The Enigma

[confusio]

Who or "What" our enigmatic character Loki is ?

(Last Update: 1/28/07 14:50 CST)

Hi, I created this topic to collect and summarize the information we have so far, several

of the clues and discussions we had in other parts of the forum about revealing the mysterious

identity of our common friend ?Loki?.

Up to date a total of 6 videos have been released as part of the game, two of them on the pre-game phase, one when

the first box was unlocked and the actual game started and another three, one each week after the all puzzles for that

week have been solved.

The videos are:

Video1. Ignition (Posted on youtube)

Video2. Hear The Challenge http://assets.vanishingpointgame.com/hearthechallenge.wmv

Video3. Belagio Hotel Fountains event in Las Vegas, NV. http://assets.vanishingpointgame.com/time_0108_360.wmv

Video4. Loki Time, http://assets.vanishingpointgame.com/loki_time.wmv

Video5. Loki Magicweb, http://assets.vanishingpointgame.com/loki_...cweb_011107.wmv

Video6. Loki Eras Final, http://assets.vanishingpointgaVideo1 Notes__final.wmv

Video1 Notes

The very first video (Ignition) doesn?t seem to provide any additional clues than the URL for the game and the name of

the band (Concorde from Seattle) that plays the background music. Some folks believe or have information that this

banModo100ing at the Seattle event.

Modo100 neowinan reporting from the event confirm that this information was false, no bands did play lVideo2 Notesrty, just DJ's.

Video2 Notes

Hear The Challenge was released during the pre-game phase, it provides more clues about the existence of the Vanishing

Point Game, what the puzzles may be about and some other ones that we are still trying to discover or analyze and Transcripts parallel challenge.

Transcript

Absolutely not, that wasn?t our deal, our deal was I?ll give away extraordinary prices to exceptional people,

and you will be happy.

Yeah I know it?s expensive, but these people are way ahead of the curve.

If you want to interest them, your prizes better be worth their while?

No, I can?t come to the office to explain, I can?t, I?Rightatch a plane the eighth is coming fast.

Right, you?ll be glad you wrote the check, I promise you, it will be timeless.

Yeah, I know, some of the puzzles are ridiculously hard, believe me the people you are looking for, can handle it,

the real trick is, can they solve them in time?

If they need help they can always search for the vanishing point tag.

Sigh. The vanishing point? ?It?s where things disappear, remember?

No. no, no, come on, I?m not just doing it for the trip to Vegas, we are gonna make someone famous around the world,

although I?d said for a girl with a photographic memory Vegas is a very profitable city.

Look, you hired me to pull up this stunt that nobody else could possibly do, the stage is set, the time is right and I haven?t

forgotten a thing.

I have to get off the phone now.

Yes I do, time for me to vanish.

It?s too latarticular objects shown in this video< is no turning back.

Particular objects shown in this video

- Wireless phone. Looks like a Blackberry 7130c and the carrier probably is Cingular Wireless

- Four chocolate wrappers on one of the night stands, two unopened on a service table next to

what seems to be a room service tray. Folks during the game were able to find that the

chocolates were made by a company in France called Monbana

- A pair of magician gloves and cane/wand

- Printouts of Belagio website and a brochure from the hotel showing the fountain where the first event took place

- Five pocket watches, Loki puts four of them in a wooden box and keeps one on her hand

- A copy of ?The Histories? by Herodotus published by Penguin Classics

- On the bed she is reading what it seems a copy of ?The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Vol 2?

by Edward Gibbon

- A small metal statue of a bird that looks like a Flamingo over a table

- Over a table what seems to be a room service tray, two chocolates and a flower vase with 3 flowers

- A notepad with some annotations that look related to the puzzles

- On theideo3 Notes<notepad a flower vase with a ?Bird of Paradise? flower

Video3 Notes

This is the Belagio event video where Loki provides the initial set of clues to resolve the puzzles on Box 1 andideo4 Notes<es, showing again the URL for the vpg site.

No transcript.

Video4 Notes

End of Box 1 puzzles. This video shows Loki in some sort of backstage or A/V production facility, she is sitting in a

folding chair and an empty chair shows on her left. In this video Loki starts to reveal more information about her

and the particular mention about her quadruple major and the 3.1416 GPA.

This video ends with a flashing message pointing to another URL on the vpg site

http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/on_the_run/

The message on that page says:

Good, you?re paying attention.

