Student Rant: Google Da Vinci Code quest # 14: Restoration Challenge

Hello everyone... welcome back to Day # 14 of the Da Vinci Code webquests on Google

Today's challenge is being called " The Restoration Challenge"

Alfred Molina is Manuel Aringarosa, a Bishop dedicated to preserving, if not restoring, conservative values.

A question is hidden in plain sight on this classic work of art - parts of the question are unclear, obscured by debris. Clear the particles of debris by selecting pairs that are seperated by one space - they will merge into one particle. When there is only one particle left, the question will be revealed. Ignore any text obscured by the last particle and solve the mystery.

NOTE: Remember the objective is break this whole debris down into one single block.

Step # 1: Start from down or the place where there is text first. Try to clear them out and bring them to the place where there is more debris to match and select.

Step # 2: When you select a piece of debris, it is matched up with another piece. If there is text in between, click on the text to merge them or else click on one of the ends for them to merge.

Step #3: Keep clicking until all of them are cleared and we are just left with one piece.

Once we are done clearing the debris, we are asked our daily trivia question.

"Translate fogizerlovg from Atbash."

Atbash is a form of cryptology. In the Bible, a Hebrew ciphering method is used at times. In this method, the last letter of the alphabet is replaced by the first, and vice versa. This is called 'atbash'. For example, the following table gives a translation of this sort for English. The word "HELLO" becomes "SVOOL"

If you asked a similar question of conversion from Atbash, use the following ATBASH cipher.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Good luck solving !!

Update: An easier way for translating from ATBASH is use the following link -- Thanks anonymous

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Student Rant : Google Da Vinci Code quest # 13 : Symbol Challenge

Hello everyone... welcome back to day # 13 of the Google Da Vinci Code webquests.

Today's challenge is being called " The Symbol Challenge"

Tom Hanks is professor Robert Langdon, an expert on the interpretation of symbols.

Use your logic skills and drag the symbols onto the grid such that the symbols in each row are all distinct, the symbols in each column are all distinct, and the symbols in each shaded region are all distinct. Some symbols may have already been placed and cannot be moved.

NOTE: The arrangement of symbols might vary in the puzzle shown to you. However the approach is the same... remember, approach the region with the most symbols first. So, let's get solving...

I was expecting a much harder quest with 6 x 6 and with 6 symbols. However, it is similar to one of the quests we solved earlier this week.

Step # 1: Approach the region with most symbols already present in it. This is the shaded region in dark red. Fill it up with 2 unique symbols

Step # 2: Now, approach the second row. The first column and fifth column already have symbols in them. Taking care of that, fill up the row with 2 unique symbols

Step # 3: Now approach row 3 where three symbols are already placed. Finish up the row with 2 more unique symbols taking care of the row and column conditions.

Step # 4: Next, approach the region with the most symbols in it which is the light grey shaded region. Fill it up with 2 unique symbols

Step # 5: Next, finish up the first column with 4 symbols already placed in it.

Step # 6: Next, finish up the first row with 2 symbols in there. The remainder of the first row matches up with finishing up the shaded light brown region

Step # 7: Next, finish up the second column, the dark brown shaded region, the fifth row, the light green shaded region.

Once we are done, we are asked our daily Trivia question. NOTE: The question that is asked to you might be different. However, just put the section of the question in bold in google search and you should be okay.

The question that was asked to me was
"Translate sfumato from Italian"

A quick google search gives me the answer.

Major help: If you are asked any translation questions, the Google translator is a much better help.

Good luck solving!!

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Student Rant : Da Vinci Code webquest # 12

Hello everyone... welcome back to day 12 of the Google Da Vinci Code webquests.

Today's challenge is being called the "Geography Challenge"

The instructions are as follows
" Paul Bettany is Silas, a man who in blind faith will do whatever it takes to track down a secret that must be destroyed, no matter where it leads him.

Assemble the jigsaw puzzle pieces to reveal and identify a geographical location."

