Puzzle Box 4

[ahecht]

Don't forget that the AMD headquarters are in CA. Or that CA could mean Canada. Therefore, just because it says "Mystery Spot CA" doesn't mean that it is The Mystery Spot? (which I would find a bit strange, since The Mystery Spot? is a funhouse run by a business unaffiated with Microsoft, AMD, 42E, or any of the other people involved here).

[Ices_Eyes]

But if i'm not wrong, first version of the page talk about a Mistery Spot, not a Mystery Spot... am i wrong?

[D-Cipher]

can someone link me to this "CA" ordeal?

[garykagan]

can someone link me to this "CA" ordeal?

http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/roamingroaming/

[fp99]

Not sure if this relates but here it is:

The Mystery Spot

465 Mystery Spot Road

Santa Cruz, CA 95065

On the itenerary for L. Kitusne earlier:

Last stop was San Jose, CA

AMD Headquarters

One AMD Place

Sunnyvale, CA USA 94088

PH: 408-749-4000

AMD Conversion2 Headquarters

2230 Will Wool Dr., Unit 101

San Jose, CA, 95112

Headquarters

(408) 294-7100 Phone

Microsoft Headquarters

1 Microsoft Way

Redmond WA

Whistler is in Canada

(previous code name for Windows)

previous Windows code names (in case that matters):

Daytona - 3.5

Chicago - 95

Memphis - 98

Millenium - Me

Cairo - 2000

Whistler - XP

[MrRoboto]

Is anyone else unable to log into the site? Please let me know.

Quote - (MrRoboto @ Jan 29 2007, 09:24) *

I think I'm disapearing... No really, I went to log on to vanishingpointgame and it would not take my user name and password. I tryed it on 4 other computers and double checked cap lock, lower case. I figured, what the heck I'll just click the remind me link and get a new one in the email. I did just that and thats when it got weird. The password it sent me is "Password: .taDE1"

The anagram for Date1. maybe L.O.K.I. is ****ed at me for not showing up after RSVPing.... Mayebe I'm reading too much into it but I've tryed for 3 days to login with every combo, and 8 other computers, no luck. I tryed the forgot password thing agian and it keeps saying "Unable to send email. Please try again later. " It has done this for 2 days now! I really want to finish the puzzle but time is limited! Ahhhh, I'm fadding away......

Anybody else having problems like these logging on to vanishingpointgame ?

[ahecht]

I was gone all weekend, so I'm trying to solve all the puzzles now. However, when I go to "Safe", the answer box is dark and I can't type anything into it even after opening the safe (tried firefox and IE). All the other puzzles work. What am I doing wrong? Did that puzzle "close" early or something?

[boazer]

dont know if i did this right but I ended up in odessa texas right by odessa college

[D-Cipher]

http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/roamingroaming/

Thanks Gary.

BTW...that word underneith her pic "TANLI" is descrambled into LATIN.....

Perhaps im behind. You updated on this already?

So we start from the Mystery Spot and follow her glasses directions by milage she provided? Hmm...remember...smallest countries also count ;) ??

[garykagan]

I was gone all weekend, so I'm trying to solve all the puzzles now. However, when I go to "Safe", the answer box is dark and I can't type anything into it even after opening the safe (tried firefox and IE). All the other puzzles work. What am I doing wrong? Did that puzzle "close" early or something?

usually that means you solved it already

Thanks Gary.

BTW...that word underneith her pic "TANLI" is descrambled into LATIN.....

Perhaps im behind. You updated on this already?

So we start from the Mystery Spot and follow her glasses directions by milage she provided? Hmm...remember...smallest countries also count ;) ??

Yes - got the TANLI reference. Not sure what it means yet. I would not jump to LATIN yet even though roamingroaming sounds like ROME (from previous posts)

I just want to start at Mystery Point and get the lats and longs and I am having so much trouble. There is no software I can find that will give you the L and L from a point when you add miles to it.

Gary

[dickey500]

I have to agree with a previous post - these directions are so specific that the program you're using has to be very precise (a slight deviation from a "perfect" right will end you up in the wrong city/town and will amplify from there).

I think the ultimate goal is to get the names of the towns you land on with the directions, figure out whatever the anagram is - then convert it into latin...that's my little theory.

I'm taking credit for the CA find. It's the only thing I can take credit for...nice work so far, everyone!

[garykagan]

So does anyone out there have a program to share to find the L and L from each point? I am trying to use the spread sheet from a few pages back, no luck yet.

Gary

[Wolfm30]

You can't use a constant mileage for longitudes -- the longitude lines aren't parallel -- the distances between longitude (meridian) lines decrease as you move away from the equator (they all converge at the poles). Since lines of latitude are parallel, the distances between them remain constant.

[drfacade1]

Anyone thought about the use of abracadabra in the lokiv video. It is a magic word for this reason

geometrically it is:

A B R A C A D A B R A

A B R A C A D A B R

A B R A C A D A B

A B R A C A D A

A B R A C A D

A B R A C A

A B R A C

A B R A

A B R

A B

A

interresting shape the V. triangle

Also, I think we need her last name.

in the original email it was v-loki, the urL, and video file name is Lokiv?

are we being asked to answer in this form? A,B,C,D F

Any thoughts?

[Wolfm30]

There's a "measure" function on Google Earth (under the tools menu), but it's akward to use and uses a Great Circle measurement instead of strictly E,W,N,S, so I don't know if it gives the correct answer or not...

Anyone else find a way to measure these distances other than using a big ol' map and ruler?

[garykagan]

Don't you get a triangle when you do that with any word?

LOKI

LOK

LO

L

[dickey500]

MAGICWORD

MAGICWOR

MAGICWO

MAGICW

MAGIC

MAGI

MAG

MA

M

Holy Crap - this is the KEY!!

