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riddles >> easy >> Weird fortune cookie
(Message started by: Vondell on Oct 24th, 2009, 2:53pm)

Title: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 24th, 2009, 2:53pm
Detective Hanson loved to eat Chinese food.  He especially loved the fortune cookies.  However, he always seemed to end up with a strange fortune that was encoded.
Tonight was no different.  He finished off his noodles and opened his fortune cookie which read:

14203175050140020159103004129013950330528039100520143090081230482032600590917007082032870804962
Detective Hanson was stumped.  He took his strange fortune, paid his check, and went home.
The fortune was bugging him to no end, so he decided to watch a movie.  After watching his favorite western, he showered and went to bed.
He lay there staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep with the fortune running through his head.  After a short time, the detective exclaimed, "Of course!"  He then turned his head on his pillow and promptly went to sleep, fortune decoded.  What was his fortune?

The following is the correct code.  My apologies once again.

14203195070430020159706002349051750930348105190072078109004170286014802300801531090023870682014200390915007028016430802742

For those of you still willing to try this, a summary of clues will be on the next page.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 25th, 2009, 12:16am
Aww!!! Because of this (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1256299332) now am scared of all encoding puzzles. :(

[edit]Reader's can skip this post, not relevant to this riddle. :)[/edit]

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 25th, 2009, 12:25am

on 10/24/09 at 14:53:54, Vondell wrote:
The fortune was bugging him to no end, so he decided to watch a movie.  After watching his favorite western, he showered and went to bed.
He lay there staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep with the fortune running through his head.  After a short time, the detective exclaimed, "Of course!"  He then turned his head on his pillow and promptly went to sleep, fortune decoded.  What was his fortune?

One thing I noticed here is that Hanson solved it while he was not looking at it. The sequence was quite long, he must not have remembered it while he was laying on the bed. So the digits must not have any relation to alphabet set (like ASCII code or alphabet indices's ), I guess.
Am I going in right direction?

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 25th, 2009, 1:09am
We'll say (or, I will) that Hanson has a very good memory, so he didn't need to have the code in front of him.  That's part of what makes him a good detective.

I also didn't intend for this to be near as random as a cat burglar robbing a priest.  (I smell smoke...)

No ASCII code here.  Another clue has already been given, though.    :)

As an afterthought, I think I'm going to suggest a seperate section for encryption/encoding.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by gotit on Oct 25th, 2009, 4:37am

on 10/25/09 at 00:16:02, R wrote:
Aww!!! Because of this (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1256299332) now am scared of all encoding puzzles. :(


I think this is the second riddle where you have mentioned this. Dude..it's over..the proffessor has said what he had to and you have said what you wanted to. Why still linger with it then?

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 25th, 2009, 4:42am

on 10/25/09 at 04:37:58, gotit wrote:
I think this is the second riddle where you have mentioned this. Dude..it's over..the proffessor has said what he had to and you have said what you wanted to. Why still linger with it then?

Opss!! That was the second and last.
Anyways, any clue about this puzzle?

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by gotit on Oct 25th, 2009, 6:51am

on 10/25/09 at 01:09:11, Vondell wrote:
Another clue has already been given, though.    :)


Has it got anything to do with [hide]the movie he watched?[/hide] or [hide]something on the ceiling, may be the ceiling fan[/hide]?

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 25th, 2009, 7:45am
I think it has something to do with [hide]Chinese encoding systems[/hide].

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by gotit on Oct 25th, 2009, 9:02am
I thought of that. [hide]But then, Hanson was a regular visitor and he had received such cookies before. So he would not have taken so much time to decode it. [/hide]

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 25th, 2009, 9:03am
Well...I know nothing of [hide]Chinese encoding systems[/hide] so I'll stick with [hide]the movie[/hide].

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by gotit on Oct 25th, 2009, 9:05am
I guess the movie was [hide]Matrix[/hide]. Not sure though.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 25th, 2009, 9:08am

on 10/25/09 at 09:05:38, gotit wrote:
I guess the movie was [hide]Matrix[/hide]. Not sure though.


Heh, I don't think [hide]Matrix[/hide] was considered a [hide]western[/hide].   :P

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 25th, 2009, 9:08am

on 10/25/09 at 09:03:59, Vondell wrote:
Well...I know nothing of [hide]Chinese encoding systems[/hide] so I'll stick with [hide]the movie[/hide].

