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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[Trailhead] Rewriting The Future
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iamthor
Boot

Joined: 04 Jul 2009
Posts: 49

 		She posted a clue to the Message 8 mystery this morning - http://stoptoilworndiamond.blogspot.fi/2013/05/message-8-update.html

It looks like the solution is:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Count the number of vowels in each word (including y); and use the letter at that position. The deciphered text I got was:
warming up
now go here
sevensevenbgm


Not totally sure what that means, though. I tried it as a url including appending it to goo.gl and http://stoptoilworndiamond.co.nf/ but no luck.

Edit: Actually it does work as a url. I just had to use capital letters. So it's http://goo.gl/77BGM. Looks like the same code on this page but it's going to take some time to work through that much text.

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 7:49 am
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ads123
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Joined: 12 Nov 2012
Posts: 85
iamthor wrote:
it's going to take some time to work through that much text.


No kidding. I looked through it and I just thought that I'd verify that this text does use the same vowel counting method as the last chunk.

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 8:17 am
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sequoya
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 548
Location: Land of haggis, kilts, neds and Irn-Bru

 		Hi folks. I wrote a little (rubbish, but servicable!) program to decode the big wad of text. Anyway it appears to basically be this text repeated several times:

Quote:


They did not seem to get any solution to the data collection problem in the early stages of project toilworn diamond they thought that the best way to collect data was to go door to door and ask people to share their personal interests pictures thoughts hobbies etc nevertheless Richard and buck quickly realized that it was just too inefficient way to collect the vast amount of data they needed they needed to learn how to do the data collecting and processing automatically there was just no way they could have get it done efficiently enough even if they would have hired an army of workers to manually do the work for them also they were surprised that many people did not want to tell them what did they had for lunch at what time were they going to bed how many cups of coffee did they drink during the day what kind of animals did they have or even show some pictures of funny pets after six months of traveling around the country and desperately clinging to any piece of data they were able to get they decided to finish and wait for an era were people would not mind giving they all the information they needed


And the page URL is an anagram of "automatically", heh.

Not sure what to do with this, hm. I will email it to Beth.
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PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 10:28 am
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spoonhead99
Decorated


Joined: 15 Aug 2009
Posts: 269
Location: Hastings, UK

 		Congrats on the solve Thor, I never did get the whole Y is a vowel thing.

Now where would you go to find a place where people would willingly hand over all their personal info? Hmmm.

Just got tapped up for a modelling gig

Richie Rich wrote:

Hi Spoon,

You may have already heard that we had to discharge our entire Face modeling department due to some loyalty issues. Therefore we have been thinking of ways to replace them because, after all, face modeling is pretty crucial part in project Toilworn Diamond.

As you have been a loyal collaboration partner and a clever problem solver, would you like to help us, and project Toilworn Diamond, with the face modeling? We are not looking just for one solution, but it is important that we get as many different solutions to the problem as we can. Therefore it would be great if you could help us and get your name written to the history books!

We are aware that there can be some people who might not want to contribute to the project Toilworn Diamond (for some irrelevant reasons). That's why we disguised this as a face modeling challenge! This way they don't even know what are they helping when they are taking part in the challenge! Clever, right? If you happen to know any people who might be able to help, tell them about the challenge! If you think they can be trusted, ask them to send me an email stating their trustworthiness and they can start helping with the mysterious messages as well.

You can find the challenge and info about face modeling here: http://www.avecirasolutions.com/facemodeling.html

If you have any thoughts or comments, just let me know. It would be great to have you contributing to the project Toilworn Diamond this way!

Best Regards,
Richard


Check out the link. It looks like the starting blocks for face recog software and I think my skillset is lacking in this area.

Edit for Title
Did you see the title of the long code page.

Quote:
TS:2031-12-31-23-59-60


If that's a time stamp then it works out to Jan 1st 2032
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PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 10:38 am
Last edited by spoonhead99 on Thu May 30, 2013 10:43 am; edited 1 time in total
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ads123
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Joined: 12 Nov 2012
Posts: 85
sequoya wrote:
Hi folks. I wrote a little (rubbish, but servicable!) program to decode the big wad of text.


Yeah I definitely didn't just come on here to paste my findings after working that out by hand to find that you had beat me to it with a program. For pete's sake I need to get better at this ARG stuff.

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 10:40 am
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sequoya
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 548
Location: Land of haggis, kilts, neds and Irn-Bru
ads123 wrote:
sequoya wrote:
Hi folks. I wrote a little (rubbish, but servicable!) program to decode the big wad of text.


Yeah I definitely didn't just come on here to paste my findings after working that out by hand to find that you had beat me to it with a program. For pete's sake I need to get better at this ARG stuff.


Awww, I'm sorry ads. Embarassed To be fair it did still take me ages, since I haven't programmed in about a decade! (So I'm afraid the face modelling challenge is probably way past my skill level!)
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PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 11:03 am
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jessie1326
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 260
Location: Illinois, U.S.A.
sequoya wrote:
(So I'm afraid the face modelling challenge is probably way past my skill level!)


