Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Google Da Vinci Code quest # 24: Observation Challenge

Hello folks, welcome to day # 24 of the Google Da Vinci code webquests. It has been a great journey sharing these wonderful quests with all of you guys. For the Aussies and the Brits, the quest ends today, but for us Yanks, we have a while to go. So, let's get started on the final quest for Phase 1.

UPDATE: If you get an error message "
... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now. We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.",

Don't freak out. Google sees a lot of people updating the Google/ig homepage and thinks its a virus or a bot. At the bottom of the page, you will see a verification text. Enter the text into the box and you will be redirected to your homepage. Click on solve the next puzzle link and you should be all set.

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

The instructions are as follows

" Jean Reno is Bezu Fache, a police Captain known for his unrelenting pursuit of the truth.

Find the clip using the given search terms, watch it, and use your observational skills to seek the truthful answers to the questions.". You can watch the video on Google video or here below



The observation challenge gives us these hints in the form of instructions
"Answering these questions requires interpretation of ciphers and other cryptic messages. Who better to help you than cryptographer Sophie Neveu?"

Question # 1: Knowledge is a source of power, and books are a fountainhead of knowledge that Sophie's grandfather shared with her. How many books are shown in the flashback where they are reading together?
The answer could be found around 5 seconds into the video where young Sophie and her grandfather are reading together. Find the number of open books.

Question # 2: Langdon asks Sophie if she has heard certain words before. To what words is he referring?

The answer could be found around 12 seconds into the video with text inscribed.

Question # 3: The answer to the last question is an anagram.Please rearrange the letters to reveal a famous work of art by Leonardo that is housed in the Louvre in Paris and in the national gallery in london?

I have solved this one before but your answer could be found in the Wikipedia entry here

Once you are done, you are shown the congratulations message. When it asks for your google account, it is the account you have been using to sign in onto the personalized google home page. Punch it in. You are asked a whole bunch of questions, mostly about yourself. Make sure you do this as soon as possible because this is the timestamp google is taking about. It doesn't matter if you solved the previous quests in 5 seconds or 500 minutes. You are being time stamped here.

Winners please post back here...
Good luck solving!!

Digg Student Rant »

270 Comments:

Erin said...

How did you know this would be the clip they use?

Student said...

I am hazarding a guess along with a list of probable questions. We will know soon enough in around an hour and half

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing that most of those questions won't be used. So far the questions have been about things that have been specifically seen or heard during the clip. You would have had to have read the book to answer your questions.

Anonymous said...

Why are you helping people complete with yourself?

Anonymous said...

I think a question might be what "SO DARK THE CON OF MAN" is -- a google search will tell you it's an ANAGRAM.

Anonymous said...

Can somebody give the clues to these expected questions?

Anonymous said...

I doubt it is this video. They have not posted the video prior to the contest before, why would they do it for the last one. I suspect the video will be the character piece for Manuel Aringarosa.

Anonymous said...

Ohh -- when she says I've been here before she's talking about the Church at the end of the book -- gaaa what is the name I don't remember and I lent out my book!!!!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone here realize that if you win this contest, you are going to be paying close to $45k in taxes? None of it can be written off. What you are effectively doing is raising your taxable income by $130k and getting a bunch of stuff worth well less than that. I'll still be playing, mind you. But in the off chance I win, I'll be refusing the poorly put-together grand prize and accepting the puzzle trinket instead.

Anonymous said...

You prob. won't get taxes on most of it. Maybe just the electronics. The hotels, airfares, and train rides should not be taxable. It's not like Google is giving you $130k and telling you where to spend it. It's like winning tickets to an island, taxes were payed when the tickets were bought.

Anonymous said...

I have no clue what the name of that symbol is. Just a cross?

Anonymous said...

As stated in the rules: Grand Prize winner will receive an IRS Form 1099 from the Sponsor for the total ARV of the Grand Prize and the Finalist Prize stated above that he/she won in the calendar year won.

Anonymous said...

OMG! I just got a 403 error from google! They won't let me access anything on google!

It says they think i'm an automated machine.

Anonymous said...

Is anyone else having google access problems?

Anonymous said...

if you win a prize, you get taxed...federal tax is different than sales tax. so the tax you pay on a plan ticket is not the same as a prize tax (or what ever the irs calls it).

