Answer: Binary Secret #357

The secret message is:

Brilliant!

The decoded message: Brilliant!
Every row decoded.

Row by row

RowBulbsAdd the ‘on’ numbersCharacter
10100001064 + 2 = 66B
20111001064 + 32 + 16 + 2 = 114r
30110100164 + 32 + 8 + 1 = 105i
40110110064 + 32 + 8 + 4 = 108l
50110110064 + 32 + 8 + 4 = 108l
60110100164 + 32 + 8 + 1 = 105i
70110000164 + 32 + 1 = 97a
80110111064 + 32 + 8 + 4 + 2 = 110n
90111010064 + 32 + 16 + 4 = 116t
100010000132 + 1 = 33!

Crack it with Python

Python can do the adding for you. int(code, 2) reads a string of 1s and 0s as a binary number. Then chr() turns the number into its character.

secret = [
    "01000010",
    "01110010",
    "01101001",
    "01101100",
    "01101100",
    "01101001",
    "01100001",
    "01101110",
    "01110100",
    "00100001",
]
message = ""
for code in secret:
    number = int(code, 2)
    message = message + chr(number)
print(message)

When you run it, it prints:

Brilliant!

<strong>Beep says:</strong> Want to write your own secret message? Turn it around: ord() turns a character into its number, and format(number, “08b”) writes the number as 8 binary digits. Beep boop!