[Announcements]

[error: database corrupted; message no longer available]

[FreeSpaceFreak]

... What? "Messages" in Rybak's acccount is still inaccessible, Deneb III still contains nothing but the readme.

Let the speculation begin...

EDIT - the first message number I saw was #58547, now it's #1181422. I wrote this here before, but either I pressed the wrong button or it's been removed by someone (likely, since the "new posts" picture showed up next to this thread, while there was only mine) ... In which case the first number could have been a mistake by "Announcements"... Or maybe not...

EDIT2 - Hey, board 179 is gone now. Could someone check Deneb III? I've been locked out again.

[Vip]

Hmmm, strange. The "Estimated" synchronization offest" counts down. Still about 78 or 79 days left. I wonder what's going on. I have a feeling that the 179 board isn't gone without a reason - seems that the Grand Prize is getting near

[Topgun]

I wonder what tag he used to get that countdown to work.

[Mongoose]

Woah, weird...

Could 1181442 refer to a particular post somewhere?  And if so, where would we start to look for it?  There's no thread with the tag 58547 on the boards, at least not that we're able to access.  The text of the post makes me think that whatever temporal anomaly allowed Aadarsh's posts to find their way to us has managed to de-sync itself, at least until that counter runs out.

You gotta love which particular account posted this, though.

(Out of random curiosity, I wonder if we could convince Goober to nix the IP blocks on the Holonet.  I accidentally locked myself out again after grabbing the readme, but I'd like to be able to poke around the general info again.)

[Droid803]

Yes, 11181442 looks right to be a post, but we need to find the right thread first.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,60358.msg1189901.html#msg1189901 is this post (mine)...so...

topic,[topic].msg[number].html#msg[number] is how you link directly to a post...lets see...

Nope, can't access 58547

[FreeSpaceFreak]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,58547.msg1181422.html#msg1181422 goes nowhere either. I think thread 58547 is somewhere in the STR internal... Or in board 179? If this was in board 179, it would "explain" its disappearance.

And I do hope we won't have to wait another eleven weeks (the countdown timer) before the grand prize is there. Or maybe it's worth the wait?

Anyway, since the number #58547 is gone now, it might be a dead track, caused by a mistake by "Announcements". Maybe msg1181422 is not in that thread. Somebody could try all threads from the past month or so, and look if msg#1181422 is in it? Guess you'd need the right software to do that.

EDIT: Rybak's account seems to be gone.

[The E]

Hmmm. don't know if it helps, but looking at Messages 1181415 and 1181432, both found here: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,58546.0.html I'm assuming that the post we're looking for was made sometime between those posts.

[Grizzly]

Where the hell is the scrambled "Delete last fokker Triplane" or whatever thread?

[FSW]

Nice catch, Joshua. According to my browser history, thread #58547 was indeed "Timoke. No, delete last Fokker Triplane. No", which has disappeared.

Message #1181422 may just be the first post in that thread. Does anyone have it cached or saved?

[Nissan]

I don't have it cached, but I kinda remember the text of the post.  It was something like...

You damn, okay.  Whew.  Jackpot!  Rybak's password is "fortune favors the bold"!  Log in, download everything you can...

...and I don't remember the rest, except that there was a massive jumble of symbols at the end.  I figured it wasn't anything important, but hey, considering how this whole thing has gone, it might have been another coded message or something.

Also, I don't know if this means anything, but the countdown in the first post will reach zero a little over 76.7 days from now.

[FSW]

Also, I don't know if this means anything, but the countdown in the first post will reach zero a little over 76.7 days from now.

April Fools' Day...
About 0500 GMT.

[Droid803]

Hmmm...the plot thickens yet again...

[McMad]

The Holonet seems to have rolled back, as the newest news articles are gone. Maybe the "Phase variance" means we're supposed to be locked on to what was the past before, the offset being how far back we are from where we were before. That didn't make any sense , hopefully my diagram makes more. If I'm right, we have a chance to get into the holonet before the lockdown. I'm probably barking up the wrong tree though.

[attachment stolen by Slimey Goober]

[lostllama]

Where the hell is the scrambled "Delete last fokker Triplane" or whatever thread?

I have no idea if it's of any use but I saved that webpage. Aardash's post is below.

You damn, okay.  All right.  Whew.  Jackpot!  Rybak's password is "fortune favors the bold"!  Log in, download everything you possibly can, and tell everyone you know.  Tell the press, tell your friends, tell the ham radio operators, tell anyone you can so they can't cover it up.  It's the only way we can OSHI-!↓♠bÄ<╥º↕☺╥⌡}R;ôAIf#ó/▌éx►M9y▀¼√┌x┌┤X@║¼Θf♣╙Ö#á╦ö╦▲,"S4%┴►mgw┴▼>f╨₧☺í╒»¡>\@═¡ΦV¥H8Fn*╚(LE¢ë▀»8`Å=≤CδSm█L·^û╡3Æ¢■î2♥2≡EF5├v≤¬/↑Ñ‼╕g2:↨◄%╤E⌡oU╓*Y8êC╜>∟╤v(d*§É₧i╒¶╢╥╢ö╚uâFº3s<╖wæe≥▄[UuálP>VXñ4┌╪<gè'sNO CARRIER

That final sentence could just repesent his last message getting garbled up when he was finally disconnected.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

[...] It's the only way we can OSHI-

As in "Oh ****"? Was he discovered while writing this?

NO CARRIER

Loss of signal?

[Grizzly]

[...] It's the only way we can OSHI-

As in "Oh ****"? Was he discovered while writing this?

NO CARRIER

Loss of signal?

Well, as there is no verb I can think of that begins with oshi, and one does not pronounce OSHI!!! in a way like something really bad happened, I do think that he indeed was discovered.

I think when times reaches zero, Aadarshes time-stamp reset will be undone. I think we need to look at rescheduling more closely.

[blowfish]

It's possible that there is some meaning in that garbled bunch of characters (I wouldn't be surprised if there was...), but I know of no information that would lead to deciphering it.

[Hellstryker]

So now I find it 

[Nissan]

So now I find it 

Heh, welcome aboard... I got here late too, but it looks there might still be a few secrets left to figure out.  "Might" is the key word though.  Aadarsh was caught, and we don't really have much of a lead now, since it looks like Rybak's account on the Holonet no longer exists.

Honestly, the fact that the timer will end on April Fools' Day at 0500 GMT (which is midnight in Virginia, where Goober lives) is making me wonder if we're just pursuing nothing here.  But hopefully Goober's not quite that evil. 

By the way, lostllama, were you able to figure out if the Fokker Triplane post was message #1181422?

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I looked at that jumble again, and it looks kind of like the mess you get when you try to open random programs in Notepad that aren't text files.  I don't know of any way to figure out where it might be from, though...