Anonymous said...

Is this some sick joke! LOL

Anonymous said...

anyone successfully on it? what are the questions?

Anonymous said...

How many books?!?!

Anonymous said...

I don't know, I can't access video at work.

Anonymous said...

I was able to get on. It was pretty simple. The questions and video almost where what was bosted on this blog

Anonymous said...

i cant access the q's at school. What are they?

Anonymous said...

yeah it was easy

Anonymous said...

how many books were there?

Anonymous said...

specifically?

Anonymous said...

Do we find out if we were one of the first 10,000?

Anonymous said...

woot. finished!

Anonymous said...

I finished at completeing the puzzle and all the forms at 12:03 pm CST about 3 min ago

Anonymous said...

just how many books were there?

Anonymous said...

2 books

Anonymous said...

what were the questions exactly?

Anonymous said...

How many books? TWO

Which words? SO DARK THE CON OF MAN

What Da Vinci Work? MADONNA OF THE ROCKS

Anonymous said...

i just did it too...the # of books is 2

Anonymous said...

WOW - how did u know it was gonna be THIS video??

Anonymous said...

when do we find out if we're in the top 10,000??????

Anonymous said...

w00t

Anonymous said...

1. How many books are shown in the flash back where they are reading together?

2. Langdon asks Sopjie if she has heard certain words before. To what words is he referring?

3. Please rearrange the letters to reveal a famous work of art by Leonardo that is housed in the Lourve in Paris and in the National Gallery in London.

Anonymous said...

I guess we just sit and wait to see if we made it.

Anonymous said...

I did mine in the first 3 minutes. I prepped my google so I don't get timed out and we have a 100Mb to the internet.
This one was fun.

Anonymous said...

damn some sites had virgin of the rocks... madonna is what is accepted though
10:04
hopefully that was soon enough

Anonymous said...

Seriously easy today; only had to watch the video once! AND I made it to phase 2. Now I have to watch my mailbox. :-)

Anonymous said...

1:05 EST. Google kept thinking all the requests were a virus. I had it done and right at 1:02 but after I hit ok google had me unlock the site because of the virus message and then I had to start over. By the time I got back in, it was 1:05 when I finished.

Anonymous said...

wtf...it told me

"we're sorry but we are unable to process your request at this time"


wtf?!?!?!?!?!?!

Anonymous said...

Ya I wonder how soon we will know

Anonymous said...

all I get from google is:

"Congratulations on successfully completing all 24 puzzles. If you haven't already, be sure to register to see if you've won a limited edition cryptex replica, and the chance to compete in the Final Challenge."

Has anyone gotten anything different?

Anonymous said...

Sigh, I finished it within 9 minutes. I hope that was enough time to get in the top 10,000.

Anonymous said...

nice spelling: You have sucessfully registered.

Anonymous said...

crap, I kept putting madonna 'on' the rocks...it's of. I'm so pissed, I hope I still make it in the top 10,000.

Jack said...

Too easy. Took about 2 minutes to complete.

Anonymous said...

done!

Answers in ATBASH with some other code about too!!!
1- ZAYB GDL BYAZ
2- XCWD HL WZIP GSV XLM LU NZM DWCX
3- VEUF NZWLMMZ LU GSV ILXPH FUEV

Anonymous said...

I hope I win!

Anonymous said...

You have sucessfully registered.
Please be sure to add davincicodequest@sonypictures.com
to your email address book to ensure that we will be able to contact you.

Click here to learn more about the prize you seek.

The Da Vinci Code is in theaters worldwide May 19th.
Visit the Official Da Vinci Code website

Anonymous said...

if we've been competing all this time and have a google account, are we already "registered"?? i keep trying to register with my account info and i keep getting a message that the contest is over??

help!!!1

Anonymous said...

I had to restart mine after it crapped out, but I think I still finished within three minutes or so.

Anonymous said...

I completed the challenge thus far. After, it said to enter my Google address. Then, it took me to a page where I entered my contact info. Was this the PUZZLE COMPLETION FORM and CONTEST ENTRY FORM needed to complete phase one?

Anonymous said...

how did you all complete the puzzle before it was opened at 1pm EST?

Kevin said...

I finished mine in 7 minutes. I would have got it submitted earlier, but I kept getting "we're sorry but we are unable to process your request at this time" and had to keep refreshing.