You?ve found something that very few others will?

This page is not part of the challenge to give away a trip into space?.it?s something different.

When I was hired to build the Vanishing Point, I realized it was an opportunity to build something

personal that I?ve been trying to find a way to build for many years now, and that if players were

smart enough to get through the puzzle suites, they might also be smart enough to help me with this.

So let?s see if you can help. In return, I have one amazing bonus prize to give away.

If you are the first person in the world to help me find my own vanishing point, I will print your name

on the actual casing of every AMD Athlon 64 FX computer chip manufactured between now and March 31, 2007.

When the time is right, I??ranscript<stion. For now, follow this trail to get the word it leads to.

Contact me.

Transcript

You are my hourglass, the fastest you work the faster the sun runs out on me.

That?s right, at the end of this challenge I will cease to exist, every puzzle you solve takes me a little closer to

my own vanishing point.

I don?t like talking about myself I don?t ight<oticed, but I wanted to tell you a little bit of my history, after

all you?ve earned it, right?

My job is to giveaway spectacular prices to incredible people in the most challenging way possible.

Am I lucky or what?

How I?ve get this gig? I graduated with a quadruple major, physics, stage art, history and folklore, all and all in

two years? but my grades were not that outstanding, I got a lot of call from recruiters but only one noticed that

my GPA was exactly 3.1416.

That?s harder to arrange tharticular objects shown in this video<ow, if you are smart as I think you are, we?ll talk again.

Particular objects shown in this video

- Loki is holding one of the pocket watcideo5 Notes<he video shows for a couple of frames Loki?s legs/shoes

- An empty chair to Loki?s left

Video5 Notes

End of Box 2 puzzles. This video shows Loki in the same site as the previous one, but now sitting in the next chair

to her left shown empty in the previous video. She continues to reveal muperRob< about herself particularly

the history when she made her chemistry professor?s office disappear. SuperRob noticed that this history

sounded familiar, he pointed to an infamous hack played by folks at MIT when incoming new President Charles Vest

was to take office at MIT on October 1990. e also found another interesting ?indirect? relationship to MIT on the site , this sites

does't seem to be related to the game but makes a reference to ?David Reed?, it happens to be that Dr. Reed is part

of MIT?s Media Lab and he is working with others to develop the Lab?s Viral Communications program.

We don?t know if this is just a coincidence or not, remember that the e42 folks had a lot of timirtuconDG<g for

data and build up some histories based on the results we get when searching for clues.<[/s]ot of timirtuconDG<g for

data and build up some histories based on the results we get when searching for clues.

Thanks to VirtuconDG's research this lead seems to be a dead end, while the site doesn't show

Mr. Red middle initial, looking at past versions of the site we know now that it refers to "David O. Reed"

and the MIT professor is "David P. Reed". No doubt the e42 folks may be watching us as we drive in circles :-).

This video also ends with a flashing message pointing to another URL on the vpg site

The message on the page says:

Good your are paying attention.

When the time is right, I?ll ranscript<n.

X of 36 found.

Where X is a nuown<-36 showing the actual count of plates you collected (more later)

Transcript

Congratulations. That?s 24 puzzles down, only 24 before I disappear.

I guess your kind of a magician too, you?ve sawed a lady in half ?

All right so where was I, oh right, so I?m in this room with the one recruiter, usually these guys

ask you about your research, or your grades, but this guy looks me in the eye and says tell me

about a time you made something disappear ...

I told him about disappearing my chemistry professor?s office, I took the door down off it's hinges,

laid up a little bit of drywall, some whitewash and you can?t forget about the baseboards, and I hung

one of those big huge billboards across the walls advertising swim meets, or book swaps, so the next

morning he shows up for office hours, no office ...

He turns around, I?m standing at the end of the hallway trying to keep myself from laughing, he starts

on the corridor reading the name plates on every door.

Took him about two weeks to think about crawling in through the wideo6 Notes<iter says, wow, but can you top that if I hire you ?

And I said, hey give me the job and I?ll even give you your watch back.

Video6 Notes

End of Box 3 puzzles. This video shows Loki in the same facility as the previous two videos. As

expected she moved a chair to her left and another empty chair shows to her left.

This video also ends with a flashing message pointing to another URL on the vpg site

The message on the page says:

Good, you?re paying attention.

When the time is right, I?ll ask you a question.

