breadbox wrote (Dec 10, 1996):
> I am creating a treasure that consists of the Secret Decoder Ring, and
> burying it.
snowgod's treasure map contains a couple of typos, btw. Here is the corrected version:
496E206F7264657220746F2066696E642074686520536563726574204465636F646572205269 6E672C20796F75206D75737420706F73742061206D65737361676520636F6E7461696E696E67 207468652073696E676C6520776F72642022487562657274222077697468206E6F206578706C 616E6174696F6E20617320746F20796F757220616374696F6E73206F6E636520657665727920 64617920666F7220746872656520636F6E736563757469766520646179732E20204166746572 2074686520746869726420636F6E736563757469766520706F7374696E672C20746865205365 63726574204465636F6465722052696E672077696C6C20626520666F756E642E
Mohammed wrote (Dec 10, 1996):
Hubert
/dev/joe, Guy Fawkes, Mohammed, and ThinMan wrote (Dec 10 thru Dec 12, 1996):
'Hubert'
To the public forum without explanation
Controversial Resolution (Dec 13, 1996):
3 players posted 'Hubert' all around midnight, and due to incorrect e-mail timestamps, and possible network delays, it was unclear who was actually first. It was determined by Law (CFJ 324), that Guy Fawkes was first, but later determined by Fact that /dev/joe was first. Guy Fawkes game /dev/joe the treasure.
breadbox wrote (Dec 13, 1996):
> You have to remember that many of us are computer geeks of one flavor
> or another. As one such, it took me almost no time at all to recognize
> that the map was a sequence of hexadecimal digits.
Not only that, but the first number was 4-something (capital letter), the last number was 2E (period), and there were many 20's (space). Like many geeks, I've done my share of hand-coding hex.
I also thought about how short of a program you would need to decode snowgod's map (in the spirit of various C contests). This is the best I came up with:
main(c){while(~scanf("%2x",&c))putchar(c);}
Yes, this one was a little too easy, but I like the idea. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity to try out an idea I've had for some time. I think I'm going to create my own trinket....