Anonymous said...

The video choice was pretty obvious. It was the only on we hadn't seen so I watched it a few times and took notes. The only tough part was number of books but after first attempt I just started at 0 and incremented/submitted so it didn't take long.

Jack said...

We didn't Anon 10:16. The timestamps on this blog are PST.

Richie said...

i made it in, i finished at like 10:02

w00t

anyway good luck to everyone else

Anonymous said...

Its unfair that because I live in Canada I don't qualify... blah.

Anonymous said...

Well, I just got screwed...thanks Google. It first wouldn't accept my completion form, filled it out again, and the it said it was over by the time i typed in the info again.

gee..thanks.

Anonymous said...

im in i got it. i summit
on we go

Anonymous said...

it's unfair that because i live in the united states, that I have to pay doctor bills... blah.

Anonymous said...

It really sucks when you completed all these puzzles and your possibly quick enough to be one of 10,000... only to have your company block the Sony website!

Jack said...

So everyone who did not get the "the contest is over" form is a finalist? heck yeah!!

Anonymous said...

How do you know if your in the next round?

Richie said...

oh also, if you guys had read the book, you would know that it is in fact madonna of the rocks and not virgin..

Anonymous said...

i hate doctor bills, LOL!

Anonymous said...

I think that if taxes are an issue, for one or two of the trips, just exchange the first class tickets for coach. You get downgraded and should receive the difference in cash. Use that cash to pay the taxes.

Anonymous said...

So Im assuming that if you got to submit a form your proabaly in the top 10000??

Those people that are still submitting are getting sorry the contest is over pages??

Anonymous said...

So do you think that anyone who got in before the "contest over" message was one of the first 10K?

Anonymous said...

I think i got this finished at 1:03! Hoping to be one of the 10k :) I have a feeling though that everyone got it at 1:01 :(

Anonymous said...

Man oh man -- I completed it and it said to fill out a form if I hadn't already - when i did it told me it was over. ALready! This was at 12:12 central time. I can't believe 10000 people did that that fast!!

Good luck to all of you. To the grand prize winner -- remember that I have a degree in French if you need a translator in Paris! I'll be happy to go lol.

Anonymous said...

so how long do you think it will take until some of the people start offering their cryptex for sale on ebay? LOL I'm guessing 1 min after the contest ends.

Richie said...

it's crazy that 10K people completed this by 10:20...

i was thinking that 10K would e like 11, haha

Anonymous said...

I think i got this finished at 1:03! Hoping to be one of the 10k :) I have a feeling though that everyone got it at 1:01 :(

The questions were not hard at all..

EDIT: Oh yah, and you have to fill out two forms really quickly after you finish it...

Richie said...

two forms? i only filled out one..

Anonymous said...

phew .. finished.. doesn't matter i win or not.. i'd enjoy these puzzle .. ^__^

Anonymous said...

there is no v in the anagram thus it could not be virgin

Anonymous said...

if you re-do the puzzle, it lets you register...well at least it just let me a minute ago.

so i guess that means as long as you finish it you can register, but they are still gonna pick the first 10K people??

Anonymous said...

i think it was sooner than 10:20

Anonymous said...

I submitted at 1:04 and got "We're sorry, but The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google has ended."

wtf?

Anonymous said...

it first asks for your login name and then gives you the complete form on another screen.

Anonymous said...

I doubt I actually was in the forst 10000 (dang work gettign in the way) but the contest was still at least diverting.

Anonymous said...

well after it took like 10 min to log into google because of some stupid error on their part...i finally finished the final challenge...

Anonymous said...

as far as the first 10k people, do they time stamp when you finish the puzzle? or when you register?

Anonymous said...

richie:

Well the one form w/ your google account, and the other lengthy form. So no, not really two full forms.. =p

Jack said...

Gotta be quicker than that Anon 10:25!

Anonymous said...

They stamp it when you complete the forms..

Richie said...

oh okay.. well the first "form" was really only a field... ;-)

but yea, I think (and hope) I'm a finalist.

I know I won't win the grand prize though.

Anonymous said...

I believe the rules said when you register, but I would have to reread to be sure.

Anonymous said...

