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A UPS Package | |
It's always fun when you get an ARG delivered to your doorstep. Not that I was so lucky this time around, but quite a few people were. Enaxor was the first one to report getting a package. She had a blacked out letter, an Emgergen-C package with a sticker and a origami swan. The origami swan was a bit strange considering it had no information on it and that many people had been folding cranes for Dave Szulborski. However, it wasn't really thought that varin could be so manipulative just for an ARG launch. That and she also received a package. With varin's pictures, it was pointed out that each letter had a different bit blacked out, so we figured with enough letters we would be able to get the entire contents of the letter.
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Dumbing It Down for the Media |
Little did we know that it really wasn't necessary for us to do any real work.
It turns out that a package was also sent to a blogger at c|net, except his was significantly different from the ones sent to Unfiction people. For starters, he doesn't list a crane as part of the package. He also got a (mostly) unblackened letter and a bigger sticker - giving him all the information to move onto the next bit of game while the ARG people were left twiddling their thumbs. Seriously, was there a point to giving us what appeared to be a cooperative puzzle when the answer key was also available at the same time? Methinks one could have saved themselves some significant UPS fees if they had thought out the packages a bit better.
So the actual letter § doesn't give us all that much to go on, other than someone named Eugene Gough shouldn't have his contract extended. But why on earth are people getting a memo that is over twenty years old? Maybe a new website could help.
United States Government
Department of Energy
Los Alamos National Laboratory
memorandum
DATE: JAN 30 1985
REPLY To:
ATTN OF: Pat Coleman, EM-24
SUBJECT: Contract extension for Eugene Gough
Pat -
Wanted to get back to you regarding an extension for Gene. As I mentioned
after the JSAC, he is unquestionably one of our most promising assets.
Judged on the merits of his science, he's unparalled -- but I wish I could
leave it at that.
Time after time, his personal history is affecting his throughput, and I
just can't seem to make any headway in the discussions re: his taking over
the lead in Weapons Physics. Given the cutbacks in Experimental Physical
Sciences, I simply can't rationalize 14 FTEs.
He says it's a matter of integrity, but I'm tired of the rhetoric. If he
wants to chan himself to the Dean's desk, perhaps he should head back to
UC (Berkeley, not San Diego).
This isn't a policy pocition, nor is it personal. His work ethic is
outstanding (how many people regularly get in before you!), but the
emotional issues...and his reluctance to meet with the counseller leave
me with few options. We've got a role to play here, and he's made his
choices.
Now, it's time that we do the same. We'll need his resignation by the 1st.
Regards,
Michael
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Holomove.com |
So it turns out that the stickers on our emergen-c packets weren't complete. The c|net guy got a whole one that says "Scientific Anarchy Now" and "Holomove". With a little googling, you can quickly find out that holomove.com is a valid website.
Holomove is definitely what we're looking for, as it has the same logo that has showed up on all the stickers. It also has some rather annoying music that plays, so you might want to hit the dancing bars down at the bottom to stop it.
Holomove is apparently the brain child of one Eugene Gough and it specializes in "next-generation user interfaces" - namely holographics. At least now we know what he ended up doing after getting fired from Los Alamos. Tragically Eugene died in 2007 (an 'accident' off the coast of Belize) and the company is now run by Erik Andersen and Giorgio Poulopatis, both of whom worked for Freyja Capital.
§
Holomove, Inc. is a San Diego based company specializing in next-generation user interfaces. The goal of Holomove is to bring together hardware, software, and imagination to create technologies and devides that inspire and change the world.
Dr. Eugene Gough (1947-2007)
Dr. Eugene Gough was the founder of Holomove, Inc. He attended Stanford University where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Electrical Engineering. After receiving an M.A. and PhD from University of California, San Deigo, Gough worked as a researcher at the Los Alamos National Lab as well as Ames Laboratory. In 2004, Dr. Gough's interest in holographic representations led to the creation of NexTech, which subsequently became Holomove. Dr. Gough was an acknowledged leader in both holography and reverse haptics.
Erik Andersen
Erik Andersen is a graduate of the University of Oxford (B.S. Economics) and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He has over 20 years experience in mergers and acquisitions, land development and real estate investement. An expert linguist, Mr. Andersen is fluent in no less than seven languages including Danish, German, French, and Japanese. Under his leadership, Freyja Capital has become a leader in the next generation venture capital with investments in select biotech and technological properties. More recently, Mr. Andersen has been serving as the Chairman of Holomove, Inc.
Giorgio Poulopatis
Giorgos "George" Poulopatis was born in Rhodes, Greece and received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Athens in 1980. Mr. Poulopatis holds an MBA from Wharton School of Business. He became a partner of Freyja Capital where he worked until 2006. He currently serves as CEO of Holomove, Inc.
Holomove rolls out $10MM "Reach the Future" ad campaign
San Diego, CA -- Holomove, Inc., a privately held company, announced the launch of a $10 million national ad campaign with the tagline "Reach the Future." The campaign is intended to raise awareness of the groundbreaking holographic technology developed by legendary scientist, Dr. Eugene Gough. The company's technological innovations feature patented holographic technology and next generation user-interface (UI). It's a major breakthrough in many areas including holography, reverse haptics, and sound projections.
George Poulopatis, partner at Freyja Capital named CEO of Holomove, Inc.
