A new adventurer with some loaded questions.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:07 pmHello, everyone! My brother first sent me a website regarding the ISIS at 3:30 AM in the morning, and I was entranced. Still, such a purchase was not to be made lightly, so I researched until I came across this very forum, where people were nice and cool and absurdly enthusiastic for the little metal sphere. Your writings inspired its purchase, some days ago! I'm not very far, and some of these questions may not be able to be answered outside of the 5% club, but hey, I'll ask anyway.
1. I actually asked for the ISIS (U.S.) as a present for Hanukkah. It was given lovingly and in shiny paper foil, but merely in the display case; my parents had thrown away the Sharper Image box! Blasphemy! I thought it was irrelevant, but there have been implications on this forum that there were hieroglyphs on the box that might be relevant. If these are in fact relevant (even slightly), does anyone have a .jpeg of the outside of the box? I hate feeling that I might be crippled from the very start.
2. Upon receiving my ten clues, I immediately figured they must be standard substitution cyphers; they are indeed. After solving the first by hand, I decided it was far too easy, and decided to write a computer program to solve substitution cyphers FOR me. I succeeded! If anyone is interested in a .exe or the source code (written in Python, quite easy to understand), I'd be happy to share. The algorithm is usually much more interesting than actually performing the task at hand, I find.
3. So, here's the one you might not answer. I have, by strict definition, "decyphered" the clues. They are now in English, and make grammatical sense. However, when people on this forum use the word "decypher", I think they're often using the non-literal definition to mean "to figure out". My question is, do I need to look for meaning within the clues themselves (things like double meanings/entendres, cleverly worded phrases, etc.), or is there another technique for actually obtaining new words (an example would be, take every seventh letter in this clue and put them together to make a new sentence)? I don't want to be setting foot on the wrong path, and these two directions are quite different.
4. Can you all confirm the eleventh clue to be "the dominant theory for the creation of the universe"? And is this clue necessarily chronologically ordered after the other ten?
5. Thank you! I appreciate your time. I look forward to joining the 5% club...someday. = D
- Jason
1. I actually asked for the ISIS (U.S.) as a present for Hanukkah. It was given lovingly and in shiny paper foil, but merely in the display case; my parents had thrown away the Sharper Image box! Blasphemy! I thought it was irrelevant, but there have been implications on this forum that there were hieroglyphs on the box that might be relevant. If these are in fact relevant (even slightly), does anyone have a .jpeg of the outside of the box? I hate feeling that I might be crippled from the very start.
2. Upon receiving my ten clues, I immediately figured they must be standard substitution cyphers; they are indeed. After solving the first by hand, I decided it was far too easy, and decided to write a computer program to solve substitution cyphers FOR me. I succeeded! If anyone is interested in a .exe or the source code (written in Python, quite easy to understand), I'd be happy to share. The algorithm is usually much more interesting than actually performing the task at hand, I find.
3. So, here's the one you might not answer. I have, by strict definition, "decyphered" the clues. They are now in English, and make grammatical sense. However, when people on this forum use the word "decypher", I think they're often using the non-literal definition to mean "to figure out". My question is, do I need to look for meaning within the clues themselves (things like double meanings/entendres, cleverly worded phrases, etc.), or is there another technique for actually obtaining new words (an example would be, take every seventh letter in this clue and put them together to make a new sentence)? I don't want to be setting foot on the wrong path, and these two directions are quite different.
4. Can you all confirm the eleventh clue to be "the dominant theory for the creation of the universe"? And is this clue necessarily chronologically ordered after the other ten?
5. Thank you! I appreciate your time. I look forward to joining the 5% club...someday. = D
- Jason