This is total bull shit, i completed the game at 12:08 central time and i have been getting "The requested url could not be retreived". i can not get it to go past where it asked for my email address. this is total crap

Richie said...

well it's too late now, Anon 10:28 ...

that sucks, that would have pissed me off too

Anonymous said...

I finished at 1:25 but it didn't say the contest ended

Anonymous said...

i just re-read the rules and it says that it time stamps when you click "submit" on the puzzle page. after that you have until may 11th at 1:00 pm EST to fill in the other forms.

so those people with problems registering might still be OK...

Anonymous said...

woot finished and they accepted my form!

Anonymous said...

there are several 1099's one is a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h, some are interest income claims that you put on taxes ... c is collection claims that i send to the government but does not go on my taxes etc etc...

the 1099 is so the government knows to you have received the prizes. part of their ways on fighting scams, sony pictures signs the 1099 and you sign and that is sent to the IRS as proof of no scam... not all 1099s are taxable.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know when they will start emailing people to notify them that they are one of the 10k?

I finished around 10:07, hoping that's quick enough.

Anonymous said...

so i have to say, i'm a little worried because i used username@gmail.com not just username.

Anonymous said...

What's the answer of the final question?

Anonymous said...

Hm. Well I think the only way anyone will find out is when they get an email! Doesn't look like there is a sure-cut way of knowing if you won or not until then..

Anonymous said...

I completed both forms but my Google Homepage says: Congratulations on successfully completing all 24 puzzles. If you haven't already, be sure to register to see if you've won a limited edition cryptex replica, and the chance to compete in the Final Challenge.

Does that mean I need to fill that form out again?

Anonymous said...

actually, i finished around 10:19 and it allowed me to submit, so i'm not sure how people have been getting "contest over" messages. in fact, i submitted AFTER i read someone here got a "contest over" message. it seems unlikely 10,000 people have been that hardcore on this stupid quest, but i guess it's possible. anyway, if you haven't finished yet keep trying and if you have, i wouldn't count on being in yet. except for you crazy bastards that finished at 10:02 :)

Anonymous said...

I finished my puzzle in about 5 minutes but kept getting this error message. Oh well.

We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

Anonymous said...

*** (quote) so i have to say, i'm a little worried because i used username@gmail.com not just username. (quote) ***

I wouldn't worry... you can actually login to your gmail account by using "username@gmail.com" - so I'm sure they will accept it. I also entered it this way.

Anonymous said...

btw, i see that "register" message. it just takes you the same form you should have filled out immediately after finishing the contest, so you're good to go.

Anonymous said...

That silly "spyware" email was because everyone was refreshing their Google Home Page.. Google was seeing it as bots/spyware/viruses constantly refreshing.

Anonymous said...

I entered the "username@gmail.com" as well. If it doesn't work, then at least you are not alone in your frustration. I'm sure it will work though.

Anonymous said...

Well I didn't register for a gmail account, my login is my own email address (username@san.rr.com) so I assume that'll be fine as well.

Richie said...

i entered just "username" i didn't put the "@gmail.com"

Anonymous said...

You're all screwed.

Anonymous said...

So if you got to fill out the form are you one of the top 10,000?

Anonymous said...

Finished in 3 minutes. I'm in.

Anonymous said...

Google should have thought of some of these things before today. Like the fact that 10000 people would be constantly refreshing their pages waiting for the puzzle to appear. I'm not complaining for me because i got in in time, but I do think it's unfair to everyone who's been faithfully following the quest. They knew they were going to be overwhelmed and should have planned accordingly.

Anonymous said...

we couldn't help but refresh over and over and over lol, we were excited! I just rebooted really quickly, I still had it finished by 1:05.

Richie said...

i only refrehsed promptly at 10:00

Anonymous said...

well aren't you special little richie

Anonymous said...

Dude it dooesnt make a difference in the uk about the first 10,000

Anonymous said...

hey so if we get that congradulations page and fill out the forms we are in the first 10,000?

Anonymous said...

by the way, i was confused about something. the last question referred to an anagram, but i don't have a clue what anagram. i solved the puzzle because i did a google search on art in the Louvre and the National Gallery in London, but I'm still curious as to what anagram they were referring to...

p.s. i can't wait until phase 2.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else notice that throughout the quest, in the description of the puzzle, there were some words in bold ? I thought they were clues to the current puzzle, but they didn't make a difference today. I started thinking like a conspiracy theorist...maybe there was more to this "quest"? I'm probably off, but it makes you think...

