Part 1: Crash Course
Part 2: Component X
Part 3: Box it up

After you finish hooking up the the component, you turn it around. It is easy to see it looks like it has a reflective surface, like a mirror would. There is a power key at the top, but upon turning it, the mirror starts beeping and shaking. You turn it back off, and instead turn your attention to the text at the bottom of the mirror when a fellow agent comes in.

"We have discovered Contraplexus is getting ready for more action, but information on where they will strike next is limited", he begins.

"I have their Component X with me -- maybe it will tell me something."

"Wow, let me have a look at it", he replies, and you pass it off to him. "Wow, the text is really strange -- I haven't seen any text like this. It's probably just encoded"

You write down the text: "tsfacns emb tond rofht ebns eftpmd sp mdon kbnhob lsbe emhx udz dnbu duf emb lbeb kmb ep sfmbdi rshbegb xuifhdx"

"It probably has instructions on how to operate this thing. It just started beeping and shaking when I turned it on. I also have no idea what these f, s, n and t buttons do. Have any ideas?"

"I don't know, but don't press anything until you know what to do. It will just start beeping again if you just start pressing things."

You sit down for a while, thinking about what the mirror's text means. Which buttons should you press, and in what order?

(In reply to re(2): D2.5 by Gamer)

How many ways can you be "One Away"?

That the application is unique to each letter suggests a 'binary' exploration, one which I did envisage but hoped against.

There seems little one can do to a letter or piece of text that hasn't already been discussed previously except this concept.

This concept?  You can take '1' from the value of 'A' and it becomes 'Z' by circular 'arithmetic'.  Such concepts don't work.

Now, if I consider that my 'A' has a value of '65' - ASCII system of character encoding - my computer actually sees this as '01000001' by the binary system.

My problem now is, "from which power do I go 'one away'"?  ie I subtract 1. 

I haven't time to see this through at the moment, but I'm looking at taking two alphabet strips, a la slide rules, and displacing them 1 place either side of the given letter (doesn't work anyway), but then shifting the strips at intervals by powers of two - this will have the effect I believe of deleting '1'

(Gone for a day or two,  any venturers to follow this on?)

Posted by brianjn on 2007-03-02 08:21:44