Andrew ([info]andrewwyld) wrote,
@ 2004-03-19 03:25:00
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Current mood: excited
Current music:Crown Of Creation (Jefferson Airplane)

Advertisement from Guardian Media Jobs, 2004-03-15

In the Media Guardian jobs section for Monday, the following advert appeared:

Ever seen "The Game" starring Michael Douglas?"

I haven't.

cicv efzjebcd qeooebj yctebd otc msvozeb tcuaebj mvzro z glvud-mtzbjebj, julyc-qazbbebj effcvqeic ovczqsvc tsbo?  gc'vc mvczoebj z mlfaucocuk bcg okac lr jzfc. kls auzk cicvkgtcvc, muscq qsvvlsbd kls eb bcgqazacvq, fzjzxebcq, reufq, yllhq, iedcl jzfcq, iez owo zbd zmvlqq z qavzguebj fzxc lr gcyqeocq.  gtlf mzb kls ovsqo?  gtcvc dlcq rzbozqk cbd zbd vczueok ycjeb?  kls'ic azqqcd otc revqo qozjc.  blg rluulg otc gteoc vzyyeo:  ggg.avlpcmoqkxkjk.mlf

Needless to say, I've applied, and the introductory paragraph of my application email looks like this:

Pqh V syonsii ph qwpvnqjvml xmn hmbn gmlwsnxbc slzmwsw qwtsnjvispslj!  Vj gqi onmaqach jfs pmij syzvjvlr qw V’ts issl vl istsnqc wbcc gssdi mx jma-isqnzfvlr.  Jfs gfvjs nqaavj qlw, mx zmbnis, fvi xnvslwi Qzfvccsi qlw jfs Jmnjmvis qns nsrbcqn tvivjmni jm ph istsljvsi-ijhcs Zbaql wnbr-cmnw tvccq vl Obsnjm Nvzm, gfsns V gnvjs qcc ph pmij iqcqzvmbi lmtsci qlw ocqh ph pmij oihzfswscvz nmzd-pbivz (xmn V qp kbvjs q onmxvzvslj aqii-rbvjqnvij).

Please, please, please let me get this job.


(Post a new comment)


[info]jennae
2004-03-18 08:12 pm UTC (link)
OMG I hope you get that job. I really liked that movie, and depending on what aspect the job is, it is progressively cooler....

(Reply to this)


[info]hauscat
2004-03-18 08:51 pm UTC (link)
Ohvlsjt otc vzyyeo e jl!

(that was fun!)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 09:59 am UTC (link)
lbc aeuu fzhcq kls uzvjcv, zbd lbc aeuu fzhcq kls qfzuu ....

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]hauscat, 2004-03-19 10:07 am UTC

[info]randomchris
2004-03-19 01:17 am UTC (link)
Hmm... I can work out that g=w from the fact that the end of it is clearly a web address, but if the decoding is a simple alphabet shift then the bit at the end of it doesn't make sense as a web extension... fascinating. Wish I had more time to decode it...

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 05:32 am UTC (link)
It's a simple substitution cipher.  It's safe to infer that mlf -> com on more or less the same basis.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]mirabehn
2004-03-19 01:57 am UTC (link)
Wow!

I haven't seen the film and I'm not even going to try to do the decoding. (Maybe Monday!) But I think that's fantastic. :)

Yay, hope it gets you the job!

(Reply to this)


[info]triestine
2004-03-19 02:17 am UTC (link)
Oooh, just like The Gold Beetle by EA Poe! How long did it take you to work it out?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 05:34 am UTC (link)
About three quarters of an hour, but I was doing it pretty inefficiently.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]zotz, 2004-03-19 06:39 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]andrewwyld, 2004-03-19 06:40 am UTC

[info]momentsmusicaux
2004-03-19 02:38 am UTC (link)
It was on telly just a few weeks ago!

My first thought was that it was ROT13, but no.
Isn't perl's tr operator grand?

(Reply to this)


[info]libellum
2004-03-19 02:38 am UTC (link)
done! there's an error in the third line though: "fzxclr" should read "fzxc lr" :)

this is so cool.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 05:35 am UTC (link)
You're quite right -- I transcribed it incorrectly.  Going to follow the White Rabbit?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]libellum, 2004-03-19 06:15 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]andrewwyld, 2004-03-19 06:19 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]aiwendel, 2004-03-20 02:14 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]andrewwyld, 2004-03-20 05:13 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aiwendel, 2004-03-20 07:31 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aiwendel, 2004-03-20 02:20 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]andrewwyld, 2004-03-20 05:16 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]aiwendel, 2004-03-20 07:34 pm UTC

[info]neonchameleon
2004-03-19 02:43 am UTC (link)
Fair warning: one of the letters transforms into itself.