There are 16 different jigsaw pieces here. Note: The number of jigsaw pieces might vary in your screen.

Step # 1: There are two pieces which contain text at the bottom identifying its google copyright. Assemble those two on the bottom right hand site. Notice that as soon as you lock those components in, the mouse pointer changes from a hand, indicating that you put the piece in the right place.

Step # 2: We will continue upwards on the right hand side. Through trial and error, fill up the section on the right hand side. Again, notice that if you put the right piece, that section is locked up.

Step # 3: Now, do the same, coming over to the left. Fill up bottom to the top, merging with the right hand side section.

Step # 4: Do the same, going from the bottom to the top... right to left side.

Once, we are done, unlike yesterday, we are asked a trivia question.




The trivia question we are asked is
" By adding some PIZAZZ to A NOVEL IDEA and rearranging the letters, you'll get the location of a museum in this eternal city. What is the name of the city?

Two hints for answering this
#1: The oval shaped structure on the bottom right is the colosseum.

#2: The city is the capital of the country where PIZAZZ or Pizza was supposed to have originated.

#3: If you do a Google search for eternal city either the second or the third link has the answer with the name of the city. - Thanks Tom Lage

Once, we are done with this, we are asked one more trivia question.

" Yes, Now find the Palazzo Di Venezia by clicking on a Greek cross hidden in the city"

For this, I had to go on to Google Maps.

Once you go to the google maps link mentioned above, click on the satellite view and room in until you see the colosseum. Get your bearings on where the highlighted pointer is which is the museum. Click on the location in your puzzle piece. The cross is uncovered.

Good luck solving!!

UPDATE: A lot of you complained in the comments and through email that you were not able to click on the cross. Hopefully this helps. The section where you need to click is circled. If you see a broad overview, a cross is in the middle in white.

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Interesting news: Judge creates own Da Vinci Code

The BBC is reporting that the judge who presided over the recent Da Vinci Code plagiarism case used steganography to embed his own code in the judgment using italic text in random places throughout the text.

The full text of the code reads 'smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz' if you want to have a go at cracking it." From the article: "Although he would not be drawn on his code and its meaning, Mr Justice Smith said he would probably confirm it if someone cracked it, which was 'not a difficult thing to do'. In March, he presided over a High Court case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed Dan Brown plagiarized their own historical book for The Da Vinci Code."

Justice Peter Smith italicised key letters in the 71-page judgment, and has promised to reveal all when someone cracks the code.

However, when one searches for the text in the pdf... one comes up empty. More digging and from what i managed to gather so far, according to Mr Justice Smith ,the pattern was "something more than a typo". The judge, who is 53 and lists some of his hobbies as reading military history and the sinking of the Titanic, said that paragraph 52 of his judgment would give readers a clue to the puzzle.

That paragraph reads: "I have set out at some length what in my opinion is an overall analysis of HBHG [The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]. I have done that and will do the same further in this judgment in respect of DVC [The Da Vinci Code] because that is essential in my view to deciding this case."The paragraph ended: "The key to solving the conundrum posed by this judgment is in reading HBHG and DVC."

Checking the pdf, the actual characters (with their paragraphs) are:

1:s, 2:m, 3:ithy, 4:c, 5:o, 6:d, 7:e, 8:Ja, 9:e, 11:ie, 13:x, 14:t, 16:os, 18:t, 19:g, 20:p, 21:s, 23:a, 25:cgr, 26:e, 27:a, 29:m, 30:w, 31:f, 34:k, 35:a, 37:d, 38:p, 40:m, 42:q, 43:z

In Mr Justice Smith's coded judgment, the first nine digits obviously spell Smith Code:
s,m,i,t,h,c,o,d,e,J,a,e,i,e,x,t,o,s,t,p,s,a,c,g,r, e,a,m,q,w,f,k,a,d,p,m,q,z.

Beyond that is anyone's guess.

