Interesting new development! now we have to figure out what Kilby-spawn are...sounds gross!

EDIT: this has also been added to the main site now...it appears things will be heating up shortly.

"ring hunters should be paying attention and start being creative"

[Edited on 31-5-2004 by Lukefj]

In late 1958, a young engineer at Texas Instruments named Jack Kilby placed two circuits on a single piece of germanium, hand-wired the interconnects and--presto--created the first IC. Within months, Noyce and company at Fairchild Semiconductor used a planar process they had developed to connect the components on their version of the IC. In so doing, they discovered that the IC's conductivity was better and more controllable when silicon was used instead of germanium. To this day, Kilby and Noyce are both credited as the independent co-inventors of the IC

Within three years, Fairchild and TI were producing affordable chips in volume using Noyce's process, a manufacturing technique that has undergone minor improvements but remains basically unchanged to this day. ICs were first used in a commercial product--a hearing aid--in 1963. By the mid-1960s, they were used widely throughout the electronics industry. Noyce went on to cofound Intel Corp. in 1968 and served as president and chairman of the board.

In mid-1988, after the U.S. chip industry had been losing market share to offshore competitors for years, Noyce was named CEO of Sematech. The government-industry consortium was established to conduct advanced computer chip R&D on behalf of its members and to advance U.S. competitiveness. It succeeded. Noyce, the son of an Iowa minister, was widely regarded as a gentleman and a scholar. He died at the relatively young age of 62 in 1990.

As an aside, a few years after inventing the IC at Texas Instruments, Kilby helped toll the death knell for the time-honored slide rule when he was a member of the TI team that invented the first pocket calculator. Kilby still works as a consultant.

Or maybe its to do with fishing?

Good find, amantine! I think I see why we didn't find it earlier - you needed to specify "search subject lines" in order to get that thread.

Another riddle. At least we don't have to decode this one!

I would rather have an encoded text than a riddle. It's always easier to solve a problem when you have a simple goal. With an encoded clue that goal is simple to decode the clue. I don't really know how I am supposed to use the riddle to find the first ring. Is the first ring on a ATS site or on another site? Maybe it's not on any site at all.

Yeah, me too. I was just trying to put a positive twist on this.

Something tells me the literal phrase "spheres of color" will not lead us to the ring. Based on the other lines in the riddle, "spheres of color" is probably an abstraction of something related to the ring's location. Maybe it's in a ball pit at Chuck-E-Cheese's or McDonalds?

Isn't the first ring supposed to be virtual? The other lines of the riddle suggest this as well. The "Kilby-spawn" and the "new realm" both seem to refer to the internet or computers.

Maybe the "spheres of colors" refers to the planets or the stars?

[Edited on 31-5-2004 by amantine]

I also believe, as it has been indicated many times, the first ring is virtual. The previous clue stated that we have to enter the url and what the ring is contained in....soooo it appears we have part of the answer no?

Also, if you read the poem down it reads "the to one among you"

interesting.

Lukefj

Maybe the spheres of colors are pixels of color as in a picture on a computer - maybe this is what the "connect the dots" thing was about.

I don't think there's any question about it being online. This is the 5th or so clue to that effect.

some possibilities:

realm of new enlightenment

• The internet as a whole
  
• ATS...one of the goals is certainly enlightment
  
• An educational institution
  

That doesn't narrow it down much, unfortunately

spheres of colors

• balls or balloons
  
• maybe the planets, or stars
  
• "spheres" may not be literal...can't think of a good example
  
• "colors" could mean a nations flag
  

These are just a couple things off the top of my head, certainly not exhaustive.

Dang... just saw this post... I also did the search and never thought to have ask and deep in the Req. part

Also, when I heard of Sphere's of color, I was thinking of Pixels. I also do believe that the new "realm of enlightenment" is referring to the internet.

Well, if color spheres= pixels, whoever's spawns=computer, realm of new enlightnment= internet, then this clue doesn't reveal anything new.



[Edited on 31-5-2004 by Transc3ndent]

Observation: The third paragraph states: "one is contained in new realm" = like everyone else I assume this means on the internet.

The fourth paragraph states "among realm of new enlightenment" - this is the part I'm not so sure about. Is it really just restating the previous - that the ring is on the interent or is this a clue as to where on the internet? It seems odd (though may not mean a thing) that the word THE seems to be missing - it doesn't say "the realm". Also the "new enlightenment" thing seems it could be talking about someplace specific as in a news page or educational page? And one last thought - though I'm very lacking in computer knowledge I do know that when I sign on to various networks the login screen indicates a "realm" name. As in which "realm" I'm signing onto. Could there be a new "realm" in ATS somewhere that we are missing or get to through deep.access?