[duke9509]

Got it!

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

I decoded the binary, then put the Dec / char result into the hex field which produced plain text that looked suspiciously like more hex. it decoded to: Quote: The voices tell me they are coming. I don't know what they mean. They say they will come. They say we should probably prepare. I don't know what they mean! Am I th only one who can hear them? I'm not crazy. I know they can hear me. I can hear them. They studied me. Now they understand. I think the everyone should know. Everything was a lie. I should have never made this. This whole thing should have never happened. The future could have been different.

Not sure what to think.

EDIT: Ok, I'll remember that quotes in spoilers don't work.
EDIT2: Emailed Dan again. I'll go offline for real after I get his typically fast reply and post it.
EDIT3: Whoops, didn't see Punxtr's edit. I guess Dan just got emailed the same thing twice.

[punxtr]

Decoded it! You need to decode it thrice *hint*

Edit--Use your knowledge of what each kind of base language should look like.

Edit2--I should share the message, at least. Here it is (I emailed it to Dan already):

Quote:

The voices tell me they are coming. I don't know what they mean. They say they will come. They say we should probably prepare. I don't know what they mean! Am I th only one who can hear them? I'm not crazy. I know they can hear me. I can hear them. They studied me. Now they understand. I think the everyone should know. Everything was a lie. I should have never made this. This whole thing should have never happened. The future could have been different.

[duke9509]

Ok, I need to go. I likely won't be back until tomorrow. I emailed my theory about the code to Dan in case that will get you guys a hint.

[zeighy]

I just ran a google search, and scimitar is actually a kinds of sword they used in the old times and is usually known to be used by arabs/muslim.

Now, going back to the list of directories on the L6 of the sfs, there's s directory named "swordfiles" maybe that has some significance now?

EDIT: also, scimitar is also a stealth ship in starwars... lol, I guess now things are makes more sense

EDIT2: it also has some info about another ship in startrek about a ship (that can cloak) used to overthrow someone... hmmmmmmm, now it seems the use of this word has much deeper use then?

[duke9509]

Wait! Pause! It's a pause! Like in a transmission! Those symbols must each represent a number or something. They're grouped in twos, so it must be something like dec / char or hex. We just have to figure out which character represents each number. The groups that are just a space would be the end of a word.

EDIT: Oh, wait. There are a few groups of " A" A line break maybe?
EDIT2: Nuts, there are also "% " and " %" maybe spaces represent a number, too? or maybe my theory is just a good (but incorrect) guess...

[zeighy]

I wonder if there's any significance that we can see other folders in the site.... although, they're 403ed on us...

EDIT: I wonder why the file is named "voicesfromfuture" should have some significance, too

[duke9509]

I figured that, since it repeats so predictably, that character has some sort of significance and that a description of what it's used for might be of some use to us. It was my best lead at the time.

[zeighy]

I don't get what your quote is for?

[duke9509]

I can tell you that the binary can't be decoded directly. It was a bunch of nonsense. It was made solely of the characters: #"$&%'!B@?A>= plus the character U+0014 which predictably repeated every three characters. EDIT: actually, sometimes there is actually a space and no second character between the two DC4s This character is apparently 'DEVICE CONTROL 4' and is used when computers need to tell a device to stop doing something:

Quote:

A device control character which is primarily intended for turning off, stopping or interrupting an ancillary device. If it is not required for this purpose, it may be used for any other device control function not provided by other DCs.

Perhaps there is some meaning in the fact that it's segmented like this?

[Badgerconda]

Can anyone make heads or tails of the file Dan uploaded? I am.... poor. with codes and the like.

Also, I'm starting to wonder if failtech aren't actually the bad guys here. Dan's been nice to us so far, but the big scary science-experiment-corporation is rarely the good guy in any story, and Genus must have run off for a reason. Maybe Genus is our friend with the anonymous email?

[duke9509]

Hey guys, sorry for taking so incredibly long (I'm actually still not done with everything I had to do quite yet), stuff just kept coming up right and left that I had to deal with. Dan sent us another email. Thankfully, one of the technicians noticed the email surveillance and Dan switched to a more secure network. As this is now the case, I will forget about that phone call (nuts, I was looking forward to using Wave in an ARG XD), and send him the forwarded copy of the email sent to us by Scimitar along with my original message.

EDIT: sent. Also, for those who have yet to make it to Dan's email blast list, here is his message:

Quote:

I have posted on the secure file storage site a file we recovered. This file is the one in it's best state. Look for the file at the Secure File Storage area of the website at /sfs then access /L6 then open up my folder /millerfiles then the folder I made for you guys /experts. It shouldn't be hard to find. We can't make up what this is, my technicians did their best and they can't figure out what this is. They recovered this file from the files that Genus has deleted from his account in the secure file storage. I am currently connected through my personal network so that no one can intercept my email. My technicians informed me about some anomaly in the FAILTECH network, so have to take some precautions. We haven't ejected the anomaly, yet, as my technicians are still observing it. Oh, and the password for the L6 is username: experts password: birdwalk Good luck!

EDIT2: His reply:

Quote:

Good! Thanks, at least we now have a lead on who is behind in the weird anomaly in the network right now. It's also a good thing you didn't follow what he wanted. I think I've already stated the consequences of this happening. And if does happen, I and my technicians will right in the middle of it. Being at the Antarctica Facility might be safe, but if you do reboot her, the safe locks at the bottom of the facility will be unlocked and the remaining samples of biohazard material will escape, such as the FOxR-B. Without LAINSY to contain any biohazard leaks, it will certainly kill me and all my staff here in the facility and risk the chance for any biohazard to escape the facility and infect the world. We will put this case under supervision. If this guys sends you any other message, make sure you inform me. This guy is crazy. If he does know where Genus is, he should tell us and also tell us who's responsible for all of these troubles!

Looks like we made the right call.

[Zobot257]

Have we had a reason to activate LAINSY's reboot sequence? So far things don't necessarily seem that bad.

[duke9509]

Alright. Then we should make the call.
Only problem is that I am no longer in a good position to make a phone call. I was earlier, but now I have to go do some things. If no else has called by the time I get back (my best guesstimate would be in 50 minutes), I'll go ahead and call.

EDIT: Just FYI, my Wave address is thelurkingdukeSPLATgooglewave.com

[zeighy]

Well, I suppose that's ok then. You guys are the ones who will contact him anyways, hehehe, maybe ask Dan then? propose it to him

[duke9509]

No, they decided to keep it up until someone took the open-source implementation of the code that they released and used it to create a suitable replacement.