Thursday 17 January 2008

Chapter 3 - 2 Emails, a Website, and a Message

UPDATE 1/18: I just wanted to keep a current log tracing what Dark UFO has discovered regarding the Bali Holiday Fun stegosaurus image and possible stegged clues. Dark UFO readers discovered some possible Morse Code within the voice message from Sean Dowling on Sam's phone (larger image here), translating it as OPENSTEGO. Dark's readers went on to discover a computer program by that name that which scans for stegged data. They found that you need a password to access whatever the data is. So that's where we're at. Trying to find the password (which may well come tonight or be in something we've already seen). ~Ange

We have a busy night tonight at Find815.com. The update consists of 2 emails, 1 website, and 1 message.

E-mails:
  • Sent - Equipment Meltdown
Sam explains to Tracey how the equipment on the Bridge went crazy last night. He says it was "freaky" and asks her opinion of it.
  • Inbox - Equipment Meltdown
Tracey replies to Sam that the meltdown was probably caused by lightning or a temporary failure inside the electrical system. She continues that it could be caused by electromagnetic energy, but it would have to be a really strong wave.

Then, Tracey tells Sam that she thinks he may need a holiday! Guess where she suggests he look!
At BaliHolidayFun.com there is an e-mail address (baliholidayfun@gmail.com).
Website
  • Tonight's new website is Answermyquestions.org. Seems Sam is searching for answers on who The Maxwell Group might be. Surprisingly enough, one of the search results is for James Clerk Maxwell. Ring a bell, anyone?
  • Considering Tracey's reference to electromagnetic energy waves and the mention of James Clerk Maxwell, I thought it might be interesting to have another look at one of our S4 clues: Daniel Faraday
Phone Message:
  • Sam has a new voicemail from Sean Dowling at Oceanic Air Employee Relations. Sean is informing Sam that, due to his dismissal, his loyalty flyer points have been revoked. Sean definitely doesn't want Sam thinking he can still use them!(smirk)

212 comments:

1 – 200 of 212   Newer›   Newest»
TakesaVillage said...

First?

maven said...

Did we learn that Sam took Oceanic to Darwin/Jakarta through his friend David Massingham's help? Or was it Austral Air? Maybe that phone message Sean Downing was a warning that he is being tracked if he took Oceanic.

jess4ua said...

Maven - Good Catch! Puts a little meaning there, huh!

Unknown said...

earlier today someone over at DarkUFO pointed out that the numbers on the bali site can be manipulated mathematically to equal 108

4x3x3x12=432
then divide 432 by 4 (the total of how many numbers there are) and you get 108

TakesaVillage said...

Now we wait for the Video diary 3.
There are alot of fill in the blanks to our story.A lot can happen in 46 hrs. and42 min.

Tess315 said...

Does anyone else find it interesting that Tracey was vacationing in Denpasar Bali?
Since this seems to be where flight 815 may have crashed.

Ellen said...

yes sayid'sgirl-I looked it up and read, but nothing outstanding that I could find...just good shopping!!!
;D
xx00

FYSB said...

wow, baliholiday really is in game. i'll be the first to admit i was wrong. seems to me though, that we weren't supposed to find it til tonight. do you think there's a mole on dark ufo?

jess4ua said...

FYSB- If there is a mole on dark ufo, zoomed in,it must say "spoiler"!

Carol Dunstan said...

Mole? Mr Ole? (don't tell me we are overlooking our anagram skills we works so hard during TLE!) Moler...

well, there you go, it was a leak! Or did someone get the date wrong? sill they could have let us have Bali to work on over the weekend and then if we hadn't got it give us the stegosaurus

Tess315 said...

carol
I did notice the word mole was in there when I looked at all that stuff this morning. But I never said anything because there was a letter left over. I never thought of Moler.
But mole did just jump right out at me but I just dismissed it.

maven said...

Maybe OurMutualFriend was a disgruntled employee of the company putting on the game.

Carol Dunstan said...

I hope noone thought I was being condescneding with my last comment. I had a little sarcastic voice in my head as I was typing it and only now am thinking that others won't read it with that voice. I think it's still bugging me that this is so vastly different to what we have experienced in this game so far, much more fitting for TLE

Tess315 said...

I got the sarcasim carol no worries.
Yeah it kind of bugs me too. It seems all of a sudden out of the blue they've changed gears.

Tess315 said...

Even though I can't spell it.
I'm going to bed good night.

Patch said...

Well after all this I'm going back to my principle of staying away from DarkUFO because of the risk of spoilers. It seems this 'mole' spoilt us all good and proper.

Patch said...

Oh, and if they are starting to include clues that are not really solvable or accessible to the average computer user, I'll be peed off. That's what I was most happy about with this ARG as compared to the last one, the fact that anyone could join in and do everything for themselves.
The only way I'd be able to find anything is the steg pic is if you had to view it in 3D glasses or something.
Hey, thats a thought! *lol*

Carol Dunstan said...

one other thing... if the whole point of the Bali site, stegging and a group of numbers giving the answer of 108... what is the whole point of that other than "oh look it's the numbers again"???

maven said...

Well, I'm monitoring the goings on over at Dark's. Apparently there was Morse Code in the phone message that said "OPENSTEGO". That's a software program that some people downloaded. But there appears to be a password needed to get any further.

I, too, don't like the way this is going...super technical!

Erin said...

Jinkies!

*very mild Cloverfield spoiler*

I saw Cloverfield this afternoon and noticed that 36-15-28, the abc.com password, featured. In the first few seconds we are shown a serial number for the video, DoD (7) 36-15-28, my assumption being that DoD stands for Department of Defense. It may be in a slightly different order, bear in mind I got all excited and was trying to text Ange before the film started proper and without upsetting any other viewers :)

Fenris said...

You know the fact that the bali site is just a pic suggests it should be on Sams laptop. The slaveship search site was also just a picture.

Which just makes me think they put up the wrong website.

And while the website is in game, I don't think our mutual friend is. Just someone with inside info trying to feel the big man and spoilering everyone in the process.

Patch said...

