Clockwork and Cryptography: Angelmaker Code Hints, Part 5

Welcome back, Detachment 2702. How goes the codebreaking? Hopefully you've made some progress. Have you checked the classifieds yet? *wink wink*

Hint 0/1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4

So when I was at this point in the code, I was able to read ciphertext where I knew the plaintext equivalent - namely, the hint pages that Knopf put out, like this one:

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If I were a gung-ho codebreaker, and I decided I didn't want any 3rd-party hints (i.e., those from this blog), and that I just wanted to use what Knopf provided (good for you!), I think that the most valuable ones to look at are probably the one above and the "Soot and sorrow, I know it" one. Just sayin'.

As I think I mentioned before, this image was pretty key in my realization that 1) the text in the hint pages was reflected in the disks and 2) the disks were not 1:1 with either letters or words.  In five of the first six images, the code reiterates some of the text on the page. I'm not saying which ones, but if you haven't figured that bit out yet...happy birthday. Free hint. Since I last posted, Knopf put up an extra three hint pages (here), and they're perhaps slightly trickier. Although come to think of it, when I first tackled the hint pages, I spent some time considering that the code disks could spell out (MAJOR HINT) the speaker of the quote, and not the quote itself. 


Look at me, rambling on, and that's not even what I brought you all here to say. Like I mentioned above, if you sort of half-understand how the disks break up the plaintext, you can read things like the hint pages, but not anything useful - like the text on the dust jacket. This hint might help:

What's up with the gap?

Straight up: the "gap" in the outer ring (where it exists) represents the beginning of a word. Where there's no gap, that means that the disk continues the word started by the prior disk. 

 Just like this bit of linguistic and etymological sleight of hand, yuo cna rdae tihs qtieu esaiyl, as lngo as teh itniail ltetsre aer in teh prorep pcael. Knowing where that first letter goes will go a long way towards clarifying the plaintext. 


That said, there don't seem to be totally explicit rules as to how the plaintext is broken up across the disks. Based on Hint 1, I initially thought it was purely syllabic, but based on something apocalyptic (*wink wink nudge nudge*), I think it may be just a matter of convenience. Certainly, you can find disks that hold more or less than one syllable by the official definition.

Hope that helps you...and please do drop me a note! If you've cracked the thing wide open, I'd love to hear about it, and if you're hopelessly stuck, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do to help. Has anyone made it all the way down the rabbit hole yet? If so, I don't believe I caught your name...?  ;)

Happy codebreaking!

That's all I've got for now...if you need more help, feel free to leave a comment, and I'll see what I can do.

Clockwork and Cryptography: Angelmaker Code Hints, Part 4

Welcome back! Before you read this hint, make sure you take a look at the preceding ones:

Hint 0/1
Hint 2
Hint 3

We've gotten to the point where the things I point out as hints may be old news to you. On the other hand, who knows? It's time to consider one of three (possibly four) features of this code that I'm going to call "non-core" - i.e., they modify the code's basic functionality to improve its comprehensiveness. I'm sure that the basic codebreaking literature addresses this (and maybe has a different term for it), but for my purposes, I'm going to define "comprehensive" as "the ability of a code to represent all elements of the plaintext as ciphertext." This code is about 98% comprehensive. For comparison, a non-comprehensive code might represent the plaintext

ATTACK AT DAWN, SIGNED PATTON

like this:

TTCK T DWN SGND PTTN

which is 1) not a very good code, and 2) unable to represent words such as "a" or "I". It's not as comprehensive as a Caesar cipher (95-100% comprehensiveness, depending on the plaintext) because there are letters in the original message - the vowels and the punctuation - which simply can't be written in the code.  (For interested parties: you could figure out the comprehensiveness of this code by adding up all the letter frequencies of A, E, I, O, and U and subtracting from 100.)

Assuming that you've figured out the basics of how the Angelmaker code works, I'm going to estimate its comprehensiveness at around 85%, depending on what you've realized about certain other features. You could definitely read the message(s) if you couldn't figure this bit out, but there would be some ambiguity. If you add in the feature I'm pointing out here, you'd be at around 88% - maybe as much as 90 or 91, although I haven't done the research. So: what's the deal with this?

Well?

In Hint 1, I think I pooh-poohed the idea of comparing the relative frequencies of each disk (and rightly so, as you'll probably have realized by now). Now I'm going to tell you to bring that strategy back. Where does that extra line appear? How often? Does it ever appear in the inner ring? How many sections (out of the total 12 outer + 6 inner  = 18) does it bisect? I'd also suggest that you just browse around here for a bit. Just sayin'. 

And there you go! That's three hints in one, for those keeping score at home. Oh...I only put in two? I'm so terribly sorry, I must be mistaken. Bwahahahaha. 

Have fun!

(Or for extra help, read the next hint here.)

Clockwork and Cryptography: Angelmaker Code Hints, Part 2

So here's the situation: you've read Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker, found out there's a code (!) on the American dust jacket, you've tried to solve it, and you're stuck. Presumably you've also read hints 0 and 1 here, and didn't make a whole lot of progress. In that case, you're in the right spot. Ready for hint number two? Here it is (want to have one more go on your own? Go ahead, I'll wait. If not, highlight to read):

Trust in Knopf.

 As part of the marketing campaign for the book, Knopf released a couple of images meant to help you along. I suppose if you already knew about those, this isn't a very good hint, so here's more: initially, I found this one to be especially helpful.  Later on, this one was very useful, particularly in conjunction with the image of the back of the dust jacket that I posted in part 1. 


You might also want to watch that little video clip of Harkaway talking about writing, as it does have a tiny clue in it, but if you've made it this far, it won't tell you much you don't know.

Happy codebreaking!

If you're still stuck, here's the next hint.

Clockwork and Cryptography: Angelmaker Code Hints, Part 1

Nick Harkaway's witty, whimsical, energetic Angelmaker was released in the US a little over a week ago (you'd better believe I pre-ordered it), approximately a month behind the British/UK release. If you are, like me,  both 1) American and 2) a ginormous Nick Harkaway fan, this was an irksome (if expected) delay.(Taking a moment to note that spell-check takes issue with "pre-order" and "preorder," but not "ginormous.") It turns out that the wait was worth it, because the good people at Knopf and AAS Graphic Design have gifted us with a dust jacket design worthy of the book itself.

I will assume that if you're here, you already know that those discs are a code. (When I found this out, I took a moment to make an offering to the gods of clockwork, steampunk, difference engines, for they are good to us. Also to Ada Lovelace, oft-forgotten programmer extraordinaire.) I'll also assume that you're having trouble cracking it. To that end, I've put together a few hints to help you out, because the reward really is intriguing. 

My first hint is: STOP LOOKING FOR HINTS AND START SOLVING IT YOURSELF. SLACKER.

Seriously. Your self-esteem and your ego will thank me. This is a code that is meant to be broken (what good is it in this context otherwise?), so you know that it's not terribly difficult. Clever, yes. Difficult, no.

Ok, fine. We'll call that Hint 0. You won't be much happier with Hint 1, but here it is (last chance to do it yourself! Turn back now!) : 

Look with your eyes.

Courtesy of Arya Stark, via Syrio Forel, of course. Take a new look at the dust jacket. There are clues there to get you started - even clues to suggest the existence of a code, if you hadn't known there was one there. Look closely. Take it off the book, if you need to. The heart of codebreaking is in recognizing patterns where there don't seem to be any, so let your pattern-sensitive human brain take over for a minute, and go with your gut.

Start there.


More hints to come. Enjoy!

Ready for more? Hint 2 is here.