For now complete every puzzle ranscript<

To get one step closer to my vanishing point??eft<omplete

Where X is a number 0-48 showing the count of puzzles you solved.

Transcript

Congratulations, you?ve got only twelve puzzles left.

So my first week at work was challenging, everybody wanted to know what I did to get the title

?Enigma Director?. It?s a secret I couldn?t tell them, but I had to give up a few details about my life,

I?ll do the same for you.

I?ve never taken a sick day, by my 21st birthday I?ve visited almost every country in the world,

and I?ve never owned a camera, my memory has always been camera enough.

Laugh. My dad had this trick he would get me to do when I was little at restaurants, he asked a

stranger to tell me their address and I?ll tell them their home phone number, we always get thislues from the videos<f I was psychic.

I wasn?t of couhe glasses gesture<phone book.

Clues from the videos<IGHT<-->

The glasses gesture

While watching Video2 I noticed that Loki made a particular gesture lowering her glasses when saying

the word RIGHT, it was way too evident to be just a casual gesture. Then after watching over and over

the remaining videos I realized that she was providing directions !!. Before the Box 3 unlocked I predicted

that the next one was to be LEFT. I was right :-)

Also it became very suspicious when some folks found the following image in the vpg site.

If youIGHT ? UP ? RIGHT ? DOWN ? LEFT - DOWN - LEFT - DOWpogee<you put the words in chronological

order the sequence up to date including the last video from Seattle is:

RIGHT ? UP ? RIGHT ? DOWN ? LEFT - DOWN - LEFT - DOWN

Apogee did a great job editing the videos and putting the initial sequence together in one video:

What does this mean, we don?t know yet? but it is related to the distances shown in one of the

latest pages revealed after completing the puzzles -> oki moving away<com/roamingroaming/"]http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/roamingroaming/

This page add another two things to resolve "TANLI" and "1. Mystery Spot"

Loki moving away

After Video5 (end of 2nd week) several folks noticed that Loki moved to a chair to her left. This has been

confirmed again in the last video up to date and an empty chair shows up again to Loki?s left. We infer that

in the next video she will be sitting in that chair moving away a position to the left.

One of the theories is that bjects shown in the Videos<t, or left to right if you will depending on who is

the subject, you or Loki.

Now we know that she is not moving away, each of the siblings have their own chair.

Objects shown in the Videos

There are many objects shown in the videos that provided clues about the theme for each week and the

actual game puzzles, but there are other ones that could be additional clues for the remaining puzzle box,

for this identity challenge or just simple fillers or misdirection.

Somgearin<d that Loki on Video5 is wearing a necklace with a pendant that could be a pearl, this

necklace is not present on Video4 and Video6 that apparently were filmed in the same location.

tgearin pointed out that ?There's a whole folklore about Kitsune hiding their soul or a part of

themselves in a pearl that they wear or carry at all times. If you find or capture the pearl then you have

power over them and they need to offer you a gift or prize to get their jewel back?

She alsohe Meta Puzzle, Collecion Plate aka ?The white boxes effect?<ly one showing her wearing a black bracelet or wristwatch.

The Meta Puzzle, Collecion Plate aka ?The white boxes effect?

From Box 1 we noticed that several of the puzzles had a visible but almost hidden small white box with a bitmap

image on it, but when clicked it vanished?

After Box 2 we realized that this was part of another puzzle and most probably related to the message on vpg

site page posted after Box 1.

Also from the URL shown at the end of Video5 we leaohnY79<e is a total of 36 ?plates? we are supposed to

collect, 9 each week, then only 9 of the 12 puzzles from each box have these ?hidden? plates and you collect them

when you click on them and vanish.

JohnY79 did a fantastic job recreating the images and put them together, showing what we believe the final

image will look like after Box 4 is done.

After collecting all plates a new page shows all the pieces with mhe Final Question<, putting them together

creates the following image:

Which is the Odessa Coat of Arms.

The final question for this challenge is "What, Is, My, Name&quothxmimms<eo:2-->Microsoft History and Loki analogy

After finishing Box 3 and watching the revealed video (Video6) phxmimms put together an interesting

analogy based on Microsoft and Loki?s history.

There are few things not quite right but I believe is a great contribution and a good starting point for discussion.