I totally agree with you about 'our mutual friend' Fenris.

jess4ua said...

Wow!
Maven- That is strange. I think one of two things have happened:
1-The game has, all of the sudden, gone from "follow along" to "ridiculously in depth"(morse code hidden in the voice activity)
2-We've all been missing a lot of clues. LOL

Pharma- Any thoughts on how those numbers tie into S4? How exciting....
Also,how was Cloverfield? My sis wants me to go see it with her today.

Erin said...

My guess re: the numbers were Barbie's measurements, other than that, nothing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and would go again, although the three 14 year olds sitting in front of me decided it was 'the lamest thing ever.'

memphish said...

Morse Code in phone messages, having to download programs, this is the level of intensity that kept me lurking thru TLE. I think what Twinkle said yesterday about extra credit is probably true. I'll be relying on everyone here to tell me what I'm missing. :-)

Ange said...

Good Morning! And well done pharmacopaeia. I totally didn't sleep after I got your text last night LOL.

My take on what happened with Dark UFO is kinda what Fenris said. I don't think that Dark or anyone there really knew that it was a spoiler...unless they blatantly knew who OurMutualFriend42 was. OurMutualFriend42 posted on a few message boards, not just Dark UFO (Lostpedia for one). So yeah, I hate that it was spoiled, but I dunno if anyone other than the spoilers really knew.

That said, if we look at the clue from face value:
1. Last night we got an e-mail. It took us to BaliHolidayFun.com. All that was there was a g-mail. Nothing too techie there.
2. The e-mail had a hidden website (nothing techie there either, and also something consistent with what we've had).
3. The Bali website had a picture ONLY. This is where I think Fenris was right and that probably it's supposed to be on Sam's laptop and not the Maxwell search. (and maybe TPTFU are tired of messing up and decided to leave it rather than change).
4. So what we KNOW we have as a clue is this Stegosaurus picture from the Mr. Ole mail. That is legit, and going with the theme so far I just think there is something to the pic that is not stegged or coded or buried deep enough that only people with mad skills can find. This seems like a Mandrake Wig kind of clue (scroll to the "Thank you all" section of that article link to see how he used pictures to give us clues).


I am at a loss about this morse code stuff. Until I get a clear picture of that and someone who really knows morse code can tell me that it for CERTAIN says OPENSTEGO I am going to just cautiously watch that one. (Fenris you're an audio genius...are dots in the images they are showing on Dark normal for that type of image?)

Tess315 said...

Morning all
I never noticed morse code in the phone message. But I did think I heard morse code in the static of the radio when Sam was listening to the Amelia Earhart news story.

Ange said...

Hi sayid's girl: They aren't saying that you can hear morse code in the message, but that you cab see it in the visual of the audio on the phone.

jess4ua said...

sayid's girl- They are saying there is morse code in the tops of the line tracing of the voice activity, not in the sound. I thought the same thing, so I went and checked it out for myself.

Ange- So if this is similar to Mandrake Wig, maybe we need to keep stegosaurus in mind for a password.

Tess315 said...

ange
lol I know I looked and the image you posted.
Which is probably why I didn't notice it.

Erin said...

I recall that someone said re: the earlier messages from Sam's mum that the waves didn't match the audio - I wonder, if this is all correct and proper, if there's anything tucked away in there too.

Ange said...

I have a two hour delay and clearly too much time on my hands this morning.

I just looked at the voice mails from Mum and her voice line things (gosh Fenris is going to love that one) are light gray and have no dot-like disturbances like Sean's. His are black and seem to have little dots (I'm looking at find815, not the pic on Dark), BUT I am still being super skeptical.

Hey Jess! Yeah I like the idea of stegosaurus being a password of some kind. You know the fans well, un-fan-fans are always thinking that the Lost "monster" is a dinosaur, maybe it's a chuckle and a clue.

Also, what do we make of this apparent Cloverfield tie (with the DOD file numbers). Just a nod to JJ or a fin Easter Egg?

Tess315 said...

pharamacopaeia
I read that over at DarkUFO after the first message.
I wonder if there is morse code in her message too.
I guess I'll have to go over and read what they are saying. Because those dots aren't there when you listen to the message. I think they must be getting them by looking at the wave pattern someway.

Ange said...

GOOD POINT Pharma! There might be more to Mum than we think. The whole Mum thing is weird. And Sam hasn't even called her. MAYBE there is no "Mum" maybe it's someone trying to get Sam a message.

Tess315 said...

ange
I just looked at Sean's message and didn't see any dots. I guess I'm going to have to go back and look again.

Tess315 said...

Ok I see it now. WOW you really have to be observant to notice that. And unless you are like the techy guys over at Dark's (which I'm not) you don't think of stuff like that. Especially when this game seemed to be rather simple.

lost2010 said...

Okay, I'm less confused now. This wasn't quite as complicated as I imagined.

I downloaded the openstego software, downloaded the image of the dino on my desktop and ran the software and it pops up this nice little window asking for a password.

If anybody has any password ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

They're way over my head over at darkufo by now with algorithms and whatnot, but guessing passwords doesn't sound too bad.

shellma said...

Morning all!!
Well....I am the second to also say I'm proved wrong! Fish Biscuits!
(Ange...you are now President in Charge of Naming Things. I'm happy with Vice President)
Having said that, I still think they upped the ante on us BIGTIME!

lost2010 said...

I'm leaving the openstego software open at the bottom of my screen in case I think of any good passwords. I'm wondering if they've even given it out yet?

lost2010 said...

I bet it was supposed to go something like this before it got spoiled:

1. You see the e-mail from tracey and check out bhf.com where you e-mail them.

2. You get the crazy e-mail from Mr. Ole which looks like gibberish but there's the anagram - Samuel Morse in the Subject and the hidden web address in the body.

3. Samuel Morse tells you to look for Morse code and you're supposed to find it in the phone message.

4. The morse code sends you to the free openstego software which then gets you looking for this password for the dinosaur picture.

5. What wasn't used that they gave us last night? That would be my best guess as to where the password is. If they've even given it to us yet. . .

Think I'll take another look at the website on Sam's laptop.