No kidding... I know enough to recognize the "hill climbing" reference (it's an algorithm that's good at finding local "peaks"), and I can understand vaguely how you could apply it to a problem like this (more can be found by Googling "hillclimbing image segmentation"), but I don't actually have any programming skills at all, and there's no way I'm running at this by hand. Shocked

Any chance this is some other kind of puzzle in disguise? Or are we actually supposed to model the face? Confused

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 11:20 am
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ads123
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Joined: 12 Nov 2012
Posts: 85

 		Well, whilst we are waiting for some more developments I found two more twitter accounts that may come into use later on in the story and also allude to some details about what we may find later down the line. I don't believe these have been mentioned yet.

The accounts : @Ricexal
@bplentier

I found some of their tweets pretty interesting :

On to somebody?
Sound familiar?
Wonder what that project is?

Of course these could all just be filler accounts and whatnot but I found those tweets interesting. Will be keeping an eye on those two.

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 11:31 am
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amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 4096
Location: Nederland
jessie1326 wrote:
Any chance this is some other kind of puzzle in disguise? Or are we actually supposed to model the face?

Great question & definitely Stroopwafel for sequoya & iamthor. Can you or anyone comment that Hill Climbing algorithms aren't compatible with 'facial modeling' ellipses b/c...

On the Avecira Challenge page someone wrote:
This is created with some kind of "Let's climb the hill" or "Hill climbing" method. Unfortunately, the person who did this didn't leave us any other information.

So, am thinking we've possibly been given an insight into Project Toilworn's method/technique of inductive reasoning for its A.I.'s.
_________________
"I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent."
"Can you hook up with a Snow Person? Can't tell you or I'd have to marry you."

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 11:42 am
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mrshomersimpson
Entrenched


Joined: 10 Jun 2012
Posts: 998
Location: scotland

 		So i have just been followed on twitter by beth so i figure i will try and catch up a bit because I have only just been followed.

Will catch up on the blogs. Does anyone have a quick recap. This one seems pretty established..

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 12:50 pm
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ads123
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Joined: 12 Nov 2012
Posts: 85
mrshomersimpson wrote:

Does anyone have a quick recap. This one seems pretty established..


It's actually not too established plot wise.

As mentioned on the OP some of us got an e-mail which went along the lines of
Quote:

Hi Adam!

You probably don't know me, but it has come to my attention that you could be a great help rewriting the future. Can I count on your help?

Yours Sincerely,
Beth Swillower


This was from a woman who works

Quote:
for a company that is creating a powerful technology of the future.


The company had for what ever reason got a hold of several secret codes which both the company and Beth are trying to crack. The company were trying to crack them so other people could not find them and find out the truth whilst Beth is trying to find them to out the truth about the company.

Most of these messages mention either background information about the company (Avecira Solutions) or warnings about a LOLcat Apocalypse which will supposedly be brought on by a project called Toilworn Diamond which is being worked on by, you guessed it, Avecira Solutions.

Also Avercira know that there's a mole (they don't know it's Beth though) and have sacked some people because of this meaning they no longer have a face modelling department because they were all fired (drastic I know).

Q and A

So what is the LOLcat Apocalypse?
The LOLcat Apocalypse is what could happen in the future if we don't stop Avecira. These are the warning signs that we should watch out for :

Quote:
1. Some of the verbal communication
between people is replaced with
short digitally transmitted
messages.
2. People start to publish pictures of their
food thinking that, for some reason,
other people would want to know what
they are having for lunch.
3. Strange cat pictures start to appear in
weird places, mainly in the internet.


This is as much as we know about the LOLcat Apocalypse as of now.

Who's helping us?
Not just Beth but also a guy called Pasi. Pasi has been working on the case after getting messages (like us) for years but gave up until just recently. He hid some information about the LOLcat Apocalypse so it didn't fall into the wrong hands and he has chose to divulge it to us. So far he not only e-mailed Beth

Quote:
Hi Beth!

I was extremely happy when I found your blog and that some righteous people are finally solving this mystery! If I could jump, I would be jumping with joy right now! You see, you are doing something I tried to do years ago. I had already lost hope and accepted the fact that the world will end up with the horrible LOLCat Apocalypse. Finally there is still a glimpse of light!

Luckily I made a backup plan for situations like this. Unfortunately I can't offer much assistance, but I will go through my personal notes and try to find the places where I hid my messages. Don't let anyone destroy them, so once you find the messages, spread the word as wide as you can! The world needs to be warned about this.

I found one note that says like this:
"In the middle of the trees. Just in case, tied with a string. [Co-ordinates to a drop]

Yours Sincerely,
Pasi Liisola


but he also revealed the co-ordinates to where a drop was located.

Just in case you can't read the letter :
Quote:
7.6.1967
To the righteous and insightful people of the future.

This might sound shocking, but I am writing this because I have received a serious warning message from the future! The message was somehow distorted so it took me some time to figure out the actual content. Luckily, after months of hard work, I was able to figure out what it said.

