I guess I'll go ahead and continue this thread until His Holiness returns...

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For those who are wondering what all the fuss is about, the Code is at:
http://www.phreaknic.org/phreaknic.txt.  My "haiku" message earlier this week
was the announcement that I'd solved it.

Some of us were hoping that the code's creator, His Holiness Pope JonnyX the
First, would be able to jump in at this point.  Unfortunately though, a few
of the members of his Court, such as Lady Antimony the Just and Cardinal
Twisted the Loquacious, have told me that though His Holiness knows the
code's been broken, he's been unable to send a message.  Evidently Pope
JonnyX v1.0 has been involved with other matters which were in more urgent
need of his attention (like sweeping out the dungeon).

So, we shall continue without him for now, and welcome him accordingly when
he returns.

Still confused?  Well, join the lab or delete this message, your choice.  :)
 

Summary / Course D3scription
---------------------------------------------

Over the next 1337**(n+1) posts, we will be discussing the solution of the
PhreakNIC v3.0 Code (fewer posts may be required once white space is
removed).

At the end of this exercise, diligent participants will:
  - Grok the PhreakNIC Code and be able to post their own individualized
cryptic "I solved it" messages to the list
  - Have a bunch of cool new software utilities to play with
  - Gain at least a basic understanding of multiple cryptographic techniques
ranging from low-level binary code all the way up to some nifty
state-of-the-art stuff.
  - At PhreakNIC 4.0, be able to point at the v3.0 code and scoff, "Oh yeah
sure, I know how to do that one.  Haven't you figured it out yet?"
 

To join this lab, it is recommended that you have or obtain the following
(some materials will be provided):

1.  A Binary/Hex/ASCII conversion chart
2.  A ROT-13 encoder/decoder (will be provided)
3.  Patience (not provided -- you must bring your own)
4.  Pencil & Paper
5.  A few Meg of disk space to download some utilities and other stuff
6.  Eraser (no, NOT a disk eraser)
7.  A web browser
8.  Persistence (not provided)
9.  A text editor
10. Links to some *good* web search engines
11. A spoon
12. PGP Freeware (provided)
13. Insatiable curiosity (pre-requisite)
14. A UUencoder/decoder (provided)
15. Ability to spell correctly
16. More erasers
17. Ability to spell incorrectly/creatively
18. Familiarity with se2600 jargon (provided)
19. Basic understanding of how a web page is put together
20. Willingness to crawl inside jonnyX's head (yeah I know, this is the hard
one, but we'll get our revenge and put up Britney Spears posters before we leave)
21. Real Audio player
22. Warped sense of humor (will be provided, like it or not)
23! Other stuff that we'll get to when we get to it.
 

Okay everybody, ready?  Here we go, second star to the right and straight on
'til screaming...  See you on the Projects list!

Elonka  :)
http://members.aol.com/elonka

"I'm a gamer.  It's what I am.  It's what I do."