(Most probable to be modified updated as we make progress)

Loki - 22 years Old

Microsoft - 22 Years Old

Loki - Visited nearly every country by 21st Brithday

Microsoft Windows - In nearly every country

Loki - MIT Connection

Microsoft - Started with it's first customer in Albuquerque, MIT Systems

Loki - Never called in sick

Windows - Always working somewhere

Loki - Memorized The phonebo giant technology leap from Microsoft ?<al photographic memory

Loki - Vaniavidjdixon<f Vista

Windows - Vanishes with launch of Vista

A giant technology leap from Microsoft ?

davidjdixon provided a very interesting line of thought, is Microsoft onto something that will

produce an innovative leap in computing technology ? such as a revolutionary user interface not

requiring of input devices like a keyboard or mouse ? a more elaborate and advanced technology

like what the prestigeous Professor Stephen Hawkings uses to communicate ?

A new technology associated with reasearch conducted at the MIT Media Lab such as the

? or a wearable computer ?

On the first message we've got from Loki posted on the vpg site after completing the

puzzles on Box 1 she says that this "was an opportunity to build something

personal that I?ve been trying to find a way to build for many years now", ands Loki a Real Person ?< for the smartests folks to help her with this ? Could this be why the "murmuring rock"

project is on hold ?

Is Loki a Real Person ?

Not probablreamhackered<t yes she is a real person and not a female cyborg creation of Bill Gates,

and some neowinians got a chance to meet her at CES in Las Vegas and evaximus84< ?

From creamhackered that was at CES and is on the picture, she said that works for Microsoft, well

at least probably contracted by e42 to play this role.

Thanks to Maximusore to come ...< that she is a professional actress playing "Loki".

Check the new thread about the "Real Loki" for details.

More to come ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~eowin<~~~~~~~~~~

PS. This is and has been a tremendous and outstanding cooperative effort around the world, if by any chance

(which I doubt) I happen to win the challenge I?ll ask for neowin to be the legend engraved on the AMD chips.

Cheers ...

Edited January 28, 2007 by confusio

[tomwarren Veteran]

Wow what a thread...!

Yes "Loki" is real and I met her briefly at CES. She works in the Windows Client division at Microsoft.

[confusio]

Wow what a thread...!

Yes "Loki" is real and I met her briefly at CES. She works in the Windows Client division at Microsoft.

Thanks creamhackered, I hopes it helps us to go through the final phase of the game.

Sorry I mispelled your nickname, I corrected it in the summary.

About the Microsoft History analogy. There are few things that are not 100% correct, but still the

analogy is interesting.

Yes Loki's character seems to be 22 years old, the profile of the user that posted the ignition

video in youtube says age 22, the user name is lokivanishes that coincidentially is the same

username for the user that posted here one of the first cypher keys.

Microsoft is older than Loki, the company was created in 1975, in 1976 the company name

became a registered trademark. I still remember on my first job (1979) I was trying to convince

my boss to buy one of the BASIC compilers they were putting together for a IBM System36,

funny the name of the company I was working for was Microsoftware, no relationship and

at that time Microsoft was not very well known. I may have somewhere some of the letters

and brochure I've got from Bill Gates describing their products.

MS Windows is about the same age as Loki, it was announced in 1983 but the first retail

version was released in 1985. First name Bill Gates thought for Windows? "Interface Manager".

Following this line of thinking I thought "what is it in windows that will vanish with the launch

of Vista?".

Well, I'm not very savvy on the internals of the latest versions of Windows, but as far as

I remember a very old promise from Microsoft and something that longhorn was going

to address was to get rid of all the MS-DOS legacy in the windows code ... I'm not 100%

sure if this happened in previous versions of windows, I may be wrong but I don't think so.

Then could be that what vanishes with the launch of Vista is a particular component or

feature from the old windows ? ....

Cheers

[patrikhub]

alright how about this idea... the crest, upside down... looks like a grappling hook in a window....

[confusio]

alright how about this idea... the crest, upside down... looks like a grappling hook in a window....

Could be, but still does not provide a clear indication of what it is or what is the meaning of it.

Also I'm still trying to digest what connection there is, if any, between Loki's identity and this

graph. The message on the vpg site says that she is taking this opportunity to build something

personal and that she has been trying for years to find a way to build and she is looking for help.

It's Microsoft related ? (Could be a reliable operating system ??? :rolleyes: )

I believe there are two things we need to find, what she has been trying to build and

a way to do it. I'm still lost going in circles ...

My .02

[confusio]

OK I have some images to share. I've been working with the pieces we have for the "meta puzzle",

following up previous work by other great neowinians. I put together some of the information we

have from the puzzles to find out if there is any pattern or additional clues.

