Holy cow

[LLapp]

Help, I can't delete this post.....
I tried to upload a screenshot of will0416's remarkable 2-second record, but the image isn't working.
But anyway, 2 seconds! Holy cow!!

[Fudi]

I can't quite see it ... it's tiny for me and I can't make it bigger and also clear enough to read ... but I'm guessing it says our Will has a 1-second record? (Maybe his screen name should be "Holy Cow!") Way to go, Will!

[Eureka]

I think it reads: "There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness." Proverb (and I'm sure will0416 had a moment of happiness when he got the 2 second record )

[LLapp]

Thanks Eureka! Yes, that was it.
I wish I could have gotten a clear image. If not for the low-res blur, it would show bansai in 13th place with 6 seconds. The influx of new super-fast players lately seems like a literal game-changer.

[kbpolsen]

Whoa, he is a marvel!

[Eureka]

"Where there is no shame, there is no honor."

— African Proverb

This is another puzzle with a 2 second record by will0416. What an amazing solver!

[Eureka]

Another one of will0416's 2 second records is "There is no right way to do something wrong." I believe it is another proverb.

[partale]

How would someone look at a new puzzle, start a calculated guess and type in 2 seconds??

[LLapp]

Partale, the same way that someone would do that in 6 seconds, but faster. These are usually quotes with lots of very familiar letter patterns that an experienced cryptographer can pick out right away. Combine the familiar patterns with the auto-fill function on this website (meaning you type each letter of the alphabet only once), and the quote fills itself in very fast. That said, you still have to practice for many, many hours and solve thousands of cryptograms before you get that fast.

[Anachronismatic]

It's kind-of nuts. I got "good" at the logic problems many years ago. By good, meaning I'd set a record as often as not. I probably hit the leaderboard on a crypt one in 100 times, maybe that's generous. I don't think cheating is going on because if someone did write a program to cheat, you'd see the same insane times on the harder crypts.

In theory, a program could be written to automatically read the html, extract the encrypted letters, use a dictionary and run through the 25! possible (25 factorial - since letters don't equal themselves) , with letter frequency analyzed to optimize the search because 25! is about 1.5E+25, then pop it back into the form and return. Spitballing on that, I'd think a NASA-level supercomputer might be required to consistently get record times, but the algorithm could be greatly improved by learning methods similar to how we attack crypts (best educated first guess, and so on). It would be an interesting project, but the optimizing would turn it into a full-time endeavor for a while.

The same type of approach was used to build the giant bookcase-sized machines that were used to decipher the Enigma messages, but that was a brute-force method that required some insight into the mistakes the Axis code-operators made when setting up the machines and constructing the messages. Had the operators understood the Enigma for what it was and how it worked, it would have been unbreakable in those days and WWII would have lasted a lot longer. Arrogance is one of the worst of our human flaws. Or maybe one of the best.

Anyway, I believe these times are real, somehow. My approach may be wrong, or I'm just slow at it, but I've topped out at about 12 seconds on the easiest ones. Partly because I seem to want to be "sure" before I start typing and second because I hunt-and-peck - can't touch-type - with huge hands (can't use a laptop, and refuse to even consider buying a smart phone). I don't think I'm going to get much faster than I am now - satisfied to keep getting 100% every month.

[Fudi]

I wonder how many here are holdouts about smartphones. I also don't have one ... and am 56. Chime in if you, too, don't have a smart phone, and maybe offer up your age and reasoning for holding back (if you wanna, that is). My husband has one and we're usually together and his usually satisfies our family's smartphone needs. More and more things in life require one, though, all the time, which I, personally, find annoying. The latest example being restaurant menus. Lately, so many restaurants no longer offer paper menus and want you to scan theirs in, using a smart phone. So, hubby and I can't look at the menu at the same time and have to memorize our selections after choosing, to note them to our server. I say ugh! to this. We saw a show in town recently, too, and you could not print your tickets out. They had to be displayed on your phone. Sigh. My mom and stepdad are moving to a senior living center soon - they are 81/82 - and my mom also doesn't have a smart phone (though my stepdad does). I worry that if she outlives him, that she won't really be able to function in society without learning how to use one at that point. I am confident that I *could* learn how to use one, but I'm not sure how my mom would fare. Anyway, sorry for straying from the topic at hand. Our Will is smarter than all of our smartphones, I think!

[glassguy]

I don't have a smart phone, and I am mid-80's. The only people who call me want to help me with my Medicare and reduce the interest rate on my credit card!

[Eureka]

"The secret to life is that there is no secret."

— Swampman on Quartz

Another of will0416's 2 second records. That's four that I've seen.

[momn8r]

sure wish my internet flew like that!

[imported_Beverly]

How would someone look at a new puzzle, start a calculated guess and type in 2 seconds??

IMHO, it's a trick. No one can even type in two seconds the 14 needed letters [THERISNOAPLYMF] for the quote ("There is no happiness: there are only moments of happiness.") In fact, as fast as I tried to speak, I cannot even SAY "There is no happiness: there are only moments of happiness." in under three seconds. I'm not sure how these absurd records are established, but I don't believe in them any more than I believe in God or believe that a Covid vaccine is protecting anyone from anything (that said, yes, I'm vaccinated and boostered. Not because I think it's of any particular benefit to me or to anyone around me, but only because I know the Govt. is in the position of restricting my mobility on any form of public transportation unless I can establish that I've been vaccinated. That's power - but it's not progress.) I do know there are people whose egos depend on being the record holder, even of things as inconsequential as Cryptogram solved times. It's just how some folks get by, in life.