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jrg
jrg
00:46
waves at George
So, we've got this webm.
username is The User, password is 43tgmbefortytwo
Any ideas folks?
@jrg UMM WTF?
jrg
jrg
34
Q: What does thisisthecountdown.com count down to?

rafalcieslakThe new cool page created by Ubuntu-adverts team http://www.thisisthecountdown.com/ displays a nice counter, and an Ubuntu logo followed by a short motto. It seems, however, that it's not counting down to the Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release. So what's the time zero, and what is expected to ha...

it's a ARG.
To make a long story shorter:
Pinwale is a World Space Agency scientest who has information about something.
@jrg sure..
jrg
jrg
He is trying to sell it to "someone" (or so we are led to believe).
he's currently on the run to england. that video was taken shortly before pinwale dissapeared (according to the date/time stamps).
jrg
jrg
00:54
just keep typing.
The decrypted text is here
gist: 1271648, 2011-10-08 00:00:04Z
root@wsa:~ $ shutdown -r now

Terminal reboot complete. Login required.

Password: ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
Access Denied
Password: ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
Access Denied
Password: ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
Access Granted

      _       __           __    __   _____                     
     | |     / /___  _____/ /___/ /  / ___/____  ____ _________ 
     | | /| / / __ \/ ___/ / __  /   \__ \/ __ \/ __ `/ ___/ _ \
     | |/ |/ / /_/ / /  / / /_/ /   ___/ / /_/ / /_/ / /__/  __/
     |__/|__/\____/_/  /_/\__,_/   /____/ .___/\__,_/\___/\___/ 
                                       /_/                      
                    ___                              
                   /   | ____ ____  ____  _______  __
                  / /| |/ __ `/ _ \/ __ \/ ___/ / / /
                 / ___ / /_/ /  __/ / / / /__/ /_/ / 
                /_/  |_\__, /\___/_/ /_/\___/\__, /  
                      /____/                /____/   

<----------------Welcome to the World Space Agency------------>
<------------------G-14 Classified Personnel Only------------->
<----------No files may be transferred from this system------->

root@wsa:~#  ls -l
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root 4096 May  3 12:41 transmission
drwxr-xr-x  13 root root 1280 Apr 28 16:48 comments

root@wsa:~#  cat transmission

<----begin tranmission------>
    BJGGK ANJJP CIAOP BCOCO PN6IO 
    HCPPC IA6PK IJ5KR NPTKX JNKHJ 
    A6BJN PX5NK HPN6I OHCPP JNUJO 
    CAI6P JUQBC O6ACP P6NCC OP6IU 
    EWJ6N PBQCP CXJIO 5KNCI QKHCI 
    AU6P6 PN6IO HCOOC KIFJJ LNJQJ 
    CSCIA 5KNGK IAJNP B6IJ6 NPBOJ 
    QKIUO LGJ6O JU6P6 PN6IO HCOOC 
    KITCG GEJJJ

    +++NO CARRIER

<-----end transmission------>

root@wsa:~#  cat comments_log

    [encrypted ScienceNet chat session]
    [20:35:33] <Mike> uzzz...vapbzcyrgr genafzvffvba.
    [20:52:59] <DrMurk> gur genafzvffvba frrzf gb or pbqrq 
    [20:53:00] <pinwalePHD> Dwbs Zoys gssag hc vojs fsqswjsr gcas acfs hfobgawggwcbg ct gcas gcfh. 
    [20:53:11] <DrMurk> qnzavg, cvajnyrCUQ! lbh'er hfvat gur jebat rapelcgvba.
    [20:54:21] <pinwalePHD>  Fbeel, vf guvf orggre? Nccneragyl NEVFF cnpxrg pbageby vf qbja. Frrzf gb or n onq cbjre fhccyl.
    [20:54:47] <DrMurk> lrnu. Jr arrq gb purpx jvgu gurz. 
    [21:55:46] <Mike> Url thlf, V jnag gb evqr zl Oenzzb vafvqr ohg V'z nsenvq bs ohvyqvat frphevgl.  Jnaan uryc zr bhg? 
    [21:55:49] <- DrMurk left the chat session (Leaving…)
    [21:55:50] <- pinwalePHD left the chat session (Leaving…)
    [21:56:02] <Mike> Thlf?