Holomove, Inc., recently named one of San Diego's top ten up-and coming technology companies, announced the appointment of George Poulopatis as the new Chief Executive Officer. The annoucement was made today by Erik Andersen, Chairman of HOlomove, Inc. In his newly created position, Poulopatis will oversee day-to-day operations at the privately held company. "It's a great opportunity to have joined Holomove at this pivotal stage in their growth," stated Mr. Poulopatis. "I look forward to helping this company fulfil the dreams of our founder, Dr. Eugene Gough. Our potential is only limited by our imagination."
Holomove, Inc. CEO Expresses Sympathy on Death of Dr. Eugene Gough
Today, George Poulopatis, the CEO of Holomove, announced a month-long period of mourning following the sudden death of founder Dr. Eugene Gough. Gough, 60, was one of the world's premiere experts on holography, was lost in a tragic accident off the coast of Belize.
In a statement released earlier, Poulopatis said, "We are deeply saddened by this news," said George Poulopatis, Holomove Inc., CEO. "We are very grateful for Gene's enormouse contributions to the company...to the entire scientific community. Personally and professionally, this is a tremendous loss to the company, to the Holomove family."
For being a relatively sparse website, there's a wealth of information for us to latch onto. First of all, there are several new websites mentioned, mostly through the RSS feed.
- Freyja Capital - Erik Andersen's company
- CodeWtrN8 - Blog of Nathan Bozeman, new lead developer of Holomove
- Reach the Future - $10 million dollar brand campaign by Holomove (which sadly just redirects back to Holomove)
The second bit of information is that Holomove is hiring.
§
We're always looking for the best and the brightest to join our team. Career opportunities are frequently updated. To recieve updates on positions and news, click on the
RSS icon, below.
To apply for a position, click on the appropriate link. Applicants will be asked to solve a simple puzzle, a tradition of Dr. Gough's that we continue to honor.
Send an email with your solution to careers@holomove.com. Please mention the prospective position in the subject line.
Current opportunities
San Diego
Optomechnical Engineer: (Engineering)
Manufacturing Engineer: (Engineering)
Sr. Software Developer: (QA)
Senior Software Engineer: (Software/DBA)
Senior Assistant II (Administration)
Executive Shef (Operations)
In order to apply to any of the jobs, you must email careers@holomove.com the answer to a puzzle they have provided.
§
The key to solving the puzzle is that you have to view the source of the puzzle in order to get the 'directions' to pull out the hidden message. Throughout the aage there are font tags (like <font size=12></font>) that aren't modifiying any text. I've edited the file a bit so you can see where the font sizes are [in red]. Once you have the font sizes located, you take the X letter/number after it (puncuation does not count).
[12] By
2015, computers will be largely invisible, and will be very small. We will [18]
be dealing with a mesh of computing and communications [10]that will be embedded in the environment and in [24]our clothing.
People in 2005 face a dilemma because, on the one hand, they wan[16]t large, high-resolution
displays. They can obtain these displays by buying expensive 72” flat-panel
plasma monitors. But they also want portable devices, which have limited display
capabilities. By 2015, we will have images input directly onto our retinas.
This allows for a very high-resolution display that encompasses the entire visual
field of view yet i[12]s physically tiny. These devices exist in 2005, and [4]are used
in high-performance applications, such as putting a soldier or a surgeon into
a virtual reality environment. So in 2015, if we want a large, high-resolution
computer image, it will just appear virtually [8]in the air. We will have augmented
reality, including pop-up displays explaining what is happening in the real
world. We will be able to go into full-immersion, visual auditory virtual reality
environments,
[36]We will have useable language
technologies. These are beginning to emerge, and by 2015 they will be quite
effective. [8]In this visual field of view, we will have virtual [4]personalities
with which you can interact. Computers will have virtual assistants with sufficient
command of speech recognition that you can discuss subjects with them. Search
engines won’t wait to be asked – they will track your conversation
and attempt to anticipate your needs and help you with routine transactions.
These virtual assistants won’t be at the human level, that won’t
happen until we have strong AI. But they will be useful, and many transactions
will be mediated by these assistants. Computing will be very powerful, and it
will be a mesh of computing. Individuals who need the power of a million computers
for 25 milliseconds will be able to obtain that as needed.
[9]By 2015,
we will have real traction with n[18]anotechnology. I believe
that we will be well on [7][35]the way to
overcoming major diseases, s[18]uch as cancer, heart d[8]isease,
and diabete[4]s through the biotechnology revolution that we
talked above.[2][7]We will also make progress in learning [6]how to combat and even
r[8]everse the ageing process.
With the referenced letters in yellow, you can easily read the hidden message: the future is within reach
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Freyja Capital |
Freyja Capital is a San Diego based venture capital/banking group run by Erik Andersen (who doesn't seem able to write a new bio for a new company). The two other big members of Freyja are Matthew Berg and Timothy Lutton. Sadly, beyond reading the brief company profile, the member bios and the headlines of their press releases, there isn't much to do here. You can try to get them to email or call you through their contact form if you're into that sort of thing.
§
Mission Statement
Freyja Capital is a US-based venture capital fund that provides a diverse range of investment banking services to the companies in our portfolio.
Founded in 2002, we acquired a banking license in 2004. A year later, we concluded a significant transaction, where our partners collectively acquired a 27% stake in the issued shares of Freyja Capital.
