[realXCV]

There's something in Exile that hasn't been noticed...

And I'm not going to tell you what it is.

Instead, I will just give you this nice picture.


That way, you can discover it by yourself.

[Thestrangered]

So, you're the new spyder?

[realXCV]

I'm not sure if this one is easier or harder than the other one.

[olddude]

realXCV, on Jan 6 2010, 09:29 AM, said:

There's something in Exile that hasn't been noticed...

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

[Gehn, lord of ages]

olddude, on Jan 6 2010, 09:01 AM, said:

realXCV, on Jan 6 2010, 09:29 AM, said:

There's something in Exile that hasn't been noticed...

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Ooh... I hope its awesome (like even better than the Exile eggs we already know about).

Anyway... hmm... What to try this time (old strategy doesn't seem to work - good).

(by the way, does it look like a face to you guys too? I have a weird imagination.)

b3hn? Behn? Ben? Gehn? Bunnies? Box 3 (Exile)... High Noise? Big 3 (Exile, again) Hippie Nostrils?

[Allatwan]

Lol! This looks too mind-blowing for my liking

[olddude]

Gehn, lord of ages, on Jan 6 2010, 01:21 PM, said:

Ooh... I hope its awesome (like even better than the Exile eggs we already know about)

So what do you have against Pepper?

I've been kicking the file around for a while, even cutting parts out, changing format, adding different file types and opening it and the cut out parts in different apps.

Getting nowhere so far...

I hope it's not a Windows-specific file.

[Lostthyme]

The picture links to his member page. Wonder if that's important in any way. And the file name is "b3hn". I wonder if that's somehow significant.

Also, just opening the file up with Notepad gives you

Click to reveal hidden content

a bunch of seemingly random text but stuck in at various places is the phrase "com.apple.jobticket" and "com.apple.print.ticket.creator" and "A d o b e P h o t o s h o p C S 3". Until I know what I'm supposed to be using to figure this out I don't know how much I can do.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

Lostthyme, on Jan 6 2010, 02:25 PM, said:

The picture links to his member page. Wonder if that's important in any way. And the file name is "b3hn". I wonder if that's somehow significant.

Also, just opening the file up with Notepad gives you

Click to reveal hidden content

a bunch of seemingly random text but stuck in at various places is the phrase "com.apple.jobticket" and "com.apple.print.ticket.creator" and "A d o b e P h o t o s h o p C S 3". Until I know what I'm supposed to be using to figure this out I don't know how much I can do.

While not taking the possibility of those being clues off the table, they might be actual tags stuck in by the software that processed the picture.

[realXCV]

Gehn, lord of ages, on Jan 6 2010, 01:21 PM, said:

Ooh... I hope its awesome (like even better than the Exile eggs we already know about).

It's something completely different.

olddude, on Jan 6 2010, 04:13 PM, said:

I hope it's not a Windows-specific file.

No.

Gehn, lord of ages, on Jan 6 2010, 06:15 PM, said:

While not taking the possibility of those being clues off the table, they might be actual tags stuck in by the software that processed the picture.

Exactly.

[Lostthyme]

realXCV, on Jan 6 2010, 10:54 PM, said:

Gehn, lord of ages, on Jan 6 2010, 06:15 PM, said:

While not taking the possibility of those being clues off the table, they might be actual tags stuck in by the software that processed the picture.

Exactly.

Well, there went my only guess.

[realXCV]

Doesn't mean there's nothing interesting in there.

[Cocovanna]

Hmm ... this seems a little bit harder ... this time it is jpeg, which is not loss-less, meaning another approach is called for.

Preliminary investigation reveals, that there seems to be 6 levels only of each color (before jpeg'ing), adding up to 216 possible values of each pixel ... this could call for a color table version of the picture ...

The values of the first 6 pixels in a 6x6x6 color system are

[4 0 0]
[3 1 1]
[2 1 2]
[2 0 2]
[0 4 0]
[2 4 1]

I can't figure out a sensible color table though ...

[Cocovanna]

One could perform some statistics on the values, trying to locate the "e"s and assuming the first letter is uppercase (i.e. in range 65-90) ...

