OT - 7/5/2010 Puzzle

[Ganchrow]

Rule 11010: I Hate Anagrams

LOSHAK & ESCAZU = CHTBI

JJGOLD & JERSEY = ?

---

It's been over 2 years since I posted my last puzzle, and while I admit that this is far from one of my better ones, I gotta restart somewhere.

First one to post the correct answer in this thread will win whatever points I have at that moment.

If you have a question about this puzzle post it here. Any PMs on on this topic will be silently REdirected to /dev/null (not a clue, btw).

[terpkeg]

Syspu

[Data]

Don't have an answer but was surprised to learn that while LOSHAK & ESCAZU is given as a scrambled BITCH it also makes ASSHOLE & ZCUKA.

[Ganchrow]

Don't have an answer but was surprised to learn that while LOSHAK & ESCAZU is given as a scrambled BITCH it also makes ASSHOLE & ZCUKA.

Yeah, like that's a surprise.

His particular native tongue aside, one might say that Data's complaints regarding my last posted puzzle were taken to heart.

[Ganchrow]

And speaking of Data's native tongue one might conceivable write:

CHTBI ≅ ЬЖВА

[djiddish98]

Should we be converting words to binary?

[Data]

ЬЖВА

I just want to tell everyone that this looks like random four letters, nothing close to scrambled BITCH.

[Optional]

CHTBI ≅ ЬЖВА

Beta beats 1000 BA holders?

[Ganchrow]

Should we be converting words to binary?

You certainly could if you wanted, but remember that digital computers already do so natively.

This behavior, however, is not relevantly exposed in raw Excel 2003 (without use of VBA at least), but MS Windows' calc.exe could be a different story.

Still, you might want to continue with that line of thought.

[Ganchrow]

I just want to tell everyone that this looks like random four letters, nothing close to scrambled BITCH.

Beta beats 1000 BA holders?

Note the title of the puzzle and recall my propensity for red herrings.

[Dark Horse]

cgsbj

(in capitals)

[Ganchrow]

cgsbj

(in capitals)

No sir, not the answer I had in mind ... but care to share your thought process?

[Dark Horse]

if 011111+111111= 100000
and 100000 = 10001

then 001100+010110 = 111011
and 111011 = 11100

[Dark Horse]

Using:
ACEG
BDFH etc

and 9.99900009999 to convert.

[Not Matt Rain]

And speaking of Data's native tongue one might conceivable write:

CHTBI ≅ ЬЖВА

Is CHTBI the only possible combination for LOSHAK & ESCAZU? Is it simply a constraint?

[Ganchrow]

Is CHTBI the only possible combination for LOSHAK & ESCAZU? Is it simply a constraint?

Using the Roman alphabet, one could conceivably argue that one other such combination (differing only in the addition of a single letter) would be valid.

Personally, I'd beg to differ.

[Not Matt Rain]

Wonderful.

if 011111+111111= 100000
and 100000 = 10001

Whaaa? One of us is drunk.

[MonkeyF0cker]

I can't help but think that this is some sort of XOR cipher. The solution eludes me, however.

[pico]

wow ganch is still here.

[djiddish98]

Here are my thoughts.

The title lead me in the direction of converting each string to a binary. The use of & in the statement to me could be interpreted as applying the bitwise AND operator to both strings.

In addition, there is some sort of bit shifting / masking perhaps (which would be the anagrams part), which is I believe what Monkey alluded to. So we're supposed to mix up the 1's and 0's to create a new binary sequence (anagram step 1), which when converted, creates a scrambled phrase which will be re-arranged to create the single word insult (anagram step 2).

However, this extended beyond my experience after my first sentence.

Good luck.

[Dark Horse]

Whaaa? One of us is drunk.

I divided the alphabet into two rows, and assigned 1 for odd letters and 0 for even letters.
1 for ACEGIK etc
0 for BDFHJL etc

Then the sum of the first two words is
011111 + 111111, which I added up as 100000

[benjy]

This is out in left field, but both Escazu and Jersey are locations. Since binary seems to be important here they could be converted into coordinates and some numerical value. Though one would have to decide which "Jersey" was referred to.