Our strategic goals and objectives are to be recognized as a distinctive specialist banking group through our deep domain expertise and entrepreneurial culture, which is balanced by a strong risk management discipline and an intrinsic ability to be nimble and innovative.
We aim to build value-added businesses that serve the needs of select markets where we can compete successfully.
Erik Andersen Bio
Erik Andersen is a graduate of the University of Oxford (B.S. Economics) and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He has over 20 years experience in mergers and acquisitions, land development and real estate investment. An expert linguist, he speaks 5 languages and reads 7 including Danish, German, French, and Japanese. Under his leadership, Freyja Capital has become a strong independent leader in mergers and acquisitions for select properties and clients throughout the West Coast. He is the founder and CEO.
Mathew Berg Bio
Mathew Berg, Executive Quantitative Analyst, has more than 15 years experience researching and building statistical tools to manage portfolio risk. He received his Bachelor of Science from MIT in Engineering and a PhD in Mathematics from Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Mathew is an expert in analyzing, modeling and pricing derivatives across all asset classes. A seasoned writer on risk assessment, Mathew has authored several leading publications such as Mergers Monthly, Investment Management, and REO Today.
Timothy Litton Bio
The firm's chief operating officer, Timothy Litton is responsible for managing all aspects of company operations. He oversees the continued stability and growth of Freyja Capital's fiscal and strategic divisions. Timothy is committed to building and maintaining relationships with financial institution leaders, as well as third-party investment fund partners. Timothy graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University and earned an MBA from Harvard School of Business.
Press Releases (Headlines)
13 George Poulopatis, partner at Freyja Capital named CEO of Holomove, Inc. Success
12 Successful Beginning: Freyja Capital Posts Profit, Announces Dividend
11 Outstanding Performance For the First Five Year of Operations
10 Holomove, Inc. CEO Expresses Sympathy on Death of Dr. Eugene Gough
09 Freyja Capital Builds Upon Leadership Role
08 Development of Freyja Capital Master Plan
07 Holomove, Inc. Receives Millions in Equity Funding
06 Partner Talks Making Money
05 Interim Management Statement
04 Frejya Capital Delivers Solid Growth In First Half of Year
03 San Diego Chamber of Commerce Names Frejya Capital Top 10 Up-and-Coming Venture Capital Firms
02 Timothy Litton Named President and Chief Operating Officer
01 Frejya Capital Announces New Executive Analyst
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CodeWtrN8 |
CodeWtrN8 is the blog of Nathan Bozeman, the new lead developer for Holomove. He's been blogging since March 2007 so there is a bit of a backlog for you to look through.
His early blog is basically just random links to things he finds interesting: MyVisualDNA, Kohnia.org, Universcale, etc. He even links to Not Pron and xkcd. It even turns out he lived only a couple of hours away from me back in 2007 - in Troy, NY. I go up there a lot during the summer for Celtic Festivals and to visit my sister. Small world, huh?
Anyway, after leaving RPI and travelling around a bit, he eventually got a job with Holomove. It actually seems that he had a different puzzle than what we had. The first part of the answer is here and the answer to the punch card is here.
Nate also has a copy of an interview with Dr. Gough that was shown at his orientation. Sadly, Dr. Gough bit the big one before Nate got to meet him, but the interview does give some insights into who he was. Mainly that he likes science over everything else. Which considering this is an orientation film kinda makes me wonder if Holomove wants their employees to have a life outside of the company. Probablly a good thing that Nate is single.
§
Interviewer: So, Dr. Gough, what new directions and techniques have you been working on?
Dr. Gough: Well for many years now, I've been working on trying to explore the boundaries in the holography field. First moving into holographic represenations of objects, three-dimensionally making images that we often see and interact with and then trying to see how far we can extend that interaction beyond what we've done up to this point.
I: You've got a reputation for taking nothing at face value. Some say you don't respect your predessors, traditions or even laws.
G: Oh, I never presume anything. After all, anything in science may be said to be impossible, might be possible. We have to further examaine it and press the limits. People think that laws, scientific laws as they hear about them, are absolute things. They're not. They're merely descriptions, and they represent current knowledge. But current knowledge is always increasing as we continue our research. So I've made it a goal in my life to find those areas where people want to do things that are said to be impossible and trying to do them. And ofen enougth I've managed to do just that.
I: Continuing our discussion with Dr. Gough. What are your guiding principles?
G: Integretity. And perserverance. Those are my core values, and of course I also believe in the value of hard work.
I: Perserverance is fine, but what about balance? Work, life, family. Do you have time for these things?
G: I have... excelled in science. And I've made that the focus of my life.
I: Dr. Gough, thank you so much for your time today.
G: Always a pleasure.
Nate also has decided to try his hand at video blogging, so he has a bunch of Youtube videos up. Nothing that exciting, except you see just what a little eager beaver Nate is in trying to make friends. I'm also betting that he's trying to see if he can get into Eliza's handcuffs since they seemed to be a little on the cozy side after the Vegas trip. Transcriptions
§
My new job. And they gave me this sweet LCD screen right here. We've got this awesome cubicle mate, Jay. Say "Hi" buddy. *laughs* Yeah, lots of space, man. They've giving me, like, all sorts of little fun little toys to play around with so I'm loving it. It's great.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KAUJKJhX2_w
Nathan: Alright, so I just got my first real assignment - first big project that I've been working on for the company. They gave me like a team, a couple guys to work with ...