I didn't perform any analysis yet, I'm not 100% confident that there is a lot much than what we

already see, but who knows.

To have better resolution and pick the correct pieces I extracted all the original shapes from the

flash files to avoid any resolution issues like what happen with the plate from the TOMB puzzle.

On the first pic you will see that each plate has a red X-Y number on the bottom left corner,

X represents the Puzzle Box number [1-4] and Y the puzzle number [1-12] for each box, I also

used different background colors for easy identification of the plates from each puzzle box.

There are some plates that may drive some discussion, since for example 2-6 and 2-2 are almost

identical, then this implies that on any further analysis we me have some permutations, but

by now I tried to pick the pieces that better match what we believe is the figure to be constructed

with all these plates. I don't know what tools the e42 folks used to break appart the image but

some of the shapes are not exactly the same size, so you will see some gaps there.

So here is the first image:

This image shows a 6x6 matrix with the box numbers based on the layout shown in the first pic.

This image shows the same matrix with the puzzle numbers.

This image shows the same matrix with the puzzle names.

And last this image shows the matrix with the puzzle solutions.

Not sure if this is going to help or is just a waste of time, who knows, at least we have

something to do during this week while we wait for the next and final puzzle box to open.

Cheers.

Edited January 23, 2007 by confusio

[doublecross]

Wow, there's a lot of analysis there, great work!

confusio - you seem to have a different image for the 'tomb' puzzle than thebruce has found at vanishingpointwiki.com - which is right? Also, can you confirm that there will be three sets of interchangeable images - (1-2, 2-2, 2-6 and 3-9), (3-7 and 3-8) and (3-10 and 4-??) - or is there any way of telling these apart? Finally, are the items you list for video2 in the order they appear? Just in case their initials spell a word, or something.

I think that Loki may well vanish altogether on Saturday and all her previous images and videos will disappear. It may even be made to look as if she had never existed. The box four complete video may be just a recorded message.

[confusio]

Wow, there's a lot of analysis there, great work!

confusio - you seem to have a different image for the 'tomb' puzzle than thebruce has found at vanishingpointwiki.com - which is right? Also, can you confirm that there will be three sets of interchangeable images - (1-2, 2-2, 2-6 and 3-9), (3-7 and 3-8) and (3-10 and 4-??) - or is there any way of telling these apart? Finally, are the items you list for video2 in the order they appear? Just in case their initials spell a word, or something.

Thanks doublecross, it took a while to put all together but still an interesting excercise to learn more about

flash, I never before spent much time digging into flash files.

I'm almost sure that thebruce got the wrong piece and I posted a previous message about it, so to avoid that

problem I took a thedious path and performed the following process. I decompiled every single swf puzzle

file, each plate is defined as an individual shape and as far as I remember has an associated sprite script

to create the vanishing effect, then I extracted the particular shape and exported it to a fla file, I opened

that file with Macromedia Flash 8.0 and exported the shape to a 100x100 jpg image and the rest, coloring,

adding the numbers and putting the image together is photoshop with one layer for each plate.

The other images are just captures of an excel spreadsheet.

It doesn't seem that the e42 took particular care to provide good resolution on those images and make

a one-to-one relationship with other information related to the puzzles where we found them, that's what

is driving me to think that may be there is nothing else there than just the image.

About video2, let me review the video, I was taking my notes while watching the video so some of the

objects may be in order of appareance but I didn't pay particular attention to it.

I think that Loki may well vanish altogether on Saturday and all her previous images and videos will disappear. It may even be made to look as if she had never existed. The box four complete video may be just a recorded message.

That's a good thought that may answer why the word "final" is on the name of the movie file.

May be we'll get a phone number with a pre-recorded message where she will pop up the final question.

I just hope that after all this brain crunching these guys don't come up with some dumb question.

Also we have to keep in mind that these guys had a lot of time to look to search and build some

of the clues around the results we would get when searching, I'm kind of amazed by the number

of references to the term "loki" and a lot of coincidences like this professor at MIT working on

a viral communication program, etc.

One thing that is still bouncing in my mind is that in one of the messages Loki says that this is

"personal", "something" that she has been trying to "find a way build" and "see if we can help",

perhaps solving the meta puzzle and discovering her identity will drive us to find what

ls that "something".

