Date/Time stamps on PMs?

[Kris Strife]

Is there someway to get the date of a PM recorded into the message when I foreward it to someone? Say if I had a guess about something and wanted to be able to prove when I came up with it or if I was trying to get people to guess a random number and wanted to be able to prove it was selected prior to them guessing?

[The Dark Fiddler]

Check right above the name and avatar of the person who sent it.

Also works with posts. Useful for preventing thread necromancy.

[Kris Strife]

That would let them know when I sent them the message, not what time I wrote the origional one.

I have a prediction for something, I want to be able to prove when I made it with out affecting the outcome. I've sent myself a PM containing said prediction, how can I prove to others thats when I origionally wrote said PM?

[Douglas]

I don't think the board software allows for this. The best you can get is to send the prediction to a neutral third party who agrees to confirm it for you.

[Renegade Paladin]

That would let them know when I sent them the message, not what time I wrote the origional one.

I have a prediction for something, I want to be able to prove when I made it with out affecting the outcome. I've sent myself a PM containing said prediction, how can I prove to others thats when I origionally wrote said PM?
Take a screenshot of the PM you sent to yourself.

[Seonor]

I have a prediction for something, I want to be able to prove when I made it with out affecting the outcome. I've sent myself a PM containing said prediction, how can I prove to others thats when I origionally wrote said PM?

You can't do that with a PM but there are some possible solutions, the easiest probably is:
1. Encrypt your prediction with a secure method.
2. Make the encrypted text (or file if you have a very long text) accessible to everyone. Just post it here on the forum.
3. After the predicted event you release the key and method used to encrypt the text. Now everyone can decrypt your text and since your post with the encrypted text has a timestamp on it you can prove that you made the prediction before the event occured.

This sounds complicated but is rather easy after you understand the process. Here (http://www.cryptool-online.org/index.php/en) is a website with some tools to encrypt/decrypt text in your browser and information on different methods. If you want to really learn something about encryption install this (http://www.cryptool.org/index.php/en.html) programm and have fun.

To give you an example, I made a prediction, encrypted it and copied it under this post. After the event I will post again (probably in about a day) and give you the key. Because this is for demonstration only (and I do not have accsess to my programms on my computer) I used a rather easy method, but it should hold for at least 24 hours.



SEEMDZNRKUNCGNRULDMCYBJHATCNKMJNFRTPTBHSEGEYMUHUTP MHTPSERFDGEZ

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Take a screenshot of the PM you sent to yourself.
Open the PM. Save the page as HTML (may need to use “HTML with images” or equivalent option). Open it in a text editor. Change the time stamp, and save the file. Open the HTML file in a web browser. Type the URL for your PM into the browser’s address bar. Take screen shot. Ta-da! Forged time stamp.

And you don’t even have to understand the HTML.

[Renegade Paladin]

Open the PM. Save the page as HTML (may need to use “HTML with images” or equivalent option). Open it in a text editor. Change the time stamp, and save the file. Open the HTML file in a web browser. Type the URL for your PM into the browser’s address bar. Take screen shot. Ta-da! Forged time stamp.

And you don’t even have to understand the HTML.
The URL in the address bar will be obviously different if you do that.

[NerfTW]

Yet you could simply write the correct URL into the address bar before taking the screenshot.

edit- Actually, that was in the original advice you quoted as well.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

edit- Actually, that was in the original advice you quoted as well.
Indeed it was:


Open the HTML file in a web browser. Type the URL for your PM into the browser’s address bar. Take screen shot. Ta-da! Forged time stamp.

[Seonor]

To give you an example, I made a prediction, encrypted it and copied it under this post. After the event I will post again (probably in about a day) and give you the key. Because this is for demonstration only (and I do not have accsess to my programms on my computer) I used a rather easy method, but it should hold for at least 24 hours.



SEEMDZNRKUNCGNRULDMCYBJHATCNKMJNFRTPTBHSEGEYMUHUTP MHTPSERFDGEZ

My prediction was that the next post after mine would be from Kris Strife. Sadly this was wrong. If you want to check for yourself I used a foursquare cipher with the codewords "order" and "stick". Here (http://www.cryptool-online.org/index.php/en/ciphers/four-square/test-it) you can decrypt my text yourself if you don't trust me.

The beauty of this method is that everyone can confirm that I made my prediction before the event in question occured and that I didn't alter it.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

f you want to check for yourself I used a foursquare cipher with the codewords "order" and "stick". Here (http://www.cryptool-online.org/index.php/en/ciphers/four-square/test-it) you can decrypt my text yourself if you don't trust me.
Question: Using this method, is it possible to encrypt two different “predictions” with different codewords so they produce the same ciphers? If it is, how difficult would it be to do so?

[Seonor]

Question: Using this method, is it possible to encrypt two different “predictions” with different codewords so they produce the same ciphers? If it is, how difficult would it be to do so?


Depends on how long your text is. If I gave you the cipher "A" and the codewords "stick" and "order" the plaintext is IV, if I gave you the same cipher with the codewords "schlock" and "mercenary" the plaintext is GG. So yes, for less than 3-5 letters there is probably some combination of codewords and cipher that would give two different meaningfull plaintexts. To find them you could use brute force, or if you analyze how the codewords relate to the matrizes you can probably figure something out. If I find time tomorrow I try to find a pair of words that makes sense. Should be about 1-2 hours. But more than one word? Unlikely. But keep in mind I was using foursquare only as a demonstration and it is not really secure, especially for longer texts.


If this prediction is important and not just for a game just use at least a dozen letters and something modern to encrypt the plaintext.

If you are truely paranoid you could use TrueCrypt to create a encrypted file container, safe your text in it and give the container to the other party. If you made no mistake nobody (aside from perhaps one or two intelligence services) in the foreseeable should be able to break that.