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        riddles >> what happened >> An Odd Message
        
(Message started by: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 7^th, 2007, 9:47pm)

Title: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 7^th, 2007, 9:47pm

Another quick one I made today:

Peter and James are twin brothers. They share many things in life. They look alike, talk alike, even think alike although Peter is said to be the better athlete and James the more intelligent of the two. Because their parents don't want them to fight over their possessions they buy them matching sets of everything from shoes to toys to cell phones.

On an otherwise ordinary day James stays home from school, claiming sickness as an excuse. Peter says he feels fine and goes to school. Around lunchtime, James gets a text message from Peter on his phone.

76667*778844499991*83322224433777*926687777*26677779337771

34443*84433*47772733*4338*4487778*9443366*4448*33333555555*366696611

What happened? What is James' coded response?

Hint: [hide]The teacher (and I) have an odd sense of humor. Also, there may be a spelling mistake or two in there.[/hide]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Locke64 on Jan 8^th, 2007, 3:54am

Lots of repeated digits... That's ~~weird~~ odd.

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by JohanC on Jan 8^th, 2007, 5:20am

[hide]66666[/hide]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 8^th, 2007, 7:29am

[hide]I think you have the right idea JC. If you're not posting it because you want to allow other people to try it, that's fine. There is more to the coded answer though. And please include coded punctuation.[/hide]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by denis on Jan 8^th, 2007, 9:42am

[hide]4448*46668*227778844477773331[/hide]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 8^th, 2007, 10:06am

Not quite. [hide]Remember the first hint.[/hide]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by denis on Jan 8^th, 2007, 10:24am

Which part? [hide]about the sense of humour or the spelling mistake? [/hide]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 8^th, 2007, 10:28am

[hide]Humor.[/hide] ;)

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by denis on Jan 8^th, 2007, 10:37am

Ok then how about this? [hide]4448*555338*666888*2*5554448855533*944466331[/hide] :)

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Sameer on Jan 8^th, 2007, 10:40am

Shouldn't the 5th word be 44887778???? You know I know what the message is...

You missed an 8 there...

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by denis on Jan 8^th, 2007, 10:44am

I noticed the same mistake. I figured it may have beeen intentionally ommitted.

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Locke64 on Jan 8^th, 2007, 12:10pm

There's some sort of information that I don't know and everyone else does, isn't there. :(

(besides the answer, obviously.)

I'd like to get some hints as to what to do with the numbers.

For example, I have no idea how to decode '33333555555' into a word. There's only 2 different numbers!

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 8^th, 2007, 12:24pm

on 01/08/07 at 10:37:22, denis wrote:

Ok then how about this? [hide]4448*555338*666888*2*5554448855533*944466331[/hide] :)

Congratulations! [hide]That's horrible isn't it?[/hide]

on 01/08/07 at 10:40:03, Sameer wrote:

Shouldn't the 5th word be 44887778???? You know I know what the message is...

You missed an 8 there...

Yep. As I said, there maybe errors. :-/

And Locke, I'm sure you'll figure it out if you just sit down and think about it. There are multiple clues to the right approach.

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by denis on Jan 8^th, 2007, 12:33pm

WTF: I actually never heard that joke before today. I had to google variations of Peter's decoded message to James to come up with this reply!

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by denis on Jan 8^th, 2007, 12:36pm

Locke, if you get stuck, there is a BIG clue in one of the the Lost in Space posts

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Locke64 on Jan 8^th, 2007, 12:41pm

Ok, I get in now. Thanks! :)

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by towr on Jan 8^th, 2007, 12:47pm

Ah, I get it. I don't have a phone. That's the problem.
I wondered why I couldn't make sense of it.

hmm, maybe one day I should rejoin 'civilization'

[e] and thanks to locke for not deleting his translation fast enough[/e]

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Sameer on Jan 8^th, 2007, 1:07pm

on 01/08/07 at 12:47:13, towr wrote:

I was so tempted to post towr will have lot of difficulty in finding the solution after our discussion earlier on the same!! ;) :P however I chose to point out WTF's error in spelling tsk tsk ... :P

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Locke64 on Jan 9^th, 2007, 1:09pm

Would you mind if I used your characters for my own riddle? I'm not very creative. :(

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Locke64 on Jan 10^th, 2007, 12:12pm

I have this really good code, but I can only use it if I use these characters...
If you really don't want to let me, I guess I'll try to think of a different story, but it won't be as good.

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 10^th, 2007, 12:19pm

Sure. You mean Peter and James, right? Go ahead. I believe ~~the Sons of Thunder~~ those two ordinary guys are in the public domain. ;)

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Icarus on Jan 11^th, 2007, 6:19pm

on 01/10/07 at 12:19:11, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:

Sure. You mean Peter and James, right? Go ahead. I believe the Sons of Thunder are in the public domain. ;)

That's James and John. Peter was only their partner.

Title: Re: An Odd Message
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Jan 11^th, 2007, 6:26pm

D'oh. :-/