Cheers

[birddawg]

I posted this in the other forum also but Wanted to see if there was anything to it.

I've been contimplating the clues in the videos.

If you noticed back at the begining the first box's bonus video took us to a site that indicacted that we are looking for a word not a name. We have been thinking too much into this. There is only one cllue per video for the Meta Puzzle. In the first one it was her GPA. the second one it was the professor climbing in through the window and the third one was her 21st birthday. 3.1416 was the final version of the orginal windows. Windows is obvious. But her 21st birthday threw me for a second. Windows was orginally released on November 1985 Vista was released November 2006(Business side). For those that don't see this when she talked about her birthday she stated that "On my 21st birthday I visited almost every country in the world." Either she was super woman to fly around the world in a day or she was a program delivered to different countries. Let me know what you guys think.

Birddawg

[confusio]

If you noticed back at the begining the first box's bonus video took us to a site that indicacted that we are looking for a word not a name.

Can you be more specific about what video and what site ?

Yes there is a close analogy with her age and windows and I believe that her fictional

character is representing "something" and that "something" visited almost every country.

3.1416 was the final version of the orginal windows.

Can you point to a concrete reference to it, I remember that at some time I used a 3.12

version but I may be wrong. Also on her bio page (now vanished) there it said that

her GPA was 3.1415 instead of 3.1416 like in the video.

Did she got an upgrade already ? :-)

[Englez]

I figured out on my own that: (missing image)

Which brought me to: (missing image)

[confusio]

I figured out on my own that: (missing image)

...

Which brought me to: (missing image)

...

That's great thanks !!!

[notlikeme75]

I learned the trick of sliding by: did just well enough to get into an exclusive college and then kept my head down,

graduating with a GPA of exactly 3.1415.

from biography and video four says 3.1416?

[davidjdixon]

One thing that has been running in the back of my mind is perhaps the way in which the user interfaces with the new MS Vista. In its' early stages, MS software did not have a keyboard or a mouse. They actually took the idea of the GUI and utilizing a keyboard and mouse from Apple. Perhaps MS would like to return to its' previous ideas and even reinvent the interfacing methods. This may be what LOKI is building. I think MS may have a brand new interfacing method that utilizes the natural 'VISTA' of humans... namely our eyesight. This may sound crazy, but perhaps the keyboard and mouse will be disappearing. I think MS has developed an eye scan type device which reads the perception of the eye and the screen. You will be able to select items through eye movement. Think about the way in which Stephen Hawking communicates with the world: His eyes. I think they may also have furthered voice recognition technology. Perhaps now you can talk to the CPU and say your emails.... It might transcribe things for you. Of course there is no way of knowing until we see what MS has for us. But I don't think it is too far fetched....

[drfacade1]

One thing that has been running in the back of my mind is perhaps the way in which the user interfaces with the new MS Vista. In its' early stages, MS software did not have a keyboard or a mouse. They actually took the idea of the GUI and utilizing a keyboard and mouse from Apple. Perhaps MS would like to return to its' previous ideas and even reinvent the interfacing methods. This may be what LOKI is building. I think MS may have a brand new interfacing method that utilizes the natural 'VISTA' of humans... namely our eyesight. This may sound crazy, but perhaps the keyboard and mouse will be disappearing. I think MS has developed an eye scan type device which reads the perception of the eye and the screen. You will be able to select items through eye movement. Think about the way in which Stephen Hawking communicates with the world: His eyes. I think they may also have furthered voice recognition technology. Perhaps now you can talk to the CPU and say your emails.... It might transcribe things for you. Of course there is no way of knowing until we see what MS has for us. But I don't think it is too far fetched....

I like your logic. I had the same thoughts... here is what I posted over at the unfiction board.

Loki in the Puzzle box 1 video saids:

"I don't like talking about myself... I don't like being NOTICED!"

I've sent emails to l.kitsuneSPLATamd.com with LOW KEY as subject, and copied l.kitsuneSPLATamd.com as a BCC, and have I've sent several email to this address and they still have not bounced. which leads me to believe that there is an auto-respond function waiting for the correct keyword.

I think there might be something to the LOW KEY path. Afterall this is a PR campaign. I been thinking about the nature of the game. Yes, MS is releasing VISTA, but why would they create such an elaborate game, if not to hint around at new features, being packaged in VISTA. A curious find was in a Neowin forum with several anagrams of vanishing point. One was "VISTA PHONING IN." in the advent of VOIP growth trend. Maybe a new VOIP voice reg user interface. MS has been flaunting total connectivity peripheral devices at CES, and other News spots. Maybe Loki/lowkey is the disappearance of the keyboard and mouse.

