http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/Dev/App_Themes/C9/images/feedimage.pnghttp://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/Countdown to PDC2008: Poems, Pre-Conferences, Prosise and Petzold!http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/en-usSat, 16 Aug 2008 05:22:17 GMTSat, 16 Aug 2008 05:22:17 GMTEvNet (EvNet, Version=1.0.3599.6114, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null)<P>DON'T READ IF YOU WANT TO FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF...<BR><BR>I first started thinking that the codes were some sort of UUENCODE (i.e. base64), but these didn't produce much (not enough characters).&nbsp; Then I started thinking about the URL comment and the short length of the codes and the fact that they had no capitalization (a requirement of the encoding process).&nbsp; Then I heard the "tiny" phrase and then realized that your were referring to TINYURL URLs.&nbsp; Next, looks at what the URLS were and put them on two different tabs of IE 7 and flipped between them.&nbsp; I saw there was a difference and thought this might be an XOR.&nbsp; Starting looking for graphic code to do the subtraction and found: <A href="http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/xordemo.htm">http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/xordemo.htm</A>&nbsp;and was able to "kind of" see the text, but not enough to read it (ARGGHHH!).&nbsp; Then found a C# program: <A href="http://www.codersource.net/csharp_image_processing_xor.aspx">http://www.codersource.net/csharp_image_processing_xor.aspx</A>&nbsp;But, the EXE embedded in the project was broken (double ARGGGHHH!).&nbsp; Then decided to load the project in VS2008, compile it and try it out.&nbsp; So far, so good, got the program to run in the debugger, but the XOR image did not fit in the window.&nbsp; Fortunately, I have a VERY large monitor and after maximizing got the message.&nbsp; Next, went to Google, searched the PDC site for the date ("17") and...the answer.<BR><BR>It was a LOT of fun, even with the ARGHHH's&nbsp; :-)<BR></P>http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=421794Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:22:17 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=4217940http://channel9.msdn.com/421794/WebViewBug.aspx?EVT=0DON'T READ IF YOU WANT TO FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF...I first started thinking that the codes were some sort of UUENCODE (i.e. base64), but these didn't produce much (not enough characters).&nbsp; Then I started thinking about the URL comment and the short length of the codes and the fact that they had&#8230;Philip Lieberman0http://channel9.msdn.com/421794/Trackback.aspxCongratulations, Liebsoft! You're the winner of our second ever PDC2008 Hard Hat Challenge. And you answered 6 hours and 1 minute after we posted the show...that's 11 minutes faster than the first Hard Hat Challenge, by the way. I can tell that I'm going to have to up the difficulty level on the next Challenge. Drop us some e-mail at pdccount (at) microsoft.com when you have a chance, and we'll coordinate your t-shirt.<BR><BR>Feel free to explain how you solved the puzzle, or if you want to let others figure it out themselves, that's fine too. :-)http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=421789Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:45:47 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=4217890http://channel9.msdn.com/421789/WebViewBug.aspx?EVT=0Congratulations, Liebsoft! You're the winner of our second ever PDC2008 Hard Hat Challenge. And you answered 6 hours and 1 minute after we posted the show...that's 11 minutes faster than the first Hard Hat Challenge, by the way. I can tell that I'm going to have to up the difficulty level on the&#8230;mswanson0http://channel9.msdn.com/421789/Trackback.aspxWhich PDC2008 contest ends on October 17th, 2008?<A href="http://microsoftpdc.com/Social/Contest/ShowOff.aspx"><BR>http://microsoftpdc.com/Social/Contest/ShowOff.aspx</A><BR><BR>Ha!<BR><BR>Phil@liebsoft.com<BR>http://www.liebsoft.com<BR>http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=421781Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:13:15 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=4217810http://channel9.msdn.com/421781/WebViewBug.aspx?EVT=0Which PDC2008 contest ends on October 17th, 2008?http://microsoftpdc.com/Social/Contest/ShowOff.aspxHa!Phil@liebsoft.comhttp://www.liebsoft.comPhilip Lieberman0http://channel9.msdn.com/421781/Trackback.aspx<P>If you figure out the solution to the Hard Hat Challenge, post the question that you discovered and its answer on this forum. First correct post will win a very limited edition PDC2008 t-shirt (it's the one we use internally at Microsoft). If you want to see it, check out last week's show:&nbsp;<A href="http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Early-Bird-Discount-Ends-August-15/">http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Early-Bird-Discount-Ends-August-15/</A></P>http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=421761Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:11:45 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC2008-Poems-Pre-Conferences-Prosise-and-Petzold/?CommentID=4217610http://channel9.msdn.com/421761/WebViewBug.aspx?EVT=0If you figure out the solution to the Hard Hat Challenge, post the question that you discovered and its answer on this forum. First correct post will win a very limited edition PDC2008 t-shirt (it's the one we use internally at Microsoft). If you want to see it, check out last week's&#8230;mswanson0http://channel9.msdn.com/421761/Trackback.aspx