Pop Quiz

[inStasis]

So university is coming back around and I'm starting 'Intro to Digital Forensics' this semester.  As a pre-semester 'get your brains in gear', the tutor has put up a quiz that has me stumped.

Q: A grand mystery: what is the meaning of "2838", and why?

My take: This could be the hexadecimal number 0x2838, which converted into ASCII translates to an off smiley face, (8. Or if the hexadecimal was a memory address with a little-endian structure then it could be an off sad smiley, 8(. However I think this is all a bit of a stretch as surely if he wanted to do a smiley he would use 0x283A for (: . Google isn't coming up with any obvious answers that I can see.

Does anyone get this? I could use a point in the right direction.

[Spectrum_963]

Maybe he didn't use 0x283A on purpose since reversing that numher gets you a sad face. Maybe he meant that you guys (the students) should be enthusiastic or something regarding digital forensics or something unbearably cheezy and lame like that. Some teachers do that. Is he the type to do that?
Try playing around with the number - whatever you can think of. Square roots, multiplication, addition, Idk 2**8+3**8 or whatever. Maybe a weird ass cipher? Try turning the numbers into letters. Honestly, there are infinite ways to play around with that.

[inStasis]

Honestly, there are infinite ways to play around with that.

That's what had me confused, it is so vague that I just assumed I was missing something obvious. Thanks for the reply though, he could very well be fucking with us, but I'll play around with it some more.

[Nortcele]

Personally I think he is messing with you

[HTH]

Just write this on the paper:

2838(d)-> B16(h)
B16 = Postcode of Birmingham
A Birmingham Hacker helped ISIS attack US Central Comm a few days ago.
You want us to join the good fight.
Praise Allah.

I apologize if that offended anyone, serious note its just a random number and he wants you to draw some pattern and see some semblance of intelligence from you/your class. Classic teacher move.

Also the first three lines are factual.

[Nortcele]

@HTH are you from Brum?

[shome]

RFC 2838 ? lol

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2838

[Spacecow]

2838(d)-> B16(h)
B16 = Postcode of Birmingham
A Birmingham Hacker helped ISIS attack US Central Comm a few days ago.
You want us to join the good fight.
Praise Allah.

Inshallah we shall be victorious over the kuffar. But on another note yeah the prof is probably just fucking with u because reasons. I doubt the meaning of it is a sadface 8(