tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7848003617837462113.post1435220152375744072..comments2023-04-03T01:33:21.496-04:00Comments on Bloody, Smoking, and Burning: Day 2, Part 4: In Which we Fail to Escape from Mr. DeathDan Egnorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15797635075006322062noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7848003617837462113.post-49493092855739626112016-04-13T15:26:11.287-04:002016-04-13T15:26:11.287-04:00Thanks Larry for asking the same question I was th...Thanks Larry for asking the same question I was thinking. I spent a while trying to read a straightforward rail fence off that photo.<br /><br />(Yes, I know I'm late reading this blog post.)markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01308876191735692898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7848003617837462113.post-37907794049035501332013-08-15T11:26:30.336-04:002013-08-15T11:26:30.336-04:00(Ignore my previous comment -- now deleted -- it w...(Ignore my previous comment -- now deleted -- it was wrong; that was the approach we tried for a long time but didn't work.)<br /><br />First, take rings of letters, clockwise starting with the "*1" letters: SOSOHAEP NETFRTRE REUHNAEA LEYSKOB(LE!). Concatenate all of that together into one big ciphertext string.<br /><br />Then apply a 4-rows-deep, 6-zigzags-wide rail fence cipher:<br /><br />S-----O-----S---... (SOSOHA)<br />-E---P-N---E-T--... (EPNETFRTRER)<br />--E-U---H-N---A-... (EUHNAEALEYS)<br />---K-----O-----B... (KOBLE!)<br />(This will get mangled but hopefully you can make it out.)<br /><br />Reading out the zigzags gives you the message. It really is straight up rail-fence. As Wei-Hwa said, the important thing is to forget the presentation on the ceiling and just focus on a sequence of letters. (Of course some small guesswork is needed to extract the right sequence from the ceiling, but it comes out the first way most people think to try.)Dan Egnorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15797635075006322062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7848003617837462113.post-63387514732638674282013-08-15T10:59:23.903-04:002013-08-15T10:59:23.903-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Dan Egnorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15797635075006322062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7848003617837462113.post-49769228412270133542013-08-15T09:25:05.117-04:002013-08-15T09:25:05.117-04:00I'm still not figuring out how to lay out my r...I'm still not figuring out how to lay out my rail fence by looking at that ceiling photo. Someone on this team is a genius.lahoskenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12011437847555356710noreply@blogger.com