Comment Feed for Channel 9 - Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

mswanson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:12:34 GMT

What a fun episode to film! While all of our keynotes are sure to be chock full of developer goodness (tm), I think that Chris and Don will be a blast to watch. They have a great sense of humor, and they're true geeks.

Also, as the description notes, last week's Hard Hat Challenge remains unsolved. I've added a few hints to the comment section if you want to take a stab at it. Good luck!

posted by mswanson

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

littleguru — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:09:03 GMT

Is there a way that you can share the picture that you showed in the video in this thread... Thanks.

posted by littleguru

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Charles — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:23:53 GMT

Awesome. Looking forward to the Don and Chris show at PDC! Don't miss it, my friends.
C

posted by Charles

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

mswanson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:28:03 GMT

Certainly, littleguru. Here you go.

posted by mswanson

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Orand — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:57:23 GMT

The video is incomplete at 9:24.

posted by Orand

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

mswanson — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:18:34 GMT

Orand...we use a kitchen timer to keep the show short and tight. That's what you may have seen Jennifer dial at the beginning of the video. The timer tends to run a bit fast, which is why it went off at 9:24. I suppose we could explain it at the beginning of each show, but we've probably gotten lazy by assuming that everyone has seen our prior shows.

posted by mswanson

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

tomkirbygreen — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:57:30 GMT

Chris and Don are *always* worth my time. More. More. More!

posted by tomkirbygreen

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

palotasb — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:33:17 GMT

Mike, could you post the image as text maybe? You see I am too lazy to type it down or to download some OCR software...

posted by palotasb

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Judah — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:45:39 GMT

Let's see if the geniuses at StackOverflow.com can help us out with the code deciphering.

posted by Judah

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Judah — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:29:38 GMT

Here are some interesting stats from the cipher they flashed on the screen:

There are 708 characters in the cipher, excluding new line characters.

Given a chunk size of 3 characters,

There are 236 chunks.
There are 172 duplicates.
All the characters are numbers between 2 and 9.
The 323 code shows up a whopping total of 29 times!
The 333 code shows up 11 times.
All other codes show up 7 times or less.
35 chunks start with a 2.
200 chunks start with a 3. (Interesting!)
1 chunk starts with a 4.
Despite the cipher containing 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s, chunks only start with 2 and 3, except the 1 chunk that starts with 4.
There are no 0s.
There are no 1s.
There are 115 2s.
There are 293 3s.
There are 56 4s.
There are 38 5s.
There are 49 6s.
There are 52 7s.
There are 63 8s.
There are 42 9s.

The 323 code is very interesting indeed. I'm leaning towards chunk sizes of 3 being involved somehow. We'll see!

posted by Judah

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

palotasb — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:29:56 GMT

How many tables are at ask the experts?

More than 200. http://www.microsoftpdc.com/Agenda/UnSessions.aspx#ask-the-experts

Cheers,
A 15-yr old kid from Hungary who now feels cool.

PS. I will be posting how to solve it in a few hours.

posted by palotasb

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

mswanson — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:33:18 GMT

Congratulations, palotsab! You have indeed validated your geek credibility. Great job. Please send us an e-mail at pdccount (at) microsoft.com, and we'll coordinate your very limited edition PDC2008 internal t-shirt. I can't wait to read how you worked through the Challenge.

posted by mswanson

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Judah — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:44:11 GMT

So, I was on the right track with the "chunks of 3" thing. Cool. But I wasn't able to solve it.

Just finished talking to palotasb (Boldizsar) above who solved it. He posted a discussion of how he solved it at his blog.

Wow. Nice solve. I'm blown away by his hacking skills. 15 year old, of all things!

Congrats on the solve!

posted by Judah

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

mswanson — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:12:48 GMT

Thanks for the link to palotasb's blog, Judah. And great write-up, palotasb! You even recognized the small "clues" at each step...very impressive.

I'm working on this week's Challenge as we speak. It should be another fun one.

posted by mswanson

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

littleguru — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:21:42 GMT

Wow cool... I was also thinking for it being some kind of Base encoding in the end... But really cool how he solved it

posted by littleguru

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Sokol — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:00:08 GMT

How many tables at ask the experts?

posted by Sokol

Re: Countdown to PDC2008: By Developers, for Developers: Don Box and Chris Anderson

Sokol — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:07:24 GMT

Sorry, didn't realize someone had already solved it:)

posted by Sokol