Some tossups:
#1: Is it just a subsbitution ciper with the letters "smithcode" being the first ones?
#2: Same lenght of the judge's hidden string and the titles of the books
smithycodeJaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzv
TheHolyBloodandtheHolyGrailTheDaVinciCode

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Google Da Vinci Code Quest # 11 : Chess Challenge

Hey all.. Welcome back. The quests were up a bit late on this site because of my finals. Anyways, today's challenge is being called The Chess Challenge

The instructions are as follows
"Ian McKellen is Sir Leigh Teabing, a man whose every move has been in preparation for a Grail Quest.

Determine the only sequence of three moves that will lead to checkmate in the given chess scenario. Knowledge of The Da Vinci Code may hel you, as may Google Web Search"

So, let's play chess

Question #1: A word that can be read the same backwards or forwards is called

A quick google search gives us the answer in the description of the first result

Question # 2: Jacques Sauniere's body was found in which part of the Louvre?



Again, a quick Google search gives us the answer. I understand there might be a better search query, but if you scroll down the results towards the middle ,under the description for sacred-destinations.com, we find the answer.



Question # 3: The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog is an example of

Again, a google search and then under the first result in Wikipedia, we find our answer.

Over all, if this was a pure chess quest, it might have been more of a challenge, but in the end turns out to be one of the easiest quests so far.

Good luck solving!!

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Google Da Vinci Code Quest # 10 : Observation Challenge

Welcome back everyone. We are turning into double digits today in number of quests. If you survived this far, give yourself a pat.

Today's challenge is being called as "Observation Challenge".

The instructions are as follows
"Jean Reno is Bezu Fache, a police Captain known for his unrelenting persuit of truth.

Find the clip using the given search terms, watch it, and use your observational skills to seek the truthful answers to the questions."

The observation challenge asks you to watch a video on Silas. Locating the source for these facts simply takes persistence and a strong dedication to an ideal. Silas's video is at your service on Google Video. To watch this video, go to Google videos and then search for silas. It is the second video on the first row. If you are too lazy, here is the direct link to the video on Google videos.

UPDATE: Some of you complained that you cannot watch the video at Google Videos. I have uploaded the video here.



Once you are done watching the video, we are told to answer three questions. The questions are as follows:

Question # 1: A seemingly important stone object is extracted from the ground by Silas. What is its shape?

This is the easiest question to answer. Look in the video. The shape has 8 edges.

Question # 2: An interesting viewpoint is the vantage point from which we see Silas. What is the last thing we see him touch?

He touches something towards the end of the video. The first reaction would be to answer water. However, you see a cross in the background. This is what google means by vantage point. So what kind of water is in a church... in a HOLY place.

Question # 3: During the action in the video, we see many things being shattered and destroyed, but what is it that will ultimately be broken?

Okay, for this I had to watch the video a couple of times. However, the hint comes just before Robert Langdon says "Dear God" in the video. He says that 29 seconds into the video. Watch for the statement and your answer will be found.

Good luck solving!!

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Da Vinci Code Quest # 9: Curator Challenge

Hello everyone... welcome back to Quest # 9 of the Google Da Vinci Code webquests.

Today's challenge is being called "The Curator Challenge"

The instructions are as follows
"Audrey Tautou is Sophie Neveu, a Police Department Cryptographer with a special connection to the murdered curator of the Louvre.

Use your curator's eye to hang the works of art such that the hooks match those on the gallery wall. Not all of the hooks on the gallery wall will necessarily be used. Some art may have already been placed and cannot be moved.

So... let's get started.
Guidelines: As we can see from here, we are given 8 different paintings of different sizes. Also, observe that some of the hooks might be in the middle of the painting as shown in the picture of the left. Also, you cannot go outside the given space and you cannot overlap one picture over or under another picture. Important HINT: If the paintings just drop either to the bottom of the floor, or if you place a painting at the bottom of the floor and it bounces of the floor, it is not hooked up.

