For the past couple of days I've been reading a fantastic book called "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson (a writer of a a certain little novel called "Neuromancer", which spawned the entire cyberpunk genre). It is not only Gibson's first ever novel set in the present, but it focuses on internet culture in a very vivid fashion.

The key plot of the story is a few people trying to track down the creator of a series of weird, anonymous video clips that are being uploaded onto the internet. I thought this was an awesome idea, and was amazed when I found out that this whole FindTheRings.com thing is pretty much the same sort of thing. For all Ring Hunters in here, I strongly recommend you read this book, not only for its relevance but for its brilliant writing.

As a side query, is it too late to really get into this hunt, now that it's off the ground, and is there a place that summarizes all the hints and clues found up to this time?

Thanks a lot! I imagine I'll become addicted to this pretty soon

Now all I need to do is learn cryptography, abstract thought, and advsnced mathematics in the next hour, and I'll be set!

Nah, you've got a couple days until the next phase starts. Plenty of time to learn everything you mentioned.