Forum | Thinking With Portals

#61 · August 15, 2012, 9:59 pm

Quote from Yenwood on August 15, 2012, 9:59 pm
Random wrote:

Here's the numbers from the code with breaks between each variable.

Code: Select all

3212 333 222 399 3212 333 322 321

I searched the individual numbers, and came up with a blogspot blog about 5-finger piano playing. So I tried it out, and if you use the numbers as fingers on a piano, you play the song "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I believe "Mary" will be the name for the zip file.
(The 399 should really be 355, but it doesn't make too much a difference.)

Also, the letters are grouped like they are on a standard phone-pad, but I can't think of anything relevant for that.

IDEA TIME.

Quote:

3212 333 222 399 3212 333 322 321

Quote:

phone-pad

I think these are hinting to phone numbers, looking into it before I post my half-educated guess.

EDIT: Flipping the numbers backwards brings up 123 223 333 2123 992 222 333 2123, but converting that into two phone numbers brings up three (six total) extra numbers. (123) 223-333-2123, (992) 222-333-2123
I'm pretty sure this is just for the piano, but I looked up the two area codes, 123, 992, and found these:
1. Matches 7 last letters from the first number, but that's all. Probably unrelated.
2. Reports from the area code of the first number.
Someone on this page said something that caught my eye:

Quote:

The caller ID came up as name Not Available with this very bizzare phone number. The answering machine caught a partial message with a female recording saying to press 5 to accept an offer to lower my electricity rates. Sure sounds like a bait and switch to me.

Caller was 123-123-1234

NOTE: 123 and 992 are not US area codes.

EDIT: I looked up Shepherd Company on Google, and I found a website - http://www.theshepherdcompany.net/ - that was lacking a description because their robots.txt was screwy. The website looks unprofessionally done, their terms and conditions is in Latin, translate using Google brings a confusing paragraph, so I decided to look up the founder, (who founded the company in 1996) Thomas Nielsen. I found a LinkedIn page for Thomas Nielsens, one caught my eye because he lives in Seattle. He also works in Computer Software. I realize this may be too much of something Valve (or anyone) to do just in 2012, but maybe there's some hint here.

EDIT: I also turned the location and time will be everything thing into binary, 0 being lowercase, 1 being capital, ignoring spaces. It turned into 5 binary codes, which translated to F9. Doesnt look like there is anything on the pages that says something happens when f9 is pressed.

Code: Select all

Binary: 00011101 01000110 00000101 10100000 00111001

Random wrote:

Here's the numbers from the code with breaks between each variable.

Code: Select all: 3212 333 222 399 3212 333 322 321

I searched the individual numbers, and came up with a blogspot blog about 5-finger piano playing. So I tried it out, and if you use the numbers as fingers on a piano, you play the song "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I believe "Mary" will be the name for the zip file.
(The 399 should really be 355, but it doesn't make too much a difference.)

Also, the letters are grouped like they are on a standard phone-pad, but I can't think of anything relevant for that.

IDEA TIME.

Quote:

3212 333 222 399 3212 333 322 321

Quote:

phone-pad

I think these are hinting to phone numbers, looking into it before I post my half-educated guess.

EDIT: Flipping the numbers backwards brings up 123 223 333 2123 992 222 333 2123, but converting that into two phone numbers brings up three (six total) extra numbers. (123) 223-333-2123, (992) 222-333-2123
I'm pretty sure this is just for the piano, but I looked up the two area codes, 123, 992, and found these:
1. Matches 7 last letters from the first number, but that's all. Probably unrelated.
2. Reports from the area code of the first number.
Someone on this page said something that caught my eye:

Quote:

The caller ID came up as name Not Available with this very bizzare phone number. The answering machine caught a partial message with a female recording saying to press 5 to accept an offer to lower my electricity rates. Sure sounds like a bait and switch to me.

Caller was 123-123-1234

NOTE: 123 and 992 are not US area codes.

EDIT: I looked up Shepherd Company on Google, and I found a website - http://www.theshepherdcompany.net/ - that was lacking a description because their robots.txt was screwy. The website looks unprofessionally done, their terms and conditions is in Latin, translate using Google brings a confusing paragraph, so I decided to look up the founder, (who founded the company in 1996) Thomas Nielsen. I found a LinkedIn page for Thomas Nielsens, one caught my eye because he lives in Seattle. He also works in Computer Software. I realize this may be too much of something Valve (or anyone) to do just in 2012, but maybe there's some hint here.

EDIT: I also turned the location and time will be everything thing into binary, 0 being lowercase, 1 being capital, ignoring spaces. It turned into 5 binary codes, which translated to F9. Doesnt look like there is anything on the pages that says something happens when f9 is pressed.

Code: Select all: Binary: 00011101 01000110 00000101 10100000 00111001

#62 · August 16, 2012, 5:32 am

The latin terms and conditions are a part of Lorem Ipsum, a typical placeholder text and I think this has no meaning (as shepherd is a fairly common name)

#63 · August 16, 2012, 10:13 am

Odd shepherd company page, thought i googled shepherd company when this started and i disnt see any results. Not 100% sure though.

#64 · August 16, 2012, 10:17 am

Shouldn't this be in off topic?

#65 · August 16, 2012, 11:31 am

By this point it probably should be, its no longer portal related.

#66 · August 16, 2012, 12:03 pm

Thanks for moving it whoever did.
On topic,

Quote:

3212 333 222 399 3212 333 322 321
...
phone-pad

gave me a different idea. I typed the numbers into my phone and it produced "Mary had a little lamb" from the touch tones. I imagine this explains the discrepancy between the piano's 355 and this message's 399.

On a more important note, I do live over an hour away from Seattle, so it's not out of the question for me to go, but it would be really nice if we could find somebody else. Does anybody have any friends that live near downtown Seattle that would be willing to help? I have a couple friends I can ask, but I fear they're going to be working Saturday night.

#67 · August 16, 2012, 3:14 pm

DouglasQ wrote:

Quote:

3212 333 222 399 3212 333 322 321
...
phone-pad

gave me a different idea. I typed the numbers into my phone and it produced "Mary had a little lamb" from the touch tones. I imagine this explains the discrepancy between the piano's 355 and this message's 399.

Good idea, that would definitely explain it.
I don't know anyone in Seattle. I guess we could ask TRS how vitally important it is for someone to make it, wouldn't want someone to have to trouble themselves for no reason...

Picture that. In your dreams.
Maps:
SP MonoPortal | Lesson 0
WIP: LaserLock Preview Images

#68 · August 16, 2012, 5:59 pm

I emailed trs about it and here is his response:

Quote:

Congratulations on discovering the location of the hidden cache. It will indeed contain the next step in your journey, which is nearly over! If nobody shows up to claim it, I will simply publish it. However, if it is collected two things will happen: first, the individual will receive a special reward; secondly every participant will receive another special reward once this comes to a conclusion. It's up to you to decide what to do.

#69 · August 16, 2012, 7:30 pm

I was talking to zivi7, who said "I can't talk about it, the real Shepperd is watching me". So I guess the people involved can't help us...

Anyone wishing to speedrun with me, feel free to PM me. I'm always open to new partners.
My steam profile: http://steamcommunity.com/id/tanger2b/
My speedrun and blind run filled youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/portal2tenacious
I need maps to play and rate! Post links here: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Portal2STUD

#70 · August 16, 2012, 10:37 pm

OO, reward for being a participant? Where do I sign up?

Shepherd Company ARG - Electric Sheep on Steam!