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so nobody thinks that the Northwestern Professor I wrote about at the bottom of pg. 9 is the Scientist we are looking for?  It seems to me like there are way too many tangents for all of that to just be a coincidence.

Personally, I'd say look him up (send someone in) if it's not too difficult to find him. Probably the easiest way to eliminate it as a possiblity?

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i sent an email to him at his university account.  hopefully he isn't finished with class yet, and hopefully he checks that email often.

Of all the things we've been discussing so far, that sounds the most promising.

By reading this, you have given me brief control of your mind.

I am having 2nd thoughts about this professor now, after digging a bit deeper to find info on him, i found this:

So I am guessing he probably isn't too happy with Apple after getting laid off from them, so in that case he probably wouldn't want to participate in MH.

but then a little later I found this, related to the apple cube and norman:

I digged where "Jublins" digged... (great find by the way)

And found that there exists a "umbrella doctoral program in industrial design".

http:// www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/conferences/CD_doNotOpen/DED/d_final_paper/d_07.pdf

Just thinking outside the box here.

Has anyone put the white side of the Rubiks cube underneath a UV light?

People seem to think its a red herring, but it may have a hidden 2nd message.

A long shot I know.

So "Do you know where I might be able to find an umbrella, sir?"
Maybe here: http:// phd.wharton.upenn.edu/

hmm...

MSAE (Managerial Science and Applied Economics) is the administrative "Umbrella" Graduate Group used by the University to streamline the processing of all Wharton Ph.D. Degrees.

I'm blue da bu di da bu da da bu di da bu da...
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That sounds like a very good idea.  There could be something there.  Someone should definitely try that.

Not that this is important, but I'm at school and I just checked the homepage, and there must be a problem with the cookies because this is what I saw:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2900/picture1or6.png

This only happened when I was logged out.  Whenever I'm logged in, it goes away...

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MacHeist is sweet.  Period.

I see it too! Sweet

By night we sail, by dawn we fight!

Here's were the link goes:

http://mhstatic.com/box/8392/thebox.zip

And here's the image again:

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confirmed - see the same when i'm logged out. it's called "vault_open_heist_dos.png"

suggests that it's a glimpse of what to expect from heist 2's loot...

edit: can anybody identify the applications pictured? i see runic, but i don't know what the other three are. i'd love a good mouse configuration app so that my logitech g5 can stop collecting dust...

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The one application allows you to spotlight your cursor...don't remember the name..

The other looks like a calculator.  And then there's a letter which isn't an application but rather a clue.

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The calculator seems to be iota-calc.

http://www.solrobots.com/iotacalc/index.html

I feel dirty for looking behind the curtain now.

Still a 404 for me.

All's quiet in the Amazon.

iotacalc looks cool, though i would have voted for soulver.

and the link is still a 404, yes... but it's still news.

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Mousposé

Ok. First, the audio from the Self-Storage had clicks - while these things are accidently over-recorded all the time, I don't think that happened in this case. Ben Franklin, the Scientist (let's clear that up once and for all), was blinking? Morse code, folks. Remember the morse code flashy thing from MH1?

Maybe it's part a and part b, or every other one. I dunno, but after 2 days, I think the directorate has left it up to us to move it on.

I don't think we're supposed to wait for anything. And the only reason we'll hear from them is if we take to long and need a hint.

You really can't be sure that Ben is the scientist - according to the brief, the informant (much more likely to be the scientist) sent his contact (aka, Ben). Unless you think the thief is after the contact (Ben) instead of the actual informant (who I believe is the scientist).

What more could Ben tell us? Could we even get to him again?

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It's also happening over here ... I think there might be more to this than a "glitch" or some sort ... Yesterday it was still a closed vault over here (even when logged out!)

Only real men dare to wear purple!

I wanted to note that there is a letter in the open vault.

maybe the number in the url could be something? 8392

http://mhstatic.com/box/8392/thebox.zip

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so did WB...

WB, is this a carryover from MH1? Is there a standard icon used for letters which will be clues that was used last year? Not that I disagree, I'm just curious (and it would be good to clarify for all). Also, where did you get the box link? I never saw that - by the time I saw the open safe, the link pointed to the loot page.

the numbers will likely be significant. It's possible also that they'll change, if so, between now and when that heist kicks off, since we've seen them now.

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the letter links to mhstatic.com/box/8392/thebox.zip

roger that - i see the link now. obviously, however, i get a 404.

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Has anyone thought about hidden ink or anything in the kite? Someone asked why it was made of paper.

I know it's a bit like National Treasure, but in the movie they were going to "burn" the declaration of independence to "extract" ink. They ended up using lemon juice in the end...