Tess315 said...

Well you have to hand it to Dark and his crew. Even if they did have a mutualfriend guiding them in the right direction. They took it and ran with it.

ular97 said...

My womans intuition and instincts were wrong and I apologize to the DarkUFO's for doubting. However, having said that; I remain a skeptic and will need proof of such things in the future. I also might add...please get this "stuff" right since I am not a tech person and depend on others to drag me along. lol

shellma said...

I think if we had already been given the PW, someone would have tried it. Maybe we'll get it in the video diary tonight.....

shellma said...

BTW.....
You know, T(BIG)PTB think that Al Queda used steganography to communicate in the Sept. 11th tragedy......
I won't download it. I don't want to support anything that might support such things.
*end of rant*
Sorry...just my opinion.

FYSB said...

Absolutely, full props to the DarkUFO tribe. I honestly don't see the morse code in the message even now where I know where to look, so it would have gone right by me even if we had received it in the time and manner intended by TPTFU. Too bad it didn't come out when it was supposed to, it would have been a nice little weekend activity.

I'm fine with more sophisticated puzzles because I learn a lot from how the knowledgeable folks solve them. I remember being a bit disappointed at the beginning of this one that it was so basic. I wonder if they had always planned to up the stakes midway or if this is in response to some market research.

I also hope we get the real story on OurMutualFriend's apparent ARG treachery. I think we would have all been much more receptive to this new level of puzzle if we had received it as part of the game.

Black Swan said...

Hey guys,
I've been following along (also yesterday) with all this stuff at Dark's and yes, it's way over my head technologically... BUT I, for one, am happy about this ARG starting to go in this direction since that's what made TLE so great.. that we all had to work together to figure things out. The find815.com site is nice looking well done, but way too easy (IMO). TPTB probably were so impressed with how we did with TLE that they didn't want this new game to be too easy or else it would be boring. That being said, I'm now wondering if there are any other things we are missing because we were lulled into thinking that we only had the "spoon-fed" things to deal with.

I don't have much time, but for lost2010 I have a few ideas for passwords (but you probably already tried these)...

-all the phone #s from Talbot's phone
-the number on the Christiane 1 (2483908, I think)
-the booking reference for Sam's flight... R7MKCH
-penny's phone #....020 7946 0893
-other e-mail addresses from inbox on Sam's laptop before they changed to "sender".....
jmaricks
nolan_s
jbaker
killent

sorry, but I have to go....
I'll check back later and hope you guys have it all figured out by then!

maven said...

Morning all:

Re: Pharma seeing the password numbers in "Cloverfield": A review in the LA Times today opens up with saying the movie starts with a Department of Defense "time stamp" on a tape. How would 36-15-28 be a time stamp?

Ange: After you laid out the progression of the stegasaurus picture clue, it doesn't seem as complicated as we first thought. Of course, I too, would never have seen the Morse Code on the message. But everything led to the next step. So I guess it's waiting time for another password. Kudos for the crew at DarkUFO for taking the information and running wildly with it and getting to the point where we are supposed to be.

lost2010 said...

Thanks Codysmom. I've tried some of them but I'll give the others a shot. I doubt I'm going to come up with anything darkufo hasn't but it's kind of fun to try.

lost2010 said...

Codysmom - no luck. I'm really thinking maybe it hasn't come out yet, or those guys at darkufo would have figured it out.

maven said...

DarkUFO has posted an email from the creator of OpenStego after one of their posters (Andrea) emailed them about the password problems:
"
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:46:56 +0530
From: andrea
To: (deleted)
Subject: Re: A strange request


Hi Andrea,I got exactly same request few hours back. Actually, the GZIP problem means that the password is wrong. There is no way to determine whether password is correct or not. But if you get GZIP exception then it is very much wrong. Try some other password. By the way, that "README.txt" is the name of the file that was embedded inside the image. It is not the password. It is just coincidence that it is getting accepted as password. There might be huge number of such strings which would get accepted as password, but actually are not.

Regards,Samir"


I have no idea what that means! LOL

Fenris said...

You know, I think if all that stuff hadn't leaked out early with the pic and the mystery poster and all that stuff, we probably would have figured this one out. As it was we were so focused on that damn picture and everyone going steggo this and steggo that that the voice message just flew us by.

Okay rant over. It is pretty likely the email wasn't from Tracey and that this voice message was hacked to produce the morse code.

I'm at work right now so haven't time to check stuff but it seems to me the password must have something to do with the website about Maxwell that came up.

Tess315 said...

fysb said
I also hope we get the real story on OurMutualFriend's apparent ARG treachery. I think we would have all been much more receptive to this new level of puzzle if we had received it as part of the game.

I agree with you. I think alot of up are frustrated we were foolish enough (at least speaking for myself)to go to Dark's site and get spoiled when we said we weren't going to.

Tess315 said...

up is us of course.
And I thought I was going to do better with my typing today.

Tess315 said...

They seem to want us to think about electromagnetism.
Could that be the password? Or some form of it.

lost2010 said...

It isn't electromagnetism in either all caps or all lowercase. I tried purplesky too, just for the heck of it. I tried all the blue underlined words on the Maxwell search site.

I really think it has something to do with that website, but 'I got nuthin' as my kids say.

maven said...

OT: TVGuide.com seems to be doing a series about each Lost character. Here's the first one on Sun.

Good luck password hunting!

Unknown said...

shell: Sorry if my "dry wit" sensor is malfunctioning, but were you being serious with your Al Qaeda comment? You can post your response on my blog, or Flickrmail me, just so we don't get too far off topic here on the OC.

Ange said...

Lost2010: THANK-YOU so very much for all of your efforts! And KEEP THEM UP! I am so grateful for you because at work I just can not download and try this stuff. Why should we assume that Dark UFO will figure everything out first!? So to add to ideas from Cody's Mom, how about trying things from the picture of the Stegosaur itself:
*Bałtów
*Jurassic Park
*Poland
*pink, greem, yellow, etc...
*fog
Fenris noted some weird floating red blobs in the pic...could they mean something?

