Author
Message
Ben_Dover
Boot
Joined: 10 Aug 2004 Posts: 35
Quote:
BTW, I do believe people will recall making fun of my idea and calling it "bunk". You should note that the entity hints at the fact that this isn't a part of a literal puzzle, but instead part of the story line.
Thicker skin, thicker skin.
I don't recall anyone "making fun" of your idea. I do recall disagreeing with it. Big difference there.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:24 pm
Motoss
Decorated
Joined: 06 Aug 2004 Posts: 170 Location: Ohio
I think that the GPS coordinates are DEFINITELY pointing to specific locations for the reason of having us watch what happens to those locations on the 24th. I live only an hour away max from all three locations in Ohio, and they are all the same two cities, one which has been restored to its historic look. These GPS are much too specific to simply be making a picture or mapping where the Queen has spread to.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:28 pm
keybsnbits
Veteran
Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 121
Ben_Dover wrote:
Thicker skin, thicker skin.
I don't recall anyone "making fun" of your idea. I do recall disagreeing with it. Big difference there.
This was not aimed at you, my friend. It was aimed at :
handfulofhoneybees wrote:
The internet backbone theory is bunk. BUNK!
But let's try to stay on topic
_________________Currently playing: the haunted apiary
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:29 pm
Grout
Veteran
Joined: 25 Jul 2004 Posts: 105
Yeah, you'll have to take what my friend handful says with a bit of salt occasionally, he can get emotional.
I personally don't believe the internet backbone theory as of yet - because if it were true... the map would have to match EXACTLY... these coordinates are accurate to within less than 100ft. Having them maybe point to a city in which there happens to be a hub doesn't cut it in my opinion.
If you draw a bunch of lines connecting pretty much anything... mcdonalds, liquor stores, pet cemetaries... It will eventually look similar to our map because they are based on population. Yeah, it would make sense in the story if this was a map of the internet, but if that is what the PMs are getting at, they are doing a pretty horrible job.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:34 pm
ElGameR
Decorated
Joined: 10 Aug 2004 Posts: 167 Location: 45° 36' N 122° 36' W
Well, I did the same thing I did a few post back with the distances from each point to " Margaret's House of Bees" and again, its just a bunch of random letters.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:37 pm
Grout
Veteran
Joined: 25 Jul 2004 Posts: 105
HEY HEY.......
Speaking of my friend handfulofhoneybees...
He just found this little tool:
http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?GetLocation
So you CAN find addresses based on people's IPs - it even gives you nice GPS coords in 4 decimal points. It found him precisely. It was way off on me though... this may account for the discrepancies and weird locations.
I'm partially inclined to go back to the "this is us" theory. The queen is trying to hunt us... or at least hunt dana through the people she has been in contact with. The PMs just used a faulty tool to find us?
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:58 pm
Astald
Unfettered
Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Posts: 747 Location: Just outside of Pittsburgh (Go Steelers!)
Well, if one of those new points pops up in New Kensington, PA. I will crap my pants. (And I got the e-mail from the Sleeping Princess today, so I think they would consider me for one of them)
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:10 pm
Guest
Guest
With Dana's post about playing hide-and-seek in China, I don't suppose that the coord's really ARE supposed to be on the other side of the world and we are missing the point entirely by looking at US locations -
Melissa is trying to track Dana down, and these are the coord's of wifi spots in China that Dana has been at during her trip, or something like that
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:53 pm
gohoos
Boot
Joined: 10 Aug 2004 Posts: 33
Grout wrote:
So you CAN find addresses based on people's IPs - it even gives you nice GPS coords in 4 decimal points. It found him precisely. It was way off on me though... this may account for the discrepancies and weird locations.
I'm partially inclined to go back to the "this is us" theory. The queen is trying to hunt us... or at least hunt dana through the people she has been in contact with. The PMs just used a faulty tool to find us?
Any tool would be a faulty tool. Any attempt to locate someone from an IP address they have used would be inaccurate at best. And even if you did get some kind of location you would have a high probability of being incorrect.
Even DSL and cable ISP's rotate IP addresses. (Usually so they can charge you extra if you need a static IP.) Sometimes they assign the numbers by region, sometimes not, and usually that info isn't published. Dial up? Forget about it. Even your desktop computer will almost certainly get a new dynamic address each time you reboot. (And that address has a good chance of being in a non-routable IP range, common for most organizations.) Add to the mix things like NAT translation of IP addresses, and VPN use, and things really get complicated.
The bottom line is that the only information you can gather with 100% confidence from an IP address is the company that registered that IP range.