Kidding. It's a cool trick though

[69tHREAt86]

Not sure if this will help anyone but some math major could have a got at it.

Given you can find the GPS coordinates for Mystery Spot, CA you could then use the following to track down each of the 8 points using the mileage and direction.

Date: 6/21/96 at 16:43:45

From: Doctor Anthony

Subject: Re: Distance Between Two Points on the Earth

I will repeat the calculation here as I am not sure if it is one of my

posts to which you are referring.

The calculation is done using the scalar product of two vectors to

find the angle between those vectors. Let the vectors be OA and OB

where A and B are the two points on the surface of the earth and O is

the centre of the earth.

The scalar product gives OA*OB*cos(AOB) = R^2*cos(AOB) where

R = radius of the earth. Having found angle AOB, the distance between

the points is R*(AOB) with AOB in radians.

To find the scalar product we need the coordinates of the two points.

Set up a three dimensional coordinate system with the x-axis in the

longitudinal plane of OA and the xy plane containing the equator, the

z-axis along the earth's axis. With this system, the coordinates of A

will be

Rcos(latA), 0, Rsin(latA)

and the coords of B will be

Rcos(latB)cos(lonB-lonA),Rcos(latB)sin(lonB-lonA),Rsin(latB)

The scalar product is given by

xA*xB + yA*yB + zA*zB =

R^2cos(latA)cos(latB)cos(lonB-lonA)+ R^2sin(latA)sin(latB)

Dividing out R^2 will give cos(AOB)

cos(AOB) = cos(latA)cos(latB)cos(lonB-lonA)+sin(latA)sin(latB)

This gives AOB, and the great circle distance between A and

B will be

R*(AOB) with AOB in radians.

I will do an example, finding the distance between point A at

56 degrees west 33 degrees south, and point B at 12 degrees east and

40 degrees north. [Note, I shall be taking east and south as

negative.]

cos(AOB)= cos(-33)cos(40)cos(-12-56) + sin(-33)sin(40)

= cos(33)cos(40)cos(68) - sin(33)sin(40)

= -0.109417873

So AOB = 96.28175959 degrees

= 1.680433715 radians

Finally to get the great circle distance between A and B we need the

value of R, the radius of the earth. This is about 6371 km or 3959

miles.

In miles the distance between A and B is 6652.84 miles.

-Doctor Anthony, The Math Forum

This one is using the two GPS points to find the distance but since we have the distance and 1 GPS point and half the other point you should be able to figure out for the missing point.

[dickey500]

OR - use the trail function in Live Maps and a level to ensure you're going perfectly right, left, up, or down

[agentleman]

Shoot! I need to get into lokiv and I can't!!!

Is this because I'm trying from work and I playedthe game at home???

HELP!!

[boazer]

There's a "measure" function on Google Earth (under the tools menu), but it's akward to use and uses a Great Circle measurement instead of strictly E,W,N,S, so I don't know if it gives the correct answer or not...

Anyone else find a way to measure these distances other than using a big ol' map and ruler?

If you have a good program with graphs you can draw out all the lines 1 unit representing a mile and also uses the decimal place such as the .61 in 5874.61 miles so you make a starting point draw up all the lines with givin mileage and directions then you get to your end point.. now since the end point and start point are not that far away you can graph the exact miles and angle form the start point to the end point so now you can use any starting point and use this final milage and angle to instantly find the end point without having to go through the whole process....

[lagunite]

In case it helps here is how I calculated the coordinates for each point:

Are you using the great circle formula?

[D-Cipher]

If you have a good program with graphs you can draw out all the lines 1 unit representing a mile and also uses the decimal place such as the .61 in 5874.61 miles so you make a starting point draw up all the lines with givin mileage and directions then you get to your end point.. now since the end point and start point are not that far away you can graph the exact miles and angle form the start point to the end point so now you can use any starting point and use this final milage and angle to instantly find the end point without having to go through the whole process....

HERE"S A THOUGHT:

I've traveled a lot around the globe myself. CA definetly looks like California. Look at the milage after CA..its over 5k miles. It either means it will go east (cross-country and over the ocean) or directly over the ocean to past asia. So at least CA is def. cali. Now ....get a regular map...and just simply GENERALLY look up the ..COUNTRIES at least...of where those directions lead...thats all ;)

Im at work. I'll try. If we get the countries, we can do a more dtailed map of each country and find the exact distance. :)

P.S. Remember the collectoionplate....the symbol is of the Ukrainian Navy. GOOD LUCK!

[guardians]

Well, I thought back to my physics days and came up with superposition.

if you go, 5000 to the right and 4000 to lef the left, you really only went 1000 to the right. You don't have to do all the different direction, jsut find the master direction.

Considering right and up as positive, add rights with lefts, and down with ups. You get 1582.89 right and 304.48 down.

Starting anywhere in Ca you bascially get somewhere just west of the Mississippi.

I search around looking for a city with an I starting it and found Itasca Texas.

I'm going with Itasca.

But, feel free to use my idea of superpostion to find your own city. If only we had the mystetious spot.

If you assume Mystery Spot CA is M.S. ca, that's in San Fransico. Then, it's 1582.89 right and 304.48 down is almost exactly Iredell Texas.

Lorelei, Odessa, Kara, Iredell

Or Irving.

Edited January 29, 2007 by guardians

[Wolfm30]

I tried this:

Starting from AMD Conversion 2 HQ, San Jose CA

Using the reduced sums of all the directions and mileages (post 1509)

went E 1582.89 mi (using Google Earth measuring tool)

then S 304.48 mi

Ended up at Homer, LA

Homer --> Iliad ---> in Latin, Ilium

4th name: Ilium???