Enym, you're on the right track. Also, I would throw some spoiler tags around that post just for safety's sake.
Nudgery: Nudges provided in this post will include hints that include information hinted at in posts before it. If you wish, you can look at this post and get all hints given in this thread before this post was made. I am open to PM's of people asking for help - if you can't get it (even after reading ALL the posts in this thread) start a conversation with me and we can work it out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 26-1 Suspicious Trading Nudge: Spoiler I used the GNU Image Manipulation Program (available on Mac/Windows/Linux) here. Hmm, our images don't have any color in them. They're barely greyscaled. Is that a footnote at the bottom of "Financial Operations Attracting Attention" ? Bigger Nudge: Spoiler One image is primarily white, one is primarily black. Maybe we can convert one or both of our images to only use pure black and white - no shades of grey. This is called a '1 bit color' Biggest Nudge: Spoiler BL_CK W_TCHM_N __A__ _A____E_ Repeat the process you just did to those lines of text to the images. What Did I Do? BIG SPOILERS - MIGHT BE TOO MUCH YOU ARE WARNED Spoiler GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) Image > Mode > Indexed > Binary Some data is lost, IMO it is negligible. Fryrpg nyy gur oynpx va bar vzntr. Cnfgr vg bire gur juvgr va gur bgure. (No, that isn't written in an ancient Celtic language.) Squint. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 26 -2 Deep End Nudge: Spoiler Is there a method you know of to extract selectable text from images? Do you understand all the terms in the instructions? Bigger Nudge: Spoiler ptical haracter ecognition (you may have to shop around to find the best one) Service I Used - but you'll have to decode it - twice. Spoiler ASCII-TO-HEX.com 68 74 74 70 3n 2s 2s 77 77 77 2r 6r 65 77 6s 63 72 2r 63 6s 72 6r Could a word you get after performing this process be the answer? Or could it be a step along the way? Do you know what a dark pool is? It's not an unlit place to swim. Biggest Nudge Spoiler Their trading strategy is really dependent on Internet speed. Latency matters for this sensitive strategy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 26-3 Source Code This One is broken down into two Parts: Part One: Getting Into The PDF Nudge: Spoiler Black Watchmen, Did You Find Our Latent Secret In The Dumped Message? Man, Sir Elton sounds different than I remember him on this track. He's ghostly. Have you found what search engine the document is talking about? Farther Nudge: Spoiler Do you have the guts to see Sir Elton's spectral message? I mean, do you have the gumption? Do you have the audacity? Our search engine needs parameters. When? Where? Farthest Nudge: Spoiler Remember, we're tracking down stock trading methods here - sometimes a few letters represents a whole organization. This search engine company allows us to see satellite imagery whole planet if we want to! We can start way out in space, and just go farther in until we see a whole continent, then a country, then a province, then a county, until we're looking at an entire town! We can narrow our field of vision not just once, but over, and over, and over, and over again! Part Two: Understanding the PDF Nudge: Spoiler As mentioned in a previous hint, the wording in this puzzle can be a bit tricky. You are tasked to find out "What Program SIGIL is working on" This isn't so much a question of "What is the name of the project" but more along the lines of "What does the program accomplish/do?" Our answer is going to be a noun. The PDF doesn't make too much sense without context, can you find its content elsewhere? Bigger Nudge: Spoiler Remember, we've only focused on financial matters so far. Do you remember what their trading strategy was? In order to get that kind of speed, they want to optimize the process as much as they can. Trades are performed when a party (in this case, SIGIL) issues a "command" to a brokerage. This "command" travels over the internet through a chosen "path" and tells the broker to buy/sell on the party's behalf. Think about this in the context of their strategy - how can they optimize here? Did you try searching any of the PDF's contents? Biggest Nudge: Spoiler The next line is a pretty loose hint, don't get caught up in specific words or terms - think conceptually. Dijkstra came up with a method for accomplishing something similar to what SIGIL is attempting. This "command's" "path" needs to be optimized INTELLIGENTLY. "Optimized" or "Well-Connected" devices have become quite popular in the past decades. We have made these things "intelligent." Think about phones, watches, homes and even bombs. Go ahead and search the whole first line of the code. Bonus Clarification Nudge: Spoiler What's the antonym of "antonym?" - when you see the quotes, find those. What an interesting mission - I spent 75% of my time (minus the time it takes me to write these, which is often double the actual solving time, I write as I go) on figuring out what to AFTER I got the PDF open.
So I am on part 3 and I have already decrypted the PDF file. However, I cannot figure out the meaning of the PDF contents. There are several routes to take to find the answer but don't know which route. If someone could offer some advice that would be great.
Spoiler: 26.1 & 26.2 The only trap is to overthink it. Spoiler: 26.3.1 First class basics ? Dig. Spoiler: 26.3.2 big nudge Be smart. There are multiple ways to get through this. Interesting mission, quite "relaxing" after mission 25.
On 26.1 Spoiler Am I looking to rearange/eliminate letters from the last udge to find an answer in plain English?
Spoiler Rearrange might be a way to describe it, but you are trying to do something a little more specific. F _ L _ _ N T H _ B _ A _ K S _ I _ L I _ _ _ E _ L _ N _ _ If you laid those two lines on top of one another - the message would become clear
Spoiler I think my problem is that I was unable to do the image part and was trying to do it just from the letters you provided in the nudge so I'm unable to tell where the blanks are
Yes, I can see how you might do that if you take the hint literally. Additional Nudge for 26-1 Spoiler I was trying to communicate that the images are two incomplete parts of the same whole. Since the images do not have color, you can say they are essentially built of black and white pixels. We have two types of pixels and two images. We need to figure out how to combine them. If you need further help just shoot me a pm/start a conversation
Well, I must be stupid... Even with all the nudges from all of you and berzerk0, I am still stuck on 26-1... Spoiler Using GIMP, I could extrac black from the image with the table and could paste it on the one. But stil really hard to read some words... Let's imagine I have all words, I read something about moving all the vowels... And there am I... Stuck for days now :'(
Spoiler English is not my main language but I'm trying to understand. Here below you can see the best I can get from the 2 pictures. Is that the best solution, or am I doing something wrong ? I have to admit that I am a noob with GIMP... quite better with hacking and ciphering .
God... This one was really tough for me... Now I'm scared to start for 26-2 and 3 ... (Thank you berzerk0)
26 -2 Deep End Nudge: Spoiler Is there a method you know of to extract selectable text from images? Do you understand all the terms in the instructions? Bigger Nudge: Spoiler ptical haracter ecognition (you may have to shop around to find the best one) Service I Used - but you'll have to decode it - twice. Spoiler ASCII-TO-HEX.com 68 74 74 70 3n 2s 2s 77 77 77 2r 6r 65 77 6s 63 72 2r 63 6s 72 6r Could a word you get after performing this process be the answer? Or could it be a step along the way? Do you know what a dark pool is? It's not an unlit place to swim. Biggest Nudge Spoiler Their trading strategy is really dependent on Internet speed. Latency matters for this sensitive strategy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ How do you get all that information, all I get is Spoiler is a kanji which I have translated to civilian life and opposition via jisho.org which gives no sense to me at all, so once again i'm stuck
Bach, I am completely stuck on the password for the PDF. I think I have the city and the hidden message in the audio file but I can't figure out how they lead me to the password. Could you give me a strong hint (if you can remember of course) for the password please? Cheers.
