If you haven't felt hate for me yet, I have a feeling you will when you first see tomorrow's point. Sleep well, Codebreakers! #thegintercode
— Ginter Code (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
20155225612938718339186127178151512551324725318725093505730934522359262724422677842473414034326056339281 #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
305193349207325346148972340203212311942082447311278202137256149421341081491265494163713623713830110169279 #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
7710158105281139421703312453114618234414912611110638218229285260157261142144782202982611130625814129338116120 #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
2513529931211317131940316184132831732681172809466109185652002865723469192962952083011311632818931332033472249 #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
14819823323630423519517916921230024029222122029828322461709180311292092910334526324214110 #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
********************************************************
Actually, that's just too mean. #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
20155225612938718339
1861271781515125513247
253187250935057309345
2235926272442267784
2473414034326056339281
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
3051933492073253461489
7234020321231194208
2447311278202137256149
42134108149126549416
3713623713830110169279
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
771015810528113942170
33124531146182344149126
11110638218229285260157
261142144782202982611
130625814129338116120
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
2513529931211317131940
31618413283173268117280
94661091856520028657
234691929629520830113
11632818931332033472249
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
148198233236304235195179
169212300240292221220298
2832246170918031129
2092910334526324214110
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 27, 2015
Take a few days to ruminate. I'll take pity on you on Tuesday. #thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 28, 2015
********************************************************
And now, we give the solution to my favorite point of the contest. :)
The way the initial tweets were released (long strings of numbers, followed by "that's too mean", and then immediately followed by block versions of the strings), we felt pretty strongly that the CM released the point exactly as he intended. By showing the first step in the process, he confirmed that the lines in each block were important.
We did the math, and recognized that each line in each block contained exactly 8 card numbers. We knew the next step would be to identify the individual card numbers in each line, but that was impossible to do uniquely without more information (e.g. "2832246" could be "283 22 46", or "28 322 46", or "28 32 246" ... you get the picture).
The CM did indeed take pity on us on the following Tuesday:
32323232
33332323
33322233
32232322
32333233
33333331
23233321
31333333
23333222
23333233
23233323
33233333
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 31, 2015
33233333
33323331
13323333
23333332
33323333
22332332
32323332
33333323
33333333
33333333
22332223
32333323
#thegintercode
— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 31, 2015
Now we had the information we needed, to identify the exact card numbers in each line.
201
|
55
|
225
|
61
|
293
|
87
|
183
|
39
|
186
|
127
|
178
|
151
|
51
|
255
|
13
|
247
|
253
|
187
|
250
|
93
|
50
|
57
|
309
|
345
|
223
|
59
|
26
|
272
|
44
|
226
|
77
|
84
|
247
|
34
|
140
|
343
|
260
|
56
|
339
|
281
|
305
|
193
|
349
|
207
|
325
|
346
|
148
|
9
|
72
|
340
|
20
|
321
|
231
|
194
|
20
|
8
|
244
|
7
|
311
|
278
|
202
|
137
|
256
|
149
|
42
|
134
|
108
|
149
|
126
|
54
|
94
|
16
|
37
|
136
|
237
|
138
|
301
|
10
|
169
|
279
|
77
|
101
|
58
|
105
|
281
|
139
|
42
|
170
|
331
|
245
|
31
|
146
|
182
|
344
|
149
|
126
|
111
|
106
|
38
|
218
|
229
|
285
|
260
|
157
|
261
|
142
|
144
|
78
|
220
|
298
|
261
|
1
|
1
|
306
|
258
|
14
|
129
|
338
|
116
|
120
|
25
|
135
|
299
|
312
|
113
|
171
|
319
|
40
|
316
|
184
|
132
|
83
|
173
|
268
|
117
|
280
