31 October 2007
Drawn to Death
Starting tomorrow and finishing on 30th November this site will feature a new, original, and almost certainly awful comic strip each day. The vast majority have been produced by me, with a few submissions from willing volunteers.
FAQ:
Q: Will video production will continue as normal over this period?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you draw?
A: Not really.
K: Shouldn't this sentence have a Q in front of it?
A: Yes.
Labels: Comic, Site news, Video
29 October 2007
Hello Gametrailers people!
Some unspeakable churl stole my Polystation 3 video and uploaded it to Gametrailers.com, bizarrely removing the sound in the process. However! His editing was limited to the audio, and this website address was left at the end.
Fortunately, Gametrailers' members seem like a fairly intelligent bunch as a large amount of them have followed the web address, followed a link to YouTube and subscribed to my real videos there.
Gametrailers people, I salute you.
Fortunately, Gametrailers' members seem like a fairly intelligent bunch as a large amount of them have followed the web address, followed a link to YouTube and subscribed to my real videos there.
Gametrailers people, I salute you.
27 October 2007
But does it play Bloo-Rey movies?
Time for yet another knock-off review! This time it's a fake PS3. Kind of.
WARNING: Contains spoilers for the game Bioshock. Although I'm sure everyone's played it and is bored of it by now.
WARNING: Contains spoilers for the game Bioshock. Although I'm sure everyone's played it and is bored of it by now.
26 October 2007
We solve all of your problems
Remember that weird bit of video at the end of the alternate POPstation review? With the bloke in the protective suit and all those numbers? Well, I can now reveal the solution to that puzzle! Because the Post Office have finally delivered the prize to the winner.
The spoken numbers roughly copy the format of a Numbers Station (specifically the British ones, 'Lincolnshire Poacher' and 'Cherry Ripe'). I won't explain what a Numbers Station is here, have a look on Google if you're not familiar with them.
The spoken numbers comprise the encoded message. It was encoded using a 'one time pad' which is literally impossible to decipher without the numerical key. So I put the key in the video - it's the series of numbers that appears on the screen halfway through.
So, writing out the spoken numbers gives us:
43706 85214 21511 29638 88698 78473
(Every set of five is repeated once - a quirk of Numbers Stations. We ignore the repeats.)
The numbers written on screen are:
33594 65713 01539 18730 84546 78374
We now remove the blocks-of-five formatting, and write the key numbers below the encrypted text. Here's the whole lot:
4 3 7 0 6 8 5 2 1 4 2 1 5 1 1 2 9 6 3 8 8 8 6 9 8 7 8 4 7 3 Encrypted Text
3 3 5 9 4 6 5 7 1 3 0 1 5 3 9 1 8 7 3 0 8 4 5 4 6 7 8 3 7 4 Key
Now, we subtract each number in the key from each corresponding number in the encrypted text using Fibonicci subtraction. This means we get no negative numbers - if the answer is going to be negative, we add ten to the number we're subtracting from.
For example, 2 minus 9 would give us the answer -7. We therefore add 10 to the 2, making the sum 12 minus 7 which gives us the answer 5. Confusing.
Here's the whole lot subtracted:
4 3 7 0 6 8 5 2 1 4 2 1 5 1 1 2 9 6 3 8 8 8 6 9 8 7 8 4 7 3 Encrypted Text
3 3 5 9 4 6 5 7 1 3 0 1 5 3 9 1 8 7 3 0 8 4 5 4 6 7 8 3 7 4 Key
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 0 2 1 2 2 0 5 0 1 2 0 0 8 2 1 1 9 0 8 0 4 1 5 2 0 0 1 0 9 E-K answer
Now we have the decrypted message. However, it's all just numbers at the moment, and we need to convert it back to text. This is easily done - every two numbers denotes that numbered letter of the alphabet, e.g. 01 = B, 02 = B etc. So we put all the numbers into pairs:
10 21 22 05 01 20 08 21 19 08 04 15 20 01 09
And write down each corresponding letter in the alphabet:
J U V E A T H U S H D O T A I
This is the answer. Several people got stuck here, thinking "What does JUVEATHUSHDOTAI mean?" and trying to further decrypt it. There is no further messing about necessary - you just need to realise that it has the words AT and DOT in, which are parts of an e-mail address...
JUVE AT HUSH DOT AI
or, in other words, juve@hush.ai
The first person to send an e-mail to that now-defunct address was THE WINNER. His name was Gareth, and he won the depressingly predictable prize of the POPstation from the review. I also sent him a model of Mr. T.
Incidentally, the band which appears briefly in the video is Lindisfarne performing Meet Me on the Corner. The original video can be found here.
