gistfile1.txt

Lowest:
	(31) bUGs BUgs bUGS bUgS bLAnk BlAnK BlANK BLank buGS bugS bUGS bUGs dCao2 ; from hashbreaker
	(31) lINeS lInUX ligHTtpD lIb leheY LIBRaRY libcRyPt linK layer LeSK linus laYOuT \j|39 ; from dariencrane
	(31) LehEy LENGtH layoUt liB liGhTTpD liFo lISp lIBRARy LInk LIBcRYpt LesS lAYER =@zT= ; from seibert

twitter_hamming.py

from math import log
from sys import argv, maxint
import hashlib

#import json
import simplejson as json
import httplib

def hamming(a, b, bits=160):
  x = a ^ b
  return sum((x >> i & 1) for i in xrange(bits))
    
def asciify(s):
  return s.encode('ASCII', 'replace') 

contest_hash = "1249c4b7f578204f10798c0269f8488280fb9981"

lowest = [(maxint, None, None)]

for page in xrange(20):
  print "Page: %s" % (page+1)
  conn = httplib.HTTPConnection("search.twitter.com")
  conn.request("GET", "/search.json?q=+to%%3Aengineyard&page=%s" % (page+1))
  res = conn.getresponse()
  data = res.read()
  conn.close()

  results = json.loads(data)
  for result in results['results']:
    entry = asciify(result['text'][12:].strip())
    from_user = result['from_user']
    user_hash = hashlib.sha1(entry).hexdigest()
    distance = hamming(long(contest_hash, 16), long(user_hash, 16))
    if distance == 0: continue
    if distance < lowest[0][0]: 
      lowest = [(distance, entry, from_user)]
    elif distance == lowest[0][0]:
      lowest.append((distance, entry, from_user))
    print "(%s) %s ; from %s" % (distance, entry, from_user)

print "\n\nLowest:"
for low in lowest:
	print "\t(%s) %s ; from %s" % low

verify.py

from math import log
from sys import argv
import hashlib

def hamming(a, b, bits=160):
    x = a ^ b
    return sum((x >> i & 1) for i in xrange(bits))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    contest_hash = "1249c4b7f578204f10798c0269f8488280fb9981"
    user_string = ' '.join(argv[1:])    
    user_hash = hashlib.sha1(user_string).hexdigest()
  
    distance = hamming(long(contest_hash, 16), long(user_hash, 16))
    print "Distance: %s" % distance