticed a couple of things. The key has the pattern 1,2,4,8,16,32. When you consider this and add up all the whites A has a value of 0, B of 1, C of 2 etc all the way to 31. Yet near the end of that there’s an error. After ‘?’ which is 28 there comes 31, 30, and 29. Theres 18 grids, each has a height of 12, yet the height of the key is only 6, you might have to cut that into two halves. Maybe that will help some of you.
I got side-tracked on xkcd (I just kept clicking random) and I found <a >this comic. I do this constantly. Does anyone else?
p.s. I haven’t given up on the puzzle, I’m just going at it in an unorthodox way. I think that if I run through the internet in a random direction for a while, eventually I’ll run into something that’ll bounce me back here with new insights on how to solve the puzzle.
Okay, the first word being “to” makes sense if you look at the first line of the first block. Take the top six squares, shift the the first white square down one, and you have T. Take the bottom six squares and move the last white square up one, and you have O. I haven’t been able to make this work for any other lines/blocks yet.
There’s too much white for it to be straight up encoded with some bizarre grouping. Note that the most common letters (e,t,a,i,o,n,s,h,r) are all at least 50% black. I haven’t checked it rigorously yet, but I’m pretty sure there’s much more white than would occur in a normal English passage.
Hey Arjun, have you tried inversing the colors by any chance? Also, I think the amount of lines (vertical and horizontal) in each 3×12 column is suspicious, though, haven’t found much of a breakthrough in either of these just yet.
@ Jeremy
I’ve been messing around with inversing too. All the letters in the key have a black square at the top, but in the coded part, only 8 of the squares in the top row are black, and 20 of the squares in the seventh. This just occurred to me as I was typing: Is it possible that we’re supposed to inverse everything, and then the white squares (which were originally black) denote spaces? This would mean a 13-letter word in the middle, and a 15-letter word towards the end, so maybe not.
@Snively: I know this is really awkward and random, but I saw you at Porter Station on Saturday on my way inbound to a BBQ at MIT. It was so weird/coincidental, and I felt like such a stalker.
Strangest thing, when I download the picture on my mac, the preview pic of it is a tube and a letter. but whenever I open it in anything to view it its the crypto. hm….
other than that HOW CRUEL OF YOU SNIVELY I STILL CANT SOLVE IT!
@Li ’12
lol, I must have been on my way to see Maddie. That’s ok though, at least you didn’t scream at me from across the platform or anything, that would have been a bit creepy.
My god, that was hard to read!!!
by the way, FIRST!!!!!!!
Made my eyes water for 10 minutes…!
I haven’t solved it yet, but I see a binary pattern in the lower box which I assume is a key.
Are there grey and black lines or am I just seeing stuff?
Oh its just my browser. Its scaling changes the line colors.
Ah, too easy, the answer is “Tetris”
Lol. You’re a funny guy Sarli.
Hah. You would only need 36 blocks to spell “tetris” without making huge amounts of wasted space.
On the other hand, all those other blocks might just encode for “caps lock” and “end caps lock”
Still no idea how this works though. I think that there’s only 1 word since there’s no key for “space” but I’m just guessing. (but then, there’s punctuation stuff, so…..)
@ Albert
The one word thing sounds plausible. I haven’t gotten anywhere with this yet, either.
Maybe the spaces between the boxes on top represent the spaces, and each box is a word. That way you wouldn’t need a space option, and commas could be included as part of the word.
Something to do with Exponential growth?
pattern, 1,2,4,8,16,32
on key
@Anonymous interesting thought. However, each of the boxes contain the same number of squares (36). Assuming that each letter has a set number of squares (and that the squares aren’t reusable for multiple letters [or some other crypto trick]), that would mean each of the 18 words had the same number of letters. (which would be totally awesome if it were true)
Its 1:13 AM here and I’m still working on this. God, what a dork I am.
Snively, stop nerd-sniping
@Sarli: if you know where nerd-sniping comes from, you’re halfway to MIT.
nerd-sniping
the first word is “to”
Nerd-sniping = trew => we have no lives
Snively touche’ you have me going, now im afraid I will stop at nothing.
Snively = Trebek
Sarli = Sean Connery
Celebrity jeopardy.
to be or not to be, that is the answer.
