Chapter 4- E-mails, & voice mails, & letters, oh my!

UPDATE 1/23 - Last night Maven e-mailed us about some numbers showing up in the Sunda Trench website on Sam's laptop. I took a screen grab and played with the contrast and they are there. Click here for the picture in the Oceanic Conspiracies Photobucket. Carol in comments mentioned that the numbers are in columns and when thinking about the Walt Whitman poem from the other night along with the equations at the bottom of each column, we glean that you need to add each column and divide by 6. Here's what you get:

a: 115 b: 104 c: 105 d: 109 e: 109 f: 114

These numbers can then be converted into ASCII characters and these come out as:

S H I M M R

What these are for and/or what they mean is as yet unclear.

~Ange

Tonight we have a voice mail and four new e-mails.

Voice Mail:

• From Randy's Office- It's someone called Richard calling per Randy. There is an insurance pay out from an investment in a box company that has come through and would like to know how he is to get him the money.

E-mails:

Inbox

• Subject: your mum Sender: Tracey- she called his mum and confirms that she is worried about him. She's also scored an invite for Christmas with Sam's mum.
• Subject: [no subject] Sender: unknown- It's a random string of numbers and letters again.
• The letters in each line are anagrams for numbers spelled out (ie. twelve, fifteen, etc). When decoded you get:
  
• 12 15 22 5 25 15 21 13 1 4 12 25 which using corresponding letters of the alphabet gives you LOVE YOU MADLY
• Is this a message from Sonya?!
• Thanks to Ellen in comments who points out: Sun would tell Jin that she loved him every time she spoke to him, and then he would ask her, "madly?" and she would respond with "yes, madly." It became sort of an icon...especially when we got the flashback of her infidelity.

(Thanks Takes a Village for the e-mail and Jess and Fenris for working it out.)

Sent Mail

• Subject: payout Recipient: Randy- Per message he is replying by e-mail because he can't make calls. He's happy about the box company payout and he needs the money now that he's not at Oceanic.
• Subject: Homesick Recipient: Tracey R- Sam thanks her for the "holiday tip" but he won't be following up on it.

So is the box company THE box company? Is there more to the whole Mum part of this story? Are these messages telling us something? Does Sam not following-up on the holiday tip mean that that clue is a dead end? Could the possible Jin and Sun reference be a clue that Paik Heavy Industries is involved here?

Chapter 4- Hack the Chart Plotter

UPDATE: Thanks Eugene for the clue finding process and Maven for the poem. The password for Openstego is X4x98adfo97. There were braille characters and arrows (thanks Zort70 for the pictures) indicating capital or lowercase letters in tonight's video. After the video on find815, OurMutualFriend posted "Braille AOE" in Dark UFO's comments . Googling Braile AOE took you right to dafont.com where the symbols can be translated. When the password is entered correctly you get a bunch of binary code that when translated is a Walt Whitman poem title. The binary had to be translated to text, then copied and pasted to hex and converted to text (thanks Jess for working so hard to figure this out!). Then that text had to be copied and pasted to base 64 and converted to text. There's a translator here if you want to try it yourself.

We begin with a video recap reminding us that Talbot is working for Maxwell per the file in his cabin. Next we're taken to a video to set us up for tonight's game. In it we see Sam steering the ship. He pulls the coordinates (-11.1784, 112.2363) out of his pocket and waits for his opportunity to hack. Ockham leaves the helm and Sam opens panel and tampers with the plotter to give him a reason to "fix" it. When he is asked to fix the "faulty" plotter he inserts a flash drive into the computer and the game begins.

Hack The Chart Plotter

The Instructions: The password for the chart plotter is a combination of 5 unique numbers and letters. None are repeated. There are 8 possibilities narrowed down by Sam's hacking software. You need to choose 5 possibilities and enter them. You will be prompted if they are wrong, all correct, or some correct. You get 10 chances and 3 minutes before a security breech alert sounds.

Possible Passwords:

• 6H957 and S38TI (Thanks Lost2010)
• O74ZF (Thanks ib4uc)
• EA87I (mine)
• ZE1FQ (Thanks Memphish)
• XV529 (Thanks Zort70)
• F5XSW (Thanks DedJezter)

A strategy e-mailed to us by Lost2010:

1. Take the 8 coordinates - abcdefgh
2. Enter - aaaaa (if you got a red - keep an a in the first slot
3. Enter abbbb (if you got a red and now have a white, leave a and b and move on to c
4. Enter abccc (say you now have one red and two whites)
5. Enter acbdd (every time you get an additional dot, you know to keep the letter)
6. If you add nothing just take that letter out of your next sequence. And as long as you have whites and not reds, keep sliding the letters that got a hit one slot to the right.
7. You should have a couple of tries left after you have all five dots even if they aren't all red - then you can play with it.

If you succeed, you get a video where:

• Sam tells Ockham that it was a loose display cable and Ockham tells Sam he is on call 24/7.
• Talbot asks Sam if he fooled with the chart plotter. He shows him the paper with the coordinates and Sam denies any knowledge of what they are.
• Talbot tells Sam, "You have no idea what you're involved in do you? You don't know who you're dealing with."
• Sam tells Talbot that his employer Maxwell gave him the coordinates to which Talbot replies, "Like I said you don't know who you're dealing with. Stay away from those coordinates, you won't find what you're looking for."

A challenging little game tonight, and lots left open for speculation. Who is Talbot working for? Are we sure it's Maxwell? Also, do you think this canine friend looks familiar? What could the poem mean?

E-mail us at the usual place with any hints, clues, or anything that you find. Please be sure to tell us how you got the information, and sign your mails so we know what name you post by :D. THANKS!

Lag Alleviation

In preparation for tonight's update, here is a new thread to chat in.

Dear TLC,

There's a lot of angst flying around in comments regarding spoilers. In keeping synchronized with out parent blog, The Lost Community, we are going to try to play the game and stay spoiler free. Everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion about the spoilers. Perhaps a better way to voice your opinion about it would be to email other sources directly rather than have heated discussions in comments.

We welcome clues from other places at anytime, but please do not post comments that are potential spoilers or come from any methods, such as decompiled flash or chats, that are not game related. If you find information from other methods that you really think are "in game" please send an email to oceanicconspiracies@gmail.com.

We value each and every member of our community, as well as your opinions. Our goal is to keep this blog game related and fun!

Sincerely,
Your Oceanic-Conspiracies Blogger Team