Eliza: Hey Nathan.
Nathan: Hey.
Eliza: How's it going?
Nathan: It's going good. Thank you.
Eliza: Okay.
Nathan: She's hot.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9vOtWNSAPys
Nathan: *knocks* Can I come in? Alright folks, this is Eliza Marks. She's my supervisor. This is her office, alright? How's it going? I'm just kinda, you know, saying 'hi' to everybody in the office.
Eliza: Hi.
Nathan: So what do we got on a supervisor's desk, here? We've got a giant rubberband. Okay we got... Whoa! What is this right here?
Eliza: Okay, okay. Yeah, we're not gonna worry about that.
Nathan: Yeah? Okay. Maybe we'll have an interview about that later? Maybe?
Eliza: Maybe.
Nathan: *laughs* Okay. Well, I'll catch you later, okay?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_jtCZzwkc
Nathan: What up, Jay?
Jay: Hey.
Nathan: How you doing man? This is my cubemate and he is awesome. He's got the styling hair there. Yeah. *laughs* Cool. I'm gonna go around and say 'hi' to some folks.
Jay: Alright.
Nathan: Alright, peace.
Nathan: Alright, this is my smiling lady, Crystal. What's up girl? Oh, sorry you're on the phone.
Crystal: I'll call you back later.
Nathan: Sorry about that. This girl, she gets to sit right up in the front because everytime we walk in, we get this beautiful gorgeous smile, right there it is. Yeah! Right on. Right on.
Crystal: Smile.
Nathan: Okay, alright. Get back to work.
T: Hi, Nathan.
Nathan: What's going on? How you doing, T?
T: I'm good. How are you?
Nathan: Fantastic. Fantastic. And what are you working on today?
T: Oh, can't tell you. It's top secret.
Nathan: Top secret? Okay, okay. How 'bout...
T: It's for you.
Nathan: How about... It's for me?
T: It is.
Nathan: Ahh, little love notes? Yeah?
T: Well, you're the new guy, you know? We gotta... we gotta induct you in properly.
Nathan: Well shoot, I don't wanna... I don't want to take away any more time from you love-noting me, so um, yeah.
T: Later, handsome.
Nathan: Thank you. Bye.
Nathan: Hello ladies. How are you doing today? What's going on? I'm just saying 'hi' to folks. We've got Tawny and Clarice. How are you doing?
Tawny: Doing alright.
Nathan: Yeah? Just going through... going through some things here? Picking out...uh, oh, okay. Whoa... Dirty Dishes.
Tawny: Yes.
Nathan: Ugh, alright. Cool. Well, I'm gonna step away from that. Let you guys get back to your fun. Alright.
Nathan: *whispering* Okay, this guy right here. His name is John. He doesn't know that I'm gonna come up, sneak up to him. Hey! What's up, John?
John: Hey. Why you bothering me, man?
Nathan: Ha! I got you, bro. I got you.
John: Come on, what? Beat it.
Nathan: Okay, I'm sorry.
John: I'm busy!
Nathan: We're still having lunch right?
John: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nathan: I want to hear all about Korea and stuff. You know? Peace out.
Nathan: Alright. Alright, here.
Jean-Paul: Hey. How you doing man?
Nathan: The mister man from Francois. Yes.
Jean-Paul: Yes.
Nathan: Jean-Paul.
Jean-Paul: How's it going?
Nathan: Doing well. How you doing, sir?
Jean-Paul: Good. Good. Just uh, working here.
Nathan: Okay. You look kinda... busy. You looking for something?
Jean-Paul: Yeah. Just working.
Nathan: Okay. Alright. And uh, over here we have ze gorgeous Noelle. How are you doing today?
Noelle: I am doing very well.
Nathan: Very well, Noelle.
Noelle: Are we speaking in a French accent or something?
Nathan: I don't know. Jean-Paul just kinda got me all started.
Noelle: Jean-Paul is from France?
Nathan: It was the oui-oui-ooh-ohh, you know? I just went into it. Noelle likes to play to the cameras.
Noelle: Well I'm wondering what the camera is for.
Nathan: Oh! No, I'm just, uh, just going around and saying 'hi' to everybody. Just kinda getting to know people in the office.
Noelle: Cool. Where are you going to put this?
Nathan: Oh, I'm just putting it up on my own... my own little blog. You know, like, I got my own, uh, my little web blog.
Noelle: A blogger!
Nathan: Yeah. Yeah, yeah yeah.
Noelle: Cool. You gotta give me the link.
Nathan: Check it out. Nathan Bozeman. Just look up Nathan Bozeman and you'll find it.
Noelle: I'll be sure to follow that.
Nathan: *laughs* okay.
Noelle: Because me and Jean-Paul are really into that.
Nathan: Oh yeah? You guys have your own type blog things? Maybe I'll check it out.
Noelle: Uh....
Nathan: No? Oh, not that specific there. But uh...
Noelle: Not one that we pass out, actually.
Nathan: Okay, okay. Private. Sorry guys. Alright. I'll catch you later.
Nathan: Alright. Next we're gonna see big kahuna. Big boss man right here. CEO. Hey, what's going on sir? How you doing today?
George: I'll be right with you.
Nathan: This is George.
George: No no no no.
Nathan: Oh.