How it might differ from yours: It might vary by having some pictures already hooked on the wall. Also, the number of pictures might vary. The second time i solved it, i had one painting already hooked up and just five more paintings to choose from. The third time, i had none hooked on but 7 paintings. Remember, follow the approach and you should be okay

Step # 1: Browse through your picture selection and hook the biggest picture first. In this case, it is the painting shown in the above image. Place it so that it occupies the least amount of hooks. Don't try to place it on the far left where it might get hooked, but, will take up more number or cover up more number of hooks. I place it on the left hand side.

Step # 2: Take the next biggest picture and place it. I place mine on the right side.

Step # 3: It is relatively straight forward from now on. Take care of the paintings that are horizontal and have 2 hinges first.

Step # 4: Clean up the rest of the paintings.

Once we are done, we are asked our daily trivia question of the day. In my case it was
" Where was Victor Hugo born?"

Note, your question might be different. Remember to just google the section contained in bold in your trivia question.

In this case, a simple google search, gives me the right answer.

Overall, this was relatively very easy compared the previous two quests, quest # 8 and quest # 7. Good luck solving !!

Something on the side: With today's quest being so simple, I tried to do some digging on the page we are given everyday. I came to the conclusion that Google did a pretty awesome job with making sure that the paintings shown to us are random. I had a theory that if in the URL of the page, I change the number or the random number in the end to the number I had, when I solved the quests, I thought it would replicate with the exact same settings. However, I was wrong. Google has some other way of randomizing it. I will keep digging and see what comes up. If any of you guys have any interesting theories, let me know... we can test them out.

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The Da Vinci Code Quest # 8 on Google

Welcome back everyone for one more exciting google.

Today's challenge is being called ' The Restoration Challenge'

The instructions are as follows
" Alfred Molina is Manuel Aringarosa, a Bishop dedicated to preserving, if not restoring, conservative values.

A question is hidden in plain sight on this classic work of art - parts of the question are unclear, obscured by debris. Clear the particles of debris by selecting pairs that are separated by one space - they will merge into one particle. When there is only one particle left, the question will be revealed. Ignore any text obscured by the last particle and solve the mystery"

The instructions are pretty similar to what we have seen in Quest # 2. Again, the images you see below might not be the same on your screen but the approach would be the same. So lets start clearing the rubble...

Step 1: Remember, the only places that can be selected are those highlighted when you click on a piece of rubble. Also, when you click on a piece of a rubble, usually two and sometimes three pieces of rubble could be selected. Also, remember the objective, we just need one piece of rubble left in the end.

Step2: First, start clicking the rubble near the text and bring them down where there are more pieces of rubble which allows us to better match and select and pair them up. Also, unlike quest #2 where most people got away by selecting rubble and then the whole screen cleared up, this is a bit different. You might be seeing messages like this if you incorrectly pair them



Once, you are done clearing the rubble, we are asked our daily trivia question. I solved this puzzle twice and both the times, I was asked a question relating to a book with the ISDN mentioned.

So, in this case, I was asked the question,
"Who dealt with the myth of Venice in ISBN 019815254X"

Remember to just google the section mentioned in the dark which is ISBN 019815254x
Once, I am there, I go to the most popular query returned on Amazon. The general tendency of people might be to put the name of the author here which is Craig Kallendorf. However, it is not that simple although the answer to the name of the gentleman could be found in the book description section.

Good luck solving!!

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The Da Vinci Code quest # 7 on Google

Hello folks! Welcome back to another day of Da Vinci Code webquests!

Today's challenge is being called as "Symbol Challenge"

The instructions are as follows
"Tom Hanks is professor Robert Langdon, an expert on the interpreation of symbols.

Use your logic skills and drag the symbols onto the grid such that the symbols in each row are all distinct, the symbols in each column are all distinct, and the symbols in each shaded region are all distinct. Some symbols may have already been placed and cannot be moved"

So far so good. The instructions are exactly like quest # 1.

