unforum

[Dorkmaster]

it is puzzle oriented if the phone calls are different to each location, and end up being a puzzle in themselves (which is what I think will be happening) But I do completely understand what you're saying...

[rose]

msekoplsu wrote:

[jegger]

[Extrasonic]

[Andy]

I'm guessing that thebruce's program plots the coordinates on an x-y axis, which is why it looks different than if it were plotted on a globe. If you squint, you can kind of see his dots look like an elongated United States.

[Dorkmaster]

[SocialElite]

I know that several people have mentioned the possibility of the GPS puzzle being related to the previous website puzzle that has been solved, but has anybody suggested the possibility that the GPS puzzle could be related in type but not in substance to the website puzzle?
In the website puzzle we were given a series of internet coordinates which were capable of being put into a series of groups, and each of these groups lent themselves to an individual theme, these individual themes then being combined to form a narrative. (At least, this is what I'm pretty sure happened, I did come into this right after that was finalized.)
Now, we're dealing with a series of real world coordinates which once again might potentially be combined into groups of similar/identical locations.
I realize that the idea of similarly themed GPS coords has been suggested repeatedly, but I'm not sure if anybody had made the direct connection to the first website puzzle with the website puzzle acting as an easy template off of which to base our efforts on this slightly more difficult version of what could essentially be the exact same format of problem.

With regards,

Ian Whalen

[Shad0]

Re: Coordinate Plotter

[usernameguy]

SocialElite, we're trying that very angle over in "GPS *Addresses* Important -- Please Post": http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5736&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 Please c'mon by and help out!

And be sure to take a look at my "why GPS isn't that accurate" post.

[thebruce]

QUICKLY QUICKLY I GOTTA POST THIS!!

I had a conversion error in the coordinates... in my script that converted the html coordinates into a text sequence, there were a couple errors... all but 5 of the x coordinates were negative, and yeah, the x/y axis was opposite, so I've since fixed it all. My bad

The coordinates are in fact all still within the continental united states make sure no one starts going off on a wild goose hunt... my BIG bad



and shad0, I feel for you... *cough*



...silence...

*whipsers*get ie

[GaUDeNTiUs]

I made a quick bar graph and something I noticed. As mentioned time and again, a voice is trying to be found. Is it possible that the coordinates somehow relate to a voice print?

GD

[Malrog]

Two things...

1) I've PM'd thebruce about this, so hopefully it'll get fixed, but it's a heads up for everyone else as well: the first 5 xcoords on thebruce's oh so helpful coordinate plotter are not given with a negative value, while all the rest are. It's my belief that the xcoords should all be positive, and this would remove the 5 stray points that appear to the far right, separated from the rest.

2) When plotting the points correctly, (which you can do by downloading the "correct coords" textfile from below and replacing the coords currently there with a copy-paste) there are a few things to note:

• The image has a VERY distinctive gap right across the middle of it, which I checked in Excel is right around the -100 latitude mark. I looked on my atlas, and that's a line that pretty much bisects the states. North-South.
  
• The image (when it's rotated 90deg right) does look a little like it could be a rough map of the US, with Canada above it, with the gap being the border between the two countries.
  

I'm very much in the group of people who think that whichever AI is interested in these points, is interested because they want to send a message out. Could they be sending out an image of the planet Earth, as a call for help, saying "This is where I am, come get me"?

Well, I'll leave this long post there, and no doubt thebruce will have already fixed up the problem before I've posted this, which'll mean the first part of my post is irrelevant, but not to worry, there's still that odd gap to puzzle about...

Malrog

As an additional note, that gap was there even with the old coordinates (before the Tuesday update)!

Edit: Changed info on rotation as per the changes made by thebruce to the plotter, to avoid confusion.[/sub]

[thebruce]

yeha Malrog, I fixed it before you posted that message

[Malrog]

[jegger]

Here's the reason the points migrate slowly westward. I took the set of points in each time zone and did a max/min to get the range of times. Here are the results:

Eastern: 9:07am - 6:23pm
Central: 8:31am - 5:35pm
Mountain: 9:39am - 6:43pm
Pacific: 8:55am - 6:03pm

This seems to affirm that this is not merely a numerical puzzle, and something will happen at these times. Why 9 to 6 (working hours) were chosen, I'm not sure. Either they want maximum exposure for whatever they're doing, or they're using people that work from (approx) 9-6. I personally think the purely numerical argument is out.