Did the code say: [hide]The code is too difficult (or may be impossible) to decode that stressed out Hanson will watch a movie to release the stress[/hide]?

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 25th, 2009, 9:17am
Hmmm...not quite.

A clue:  [hide]It's not the numbers themselves, but more something about the numbers.[/hide]
If that makes sense.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 25th, 2009, 10:41am
I am not sure but is it the [hide]movie name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_(film))[/hide].
I said that without even seeing the number. They aren't. :P

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 25th, 2009, 11:13am
[hide]Also, while I can change most of the numbers, the 0's need to stay the same and in the same place.
I hope this helps a little more.   :)[/hide]

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 27th, 2009, 4:53am
[hide]Hmmm, even a blind man can see that this is an odd puzzle.[/hide]




Edit:  once again, I apologize for not hiding this when I originally posted it.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 27th, 2009, 6:18am
I would like to know what was it that didn't occur to me. Please hide it for other readers.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 27th, 2009, 6:42am
my apologies...forgot to hide, did it before I left for work this morning.   :-[

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 27th, 2009, 8:45am
[quote author=Vondell link=board=riddles_easy;num=1256421234;start=0#18 date=10/27/09 at 06:42:41]my apologies...forgot to hide, did it before I left for work this morning.   :-[/quote]
???

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Oct 27th, 2009, 9:29am
I thought you were talking about the hint I had left.  If that isn't what you were referring to, send me a message, and I'll leave you another clue.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 27th, 2009, 9:38am

on 10/27/09 at 09:29:46, Vondell wrote:
I thought you were talking about the hint I had left.  If that isn't what you were referring to, send me a message, and I'll leave you another clue.

Oh!!! The blind man thing was a hint? :P :P Didn't notice that.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Oct 27th, 2009, 9:46am

on 10/27/09 at 04:53:04, Vondell wrote:
[hide]Hmmm, even a blind man can see that this is an odd puzzle.[/hide]

May be it is just another stupid (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034457/) guess, but no harm in trying. :P

PS: If this is not correct, please PM me the answer. I am tired.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by kg on Oct 30th, 2009, 10:41am
Any more clues  :)

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Grimbal on Oct 31st, 2009, 10:39am
I can decode it to something that looks like english, but the meaning remains opaque. :-/

Am I on the right track?

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by R on Nov 1st, 2009, 11:47pm

on 10/31/09 at 10:39:27, Grimbal wrote:
I can decode it to something that looks like english, but the meaning remains opaque. :-/

Am I on the right track?

It'll be decoded to english only, but the point is how you decode it.
@Vondell
[hide]I don't think anyone will ever get it. :P In my opinion you should post the solution. And readers will say  :o :o :o[/hide]
:P :P :P

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Grimbal on Nov 2nd, 2009, 12:58am
OK.  What I get is:
[hide]whea the chiws are cow is empty[/hide]

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Nov 2nd, 2009, 11:12am
That is definitely the correct track ;D...I thought I had double checked my spelling, but I will look at it again.

Also, please send me your thoughts on this encryption puzzle.  Either post them here, or send me a PM.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Nov 2nd, 2009, 11:23am
Grimbal is correct.  I made the mistake of not triple checking my spelling and code BEFORE posting.  This was a horrible mistake and I apologize to those who were wracking their brains to try and make sense of something that only came out half correct.  I will repost the CORRECT code.  If you have hate mail for me, please hide the four letter words.   :-[

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Nov 2nd, 2009, 11:37am
A brief summary of clues:

[hide]1)  The 0's must stay as they are...don't touch them.

2)  Some property about the numbers.

3)  Evens and odds.

4)  Something in a western film.  (Note:  The name of the film does NOT matter.)[/hide]

And I thank those that didn't give up on this.




Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Grimbal on Nov 2nd, 2009, 2:25pm
Wouldn't you prefer ...597070023... instead of ...597060023... ?  ::)

By the way, nice riddle, but I definitely needed the hints to crack it.

Title: Re: Weird fortune cookie
Post by Vondell on Nov 2nd, 2009, 2:31pm

on 11/02/09 at 14:25:04, Grimbal wrote:
Wouldn't you prefer ...597070023... instead of ...597060023... ?  ::)



At least it was just one number this time... :-[



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