[djiddish98]

I interpreted the locations to be almost like an analogy.

I also noticed that the 4 person / location strings are 6 letters, while the answer for both is most likely 5. So I assume we'll have to drop some bits.

[Je_Tag]

cough

[Not Matt Rain]

I also noticed that the 4 person / location strings are 6 letters, while the answer for both is most likely 5. So I assume we'll have to drop some bits.

That's what I can't make sense of.

The title of the puzzle makes it sound like there's no anagram/bit-shifting shit involved and that one should investigate another solution. "11010" is 26 so I assumed one was to simply convert each letter to its rank in the alphabet, then that rank into a binary string. This is supported by Hint #2 in which both character strings add up to 42 (that is, if Data's native language is Russian - there are at least 4 other variants of the Cyrillic alphabet with those same letters adding up to different totals). Then I made the connection between 42 and Ganchrow's HHGTTG-themed avatar and I gave up before losing my mind.

Ganchrow you win again.

[Not Matt Rain]

Maybe there's some math technicality I'm not seeing that involves the ampersand. Me math boob.

[Ganchrow]

Using the Roman alphabet, one could conceivably argue that one other such combination (differing only in the addition of a single letter) would be valid.

Personally, I'd beg to differ.

The aforementioned combination would be ACHTBI.

Anagrams play absolutely no role in the problem and are offered solely as a red herring.

[Jrod124]

Not sure good question!!!!!

[Ganchrow]

The title of the puzzle makes it sound like there's no anagram/bit-shifting shit involved and that one should investigate another solution. "11010" is 26 so I assumed one was to simply convert each letter to its rank in the alphabet,

As far as the answer to the ultimate question of life, the Universe, and everything ... that was mere coincidence.

Ganchrow you win again.

I only "win" if I create an interesting puzzle that's readily solvable in a fair amount of time. It seems like I might have lost.

[Not Matt Rain]

Your last hint (ACHTBI) got me back on track Ganch. Please don't give the solution just yet, I may just hack my way through this.

I'm not obsessed. No.

[Megaman]

Jjgold & jersey = <Correct Answer>

Edit: Hmm. For some reason it does not like all capital letters.

Edit again. Ganch: This puzzle got me staying up an hour or so later than I had liked. It was fun though, so thank you.

[Ganchrow]

Jjgold & jersey = <Correct Answer>

Edit: Hmm. For some reason it does not like all capital letters.

Edit again. Ganch: This puzzle got me staying up an hour or so later than I had liked. It was fun though, so thank you.

Very nicely done, Megaman, I'm glad you liked it.

Edited out your correct solution so as not to ruin it for anybody still working on the puzzle.

As promised, all my current SBR points are being shipped your way forthwith.

Good job.

[Not Matt Rain]

Good job Megaman.

Can we get an explanation now? I saw the correct answer when it was posted but I still can't make perfect sense of it.

[Data]

Jjgold & jersey = <Correct Answer>

Well done!

Ganch: This puzzle got me staying up an hour or so later than I had liked.

I have spent twice as much and could not get it... All that liqueur ain't doing nobody no good, I can tell ya this much!

It was fun though, so thank you.

There is more, enjoy:

http://www.google.com/search?l&q=+site:forum.sbrforum.com+ganchrow+puzzle

[Ganchrow]

Good job Megaman.

Can we get an explanation now? I saw the correct answer when it was posted but I still can't make perfect sense of it.

OK. You asked for it.

The '&' symbol represents a bitwise AND which operates on two numbers by comparing corresponding bits when represented in binary notation.

Each word represents a Base-26 number (A=0, B=1, C=2, ... , Z= 25).

Hence, LOSHAK (L=11, O=14, S=18, H=7, A=0, K=10) corresponds to the base-10 number:
10 × 26⁰ + 0 × 26¹ + 7 × 26² + 18 × 26³ + 14 × 26⁴ + 11 × 26⁵ = 137,413,910.

Similarly ESCAZU (E=4, S=18, C=2, A=0, Z=25, U=20) corresponds to the base-10 number:
20 × 26⁰ + 25 × 26¹ + 0 × 26² + 2 × 26³ + 18 × 26⁴ + 4 × 26⁵ = 55,786,894.

