Weekly Challenges

ddiesel · ‎08-20-2019

Out of every weekly challenge, this was my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE so far!

My solution:

At first I wasn’t sure how to go about tackling this one, but I found this article on cryptography that inspired me to start cracking the code!

https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/cryptography%20hints.html

My approach:

“ac” as “a” and “qd” as “y” were given at the start.
From that point I was able to identify the likely space characters “ks” and “qs” by placement and frequency.
Once the spaces were identified, I grouped by word and position with the Multi-Row Formula and Tile tools. The assigned character positions helped me to break apart the actual word from the pig latin suffixes.
Next I filtered by position count to find the shortest words like “y_ay” that were likely “by” or “my”.
At each possible letter guess I checked the frequency of the encoded pairs and used this to start making educated guesses. For example: “B” is more common than “M” as a starting character.
The next thing that stood out clearly to me was word 22 “a_y_____yay” and I guessed that it was “anywhere”. This was mostly a lucky guess, but as I skimmed past it was very clearly “anywhere”
Quickly thereafter, “A_e__eares_ay” stood out to me as SHAKESPEARE, which was a word that I already had in my head because of the Hamlet clue in the pig picture.
I then searched for double characters that were likely “ss”, “ee”, “tt”, etc. and actually “eBook” stood out strangely with the "e" and double “oo”. Breaking this word filled in enough letters that the words started to pop of the screen.
From there it was quite easy to guess the required number of characters to unlock the cypher macro!

At first I wasn’t sure how to go about tackling this one, but I found this article on cryptography that inspired me to start cracking the code! https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/cryptography%20hints.html My approach: “ac” as “a” and “qd” as “y” were given at the start.From that point I was able to identify the likely space characters “ks” and “qs” by placement and frequency.Once the spaces were identified, I grouped by word and position with the Multi-Row Formula and Tile tools. The assigned character positions helped me to break apart the actual word from the pig latin suffixes.Next I filtered by position count to find the shortest words like “y_ay” that were likely “by” or “my”.At each possible letter guess I checked the frequency of the encoded pairs and used this to start making educated guesses. For example: “B” is more common than “M” as a starting character.The next thing that stood out clearly to me was word 22 “a_y_____yay” and I guessed that it was “anywhere”. This was mostly a lucky guess, but as I skimmed past it was very clearly “anywhere”Quickly thereafter, “A_e__eares_ay” stood out to me as SHAKESPEARE, which was a word that I already had in my head because of the Hamlet clue in the pig picture.I then searched for double characters that were likely “ss”, “ee”, “tt”, etc. and actually “eBook” stood out strangely with the "e" and double “oo”. Breaking this word filled in enough letters that the words started to pop of the screen.From there it was quite easy to guess the required number of characters to unlock the cypher macro!

Hannah_Lissaman · ‎08-21-2019

My solution - with a bit of a shortcut below the spoiler tag for anyone who doesn't love word puzzles!

Spoiler

I followed a very similar route to the other posters, but found that the quickest route to find 26 characters was to also enter the upper case versions of each character.

If the second character of each encoded pair is upper case, then the corresponding decoded letter is upper case as well. For example, 9C is I and 9c is i.

I followed a very similar route to the other posters, but found that the quickest route to find 26 characters was to also enter the upper case versions of each character.If the second character of each encoded pair is upper case, then the corresponding decoded letter is upper case as well. For example, 9C is I and 9c is i.

pasccout · ‎08-21-2019

Wow... that one was very interesting and kept me going and going...

Spoiler

The frequency was the clue... finding out top words on hamlet on the web helped.

Figuring out ending by yay for words starting with a letter helped a lot

The final one to get to 26 is that if the 2nd letter of the encryption was uppercase it meant the same as the lower equivalent but with an uppercase letter!

Then is iterations...

The frequency was the clue... finding out top words on hamlet on the web helped.Figuring out ending by yay for words starting with a letter helped a lotThe final one to get to 26 is that if the 2nd letter of the encryption was uppercase it meant the same as the lower equivalent but with an uppercase letter!Then is iterations...

cplewis90 · ‎08-21-2019

Fun challenge! I didn't go as far as translating the pig latin to English but go the message.

Spoiler

I focused on generating the different character values and pushed every combination into the checker macro. That produced a find replace file and made the change into the pig latin phrase very easy. If there was no file I was comparing to and it wouldn't put the information out to be used, I would have had to take some other approach.

Challenge 177.PNG

I focused on generating the different character values and pushed every combination into the checker macro. That produced a find replace file and made the change into the pig latin phrase very easy. If there was no file I was comparing to and it wouldn't put the information out to be used, I would have had to take some other approach.

alex · ‎08-21-2019

2D2dqc3cacqdah

Definitely showing my age here, I got my inspiration from Gilligan singing Hamlet.

Spoiler

Regex to split to pairs

Investigated frequency

Saw placement of ks as space

Formula to identify words based on space also to identify words starting with Vowels based on yay.

one path with tile and Cross tab to create column for each pair

2nd path with concatenate string

Summarize to group by word string

Started guessing based on "the" being the 2nd highest count of word group. "5c7d8cacqdks" and "I" being the single letter group. From there then "to", "of", "you", "your", "is" ,"with". You get the picture.

