Fermilab Calls For Code Crackers

atrocious cowpat passes along a call for help from symmetry magazine, the joint publication of Fermilab and SLAC, noting: "Could be just plain gibberish, it could be something like those wonderfully weird letters to the Mount Wilson observatory, or it could be a message from aliens who just happened to have gotten their hands (tentacles/exoskeleton) on a fax machine." "A little over a year ago, the Fermilab Office of Public Affairs received a curious letter in code (4.4-MB image here). It has been sitting in our files all that time and we haven't had much of a chance to look into breaking the code, nor are we particularly expert at this!"

Clearly..

[by Anonymous Coward]

It's Dr. Emma Russells formula for cold fusion.

Well obviously...

[clonan (64380)]

The Roswel aliens that were stranded on earth brainwashed some NEC employees who planted the code in all fax machines to send the fax to fermilabs who then posts it on the internet (which would be invented in 40 years) and thereby transmitted to mars...

Makes perfect sense!

I'm not positive about my translation

[Eevee (535658)]

But it seems he's from Nigeria and wants help tranferring money out of the country.

Well, obvious stuff:

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

Three "stanzas" maybe.

Starting with the "middle" stanza, that appears to be some sort of "key" perhaps. Each of the different symbols correspond to a different hexadecimal digit.

In the first stanza, each grouping of lines has 1, 2 or 3 lines.

In the last stanza, each group of lines is only 1 or 2 lines.

Maybe the last stanza is binary?

And maybe the first stanza is base 3?

Anyone else care to wager a guess?

Re:Well, obvious stuff:

[baffled (1034554)]

You're thinking waaay too deep.

Turn the page 90 degrees clockwise.

It says 'Hi'

Re:Well, obvious stuff:

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

Mirror here [googlepages.com]. I think Google's servers can probably handle the traffic. ;)

Real problem solvers comment here

[Jhan (542783)]

(trying to move the interesting stuff to the top) The top and bottom part of the code code the same data. The little indentation at the beginning of the line is important and means that the previous line continues. The indentation in the bottom bottom part is of, perhaps because of writing conditions. The top part consists of five trinary numbers of lengths 29, 46, 14, 14, 8 digits. The bottom part consists of five binary numbers of lengths 75, 110, 37, 36, 8 digits. My best transcription, probably with errors:

char trinary[8][40]={
"323233331112132", // 15
"33323132212331", // 14 29
"2111331132312233", // 16
"333212123213113", // 15
"311333313331111", // 15 46
"211333323232211", // 14 14
"232313331121231", // 14 14
"33231312"}; // 8 8
char binary[8][40]={
"111010110101010101101010101110101101", // 36
"1101101101011101011011101011011101111", // 37 75
"1111010101101101011101010101110111011", // 37
"0111010110110111011101110111011101110", // 37
"111011011101110101101110100011101011", // 36 110
// Should have been more clearly to the left?
"1010110111011101110110111010101110111", // 37 37
// Should have been two steps to the left?
"011011011101101110110111010110111010", // 36
"110101011"};

Re:Well, obvious stuff:

[azzuth (1177007)]

That's funny, when i converted it and then etch it onto a vinyl i got Rick Roll'd

Re:Well, obvious stuff:

[funaho (42567)]

The world's first rickroll-by-fax?

Google recruiting?

[spydum (828400)]

Perhaps Google is targeting Fermilab scientists for hiring.. Don't they have a history of using strange riddles and puzzles for hiring purposes?

Hmmm...

[Omicron32 (646469)]

4.4MB image link on the front page of Slashdot? I sense a great disturbance in the force...

Re:Hmmm...

[mapkinase (958129)]

Well, right now I do not sense no nothing except "Loading..."

Interesting...

[wile_e_wonka (934864)]

Very odd indeed! I received this cryptic message (which it seems I've seen before):

Error!
Could not connect to remote server

You tried to access the address http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/fnalcodeletter.jpg [symmetrymagazine.org], which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page.

Mathamatically speaking....

[hengdi (1202709)]

There are 113 symbols, each of which is either 1, 2 or 3 strokes. So it is essentially a 113 digit base 3 number.

This limits the amount of information that the message is trying to pass.

For example, using base 26 - all the letters - means we could convey the same information in ??? digits.

Oh damn it. I'm too drunk and Google ain't working for me. Perhaps someone could give a value for ???

But I'm betting it won't be very many digits. I.e. this message is very short.

Re:Mathamatically speaking....

[mr_mischief (456295)]

Jose Cuervo Especial, 750 ml, 12-pack case.

Mystery solved! [wvabca.com]

Damn, Google has us spoiled.

Strange...

[BlueStrat (756137)]

It seems to be some sort of construction/zoning notice. Something about a hyperspace-bypass being put in...

Cheers!

Strat

Okay, let's do this!

[The Insane One (25793)]

Just let me get a pencil and some paper.

"All your base are belo"

Oh crap.

B E S...

[mcmonkey (96054)]

U R E T O D R I N K Y O U R O V A L T I N E

--
"Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!"

Everyone's a critic.

I've seen this before

[Crash McBang (551190)]

The translation comes out as:

My name is Kosh Naranek.

I am writing this brief letter to bring to your attention a business offer which we believe you might find attractive.
Mrs Maria Garibaldi; wife of one a wealthy Martian executive (Late Mr. Michael Garibaldi) seeks a business assistance from a reliable and reputable businessman to invest and manage funds to the tune of 15 Million Credits...

Source?

[aleph42 (1082389)]

Any hint on the source, or at least why they consider it important?

Not to be harsh, but if I send some random code letter to some lab, I guess (hope) it won't make the news, even on slashdot.

Mirrored Copy

[LaptopZZ (88619)]

I mirrored it on my server as well as made a scaled down version which is just as readable as the original (unless you're making a poster).

http://www.pixabug.com/aliens/fnalcodeletter.jpg

http://www.pixabug.com/aliens/fnalcodeletter_sanesize.jpg

Happy Cracking

I've managed to decipher the final section...

[DirtySouthAfrican (984664)]

It reads "Use only Genuine Interocitor Parts". Seems gibberish to me.

I've seen this before....

[by Anonymous Coward]

It's obviously Woodstock. He's telling Snoopy about encryption.

I think it says...

[Uncle Focker (1277658)]

'PC Load Letter'? What the fuck does that mean?

DNA sequence?

[fahrbot-bot (874524)]

1. Four DNA characters: A, C, G, T
2. Four character sequences: |, ||, |||, (space)
3. Determine character mapping.
4. ...
5. Velociraptor.