=SDC= Q25: You Ewe!

Vinny Burgoo

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Aug 20, 2011, 5:48:37 AM8/20/11

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The following picture is a registered trademark of Stego Industries, but
there's more to it than that. On due cue, please answer the question.

http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2011/stegoindustries.tif

--
VB
T. O. Panellist

John Holmes

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Aug 20, 2011, 10:05:55 AM8/20/11

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Vinny Burgoo wrote:
> The following picture is a registered trademark of Stego Industries,
> but there's more to it than that. On due cue, please answer the
> question.
> http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2011/stegoindustries.tif

OK, so the question is steganographically encrypted in the .tiff file
headers, and the password to decrypt it is either the slug line or "On due
cue" or something related to that. Or the slug line might be a clue that it
is uuencoded.

Mac users can probably decrypt it using the free program Pict Encrypt
http://www.net-security.org/software.php?id=660
I can't find a Windows equivalent that understands .tiff format, and trying
to convert the format appears to lose the message. All I can see unencrypted
in there is the path name on Jerry's machine that it came from,
/Users/jerryfriedman/SDC 2011/stego.tif

Let the Mac users have a go at it...

--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au

Alan Curry

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Aug 20, 2011, 5:52:10 PM8/20/11

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In article <4e4fbf21$1...@dnews.tpgi.com.au>, John Holmes <s...@sig.instead> wrote:
>Vinny Burgoo wrote:
>> The following picture is a registered trademark of Stego Industries,
>> but there's more to it than that. On due cue, please answer the
>> question.
>> http://alt-usage-english.org/sdc2011/stegoindustries.tif
>
>OK, so the question is steganographically encrypted in the .tiff file
>headers, and the password to decrypt it is either the slug line or "On due
>cue" or something related to that. Or the slug line might be a clue that it
>is uuencoded.

There's a lot of noise in the picture that looks like jpeg compression
artifacts. The tiff must have been created from a jpeg. That noise could hide
a lot of information. But it would be too well hidden for a casual puzzle.

On the other hand, there are 10 consecutive inexplicably dark pixels in the
top row. Their RGB values are:

255 255 250
47 223 251
97 187 159
243 230 203
33 138 201
115 254 136
115 252 122
225 210 26
36 166 225
223 255 255

The first and last are nearly white (255 255 255) so they might be
irrelevant.

uuencoded data (not including the "begin" and "end" lines) would only have
bytes in the range 33-96, so what are all the other numbers good for?

--
Alan Curry

Jerry Friedman

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Aug 20, 2011, 6:55:19 PM8/20/11

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On Aug 20, 8:05 am, "John Holmes" <s...@sig.instead> wrote:
...

> Let the Mac users have a go at it...

Our questions may be unfair in all kinds of ways, but you can answer
this one no matter what kind of computer or operating system you use.

--
Jerry Friedman, Totally Defensive Panelist

John Holmes

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Aug 21, 2011, 12:17:36 AM8/21/11

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Thanks, Alan. So it is not already uuencoded, so maybe we have to encode it.
There's an online encoder at http://www.webutils.pl/index.php?idx=uu
When I do that I find embedded the question:
HOW_MANY_SYLLABLES_HAS_'KATAHDIN'?

Answer: 3

Vinny Burgoo

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Aug 21, 2011, 6:20:39 AM8/21/11

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Thank you!

Jerry Friedman

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Aug 21, 2011, 10:14:41 AM8/21/11

to

On Aug 21, 4:20 am, Vinny Burgoo <hlu...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> In alt.usage.english, John Holmes wrote:
>
>
>
> >Alan Curry wrote:

> >> In article <4e4fbf2...@dnews.tpgi.com.au>, John Holmes

> >There's an online encoder athttp://www.webutils.pl/index.php?idx=uu

> >When I do that I find embedded the question:
> >HOW_MANY_SYLLABLES_HAS_'KATAHDIN'?
>
> >Answer: 3
>
> Thank you!

Your new Cormo is being sent as an e-mail attachment.

--
Jerry Friedman, T. O. Sheepencoder