Here is what the symbol challenge looks like.

Note: The location of the symbols might vary on your screen as Google likes to randomize them. However the approach i will describe remains the same irrespective of the location of the symbols.

Step # 1: Unlike quest #1 where there were four shaded regions, this one has 5. At the same time, we also have 5 symbols. The initial step would be the find the shaded region with the most symbols in it. This would be the brown shaded region. Fill in the two remaining symbols in that shaded region, making sure that the symbol is unique to that row.

Step # 2: Next, once we do that, we see that the fourth column has been filled with four symbols. Fill in the unique fifth symbol.

Step # 3: Next, approach the first row. Fill in the two unique symbols there.

Step #4: Next, fill in the light grey, inverted L shaded region.

Step # 5: Next, fill in the third row, taking care of the concerns of the light green shaded region.

Step # 6: Next, take care of the third column. Finish up the red shaded region, then the fourth column. The fifth row, then the fourth row.

Finally, we are done
We are next asked the trivia question.
" To the nearest marathon, what is the radius of Pluto in marathons?"

For this you need to google search Radius of pluto. Next, check out the length of a marathon in Wikipedia.

Take care that the units of measurement are the same. Take kilometers since the google search gives the radius of pluto in that units.

Whip out you calculator, round of to the nearest number. Hint: The answer is the number of days in february.

This was the hardest challenge so far. This is due to the increased number of symbols. Took me three tries with different approaches to the get the correct answer finally.

If any of you guys have a different picture or different location of symbols please post it here or email me so that i can add it.

Until then, good luck solving!!

UPDATE: One of the readers informed me that the question asked in the end is random. However, google can solve this for you. All you need to do in the end is copy and paste the part of the question in bold ( in my case: radius of pluto in marathons) and you get your answer.
Thanks Punkdigerati!

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The only story which Kevin Rose submitted but not on Digg's front page

First, I want to congratulate Kevin Rose and the rest of the gang (Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky and Jay Adelson) for coming up with such a brilliant concept of a social networking tech site which combines social bookmarking and syndication into such a beautiful mash.

In fact, it recently broke into the top hundred most visited sites on the net. I was a regular visitor at Slashdot until digg really broke through with their version 2.0 in July 2005. Since then, it has been a meteoric growth for digg and recently Digg seems have acquired a similar daily reach to Slashdot as seen from the Alexa graph below.



Digg prided itself on being unique. News stories and websites are submitted by users, and then promoted to the front page through a user-based ranking system which differed from the hierarchical editorial system that many other news sites employ such as Slashdot.

However, there seem to a spate of recent contoversy with Digg. The seems to be with editorial control and editors promoting stories on the Digg front page. This was first reported by forevergeek.com which pointed out two front page stories on Digg with the exact same users digging it initially in the exact same order, one of whom included Kevin Rose, a co-founder of Digg. It was also followed up by Splasho, which also reported suspicious digging.

Both forevergeek and Splasho were banned from Digg before their accounts revoked later on. I can comment on this, but a more accurate story could be found on forevergeek's article ' Digg Corrupted: Editor's playground, not user driven site.'

Kevin Rose, responded to all this 'corruption in Digg' . However, a lot of questions remain unanswered. According to forevergeek, "Kevin's response is more of a non-response. One of those PR-driven "say something but don't really say anything. He doesn't explain how he got in the middle of the automated digging (and no one else did). He claims we(forevergeek) were abusing the system, when you can see our accounts were legitimate users of Digg and that other people were submitting FG (and digging it). Lastly, he claimed that stories got legitimately buried - yet somehow every single Digg corruption story got buried almost immediately. About as fast as the user accounts had been getting banned before the story broke out (which also was not explained)."


While the rest of the tech world waits for Kevin's response, I did some of my own digging...pun intended.

I looked up into Kevin's profile to see his success rate for posting stories onto digg front page.

