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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Project Abraham
[R2] Day of Injection 08/19/08
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floe32
Boot


Joined: 22 Jul 2008
Posts: 54
Bartock wrote:
Great job everyone, I come back to this this morning and find a full solve.

Second, Im wondering what happened to (as they call him in DM177533, since it's shorter) JAS. Did he fully transform into a Chimera or die like Khaner did? Obviously the chart comparing to normal Russian viral load is referring to the Cloven that Larval mentioned first so he didn't become one of them. But at the same time in DM17751 they say JAS will still be a key component to fending off the invaders, seeming to me that he is still alive somewhere, maybe being held in some secure room or something.


I suspect that the russians were pursuing a similar project to Abraham. They were likely trying to develop an immunity to the Chimeran virus long before the rest of the world knew about the threat. My guess is that one of the vaccines didn't work as planned and ended up creating the cloven somehow. The cloven are part-chimeran but not exactly the same.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 10:37 am
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aNimeKing33
Guest


 		More files:

DM177530
DM177531
DM177532
DM177533


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
New Document Control #: J7OZ3B9C5XYT
Spoiler (Rollover to View):


I can't login to acsess the files

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:39 am
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Gregoriev
Entrenched


Joined: 29 Jul 2008
Posts: 1217
Location: *Looks around* By my computer?
aNimeKing33 wrote:
More files:

DM177530
DM177531
DM177532
DM177533


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
New Document Control #: J7OZ3B9C5XYT
Spoiler (Rollover to View):


I can't login to acsess the files


1. Trout.
2. You screwed up the spoiler.
3. The login to get it is
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
SEC thompsong:dauphin

_________________
Playing: Whatever I come across that I find interesting.
Played: Dharma Wants you, Project Abraham, The Shadow War, Alpha Agency, all kinds of other games.
Lurking: See statement the first and add EVERYTHING.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:57 am
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aNimeKing33
Guest


 		thanks,sorry bout the screw-up,first time posting on this site

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:08 pm
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h311b3nt
Decorated


Joined: 09 Jul 2007
Posts: 271
Location: OC

 		damn thebruce again. I wish I had more time to work on this last night. I really feel like I could have solved this one. Hard to hive a problem with a king bee like thebruce around. I might have to stop reading these threads until fully stumped. Bruce is the man.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:15 pm
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		crap, see that's what makes me want to step back sometimes (not that that's a bad thing)... edit: removed for rambly meta talk
Thanks, and sorry Wink


Looks like there are two more weeks of puzzles anyway... and considering how tough this one was compared to the last ones, I'm afraid of what'll be cooked up next Shocked
/meta
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:03 pm
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Verdammt
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Joined: 09 Jul 2008
Posts: 136
Location: Somewhere in Gotham

 		Those are some very good points thebruce. It's a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. I for one love to see how you solved it as it lets me sit back and marvel at your genius.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:07 pm
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		if by 'genius' you mean 'stumble onto an 'aha' moment', I guess. I don't really want the praise, we should just love to share solves and read solves - it expands our collective problem/puzzle-solving hive-mind Razz.

IMO, the best puzzles are original/unique ones, based on context and relatively self-contained. And 42 does a great job of that... puzzles that don't rely on recognition of a known cryptographic method for example, but intuitive twisting of general world (real or virtual) content. It stretches your braaaains. Smile
And no, I'm not mensa. Mensa would have solved this in 5 minutes I bet Razz
But I do have a Mensa puzzle book from years ago... never got through it. That's a good example of a kind of puzzle book with unique/creative puzzles to solve... now I want to go pick it up again when I get home Smile
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:23 pm
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Verdammt
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Joined: 09 Jul 2008
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thebruce wrote:
'stumble onto an 'aha' moment',


I love the feeling when that last neuron clicks into place and you've figured it out.

I've read through your solution, but how did that solution come to you? What was that 'aha' moment?


Quote:
And 42 does a great job of that...


Speaking of 42, has anybody gotten an inkling of what they are up to to next after this one wraps up?
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:27 pm
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Verdammt wrote:
I love the feeling when that last neuron clicks into place and you've figured it out.
I've read through your solution, but how did that solution come to you? What was that 'aha' moment?

Noticing that every 2 or 3 blocks had an empty top row, that stacking them (like lego/duplo) lined up the dot patterns.
At first I thought they were vertical, and deceptively, some of the patterns could be read as a letter vertically too (eg, the 'P' pattern looked like it could be an 'A' in its current orientation; a lot of the letters had serifs too, like the D) - but the sideways T, for instance, didn't form a vertical letter; and some of the other ones like the R (which I thought was a very oddly shaped Y) were just a jumble in that orientation. Among other segments of the code I'd tried to draw out on paper, I actually had "NYADSW?I?" written down. Then I turned the note, and read up, kind of seeing the S, A, T and H.

