Hidden link at bottom of page. whatistheconspiracy.com

I have continued to play with the image from the bottom of the game page, and come up with many different images, but the image i have posted seems to reveal what looks like the outline of letter or numbers. Im not too sure but if someone could help and blow up the images and repost them that would be great. Any help on a translation or anything would be nice...

The little purple square on the latest message says:

abovetopsecret

Well, almost... I actually got: "abnvetnosecret"

Here's how:

The image is a 14x3 grid of colors. The first and third row are identical, each one pixel tall. In all rows, the red and blue channels are identical throughout the row, only the green channel varies:

Row1: Red=73 Blue=73
Row2: Red=7a Blue=7a
Row3: Red=73 Blue=73

The green channels in each row are:

Row1: 57 58 64 6a 5b 68 64 65 67 5b 59 66 5b 68
Row2: 5d 5e 6a 71 61 6f 6a 6b 6e 61 5f 6d 61 6f
Row3: 57 58 64 6a 5b 68 64 65 67 5b 59 66 5b 68

You can see that Row2 is always greater than Row1. Taking the difference, Row2 - Row1:

Delta: 06 06 06 07 06 07 06 06 07 06 06 07 06 07

Then, adding Row2 + Delta, and subtracting 2 for good measure (?):

Sum: 61 62 6e 76 65 74 6e 6f 73 65 63 72 65 74

Which in ASCII reads: "abnvetnosecret"

Now, can anyone figure out why, as in other ciphers, there are certain incorrect letters? Hmm...


[edit on 30-7-2008 by Ian McLean]

reply to post by Ian McLean


Good find Ian. As to how you figured to look at that intrigues me, but well done.

You are right about the missing letters, they could have something to do with the next clue. All the previous clues have been missing letters as would be pointed out in the TinWiki page. The missing letters could add up to something later or they could just be nothing. Hmmmmm.... lets wait and see.

I actually just noticed that the grid is a little more complicated than 14x3, it's 14x5. Here's the revised table, in case there's more info in there. Rows 1 and 5 are identical, as are rows 2 and 4:

Row1: Red=73 Blue=73
Row2: Red=7c Blue=7c
Row3: Red=7a Blue=7a
Row4: Red=7c Blue=7c
Row5: Red=73 Blue=73

The green channels in each row are:

Row1: 57 58 64 6a 5b 68 64 65 67 5b 59 66 5b 68
Row2: 5e 5f 6c 73 62 71 6c 6d 70 62 60 6f 62 71
Row3: 5d 5e 6a 71 61 6f 6a 6b 6e 61 5f 6d 61 6f
Row4: 5e 5f 6c 73 62 71 6c 6d 70 62 60 6f 62 71
Row5: 57 58 64 6a 5b 68 64 65 67 5b 59 66 5b 68

WOW.....hell yeah Ian!! Even with your explanation I have no idea what you're talking about.

I hope it doesn't really start 'til the 8th. I need time work on my code/cipher/photoshopping/whatever skills. Either that or I'll just be watching you guys solve the game. hahahahahahaha

reply to post by Shane Void


I agree to that Shane. I either need to get a better photo editing program or hope that someone posts what they find haha. The way some of these clues have been figured out, i have to tip my hat to those gentlemen. Well done.

Hey guys, this is not a brag at all, I just got applauded for my participation in this thread. I don't know which post it's for or if it's just for trying???

Does it mean I was on the right track with some of my ideas?

reply to post by Dark Realms

You can tell what post got applauded by following the link in the U2U. Congrats!

reply to post by Ian McLean



Does it mean that I was on the right track with something?

Holy crap. I just got another one!!!

reply to post by Dark Realms


I've been looking at where you have posted and wasn't able to find anything within the last few pages. What page was your last post on.

reply to post by Ian McLean


I received applause too. I would have never thought to glance at my points OR at my U2U's if it weren't for you dark. Mine was for this post.