I’ve noticed a couple of things. The key has the pattern 1,2,4,8,16,32. When you consider this and add up all the whites A has a value of 0, B of 1, C of 2 etc all the way to 31. Yet near the end of that there’s an error. After ‘?’ which is 28 there comes 31, 30, and 29. Theres 18 grids, each has a height of 12, yet the height of the key is only 6, you might have to cut that into two halves. Maybe that will help some of you.
I got side-tracked on xkcd (I just kept clicking random) and I found <a >this comic. I do this constantly. Does anyone else?
p.s. I haven’t given up on the puzzle, I’m just going at it in an unorthodox way. I think that if I run through the internet in a random direction for a while, eventually I’ll run into something that’ll bounce me back here with new insights on how to solve the puzzle.
^^ I forgot to close my link. Feel free to hang me for committing html sins.
this one actually works
I really want to spend time on this, however, I should probably finish working first.
Okay, the first word being “to” makes sense if you look at the first line of the first block. Take the top six squares, shift the the first white square down one, and you have T. Take the bottom six squares and move the last white square up one, and you have O. I haven’t been able to make this work for any other lines/blocks yet.
In the video link from the description the people crossing the street are often dressed in either black or white. Do you think this means anything?
There’s too much white for it to be straight up encoded with some bizarre grouping. Note that the most common letters (e,t,a,i,o,n,s,h,r) are all at least 50% black. I haven’t checked it rigorously yet, but I’m pretty sure there’s much more white than would occur in a normal English passage.
Yay for 16/56
That’s some darned good advice…
The phrase implies that there is some advice to follow….
Hey Arjun, have you tried inversing the colors by any chance? Also, I think the amount of lines (vertical and horizontal) in each 3×12 column is suspicious, though, haven’t found much of a breakthrough in either of these just yet.
@ Jeremy
I’ve been messing around with inversing too. All the letters in the key have a black square at the top, but in the coded part, only 8 of the squares in the top row are black, and 20 of the squares in the seventh. This just occurred to me as I was typing: Is it possible that we’re supposed to inverse everything, and then the white squares (which were originally black) denote spaces? This would mean a 13-letter word in the middle, and a 15-letter word towards the end, so maybe not.
Scratch that. If the black squares are spaces, there would be two one-letter words in the second block, which is grammatically ridiculous.
@Jeremy
I had solved it; I was referring to the fact the phrase it solves to implies that there’s more to follow..
You’ll see what I mean when you solve it.
@Arjun
Go ahead and e-mail me the answer so I can double check, don’t forget to include a method!
snively [at] mit [dot] edu
Oh gosh, I should not have looked at that after being sick with the flu all day….
Cool, though.
Do you think there is any significance (beyond irony on the puzzle-maker’s part) of the binary aberration being on the question mark?
I think we’re over-thinking this.
Sigh, my brain hurts.
I cant figure it out. lol.
@ Anonymous
My brain hurts too. I’m leaning toward the binary key for a solution though.
Is it like… I don’t know, a definition or a description of something… I’m confused and I feel like I really shouldn’t be, especially after that.
Yeah it’s a definition. Don’t wanna say of what for those who are still trying to crack it.
Glad I came back to it when I got home. I’m pretty sure I got it!!!! HAZZAH!!!
@ Arjun: Yeah, I know what you mean. It seems like a real cliff hangar.
edit the image in ms paint
@Snively: I know this is really awkward and random, but I saw you at Porter Station on Saturday on my way inbound to a BBQ at MIT. It was so weird/coincidental, and I felt like such a stalker.
Strangest thing, when I download the picture on my mac, the preview pic of it is a tube and a letter. but whenever I open it in anything to view it its the crypto. hm….
other than that HOW CRUEL OF YOU SNIVELY I STILL CANT SOLVE IT!
must not ask for hints… must not ask for hints…
oh my, this is hard.
:/
@Li ’12
lol, I must have been on my way to see Maddie. That’s ok though, at least you didn’t scream at me from across the platform or anything, that would have been a bit creepy.
b,f,j,n,r,v,z in the key and such other groups make a striking pattern…it is almost fractal-ish.
I feel dumb. =P
Many of the things that have been said in these comments are right on.
@Arjun and Jeremy: The answer makes sense in itself if you know what it means.
I feel like this is the kind of thing where the answer’s really obvious but you still don’t get it.
The key isn’t anything special, flip the bits and you’ll get 0, 1, 2, 3 … 27, 28, 31, 30, 29.