Yesterday they gave us the Maxwell silly-site, how about:
*13 June 1831
*5 November 1879
*Sir John Maxwell
*1859-1929
Just thoughts.

Maven: Thanks and agreed with you and Fenris, if it weren't for the OMF42 stuff, we would have gotten this clue the right way and not had so much angst!

Kudos to Dark on the morse code dots and dashes. I think we're all doubting our skills way too much here though. Finidng dots in a pic is a matter of doing a screen cap and then fooling with the contrast. Any picture program (that probably came with your computer can do that). The teacher in me gets sad when people doubt thier skills. I'm with FYSB, I'm glad we have more interesting things to try and I for one will do my best to learn "skills" in an attempt to solve things myself.

memphish said...

I'll pile in with the "I was wrong" crowd when it comes to those sites, but I'll also open up a line of respectful dissent when it comes to these clues. I didn't think it was easy to find the website with the photo out of all that gunk and was perfectly happy to let someone else do the legwork on it. Same with the password hunt going on now. I just don't have time to sit around going through that stuff because I'm off to see Cloverfield.

BTW has anyone tried Cloverfield as the password?

lost2010 said...

Ange - Thanks for the encouragement. Tried your passwords - no dice. I'll keep checking in periodically and trying guesses. It doesn't take long to type in a few passwords and see if they're right. Maybe we'll get lucky.

Have to run fight the bread and milk crowd at the grocery store - they're predicting snow in Alabama - heaven help us.

lost2010 said...

Memphish - not Cloverfield.

Tess315 said...

Sticking with my electromagnet theme.
How about magnetic field or electric field?
I don't remember but did you try Faraday?

Ange said...

Happy bread and miling Lost2010. I can now say after reading the entire Wiki that the Stegosaur picture came from, I know WAY more about that dinosaur than I ever wanted to. So how about:
*osteodermis
*thagomizer
*thermoregulatory

Or from the BaliHoliday site:
*French chamapgne
*Tropicana fantasy delight
*holiday package
*baliholidayfun@gmail.com

Also at the Bali Holiday site, the bottom pic on the right...what is that in the sea? A bridge?

FYSB said...

We are our own bruteforce password program! I think the password would have to be something that Sam has seen or could guess based on what info he's been given (or will be given)

How about trying "Holden", Tracy's dog/ill mannered child/funny uncle?

Do we have a list of tried and failed names so we don't waste our thoughts on old stuff?

FYSB said...

Here's another guess....in Tracey's email, she says it would take "a very strong wave" of electromagnetic energy.

Strong wave....could the password be "Tsunami"?

Ange said...

If Lost2010, when back from the store of course, wants to e-mail in a list of tried words I'll keep track of them on the front page and update them regularly.

Holden=good idea FYSB!

Tess315 said...

Tsunami
I like that idea. They did take the Dec. 23 or 24 (?) 2004 Tsunami reference of Sam's website.

jess4ua said...

Yay! I actually managed to get the openstego running and I am trying passwords. Keep em comin!

FYSB said...

Here are some more Jess. I did read that the password would be case specific, in case you need to try a few variations.

Caulfield, Catcher in the Rye, Salinger, JD Salinger

jess4ua said...

Hehehehe, wouldn't it be funny if we get the password in a "blip" on the video tonight?

Tess315 said...

How about September 22 2004?
Or the numbers on the Bali website 4 3 3 12?

jess4ua said...

Also, I am going nuts trying to figure out if I think Tracey is involved, or if someone else is hacking Sam's emails and phone messages. And WHO????

FYSB said...

Tracey's been talking about Bali a lot. How about Denpasar?
or
Ngurah Rai Airport
Tropicana fantasy delight (that is just weird, the Tropicana was a cuban nightclub and an american casino)
Kuta Beach, Legian Beach and Canggu Beach
8°39′S, 115°13′E (Denpasar's lat/long)

Ange said...

Hye gang, I just put a little blurb with some links on the front page tracking all the stegg stuff. Just trying to stay current/organized.

How about:
*Tracey R
*Mum
*Sean Dowling
*palm tree
*Mr. Ole

Anyone scan the Mr. Ole mail for something that could be a password?

Fenris said...

Just on a side note. It seems to me that Sam is lacking a father....

You don't suppose he's another of Alvar Hanso's bastard children? Those Swedes.... Lol.

jess4ua said...

LOL, Fenris!

Ange - I thought about looking at the email, any suggestions on how?

Ange said...

Jess: probably just by sight, trying to see if we can make out any words. I'll have a quick look.

FYSB said...

Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants
New World Sea Traders
Parthenogenesis!

hilarious Fenris....i have a whole new opinion of Mum now!

Fenris said...

Then again he could be another half sibling for Jack. :)

Anyway, I noticed the only bogus search result on the Maxwell page is the spanner thing, but I've tried Spanner and Wrench and got nothing so I think that was just a joke. *shrug*

shellma said...

Kyle...
Unfortunately, I was being serious. Just my opinion. Poor choice for political rantings in hindsight......

Fenris said...

Anyone checked the oceanic hotline recently?

Ange said...

I've been looking at the Mr Ole mail. Here are some words I could find. Some we know but worth a try:
link
STeGo
saurus
COm
Sea

Again just a quick look.

lost2010 said...

Tried the electromagnetic options sayidsgirl suggested.

Had tried Faraday this morning.

Tried Tropicana Fantasy - even tried Sawyer and Jack - just in case that was a hint that it was "Tropic Ana (Lucia)'s Fantasy" - yeah that would have been a bad pun.

Fenris said...

Just tried them all Ange. No avail.

I've been trying a tonne of things and am starting to wonder if we just haven't been given the info yet.

lost2010 said...

Also tried Samuel Morse and Denpasar.

Had in mind that it might be an anagram of Denpasar, but I'm bad with anagrams.

If you use Denpasar, Bali - you can get Ben paid and Ben's a liar out of there but I'm not sure what to do with the leftover letters.

Unknown said...

Grumpy as I am about this technical 180 TPTB have made, I'm sure they'll give us a recognizable clue when they want us to have the password. Important question: We do know that the password can be user-defined, right?