One more thing. I remember seeing a primetime interview with Gates, just about the time that is house was finished. If I remember correctly, the name of his home voice recognition system was LOKI.

Just a few thoughts, figure I would throw them out to the wolves to digest.

Also, sent email to lowkeySPLATmicrosoft.com which bounced.

[confusio]

One thing that has been running in the back of my mind is perhaps the way in which the user interfaces with the new MS Vista. In its' early stages, MS software did not have a keyboard or a mouse. They actually took the idea of the GUI and utilizing a keyboard and mouse from Apple. Perhaps MS would like to return to its' previous ideas and even reinvent the interfacing methods. This may be what LOKI is building. I think MS may have a brand new interfacing method that utilizes the natural 'VISTA' of humans... namely our eyesight. This may sound crazy, but perhaps the keyboard and mouse will be disappearing. I think MS has developed an eye scan type device which reads the perception of the eye and the screen. You will be able to select items through eye movement. Think about the way in which Stephen Hawking communicates with the world: His eyes. I think they may also have furthered voice recognition technology. Perhaps now you can talk to the CPU and say your emails.... It might transcribe things for you. Of course there is no way of knowing until we see what MS has for us. But I don't think it is too far fetched....

Hmm, it may sound far fetched but I like your line of thinking ... (I'll add it to the summary)

- When Loki talks about "murmuring rock" she says that it's "indefinitely on hold" but not dead or cancelled

- Its something she was trying to "find a way to build for many years"

- She needs help !! ... perhaps MS is trying to find the smartest people to help them finish the project ?

- From the video clues she provides directions touching her glasses

- How she'll be able to memorize a phone book ?

check this link ->http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/mithril/memory-glasses.html

- It could also be a wearable computer ...

- MIT connection ? has this something to do with research that was or is being performed at MIT ?

There are several papers related to wearables and user interfaces

- At CES some folks met her and found that she works in the Windows Client division at Microsoft

(who knows if it's really true or could also be a clue), is she on the group or was pointing

to it that develops the Vista UI ? they have a site but can't find the link now.. grrrr

Interesting ....

My .02

[notlikeme75]

Windows Client Division is responsible for

"vista voice recognition"

this recently crashed during a demo.

if you notice the words that were typed on the screen were'nt really phonetically close to what was said. they wouldnt risk messing up like they did with win98 crashing would they? or is this part of the game?

anyone else have any thoughts on this or a transcript of what was typed on screen?

[confusio]

Windows Client Division is responsible for

"vista voice recognition"

this recently crashed during a demo.

May be she is the one who wrote the code for the demo and that's why she is vanishing

and they are looking for a replacement ....

Just kidding ..

[NickShawn]

May be she is the one who wrote the code for the demo and that's why she is vanishing

and they are looking for a replacement ....

Just kidding ..

The video is on youtube...kinda funny but works fairly well the second time.

Come to think of it remember the other video where windows(i tthink 98) crashes.

Maybe loki is the Blue Screen of Death! That needs to vanish.

Ps. i hope this game doesn't turn out like "A Christmas Story" where the kid gets his cool game/toy and he deciphers it and it's a stupid advertisement, haha.

Edited January 23, 2007 by NickShawn

[NickShawn]

To get back on track?remember Loki?s wand.

In classical Greco-Roman mythology, the god Hermes/Mercury has a special wand called a caduceus.

Hermes is the Olympian god of boundaries. Hermes is the messenger from the gods to humans. Hermes has been connected with the trickster gods of other cultures (for example, Loki).

The basic power of the Caduceus is the primal power to heal or harm.

This is one track I?ve been following since the beginning and I?ve come to a blank until the ?shield with wings? came about from the puzzles. Loki could be not just a program but everything around us and not vanishing but being buried in history as we move away from her old technology.

[notlikeme75]

I remember reading about how the fox (kitsune) can make invisible everything except her "tail"

[drfacade1]

Posting some futher reading. I have to remind m self that "Loki" is a trickster and is probobly weaving a web of lies for us to stumble though.

I found this on wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki%27s_Wager

Interesting enough.