Anonymous said...

so dark the con of man

rearrange the letters giving you

madonna of the rocks

Thats an anagram

Anonymous said...

The anagram:
so dark the con of man = madonna of the rocks

Anonymous said...

The words in bold were search terms... if you typed them in the google search it would give you your answer...

Anonymous said...

Well this is interesting.

I registered after I did the puzzle,and it game me the page about the prizes.

Then I go check the homepage, and it says to check and see if you won. Go register again.

And this time I get a page saying it's ended.

Anonymous said...

by the way everyone... big thanks and heads up to student-rant for hosting this. awesome staying on your toes with the screenshots, messages, etc. i wonder what message you got at the end?

Anonymous said...

did you try to search for the ones we had in today's puzzle? I did and none of the top results had anything relevant to the questions

Anonymous said...

I hope that that the second round is challenging. it seems like a lot of clueless people still completed these puzzles.

Anonymous said...

According to the rules, if you fill out the first "form" (essentially, just your google username), then that timestamp will determine who are considered the first 10,000.

If there is any ties, then the timestamp when you "submit" the second form will break the tie.

So no, getting the Congratulations page means nothing. I don't know why people are saying they are getting "quest over" -- my friend *just* submitted now (1:47pm EDT) and was able to fill out both forms no problems. That however does not mean she is among the first 10,000 (necessarily).

Anonymous said...

Having already solved 23 and attempting to access the 24th, Google keeps saying my query looks similar to automated requests and suggesting virus checker or spyware remover. I did both; nothing wrong. I even type the slanted characters to continue searching, but nothing happens. I sent Google a complaint. What a scam????!!!!

Anonymous said...

I completed this last one quickly. In the first form, I put "username@gmail.com", which it accepted. But then it kept saying it couldn't process the 2nd form (with contact info, etc.). I went back and put just "username" in the first form, then re-submitted the 2nd form and it was accepted. I hope the 3 minutes I wasted didn't keep me out of the top 10000.

Erin said...

I know I didn't get it cause I was out of my office. And also I don't think I have a user name, but I got the registration page so I don't know. I didn't however get a congrats page. Let me know what you think

Anonymous said...

Once again my presonal quest is SPELLING. I got all three in about 60 sec and spend 5 min search why: madona of the rocks was incorrect. Dddddah. Good luck to everyone
t

Anonymous said...

Ok, here's my take on the deal. On the form you first enter your google login into, it says this:
Time is of the essence, so complete this form as quickly as you can!*

The footnote is down below and is this:
* Puzzle Completion Form will be time stamped and used as a tie-breaking mechanism.

In the official rules, there's this:
In the event of a tie between two or more Finalists, the Finalist whose Puzzle Entry Time is the earliest will be declared the Grand Prize Winner. In the event of a further tie between two or more Finalists whose respective Puzzle Entry Times are the same, the Finalist who submitted his/her Contest Entry Form at the earliest Contest Entry Time (by date, time, hour, minute, seconds) will be declared the Grand Prize Winner.

Emphasis mine. So, I'm pretty sure that the timestamp for your entry isn't as important as some people are thinking.

Anonymous said...

erin:

You have to have a username to compete. You could not access the puzzles without one.

Anonymous said...

"did you try to search for the ones we had in today's puzzle? I did and none of the top results had anything relevant to the questions"

If you type in the terms in the google video page, then the only video that comes up is "Meet Sophie"

Erin said...

well then I don't know if I remember it, but whatever I entered it took with no problem.

Anonymous said...

The page about your query looking like an automated request is part of the puzzle! You have to figure out how to get past it!

Ben Meeks said...

damn ... i woke up at 1:47 EST. today was not the best day to sleep in. it let me submit, but i'm afraid that's not gonna cut it.

Anonymous said...

I just read the rules some more and I'm completely wrong. The time you submit your Google ID is the Puzzle Completion Time. This determines the first 10,000.

