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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[Trailhead] Rewriting The Future
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jessie1326
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
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Location: Illinois, U.S.A.
ads123 wrote:
jessie1326 wrote:
That recap is awesome. Worshippy


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

Quick, concise, and with links -- perfect, in my book. For details, we can go back over the thread. Smile

sequoya wrote:
Great recap. Random observation: I literally only just realised that Toilworn Diamond is an anagram of World Domination. Laughing Did we know that already?


Very Happy Our PM is fond of anagrams. Other notables include:
Beth Swillower = Whistle Blower
Acivera = Avarice
Pasi Liisola = a Finnish word for "secret agent"

PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 2:15 pm
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ads123
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Joined: 12 Nov 2012
Posts: 85

 		Was browsing the character's twitter accounts and @Ricexal posted a link to 9Gag an hour ago where he had an advertisement for the face modelling challenge (weird place to advertise but whatever). The tweet was taken down by the PM just a second ago for whatever reason but the advert is still up there. So y'know make of that what you will.

:EDIT: PM changed it to a PDF. A bit more fitting I guess.
:EDIT 2: It seems that Beth has posted a warning for us should we choose to go to Avecira with a solution to the face problem.

PostPosted: Fri May 31, 2013 7:53 am
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zerovin
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Location: Australia

 		i just got an e-mail from Richard about the face test, saying that i can help them "in this way"

Quote:
Hello,

How are you? I haven't heard from you for a while, hope you are ok!

We just launched a programming challenge where I think your skills could be very handy! Do you want to give it a go? Face modeling with ellipses is also something we have been doing in project Toilworn Diamond. As you have been collaborating with us before, I thought that maybe you'd like to contribute to the project Toilworn Diamond this way?

You can find the challenge and more info 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 participating in this challenge!

Best Regards,
Richard


PostPosted: Fri May 31, 2013 12:09 pm
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amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 4096
Location: Nederland
Beth Swillower on her blog wrote:
...You can take part in the challenge and do some outstanding and cool faces with ellipses. Make them believe you are helping them with the project, but never send any source code to them.


Does that mean submitting a JPEG solution rather than a text file? Some players here just completed a different graphics challenge so creativity isn't an issue. For me it's using only layers of ellipses to build from scratch or maybe a transparency that seems difficult. Also, I haven't found anything online to create that effect.
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PostPosted: Fri May 31, 2013 5:38 pm
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jessie1326
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
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Location: Illinois, U.S.A.
amandel wrote:
Beth Swillower on her blog wrote:
You can take part in the challenge and do some outstanding and cool faces with ellipses. Make them believe you are helping them with the project, but never send any source code to them.


That means submitting a JPEG rather than a text file? Some players here just completed a graphics challenge so creativity isn't an issue. For me using only layers of ellipses seems tough.


No, the text file wouldn't be source code, it's just a version of the final product. Beth's assuming that we're writing a (computer) script to solve the ellipse problem, which is a reasonable assumption given how insanely tedious the challenge is. She's saying we shouldn't hand over the program we write.... to which I say, no worries there! Rolling Eyes

PostPosted: Fri May 31, 2013 5:54 pm
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amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 4096
Location: Nederland

 		Thanks for that clarification, jessie. With my inner-Ada-Lovelace motivating me on I asked Richard a couple of Computer Science 101 questions about the challenge.

As a seque into my naive questions Amandel wrote:
Overheard on the starship Enterprise: Dang it Jim, I'm a sawbones not a Quantum Ellipses engineer...

In reply Richard wrote:
I understand that it can be a big leap from being a sawbones to a quantum ellipses engineer! Hopefully we will find some people to replace the face modeling department from somewhere else. Of course, this is not the only way to get your name into those history books. You have already been very important and trustworthy partner! I will definitely inform you if we happen to find any more of those weird messages.

About your questions, the instructions about the origo just indicate that if you say that an ellipse should be drawn to coordinates x=0, y=0, its center will be at the top left corner of the image and not for example at the bottom. When the y coordinate is negative, it just means that the center of the ellipse is somewhere above the top of the image. However, if the ellipse is big enough, some parts of it might still be visible. In the example, the height of the ellipse is 105, so some part of its lower half is shown in the image.

I understand your interest on our state of the art project. As artists don't like showing unfinished work, I also don't want to go into too much details about Toilworn Diamond at the moment. However, if my vision comes true, one day everyone will know about it!

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"Can you hook up with a Snow Person? Can't tell you or I'd have to marry you."

PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 6:27 am
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TallulahBelle
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Joined: 10 Jul 2007
Posts: 779
Location: Sweden

 		On that page, Avecira mentions that the face modeling can be done using the
Quote:
"Let's climb the hill" or "Hill climbing" method.

There is a mathematic optimization technique called hill climbing, used by artificial intelligence.
There is some code on that wikipage, but it's way above my intelligence clearance level.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 2:50 am
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Mehetabel
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 		Beth has just given us Message #9, the yellow cat picture:


I'm assuming steg, but I'm way too tired to check.
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 3:00 am
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spoonhead99
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 		At first glance the reflection in the eyes seems quite prominent but I don't currently have the tools to look into them.
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 7:25 am
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iamthor
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Joined: 04 Jul 2009
Posts: 49

 		If you adjust the levels on the image, then isolate the blue channel (I know just a little Photoshop), you're left with a QR code image. The code takes you to this text:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):

TS:2049-12-31-23-59-60
In 2018, the LOLCat Apocalypse had already paralyzed the entire society. People blamed Avecira Solutions and the project Toilworn Diamond for the agonizing destiny they had faced. However, at the same time, they realized that they were also partly responsible for it. Fortunately, a genius invention was made while investigating vulnerabilities in the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The invention made it possible... goo.gl/4rZLl


New link is http://goo.gl/4rZLl which takes you to another image. Similar adjustment techniques on that image produce another QR code and this text:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):

...to send information back in time. However, there are many limitations and the sender has no control over the mutation that happens while the message is traveling through time. For example, message that is sent as a text can mutate into binary code representing the ASCII values of the characters, or the text can be included in images in several ways. Therefore, it takes tremendous amount of cleverness and skill to be able to read the messages.


PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 7:36 am
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amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 4096
Location: Nederland
iamthor wrote:
...I know just a little Photoshop

Reckon that's an understatement & BEAUT job. Have you told Beth? I can't duplicate your results with Gimp (too heavy adjusts?) so I can't answer any blog questions
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 9:51 am
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sequoya
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 		Fantastic job, iamthor!

So, we're being sent these messages from the future, presumably with the intention that we will stop Avecira in the present from (somehow) using the internet to bring about the LOLCat Apocalypse.... I guess there must have been some accident during the world domination project?

I wonder how the face modelling stuff factors into their plans. I guess the best thing we can do with that right now is not help them out with the challenge. Which is handy, given that none of us knows how to anyway Very Happy

Or, is there another easy way we can try to sabotage it somehow, without having the programming knowledge? Hrm.
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:10 am
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iamthor
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 		The part about binary code and ASCII characters definitely seemed like a clue. The columns on the playing card are eight dots long meaning they could be used for binary. The trouble is that I can't tell which way it should be oriented and whether a punch should count as a 0 or 1. Also she's said that this is only part of the message.

I've gotten some letters but nothing definitive. Anyway, it seemed like it might be a lead on how to use the card.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:45 am
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jessie1326
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Joined: 17 Sep 2009
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Location: Illinois, U.S.A.
iamthor wrote:
The part about binary code and ASCII characters definitely seemed like a clue. The columns on the playing card are eight dots long meaning they could be used for binary. The trouble is that I can't tell which way it should be oriented and whether a punch should count as a 0 or 1. Also she's said that this is only part of the message.

I've gotten some letters but nothing definitive. Anyway, it seemed like it might be a lead on how to use the card.


I thought the same thing -- it does sound an awful lot like a cluebat, doesn't it? Other than the cards, which I really think we need more information about, are there any other messages currently not deciphered?

ETA: Could there be a message hidden in the letter that was part of the drop? Some of the wording is a bit odd, but I attributed that to the writer being (presumably) Finnish. Likewise, the typewriter has some blurry letters, but they seem pretty consistent (i.e., not added after the fact). Hmmm.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:51 am
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Mehetabel
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Joined: 06 Apr 2009
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 		On the subject of the letter, the conversation on that post seems to indicate there are more pieces to that puzzle, and it may not be decipherable with what we have, right now.

Cor de Lea wrote:
Has anyone tried laying the card over the letter in different directions, and seeing what letters show through the holes? I've got a guess that horizontally across a paragraph with eight lines (the number of holes down the short side of the card) is likely the way to go, there. And the second paragraph of the letter is eight lines long...


Beth Swillower wrote:
That's an interesting idea Cor-de-lea. I haven't seen the letter or the card physically, so I don't know if it could work somehow like that? However, I think that based on Pasi's letter, we should get more of those cards before we can fully get the secret word.

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 11:30 am
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