|
94
|
66
|
109
|
185
|
65
|
200
|
286
|
57
|
234
|
69
|
192
|
96
|
295
|
208
|
301
|
13
|
116
|
328
|
189
|
313
|
320
|
334
|
72
|
249
|
148
|
198
|
233
|
236
|
304
|
235
|
195
|
179
|
169
|
212
|
300
|
240
|
292
|
221
|
220
|
298
|
28
|
32
|
246
|
170
|
91
|
80
|
31
|
129
|
209
|
29
|
103
|
345
|
263
|
242
|
14
|
110
|
For a while, the fact that there are duplicates (and trips) in the grid bothered us. However, moving forward, we did a quick lookup from the 2014 Ginter base checklist to find the subjects of all those card numbers, and got:
| Paul O’Neill | Andrew Lambo | Pedro Martinez | Bo Jackson | Manny Ramirez | Alex Gordon | Jim Palmer | Chris Sale |
| Billy Hamilton | Greg Maddux | Domonic Brown | James Paxton | Oswaldo Arcia | Andre Rienzo | Gary Sheffield | Billy Williams |
| Rickey Henderson | David Price | Steve Cishek | Willie Mays | Orlando Hernandez | Carlos Beltran | Hunter Pence | Yasiel Puig |
| Tony Gwynn | Hal Newhouser | Fergie Jenkins | Tim Raines | Ty Cobb | Bob Gibson | Stan Musial | Francisco Liriano |
| Billy Williams | Felix Hernandez | Matt Moore | Phil Niekro | Jay Bruce | Jason Heyward | Jeff Samardzija | Yoenis Cespedes |
| Jayson Werth | Tom Glavine | John Smoltz | Justin Upton | Darryl Strawberry | Ivan Nova | Bryce Harper | Koji Uehara |
| Ralph Kiner | Dennis Eckersley | Babe Ruth | Adam Jones | Carlos Gomez | Avisail Garcia | Babe Ruth | Bob Feller |
| Jake Marisnick | Hector Santiago | Anibal Sanchez | CC Sabathia | Jim Rice | Reggie Jackson | Juan Marichal | Jose Canseco |
| Junior Lake | Jordan Zimmermann | Nolan Ryan | Jose Canseco | Willie Stargell | Yordano Ventura | Lou Brock | Bartolo Colon |
| Wil Myers | Carlos Gonzalez | James Shields | Mariano Rivera | Matt Kemp | Andrew McCutchen | Dale Murphy | Steve Carlton |
| Stan Musial | Mike Trout | Tyler Skaggs | Cole Hamels | Yoenis Cespedes | Jacoby Ellsbury | Junior Lake | Matt Holliday |
| Curtis Granderson | Matt Harvey | Michael Choice | Max Scherzer | Starling Marte | Jason Grilli | Jose Canseco | Willie Stargell |
| Frank Robinson | Patrick Corbin | Don Sutton | Casey Kelly | Julio Teheran | Carl Crawford | Jay Bruce | Hisashi Iwakuma |
| Duke Snider | Hiroki Kuroda | Brett Oberholtzer | Zack Greinke | Josh Hamilton | Deion Sanders | Duke Snider | Roger Maris |
| Roger Maris | Hyun-Jin Ryu | Ricky Nolasco | Michael Cuddyer | Hank Aaron | Andy Pettitte | Brett Gardner | Tom Seaver |
| Joe DiMaggio | Grant Balfour | Enny Romero | Mike Mussina | Shin-Soo Choo | Dusty Baker | Sonny Gray | Steve Delabar |
| Ken Griffey Jr. | Gerrit Cole | Ted Williams | Giancarlo Stanton | Jose Fernandez | Jarrod Parker | Yu Darvish | Whitey Ford |
| Lou Brock | Roger Clemens | Jhoulys Chacin | Jose Bautista | Fred McGriff | Zack Wheeler | Kris Medlen | Carlos Beltran |
| Roberto Clemente | Johnny Cueto | Daniel Nava | Madison Bumgarner | Ryan Braun | Al Kaline | Matt Kemp | Gary Sheffield |
| Brett Gardner | C.J. Wilson | Clayton Kershaw | Juan Gonzalez | Christian Yelich | Erik Johnson | Ralph Kiner | Aroldis Chapman |
| Bryce Harper | Jeff Locke | Dan Straily | J.D. Martinez | Matt Cain | Masahiro Tanaka | Chris Carpenter | Chris Archer |
| Dale Murphy | Doug Fister | R.A. Dickey | Tony Cingrani | Andre Dawson | Adam Eaton | Josh Hamilton | Deion Sanders |
| Mark Trumbo | Tim Lincecum | Dwight Gooden | Matt Holliday | Clay Buchholz | Justin Verlander | Michael Choice | Hank Aaron |
| Vladimir Guerrero | Shelby Miller | Jon Lester | Yasiel Puig | Alfonso Soriano | Warren Spahn | Michael Cuddyer | Jeremy Hellickson |
Asking yourself the right questions is nearly always the key to finding the solution. Brian and I noted that these were all baseball subjects. So, over 150 unique card numbers from the 2014 set, and not a single non-baseball subject? The odds of that being coincidence were infinitesimal, but we still didn't really have a definite path forward. How could we bin things, or create some delineation? American League vs National League? Maybe, but that's somewhat ill-defined and tricky. That's when I noticed something interesting about the first column of the table: They are all hitters. Hitters vs pitchers? Maybe ...
