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CajunLuke01:
to ear the video backwards (once you've saved it on your drive). Open it in quicktime. Go after the noise screen and then press command+left arrow. It plays the video backwards, but i think there's nothing here.

I'm trying to look at something with Soundtrack pro.

I'll let you know guys.

Hi guys,

I am a newbie to here as well as to Apple Mac. I have tried playing this MacHeist but so far I am too dense to solve anything on my own. Hence I have been sort of 'leeching' on your answers here. Therefore I think it is only right for me to give you guys a very big THANK YOU! You guys are awesome. I get a headache simply by trying to figure out what clues are hidden in the briefings.

Once again, thank you all so much.

James

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Here's the spectrum under soundtrack :
dl.free.fr/nowEfdtUG/spectrum.jpg

i tried 2 or 3 things but nothing came out. Does anyone knows better the filters under Soundtrack (something that would use TSFT) ?

Okay - to summarize (with all of the posts):

Thanks to everyone for posting the steps along the way

Website linked in missions:
http://ms-randd.com/

The flower in the upper right hand corner is key
Flower petals in the following order:
RYGB
opens up a portion of the site for a PassCode

By analyzing the audio from the video with Raven, a STFT software, I got http://www.thegardenofforkingpaths.com/

when you go from the side entrance and go one way (leaving the 2nd story bottom exit)
swordsofthetelevisiongeneration.  (Swords of the television generation)

www.swordsofthetelevisiongeneration.com

The remote control on the couch links to a zip file...

The zip file contains a Safari plugin
Install into Library/Internet Plug-ins and relaunch Safari

To solve the maze the other way you get the following:
sword735bow521hammer172

If you use "thing.pdf" you get this:
http://racksandballs.com/

427631 the balls in the correct order - opens the "maze" from the http://ms-randd.com/ site (its the passcode)

In the maze - using the Apple remote - following the white letters and arrows lands you here
http://purinesandpyrimidines.com/

ptoal did a phenomenal job of explaining the DNA answer - just linking to that post
http://www.macheist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=6444

Which takes you to
http://trappedinsidedarkness.com/

There is an overhead view of the maze "hidden" on the website
Run the maze again using the Apple remote to the "play" button and when you get there and hit play you end up here:
http://ms-randd.com/root/

If you read the Mission briefing you should be able to get it from there

GL!

Join me in finding a CURE!!!
Relay For Life

So...why even bother having heists at all? Why not just throw up a blank .Mac page made in iWeb with some download links? Why did they go to all of this trouble to set up these elaborate puzzles, and even extend it to Real Life? The unlock code is part of the idea of setting up this game to play on our fantasies of being secret covert hackers/special agents saving the world while thumbing our noses at authority at the same time. Of course, people don't see that, or even care. All they think is "Ooh, free software! Gimme Gimme Gimme!"

What irritates me most about people now is that there seems to be this culture of entitlement present - as if people seem to feel that they have a right to unrestricted free software when and where they want it, with no regard at all to the effort that went into its development and presentation. People don't care any more about the enjoyment or the value of the process that it took to get there - even if appreciating it required the bare minimum of effort on their part. Hell, people don't even care about what they actually got in the process - instead of smiling at the fact that we got a nice little in-joke that was a nod to buzz surrounding MH1 (anyone remember the enigmatic screenshots of a dock with Monkey Lover.app in it from back then?) we have people saying, "Man, this shit sucks! WTF is this? I want CS3 FOR FREE! I want OS X FOR FREE! I want Office 2008 FOR FREE! I want Final Cut Studio FOR FREE!"

Give these people the choice between a free TV dinner and some cheap beer at home, and a free meal at an exclusive five-star restaurant with some expensive wine, and they'll take the TV dinner and beer, everytime. Sad, really.

/rant

Edit: So...in conclusion - if all you really care about is the vault code, and you're just too damn lazy to try to find it in The Backroom, then just look up that guy's site on blogger where all he does it just post the code for each heist. I mean, no one's stopping you. If that's all you want to do, more power to you. Just don't be surprised if some of us don't think very highly of you for doing so.

