/dev/joe wrote (Jan 05, 1997):
There once was a penguin from Zanzibar
Who was on vacation in Shandalar
When he used his noodle
And asked a green poodle,
"Why do my limerick lines sometimes go too far?"
/dev/joe wrote (Jan 08, 1997):
I started solving this one by analyzing the data. The hex numbers in the map spanned the entire range from 00 to 7F, rather evenly distributed. I tried several thinks before I found the answer. The first byte is 4F, ascii for O. Each later character is given by the difference between a byte and the one preceeding it, modulo 128 (80 hex). So the second character is 3D-4F + 80 = 6E, which is n. Then 22-3D+80 = 65, e. Then, 42-22 = 20, a space. etc. Another possible interpretation of the code is that each byte is the sum of the ascii codes of the characters from the beginning of the message to that point, mod 80.