And shell, without getting into it, I'm pretty sure you could download OpenStego without supporting The Terrorists. Whether you download it or not is, of course, totally up to you.

lost2010 said...

Earlier today I tried:

Tropicana Fantasy
Ducky (don't ask, I found it in the e-mail or something and thought it was worth a shot)
4815162342
108
The five search results from Sam's laptop
the Black Rock
BLACKROCK
BLACK ROCK
SUNDA TRENCH (with other captilization and spacing variations)
36-15-28
Charlotte Lewis
CHRISTIANE I


They're all no good.

lost2010 said...

Browsing around there are long lists of tried passwords at darkufo and at jayandjack.

We're all circling around the same themes it looks like.

Tess315 said...

How about
Amelia Earharat
Adam and Eve
Skeletons (ourmutalfriend used skull font)

FYSB said...

How about Papua New Guinea?

I'm bummed that neither Holden nor Tsunami were passwords.

lost2010 said...

Going with your bony theme - I tried various caps/spacing on:

Amelia Earhart
Amelia
Herarat
Adam and Eve
Skeletons
Skeletor
Roger Workman
Roger
Workman
Dharma beer
Dharma (in honor of the mass grave)

What else. . .

lost2010 said...

Holden was a favorite of mine too, Fenris.

lost2010 said...

Sorry, meant fysb not Fenris.

Tess315 said...

answermyquestions.org
The search Sam used looking up Maxwell
slaveshipsearch
findoutpedia.com
flyoceanicair or something from that site.

FYSB said...

If I had a dime for every time someone confused me with Fenris...:>)

How about Noonan, Fred Noonan, Howland Island?

lost2010 said...

sayidsgirl - tried them, but no luck.

lost2010 said...

fysb - nope, sorry.

Ange said...

I'm leaving work so I can't check but, the mail with Sonya's pic was on the wall in the clue hunt. How about words from that?

Tess315 said...

You know it's going to be something simple right under our noses.
I'm pretty much brain dead right now but I'll keep thinking.

Carol Dunstan said...

I was going to suggest 'mum' but that's been done

how about
Ockham
Talbot
password
815
Oceanic

Ange said...

Okay I just tried:
loyalty flyer points
Oceanic Air Employee Relations
egrg eqrhrtnm

There was a repeated string of letters here in the mail where we got the Maxwell site from. Anyone see anything?

Someone sent us a mail last week suggesting we remove or arrange the letters in egrg eqrhrtnm to make a name. I see Greg there is the first bunch, anyone see anything else?

lost2010 said...

And I was hoping you guys nailed it while I took a break to catch up on real life.

I saw that Greg thing. I wanted that to be it.

For the record it isn't pingpong either or jakarta or password.

jess4ua said...

Ange, I had already tried all of those, LOL. And about 1000 others. Greg was one of the first ones I tried. I have scoured that guys emails to see if anything stands out.

lost2010 said...

From the open Stego website:

On clicking "OK" button, OpenStego will prompt for the password that was used to embed the original file. Alice should have passed the password to Bob to enable him to extract the data.

So now, all we have to do is track down Alice and Bob and we're set.

:)

Ange said...

Jess check the g-mail...it's weird.

Anonymous said...

I JUST SAW CLOVERFIELD AND ITT WAS AWWWWESOMEE !

Ange said...

Dang Bob and Alice need to get on the ball! I read that too Lost2010. I think this is making me dehydrated, when they'll probably give us the word tonight LOL.

I've got a Cesar Cipher open and have been trying the strings of letters from the Maxwell mail randomly...nothing yet. They have a text version that you can cut and paste from at Lostpedia.

EF: Did you see any numbers, specifically a DOD file # to the tune of 36-15-28?

Ange said...

Oh and 108...that is all.

memphish said...

I saw Cloverfield too. If anyone is interested in it, you have to see it in the theaters. Home just won't do.

Someone try "What now?" as the password.

Frankly I missed the numbers. I saw different ones, but the Barbie measurements may have preceded them. I just can't say. The numbers I saw weren't a time stamp as someone suggested earlier. Instead it was merely a file ID number.

lost2010 said...

I'll bet Alice ran off through the looking glass without giving Bob the password - shame on her.

Surely Tracey will send Sam a hint tonight. Where's that mutual friend guy when you need him?

Unknown said...

Not sure if you two are being winkingly tech-savvy, but for those who aren't, clicky.

memphish said...

Everyone tried Carpe Diem right?

lost2010 said...

It doesn't seem to be "What now?"

Fenris said...

Btw, looks like the maxwell search is up as a physical site as well.

http://www.answermyquestions.org/

leads to

http://www.find815.com/amq/

but there doesn't seem to be anything hidden the html that is a code for the stego.

FYSB said...

This is the critical part...Alice should have passed the password to Bob to enable him to extract the data. Tracey should have passed the password to Sam. I hope they follow that logic and not have the password appear magically in the video (unless they set us up for it with Sam complaining about a problem with the camera, that Tracey embedded the password on a tape prior to giving him the camera anticipating that someday she would have to send him a stego message. Sigh.)

If the password comes from a non-Tracey source like a newspaper or flashing lights or Ockham belching letters, well that's just not logical.

(sorry cody'smom, hope you're not upset about what i just said about your boyfriend!)

lost2010 said...

Tried Carpe Diem and Sieze the day in every combo I could think of. Doesn't mean I didn't miss one.

lost2010 said...

Good Vibrations isn't it by the way.

Ange said...

Negative on Carpe Diem and LOL Kyle, I really wanted to see Ian and Pam on that list of players.

FYSB said...

Kyle that is awesome!

Fenris said...

http://www.answermyquestions.org/maxwell.html leads to the same thing incidentally.

lost2010 said...

Kyle - ;)

lost2010 said...

Good luck guys. I hope you find the password before I log back in here tomorrow.

Ange said...

Okay per the answermyquestions and BaliHolidayFun now being actual stand alone image sites...is there something we need to be looking at closer here that we couldn't see just on Sam's laptop, or did they just secure the sites so no one could buy them and jack the game?