George: What are you doing?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RJx7JuNKxR8
Random Guy: Hi guys.
Eliza: Hi.
Nathan: How's it going? We're kinda packing for the day, but if you want to take of these, you can check us out online.
Eliza: Thank you.
Nathan: Thanks for stopping by. Just wanted to get this before I forget, we just got done with my first business trip out of town and it's pretty awesome, right?
Eliza: Uh huh.
Nathan: We had a really good day. So...
Eliza: Now we're gonna celebreate.
Nathan: yeah!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nmZrBRoEPpM
Note: This isn't really a part of Nate's videos, but it does show him and Eliza at InterOp.
InterOp Guy: Thanks
Recruiter: Talk to you later.
InterOp Guy: Yeah, great. Whoops, excuse me. Hey guys.
Nathan: Hey.
Eliza: Hi.
InterOp Guy: How's it going? Good.
Nathan: We're kinda packing for the day, but if you want to take of these, you can check us out our site
InterOp Guy: Okay, thanks
Nathan: And get all the information there.
InterOp Guy: Alright.
Eliza: Thank you.
Nathan: Well, thanks for stopping by.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PqjunHXdMH0
Nathan: Hey guys. This is Eliza. Say hi?
Eliza: Hi.
Nathan: She's a big fan of Your Vegas too. Right?
Eliza: Yeah.
Nathan: So we're just rocking out here.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0zdfwVUlpRg
Nathan: So, things are starting to pick up. I'm a little busier, and working a little harder right now.
George: Hey, Nathan. The IP phone's brilliant.
Nathan: Oh, oh cool.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lcLz35FO0rc
Alright, it's Friday. I got my first paycheck today, so now I can afford the good stuff.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hJhATw3mohw
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Crossword Puzzle |
So during one of Nate's patented 'walks around the office seeming way too over eager', he stumbles upon Dr. Gough's office. Not being one to have any actual boundaries, Nate starts going through the late Dr. Gough's stuff and finds a crossword puzzle, which he takes and scans in for us. How thoughtful. Of course, he doesn't give us the clues until a few days later. Remind me if Nate ever comes over to my house to have him empty his pockets before he leaves.
Nate seems perplexed about the puzzle since it seems too easy for someone like Dr. Gough. If you really look at it, it seems to be a little too hard for Dr. Gough since there are a lot of errors in it. Or maybe it's just that Dr. Gough was leaving a little hidden message to himself.
§
There are four across clues that have been filled in with wrong answers:
2a: HIDDEN instead of IMAGES
8a: SOMETHING instead of COMMUNITY
15a: IMPORTANT instead of KNOWLEDGE
28a: LOCATE instead of RANDOM
So it seems that Dr. Gough may have hidden something before he went off to Belize and now wants someone to find it.
The changed letters in the down words probably should also be noted (wrong letter-correct letter): H-I, H-N, S-C, T-E, N-T, M-N, T-O
You can anagram the correct letters into: NOT NICE. That's probably an understatement if Dr. Gough was murdered.
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Business Cards |
It appears that Unfiction/Despoiler was given a heads-up about Holomove a few days before the packages were received. Too bad it was just sort of dismissed as recruitment spam. Luckily, after the packages came through, Space went and posted both the original mention and his package scans to Despoiler.
The business card is the most exciting thing since it contains all sorts of good information, like a new name, phone number, business and email address.
Jeff Davis, Senior Recruiter
4445 Eastgate, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92121
858.812.2838
jeff.davis@holomove.com
What's even cooler is that dialing the number takes you to a Holomove receptionist and not just an answering service. So make sure you're ready to talk if you dial it.
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LinkedIn | |
Because there hasn't been a whole lot for us to do at this point, people have been hitting Google pretty hard looking for any information on Holomove and her employees. One of the search results was over at LinkedIn. Both Nathan and Eliza have profiles. Eliza even has a link to another Holomove employee, Anna Goldstein. I don't think we met her on Nate's little video tour of the company. Come to think of it, we didn't meet Jeff either. I wonder where they were hiding.
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MySpace | |
Apparently, both Nathan and Eliza both have Myspace pages. Unfortunately, work blocks Myspace, which makes writing about it a little difficult since I'm then forced to remember to do it at home. And remembering to visit Myspace at home is a bit like remembering you have to report to the back alley to have your feet cut off at the ankles. You just don't want to do it.
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Random Knowledge |
Nate decided that he didn't really like our solution to the crossword puzzle. Well, it's more like he thought that there was something more to it. So the peeps all got together in #holomove (and not #homolove like everyone seems to type) and started hashing out different ideas.
Eventually it was discovered that the replaced words were just as important as the words that were used in the puzzle.
hidden - images
something - community
important - knowledge
locate - random
So we know that Dr. Gough hid something important somewhere. Could the original/correct answers lead us to where that information is hidden? Some sort of image community maybe? Like flickr?
Once that idea was floated across, it didn't take long to find a flickr account named Random Knowledge. And what do you know - there's another puzzle there.
§
This really isn't as difficult as it looks at first glance. The key point is that the first number in all of the pairs of numbers never goes above 6. And since each cell has six sides, it's not much of a jump to see that the first number indicates direction. The second number therefore represents distance.
There is a minor problem in that there seems to be a mistake. If you use 3:16, you end up looping back around on the column - and the resulting last three letters make no sense. However, if you use a 2:16 you get better results (even if the answer doesn't really mean much to us yet). And because I'm so nice, I even made a pretty picture of the solution.
