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I have been given these numbers. They are a sequence which changes every 6 months:

1st October 2014, number was 287669,
1st April 2015, number was 323442,
1st October 2015, number was 695273.

Can you work out 1st October 16.

Clues I've been given are : use hex or binary

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Partial answer

Treat the six-digit codes you've been given as

hex codes for colours: 287669, 323442, 695273.

Convert these into

the RGB codes for the same colours: 40,118,105; 50,52,66; 105,82,115.

Then rewrite those numbers

in binary form: 00101000,01110110,01101001; 00110010,00110100,01000010; 01101001,01010010,01110011.

And finally, interpret these numbers as

binary ASCII codes: (vi, 24B, iRs.

What exactly these codes mean, I haven't yet figured out. But surely it's not coincidence that all these steps actually worked, and gave a relatively nice alphanumeric string at the end.

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  • $\begingroup$ Aaah, interestinge... $\endgroup$
    – ABcDexter
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 11:34
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    $\begingroup$ @ABcDexter Interestinge, from the Ministry of Housinge? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ I don't get it why the first three steps are necessary, why don't you just rot13(hfr n fvatyr urk-gb-ova pbairefvba vafgrnq)? $\endgroup$
    – elias
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 15:56
  • $\begingroup$ @elias Because I've no idea how those colour codes work. I just know that there's such a thing as hex colour codes, so I transformed those hex codes into colours and then took a guess at what other codes for those colours looked useful. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 16:02
  • $\begingroup$ Why bother to convert the hex into decimal? Its actually easier to go straight from hex to binary - each hex digit becomes four binary digits. Also does look like coincidence to me but I have no better ideas... $\endgroup$
    – Chris
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 0:05

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