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Christopher is reasonably upset. The invention that has brought him the most glory and fame has come under attack, and more and more people have started using a very similar invention. To express his frustration, he distributed an encoded message, that only people using his invention would be able to interpret.

Here's the message:

DSXCE/RVY/UTBMU/CETGDB/CTBGF/WXSESC/ZM/XRVYN/TBNY/YRFHNV/MUYI/XN/TECDF/VYNHG/BVR/YNM/.

What does the encoded message say?

Do you have the means to interpret it? Or are you a traitor to Christopher's vision?

It may help knowing what Christopher invented, but alas, that would reveal too much to make this puzzle any challenge, though I will confidently say that, if you're reading this, you have probably already used his (or his competitor's) invention today.

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1 Answer 1

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Full answer: I suspect Christopher is

Christopher Latham Sholes,

who invented

the QWERTY keyboard.

And so

The letters given describe shapes on the QWERTY keyboard, approximating "dVORAK_MUST_FALL".

Unfortunately,

Sholes' QWERTY layout is not identical to the modern one; C and X are transposed, and M appears one row up on the far right. With Sholes' own layout, some of the glyphs would be garbled.

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  • $\begingroup$ FWIW I came to the same conclusion :-). $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Jan 15, 2018 at 23:56
  • $\begingroup$ can you clarify "describe shapes", maybe working through the transformation of the first few characters of the clue into the first character of your spoilered phrase? $\endgroup$
    – Kate Gregory
    Jan 16, 2018 at 0:49
  • $\begingroup$ (My "same conclusion" was only the bit Sneftel had posted when I wrote the above, namely identifying who Christopher was. I hadn't got the rest of it.) $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Jan 16, 2018 at 1:10
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    $\begingroup$ After reading your great answer, I'm laughing at the massive hint in the OP's username! :-) $\endgroup$
    – Phylyp
    Jan 16, 2018 at 1:20
  • $\begingroup$ This link helps to give a little context to the solution. (Obviously spoiler-y!) $\endgroup$
    – Christoph
    Jan 16, 2018 at 8:13

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