[confusio]

I still like what davidjdixon posted ... but to be frank it has been a long time that

I've been waiting to see mfst take the path of innovation so I'm not 100% confident

that the company is well positioned to pull up such technology leap and come out

with a new technology/product that will leave everybody amazed and with their

mouths open.

It took them 6 years and many delays to put Vista together, as far as I remember in the

middle of the road they switched the code base from longhorn to code from windows server,

they dumped the new file system, etc.

And a couple of the initial reviews don't show Vista as something you must have or to die for,

and on top of that, once again you will have to upgrade your hardware to enjoy some of the

benefits.

But if they do, my kudos and admiration for such a great development.

Now going back to Loki, remember that in the very first message we've got about this

additional challenge Loki says "to build something personal that I?ve been trying to find a

way to build for many years" ...

What is that "something" and why is so hard or complex to build that a supersmart

person as she portraits herself can't find the way to do it ?

At some moment, and I think I posted about it before, one thought I had is that to be

able to help we need access and tools, then one idea that crossed my mind was

"are they coming out with an open source version of Vista ?" and what is vanishing

away is the proprietary windows code (that's about 22 years old) and way of developing it ?

For a company like msft that's a tremendous challenge, but if they do, it will be an outstanding

step forward that will leave a lot of people in the information technology sector dismayed,

will let them to tell some folks (me included) "now you can shove your penguin in your ...."

and will put them in an incredible position to dominate the operating system and user

interface market for many many years.

Just another .02

Cheers

PS. Mr.Bill was wrong and missed the internet wagon, later search and rich content distribution,

will he hit the jackpot this time with open source ? ...

Edited January 23, 2007 by confusio

[BLinGER]

For what it's worth:

I wanted to add another inconsistency seen (which seem to be more a norm in the last set of puzzles) .

Someone was either very hurried in developing this contest or certain elements have no effect on the final outcome (i.e. just looking too deep). Specifically, in "Letters From Home". We are given postal codes on several of the cancellations. Why? Postal codes were not in used in UK or US until after 1958. For the 1st: 99780 (TOK, AK) is a valid ZIP but not at the time and the stamp used was from 1946 at the earliest. The Swiss letter has two different cancellation years (1940 & 1942). Three other letters, Hong Kong, New Zealand & possibly Norway have 2C 319 and Estonia has 1C 3 92. I have not researched any of the others for stamp issue dates nor have I looked into other markings on the Japanese letter for any meaning. I don't recall so many issues in the early stages. Is this an effect of LOKI disapearing? Is this a clue?

Agreed, LOKI's scripts hold a lot of clues to solving the final Meta puzzle. I think we need to include some of the "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" aspects as well if it comes to that (i.e the watch, following the rabbit, moving chairs, disappearing and cards). See Through the Looking Glass for some the differences and possible future clues (chess, the mirror, etc).

The 1st video is first shown in reverse and then in the actual order, references in the song to left vs right brain, which is what we need to solve the challenges so far is the final challenge more creative than logical? In the "challenge" video we see LOKI in the mirror and then closing the DOOR (in close up). Later we have mentions to possibly finding another way in rather than a door. We've mentioned the glasses and the directions that follow in each video. LOKI later says, "the STAGE is set the TIME is right and I haven't FORGOTTEN a thing" (references to the 3 sets of puzzles so far).

I'll try to continue these points later if you think its not to far of point.

In the keeping with the Steganography theory though, the real Meta puzzle has probably already been revealed but the true meaning or order is still unclear. I'm also curious that we solved a couple of these puzzles with some information that had us working seemingly somewhat backwards. We had an answer but not a clear way that we got to the correct answer. "Are we lucky or what?"

I was working at MIT yesterday and picked up a copy of last week's campus paper and I guess they just completed their own puzzle event, the annual MIT Mystery Hunt. going to http://web.mit.edu/puzzle tells its history and the most recent hunt. In brief, it dates back to 1980 started by a student Brad E Schafer '78.

[agentleman]

Now going back to Loki, remember that in the very first message we've got about this

additional challenge Loki says "to build something personal that I?ve been trying to find a

way to build for many years" ...

What is that "something" and why is so hard or complex to build that a supersmart

person as she portraits herself can't find the way to do it ?

What could a super smart woman like Loki want...something personal that she's been trying to develop for many years... Well, I could be TOTALLY out there by saying this, but could she be looking for a Think Tank? You can't have such a group with only one member...maybe she's looking for people like us to join her?

Maybe I'm dreaming.