Ange said...

Actually to follow up on Fenris, ALL the sites on Sam's computer are live. All except: http://www.findoutpedia.com/sundatrench

Anonymous said...

lots of numbers haha. none of them that stuck out tho .

although they did mention at one point i think that it was may 23rd and at 6:42 . maybe just friendly lost references .

Fenris said...

Point of interest. Inside the picture http://www.find815.com/fop//SundaTrench.jpg where the pictures are not appearing due to "netowrk settings" there is actually some text to say what one of the pictures should be "British Submarine HMS M2.jpg.

Now there isn't a picture that I can find and it's not a password. But interesting thing there, Ange looked it up and it's a real Scottish sub and it's wreckage is found. It's also in that sunda stories stie where it's talking about a US sub. So it looks like they just messed up exposing their own stock photo's. Lol.

maven said...

You guys are awesome with all these password suggestions. I thought for sure you'd have it by the time I got home today!

Fenris said...

*sigh* Apparently Dark UFO had someone in their (apparently oh so important) chat room say backwards that the password would come later.

There is so much that p**ses me off about that. I could do a big rant, but for the sake of not soiling our blog here I am just going to say.

*SIGH*

maven said...

I just saw that, too, Fenris.

Didn't the other spoiler stuff start in their chat room, too?

Ange said...

Welp...Dark UFO seems to have gotten ANOTHER mysterious hint in their chat room. I'm not even going to bother linking. You all know where it is. I'm also not going to try to conceal my disappointment...when did Dark UFO get in-game. Shenanigans!

Fenris said...

Fish Biscuits!!!!!

Tess315 said...

agreed!!!
maven
yes it did start there.

shellma said...

Um.....why did my fish bicuits message post as Fenny?????????

maven said...

Shellma: I got it today and I sent a pic!

shellma said...

Oh....anybody else have Directv?
I have been trying to find and tivo Lost and it won't find it!!!
WTH???

shellma said...

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!
Cool Mav!

Tess315 said...

You know ampre similar to Ampere is the current that carries the electrical power.

I stil think it has something to do with electromagnets.
I guess we'll see tonight.

maven said...

Shell: I have Directv. They just changed our Local L.A. HD channels, and the guide does not go out to the 31st yet. I'm waiting a few more days to set it up. I have to change all the channel #s on my DVR to coincide with the new HD channel #s...what a pain!

shellma said...

I knew the PW would be there.....
What's with all the non-t shirt pics on flickr???

shellma said...

See, Mav, mine goes out that far for everything else, but when I search for Lost, it just doen't find it.....
Maybe they don't want to have to give a description for EP!...

DiggityDirge said...

shellma said...
Oh....anybody else have Directv?
I have been trying to find and tivo Lost and it won't find it!!!

I know my Tivo only downloads 10 days worth of programming, so I will have to wait until the middle of next week to set it. If you a DTV DVR it should download 14 days, so it be there by the end of the weekend.

jess4ua said...

Okay, I just cleared a book I wrote about my disappointment. Let me say this though, I feel like "over there" has become a spoiler site now. As much as I like to check on what the folks over there are coming up with, it is ruining the ARG. I would rather have to figure this out on my own, with everyone here of course, or check AFTER the fact if I can't figure something out. This just sucks!

DiggityDirge said...

on the whole darkufo thing, I think that is where most people have gone for their information since it took ITE so long to open back up. The site has a huge following.

In the first ARG, TPTB would routinely drop clues in the blogs, and we were lucky enough to get one on TLEC. Most were in ITE and Ninja's blog.

The admins of theis site are doing a great job. Don't let it bug you. What you guys are doing is awesome and we thank you for it.

FYSB said...

For crying out loud, another clue in their chat? Did they verify whether that person was in game? I'm calling fishbiscuits on that. Who doesn't figure the clue will come in tonight's video? That's hardly proprietary knowledge. It's like those fake psychics "I'm getting someone with the letter J. Do you know anyone with the letter J?" This time I think those guys are getting conned. Ampere doesn't know anymore than the rest of us.

jess4ua said...

I really don't think these are clues from TPTB...why would they keep giving clues as to what clue we would get everyday. That would be ridiculous.

jess4ua said...

Let me clarify that. I don't think that getting information that is released on find815.com at night, during the day is a clue. It is a spoiler. I don't think TPTB would give us the same clue, twice in one day.

maven said...

I bet it's going to be tough to get that video to download tonight!

I, too, am upset about these clue spoilers or major hints happening over at Dark's. It sure can take the fun of discovery out of playing. It's the same thing with spoiler for the show. Why not read the last page of the book you're reading?

FYSB said...

Agreed Jess. If they had released the baliholidays stuff and we hadn't picked up on it, then I could see sending in someone to guide us along. Yesterday's stuff was outside TPTB's doing.

Tess315 said...

I don't have anything against DarkUFO and his group of people. He has a great site. It just seems that he's known stuff ahead of time since the game started. If his site is "in game" or something like that it seems he would tell people.

memphish said...

Now come on boys and girls, cheer up. Remember that TLEC was in-game last time with Save Joop and the glyph. If you don't want spoilers, don't go to DarkUFO right now.

For you guys setting the TiVos, I always set mine by setting the timer rather than letting the box do it so I don't miss those 1 minute longer episodes that the networks are so fond of. Even Project Runway was 3 minutes long this week. For LOST, I always start recording at least 2 minutes before air time and 10-15 minutes past air time.

When I went to Cloverfield today I missed the LOST promo which apparently aired more than 10 minutes before the trailers started, but I was forced to watch an ad for Eli Stone the new show that's airing after LOST. I don't give a show that touts it's George Michael ties much of a chance, even in the drought world that is the writers' strike.

jess4ua said...

sayid's girl- There are a lot of people over there doing a GREAT job just trying to play the game.

shellma said...

You know, as FYSB said, it could just be a lucky guess for that jerk. That's where I thought it would come up....
So maybe the (still) jerk will just get lucky....

shellma said...

And apparently in their chat room, you don't have to register or anything. So anybody could post as anybody.

maven said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tess315 said...