Now the question is, what does the solution of "Holomove = Hollow Moves" mean? Is Holomove making false promises of changing the world are full of hot air? But if that's the case, why was this considered such important information that Gough would encrypt it into a crossword puzzle? Are we still missing something?
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No Beer = Standard Business Practice |
I'm really beginning to think that Nate must have some killer coder skills because his office etiquette is really abysmal. Wandering around video taping employees, dating your office supervisor (bonus idiot points for managing that in less than 30 days), taking items out of dead founder offices, and providing beer to subordinates while at the office = ways to get you fired pretty much anywhere unless you have something really special to offer.
Yes, Nate's latest little "what were you thinking" moment came when he decided that, instead of taking his team out of the office to celebrate a big breakthough, he would bring the party to them, complete with alcohol. It was pretty close to the weekend after all. Needless to say that management wasn't too happy with him. Well, maybe supervisor-girlfriend Eliza might have been okay with it, but not Chairman Eric. I wish I had Eric's email. I would love to send him the link to Nate's 'reenactment' of his busting up the party. I'm sure Eric would love it.
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So, apparently at this company, there's no awarding for a job well done. They sort of frown on positive reinforcment. Here's what happened. So, my team's been working their asses off, okay? They've been working their fingers to the grind and last Friday, we hit a huge breakthrough, okay? I'm really proud of these guys, and so I come over and I bring a couple of beers and it's the end of the day and it's the end of the week on Friday. You know, just to celebrate, just to give them a little pat on the back. *sighs* Eric comes around and, uh, really that's not cool with him and he shuts us down. So, for your entertainment, I made a little reenactment of what happened. Here you go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1ZPqiajR4U
But Nate isn't one to be kept down for long. In fact, he's devised new ways of 'having fun' in the office - Chair Races! He says he's gotten smarter by not holding them while George and Eric are in the office. However, I'm still not sure if he's learned the concept of Youtube being a non-private space.
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Nate: Hi! Here we go! Come on baby! Roll, roll, roll! Come on! Come on! Go, go go! Go Tawny! Catch up to him! Go go go! Come on, we gotta turn the corner! Right here! We're gonna beat them to the corner! Watch out for the wall! We've got a crazy driver here! Drunk driver on the office chair! We're rolling. Come on, Jay, I'm gonna catch up to you! Get him! Just get him! Woo! Alright, alright. Good game.
Jay: Nice try.
Nate: Right on. Okay. I want a rematch. Rematch next Tuesday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M0Ewwy3bxQ
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Random Barcodes |
A new image appeared in the Random Knowledge flickr stream. That would mean that whomever left the crossword clue on Dr. Gough's desk is still around to give us new clues (or else they have an accomplice to do it for them). Makes you wonder who left the crossword on Gough's desk then - and if Dr. Gough could possibly still be alive.
Anyway, the puzzle. It's a QR Code - basically a two-dimensional bar code. They're really big over in Japan. You can scan the picture with your mobile phone and (if it has the decoding software in it) you get out the detailed information that was put encoded into it. If you don't have a cell phone capable of reading QR Codes, you can visit this thread on UF and download a on/off-line reader.
Decoding the QR Code gives us a message that reads: haveyoufoundfreyjacapitalyet? (The Intelcom bit is an artifact from the creation of the QR Code.) Obviously if you've been following this guide, you have found Freyja Capital. So what is so important about Chairman Eric's company that this mysterious person wants us to know about it?
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Folding Times |
Nate has moved up in Holomove. Instead of stealing puzzles from other people's desks, someone is now hand delivering them to his desk. The puzzle appears to be a square image with random letters all over it. This is when it helps to be an ARGer and not some c|net blogger because we've already been told how to solve this puzzle. It's a paper crane and when you fold it correctly you get "D I G G" on one side and "385 73 00 0" on the other, which leads us to the Digg profile of Random Knowledge: http://digg.com/users/38573000
RK seems to have just joined Digg in the past few days, and has submitted a few articles:
Even his pictures are a little odd. We have what looks like a periodic table and a play button. How that fits in with RK's three random guys is beyond me.
An odd sort of grouping to say the least. It's made even more odd by the fact that Random Knowledge added a new picture to his flickr account. It's a picture of the front a Nobel Medal. Normally the Roman Numerals on the side are MDCCCXXXIII and MDCCCXCVI indicating the birth and death year of Alfred Nobel (1833 - 1896). However, the Roman Numerals on our coin read CCVIII LXV CLIII CCLI or 208 65 153 251, which looks supiciously like an IP addresses. Say for maybe Youtube. So apparently we need to go look up some videos. I suppose it would have been too easy for there to actually be an account under Random Knowledge. Well, technically there is - it's just abbreviated to ranknow.
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Nobelium |
The video on RK's Youtube page is called Nobelium. It shows Dr. Gough and his assistant AJ manipulating a real life object with holograms. Or at least it did until everything went so terribly, terribly wrong.
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Dr. Gough: Okay, continuing our pre-alpha test, Sequence Number 342. No, no. This is test number 343. And here are some notes on the set up. We're using the progressively phased argon lasers with prototype four module. And the holorepro software version is 1.003.1705. And we're also using the electrostatic sonic field drivers with prototype seven for the sonic driver module and the reverse haptics driver is Version 0.41.509. Okay, are you ready AJ?
