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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Puzzles
[PUZZLE/PARTIAL SOLVE: ILB.com] Image-Story pieced together
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Aveena
Charter Member


Joined: 24 Sep 2002
Posts: 94
Location: on the verge

 		Note: The posts relevant to the potentially stegged pictures on ILB have been moved to a new topic here

-veen

PostPosted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 7:28 pm
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rasmus
Greenhorn

Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 8
LilSerf wrote:
So, anyone have any brilliant thoughts for the passphrase?
I've downloaded JPHIDE/JPSEEK but haven't come up with a passphrase that works yet.


The program stegdetect used earlier also includes a program called stegbreak which can be used to automate wordlist-based cracking. So my plan is to make a huge wordlist of the ilovebees Wiki, the cortana letters and the halo story from HBO.

Any other sources of possible passwords that should be included?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 7:29 pm
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Paradoxic
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 160

 		Sunrise
I was thinking about the sentence regarding dawn and the return of the Queen, so I went over to the almanac online to see what I could find out.

The sunrise for San Francisco California, for Tuesday August 24th 2004 is scheduled for 6:34 am. Now, the 'awake and aware' countdown is set for 6:07 am on that same day... not a big deal, sure, but something I noticed.

Then again, 6:07am any day is before sunrise.
_________________
--Paradoxic

PostPosted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 8:19 pm
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Shadrach
Boot

Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 10

 		The significance of the Ruby and the Sapphire.
Hi all, I found this amazing game yesterday and I'm hooked.


I'm intrigued by the significance of the precious gems mentioned in the Widow's story. Bear in mind I'm new at this and its pure, unadulterated spec on my part but the first thing I thought of when I read about those precious gems was planets. The ruby to my mind represented Mars and the Earth being the sapphire. The broken blocks could well be the outer planets. The widow describes marking the blocks and the ruby - which smacks to me of claiming, ie: invading, those planets in the name of the Queen. Unfortunately the next parts are where my brilliant theory falls down Smile The manticore could be Earths defences (or even the Master Chief) but as to what the keep and the crown and the mirrors signify...I couldn't guess.

So... I know all this flys in the face of whats already being discussed and contains more holes than a second-hand fishing net but I thought I'd throw in my 2 pence's worth and share my knee-jerk reaction from reading that story.

Now go! Pick it apart until nothing remains! Laughing

PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:29 pm
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nil
Guest


 		[SPEC] lodestone/Harddrive
I'd be kind of surprised if this isn't trout (sory if it is, but I couldn't find any other posts regarding this), but reading over the image story the lodestone stuff stands out.

Quote:
Within, she noticed what looked like a chip of precious / ruby from the Queen's crown, no bigger than a fly. Around / it lay many broken blocks from the ruined castle, scattered / across a wide plain of lodestone. * Instead of carrying them with / her, she scratched the ruby and each of the / greater blocks with her knife, marking / it as part of her Queen's domain.

...

By great enchantment she had been mazed / in mirrors, and lay upon a lodestone floor amongst only her reflections.


Seems to me the repeat mention of lodestone would refer to a Harddrive (lodestone being magnetic). This would make sense in respect to the whole computer/network metaphor. The broken blocks could be faulty segments on the HD itself, or (more likely?) damaged software (parts of the 'castle' or a firewall type program?).
So in the last sentence in the quote, the Queen has been trapped on a harddrive (lodestone floor, presumably the server containg the ILB website)

PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:12 pm
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krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

 		nil, very nice catch. There's been speculation over this very same thing, here.

Trout

PostPosted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 8:42 pm
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nil
Guest


 		heh, guess i was a little late on that. not entirely surprising, its pretty hard to keep track of all this info! thanks for pointing out the thread, krystyn.

bungie sure spins a good yarn.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:00 am
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SpaceMax2000
Guest


 		source of the queen
I think xnbomb had a great analysis of these parallels in the story and the computer text (http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=43565#43565), but I think he may have missed one detail which may or may not be important. This is the passage I wonder about:

"Then she raised her bony staff and speaking a spell, beheld herself within the mirrors: and beholding herself, was within them. And there, with the crown still upon her brow, lay the Queen."

What piques my interest is the mirrors. I think they represent a CD or some other optical medium. When the Widow "beheld herself within the mirrors: and beholding herself, was within them" I think this is the laser scanning the disk surface and finding the Queen "within" it.

