Regular readers of Miss Geeky will know how much I love a good puzzle, and this site is definitely an interesting puzzle. Go to canyoucrackit.co.uk and take a look. Intrigued? I am.

This could take me a while. I always love code-cracking type games, like MacHeist and some of the more interesting movie virals. Most of those though have been quite easy, using simple substitution cyphers. Having been to Bletchley Park last month (which you all should do, cause the place is awesome) made me realize how intricate and crafty some codes can be.

And this one looks like it could be quite intricate and crafty. Just look at the last line: "9d ff ff ff 41 41 41 41". With those repeats, I don't think it's going to be a simple substitution. Plus the combination of letters and numbers is throwing me off.

So: can you crack it? Do you have any ideas on how to solve this?

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This is so subtly geeky, and looks pretty! I wonder how many people would figure it out. COATT designs necklaces, each spelling out a word in morse code.

This one is “lucky“:

And this one is the obvious “sos“:

My favourites are the above two necklaces (I would so love to have the sos one in silver), but they also do more designs like “love”, “friend” and “peace”. Most of the necklaces cost $36, but it depends on the amount of bits used (the above ones all cost $36). You can also get a custom name one for $56.

Interesting stuff I’ve come across this week:

• Cat vs Human: spot on. Most mornings at around 6am the cats will start being annoying. Well, it’s mainly just one of them (Casey), but he’ll start knocking off stuff from my bedside table or the table in our living room. The best way to get them quiet again is to give a bit of food, but sometimes even that won’t help. Btw, if you’re based in San Francisco, Cat vs Human will have a book signing there on November the 9th!
• Star Trek Quiet Book: Aw, this is just too cute!
• Why Cleavage Is Bad For Crime Fighting: I completely agree. Some outfits would just be so unpractical!
• The Prestige of Being a Web Developer: Great presentation/blog post from Christian Heilmann on how the three acts of magic tricks can be applied to web development.
• The Surprising Science Behind Smiles: Interesting Wired interview about smiles (I used a lot of the same theory in my research).

I love the Simon’s Cat videos. They’re such a spot-on portrayal of cats, and I think every cat owner sees something of their own cat in Simon’s cat.

Yesterday I responded to a tweet from Simon’s Cat’s twitter account and managed to snag some last minute tickets to their latest book and video launch. It was great actually seeing Simon in real life and getting to hear about his experiences with the comic/videos and his cats (who sound so adorable and even more ridiculous than my own cats). And all attendees got an awesome goody bag with a signed version of the new book and lots of other Simon’s Cat goodies!

Here’s the new video “Double Trouble” featuring a new cute character:

“Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

These dice from etsy store MecahnicalOddities look awesome:

Too bad they are a bit too pricy: $11.50 for a single die…

I love some of the tees from J!NX and they’ve now released some new Portal 2 items… including these knee-high socks:

I am so, so tempted! They’re only £9.99 (although only $9.99 in the US, not exactly a fair conversion). I also love their Portal Earrings (£12.99):

Then there’s their cute Keep Calm and Continue Testing tee:

What do you think? Should I get these?

Last weekend I volunteered at the LinkedGov HackCamp, a 2 day hackday for developers and designers to come up with some cool uses for government data. There were some awesome hacks, and overall the entire weekend was a great success.

We did however end up with a little bit too much food. For some reason our curry order included a huge bucket with over 5 liters of mint sauce (seriously, 5 liters?). Tom had the crazy idea to use that leftover sauce for a bottle rocket…

So after we wrapped up the HackCamp a small group of attendees went to a local park, to witness the launch of a mint sauce bottle rocket:

I was standing a safe distant away, so managed to stay clear from the splashing sauce, but Tom and the two camera guys (Julien and Alex) were completely covered in sauce! And from where I was standing I managed to get this awesome shot:

Here are some more shots from before and after the launch:

In the days leading up to the last Barcamp London (back in November) Tom Scott asked if I wanted to help out with one of his projects: You Against The World. The idea was to do a live quiz, with the 100 people in the audience answering questions (through these cool multiple-choice handheld thingies), but also allowing players online to participate. I think we even got #yatw to trend on Twitter that evening!

I got to be the co-host for the quiz, doing the behind-the-scene game control and giving random bits of info about the answers and online players:

It was great fun recording this all! I’m not great on camera (I still look like a complete idiot every time I try to smile with my braces), but that’s exactly why I wanted to do this. I still get so nervous any time I’m in front of a camera and really need to get over my nerves. And what better way than practice?

For more info about You Against The World and to see more of Tom’s projects, check out his website.

Back in 2008, I wrote about the Disney Dream Portrait campaign with photos by Annie Leibovtiz, and it’s been one of my most linked-to posts (check out those photos here). A couple of days ago 3 new photos for the campaign were added and again they’re so gorgeous!

It’s also interesting to see that Disney is using actors that are featured in their main live-action franchises right now: Olivia Wilde and Jeff Bridges were both in Tron, Penelope Cruz will be in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.

Where A Moment Of Beauty Lasts Forever

Jeff Bridges as The Beast, Penelope Cruz as Belle

Where Magic Speaks, Even When You’re Not The Fairest Of Them All

Olivia Wilde as the Evil Queen

Where Memories Take Hold and Never Let Go

Queen Latifah as Ursula (from The Little Mermaid)

So who are we still missing? Which Disney character would you like to see? I think we’re still missing The Hunchback and Esmeralda, Mulan, Tarzan and Jane, and then the more recent princesses like Rapunzel and Tiana. I’d love to see Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi as Rapunzel and Flynn!