AJ: Yes.
Dr. Gough: Alright, googles on.
AJ: Okay.
Dr. Gough: And turn on the holorepro system.
AJ: Yes, Doctor. It's on.
Dr. Gough: It's on now? Okay. Okay, it looks like it's in phase and ready to go. I'm reaching in. Hey! I can see it coming through. Thats-that's good. That's good. Just like we expected. And that's, ahh, good. Now I can flex my fingers. I can roll my hand. I can move side to side and pull back and it's tracking pretty closely. That sounds good. Okay. I have time to turn on the reverse haptics generator system.
AJ: Okay. Reverse haptics generator is on.
Dr. Gough: Okay! That's odd, it took a moment, but it's synch now. Alright, now, let's-let's give it a test here. I'm gonna I touch the orange and move it a little to the right, a little left, a little toward me and a little away. Okay, that's good. Good, that confirms it. 317 I think was the test number when we first saw this much, now let's see if we can keep from slipping off it.
AJ: Okay.
Dr. Gough: I'm gonna try to lift it up. Lift it up and it's coming. I think we got it! It's coming up this time! Hey! *laughs*
AJ: It's up!
Dr. Gough: I can see the forming(?) plate underneath it.
AJ: You got it! Oh my god!
Dr. Gough: This is for the books, AJ!. You sure the video's recording this?
AJ: Yeah. We've got it.
Dr. Gough: Data, yeah?
AJ: Yes, data's on.
Dr. Gough: Okay! Alright! Alright. Okay, now let's see, I'm gonna try to turn my hand over so that I'm actually gonna hold the orange in the palm of my hand and see... *screams*
So maybe Dr. Gough didn't die in a snorkeling accident off the coast of Belize after all (although, granted, I'm not sure how many of us actually believed that to be the case in the first place). Is this what killed him? Or did he survive and go into hiding? And what happened to AJ? Could he be Random Knowledge? RK lists his age on Youtube as 38, which would make more sense for AJ than for Dr. Gough. But if this is what killed Dr. Gough, why the cover-up? To protect Holomove's profits or even the project in general? Could an accident like this really doom a project to the point where people are willing to cover it up with 'alternative scenarios'?
By the way, just as an aside, it appears that the Digg puzzle might have been an additional way for us to find the Youtube video (maybe in case we didn't/couldn't see the Flickr picture). The video, as I said, is titled Nobelium - which has an atomic number of 102. Mr. Booher is in the 102nd district in the Michigan State Senate. Albert Hoffman just recently died at the age of 102. And out of all of the Messier Objects, only M102 cannot be identified unambiguously. So the pictures were telling us to go look for a video (the play button) about the 102nd (common theme) element (periodic table).
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Tweet Tweet | |
Nathan already talked in his blog about how he rarely uses his Twitter account. However, it has been discovered that Eliza uses her Twitter a little bit more. Nothing big so far, but she does mention going to see 'her man' - which may or may not be Nate depending on if you think Eliza is just an idiot or a two-timing scheming bitch.
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Advertising for Fun and Profit | |
One of the new UF members noticed a Holomove web ad while researching new computers. There is a square ad that seems static and a sidebar flash ad that has at least eleven different sayings that randomly pop up. The ads take you to Holomove.com so hopefully we'll get new blood looking into the mystery.
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Reach the Future | |
About the same time we were all refreshing to get different ads loaded, a new Flickr image went up. If you download the large image and start playing around in MS paint, you'll see that there are hidden letters in the bottom of each of the spheres: m0qq0br0ajx, gqtlxuty, htr. It looks like a bunch of gibberish until you fall back on a time-honored/extremely annoying method of 'encryption' aka ROT(21): h0ll0wm0ves blogspot com
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h0ll0wm0ves |
Heading off to h0ll0wm0ves.blogspot.com, we have a new message to us. Or an old message if you see that it's been sitting there since April 4, 2004 (posted at 4:44 PM). §
I feel I can trust you. Are you the source I've been looking for?
Once you figure out what word I need, email me. Make sure the word makes it into the subject line – otherwise, I won’t see it.
If you look at the source (like the text hints at), you'll noticed some commented out URLs:
Each of the files plays a seven digit telephone number, followed by a woman reading a nonsensical sentence. Although you can't download the files directly, if you have a program like Audacity you can re-record them and then upload the files to DialABC's Detect Applet where it will give you the corresponding numbers.
It took us a bit of time to work out this puzzle. The actual challenging bit we managed quite quickly. It was figuring out the implementation of the data that took the longest since we weren't entirely sure how much information we needed to figure out (ie if we were just looking for a word or a word and an email address). Plus the fact that there are two steps in the puzzle didn't help our time either.
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You need to take each of the phone numbers and break them up into pairs of numbers (like 21 35 55 81 48). The first number of each pair is the word index for the spoken sentence, while the second number is the letter you take. So for 2,1 it would be the first letter of the second word Count. This will then give you five four-letter words.