Marathon Forever.
AppShelf: MacHeist 3 Loot
AppShelf: nanoBundle 1
Check Reciept Page for nanoBundle 2 AppShelf Files.

What the heck game is that from?? Sure as hell aint snooker!!
Or are my dodgy colourblind eyes bewitching me??

http://www.mooseworks.co.uk/
http://blog.alexgreen.co.uk/
http://www.alexgreen.co.uk/

so what is the code?

There's also no "7" ball. I know I'm missing something which is just staring me in the face, I'm sure of it...

Marathon Forever.
AppShelf: MacHeist 3 Loot
AppShelf: nanoBundle 1
Check Reciept Page for nanoBundle 2 AppShelf Files.

My question is how do you 'use' thing.pdf in order to get that answer? Racks And Balls corresponds to numbers 5 1 2 ... where is the connection from the clue?

My other question is... how is this passcode even possible? There is no 7 ball on racksandballs. What constitutes the correct order? ROYGBIV? It's been a very good heist, but I think there were a few shortcuts that make following along very confusing.

must be a pool game I'm not familiar with.

Also, I spent ages trying to move them around and stuff, thinking I could drag them into place and getting really annoyed when they didn't move. Tried clicking in different sequence etc etc.  Good job nobody was watching me!

Then when I cribbed the code and got to purinesandpyrimidines.com, I went through the whole rigmarole again, click, drag, bash, swear.  Until I saw a post of the amino acid letters overlayed on the image.  Then it was all clear again.

What a numpty, fell for it twice!!!

Great set of heists though, very impressed this time, also very impressed with the loot. In fact, the Heists would have been fun enough without the loot, thanks MH team you have excelled yourselves again.  p.s. any news of a fifth or sixth heist? I'd do 'em without any loot up for grabs, just for the thrills and gorgeous graphics that you produce.

http://www.mooseworks.co.uk/
http://blog.alexgreen.co.uk/
http://www.alexgreen.co.uk/

Yevgyeni, you have to put the balls in this order: 123456, and then substitute the numbers with the ones that correspond with the colors. Then you have the passcode.

What ip address did SuttoL use? and where did he / she get it from?

http://www.mooseworks.co.uk/
http://blog.alexgreen.co.uk/
http://www.alexgreen.co.uk/

Thank you -- this is exactly the part I don't get. I'm glad I'm not the only one! Where does the 7 come from? "The numbers that match the real colors" where?

Check it:

As for the Thing.pdf, I took a shortcut based on what I remember from childhood about these things. The ONLY thing that matters is the last number you pick. The maze revealed the string sword735bow521hammer172. That's three sets of "plays" of the fortune teller.

sword735
bow521
hammer172

If you start w/sword, then cycle 7 times, then 3 times, and then pick #5, you end up with "Racks"

The second play results in "And"
The third play results in "Balls"

*However, the shortcut is simple: look at the word represented by the last move in each play: 5, 1, 2 (racks, and, balls)*

so you have racksandballs, which leads you to check racksandballs.com

No, as the poster above me said - order the balls numerically, then focus on their colors. Use the COLOR of the balls to figure out the passcode. There may not be a 7 ball, but there is a dark read/burgundy ball, which represents the 7 ball. Does that help?

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Man...I wish I could see it. I feel so dense. Maybe I need more coffee.

Here's what I see: 6 balls, each one with a number
I'll use Red, Blue, Orange, Purple, Yellow, Green as short hand

3 2 5 1 6 4
R B O P Y G

If you were to rearrange the balls to get the numbers in order, you'd get:

1 2 3 4 5 6
P B R G O Y

So...now I'd substitute the numbers with...what? And that still doesn't answer the question, where does the 7 come from?