| Paul O’Neill | Andrew Lambo | Pedro Martinez | Bo Jackson | Manny Ramirez | Alex Gordon | Jim Palmer | Chris Sale |
| Billy Hamilton | Greg Maddux | Domonic Brown | James Paxton | Oswaldo Arcia | Andre Rienzo | Gary Sheffield | Billy Williams |
| Rickey Henderson | David Price | Steve Cishek | Willie Mays | Orlando Hernandez | Carlos Beltran | Hunter Pence | Yasiel Puig |
| Tony Gwynn | Hal Newhouser | Fergie Jenkins | Tim Raines | Ty Cobb | Bob Gibson | Stan Musial | Francisco Liriano |
| Billy Williams | Felix Hernandez | Matt Moore | Phil Niekro | Jay Bruce | Jason Heyward | Jeff Samardzija | Yoenis Cespedes |
| Jayson Werth | Tom Glavine | John Smoltz | Justin Upton | Darryl Strawberry | Ivan Nova | Bryce Harper | Koji Uehara |
| Ralph Kiner | Dennis Eckersley | Babe Ruth | Adam Jones | Carlos Gomez | Avisail Garcia | Babe Ruth | Bob Feller |
| Jake Marisnick | Hector Santiago | Anibal Sanchez | CC Sabathia | Jim Rice | Reggie Jackson | Juan Marichal | Jose Canseco |
| Junior Lake | Jordan Zimmermann | Nolan Ryan | Jose Canseco | Willie Stargell | Yordano Ventura | Lou Brock | Bartolo Colon |
| Wil Myers | Carlos Gonzalez | James Shields | Mariano Rivera | Matt Kemp | Andrew McCutchen | Dale Murphy | Steve Carlton |
| Stan Musial | Mike Trout | Tyler Skaggs | Cole Hamels | Yoenis Cespedes | Jacoby Ellsbury | Junior Lake | Matt Holliday |
| Curtis Granderson | Matt Harvey | Michael Choice | Max Scherzer | Starling Marte | Jason Grilli | Jose Canseco | Willie Stargell |
| Frank Robinson | Patrick Corbin | Don Sutton | Casey Kelly | Julio Teheran | Carl Crawford | Jay Bruce | Hisashi Iwakuma |
| Duke Snider | Hiroki Kuroda | Brett Oberholtzer | Zack Greinke | Josh Hamilton | Deion Sanders | Duke Snider | Roger Maris |
| Roger Maris | Hyun-Jin Ryu | Ricky Nolasco | Michael Cuddyer | Hank Aaron | Andy Pettitte | Brett Gardner | Tom Seaver |
| Joe DiMaggio | Grant Balfour | Enny Romero | Mike Mussina | Shin-Soo Choo | Dusty Baker | Sonny Gray | Steve Delabar |
| Ken Griffey Jr. | Gerrit Cole | Ted Williams | Giancarlo Stanton | Jose Fernandez | Jarrod Parker | Yu Darvish | Whitey Ford |
| Lou Brock | Roger Clemens | Jhoulys Chacin | Jose Bautista | Fred McGriff | Zack Wheeler | Kris Medlen | Carlos Beltran |
| Roberto Clemente | Johnny Cueto | Daniel Nava | Madison Bumgarner | Ryan Braun | Al Kaline | Matt Kemp | Gary Sheffield |
| Brett Gardner | C.J. Wilson | Clayton Kershaw | Juan Gonzalez | Christian Yelich | Erik Johnson | Ralph Kiner | Aroldis Chapman |
| Bryce Harper | Jeff Locke | Dan Straily | J.D. Martinez | Matt Cain | Masahiro Tanaka | Chris Carpenter | Chris Archer |
| Dale Murphy | Doug Fister | R.A. Dickey | Tony Cingrani | Andre Dawson | Adam Eaton | Josh Hamilton | Deion Sanders |
| Mark Trumbo | Tim Lincecum | Dwight Gooden | Matt Holliday | Clay Buchholz | Justin Verlander | Michael Choice | Hank Aaron |
| Vladimir Guerrero | Shelby Miller | Jon Lester | Yasiel Puig | Alfonso Soriano | Warren Spahn | Michael Cuddyer | Jeremy Hellickson |
Brian and I had a running joke with Jim at this point in the contest. We were like 20 points into this thing, and on at least a half-dozen separate occasions, Jim had declared "IT'S BINARY!!!". So of course, when he proclaimed "IT'S BINARY!!!" this time, I basically said "I'm out". :) Little did we know, Jim was about to shine like a supernova ... and in less than 30 minutes, the point would be solved.
I won't post the chat history for this one, under the 2014 Ginter Code Trade Secrets and Proprietary Information (and Otherwise Embarrassing Evidence) Act of 2014, but at one point Jim said "It's binary, 100% ... or I'm 100% wrong, I have no perspective"; I said "This seems to be going nowhere ...", and Brian said "Is it in German?" LOL. Full credit for the remainder of this solution goes to Jim. He obliterated it.
Pitchers and hitters. Pitchers are 1's, and hitters are 0's.
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Each line of the grid then becomes an 8-bit binary number.
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
00100011
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01010100
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01101000
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