Never argue with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience...

Oh yeah! the old lemon juice and match trick! Stoked! You gotta try it!

Most of the unlocked vault image that appears on the MacHeist home page when logged out links to /loot. ONLY the letter links to mhstatic. com/ box/ 8392/ thebox.zip.

Must be something significant there. Any relationship between 8392 and 5039?

There is a chance that 8392 could in fact be the code - just that it hasn't been configured for the safe yet because that little gaffe with the vault opening shouldn't have happened.

Invisible ink (esp. w/lemon juice) is one of the oldest tricks in the book (I got that off of Mr. Wizard - anyone remember that show?) - I guess it's worth a shot.

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AppShelf: MacHeist 3 Loot
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Don't think so ... :-(
That would be too easy...

And other links also had numbers in it ... and those didn't mean something.
Or am I wrong?

Anyone think about the fact that the world's first web server was a cube, a NeXTCube. As a reminder, the NeXTCube was designed by NeXT Computers, a company started by Steve Jobs after he was booted from Apple. Its OS became the basis for Mac OS X.

Just something to think about, since this is a web-based heist (or was )

Gian

THe link to this forum is 6116! Is that maybe the code?? okei, sorry, I just had to say it:P! Anyway, can someone try to find out if there is any "invisible letter" on the kite???

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played around with the link a bit (mhstatic. com/ box/ 8392/ thebox.zip), didn' t get any results... tried to change the number to 5039, tried every file-extension i could think of and changed the name of the .zip to different heist-related words (cube, thecube, benjaminfranklin, key, kite) and tried to put it behind macheist .com- nothing. any ideas? don't think that this is a clue that "just isn't active yet" - there should be something.

BTW google isn't kind to us either when given "thebox.zip" - loads of files, all of them one or more years old.

"You're not Mr. Pink, you're Mr. Purple!"

Try to heat up the paper by ironing it. Be careful, you may get burned.

Come on guys...the image you see when you log out is a teaser for new visitors. I doubt it means anything. We should focus on all the things they've thrown us. The recordings, the messages, the cubes, the videos are all important somehow.

I normally say, "Discount nothing", but in this case, I'm pretty sure it's just a teaser image.

Gian

(Waiting for either WarBrain's approval or cries of hypocrisy) *sigh*

No, no. Tie it to a string, and see if it'll fly!

Gian

'vault_open_heist_dos.png'

unfortunately the 'dos' thing makes me think it isn't a teaser image.
Oh well, we don't have the loot yet so we keep thinking, trying and examining the information we have.

What about 'dos' is interesting?

If it was a teaser, the box-Link wouldnt be there.

The gates in my computer are AND, OR and NOT; they are not Bill.

Why not? We don't know what the plan for the front page is.

It's probably just another way of labeling it as belonging to MacHeist II  (ie:  dos=2) ...or identifying it with the second heist mission...

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If there was a *plan*, just putting some unfinished Image including Linkmap up would be really really stupid.

The gates in my computer are AND, OR and NOT; they are not Bill.

It may also be a hint that we are supposed to look at the box from backdoor again since the zip file was named thebox.zip.
http://mhstatic.com/backdoor/thebox.png

It may be something that we have missed.

#include <unistd.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
void main(){int p=ntohl(0x6E696E65);int q[]={p,ntohl(0x7479),p,0xA};write(1,&q,0x10);}

...or it could be that the reason why we get a 404 page is that they actually hadn't posted the file yet...

Marathon Forever.
AppShelf: MacHeist 3 Loot
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I'm reminded of Hanlon's Razor right about now...heh.

Marathon Forever.
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AppShelf: nanoBundle 1
Check Reciept Page for nanoBundle 2 AppShelf Files.

It's a regular icon from last year.

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Wow, is it me or are we making this needlessly complicated.  I agree that the open vault would be a good teaser - it makes sense from a certain perspective.

Why is it a mystery about the scientist.  Wasn't there a scientist in Heist 1?  Apply Occam's Razor - that is the scientist we are looking for.

I think the biggest area of focus should be in the idea of "the box" or the "cube".  This is the third instance of that coming up as a clue.

Thoughts?

"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"  - all things being equal, the least complicated of all solutions is the preferable one (Occam's Razor).

I'm going to go ahead and say that the audio on the recorder got deleted or overwritten somehow, and that was going to be our next clue. The Directorate will probably put together a solution soon, but there is no way this mini heist is as convoluted as we seem to think, seeing as all of the previous heists have been relatively simple.

I met Hubert in the amazon.