As you can see, Kevin has submitted 93 stories in all.

Now, let us see how many stories made it to the front page.




Whoa!! an astonishing 92 stories on the front page. Wow... there seems to be some sense in all those claims of editors driving up stories to the front page.

Now, which one of those stories did not make it to the front page. Some more digging reveals that Kevin submitted 13 stories in the design section, but only 12 made it to the front page.







So, which poor sucker got left out. It turns out to be a link on Rich AJAX slide shows with DHTML and XML on IBM's site.

Interesting points to note:
#1. This story was reported on Slashdot around two hours before Kevin posted it on Digg.
So i guess Kevin is a fan/reader of Slashdot and promotes Slashdot stories on Digg. No harm done... i guess good stories need to be posted.

#2. If one reads the Digg link to the IBM Story, one of the users already comments that he won't digg this story because it just had 2 diggs and it already made the front page queue... wtf.

So, does this mean Digg still promotes it's editors stories to the front page. I don't know. Trust me, i have been a big fan of Digg for a while and some of its success stories like how Digg users punished Price Rite Photo and how it became the most dugg story shows a wonderful side of Digg. However, i hope this latest editorial control fiasco won't usher the end to one the web's brightest lights.

If Digg wants to have editorial/ semi- editorial control, let them say so. Most of us would be okay with it, like how we learnt to love SlashDot. Also, Digg can have an editor's section or editor's fav's section where they can promote stories they think are interesting and the users can submit/promote stories on the Digg front page.

Let us see where this leads us. Don't ban me for this story Digg...

The story which Kevin Rose submitted but did not make the front page on Digg. Digg here »

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Student Rant on Digg!

Hello Student Rant readers. Thanks for all the support you have shown the last couple of days and to keep my side of the deal, I will continue to keep this site up and running with high quality content.

For now, as you might have observed, this site has quickly turned into a good discussion site for the Da Vinci Code google webquests. A reader, drosan has sent me a mail that he added this site to Digg. Thanks Drosan!. Also thanks to yuck22 who submitted my earlier posts to Digg.

I wanted to add a single link here. Digg is an excellent social networking site and hopefully through enough promotion, more readers would benefit from the excellent discussion we have going on here.

Thanks again Student Rant readers!!!

-Student

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The Da Vinci Code Quest # 6 on Google

Hello folks! it's day 6 of the Google Da Vinci Code webquests.

Today's challenge is being called 'The Geography Challenge'

The instructions are as follows
"Paul Bettany, is Silas, a man who in blind faith will do whatever it takes to track down a secret that must be destroyed, no matter where it leads him.

Assemble the jigsaw puzzle pieces to reveal and identify a geographical location.

Okay... let's go hunting

Step 1: Okay, so there are multiple pieces to the puzzle here. Our initial approach should be to find and seperate the ones which are flat with no edges on one side so that they can go on the ends.


Step 2: Once you have done that, we are given a good place to start through the google maps copyright. Look for pieces that contain text on them. The copyright is almost always placed on the bottom right. So, we will start by placing our components in there.



Step 3: Once you do that, leave that section alone and start moving pieces with flat sides.

Step 4: Trial and error ensues. One important hint is that once the right sections are in place, they are locked and you don't get to move them. This is critical because some parts might fall right in place, but if it doesn't lock, then it is not the right place.

Step 5: Finally, in the end once the whole puzzle is assembled, we are asked one final question.

" This city contains a three dimensional version of Leonardo's The Last Supper created by the Venezuelan sculptor Marisol. What is the name of the city? "

You can either Google search for the author Marisol and go to works or follow this hint.
This city is called the "Big Apple"
So far, this has been a better challege. Hopefully the trend continues and Google keeps giving us more exciting puzzles to solve.

See you tomorrow. Until then, Good luck solving !!

Update: One of the readers posted a link to the complete map area in google maps. Check this out, this is how the final map would look like. It also has the hint for the name of the city in the final answer.

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