Damn...I see that now. I stared at the thing for a while, and a few minutes after I wrote my last post, I saw the connection... you play the fortune thingy, but it's the last number that reveals the answer...3 plays...3 words.... Got it!

I think the key point, which I just got now, is that the actual numbers on the balls on racksandballs.com aren't the REAL numbers which correspond to the ball colors on real pool balls. So you take the numbers on the balls that you see on that site, and use them to arrange them in order, as you did above.

Now, what is the real number which corresponds to the purple ball in Pool? Etc., etc. - that should give you the pass code.

Marathon Forever.
AppShelf: MacHeist 3 Loot
AppShelf: nanoBundle 1
Check Reciept Page for nanoBundle 2 AppShelf Files.

Ok...that's brilliant. here's a picture that helps with that step:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eight_Ball_Rack_2005_SeanMcClean.jpg

removed the link since someone beat me to it

Join me in finding a CURE!!!
Relay For Life

When you visit the "ms-randd[dot]com/root/" site, be sure to use Safari. I use Firefox, and sometimes Camino, and for whatever reason, neither browser was rendering that site correctly. I couldn't use the input box, the scrollbars were all out of whack, etc.

I think any WebKit browser would work fine... though I haven't tried anything other than Safari since Heist 2.

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I've tried the following browsers during the heists.  Using the ms-randd . com/root site as an example:

Firefox 2.0.0.11 (my default browser) - doesn't work
Firefox 3.0b2 - doesn't work
Opera 9.25 - doesn't work
Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.5 - doesn't work

I had to switch back to Safari 3.0.4 early on in order to follow the heists.  Not that there is anything wrong with that! 

Whadda you lookin' at?

Ok, that was my problem... never played 8Ball and never knew that each ball had a different points value (or maybe they don't, maybe its just the numbers on the balls in 8ball, yep, that makes more sense!!) I feel like a dumbass

http://www.mooseworks.co.uk/
http://blog.alexgreen.co.uk/
http://www.alexgreen.co.uk/

I had the same problem that MtStinkEye had. But safari DOES work.

I got the code: 3572

Anyone else confirm?

Green with ENVY!

@ ackno:

that looks right, have a browse through this topic you'll find it again, more to the point, plug it into the safe keypad and you'll get real confirmation if you get your loot.

http://www.mooseworks.co.uk/
http://blog.alexgreen.co.uk/
http://www.alexgreen.co.uk/

I know that if you plug it in it will work.. it was just spinning for me for some reason until i restarted firefox...

Green with ENVY!

Well Firefox and (later) Netscape are powered by Mozilla, and Opera is its own engine, right? In any case, I'd be curious if Shiira worked, since it is a WebKit powered browser.

But I hate Shiira...

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I'm on OmniWeb 5.6 and it fails on the /root page. The prompt works but you only get something like "Command not found" when answering the are-you-really-sure-you-are-not-making-a-really-big-misttake x 3 questions.

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

wow, this was great.
I've never seen websites like we find here in the heist.
wonderful web design.
and I never would have solved this without this forum, thanks you all.
I miss macheist already, can't wait until the next one (although I probably won't buy the bundle because I don't need any new software. but you never know, let's see what's in it first)

HUH?

I had to use a program called Raven Lite, which apparently comes from Cornell's ornithology dept.

I saved the video file, cut out the scenes with Monique talking, then I exported that as an AIFF file.

Running it through Raven gives me the following:

skitch.com/yevgyeni/rxyw/raven-lite-1.0

If that's the code you get after seeing some fireworks... it's the code alright.

ditto.  i've got to say, btw, that the ... audio steganography (?) was easily one of the cooler things i've ever seen.  opening that file up in raven and then going, "oh ... no *way* ... hey, come look at this!"  awesome.

..::01101001::01101101::01110100::..

"The Garden of Forking Paths"??

All Roads Lead to Blaine.

Oh, nvm. I misread a critical post. Duh! This has been one awesome heist!

All Roads Lead to Blaine.

back on track?  awesome!

..::01101001::01101101::01110100::..

