Hey Jarlve, you can credit Geoff L as an "assistant" if you want. I will keep going with the solver for a while. I messed up my last two divisions and have to start over at 9/0. I feel despondent sometimes, but am in the twilight zone of wanting to move forward. There is stuff that I want to do, but can’t get myself to do it right now. I did make some really nice spreadsheets this year. Thanks.

Okay smokie. You made me look up despndent hehe. I can understand that. Just wait for the right moment – it will come.

In an episode of PBS Space Time it is postulated that the maximum compute power of the universe as we know it is about 5×10^102. I guess this is in a classical non-quantum view. The point is that it is not nearly enough to for example visit every possible transposition variation of the 340. This just gave me some newfound respect for the problem. In other words, if the 340 remains unsolved, and if possible, you are better off running a simulation of the universe to see what Zodiac did than to go through every variation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GLgZvTCbaA

2:45 a.m. here and having one of those nights. Jarlve, I will post results for the null skip work LRTB total 9 skips and nulls soon. Almost done.

I checked 10 isometric patterns from each corner going each direction for cycles (80 total), and found one that is more prevalent than LRTB AB. I counted consecutive alternations starting from the corner but stopped counting and scoring when there was an interruption. I scored by consecutive alternations ^ 2 and summed up all scores for all 1,953 possible combinations. For example, ABAB would be 3 ^2. Here are the results. Can’t remember if anyone has done this before.

LRTB
32685 A B
17380 A A B
18025 A B A
14261 A B B
26146 A A A B
21588 A A B A
6336 A A B B
19225 A B A A
14205 A B B A
24561 A B B B

RLBT
24313 A B
12508 A A B
13981 A B A
18365 A B B
24346 A A A B
18284 A A B A
7828 A A B B
35637 A B A A
9357 A B B A
13301 A B B B

RLTB
15717 A B
22192 A A B
17841 A B A
11929 A B B
19390 A A A B
12640 A A B A
6556 A A B B
16457 A B A A
14761 A B B A
23681 A B B B

LRBT
14132 A B
25713 A A B
13632 A B A
15862 A B B
9725 A A A B
12113 A A B A
8973 A A B B
23952 A B A A
9926 A B B A
16082 A B B B

TBLR
9781 A B
9578 A A B
8521 A B A
10081 A B B
15388 A A A B
15274 A A B A
7750 A A B B
9369 A B A A
8409 A B B A
18053 A B B B

BTRL
9978 A B
8163 A A B
10002 A B A
10268 A B B
11491 A A A B
7171 A A B A
6695 A A B B
22730 A B A A
8980 A B B A
8136 A B B B

TBRL
8172 A B
7927 A A B
10600 A B A
11690 A B B
9251 A A A B
7335 A A B A
6963 A A B B
28464 A B A A
7650 A B B A
11938 A B B B

BTLR
9348 A B
19013 A A B
9344 A B A
9790 A B B
10577 A A A B
15109 A A B A
9917 A A B B
9880 A B A A
8318 A B B A
19286 A B B B

This one reading right left bottom top ABAAABAAABAAAB is more prevalent. See below on left is this pattern compared to ABABABABABABAB on right, minimum 8 consecutive alternations shaded light green. You might have to scroll to the right to see it all.

Sounds good smokie. 10 nulls & skips LRBT period 15 are almost finished for me. I will also try to release AZdecrypt 1.12 the coming weekend — check my avatar for the new logo.

I checked 10 isometric patterns from each corner going each direction for cycles (80 total), and found one that is more prevalent than LRTB AB. I counted consecutive alternations starting from the corner but stopped counting and scoring when there was an interruption. I scored by consecutive alternations ^ 2 and summed up all scores for all 1,953 possible combinations. For example, ABAB would be 3 ^2. Here are the results. Can’t remember if anyone has done this before.

Seems odd, can you try alternations * (alternations – 1) instead of alternations ^ 2?

Yes, change the formula I can. Soon it is easy. I am very excited about my discovery. There is more of the ABAAABAAABA pattern reading RLBT than there is of the ABABABABABA pattern reading LRTB. It has to be a product of the cipher or whatever mechanism created this puzzle. The high frequency symbols don’t cycle much reading LRTB, but several of them do appear in this new pattern reading RLBT. I will get into more detail soon. The new icon is awesome.

With the formula you wanted:

LRTB ABAB
7382

RLBT ABAA
5590

With the formula you wanted:

LRTB ABAB
7382

RLBT ABAA
5590

I assume that the "alternations * (alternations – 1)" filtered out the noise?

I don’t know. I was looking for a perfect pattern that must begin at one corner, and stopped counting alternations at the first interruption. Part of the reason is because the most high frequency symbols just don’t cycle LRTB, with the exception of a few cycles that start after the corner and do not continue to the opposite corner. But you can shuffle a message easily and get that because they are high frequency. That was the noise that I was trying to omit.

Here is a distribution of the alternations. Left alternations, middle LRTB ABAB, right RLBT ABAA. (Red) there are more, longer cycles for RLBT ABAA, but (blue) more, shorter cycles for LRTB ABAB.

13 1 1
12 1 1
11 2 5
10 1 0
9 1 3
8 8 9
7 19 12
6 25 25
5 49 18
4 141 75
3 208 132
2 398 363

This is only L=2 so there may be other symbols that fit into some of these cycles, and concurrent cycles can cause false true cycles. But what I am wondering is if a pattern RLBT, multiple concurrent cycles could cause LRTB ABAB.

Look at the stats for all of the patterns and LRTB and RLBT are higher than for any other direction and from any other corner.

EDIT: Totals of all patterns checked.

LRTB 194412
RLBT 177920
RLTB 161164
LRBT 150110
TBLR 112204
BTRL 103614
TBRL 109990
BTLR 120582

I am working on a new cycle pattern analysis "ABABA" implementation for AZdecrypt and will be able to pitch in soon.

But what I am wondering is if a pattern RLBT, multiple concurrent cycles could cause LRTB ABAB.

Seems unlikely. And as seen before, there are good indications that the 340 is encoded LRTB rather than RLBT.

My girlfriend is going to be visiting me for a couple of weeks, starting this weekend. I am going to put the Acer away, and am wondering if you want to do P 19 LRTB 10. Or I can do it after she is gone so then it may be done by the end of the year. She thinks that the 340 maybe has been solved because of the TV show and maybe doesn’t take me seriously I think when I tell her it is not. Anyway, I will need to get one of these computers off of the dining room table. I will still be working on some stuff when she is sleeping though.

My girlfriend is going to be visiting me for a couple of weeks, starting this weekend. I am going to put the Acer away, and am wondering if you want to do P 19 LRTB 10. Or I can do it after she is gone so then it may be done by the end of the year. She thinks that the 340 maybe has been solved because of the TV show and maybe doesn’t take me seriously I think when I tell her it is not. Anyway, I will need to get one of these computers off of the dining room table. I will still be working on some stuff when she is sleeping though.

Sure. I will do both the period 19 for 10 nulls and skips. She probably saw the "solved 340" as some sort of convenience.

I have started up P19 LRTB & RLBT. Should be done by the end of the month or a bit later. We should collect & present our findings after that.

As far as presentation, did you have anything specific in mind other than making a presentation here? Just wondering.

Here is okay for my part. I would keep it reasonably brief also.

O.k. sounds good.