So the second part of the 'aha' was realizing they were mirrored and rotated, and seeing the letters stand out clear as day after being flipped - reading NYADSW?I? upwards and seeing SRPANETHQ. The few instances where a letter or number were only 2 blocks instead of three were fun (iirc, only 'I' and '1' were two blocks, aside from punctuation)

I actually let out a little cheer when that first word, SRPANETHQ (from the lower frequency triple-9 sequence), popped out. Smile so maybe that was the real 'aha' moment.

but once those repeated patterns of 2 and 3 blocks started standing out, there was less of the mental re-orienting and re-aligning of each block, and just noting repeated sets of blocks as letters. The filename took a bit (since that had numbers, new patterns that hadn't been used previously). At first I also thought CQ was CR (as if sending a new-line character), but kicked myself on realizing it was CQ, as per a radio signal (*Contact movie flashback* =)

The option of morse code was gone long before any of this... the dot/dashes were too erratic to form letters, and the consistent groupings of 2x3 blocks were just screaming I'm-not-morse.
Also, the fact the some letters were two blocks instead of three threw off any noticable 'divisible by 3' consistent counting patterns (and I think we all at some point counted the groups, the sound beeps, the 'words', etc) which made noticing any pattern that much more difficult. (to mix cliches - they threw in a tiny litte wrench to throw off the scent =P)

So really, imo, this one all came down to obscure pattern recognition, and lots of time, patience, and trial and error.

I still wonder if the "Duplo" really was intended to hint at 'lego' or 'stacking', or if it was just intended to imply 'duplex' for the dual-layer signal.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:03 pm
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Verdammt
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Joined: 09 Jul 2008
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Location: Somewhere in Gotham

 		That was quite the puzzle they threw at us. Makes me wonder what's next.
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Res2, Alpha Agency, D-9, Seek The Six

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:10 pm
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Jyardana
Boot

Joined: 08 Jul 2007
Posts: 33
thebruce wrote:


I still wonder if the "Duplo" really was intended to hint at 'lego' or 'stacking', or if it was just intended to imply 'duplex' for the dual-layer signal.


That had to be the clue, because lego would have made it way too easy and it was close enough to duplex to cause confusion (especially in me, damnit).

I should have used a better spectrograph program though, my images weren't nearly as clear as yours and were pretty hard to work with. I had a lot of noise I couldn't remove.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:43 pm
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Helios87
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Joined: 05 Aug 2008
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Location: toronto-ish

 		hey Bruce, no worries at all mate, it had been hours and hours and we were all stumped - its not like you're racing against us to get your name in the paper or anything, and we all know it - but ya, now i'm scared as shit for next weeks puzzle....

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:25 am
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Seyelback
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Joined: 06 Aug 2008
Posts: 145
Location: UK

 		Although I have been reading the forum during the last couple of days, I couldn't post (my mobile is not forum-friendly exactly), so now I had back my laptop, I wanted to go back for a couple of lines to Tuesday's puzzle.
I went to bed just before TheBruce solved it lol, so I woke up only to discover that everybody knew the solution and the new codes + control seal... argh... I think that living in Uk gives a disadvantage lol When I have to go to bed you all have lots of hours to go and try.. argh (Well... this is an excuse, here the updates are at 8pm, so I still have about 3h to discover something, I am just slow... lol)
i wanted to congrat TheBruce and gregory, great work you did!!!
I am amazed with the puzzle, the solution and how you solved it. When I first saw the spectogram, I though we have to change that dots and lines for numbers or symbols... but I didn't think about actually rotating them to create letters! Great thinking, really.
The previous weeks I got frustrated with the puzzle because I couldn't do it in time, and I felt that not knowing how to use the tools (google earth, photoshop) slowed me down. But this week everybody was stuck at some point, and when TheBruce gave the solution I just felt relief that we could move on, and finally somebody got it. I did feel we were working together through the solution, and I could share that joy moment.
Congrats again, you have a great brain over your neck Very Happy
I honestly hope that the next puzzles are about the same difficulty, I enjoy more trying to figure out what to do, and trying different things, than just getting a code and typing it in srpanet. I don't know if I will ever be quick enough or get the solution on my own, but I have tried, and I have enjoyed the process and the trial and error, so I am really proud of at least trying.
And well, gregory, great translation work you gave us!!! Very Happy Really helpful, and I am sure your hour of work now is copied and pasted in the whole R2 forums lol (I hope they quoted you also, I always do when i post somewhere else some update).
Well, and that's all. Looking forward to tomorrow. Very Happy

PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:21 pm
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