I'm sorry, I still don't understand. Racksandballs.com doesn't have a seven on the screen, and there's no way to drag the balls around that i've found. Any further information?

All's quiet in the Amazon.

i believe how it works is first: put the balls as they appear on racksandballs.com in numerical order.  so, that'd be:

purple-blue-dkred-green-ltred-yellow

then, look up what the proper number for a given ball would be in a real game of pool (as they're currently numbered, they're incorrect).  that will give you the code macfoo posted.

[edit: ltred is probably supposed to be orange ... or not ...  i'm not sure ... oh, it's red and the dkred one is brown or burgandy (or 7) ]

..::01101001::01101101::01110100::..

I posted too soon. I found an explanation a few posts after where I was reading. The wording threw me off - the colors that real pool balls are is the part i was missing.

All's quiet in the Amazon.

Firstly, I thought that iData's post (#229) was hilarious! What a way to get to the end. The true hacker! and I mean that in a _good_ way.

Secondly, I was disappointed big time.  My daughter and I were working our way through this time, with minimal help from this forum, then we finally got to the backdoor, and...you need the Apple Remote? That just killed it for us. Up to now, there have been workarounds in the heists, but after we hit the maze (and we'd solved the puzzles before and gotten the plugin and everything) we skipped to the DNA puzzle using this forum, but then it was just back to the maze again.  So we just sort of dredged thru the forum again to find the /root link. After that it was cake, but I'm disappointed in you, MacHeist. I suppose the next heist will be Intel only. Just like Apple: leave the loyal users who don't have the latest and greatest out in the cold. Bwahhhhh!!!!

Okay. I feel much better now.

Well, but for this last heist, I want to thank you for the extremely clever site design, and all the cool puzzles. You all have done a lot of hard work. But unless you have more backward compatibility built in, I won't be back for the next MacHeist.

there are some numbers in the pdf

is there gonna be a fifth misson?? i need to know..

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read & write but those who cannot learn, unlearn & relearn ~Alvin Toffler

I hope there is... Monique's video said that they'll update us in the communique... and the wiki says MISSION 5 and MISSION 6....

I'm sure "Microsoft" wouldn't let a little thing like us heisters purge the rdf folder on their R&D server stop them...  (don't major corporations like Microsoft invest in redundant backup solutions? - if not, I may have a big account next week*)

I think there will be a mini-heist to lead us to Macworld... and "Microsoft" may want to crash that party and require us heisters to save the day again....

I WANT TO PLAY... Mission 4 Sucked for me.   (See Post #229)

*Yes I know this MH Microsoft is not the real company...

How did you figure this?

INTERNATIONAL LIME OF MYSTERY™
Click here for DropBox with extra space!

Read Page 11 of this thread...  or directly to post #267 on page 11....

im hopeing there is to .. cool new apps im seeing. i got them all lol

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read & write but those who cannot learn, unlearn & relearn ~Alvin Toffler

I created a Apple Remote via the SDK for Mac OSX 10.4.11 on my 'Ancient eMac 1.42' as I haven't spent the money for a new Mac (waiting for MacWorld next week). My 'Apple Remote' works via the number pad on the keyboard. Ran the mazes and got the code- lots of work but worth the effort.

“Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.”

Is this GREAT or what? What we need now is if everyone gives back a little and purchase the bundle, there is much needed support for all these charities! Super job MacHeist, and thanks a bunch.

Illusive is being at all places at no times

so why did people stop posting here?

The first Mission that I've joined!
Sadly, no Apple Remote here. Luckily somebody posted the maze to YouTube. Thanks!

Directorale, when will MacHeist III start? Can't wait! This time I'll try to join ASAP to stop the evil Microsoft

▛▞▞▟ Proud Member of the BLUE Team™ ▙▚▚▜

MacHeist III will likely not start until the end of the year

Heists 4-6 (if there are to be 6, same as last year) will probably be in the weeks following the bundle

PM me | Twitter