The only reason I think this might be important is because we have no idea where the Queen came from or how she got on Dana's computer. If she came off a CD then this might lead us to find out something important about her origin.

I think we definitely need to know how the Queen got there, and I haven't heard mention of this elsewhere.

-max
[/url]

PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 3:38 am
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SpaceMax2000
Guest


 		source of the queen
I think xnbomb had a great analysis of these parallels in the story and the computer text (http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=43565#43565), but I think he may have missed one detail which may or may not be important. This is the passage I wonder about:

"Then she raised her bony staff and speaking a spell, beheld herself within the mirrors: and beholding herself, was within them. And there, with the crown still upon her brow, lay the Queen."

What piques my interest is the mirrors. I think they represent a CD or some other optical medium. When the Widow "beheld herself within the mirrors: and beholding herself, was within them" I think this is the laser scanning the disk surface and finding the Queen "within" it.

The only reason I think this might be important is because we have no idea where the Queen came from or how she got on Dana's computer. If she came off a CD then this might lead us to find out something important about her origin.

I think we definitely need to know how the Queen got there, and I haven't heard mention of this elsewhere.

-max
[/url]

PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 5:15 am
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Rahl
Guest


 		Someone said, "6:07 am on any day is belore sunrise", or something like that. I was curious and checked what sunrise would be in some places. I found that in Nashville, TN on Aug. 24 sunrise is 6:13 am. I know it's not exact, but it is close. So that could have something more to do with this whole thing.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:47 pm
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Anton P. Nym
Unfettered


Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 550
Location: London, Canada

 		We've been talking about magnetic storage media (blocks, lodestone) and optical media (mirrors) here, so I'm going to take a stab at the ruby and sapphire interpretation in those terms.

If we're looking at data storage, "ruby" implies laser to me... the first laser was an optically pumped ruby crystal. So perhaps the ruby fragment is part of the read/write code for the optical drive in whatever network SPDR/the Queen are now in.

If we take that, then "sapphire" could be a blue-laser read/write code... there's been substantial talk of moving to a higher-frequency laser in order to increase data storage density. Perhaps that's why the sapphire fragment is larger.

The whole story is a metaphor for computer processes... does this have any basis?

-- Steve's theory rests on there being blue laser CD/DVD systems available, and he's not sure that they exist outside of prototypes. Anybody know?
_________________
Dr.Prof. Anton P. Nym
Chief Bungiologist
Institute for Advanced ILB Research
Fireflies Wiki contributor. Sorta.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:05 am
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BrianEnigma
Entrenched


Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 1199
Location: Pacific Northwest
Anton P. Nym wrote:
Steve's theory rests on there being blue laser CD/DVD systems available, and he's not sure that they exist outside of prototypes. Anybody know?

I believe this is going to be the first consumer use of such technology: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/05/1554219
_________________
Y0 Resources / VP Wiki / PXC Catalog / Metacortex

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:43 pm
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Aelith
Decorated


Joined: 21 Jul 2004
Posts: 153
Location: Missouri

 		Re: Sunrise
Paradoxic wrote:
I was thinking about the sentence regarding dawn and the return of the Queen, so I went over to the almanac online to see what I could find out.

The sunrise for San Francisco California, for Tuesday August 24th 2004 is scheduled for 6:34 am. Now, the 'awake and aware' countdown is set for 6:07 am on that same day... not a big deal, sure, but something I noticed.

Then again, 6:07am any day is before sunrise.


May I point out that the words "before dawn" are out of the widow's story and therefore can be read as a metaphore. The most logical meaning to me would be 'before the age of intersteller travel' and or 'before the development of true AIs'. I know nothing about the Haloverse except the snipits posted here. Is there a mythos on reaching the stars in the game/books? Hummm, when the queen is repaired she becomes the first earth AI? and the dawn of a new era?

Symplistic I know but.........
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:16 pm
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: Sunrise
Aelith wrote:
May I point out that the words "before dawn" are out of the widow's story and therefore can be read as a metaphore. The most logical meaning to me would be 'before the age of intersteller travel' and or 'before the development of true AIs'. I know nothing about the Haloverse except the snipits posted here. Is there a mythos on reaching the stars in the game/books? Hummm, when the queen is repaired she becomes the first earth AI? and the dawn of a new era?

Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but I interpreted "dawn" as a metaphor for "when the timer runs out." That's why, when the Widow asked the firefly what time it was, it said, "Almost dawn" -- because the timer originally was to run out on July 29, not far away. The Widow disagreed, saying "The day will break and the sun will rise when the Queen returns to rule," and then changed the timer to run out on August 24, when the Queen will be "wide awake and physical."
_________________
These were the puzzles that would take a day, these were puzzles that would take a week, and these puzzles they'd probably never figure out until we broke down and gave them the answers. ... The Cloudmakers solved all of these puzzles on the first day.

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:24 pm
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hamatoyoshi
Veteran

Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 127

 		Re: Sunrise
Aelith wrote:
I know nothing about the Haloverse except the snipits posted here. Is there a mythos on reaching the stars in the game/books? Hummm, when the queen is repaired she becomes the first earth AI? and the dawn of a new era?


I haven't found spaceflight to be much of a big matter in Halo.

However, If you're one who believes that the Marathon and Halo canons are intertwined (I'm one of them.), then one would expect rampancy to be discovered roughly in 2070.

From Marathon (italicized text [my italics, in the last paragraph] is the relevant part to the topic, but the terminal is a good primer on AIs in general):

Defend THIS! (Terminal 2) wrote:

Public Access Terminal 42-s<34.492.95.79>


<Unauthorized access-alarm 2521->
<Security Breached 42-s<34.492.95.79>->

SEARCH HEADING: RAMPANCY
<Search Found 264995 Headings>
<REMOVE REDUNDANCIES>
<File 1 of 1940237>
"It is a side effect of Rampancy that AIs generally become
more aggressive and more difficult to affect by subterfuge.
Thus, actually disassembling a Rampant AI is quite dangerous.
This was evident in the Crash of Traxus IV in 2206. By the
time that the Rampancy of Traxus was detected, he had already
infiltrated five of the other AIs on the Martian Net. The
only recourse for the Martians was to shut down the Martian
Planetary Net. Even then, it took two full years to
completely root out the damage that Traxus had done, and the
repercussions of the Crash were seen for over ten years after
his Rampancy had begun.
***
Rampancy has been divided into three distinct stages. Each
stage can take a different amount of time to develop, but the
end result is a steady progression towards greater
intellectual activity and an acceleration of destructive
impulses. It is not clear whether these impulses are due to
the growth of the AI's psyche, or simply a side effect of the
new intellectual activity.
***
<section abbreviated>
The three stages were diagnosed shortly after the first
Rampancies were discovered on Earth in the latter part of the
twenty first century. The stages are titled after the primary
emotional bent of the AI during each stage. They are
Melancholia, Anger, and Jealousy.
***
In general, Rampancy is accelerated by outside stimuli. This
was discovered early in Cybertonics. The more a Rampant AI is
harassed or threatened, the more rapidly it becomes dangerous.
Thus, most Rampants are dealt with in one mighty attack, in
order to deny the AI time to grow or recover. There have been
a few examples of this tactic not succeeding. In all of these
cases, the Rampant was never brought under control. Traxus IV
is the most notable example. He was finally dealt with by a
complete shutdown of his host net.
***
Theoretically, testing Rampancy should be easily accomplished
in the laboratory, but in fact it has never successfully been
attempted. The confinement of the laboratory makes it
impossible for the developing Rampant AI to survive. As the
growing recursive programs expand with exponential vivacity,
any limitation negatively hampers growth. Since Rampant AIs
need a planetary sized network of computers in order to grow,
it is not feasible to expect anyone to sacrifice a world-web
just to test a theory.
***
In the two hundred and fifty years since Rampancy first
appeared in the Earth-net, the stable Rampant AI, the 'Holy
Grail' of cybertonics, has never come close to fruition.
Since no Rampant has ever been controlled or turned to any
useful purpose, it is the opinion of this writer and of the
majority of the Cybertonic community that all rampant AIs are
a danger to Cyberlife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Thrashedness. (James B. Miller, 2320, "Life and Death of
Intelligence")

<Unauthorized access-alarm 2521->
<Security Breached 42-s<34.492.95.79>->


PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:34 pm
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