Hello all,

I wanted to express my disrespect and disregards to those challenges which aren’t solved by anybody, except the owner of the challenge and his/her friends (when you see solve by: xzy, xyx and others, which haven’t really solved an awful lot) – whereby the amount of people who solved it remains below 5, over a long time.

By names:
Crypto 41: 41: Can I be analyzed please? [[]made by cabrero64[]]
Crytpo 45: CONTACT !!! [[]made by cabrero64[]]
Crypto 46: Wild Wild west II [[]made by iloveallison[]]
Crypto 52: Pythagora's dream [[]made by cabrero64[]]
Crypto 56: Minimalist crypto [[]made by cabrero64[]]
Stegano 29: Customized colors [[]made by Goat[]]

I do treat this very well done site, as a learning tool for myself – and yes, it has teached me a lot – and I’m still learning on a daily base – thanks to the hosts “Eric and the TBS”

What offended me, is the fact, that some challenges are only designed to but a barrier between their inventors and others (and will only be solved with special hints from their inventors). Not that I would personally mind – a short recommendation for those: why don’t you build a real one? Like 3DES-CBC or write an essay about the Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement.

I really fancy the thought of pre-staging challenges – for a limited amount of time – to ensure, if the challenge is something real and able to be solved – or just another road block to others. If the challenge will be solved by “testers”, then but it live.

I do sense, that some special people will disagree – but as I wrote above – I don’t really mind. I just think, that the fun should remain on this site and not put anger in place.

Kindest
relee

yeah!!! i think so too!! that's a goo explanation relee. i think they could be deleted from here,because they are toooo hard!!that are some selfmade only the writer does know and nobody else!!
so it is the admin's decision!
bye
CyBeR

Exactly .

erik ceasum and eskimo had a little conversation about how to handle the whole challenge thing and in the next time we gonne change some things.

If you believe that it is imposible to solve them is just becouse you feel blind, you don't know what it is, and you work only with very well known ciphers; and this is not. I never gave a clue because for mine is no needed, all you have to know is in the cryptos, sometimes clues are in the title, others the only thing to solve them is closing your PC.
You mean that couse nobody solve Contact, is not a good one? and should be deleted. I think doing that you miss the work done from other people, i know a place where spanish people have made a good job about it, and they have solve almost 90% of it, so of course it can be deleted , and all the work can go to the garbage....this is only for fun and training the mind. But please, if you find something you cant solve, just keep doing on it, or forget the challenge, but let the rest work on it.

Crypto 41: 41: Can I be analyzed please? [[]made by cabrero64[]]

Actually I performed a very detailed cryptanalysis of this level and in the end I came to some specific conclusions. It took a further couple of hours thinking time before the light dawned on me how to solve this, and it was very simple in the end. Total time to crack - about 16 hours. Probability of others solving this is extremely high, you just need to think more about "transformations/translations".

Crypto 45: Contact [[]cabrero64[]]

Spent a lot of time on this, without luck. Perhaps it's easy but I don't see it, not enough information to go on, probably comes out as one word ?

Crypto 46: Wild Wild west II [[]made by iloveallison[]]

I believe this might be enigma. I've tried the standard methods with no luck - I do not believe that the encrypter was correct (look around the web for enigma programs - try them out, how many give you the same answers ?) The majority of enigma programs that have been written are not correct in their implementations. I suspect if you find the right encrypter and feed the string in without altering the settings then you find the answer. Tried loads, no progress. But then perhaps my assumptions are all wrong ?

Crypto 52: Pythagora's dream [[]made by cabrero64[]]

Actually this is not so hard, but it does need perseverance as with all ****** transposition ciphers (I dont think thats much of a clue to people). Probability of people solving this is high, if they can bothered to spend the time to do so.

Crypto 56: Minimalist crypto [[]made by cabrero64[]]

I can make 'toeisgreat' from it but I won't tell you how Might be on the right track, but I might not be. Need to spend serious time to solve it, which I don't have

Stegano 29: Customized colors [[]made by Goat[]]

Had some discussions with Goat over this - it just doesn't interest me, it's way too convoluted by the sounds of it.

'Solving by the solver and his friends' I don't think is a strictly true statement. I am suspicious of those that I have not solved, but I suspect that only two or three would fall into that particular category.

I look forward to future directions that this site might take

since it was mentioned:

<Caesum> any more new levels on the way Erik ?
<Erik> well there are many cryptos
<Erik> but somehow I don't like the idea to load up more and more of them
<Caesum> hmm, yeah i suppose they are taking over a bit
<_EsKiMo_> Erik, I think you should set a limit for new challenges.. uploading more and more lvls is quite frustating
<Caesum> a limit ?
<_EsKiMo_> one of the reasons because I quit playing tbs
<Caesum> but what would you do when you had none left
<_EsKiMo_> I don't think you will ever solve those cryptos and steganos.. really weird/hard
<Erik> well that's very difficult
<Erik> I don't really know how to continue with the site
<Erik> it was quite nice for a long time
<Erik> but there was a certain point
<Caesum> hmm, perhaps a review and removal of some that are too similar to others
<Erik> well, maybe
<Caesum> and removal of some that havent been solved by anyone.....
<Erik> but I think the problem is that there are just so many challenges
<Erik> I mean they have no story or so
<Erik> just an endless list of dry tasks
<Erik> of course the guys can learn something
<Caesum> ah yes
<_EsKiMo_> thats why I think adding .. more & more challs is not good
<Erik> the fun went away...
<Caesum> perhaps the dry ones should be moved to more of a tutorial area and the solutions given out, and the interesting ones kept or added together into a story line ?
<_EsKiMo_> A huge list of challs != fun
<_EsKiMo_> the admins could write some how tos
<_EsKiMo_> for every lvl
<Erik> hm
<Erik> that sounds interesting
<Caesum> i'm sure Erik wants to write 180 how-to's ;P
<Erik> some tutorials would be very great
<Erik> lol caesum
<_EsKiMo_> How do you think a user that registers .. would fell ?
<Erik> I couldn't write so many how to's (have only solved 80 challenges or so...)
<Erik> yes I know what you mean
<Erik> that's what I tried to find out
<_EsKiMo_> There must be some thing that makes you want to play..
<Caesum> or perhaps you dont see 180 when you register, others only open up when you get so far in
<Erik> and the conclusion is that I would get shocked by the list and turn away immediately...
<Erik> any ideas EsKiMo?
<Erik> I think the idea with the tutorials/how to's is very good
<Caesum> a bit like unreal tournament where you dont see 60 levels when you start and as your progress more open up
<Erik> hm...
<Erik> maybe each group of challenges could be devided into certain difficulty-groups
<Caesum> although it would be nice to see like a set of tutorials on say javascript and then a challenge or two or three to test what you have learned, and then you can move on to chapter 2 or whatever
<Erik> and at the beginning you have the basic ones,
<Erik> oh wow
<Erik> so in fact we need some kind of tutorials/how tos
<Caesum> which could in fact be largely a list of url's to recommended reading
<Caesum> although they would have to be relevant and well researched
<Erik> yes...
<Caesum> it would be quite a challenge to develop such a thing to a good standard
<Erik> but I think it would be great
<Erik> I know someting similar from programming
<Caesum> ah
<Erik> in the usa there is a great training for programming by USACO
<Erik> they also have certain blocks
<Erik> where there are tutorials, f. e. graph theory or network flow
<Erik> and then there come some challenges where you have to use this stuff
<Caesum> ah yes
<Erik> and of course sometimes challenges totally different
<Erik> after solving all tasks of a block you get acces to the next one and so on...
<Erik> and every 2 month or so they make a contest
<Erik> oh well
<Erik> contest
<Erik> that's also an idea
<Caesum> ah now thats an idea
<Caesum> heh
<Erik> that would be great
<Erik> some challenges, espacieally made for the contest, and then a certain time limit
<Erik> wow...
<Caesum> heh, sounds a bit like uva
<Erik> that could be great...
<Erik> what is uva?
<Caesum> acm.uva.es - they have programming contests regularly
<Caesum> timed, and a huge set of problems in their repository that you can practice on
<Erik> sounds like something similar to the UCASO...
<Erik> that is ace.delos.com/usacogate for the training and ace.delos.com/contestgate for the contests
<Erik> currently there is a contest running...
<Caesum> http://acm.uva.es/cgi-bin/OnlineJudge?AuthorsRanklist 5th.... havent solved anything in a while
<Caesum> it would be nice to be able to run such a site with realtime compiling and running and judging of programs
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<Erik> I talked with tbs
<Erik> he will think about our ideas...
<Caesum> does he have any ideas of what to do ?
<Erik> well
<Erik> i didn't seem to be quite convinced at first
<Erik> he said he first will look at all the challenges to find out which ones could be put together into a group
<Erik> but i like the idea quite a lot
<Erik> small challenge-packets
<Erik> with tutorial(s) and links
<Erik> and after having solved a certain number of them you get access to the next group
<_EsKiMo_> also implementing a wargame would be great
<Erik> i think that would be much better in comparison to the current situation
<Erik> what's a wargame?
<_EsKiMo_> you have to get privilegies
<_EsKiMo_> like get root
<Erik> on the server???
<Erik> what kind of privilegies do you mean?
<_EsKiMo_> maybe it is not a good idea
<Erik> I just didn't understand what you mean
<Caesum> i like the packet idea
<Caesum> _EsKiMo_, you mean like on digital evolution ?

i like the idea to put challenges into groups and to write little tuts as an introduction for every part. if you solve more than 80% out of one group you get into the next group.

The only fear I have with those "challenge packs" is that TBS shall not become another Antica.

I must say, I recently started playing at rootgap - and the thing what I x-specially like is the excellent story line (just like with mod-x)

But I'm certain, the TBS & Erik will find a nice way.

Cheers
relee

relee, just because a challenge isn't readily solveable by all doesn't warrant it's deletion. I'm sure tbs or erik have at least looked at these and deemed them worthy to be posted or they wouldn't have been put up in the first place.

Caesum: "toeisgreat" however coincidental this may be has nothing whatsoever to do with the solution to #56....ie: it's not morse code or any derivative thereof.