Series C - Beale Code?

[Josh]

Haven't had the chance to look at it much lately, but the last time I tried I didn't come up with too much of anything useful.

I haven't really come up with a decent strategy to attack it yet, other than trying any texts that might pan out for use as a Beale cipher. Without any numbers repeating, there's nothing to look for as far as patterns in that regard. But maybe over winter break I'll get a chance to look at it again with a fresh approach.

Would be interesting to see what other people might have come up with in regards to a way to attack a possible Beale cipher using a computer program. Not a very elegant solution, but even if it didn't yield a complete solution it might reveal some clues that would put us on track.

I've had the thought of trying to create some Beale ciphers of my own, in hopes that that might shed some light on what kind of patterns might emerge upon closer inspection. I'll try that once I get some free time.

[MotherEarth]

Think apathy is key here....have we tried Beowulf?

[daveh]

Think apathy is key here....have we tried Beowulf?

Actually, I did; no luck there either.

[Josh]

Most recent text I've been banging my head against trying to make work is the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

Still no luck...

I read about a group of people who when faced with a beale cipher in another widely publicized cipher challenge, wrote a program that searched the gutenburg project website to basically brute force a bunch of possible texts from the online library, and returned the ones with the highest correlation of English words in the plaintext. Too bad I don't have a program like that...then the computer could do all the hard work and save me the headache.

Still...there's got to be something we're missing. At least, I'd like to think so, and that we're not in fact faced with the challenge of trying to pull the right book out of thin air. I had thought I found some clues pointing towards Chaucer...but I'm probably grasping at straws at this point.

[CaptLychee]

Sorry to post this here, but this seems to be the only thread that's active.

Is anyone still interested in 'The Saga of Bjorn'?  I am tempted to post another stanza but I've done the last one so I don't want to repeat.

So. . .what are your thoughts?

(Apologies for interrupting the cipher thread)

[Josh]

I kind of fell behind in the Saga, so I figured it'd take me too long to catch up again. Maybe one of these days I'll have to do that, though.

[CaptLychee]

Well, the reason I ask is because it's passed 100 000 words and is large enough for a 'Vokume 1' to be printed in hardcopy.  Smfadmin mentioned that he knew someone in the hardcopy business, so I thought I'd bring it up.

But it should be more properly brought up on the actual forum.

[smfadmin]

Hi Guys,

Sorry it's been silent for so long.  I'm saddened to see that good old Bjorn is taking a breather.  I'm not sure where Maximus and the other old standbys have gone.  Bjorn still has much to do.

I'm still completely amendable to the idea of getting the saga in print.  I think it might be better to finish the epic first, though, and publish it in multiple volumes if required.

I'm also glad to see that several of you are still working on the mysterious Series C cipher.  It's a very, very tough one, but I'm confident someone will crack it. 

-Dave

[MotherEarth]

How about "Magna Carta"?