Using a scientific calculator (such as calc.exe in Win32) we see that 137,413,910 AND 55,786,894 = 1,049,862. One may verify that the base-26 representation of this number (with 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, ... 25=Z) is given by CHBTI, or possibly ACHBTI (which maintains the leading A=0 byte).

Performing the same transformations on both "JJGOLD" (J=9, J=9, G=6, O=14, L=11, D=3) and "JERSEY" (J=9, E=4, R=17, S=18, E=4, Y=24) yields base-10 values of 111,160,377 and 109,071,376, respectively. ANDing them together produces 109,054,992 or "JEQTYU" in base-26.

Hence "JEQTY" is the solution to the puzzle.

The following VBA code exposes the function PUZZLESOLVE(), which takes two string arguments, converts them to their base-26 numerical value and returns the string value of the two ANDed together:

Option Explicit

Public Function PuzzleSolve(ByVal sInput1 As String, ByVal sInput2 As String) As String
    Dim vVal1 As Variant, vVal2 As Variant
    Dim vAndValue As Variant
    
    vVal1 = GetLongValFromString(sInput1)
    If vVal1 < 0 Then
        Exit Function
    End If
    
    vVal2 = GetLongValFromString(sInput2)
    If vVal2 < 0 Then
        Exit Function
    End If
    
    On Error GoTo OverflowCheck
    vAndValue = (vVal1 And vVal2)
    On Error GoTo 0
    PuzzleSolve = Dec2BaseN_Modified(vAndValue, 26)
Exit Function
OverflowCheck:
    If Err.Number = 6 Then
        'overflow
        On Error GoTo 0
        vAndValue = FloatingAnd(vVal1, vVal2)
        Resume Next
    Else
        On Error GoTo 0
        Resume
    End If
End Function

Private Function GetLongValFromString(ByVal sInput As String) As Variant
    Dim i As Long
    Dim lLength As Long, iVal As Integer, iRange As Integer
    Dim iLowAscValue As Integer, iHighAscValue As Integer
    Dim vTotalVal As Variant
    
    iLowAscValue = Asc("A")
    iHighAscValue = Asc("Z")
    iRange = iHighAscValue - iLowAscValue + 1

    sInput = UCase(sInput)
    lLength = Len(sInput)
    vTotalVal = 0

    For i = 1 To lLength
        iVal = Asc(Mid(sInput, i, 1)) - iLowAscValue
        If iVal < 0 Or iVal > iRange + 1 Then
            MsgBox "Charcter# " & i & " of string '" & sInput & "' invalid."
            GetLongValFromString = -1
            Exit Function
        End If
        vTotalVal = vTotalVal + iVal * iRange ^ (lLength - i)
    Next i
    GetLongValFromString = vTotalVal
End Function


Public Function Dec2BaseN_Modified(ByVal vDecimal As Variant, lBase As Long, Optional ByVal bytMinPlaces As Byte = 0, Optional ByVal bStartNumerically As Boolean = False) As String
    ' Function to convert integer decimal values to integer base-N values (2<=N<=64)
    ' Output digits start with 26 ;atin capital letters, followed by
    ' 26 latin lowercase letters, followed by digits 0-9
    ' then the undesrcore, and lastly the forward slash ("/")
    ' note that for base 64 this is NOT the equivalent as base64 encoding
    ' with bStartNumerically set to TRUE, numbering begins with digits 0 - 9
    Dim bIsNegative As Boolean, lDecimal As Long
    Dim Size As Long, i As Long, lRemainder As Long
    Dim ExpandedDigitArray() As String
    
    If lBase < 2 Or lBase > 64 Then
        Exit Function
    End If
    
    ReDim ExpandedDigitArray(0 To lBase - 1)
    If bStartNumerically Then
        For i = 0 To lBase - 1
            If i < 10 Then
                ' numeric digits
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = CStr(i)
            ElseIf i < 36 Then
                ' Uppercase
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = Chr(i + 65 - 10)
            ElseIf i < 62 Then
                ' Lowercase
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = Chr(i - 97 - 36)
            ElseIf i < 63 Then
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = "_"
            Else
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = "/"
            End If
        Next i
    Else
        For i = 0 To lBase - 1
            If i < 26 Then
                ' Uppercase
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = Chr(i + 65)
            ElseIf i < 52 Then
                ' Lowercase
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = Chr(i + 97 - 26)
            ElseIf i < 62 Then
                ' numeric digits
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = CStr(i - 52)
            ElseIf i < 63 Then
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = "_"
            Else
                ExpandedDigitArray(i) = "/"
            End If
        Next i
    End If
    
