The Sword and Laser discussion

***CONTEST CLOSED***

EDIT: Congratulations to Belen and David Sven for being the first two to figure out the code.

The answer was Doctorow Rothfuss Omens Neuromancer Ender, which spells out DRONE.


Calling All Cryptologically-Inclined GoodReaders!

Daniel Suarez, author of Kill Decision and our interviewee this week, wants to send two of our GoodReaders personalized copies of the book, and we’ve decided that we’re going to test your code-cracking mettle to determine who will win one of the two copies!

Below is our Sword & Laser-edition of the NATO alphabet, including author names, book titles, and a few other S&L terms.

We’ve picked FIVE of the words below and made them into a password. The password is a word, not some mumbo-jumbo assortment of letters, and is related to this week’s interview with Daniel Suarez.

Examples:
-Williams Herbert Abercrombie Tregillis = WHAT
-Merritt Abercrombie Pullman Suarez = MAPS

The first TWO GoodReaders to guess the correct password will each win a personalized copy of Kill Decision.

Watch this week’s episode of Sword & Laser, get code crackin’ and when you think you know the password, message your answer to Becca the Intern.

Submissions will be taken until Midnight, Monday, July 23rd, and the winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 24th.

Happy Code Cracking!

Sword & Laser NATO Alphabet:

A: Abercrombie
B: Belmont
C: Card
D: Doctorow
E: Ender
F: Fuzzy (Nation)
G: Gaiman
H: Herbert
I: IQ84
J: Jordan
K: Kay
L: Lem
M: Merritt
N: Neuromancer
O: (Good) Omens
P: Pullman
Q: Quebec
R: Rothfuss
S: Suarez
T: Tregillis
U: Unshapely (Things)
V: Vegemite
W: Williams
X: X-Ray
Y: Yu
Z: Zombie

This hurts my head.

Jenny wrote: "This hurts my head."

LOL - agreed! Both my husband and I read this post and sat for awhile trying to figure out what we were supposed to do. We eventually gave up. Kudos to whoever can figure it out (and maybe hopefully explain it to the rest of us later)!

I think you're supposed to find the code word, some word from the video. But that would not require the use of the code (because if Williams Herbert Abercrombie Tregillis = WHAT, then pillar = Pullman IQ84 Lem Lem Abercrombie Neuromancer = PILLAR), so...

???

I was thinking maybe it was five words from the video that make a word related to the video. Which may also be why I gave myself a headache just now thinking about it again.

Stephanie wrote: "I was thinking maybe it was five words from the video that make a word related to the video. Which may also be why I gave myself a headache just now thinking about it again."
That would be fun....

As they have every letter of the alphabet represented you could ignore the words altogether as Red Herrings because they don't actually matter. So long as you only have 5 distinct letters.

David Sven wrote: "As they have every letter of the alphabet represented you could ignore the words altogether as Red Herrings because they don't actually matter. So long as you only have 5 distinct letters."
That's what it seemed to me too.

Maybe it gets easier to understand if you look at it the other way around. Find a 5-letter word related to the interview, then replace the letters (each of the 5) with the words from the code and you get yourself a password. What I'm not sure about, is that if it has to be all different words, or if you could repeat them if necessary...
Please correct me if i'm not getting this thing right :P
happy cracking!

Well, it appears to me that all that is asked for submission is the one password. You HAVE to use 5 and only 5 words, but the fact that it isn't specified that the password has to be five letters suggests you can use words more than once. But there is no real code as every letter of the alphabet is represented. So you can spell any word you want and the only rule is that there must be exactly 5 DISTINCT letters in the word and it must relate to the interview.

David Sven wrote: "But there is no real code as every letter of the alphabet is represented. So you can spell any word you want and the only rule is that there must be exactly 5 DISTINCT letters in the word and it must relate to the interview. "

I don't know.

Becca wrote: "We’ve picked FIVE of the words below and made them into a password. The password is a word, not some mumbo-jumbo assortment of letters, and is related to this week’s interview with Daniel Suarez."

Sounds like there's an actual, five letter word we need to be coming up with that has already been chosen. We're guessing a password, not coming up with suggestions for one.

