PXC: Project Syzygy Pre-Game-Responses

[SPEC]tacular! ;) General Speculation (wildness may ensue)

Scott@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 07:09:07 +0000

I've been chewing on a thought fFor a little while now. People are saying the theftt of the cube is the most important thing, drawing the apparently obvious conclusion of the year 1 being when the Cube was fFound, and making a generally big deal of the whole affair.

I'm not saying it isn't a big deal. not at all.

But I am suggesting we employ a little perspective. The academy is, potentially, a thousand years old (some would argue, much less than a thousand). and it wasn't taken very seriously fFor quite some while, we see now, by the rabble rousing and name calling of early academicians.

the academy wants their cube back, most definitely. And others, such as religious fFanatics, have vested interests in its return as well.

But noone is saying it's the *most* important thing. The ads talk about the murder of fFran, which i would think would take more social impact.

What I'm suggesting is the idea that the lost cube -- what we are here about -- is an issue of particular concern to one private organization. The police and other agencies are no doubt looking into it as well, if at least because of the murder involved. Let's not lose perspective on the over-all crime.

[UPDATE] March 19th - Abbey Road (webcam)

Scott@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 06:57:05 +0000

That's the devilishness of a cryptic crossword.

I saw the shaky-cam .. it apparently wasnt all thet cryptic to growfybruce. That amazes me no end, really. he looks at the words, and has the answer. POW! like that. am i dumb fFor not seeing it even half as quickly as he did?

Fran Mendling an Anagram?

Lockwood@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 05:42:18 +0000

Frankly, I think they just used Fran Mendling because it's individual enough that there's a chance it hasn't turned up elsewhere in the net before as a real person's name (Like Sente Kiteway?). Helps to keep people inside the game, rather than following false leads.

[UPDATE] March 19th - Abbey Road (webcam)

Scott@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:52:16 +0000

aye, well I guess I made the mistake of thinking typical crossword puzzle :P
it still just irks me that in a single crossword they'd put a clue and the answer as an anagram together in the same clue... seems redundant IMO, but I digress. If we already have the answer then that's what matters anyway :)

It's only redundant if you know that "on stock market" is the clue part and "exec hangs" is an anagram and "ruined" is the part that lets you know it's an anagram. That's the devilishness of a cryptic crossword.

There's a puzzle that appears frequently in Games magazine in which three phrases are given, each pointing to one phrase that is the answer. One of the clue phrases is an anagram, one has the same consonant/vowel pattern, and the other has the same first letter(s) as the answer. The puzzle would be easy if you knew which one was which, but the challenge is figuring that out. The same applies for the cryptic crossword.

Some interesting things to note

SimonSays@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:41:51 +0000

And one last thing, Remember that 2210 on the card? Awfully similar to the 2251 in the ad. Maybe it was meant to be just close enough to make us look back at the old times for a good clue...

I also spent some time trying to turn the 24 digit code into text by doing a Numerical mod 10 (ten being 0) with both 2210 and 2251, then converting the new strings to text with simple substitutions and caesar shifts. but, alas, I can't even remember if I really finished. Cause holy crap that sucked. Seriously. I need sleep now.

Curse you, Cube. Curse you and your confusing, careless owners.

Some interesting things to note

SimonSays@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:38:26 +0000

I don't even know where to start. The ever-elusive 'Thanks' and I have been collaborating pretty hard-core, trying to dig up something--anything, really--on what seems to be all the left behind clues. Take, for instance, the e-mails and error logs. What exactly makes all of these entries errors in the first place? The two error logs at gatehouse 24 seem to be just normal interactions, save for the fact that from the construction of the computer log, Fran Mendling had either poor pronunciation or a heavy/non-native accent. Unless it were typed text through a terminal type process, in which case Fran typed to fast and/or sloppy for her own good, and naturally had to be offed. Then, of course, there's the sub-sema code 24-digit number, which seems to be coinciding with "milestone 24" (project syzygy, which we're conviced is actually us to the "Them" of Perplex City, 24 hours mentioned from the Daemon 3ea5 in the e-mail response to Sente, etc.