21 - count - C
35 - fifteen - E
55 - divided - D
81 - answer - A
48 - thirty-three - H (this probably was meant to be 49/R)
61 - yellow - Y
75 - hideout - O
55 - devout - U
91 - night - N
17 - fishing - G
93 - rest - S
25 - beach - H
55 - penpal's - A
19 - driftwood - D
72 - destination - E
33 - secrets - C
25 - reach - H
55 - repeats - A
49 - bountiful - L
11 - keys - K
Now comes the little tricky bit. You have to have recognized that the date on which this puzzle was posted is a bit odd. April 4, 2004 at 4:44 PM. Lots of fours there. Although, to be fair, the time should have been posted at 4:44 AM instead of PM (which is really 16:44) but I digress. We're looking at the number 4 right now. What happens if you take the fourth letter of each word?
CEDAR - A
YOUNG - N
SHADE - D
CHALK - L
'ANDL' seems a bit random, but it is possible to anagram it into a better word: 'LAND'.
If you put 'LAND' in the subject of an email to randomknowledge@yahoo.com (the email address that would be associated with the flickr account), you should soon get a reply back from RK. So now it seems we just sit back and wait.
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Nice work. I’ve added you as a friend to the cause. Watch your inbox for further instructions.
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Speak No Evil |
We really don't have to wait too long as Nate updated his blog (twice actually) while we were puzzling over RK's little puzzle. The first update was Nate once again video blogging at work. Except this time, George comes along and spoils his fun again! Turns of Nate's music and his webcam. The horror! It's almost like George wanted his employees to work at the office instead of just screwing around.
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Nate: Alright, Jay and I just had a long week of work and we are ready for the weekend, right buddy?
Jay: Yeah!
[Grumpy mean George comes and turns off the music and webcam. We can only imagine Nate crying afterwards.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpC38LxkOvU
In the second update, Nate put up a picture of a monkey with his mouth covered - referencing one of the three wise monkeys. Seems like an odd blog post until you look at the source code.
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To those I can trust, follow me to a very obvious place.
52.4012
31.183341
41.963631
38.539329
44.963462
13.013109
121.437194
-87.662734
-0.145408
-93.24028
123.47, 138.59, 164.81, 164.81, 185.00, 207.65, 185.00, 164.81, 185.00, 185.00, 164.81, 138.59, 123.47, 123.47, 164.81, 164.81, 164.81, 207.65, 246.94, 277.18, 246.94, 246.94, 277.18, 277.18, 246.94, 207.65, 207.65, 246.94, 220.00, 207.65, 185.00, 164.81, 138.59, 123.47, 138.59, 164.81, 164.81, 207.65, 246.94, 277.18, 246.94, 207.65, 185.00, 164.81
So it seems like even Nate is getting into the puzzle spirit. This puzzle is actually broken up into three bits. First, finding the 'very obvious place'. Second, the top two sets of numbers. And finally the bottom set of numbers.
The first bit we had actually sort of stumbled across even before we saw Nate's post. One of the #holomove peeps has been playing around with urls and went to nathanbozeman.blogspot.com and nathanbozeman.com. There's nothing at the blogspot address - but you do get a message saying that at one point there was a blog there and that it had been removed. There is a website at nathaanbozeman.com - however it's password protected. Maybe what we're looking for in Nate's puzzle is a username/password combo.
Now onto solving the actual puzzley bits.
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Despite the fact that the two top sets of numbers are grouped separately, it's really not too hard to see that they are GPS coordinates. The top ones are latitude and the bottoms are longitude. The key to this puzzle is how you look up the coordinates. Just checking out a map isn't enough. You need to be able to see a satellite view of the area to get the information you need.
With the satellite view, you can see that each coordinate is centered over a building, and that the building is in the shape of a letter. Putting all the letters together and you get: COEUS Okay, it doesn't mean much now, but it might mean more after the last bit of the puzzle is solved.
The bottom set of numbers will make more sense to you if you are musicallly inclined. That is because they are the frequencies of musical notes.
B2, C#3, E3, E3, F#3, G#3, F#3, E3, F#3, F#3, E3, C#3, B2, B2, E3, E3, E3, G#3, B3, C#4, B3, B3, C#4, C#4, B3, G#3, G#3, B3, A3, G#3, F#3, E3, C#3, B2, C#3, E3, E3, G#3, B3, C#4, B3, G#3, F#3, E3
If you play around with the notes on a piano (or midi program like Anvil Studio), and you are familiar with old Scottish music, you can eventually hear that the notes will play out "Loch Lomond". If you're more of an Irish type person, you'll think that the song is "Red Is the Rose," but apparently Nate likes plaid better than green.
So where do the solutions get us? We have a passworded website and two puzzle solutions: COEUS and Loch Lomond. Put it all together, and you can login to the new site.
http://www.nathanbozeman.com
username: Coeus
password: LochLomond
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nathanbozeman.com |
What do you know - Nate has developed a secret blog at nathanbozeman.com. He's copied all the entries from the old site so you can ignore the archives if you've already read them once.
The big thing you need to check out on the site is the private vimeo video. It's password protected, but Nate had decided to go easy on us and has kept it the same as his website: LochLomond. It basically just shows Nate walking around Dr. Gough's office at night. He doesn't say (or show us) that he found anything interesting. I guess the video is just to show us that he's not a complete wuss.
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Okay, this is Dr. Gough's office. He has the coolest office. Oh man, this stuff is just... I don't know, I don't know if I should really be in here, but...
http://www.vimeo.com/1032934
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Continue to Page Two
Confused about how to use this guide? View the Intro page where many different things are discussed. |
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