Initially went down wrong path trying to match first words to beginning of Hamlet or one the acts in Hamlet.
Before

After

Regex to split to pairsInvestigated frequencySaw placement of ks as spaceFormula to identify words based on space also to identify words starting with Vowels based on yay.one path with tile and Cross tab to create column for each pair2nd path with concatenate stringSummarize to group by word stringStarted guessing based on "the" being the 2nd highest count of word group. "5c7d8cacqdks" and "I" being the single letter group. From there then "to", "of", "you", "your", "is" ,"with". You get the picture.Initially went down wrong path trying to match first words to beginning of Hamlet or one the acts in Hamlet.BeforeAfter

meekben · ‎08-22-2019

Spoiler

Solution similar to others. Once I had solved the letter 'e' in 'ethay' along with the given 'a' and 'y', the word 'anywhere' in the first line jumped out at me.

I noticed that no one had yet attempted the extra credit in their solution. The reason for this is that converting Pig Latin back into English is teeth-grindingly awful. Challenge #174 had you create an English to Pig Latin converter- straightforward as you can locate the first vowel as your marker for the start of the word. But to reverse this you need to know how many letters were moved before adding 'ay' or 'yay'.

My basic approach was to permute the Pig Latin words in different combinations, smash against a list of all words (cabbaged from challenge #75) to find matches, then union the result back together in Record ID order. Of course, this misses all the proper nouns and delightfully antique Elizabethan word constructions. Short words like 'no' are also a problem if they convert into other good English words. I did not even touch the punctuation, leaving that field of battle open to some future masochist.

Solution similar to others. Once I had solved the letter 'e' in 'ethay' along with the given 'a' and 'y', the word 'anywhere' in the first line jumped out at me. I noticed that no one had yet attempted the extra credit in their solution. The reason for this is that converting Pig Latin back into English is teeth-grindingly awful. Challenge #174 had you create an English to Pig Latin converter- straightforward as you can locate the first vowel as your marker for the start of the word. But to reverse this you need to know how many letters were moved before adding 'ay' or 'yay'. My basic approach was to permute the Pig Latin words in different combinations, smash against a list of all words (cabbaged from challenge #75) to find matches, then union the result back together in Record ID order. Of course, this misses all the proper nouns and delightfully antique Elizabethan word constructions. Short words like 'no' are also a problem if they convert into other good English words. I did not even touch the punctuation, leaving that field of battle open to some future masochist.

"Let those who are in favour with their stars" try to improve on this, please!

meekben · ‎08-23-2019

Spoiler

Solution similar to others. Once I had solved the letter 'e' in 'ethay' along with the given 'a' and 'y', the word 'anywhere' in the first line jumped out at me.

I noticed that no one had yet attempted the extra credit in their solution. The reason for this is that converting Pig Latin back into English is teeth-grindingly awful. Challenge #174 had you create an English to Pig Latin converter- straightforward as you can locate the first vowel as your marker for the start of the word. But to reverse this you need to know how many letters were moved before adding 'ay' or 'yay'.

My basic approach was to permute the Pig Latin words in different combinations, smash against a list of all words (cabbaged from challenge #75) to find matches, then union the result back together in Record ID order. Of course, this misses all the proper nouns and delightfully antique Elizabethan word constructions. Short words like 'no' are also a problem if they convert into other good English words. I did not even touch the punctuation, leaving that field of battle open to some future masochist.

Solution similar to others. Once I had solved the letter 'e' in 'ethay' along with the given 'a' and 'y', the word 'anywhere' in the first line jumped out at me. I noticed that no one had yet attempted the extra credit in their solution. The reason for this is that converting Pig Latin back into English is teeth-grindingly awful. Challenge #174 had you create an English to Pig Latin converter- straightforward as you can locate the first vowel as your marker for the start of the word. But to reverse this you need to know how many letters were moved before adding 'ay' or 'yay'. My basic approach was to permute the Pig Latin words in different combinations, smash against a list of all words (cabbaged from challenge #75) to find matches, then union the result back together in Record ID order. Of course, this misses all the proper nouns and delightfully antique Elizabethan word constructions. Short words like 'no' are also a problem if they convert into other good English words. I did not even touch the punctuation, leaving that field of battle open to some future masochist.

"Let those who are in favour with their stars" try to improve on this, please!

nivi_s · ‎08-25-2019

Spoiler

A super fun challenge! Like others I've seen on here, I identified that the 'ks' characters are spaces, so after converting that, I used space as a delimiter to list the words out in rows and summarized the count. I then identified some of the letters and used a Find-Replace to update the list of words as I added characters until I reached 26 (because it was case sensitive, it was easy to fill out the 26 required characters once we see that 9c is i and 9C is I.)

pjdit · ‎08-26-2019

My solution.. fun challenge!

Spoiler

LifebloomX · ‎08-27-2019

Spoiler

Weekly Challenges

IDEAS WANTED

Challenge #177: Ham Hamlet