There is a comment in the picture saying "bottom right", but I don't know if this is just some sort of orientation comment added by Photoshop (picture is created by Mac Photoshop CS3 BTW)

[realXCV]

Cocovanna, on Jan 7 2010, 05:04 AM, said:

(picture is created by Mac Photoshop CS3 BTW)

with the help of a few PC apps.

[olddude]

So the Properties List might actually be important?

Am I warm or cold in thinking there are at least three files bundled in the JPEG?

[realXCV]

I could say warm but I will say cold.

[olddude]

Lostthyme, on Jan 6 2010, 05:25 PM, said:

The picture links to his member page. Wonder if that's important in any way.

I'm wondering if the MYST III Music Player on his site might be important. I don't see how right now but that's the direction I'm looking in next...

[realXCV]

olddude, on Jan 7 2010, 09:28 AM, said:

Lostthyme, on Jan 6 2010, 05:25 PM, said:

The picture links to his member page. Wonder if that's important in any way.

I'm wondering if the MYST III Music Player on his site might be important. I don't see how right now but that's the direction I'm looking in next...

No but feel free to download and use it if you want.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

realXCV, on Jan 6 2010, 08:54 PM, said:

Gehn, lord of ages, on Jan 6 2010, 01:21 PM, said:

Ooh... I hope its awesome (like even better than the Exile eggs we already know about).

It's something completely different.

Hmm... egg (completely different...)? alternate ending? mistake? continuity reference? extraneous puzzle/clue? Hmm...

Lostthyme, on Jan 6 2010, 05:25 PM, said:

The picture links to his member page. Wonder if that's important in any way.

Name, Topics, Posts, Comments, Friends - no apparent clues (nothing but stuff that would be hard to manipulate or isn't there), perhaps some easier access to the last topic or to posts in this one
Last Visitors - he can't manipulate (unless the number matters)
"About Me - My Content" - apparently not added yet (and no signature)
Personal Statement - apparently not there
Website - http://realxcv.elementfx.com/ contains several Myst related tools that could be of use (we've got word that the Exile Music Player is not, but the others might be), might be part of a sequence of clues (e.g. the picture decoding tells us to look at something in the site), good advertising for the stuff there
Personal Info - mostly not set. Location "Somewhere on this planet" is just as mysterious as the posts.
Stats, Contact Information, Interests, Other Information - mostly not filled out or things that couldn't be reliably manipulated (for example - profile views). Guild of Illusionists. Slogan "..."

Other then the couple rather ridiculous (but plausible) leads there... it's probably a red herring.

[olddude]

Gehn, lord of ages, on Jan 7 2010, 02:24 PM, said:

Other then the couple rather ridiculous (but plausible) leads there... it's probably a red herring.

After going so far as checking the source code for his web pages, that's my feeling as well. It's an odd bit of misdirection though...

I'm still focusing on the fact that the file is larger than it needs to be to display the image information. My first impression was that it is an application. It has a Properties List and the part that begins: <?xpacket begin... (original post deleted this and everything after it because I had used the complete tag)

I'm not a programmer or designer so I don't know why these things could be there. I don't think the file is an application though.

There may be some clues in these areas but I have no idea what they could be and have all but given up.

[aander91]

Quote

Guild of Illusionists.

Pfft.

I saved the image as a page and opened it in notepad and didn't see anything odd. Although, admittedly, I don't really know what would be odd, but nothing jumped out at me, just script and whatnot.

[realXCV]

Consider yourselves lucky that I didn't use my first idea for this puzzle. I would have been so simple that you would never be able to solve it.

[Cocovanna]

I have extracted all 64x64 pixels from the picture, as I assume the should be before jpeg'ing ... so in principle I might run statistics (finding t's and e's) and locate dobble-letters.

I have located a spot with triple-letters (3 identical pixels) ...

Looks a little like a dead end ... the distribution does not look like text

[olddude]

realXCV, on Jan 8 2010, 02:59 AM, said:

Consider yourselves lucky that I didn't use my first idea for this puzzle. I would have been so simple that you would never be able to solve it.

You are as cryptic as you are vague, stranger. I mean that as a compliment.

I assume we're all over-thinking this. It's something simpler but not too simple.