The message itself warned that something called a 'LOLCat Apocalypse' would be catastrophic to the world. I'm having a hard time figuring out what the 'LOLCat Apocalypse' could mean, but just in case, I have been more cautious around cats lately. The message also said that 'Avecira Solutions' is somehow responsible for the catastrophe. However, after months of searching, I have not found any evidence of Avecira Solutions or any suspicious activity dealing with cats.

The message I found was really short and it was clear that there are more messages to be found. I have determined to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this mystery. However, if you are reading this right now, it means that I have failed with my mission. I created a backup plan in case anything happens to me that would prevent me working on this mystery. Starting from this letter, I will hide all my notes in different places to be found by you, the righteous and skillful people of the future. I trust that you can unravel this mystery and find a way to avoid the LOLCat Apocalypse.

Separated from the actual message, there was also a strange word. I couldn't figure out a way to use it, but apparently it is something with a great value. It would be catastrophic if a certain company would find out the word and figure out how to use it. As they only think about themselves, they would probably destroy all evidence that owuld somehow contradict their selfish goals. Therefore, I coded the word and split it into pieces. I will hide the pieces carefully. Take good care of the first piece that is with this letter. Make sure that no-one can destroy it! I'm sure you'll figure out a way to find out the word once you have collected all the pieces.

It is of the utmost importance that you, the righteous people, find the pieces first and let the world know about your findings. I hope you can figure out a way to communicate this information to as many people as you can. The faith of the world lies in your hands!

Yours Sincerely,
Pasi Liisola


Along with the letter we was given a card. In the words of Pokemon : We've gotta catch 'em all. When we do they will reveal a secret code or something.

Who's leaving these messages about the Apocalypse?
Some future dude in a timeline where the Apocalypse has occurred. That's all we know.

What's that about backstory?
Yeah some of the notes revealed backstory about the company. Here is what we have gathered so far.
Quote:
In the early eighties, project Toilworn Diamond started as a vague, but wild and futuristic, idea. It originates from two young visionaries, Richard and Buck, who had a habit of dreaming of a better, exciting, future. They regularly kicked off their loafers, put on some Euro disco or dance-pop music and just relaxed while imagining of a world where technology would be so advanced that it would take care of many of the unimportant tasks they were wasting their time with.

Richard and Buck kept constantly developing the idea they had already named as "Toilworn Diamond". They were ecstatic about the development of technology in the 80's and were very optimistic that one day in the future, computers could actually understand humans, instead of just performing emotionless calculations. More than anything, they wanted to be the people who would make it happen.

IN THE LATE EIGHTIES, RICHARD AND BUCK HAD ALREADY WORKED ON THE TOILWORN DIAMOND FOR SEVERAL YEARS. HOWEVER, THE MAIN PROBLEM THEY HAD AT THE TIME WAS THAT THEIR DESIGN REQUIRED MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF DATA TO BE ANY USEFUL. MOREOVER, THE DATA HAD TO BE PERSONAL. THEY COULDN'T EVEN GET THE PROTOTYPE TO WORK BECAUSE OF LACK OF DATA. THEY STARTED TO GET DEPRESSED AND DURING SOME DARK MOMENTS EVEN CONSIDERED CANCELING THE PROJECT, BECAUSE THEY HAD NO IDEA HOW COULD THEY COLLECT ALL THE DATA THEIR PRECIOUS REQUIRED.

They did not seem to get any solution to the data collection problem in the early stages of project toilworn diamond they thought that the best way to collect data was to go door to door and ask people to share their personal interests pictures thoughts hobbies etc nevertheless Richard and buck quickly realized that it was just too inefficient way to collect the vast amount of data they needed they needed to learn how to do the data collecting and processing automatically there was just no way they could have get it done efficiently enough even if they would have hired an army of workers to manually do the work for them also they were surprised that many people did not want to tell them what did they had for lunch at what time were they going to bed how many cups of coffee did they drink during the day what kind of animals did they have or even show some pictures of funny pets after six months of traveling around the country and desperately clinging to any piece of data they were able to get they decided to finish and wait for an era were people would not mind giving they all the information they needed


Some links please?
Blog
Avecira Solutions

Twitter accounts :
@BethSwillower
@Avercira
@Ricexal
@bplentier

Hopefully that gives you enough reading to know what's going on. If anyone notices I missed anything or butchered something please tell me and I'll fix it.

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:00 pm
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jessie1326
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 260
Location: Illinois, U.S.A.

 		That recap is awesome. Worshippy

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:07 pm
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ads123
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Joined: 12 Nov 2012
Posts: 85
jessie1326 wrote:
That recap is awesome. Worshippy


Was it really? I was worried that I had told/understood the story poorly.

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:10 pm
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sequoya
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 548
Location: Land of haggis, kilts, neds and Irn-Bru

 		Great recap. Random observation: I literally only just realised that Toilworn Diamond is an anagram of World Domination. Laughing Did we know that already?
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PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:11 pm
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mrshomersimpson
Entrenched


Joined: 10 Jun 2012
Posts: 998
Location: scotland

 		thank you so much for the recap!

it was awesome Smile

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:12 pm
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