The determination of which specific participants, from among all participants submitting Puzzle Completion Forms and Contest Entry Forms before the Phase 1 Deadline, are deemed to be the "first 10,000" to do so (and therefore deemed to be Finalists) will be based on the Puzzle Completion Time and Contest Entry Time

ONCE PARTICIPANT FILLS IN HIS/HER GOOGLE ID AND CLICKS "SUBMIT" ON THE PUZZLE COMPLETION FORM, HIS/HER SUBMISSION WILL BE TIME-STAMPED AND WILL BE DEEMED PARTICIPANT'S OFFICIAL PUZZLE COMPLETION TIME ("PUZZLE COMPLETION TIME")

Erin said...

I want one of those number things cause I have an extra shelf and the last 24 days of my life have been spent figuring out these puzzles once a day and I want a reminder.

Anonymous said...

Anyone get a confirmation email yet?

Anonymous said...

I think a confirmation email will arrive closer to the May 18 date of the package arrival. The next email will be sent out to finalists; this email will contain instructions for Final Phase. So, I wouldn't be so anxious about getting an email today.

Anonymous said...

easy....

Anonymous said...

"those number things"

It's called a cryptex and it only has letters.

Erin said...

Even if the Module Page indicates that you solved all 24 Daily Puzzles, you are NOT a Finalist unless you have been notified by Sponsor to such effect. If a participant correctly answers all 24 Daily Puzzles at any time before the Phase 1 Deadline, he/she will be immediately directed to the Daily Puzzle completion form ("Puzzle Completion Form").

That means we just have to wait for an email...anyone got one yet?

Anonymous said...

Maybe some people are getting contest over msg because they are also only allowing a certain number of people from differnet regions, based on IP address?

Anonymous said...

It seems as if you may not get a conformation email until may 15th

Anonymous said...

The email will be sent on May 15th.

Erin said...

sorry..."the letter things" and I can't spell cryp...whatever so I just wrote that

Anonymous said...

Thanks Student for all the help and this blog. Also someone was mentioning earlier if you made it to the last round. If what some of the earlier comments made sense, then i see the congratulations on the post. So i hope you made the cut. Good luck everyone.

p.s I got to fill out the form too.See you all in phase 2

Anonymous said...

hey student, how did you get hold of the video so early before the quest was posted??

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it seems strange that you posted the video and the questions an hour and a half before it was supposed to be available.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Crytex... looks like these puzzles didn't weed out anyone...

Anonymous said...

The videos seem to come up before the task opens each time. If you search for "da vinci meet" you get all four.

Anonymous said...

The only people the puzzles weeded out were those who couldn't find the answers online. When pages like this post answers...anyone can complete the puzzles.

I'm not complaining because this site has helped me a few times I was stuck.

Anonymous said...

I too would like to thank "student" for putting in the time , energy and attention to ongoing updates. Thanks a bunch.

Anonymous said...

In all honesty, I'm kind of disappointed with this web quest. I thought that it would be much harder. I think the longest any of these puzzle's took me to finish was, maybe 5 mins. I hope that the Final Round is much more difficult. Kind of a let down for this round though, I was imagining that most people wouldn't even finish.

Anonymous said...

It was probably just a guess. Figure the other video's where other main characters and Sofie was the last character with a google video.

Not that watching it before hand helped me at all, except the So dark the con of man.

Anonymous said...

My problem is that I thought that the puzzles would get harder over time and they did for the symbol one and the chess one. As for the others the later puzzles seemed no more difficult than the first ones.

JoMuDDer said...

BOOO, do u have to be an American to win these prizes??
im from Canada...n when filling out the form there are no countries to pick from!!
i did all this for nothing...lol WEak!

Anonymous said...

god it sucked i spent an hour trying to firgure out why "virign of the rocks" didn't work. dang!!!!

Anonymous said...

When do you find out if you are one of the 10,000? And, how many people do you think are doing the quest?

Anonymous said...

You have to live in the US to win the big prize or the cryptex.

The rules state that the 10,000 finalists will be contacted on the 15th of May.

Erin said...

Okay I am not an idiot, I just can't spell, and I don't take it so seriously obviously like some of you people. It's a game and it's very unlikely that you are going to win anyways. I just didn't have anything to do at work so I decided to have a little fun, sorry for offending the "game fanatics".

