Seems the SDA is bad about remembering encryption systems. They have launch-codes to launch some sort of secret-ship, but they have it encrypted and can not decrypt it. Seems the hard-drive that had a file demonstrating the encryption crashed and is irrecoverable. They say that they remember the launch codes under base10, the one needed, starts with a 1. Here is what they have, encrypted:
21020111101002010101112221220001022012221020210000020210012001
March 21, 2008 at 9:01 am
Well it doesn’t seem to be base3
March 21, 2008 at 9:13 am
I’ve found a few bases that would give a number starting with 1, but they weren’t integers, so doesn’t seem likely.
March 21, 2008 at 9:59 am
Actually using a different converter it could be base 4 : 12136106715148758282570050416639213568
March 21, 2008 at 4:07 pm
100261396606933306206640264606680804686
converted from base 8 (not 3) to base 10
March 21, 2008 at 4:16 pm
actually it was from base 3-4-10
March 21, 2008 at 4:26 pm
They remember that these lengths look right, but it started with 1337…
March 22, 2008 at 10:55 am
It’s been so long since I studied math, so can’t quite get my head round how you would do a series of base conversions, wouldn’t it all be the same number still? ie base 3 to 4 to 10 is just the same as base 3 to 10??
Just so we can double check each others figures, base3 to 4 gives:
1133332220130104442344204043031441334323004
March 23, 2008 at 3:30 am
i am using the one that Jack suggested earlier. and i got 3313330032012010123333301213202031320333303123301
from http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi
March 23, 2008 at 3:31 am
base 3-4
March 23, 2008 at 3:32 am
Jack would that be starting with 1337 or 13037? i found this
13037637575216357497414144469973576
March 23, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Thanks for the site Tabby, the answer is base3 to 15: gives 13376489453132168793129657
March 24, 2008 at 4:15 am
no prob but i thought he said it was base 10? confusing or just wrong?
March 24, 2008 at 7:13 pm
damn, for some high tech aliens, these guys are pretty slow. the fact that theyve sent like 10 messsages before theyve arrived. and Jack any idea if theres another message or are the launch codes wrong? Tess try emailing the string of code to the SDA.
March 24, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Done it.
March 25, 2008 at 2:19 am
Tesseract, they put that in and the ship is now ready to go. Give them a day and they will be launched.