From a letter to Stense, 30-Jan-2003

While we were drinking coffee, I gave Carolyn the following incredibly clever code to try and crack (which she hasn't done yet):

Let's Have Hex:
31 233573869, 1 2845 7658: 12648430!
31 207 47806 11325150 12648430 2766 7658, 1'13 190 232911341.
(7405 912559 12648430 10 2989 7658!)

[Note: I have published the solution to this fiendish code in the comments. So Carolyn finally gets to find out what the hell I was on about.]

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

3 comments

  1. The solution:

    Basically, every 'word' (as opposed to 'letter') in the message is a decimal number, which, when converted to hexadecimal, reads as follows:

    1F DEC0DED, 1 B1D 1DEA: C0FFEE!
    1F CF BABE ACCEDE C0FFEE ACE 1DEA, 1'D BE DE1F1ED.
    (1CED DECAF C0FFEE A BAD 1DEA!)

    Basically, the clue's in the somewhat innuendous title, Let's Have Hex. Clever or what? Well you try thinking of a message using only the digits 0-9 and the letters A-F!

    What do you mean I really need to get out more?

    [CF = Carolyn Farthing, by the way. And, no, innuendous isn't a real word—although it bloody well should be!]

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