Richie said...

they'll email you if you're on of the 10,000 soon.. whenever soon is *shrug*

Anonymous said...

hopefully the second round is random enough where people can't help other people win. imaging if you did the timed challenge, and then you just told your friend all of the answers so that it took him 5 seconds to complete.

not really fair :)

Anonymous said...

considering 90% of these posts are "anonymous" no doubt there are a number of people reposting several times (i have...) and allowing some of us to believe we have a large array of competitors.
and on the topic of simplicity, i guess the PR people just figured that they'd capture a wider audience if they were simpler and allow the rest of the people to complain in forums like this about how they think they're too smart to compete and they'd like a more difficult challenge--get over yourselves. this is an online promotion of a movie and it's supposed to be fun and hard for some and easy for others, but by no means impossible for anyone! if you want a real challenge, i hear the cia is hiring--maybe you can be a cryptographer for real. i can give you their email address if you'd like.

Anonymous said...

i just finished and it said the quest is over so anyone who finished before about 2:50 is one of the 10,000

Anonymous said...

i finished just now and nothing was said. Where did they tell you this?

Anonymous said...

I was able to submit my information. Is this confirmation that I'm one of 10,000 winners?

Anonymous said...

I was able to submit my information. Is this confirmation that I'm one of 10,000 winners?

Anonymous said...

I ate a very nice breakfast today. Bacon and orange juice too. Thank you everyone who contributed to my breakfast. It was simply delicious. Watch out for the bird flu.

Anonymous said...

I might be wrong, but the UK prize rules include "Users must use skill to complete all 24 puzzles to be entered into the draw to win prizes.
You must enter valid data to be in with a chance of winning, as winners will be contacted by either phone or e-mail and prizes dispatched by recorded post. "

Dont know about anywhere else, but looks like I just completed 24 puzzles just to enter into a random draw with everyone else...

And cheers to everyone who commented on these puzzles, there were a couple of times i needed the help! Ta all!

Anonymous said...

Sites like this shouldn't exist. I don't need a cheat site to solve the answers. I finished them all without a cheat site. Some took me no time, some took me almost an hour to solve. But I did not get answers from one cheat site like this. Do you know why? Because its a puzzle. I actually wanted to test my skills. Today's puzzle took me 10 minutes or so to complete. I was able to finish the puzzle and fill out the form between 1:10 - 1:15 EST.

Anonymous said...

ahaha like 90% of the questions doods r askin are repeats... PLS READ ABOVE BEFORE POSTING ty

Anonymous said...

Just got my cryptex in the mail. That was fast! It doesn't look anything like the picture though, no letters on it or anything like that. Can't wait for phase 2!

Anonymous said...

You know what bothers me about cheaters? They always cheat on stuff. I hate that. There's no way google could have guessed that people would publish the answers online. This is really the last straw, I'm moving to Mexico.

Anonymous said...

I got a completely different puzzle 24 from what I've seen of other people's posts. And there were 5 forms to fill out instead of just the 2. Does that mean I won?

Anonymous said...

The registration page can be found here.

It allows anyone to register, even if you didn't solve any of the puzzles. So I don't think being able to register guarantees that you are one of the 10,000 finalists.

Anonymous said...

No it means our full of poop like the person that said they got the cryptex in the mail.

Anonymous said...

If you read the rules it says that all 10,000 will be emaild on the 15th that is 5 days from now. So nobody has goten any cryptex or has any email they are simply lieng. I completed it in 3 mins (around 1:03) so i am hoping that was good enough to make the top 10,000.

Anonymous said...

For those that are complaining about "cheat sites" and such. I have to ask: WHY ARE YOU HERE? Hmmmmmm...... irony!

And for those that think this contest was "too easy", get a grip. I've done online contests before that were easier than this, and actually won one (nice VIP party it let me go to btw). Seriously its a contest. They could have just done a raffle drawing, but they decided to make it intersting.

Anonymous said...

finally done.

Anonymous said...

I'll tell you why I'm here. Because I didn't cheat. I searched answers. I came here to see all the cheaters who didn't lift a finger or use their brain to solve the questions. Why should they be allowed into phase 2 when they didn't do anything and the people that did do something the legit way like I did aren't?

Anonymous said...

you live in a place where there is this great thing called INTERNET.

Anonymous said...

I think most of the 10000 people will not be the cheaters. The cheaters wait too long to solve it a few cheaters will slip through the cracks and will have no chance in the final phase.

Anonymous said...