The spoken numbers roughly copy the format of a Numbers Station (specifically the British ones, 'Lincolnshire Poacher' and 'Cherry Ripe'). I won't explain what a Numbers Station is here, have a look on Google if you're not familiar with them.
The spoken numbers comprise the encoded message. It was encoded using a 'one time pad' which is literally impossible to decipher without the numerical key. So I put the key in the video - it's the series of numbers that appears on the screen halfway through.
So, writing out the spoken numbers gives us:
43706 85214 21511 29638 88698 78473
(Every set of five is repeated once - a quirk of Numbers Stations. We ignore the repeats.)
The numbers written on screen are:
33594 65713 01539 18730 84546 78374
We now remove the blocks-of-five formatting, and write the key numbers below the encrypted text. Here's the whole lot:
4 3 7 0 6 8 5 2 1 4 2 1 5 1 1 2 9 6 3 8 8 8 6 9 8 7 8 4 7 3 Encrypted Text
3 3 5 9 4 6 5 7 1 3 0 1 5 3 9 1 8 7 3 0 8 4 5 4 6 7 8 3 7 4 Key
Now, we subtract each number in the key from each corresponding number in the encrypted text using Fibonicci subtraction. This means we get no negative numbers - if the answer is going to be negative, we add ten to the number we're subtracting from.
For example, 2 minus 9 would give us the answer -7. We therefore add 10 to the 2, making the sum 12 minus 7 which gives us the answer 5. Confusing.
Here's the whole lot subtracted:
4 3 7 0 6 8 5 2 1 4 2 1 5 1 1 2 9 6 3 8 8 8 6 9 8 7 8 4 7 3 Encrypted Text
3 3 5 9 4 6 5 7 1 3 0 1 5 3 9 1 8 7 3 0 8 4 5 4 6 7 8 3 7 4 Key
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 0 2 1 2 2 0 5 0 1 2 0 0 8 2 1 1 9 0 8 0 4 1 5 2 0 0 1 0 9 E-K answer
Now we have the decrypted message. However, it's all just numbers at the moment, and we need to convert it back to text. This is easily done - every two numbers denotes that numbered letter of the alphabet, e.g. 01 = B, 02 = B etc. So we put all the numbers into pairs:
10 21 22 05 01 20 08 21 19 08 04 15 20 01 09
And write down each corresponding letter in the alphabet:
J U V E A T H U S H D O T A I
This is the answer. Several people got stuck here, thinking "What does JUVEATHUSHDOTAI mean?" and trying to further decrypt it. There is no further messing about necessary - you just need to realise that it has the words AT and DOT in, which are parts of an e-mail address...
JUVE AT HUSH DOT AI
or, in other words, juve@hush.ai
The first person to send an e-mail to that now-defunct address was THE WINNER. His name was Gareth, and he won the depressingly predictable prize of the POPstation from the review. I also sent him a model of Mr. T.
Incidentally, the band which appears briefly in the video is Lindisfarne performing Meet Me on the Corner. The original video can be found here.
Labels: Site news
20 October 2007
Monkey, head, tree, YouTube
I thought it was about time I put Poor Monkey on YouTube. Is it really suitable for a video sharing audience? Maybe not, as it's all scene setting until halfway through, by which time many casual viewers may have stopped watching. Oh well, here goes...
Perhaps I should have mentioned that this was on proper TV once!
Ultra-High-Quality-Mega Version can be found here.
Perhaps I should have mentioned that this was on proper TV once!
Ultra-High-Quality-Mega Version can be found here.
08 October 2007
Open the door to Kingdom Come!
The puzzle at the end of the second POPstation review has been solved and the prize awarded! I'll post the full solution in a few days, so it isn't spoiled for anyone still working on it.
Labels: Site news
06 October 2007
POPstation: The Revenge
I found another POPstation, with a different game. About submarines and aeroplanes.
This is the only comment I will make on the second half: Yes, there is a prize.
This is the only comment I will make on the second half: Yes, there is a prize.
04 October 2007
You DO NOT want to be in his gang.
This is an ACTUAL REAL ADVERT from Crash, the old ZX Spectrum Magazine. Issue 55, August 1988, Page 45.
If you don't know why this image is amusing / repellent / absolutely horrifying, consider yourself lucky.
Larger version can be found here, so you can read the text which provides context and makes the whole thing slightly less harrowing.
This imagery was discovered by Dimrill and his charming beard.
If you don't know why this image is amusing / repellent / absolutely horrifying, consider yourself lucky.
Larger version can be found here, so you can read the text which provides context and makes the whole thing slightly less harrowing.
This imagery was discovered by Dimrill and his charming beard.
Labels: Photo