Also if anyone could tell me what T?T is I'd be greatful. (Something you pass information across is the only clue I have and the ? is the only one of its type).

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]libellum
2004-03-19 02:46 am UTC (link)
hint: you use mobile phones ...

yes, the self-transforming letter confused me too. It was kind of obvious though.

I am SO applying for this job.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]neonchameleon, 2004-03-19 02:50 am UTC

[info]gnimmel
2004-03-19 03:09 am UTC (link)
Ppppfwk! V xpu uljjtuid ht ni xtfyvqw....

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 05:56 am UTC (link)
Oh, crap, I didn't encode j properly.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 10:13 am UTC (link)
Work can always be done another day ....

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]zenmeisterin
2004-03-19 03:23 am UTC (link)
Pah. You typoed. Threw me off that did (word beginning with double m?)

;-)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-19 10:13 am UTC (link)
Where was that?

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]purplepiano
2004-03-19 05:03 am UTC (link)
Was interesting that the last letters I got (on the advert) were the highest scoring ones in Scrabble.

(Reply to this)


[info]aiwendel
2004-03-19 05:42 am UTC (link)
*head explodes*
ok i have a few obvious letters, and have failed to make my mobile useful in anyway....
*must put it down*
.......

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]the_aviator
2004-03-20 04:38 am UTC (link)
Use tr, makes life *far* easier :)
I solved it by iterative development from the obvious ones (the url, the single letter and the frequent 3-letter ones) in about 6 minutes, though undoubtedly there are some cheat tools available that work it out by letter-frequencies and dictionary searches.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]aiwendel, 2004-03-20 05:31 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]aiwendel, 2004-03-20 02:17 pm UTC

[info]vectorious
2004-03-20 02:35 am UTC (link)
Ah! The joys of Word case sensitive search and replace....

Cunning website address - difficult to guess unless you decode.

Unfortunately I don't think they want project accountants...

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-22 06:34 am UTC (link)
I SARed [?] with &[?], then SARed &[?] with its encoded letter.

This meant at one point the body of my message &l&o&o&k&e&d &l&i&k&e &t&h&i&s, but that way I could have properly capitalized sentences (although you could argue it's not terribly important, especially given that this probably caused me to screw up the encoding of j in the first place ...).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]the_aviator
2004-03-20 04:35 am UTC (link)
otzo gzq vzotcv rsb. asooebj eb owo gzq vzotcv bzqok eftl, eo eqb'o z vczu glvd!

(Anyone else think that looks remarkably like Klingon?)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

(Anonymous)
2004-03-20 01:53 pm UTC (link)
Or Vogon. Enjoy it or die.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]mostlyacat
2004-03-21 12:33 pm UTC (link)
(decodes the advert...)

Yay - that sounds like a cool job I hope you get it. I hcan't decoded your reply yet. I hope they have a clever tool for decoding messages otherwise they're going to have to pay a load of temps to decode them.

Good luck!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mostlyacat
2004-03-21 01:48 pm UTC (link)
Aha - that's a cool reply.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - [info]andrewwyld, 2004-03-22 04:40 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mostlyacat, 2004-03-22 03:01 pm UTC
palendromes?
[info]kamountjoy
2004-03-21 02:19 pm UTC (link)
my favorite palendrome is RACECAR.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-22 04:27 am UTC (link)

My favourite one is:

A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama!

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Found it
(Anonymous)
2004-03-25 07:28 am UTC (link)
Don't worry, we managed to find your application just fine, even with the misspelling :)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-03-25 08:21 am UTC (link)
That's a relief!

[breathes a sigh]

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Hrmpf
(Anonymous)
2004-04-08 06:34 am UTC (link)
How come you never invited me to Puerto Rico, damnit!

Lorraine (http://www.geocities.com/ladallmeier)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]andrewwyld
2004-04-08 08:34 am UTC (link)
I was worried you'd shoot someone.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2004-04-09 01:29 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]andrewwyld, 2004-04-10 02:09 pm UTC

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