If ya'll would have read the rules you'd see that when you submit your Google User ID the time is clocked. It's not at what time you submitted it, it is how long it took you to complete it! And a good thing I read the rules because before starting the puzzle I copied my Google ID in clipboard. So when the Google ID check came up I just pasted and done... Probably got a few seconds in earlier than those who typed it in!

Anonymous said...

Darn it, couldn't access it from a filtered college computer. There went my chances of winning. Had to wait till I got back to my dorm. Well anyways, if anyone still wants the answers (if you really are stupid).
1- number of books: 2
2- words repeated: so dark the con of man (it is an anagram)
3- DaVinci piece: Madonna of the Rocks

Anonymous said...

the last 5 puzzles are not by exact time... the first 24 are.. if you finished the the last one at 1:03 and submit it then your time will be 3 minutes... if your read what student said "It doesn't matter if you solved the previous quests in 5 seconds or 500 minutes. You are being time stamped here."
Then you would know that and so all the people that were paitently waiting for 1:00 to roll in were teh wones taht are going to phase 2. its the first 10,000 people to submit. it doesnt go by how long it took you.

idiots..

Anonymous said...

I imagine that all the winners are going to be Asians who had everything copied beforehand. (Time: 1:00:30)

Anonymous said...

Exactly what grim said. It would be unfair otherwise. Someone can wait for answers to be posted and complete the puzzle in seconds.

Anonymous said...

but not everyone can do that. I am a student and my school is cra* so by the time i got home to a compatable computer that had flash 8, 2hrs had gone by!

Anonymous said...

thats why if you realy wanted to win you would make sure of that stuff ahead of time.

Personaly i left school early (seinor) with a "Doctors excuse" to come home and do this dam thing so i am hoping i get in.

Anonymous said...

I only got the spybot page when I used Firefox. After not getting anywhere twice, I redid puzzle in IE and got the two forms.

This happened a lot during the quest -- puzzles done in Firefox didn't show up as completed on my Google home page.

Just a little schizo, Google?

Anonymous said...

I was lucky I was a college student who last finals were yesterday and I had evereything ready and finished at 1:04 est. So i hope i am in the top 10,000.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I only had a chance to do this last puzzle at 4:30 PM EST and I didn't get a contest over page. I got the page saying Congratulations and the form to fill out.

We might be way off on how they're timing this thing. Frankly I don't care, because I wouldn't stand a chance on the final phase.

Anonymous said...

I think it's done by the first 10,000 like it said but at first it said game over but i think google changed it to make it seem like you did something so you wouldn't feel bad after putting a lot of time into it so I guess when ever the "game over" page first appeared is when the first 10,000 people came in. Then i guess google changed it so it wouldn't' be so heartbreaking but this is just a theory of mine

Anonymous said...

For those that are complaining about their connection being to slow...or blocked: In the rules (#3) you will find:

The Module requires Internet Explorer 6 or higher, Firefox 1.0 or higher and Macromedia Flash 8. As Contest is time-based, Sponsor recommends that participants use fastest available Internet connection.

So no, there was not a glitch with Firefox and as far as the error messages, Google was planning ahead...If a bot were attacking it would be exactly like what happened today. They are prepared, b/c if this were a real attack, you wouldn't want to lose everything you have set up with Google or not be able to access your information for hour or even days while they try to recover. It’s a quick entry on the user's part to ensure everything is safe. For that I'd have to THANK Google. Also, I thought it was kind of an exciting challenge and am grateful for the opportunity to participate. Once again; Thanks Google and Sony for some good entertainment. Because of this, both companies will make more money as I wasn’t interested in The DaVinci Code prior and since I have bought the book and watched trailer and will be viewing the movie opening night with several others I have gotten interested now. All and all the companies have achieved their goal: Promotion of the movie.

Anonymous said...

show me where in the rules it says you can't look up answers online? besides, all of the puzzles were extremely easy. i came here for answers a few times because i didn't have sound on my computer to do those video challenges. the only challenge of the first round is getting the last answer done fast enough to get a cryptic. phase II will no doubt be hard.

i think it's strange that they only have one gigantic grand prize. it seems much more "fun" for the contestants to have a bunch of good prizes. overall, i think the contest is pretty bunk, but a it's a really great marketing tool. so it worked.