    If vDecimal < 0 Then
        vDecimal = -vDecimal
        bIsNegative = True
    End If

    Dec2BaseN_Modified = ""
    Do While vDecimal > 2 ^ 31 - 1
        ' input data isn't of type long so use
        ' this slower method to reduce it
        vDecimal = Int(vDecimal + 0.0001) / lBase
        lRemainder = CLng(lBase * (vDecimal - Int(vDecimal)))
        Dec2BaseN_Modified = ExpandedDigitArray(lRemainder) & Dec2BaseN_Modified
        vDecimal = vDecimal - lRemainder / lBase
        If bytMinPlaces > 0 Then bytMinPlaces = bytMinPlaces - 1
    Loop
    lDecimal = CLng(vDecimal)

    ' now that we hvae long-data remaining get size in N-BYTES
    If lDecimal > 0 Then
        Size = Size + CLng(Int(Log(lDecimal) / Log(lBase) + 1))
    Else
        Size = 1
    End If
   
    For i = 0 To Size - 1
        lRemainder = lDecimal Mod lBase
        lDecimal = lDecimal \ lBase
        Dec2BaseN_Modified = ExpandedDigitArray(lRemainder) & Dec2BaseN_Modified
    Next i
    
    If (Size < bytMinPlaces) Then
        ' now left pad with A's (asc("A") = 65)
        ' to reach minimum size
        Dec2BaseN_Modified = String(bytMinPlaces - Size, 65) & Dec2BaseN_Modified
    End If
    
    If bIsNegative Then
        Dec2BaseN_Modified = "-" & Dec2BaseN_Modified
    End If
End Function

Function FloatingAnd(ByVal vVal1 As Variant, ByVal vVal2 As Variant) As Variant
    ' built-in VBA bitwise AND only wokrs on long values
    ' this much slower function will work on any values
    ' up to 10^16 in Excel 2003
    Dim sBinVal1 As String, sBinVal2 As String
    Dim lLen As Long, lLen1 As Long, lLen2 As Long
    Dim i As Long, vAndVal As Variant

    sBinVal1 = Dec2BaseN_Modified(vVal1, 2, 0, True)
    sBinVal2 = Dec2BaseN_Modified(vVal2, 2, 0, True)

    lLen1 = Len(sBinVal1)
    lLen2 = Len(sBinVal2)
    If lLen1 <= lLen2 Then
        lLen = lLen1
    Else
        lLen = lLen2
    End If

    
    For i = 0 To lLen - 1
        If Mid(sBinVal1, lLen1 - i, 1) = "1" Then
            If Mid(sBinVal2, lLen2 - i, 1) = "1" Then
                vAndVal = vAndVal + 2 ^ i
            End If
        End If
    Next i
    FloatingAnd = vAndVal
End Function

A good deal of the code would actually be superfluous in a "real" language and is only in place because VBA is unable to perform AND operations on data types other than LONG (positive values < 2³¹-1) on my 32-but machine). Hence I extended the AND operation for floating point values. This actually wasn't strictly necessary for string of this length, but add on another character or t2o and it would be (plus I already had the code written).

Adding the above code to an Excel VBA module, and typing =PUZZLESOLVE("LOSHAK", "ESCAZU") into a cell yields the promised value of 'CHTBI', while =PUZZLESOLVE("JJGOLD", "JERSEY") yields 'JEQTYU'.

Please note that no form of programming was in any way necessary to solve the problem ... I just happened to have to have 3 of the 4 required functions already written in VBA, and when I mixed them together yesterday I found myself decidedly pleased that the answers came out as I had initially calculated (whew).

Anyway, good job once again to Megaman. Well done.