Page 69 of Cuts like a Knife
Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords.
Unsurprising. Oh well. I try again. I type “What codes have letters and numbers?”
Stupid and basic, maybe, but I have to start somewhere.
And surprisingly, this time there are tonnes of results. Surely none of them will be useful?
The top of the results page reads:
Top 10 Codes and Ciphers
Pigpen Cipher. This is a code where each letter and number is paired with a "tile" according to a tic-tac-toe pattern. …
Morse Code. This is a code where each letter is represented by a series of beeps.
Affine Cipher
Binary
L33T
Periodic Table Cipher
Sign Language
Atbash Cipher.
Hm. Maybe I will start here. With types of codes. Those seemingly random letters and numbers making up the emailer’s handle could mean something, right227? I can find decoder sites, or translators for each of these languages or ciphers or whatever.
I look at the top of the list, then quickly find a Pigpen Cipher to PlainText converter in a new window. It’s definitely not right. Pigpen cipher is like, boxy symbols. Not normal letters and numbers.
Morse Code I skip. I already know it’s “dits and dahs”. My father explained it to all of us when were little kids. Short and long tones. S-O-S is three short, three long, three short228. Everybody knows that. Can’t be right.
Searching for info on the Affine Cipher gives me an immediate headache. Nope.
Next comes Binary. Computer code. I already know it’s a series of ones and zeros, so I’m not hopeful. Sure enough, when I plug the username into the binary converter thingy I find, it comes out in an exceedingly long mess. So many ones. So many zeros. But on the same page as the Binary Converter there’s some additional text.
How to convert binary to hex
Convert every 4 binary digits (start from bit 0) to 1 hex digit, with the following table.
Then there’s a table showing binary codes that translate into more simple hex codes. I think? I admit, I don’t really get it, but I’m not sure I need to.
Like, the converters are right here. The computer is doing the work. I don’t need to have a full understanding about how it all works, do I? And I have to admit, it’s sort of intriguing. Fun. Like playing a game. I scroll deeper, trying to get a basic handle on what the site is saying. My eyes are scanning more than reading because this is all beyond my scope of knowledge for sure.
How to Convert Text to Hex
Convert text to hex ASCII code:
Get character
Get decimal code of character fromASCII table
Convert decimal to hex byte