You're right memphish.
If we don't want to be spoiled we shouldn't go to his site. I said something similar earlier today. A few days ago alot of said we weren't going to go over there and be spoiled and then we go anyway.
And I'm not upset that Dark is the "in" site or brgrudge him anything.
But it seems to be off in some way to me. In TLE you knew certain sites would be getting extra information. You expected it to show up there. I think maybe some people didn't expect this extra info to show anywhere this time.

Tess315 said...

jess
I absolutely agree with you.

DarkUFO said...

Hi All,

Just to clear a few things up.

1) My site is not "in game" as such. It's just a fan site that I started to track the game

2) The original "MutualFriend" Skull spoiler did NOT original in chat but was a comment left in one of the posts.

3) We were contacted after the first week of the game by the creators and were informed that we were the largest referring site to the official one.

4) My source at the game said has told me they would have some "interesting" ways to release info to us.

I'm assuming that 4 and 2 are connection. Apart from that I'm as much in the dark as you.

shellma said...

Where Mav????

maven said...

Shell: Check DocArtz' blog and read the comments.

maven said...

Thanks, Dark, for popping in and clearing up a few things.

shellma said...

Dark....why would they spoil their own clue????
It doesn't make any sense!!

FYSB said...

Thanks Dark UFO. I appreciate the clarification. I do like your site, but I'm having a hard time figuring the line between in-game knowledge we need and spoilers. Congrats on being such a great site that the game came looking for you though!

DarkUFO said...

I've no idea Shellma, your guess is as good as mine. I did not do the first ARG so I don't know how unusual that is/was?

DarkUFO said...

Thanks fysb :) I've really no idea what they are myself lol. I'm normally asleep being in the UK when all the good stuff goes down ;)

shellma said...

If the chain of events leads us to what we find sequentally, what purpose would they have for LEAKING that info?????
All other info that has been decompiled and such has been by fans!!!

maven said...

I check your site every day, Dark, and appreciate the great work you have done and continue to do for the show. Your site is almost like the site of record for the show and, I'm sure, that's why Hoodlum sought you out. It just seems that they way this clue was pre-released on your blog, wasn't the way to do it. A lot of us sort of felt "left out" of the joy of discovery. It's not like the way it was done during TLE.

Tess315 said...

Thanks Darkk
That does clear things up.
Appreciate it.

DarkUFO said...

I understand. When I first saw the post I told the guy to stop spamming my site lol. It took us a few days to work out he was real ;)

Ange said...

Hi Dark, thanks for all of your hard work and all that you do. Your site is so well organized, and invaluable to this game. And to Lost in general...I have it bookmarked everywhere. We cite you A LOT hehe in case you didn't notice.

Nothing personal mind, it's just that if we are going to get a clue, we should be allowed to get the clue...not kinda get clue-ish stuff that leads to the exact same thing we get at timer time. I don't think it's good practice for Hoodlum to decide to leak things ulness it's really going to blow by us. Maybe it has, maybe we are missing large amounts of stuff and it's why they feel like we need these hints now *shrug*.

At any rate, keep up the good work, and thanks for dropping by with the heads up :).

Unknown said...

The only reason I can think that a spoiler of a clue would come out from official sources is that they know it's such a U-turn in the momentum of the game to-date, that they wanted to get our brains thinking in a TLE-type way BEFORE the actual thinking would apply to the game.

Just a guess, and a convoluted one at that.

shellma said...

Not an atteck on you AT ALL, Kyle, but
BS!!!!!

shellma said...

Let me reiterate.....
If the chain of events leads us to what we find sequentally, what purpose would they have for LEAKING that info?????
All other info that has been decompiled and such has been by fans!!!

DOES NOT MAKE SENSE

Twinkle said...

Well, I have to say that my favorite part of this distasteful business has been the evolution of "fish biscuits." Maybe it's evolved before I joined this blog but this phrase is now my favorite expletive. ;-)

Ange said...

I wonder what Bob and Alice would have to say about that.

1 hour 12 min. I'm logged in are you?

shellma said...

Prove me wrong and I'll happily send you a t-shirt.

Unknown said...

I'm just guessing that maybe TPTB thought we'd gone soft after a week and a half of spoon-feeding (and how long since TLE?), that they felt like they needed to chum the waters a little bit for the tech-minded cluemongers.

Most of us here wouldn't have caught the Morse code, and even fewer would have caught it without knowing that we had something hidden to look for.

Twinkle said...

Sorry, I've missed something and don't know where to find it. "Bob" and "Alice" ???

Unknown said...

Scroll up to roughly 1700hrs in this thread, Twinkle.

It's a cryptography thing, apparently.

FYSB said...

Shell, you're right, with the knowledge we have now it doesn't make sense. I have no idea why they would have done that. I think we all agree it wasn't the right way to do it, perhaps TPTB will take notice and be a bit more subtle if they feel the need to do it again.

shellma said...

I'm with you Twinkle....
Fish Biscuits on this BS!!!

jess4ua said...

Ange- I am logged in! And I think Maven is right, it will be a race to see who can get to the video before the site gets overloaded. LOL

shellma said...

But I don't think it was TPTFU fysb.....
That's my point.

Twinkle said...

Ok, I get it now. How intriguing...

And if Ampere really wanted us to be patient, he wouldn't have given us so much ahead of time!

shellma said...

ABC has never spoiled their own clues. And if anything was doled out, the admins KNEW ABOUT IT.

Twinkle said...

Did the openstego guy pay TPTB for advertising of his software? Bcz now I totally want to start sending secret images!

FYSB said...

Kyle, you're right about the morse code, I would not have noticed it at first (and still can't see it, it's like those d*mned magic eye pictures I could never read). However there was an anagram for Samuel Morse in the email (lost2010 did a nice outline up there somewhere) so it's not inconceivable one of the techsavvy folks here or on DarkUFO would have found them. The thing is, what was posted on DarkUFO was exactly what we ended up getting, so the people who figured it out from the mutualfriend would have been able to figure it out from the regular clues.
But I do like the way you're looking outside the box (sorry, I spend a lot of time in the corp. world and find such trite phrases slipping into my writing). What if they planned for ourmutualfriend to be a backup in case we didn't figure out what was going on and he/she jumped the gun? Or they got the timing messed up? Or Hoodlum is staffed by former ABC interns?
Maybe after the game is done we can ask DarkUFO to ask the creators a few questions, kind of like the opportunity Javi gave us at the end of TLE.