Anyhow, I don't mean to slam on anyone, but rather to bring some technical knowledge to a game that has a bunch already. I'm hoping that the PM's would make the game "correct" technically and not require the suspension of belief (technically) that is required by so many movies and TV shows.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:54 pm
Grout
Veteran
Joined: 25 Jul 2004 Posts: 105
gohoos wrote:
Grout wrote:
So you CAN find addresses based on people's IPs - it even gives you nice GPS coords in 4 decimal points. It found him precisely. It was way off on me though... this may account for the discrepancies and weird locations.
I'm partially inclined to go back to the "this is us" theory. The queen is trying to hunt us... or at least hunt dana through the people she has been in contact with. The PMs just used a faulty tool to find us?
Any tool would be a faulty tool. Any attempt to locate someone from an IP address they have used would be inaccurate at best. And even if you did get some kind of location you would have a high probability of being incorrect.
Even DSL and cable ISP's rotate IP addresses. (Usually so they can charge you extra if you need a static IP.) Sometimes they assign the numbers by region, sometimes not, and usually that info isn't published. Dial up? Forget about it. Even your desktop computer will almost certainly get a new dynamic address each time you reboot. (And that address has a good chance of being in a non-routable IP range, common for most organizations.) Add to the mix things like NAT translation of IP addresses, and VPN use, and things really get complicated.
The bottom line is that the only information you can gather with 100% confidence from an IP address is the company that registered that IP range.
Anyhow, I don't mean to slam on anyone, but rather to bring some technical knowledge to a game that has a bunch already. I'm hoping that the PM's would make the game "correct" technically and not require the suspension of belief (technically) that is required by so many movies and TV shows.
Maybe you are right - but maybe the PMs thought they were being clever and tracking us all down... but it turns out most of the sites are wrong. This theory seems to fit closest with the story anyway...
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:04 pm
handfulofhoneybees
Greenhorn
Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Chicago, IL
I've been playing with the IP locator tool that Grout mentioned for me...
The results seem wildly inaccurate to the user's physical location. For instance, looking up several of the last few dynamic IPs of my home computer (don't ask me how I still have them) told me I had moved between Chicago, Tennessee, and California. However, someone who knows more about this magical 'Internet' thing might be able to tell me what the aforementioned tool is REALLY doing. For instance, is it giving me the coords of the server I'm routing through?
If this is the case I may have to eat my words, to some extent, though others might also. It could be that these GPS locations were culled from a list of our IPs, but the IP lookup tool the PMs used returned servers/backbones/magical internet fairies - thus meaning that the reality lay somewhere between the two theories.
We must follow this lead, even if it takes us to another dead end!
Beekeepers, use this tool http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm to look up your location! Eventually, we may start seeing overlaps with the posted GPS coordinates.
If we do... well... beats me what we do with it. But at least we'll know where the numbers came from. [/url]
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:05 pm
Grout
Veteran
Joined: 25 Jul 2004 Posts: 105
handfulofhoneybees wrote:
If we do... well... beats me what we do with it. But at least we'll know where the numbers came from.
If we do... we don't have to do anything except sit there and pretend to be scared because the queeeeen is watchinnnng usssss ooooooooooooooooooooo.
Or something like that. Plot device.
Personally I hope this is wrong. I like puzzles better than plot devices.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:13 pm
Grout
Veteran
Joined: 25 Jul 2004 Posts: 105
Here's some text from the FAQ of that IP locator:
Quote:
the purpose of the Geobytes map is to map IP Addresses to geographical locations. To achieve this we acquire seed data from a number of sources. All of these sites ask the web surfer to provide their geographic location, and this location along with the user's IP Address is forwarded to us as seed data. We then run this data through a series of algorithms which identify and extract collaborating seed points.
So what this sounds like is that this thing finds locations by pulling seed info from various sites at which someone has entered their address? Sounds pretty faulty to me - especially with dynamic IPs... BUT there is still the possibility that the PMs used this or a similar tool without knowing any better.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 8:18 pm
Ben_Dover
Boot
Joined: 10 Aug 2004 Posts: 35
But do you guy really think that nobody in Texas was playing? Really? Texas is a big, big state, and the odds of there being so many people in Sedalia MT getting their name's randomly pulled without a single name from TX being drawn seems pretty far fetched to me.
But maybe it's first 220 to e-mail the site and just maybe nobody down here in TX was in that first 220. Odds are way against it, but I guess stranger things have happened.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:00 pm
vpisteve
Asshatministrator
Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 2441 Location: 1987
Locked as per mass player request. Please use one of the [PUZZLE] Axons: xxxx threads for further discussion.
Your helpful admin.
_________________
Making the world a better place, one less mime at a time .
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 9:13 pm
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