CRYPTED

root@wsa:~#  cat transmission

<----begin tranmission------>
CHINA SPAIN CANADA CHINA INDONESIA
ECUADOR ITALY ITALY US JAPAN
UNITED_ARAB _EMIRATES BRAZIL PANAMA FINLAND JAPAN
CHILE MONGOLIA ??? NORTH_KOREA BELGIUM
BELARUS NETHERLANDS URUGUAY COLOMBIA ???
INDIA INDONESIA ECUADOR US NORWAY
PORTUGAL COLOMBIA ITALY CHINA US
??? NORWAY MONGOLIA INDONESIA ECUADOR
US ENGLAND

    +++NO CARRIER

root@wsa:~#  cat comments_log

    [encrypted ScienceNet chat session]
	[20:35:33] <Mike> hmmm...incomplete transmission.
	[20:52:59] <DrMurk> the transmission seems to be coded 
	[20:53:00] <pinwalePHD> Pine Lake seems to have received some more transmissions of some sort. 
	[20:53:11] <DrMurk> damnit, pinwalePHD! you're using the wrong encryption.
	[20:54:21] <pinwalePHD>  Sorry, is this better? Apparently ARISS packet control is down. Seems to be a bad power supply.
	[20:54:47] <DrMurk> yeah. We need to check with them. 
	[21:55:46] <Mike> Hey guys, I want to ride my Brammo inside but I'm afraid of building security.  Wanna help me out? 
	[21:55:49] <- DrMurk left the chat session (Leaving…)
	[21:55:50] <- pinwalePHD left the chat session (Leaving…)
	[21:56:02] <Mike> Guys?

MORSE:
ARISS/IBM/A22P


MORE HINTS:

 START: CynOnoceiomemdRhlnnpctiDisssunr1tooaLdoatsRgurrdsedeemaiiifiseornp&Ournlo:cotsOta:tetentr:amengYncuvZ
... whoa, didn't know gist's oneboxed... O_o
jrgifford, h00k and several others have been suspected of breaking into the world space agency's servers.
@jrg The background of the main page shifts like it could be a code
jrg
jrg
@Jacob worldspaceagency.org?
yeah, it's a animated starfield gif - the third frame is a QR code.
(maybe I'm out of order, but that should be what took us there)
OH WAIT NO. the QR code took us to that webm video I linked to earlier.
@jrg what people are trying to RAR crack something?
jrg
jrg
@Jacob the people known as "The Oneiric Tutus" - myself, h00k, Henson, NiMareQ and ali1234.
(those are only the ones working on the rar).
@jrg related to the ARG?
jrg
jrg
01:00
@Jacob Yes.
(sorry, this is mostly being done through IRC - hence the l33t nicknames)
@jrg I'll pickup a Cluster GPU Instance for Amazon for an hour
jrg
jrg
@Jacob .... i'll suggest it.
@jrg I don't feel like setting up rarcrack @GeorgeEdison you around?
@Jacob Yes.
jrg
jrg
@Jacob The guys in the IRC channel say thanks, but that's like turning on god mode for a game for 20 seconds. :P
01:03
@GeorgeEdison will you setup rarcrack on an Amazon Cluster GPU Instance for me, I'll pay for a max of 3-4 hours
@jrg whats your IRC?
@Jacob Uhm... I don't even know what that is :)
jrg
jrg
#awholenewworld on freenode.
Hrn
jrg
jrg
01:19
@Jacob go figure, once we have to make a actual decision about this they can't make up their minds. lol.
01:33
@jrg I don't get it, I'm paying for it
jrg
jrg
@Jacob We're trying to do this game style.
@jrg I mean, I want to run it
@jrg where is the rar?
jrg
jrg
Oh, so this is about doing because you can? in that case, go ahead.
hangon, let me get the rar link
@Jacob At the risk of getting myself banned, don't PM me the password as soon as you find it. :P
@jrg I mean IDGAF about IRC :)
jrg
jrg
LOL
@Jacob just do it, Centigonal and Chauncellor won't be kickbanning anyone anytime soon. :P
01:47
@jrg who is the chancler dude?
jrg
jrg
One of the Oneiric Tutus.
(horrible name I know).
Centigonal is the op, chauncellor can't do anything until we reach a decision - that means three people (plus him) have to agree on it.
(yes, we already gave IRC a bureaucratic committee :D)
@jrg What does that mean
jrg
jrg
@Jacob Means you can do whatever you want.
More or less.
Look, you want to do it. Go for it.
It's not like you have to ask for access to the files or something.
@jrg not what I mean I mean what authority do they have, admins of IRC?
jrg
jrg
@Jacob that's about it.
Admins of that IRC channel.
But, nothing stops you from reading my hourly log dumps that aren't working yet.
(and thus following along if you wanted to solve the rest of this puzzle)
01:58
All I can say is... there better be something exciting at the end of this.
jrg
jrg
@GeorgeEdison Agreed.
@GeorgeEdison Damn straight at 2.60 an hour
@jrg aren't you trying to crack it?
By the way, Chrome crashes on thisisthecountdown.com
...if you try to pause the scripts on the page.
jrg
jrg
@Jacob Yes.
But it's entirely likely we'll have another puzzle (one that'll be trivia most likely) after we get past this.
@jrg anyway I can start where your at?
jrg
jrg
02:00
@Jacob Yup.
So, at this point the next step is to get into that rar file.
@jrg ok
jrg
jrg
er, 7z.
@jrg do you know how to start the program?
jrg
jrg
@Jacob once you get the dependencies installed and rarcrack is downloaded, it'd be ./rarcrack ~/Downloads/EXTRACTED-CASEFILES-r2.7z --threads 5 --type 7z
(well, change paths as needed).
And rarcrack currently maxes out at 12 threads.
but, h00k had it setup to use more.
@jrg how?
jrg
jrg
02:05
IDK. i'm asking right now.
@Jacob direct link to the compiled source - lts.cr/z5L (.zip)
It's patched to use 1K threads instead of 12.
@jrg hrm, SSH isn't connecting, it freezes
jrg
jrg
@Jacob Before or after you started rarcrack?
Dangit, I can't pay for AWS with a amazon gift card. :P
@jrg Wuuut? That's cheap :P
@GeorgeEdison george can you help me chmod my key file
@Jacob What do you need to do?
@GeorgeEdison make my key file private so terminal shuts up
@GeorgeEdison need to hurry, burning money :)
jrg
jrg
This server side or desktop?
@Jacob chmod 700 ~/.ssh should do it
and then chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
@jrg not where the key file is
jrg
jrg
02:30
@Jacob Then I don't know. Sorry.
Ugh,lost track of time. Mom's going to yell at me here soon if I don't go to sleep. Night guys. :P
@jrg urg
Woot
Sorry - Chrome issues.
What do you need me to do?
02:47
@GeorgeEdison help me run this please?
@GeorgeEdison teamviewer
What do I do?
@GeorgeEdison Look at my screen and inform me how to run this rarcrack
Where do I find your screen?
02:48
@GeorgeEdison teamviewer?
I've never used that before :(
@GeorgeEdison hrm
I have Remote Desktop though.
Would that work?
@GeorgeEdison not on a mac
VNC, perhaps?
02:53
@GeorgeEdison know how to ssh tunnel?
Uhm... not really... but it isn't too hard is it?

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