I’m not sure if that could be attributed to anyone reading this thread*, but rather it could be that the first link was set up somehow to notify whoever put the page up that the page had been found and the image had been downloaded. Then, once they knew it had been found they added the alt-text, etc. I don’t know if Google Groups has a download notification option for file attachments, but it would be my guess that if it does they probably used that to monitor when somebody found that final page.
*I have had suspicions since early in the first thread that someone here may have known at least a little more than they let on.
I could have sworn I posted this earlier, but it appears the post was eaten.
Great work, sadrobot! Applause
So I was right, and the other numbers and/or letters on the bill proved critical. With just the cutout letters alone, we would have needed a lot more letters, maybe even all 10, and been forced to do anagrams. Those Federal Reserve Bank numbers just inboard of the 1’s at the corners match up with the letters in the seal. A=1, B=2, C=3 etc.
Wish I could have participated in this one more, but it was good fun watching you guys unravel it. Nice work, and kudos to the creator(s)/organizer(s) of this enigma. Pretty clever work from both sides.
So, is there still any value to me going after the Bozeman clue envelope? I didn’t get a chance to get out there today, but I should be able to tomorrow.
Well, any value other than a dollar for me, that is.
Doesn’t anyone find it a bit suspicious that the same person who thought of using the Federal Reserve Bank numbers to place the letters, also was able to find the location of the image in Google maps in 1 hour and 5 minutes? (and hasn’t responded to questions as to how he was able to do it?)
I don’t want to take away from sadrobot’s achievement, which is awesome, but the sequence of events did raise a little red flag for me. Anyone else?
While I agree that discovering the location of a satellite photo in a little over an hour is—to put it mildly—remarkable, if sadrobot was the creator of the puzzle, why would he go through all the trouble of setting it up only to deprive himself of the fun of watching people try to figure it out?
If I were in New York on the 20th, the first things I would want to know is A) was he following this thread, and B) Who is @foible?
June 20 is fast approaching. If that is a hard date (that is, the only date the Engima guy will be at the location), he needed to push the solution along. I was also suspicious about how some of the breakthroughs were made in the puzzle. I would not be surprised to find that more than one of the people involved in solving it are insiders. In fact, I suspect that the whole thing was orchestrated by a doper.
One of the main reasons for my suspicion is that it was all too convenient. A doper is following a twitter user who dropped a clue about the puzzle. That twitter user doesn’t have many followers. It took a lot of effort to put the puzzle together, yet the way they got it going was via a few tweets that could have easily been overlooked but for the inquisitiveness of a single person. Nobody on any other forum appears to be working on this puzzle - did they just get lucky that a doper picked up on the first clue, or was it purposefully directed at dopers in the first place?
I agree with everything you said, Gus. Like I said, I’ve thought almost since the beginning that something was a little “off” with how the thing started. It was still fun, though.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think June 20 is the only time this person (our “riddler”) could make it to the location. I think that’s what the noted discrepancy with the final website might have been about. When the first person(s) hit the “demonetise” site, they saw a link to a googlegroups file attachment download with the picture in it. Then they said the page changed to the image with the date and alt-text. This shows that the page was edited 19 hours ago, and at least a couple of times before. So, I think the date was set based on when the puzzle was solved, not that the solution was “pushed through” to get it out there ahead of a deadline.
Oh, and another thing I’m wondering about is what the deal is with this whole thing. One of the envelopes had the name “Alex Epsten” written on it, apparently. There’s an Alex Epstein who is a Randian philosopher who writes about business stuff, the markets, etc. Then there’s this guy, Alex Schoenbaum, who is also some kind of financial somethingorother. The final website was “demonetise.” Surely that word has to mean something in the context of this whole thing, since not only was it specifically chosen (ie., not an anagram of a previous clue or name), but the spelling was altered from its common (American) spelling “demonetize” to make it fit with the letters that can be cut out of a dollar bill (and/or because I think demonetize.com was already registered). This whole thing seems way too clever to be some kind of sales pitch (financial, political, or otherwise), but it does make me very curious what this is all about.
Have we confirmed yet that we have someone that can show up there to help us finalize this thing? It’d be a shame to get this far and not have someone to drop by.
Jeeze, what if someone does show up and finds Mr. Enigma, and he hands them an envelope and says, “Here’s your next clue?” :smack:
I want to state for the record that I am not now, nor have ever been, a member of the “Puzzle Cabal.” There is no cabal. Fnord.
If it was a push, it was way too overeager, and might not have been necessary. When we got to the aerial photo, we still had 3 days till the deadline, and we quickly guessed the right city. With a bunch of us poring over Google maps and other resources, I bet we would have found it ourselves, probably within a day. The Enigma guy could have waited until closer to the deadline to have sadrobot make the lucky “find”, and it would have seemed more plausible and not aroused suspicions.