I think we're being rewarded for trying to help each other out. That's pretty darn cool.

EDIT

Meant to reply to Dark's post, not Ian's lol

[edit on 7/30/2008 by Shane Void]

reply to post by hawaiigurl


Applause 1


Applause 2

Maybe the first applause was meant for the post under it? Or maybe it Was for that post and maybe by saying "the hunt is on" was somehow needed to "Activate" Hunt_Admin??

Thanks Jbird !!!

[edit on 7/30/2008 by Dark Realms]

What do the stars mean? Is it the same as an applause?

reply to post by hawaiigurl


no, stars are thing fellow users and mods give each other. Applause is something only Mods can give users and you know you have one by a 500 pt spike in your points and a message letting you know you got one (the message has a link to the thread/post you made that got you the applause)

Thanks Ian Mclean for letting me know about the link.

[edit on 7/30/2008 by Dark Realms]

reply to post by Dark Realms


Thanks for the clarification, back to the hunting.

Originally posted by Shane Void
I think we're being rewarded for trying to help each other out. That's pretty darn cool.

I'm glad this is turning out to be a cooperative game... more fun that way. I had my worries at first about posting guess/speculation on this thread, in case it was competitive (collecting answers for yourself).

This way it's just us against the evil staff!

Edit to add: In case anyone missed Crakeur's "teamwork is essential" post, here it is.


[edit on 30-7-2008 by Ian McLean]

reply to post by Dark Realms


I think the first applause you got was for this statement:

Originally posted by meant JSR not Dark Realms
but good game play is done in the open. there more heads looking the better. some clues are hard to find. and its fun to be a part of a group think sorta situation.

The second was for posting about the images for members who may have missed them.

Originally posted by Dark Realms
For others like me that missed some stuff, there were 3 photo clues so far:
files.abovetopsecret.com/images/whatistheconspiracy.gif
files.abovetopsecret.com/images/whenisthe_conspiracy.gif
files.abovetopsecret.com/images/whatisthe_conspiracy.gif

Mine was for posting that picture for the members who were "having difficulty seeing the image".

Seems to point to us being rewarded for working as a team.

Really niceof the mods to do that!

EDIT

Whoooops....wrong quote. The first quote was by JSR not Dark. The first applause was probably for finding the "IT" username, etc.

[edit on 7/30/2008 by Shane Void]

EDIT

Actually I still think I'm wrong about the first applause. I'm brain dead right now....might be time for some sleep.

[edit on 7/30/2008 by Shane Void]

Great work guys
Kinda sucks with the time difference all the action seems to be going on while im sleeping ah well guess i had better stop doin that

I just noticed something....

In regards to this post though about the usernames........

If you manually type in a user name of anyone who doesn't exist you will get someone who has a registration from 1969.

For example:

user who doesn't exist

I do still think the "it" user name might be significant based on the number of friends and foes he/she has.
Then again it could have been a little teaser...

But time for bed now...my head is spinning. I think I'm just talking gibberish now. G'night! See you all tomorrow.

One of the greatest reasons I like playing games on ATS.

Great job guys on the solving of these cryptograms. I am working 12 hour days so I will probably not be much help from this point on, but not to worry since there are some really sharp peeps here to count on.

Kudos to Ian for that explanation to his solution.

Now out of the first one I have helped with I get 2 missing letters to the sentence...

"Dxix bvqyskxi
Yihjswwat rpxrjvsgq,
Qwfpjvwgq nvxfb hivmxq,
Ysthfxjx qsfpjvgq
Bxfvkxi ysgyfpbvgw
Yinhjswizhd qjzjxtxgj."

Translated to what we belive is...

"Here discover
cryptogram questions,
solutions yield prizes,
complete solutions(?)
deliver concluding
cryptograph statement."

Missing letters from Cryptogram = Y O
Misplaced letters from Cryptogram = R A Q S O O Z

Anyone else make a list yet from the other puzzles? I will go through them later if not.