The puzzle is a regular cryptogram, and can be decoded using regular techniques.
The pictures are of places around the MIT campus, except that in each photo, a
letter has been doctored out of the photograph. Each of the removed letters
has also been removed from the corresponding numbered space of the
cryptogram... so you can figure out what's missing from the photo and put it
back into the cryptogram before decrypting.
The missing letters are as follows:
- A as a missing steel girders of the Biology building
- A as part of the dollar bill at cashier's office
- T on the floor of Walker Memorial Hall
- B on Bexley House
- G on Bexley House
- E on a sign in building 20
- B in the Club Chem sign in building 6 (which has since been altered)
- I on a course 8 sign
- J as the J-particle sign on cyclotron building
- D on the sign in front of DKE
- X as ceiling fan blades
- E from E-102, apparently
- R on the High Voltage Research Lab
- L (lambda actually) from somewhere in course-6 land
- Q on the sign in the stacks of Hayden library
- G on the war memorial in Lobby 10
- F on a calendar
- O as a ring to lock your bike to the bike rack
- O from a Russian name on a large mural somewhere near building 33
- E from Strobe lab, somewhere
- T in the TCA sign
- M in the W1MX MIT Ham Radio Society sign
- A in the name of building W2A
- R in the WMBR Studios radio station sign
The decrypted cryptogram reads "If two steps of the path begin with the same word they must be
interchanged before you start". Note that there was no solution pair for this puzzle.