And then there's an attempt at getting more from the hand-written text on the back of the postcard. We tried constructing a Huffman Tree starting from the paragraph and *including* Sente's signature, to see if we could make any sense of the resulting self-made binary. We tried converting it back to normal text and hex, no luck with either. Perhaps we'll take a run again without his signature. We tried incorporating this with the 24-digit number itself and it divided by 21, which turns out to be a whole number. (wondering why 21? That's how many faces of the cubes you can see in the academy symbol itself).

Also, why is there a very large academy symbol only in the low-res picture of the post-card, but nothing worth noting in the decent scan? Fix that. Seriously.

One last thing, perhaps a huge white rabbit. But believe me, this white rabbit is HOTT. The "Nascent Beston Scholarship" Makes an Anagram including both "Sente" and "Banach," who happens to be a rather large-scale old-school Polish Mathemetician who did a lot with topological.. uh, stuffs. Speaking of Topological, lets all go back to ye olde Hillbert Cube. Look into it, I'm getting tired of typing. The remaining letters can make stuff like "school prints" or "Corp hints loss." Coincidence? maybe. But after all those hours of trying, I'd like to think not.

[PUZZLE] [SOLVED] Dinah's print-out

thebruce@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:05:55 +0000

I still feel that the partial reason for the notes, password, and the delay, was to minimize the number of bystanders who may have been curious because of the media release about Abbey Road... and with an hour window, they had plenty of time to spare :)

Fran Mendling an Anagram?

Lockwood@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 02:56:52 +0000

yeah exactly... in real life, people use pen-names and such, anagrams of their real names to protect their identity... it's perfectly reasonable IMO that Acadamy people, or anyone involved with the hunt for the cube might use code names and such... not saying these names are anagrams, but it's not far-fetched to be impossible. ie I don't think it's 'cheap' or 'meta' or anything, since it's a logical in-game possibility for the actions of the characters... *shrug*

[PUZZLE] [SOLVED] Dinah's print-out

thebruce@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:49:16 +0000

XXXX obviously refers to several different people becuase it is used frequently in messages talking about different characters.

Fran Mendling an Anagram?

Lockwood@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:26:56 +0000

it happens some times it's not even an anagram http://www.california-recall.com/articles/article-85501089439579.html like the cia informant in this article.

[SPEC] Malme = Malmesbury

yanka@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:13:26 +0000

At the risk of being redundant, I'm going to point out again that opening a new thread for your spec *just because* your spec is brand new is generally not a good idea. If everyone created separate threads for their *new* ideas, these forums would spiral into chaos of unimaginable scale.

Please try to find existing threads suitable for your speculation, especially when you already suspect/admit that this speculation might be "worthless" or "coincidental".

:lock:

[SPEC] Malme = Malmesbury

yanka@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 23:12:48 +0000

I believe there are sevearl coincidences here. They either are worthless, or they serve to add flavor to the script, or there is something more . . . Thomas Hobbes was a famous scientist. He met Galileo and was a contemporary of Fermat and Descartes. I think we are meant to draw all these age of enlightenment type people together . . .

I googled "malmes" and got Malmesbury , but I also got: Thomas Hobbes (birthplace), old breweries , Althesian relics, a portion of that city is referred to as "Town" captialized, there is a Triangle (street) with a Three Cups Inn , there is an old Abbey (also a brewery ).

Lastly, this is the oldest borough in England and within a hundred miles of Avebury and Stonehenge (for flavor).

[PUZZLE] [SOLVED] Dinah's print-out

thebruce@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 22:33:10 +0000

Why WAS Dinah delayed?

to give us time to crack the password, i figure.

alternatively she got caught out by the Central line being out of action (like many of the rest of us) :)

[PUZZLE] [SOLVED] Dinah's print-out

thebruce@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 22:28:49 +0000

Why WAS Dinah delayed?

[UPDATE] March 19th - Abbey Road (webcam)

Scott@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 22:16:30 +0000

makes a nice background too :D