Twinkle said...

What phrases can we make out of this colorful term?

Eat fish biscuits?

Yo mama smells like fish biscuits?

I know fish biscuits smarter than you?

Or LSHFBEFMN -
Laughing so hard fish biscuits exploded from my nose

Ange said...

ROFL Twinkle, I was thinking that exact thing today. I was actually looking through my photos to find stuff to steg in. Hehehe I am such a dork!

Twinkle said...

ABC interns should eat more fish biscuits

shellma said...

OMG!!! LMAO!!!
Thats great twinkle!!!

shellma said...

Send them to Dark ange.....

jess4ua said...

Twinkle- ROFLMFBO!

Twinkle said...

You know, they need the Omega 3.brain power.

Yeah, ange! We're a special breed.

FYSB said...

Ahhh, shell, I see what you're saying.
...conspiracy theory warning....
What if ourmutualfriend was a disgruntled employee of the game creators and posed as a person in authority to convince the other blogs to listen to him, then, like Thomas Werner Mittlewerk, the mad genius proceeded to sabotage the game.

(I read an essay by Lindelof(Cuse?) on one of the writer's strike blogs about why he writes. It was a really good piece, but what I got out of it is he just can't stop himself from putting stories around things. I understand that.)

Twinkle said...

I was happy to see someone the other day use LSHNEMB (Laughing so Hard Nanites Exploded My Brain) and I thought we should have one related to this ARG too. Now we know. :-D

Fenris said...

Your in the UK too Dark? Lol. I feel your pain.

Okay I need to rant. Firstly, I have nothing against D.UFO. I want to get that clear because I am p***ed off and sometimes it can give the wrong impression. It's a fan site and thought it's not my favorite (TLC is, even though I have my own one) I do frequent there because they have lots and lots of info. I have actually been watching all my Missing Pieces videos there for the last few months, so I appreciate the quality of the place. I have also read a spoiler there, but it was clearly labeled and I knew what I was getting in to. So no probs. I regretted it but I only blame myself. Lol.

Okay that said. What the heck are TPTB doing?

First they set up a new Experience that is out of sync with real time and has us removed from the reality of it so that it is more like a click and point game then an actual ARG. They even set up a timer and have everything happening systematically (monday = activity, wednesday = clue hunt, friday = video) on the website.

Then more then HALFWAY through the whole thing (according to their own schedule) after having everything self contained or linked via the TV networks games, they randomly drop a clue in to the comments of one of the blogs that is following the game (the biggest yes, but one of many), a site that isn't in game but is following it in our current reality (lol, current) and not game reality (where December 31st is before Christmas, lol again).

This Clue leads to uncovering of something that is THEN released on the find815 website itself. WTF? So no wonder it looks like a pretty big leaked spoiler. The whole mess of it completely leads us in the wrong direction and so we miss the clues we were meant to be figuring out from the stuff on find815 itself.

THEN, through all that we are lead to information that tells us that we have a hidden message in this picture and we need a password for it. What exactly did TPTB expect us to do? We've been at it, Dark UFO has been at it, everyone has been at it. Wasting their Friday night (well evening for most folks, but I'm sure Darkufo knows what I mean being a fellow Brit) trying to find a password in all the data we have been given so far when the password isn't even around to be found.

So FINALLY they send someone over to the d.ufo chat to drop the MOST BLATANT "cryptic" clue ever that we just wasted all that time and indeed the password will be released this evening. Fortunately word travels fast, but dropping that bombshell in a chat room just peeves me off even more.

Now with all the video flashes it seems clear that we will find the password there now. Big bannana's.

The fact is TPTB really screwed this one up.

One thing I can say though is that Javi and co really did do a good job with the last ARG in retrospect. There were so many people and companies involved in that and while they made big goofs, they were at least consistent and did their best to correct mistakes "in game". This is a much smaller, more contained experience and they mess it up even worse!

Question is, we have two chapters left. Are we going to have clues on random websites off game? are those clues then going to be on websites in game anyway later, basically meaning TPTB are deliberately releasing spoilers? or will the whole reality of the game suddenly shift into a classic ARG like situation where we appear to be directly involved and Sam is directly asking for our help.

My message to TPTB would be MAKE YOUR MIND UP!

Anyway rant over. Fortunately as my involvement here is mostly now just the weekend summary I have the enviable privilege of ignoring all the crud around the edges and just put the important details down. Come Saturday it will be like none of this ever happened.... Well okay maybe not. But I'l get over it.

Twinkle said...

Well, hard to follow that. I hear your pain, Fenris. BTW, it's good to "see" you regularly again.

If I may ask an OT question, when is Lost S3 appearing in the UK? You guys were out of sync with us for S2 and couldn't participate in TLC chat. Will it be the same this time or will we have you back?

Twinkle said...

Oops my seasons were off but you know what I mean.

Fenris said...

Actually I don't know. I will personally be up to date though (something I have no guilty conscience about as I always buy the DVD's and it would take a cross between Eko, Rambo and The Hulk standing in my way to stop me watching my favorite show).

However, since Sky took over from Channel 4 they have been pretty well synced up. The change to cable/satellite has cost the show viewers but at least those watching do not have to wait until the season is over to start watching it.

It is a shame the UK is out of the loop this ARG. Not that I miss the other girl. She was a bit like a cardboard cut out compared to Speaker and Ninja.

Anyway. I actually feel a lot of sympathy for Dark UFO. Must have been great to be involved, and then really suck to have it kinda blow up like this.

shellma said...

DarkUFO said...
3) We were contacted after the first week of the game by the creators and were informed that we were the largest referring site to the official one.
So did they tell them they would be receiving clues? Cause that's how I understand the process.

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