dbradby.net

OK, I'll bite... where did you see it? Is a Java String?

If you look at every second character, starting from the first, you get a pretty pattern.

*groan* If you are expected to maintain that code, you have my sympathy.

CLUE 1: I saw it on a web page after I selected all the text and pasted it into a text editor.

CLUE 2: The web page was linked from Slashdot recently

CLUE 3: It is more relevant to me than you (Alan)

I decided to put this up especially because you cannot google for it

I know what it is...long. What did I win?

Oh yeah prize.

Free accom. in Boston, MA

BTW this is going to be harder for Aussies than ppl from the US (HINT HINT)

This is not related to programming.

Another HINT ... group the letters in 2's

I did the grouping into twos at about 11:10pm your time. It got me into quite a state, hence the loud *groan* :)

Then I had to Google around to find out why string was 140 characters long instead of only 100.

Do I win free accomodation too?

You would laugh at my first attempt. In Python:

>>> X = 'your 140 character string'
>>> Y = [ord(c) - 0x40 for c in X]

Y is now a list of numbers, that starts like this:
[1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 5, 1, 11, 1, 12, ...]

Now, dropping the first '1', 1 + 1 = 2. 5 is also the sum of all the numbers so far in the list, except the first '1'. 11 fits the pattern too. But 12 is the sum of only the previous two numbers, or of all the preceeding numbers except the first and the number 11...

I'm ashamed that it took me as long as it did to figure that one out.

with distributed systems (blogs?) stateless is the way to go I believe

ANSWER

It is a collection of US and Canadian State Codes

You all win free accom. in Boston! Especially for clever ways to convey the answer.

Alan I also had to google why the string wasn't around 100 chars. I got the Canada part but was suprised to find the American Military states had codes eg AA.

didnt know Military States had state codes. now you know why the 2-letter grouping hint didnt help me much. :-) good one.