Um, I'm gonna guess:

Doctorow Rothfuss Omens IQ84 Doctorow

Have I got the right idea, or have I just said something really silly?

Wait, it says 'message your answer to Becca the intern'. How does one do that???

Edit: I think I messaged her properly..maybe. :P

That's how I initially read it and I've put my guess in as a 5 letter word. But if you could use one of the 5 words twice you would get a six letter word. Anyway, there are multiple solutions or words one could come up with so its going to be a lucky dip who guesses the right one.

Ruth wrote: "Um, I'm gonna guess:

Doctorow Rothfuss Omens IQ84 Doctorow

Have I got the right idea, or have I just said something really silly?

Wait, it says 'message your answer to Becca the intern'. How doe..."

They have picked 5 words. You only have 4 with one used twice.

I noticed that, but I wasn't sure if one word used twice was acceptable or not. I was really trying to get the idea more for curiosity than anything.

Ruth wrote: "I noticed that, but I wasn't sure if one word used twice was acceptable or not. I was really trying to get the idea more for curiosity than anything."

So long as you have 5 words. Whether you can use one word twice to get a six letter word is not that clear.

Ruth wrote: "Um, I'm gonna guess:

Doctorow Rothfuss Omens IQ84 Doctorow

That's close to my guess

Doctorow Rothfuss Omens Neuromance Ender

Like you I tried more for fun than to actually win anything :-)

Tassie Dave wrote: "Ruth wrote: "Um, I'm gonna guess:

Doctorow Rothfuss Omens IQ84 Doctorow

That's close to my guess

Doctorow Rothfuss Omens Neuromance Ender

Like you I tried more for fun than to actually win anyt..."

Hah. That was my guess.

Yes, that sounds far better than my guess. :D Fun or not, good luck! :D

Yesterday, I became a little obsessive, listened to the videos 5-6 times, made lists of words, compared those words to the S&L Nato alphabet, made lists of Nato alphabet words based on names of authors, names of guests of the show, names of books read. Then using example words, tried to find some sort of pattern to the composure of letters. I was unsuccessful. Then I watched the show again with sound muted, tried to find visual clues to no avail.

In the end I decided there is no pattern, thus no real code to break. This is a guessing game. So I made a guess. I hope I'm right. :)

Tassie Dave wrote: "Doctorow Rothfuss Omens Neuromance Ender"


That was my guess too but since I'm late to the party, I won't bother with sending in a submission.
Very cool idea though!

I get most of the references in the alphabet, but what is the significance of Quebec? Or is it just a really hard letter to come up with something else for, heck it is what NATO uses.

John wrote: "I get most of the references in the alphabet, but what is the significance of Quebec? Or is it just a really hard letter to come up with something else for, heck it is what NATO uses."

I didn't notice that before :-)

We should come up with S&L alternates:

Sword: Quest, Queen (Cersei), Quill,
Laser: Quantum, Quasar, Quark

I always used Queen rather than Quebec when I worked in a call centre. Because if I didn't, people would normally say 'eh?'.

But now I want to use Quantum. :D

And while we're on the subject of phonetic alphabets, my favourite example made up by a customer was "N for nutty". I found that to be delightful. :D

Watch over the man's shoulder during the interview. Clearly the secret word is Kay IQ84 Tregillis Tregillis Yu: "KITTY."

well I hope you will at least reveal the answer and how to get it once the contest is over...

Love the alternative entries for Q!

Consider 'Quantum' the official replacement for Quebec, which was a holdover from the original NATO alphabet that I forgot to change when I posted this contest...

Yay! I won something for a change! Good thing I started reading Daemon first, otherwise I would already have paid for the prize.

("Heartfelt" apologies for asserting bragging rights)

Yaaaaaaaay! Gotta love bragging rights. Well done to the winners. :D

yay! yay! (non bragging yay's)

I wonder what "personalized copy" means... any idea?

(yay!):P

Congrats. :-)

Belen wrote: "I wonder what "personalized copy" means... any idea?
"
It has a built in GPS tracking device inserted to make it easier for the unmanned drone to find you ;-)

Tassie Dave wrote: It has a built in GPS tracking device inserted to make it easier for the unmanned drone to find you ;-)"

hahahah!!

damn, that makes a lot of sense