01110010
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
01000001
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
01110010
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
00110001
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
00110000
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01010100
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
01111001
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01110000
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
01110011
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
01001111
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
01100110
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01010000
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
01101111
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01110000
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01101100
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
Then, each binary number is converted to its decimal value.
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
00100011
|
35
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01010100
|
84
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01101000
|
104
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
01110010
|
114
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
01000001
|
65
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
01110010
|
114
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
00110001
|
49
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
00110000
|
48
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01010100
|
84
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
01111001
|
121
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01110000
|
112
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
01110011
|
115
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
01001111
|
79
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
01100110
|
102
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01010000
|
80
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
01101111
|
111
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01110000
|
112
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01101100
|
108
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
And THEN, in a stunning twist ... each decimal value is converted to its ASCII equivalent.
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
00100011
|
35
|
#
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01010100
|
84
|
T
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01101000
|
104
|
h
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
e
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
01110010
|
114
|
r
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
e
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
01000001
|
65
|
A
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
01110010
|
114
|
r
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
e
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
00110001
|
49
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
00110000
|
48
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01010100
|
84
|
T
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
01111001
|
121
|
y
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01110000
|
112
|
p
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
e
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
01110011
|
115
|
s
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
01001111
|
79
|
O
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
01100110
|
102
|
f
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01010000
|
80
|
P
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
e
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
01101111
|
111
|
o
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
01110000
|
112
|
p
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
01101100
|
108
|
l
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
01100101
|
101
|
e
|
There are 10 types of people. (Those who understand binary, and those who don't.) A binary joke. :)
@TheGinterCode #ThereAre10TypesOfPeople
— ParanoidAndrew (@ParanoidAndrew) April 1, 2015