impulse- "londonfiles_012" [07/11/07]

impulse · Post by **impulse** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:15 pm

My wife tells me, this tune stays in one octave

The puppetmaster says your wife is smart and you are one lucky man. Now look at how many notes are used in this tune, and how they are used.

stingray · Post by **stingray** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:23 pm

impulse wrote: The puppetmaster says your wife is smart and you are one lucky man. Now look at how many notes are used in this tune, and how they are used.

Very lucky indeed. I can only hope my son gets all his talents from her

Thanks for the hints!

QtheC · Post by **QtheC** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:41 pm

Sorry I got a little frustrated. And thanks for the links/hints. It's me, it's not you.

impulse · Post by **impulse** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:43 pm

QtheC wrote:It's me, it's not you.

That's what my ex-girl friend told me when she left....

QtheC · Post by **QtheC** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:09 pm

QtheC wrote:Emaj
^ EA EE FA Emaj
^ AB GB FC GB Emaj
* FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA Emaj
^ FE EE GB BB BC FC Emaj

Taking the notes pairwise (which may or may not be correct, especially for the third line - so that's one degree of uncertainty already), and just counting the pairs that appear we have something like this:
Code: Select all
          second 
first      E     F#    G#    A     B     C#    D# 
 E         ^^*   .     .     ^     .     .     . 
 F#        ^     **    .     ^*    .     ^^    . 
 G#        .     .     *     .     ^^^   .     . 
 A         .     .     .     .     ^ 
 B         *     .     .     *     ^     ^     .  
 C#        .     .     *     .     .     .     .  
 D#        .     .     .     .     .     .     .

where 
^ = a pair from lines 1, 2, or 4 of the code  
* = a pair from line 3 of the code (since it may be not be correct)
. = no pair of this type found in the code
so, there the message is not long enough to be subject to frequency analysis, but we can get an idea of the set of pairs used, and notice EE and G#B are the most common codes in the small sample that we have. No D# appear at all in the code, either as the first letter or the second of a pair.

36 characters (A to Z, 0 to 9) = 6 x 6
= {E, F#, G#, A, B, C#} x {E, F#, G#, A, B, C#}

So a possible solution is to map the 36 characters to this 6x6 grid in a way that gives us a result.

Code: Select all

          second 
first      E     F#    G#    A     B     C#    D# 
 E         a     b     c     d     e     f     . 
 F#        g     h     i     j     k     l    . 
 G#        m     n     o     p     q     r     . 
 A         s     t     u     v     w     x     .
 B         y     z     0     1     2     3     .  
 C#        4     5     6     7     8     9     .  
 D#        .     .     .     .     .     .     .

EA EE FA / AB GB FC GB / FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA / FE EE GB BB BC FC
= daj wqlq hyajh6o1 gaq23l

Code: Select all

          second 
first      E     F#    G#    A     B     C#    D# 
 E         0     1     2     3     4     5     . 
 F#        6     7     8     9     a     b    . 
 G#        c     d     e     f     g     h     . 
 A         i     j     k     l     m     n     .
 B         o     p     q     r     s     t     .  
 C#        u     v     w     x     y     z     .  
 D#        .     .     .     .     .     .     .

EA EE FA / AB GB FC GB / FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA / FE EE GB BB BC FC
= 309 mgbg 7o097wer 60gstb

Variations starting with numbering or lettering vertically rather than horizontally don't look much more promising.... oops, yes they do

Code: Select all

          second 
first      E     F#    G#    A     B     C#    D# 
 E         a     g     m     s     y     4     . 
 F#        b     h     n     t     z     5    . 
 G#        c     i     o     u     0     6     . 
 A         d     j     p     v     1     7     .
 B         e     k     q     w     2     8     .  
 C#        f     l     r     x     3     9     .  
 D#        .     .     .     .     .     .     .


EA EE FA / AB GB FC GB / FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA / FE EE GB BB BC FC
= sat 1050 heathrow ba0385

note: numbering order could be 1-9, 0 rather than 0 to 9, then

EA EE FA / AB GB FC GB / FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA / FE EE GB BB BC FC
= sat 2161 heathrow ba1496

So either :

Saturday 10:50 Heathrow British Air flight 385

or

Saturday 21:61 Heathrow British Air flight 1496

If we can figure out which one is correct, we will know the code solution.

EDIT: According to www.britishairways.com there is a flight BA1496 on Saturday July 21 with an estimated departure time of 20:20 from LHR (Heathrow, London) to GLR (Glascow).

Code: Select all

solution:

          second 
first      E     F#    G#    A     B     C#    D# 
 E         a     g     m     s     y     5     . 
 F#        b     h     n     t     z     6    . 
 G#        c     i     o     u     1     7     . 
 A         d     j     p     v     2     8     .
 B         e     k     q     w     3     9     .  
 C#        f     l     r     x     4     0     .  
 D#        .     .     .     .     .     .     .

EA EE FA / AB GB FC GB / FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA / FE EE GB BB BC FC
= sat 2161 heathrow ba1496

stingray · Post by **stingray** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:26 pm

Great job QtheC!

That was a tough puzzle! It would have been cool to meet the main characters!

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:34 pm

Code: Select all

     1st
2nd E F G A B C D
 E  a b c d e f
 F  g h i j k l
 G  m n o p q r
 A  s t u v w x
 B  y z 0 1 2 3
 C  4 5 6 7 8 9
 D

/ EA EE FA / AB GB FC GB / FF BE EE FA FF CG GG BA / FE EE GB BB BC FC /
/ sat / 1050 / heathrow / ba0285

There's a 10:50 flight to SFO, flight number ba0285.

http://www.heathrowairport.com/portal/p ... Timetable/

QtheC · Post by **QtheC** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:35 pm

okay, I'm ready for the next puzzle now.

Gah! Deagol is right, it should have been ba0285 not ba0385, and I assume San Francisco makes more sense than Glascow as the destination since we see Berkeley in the video.

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:38 pm

QtheC wrote:okay, I'm ready for the next puzzle now.

They could use some help here, and it could be londonfiles-related.

Good job Q. Sorry for my terse replies: it's me, not you.

stingray · Post by **stingray** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:41 pm

According to my quick search, 1496 would be a very unusual flight number for British Airways.

I am leaning towards 285 myself, becuase BA seems to use 2xx range mostly.

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:45 pm

QtheC wrote:okay, I'm ready for the next puzzle now.

Gah! Deagol is right, it should have been ba0285 not ba0385, and I assume San Francisco makes more sense than Glascow as the destination since we see Berkeley in the video.

Also, 21:61 is quite an odd time to fly.

impulse · Post by **impulse** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:48 pm

You see that was easy!

Well, there was no one at the airport on Saturday to welcome Kris and Mary.

deagol · Post by **deagol** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:52 pm

impulse wrote:You see that was easy!

Well, there was no one at the airport on Saturday to welcome Kris and Mary.

Maybe someone did go but opted to remain unseen.

chershaytoute · Post by **chershaytoute** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:13 pm

Yeah! Didn't they see the pretty sign I colored? <chuckle>

(as if I'd've ever been able to work out a code that took these guys this long...with hints...right!)