The Mystery Continues: Part Two - QR Code & Anonymous Tips
7 Comments Published by Matt on Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 9:47 AM.
Hello friends and snooping sleuths!
Thanks for the outpouring of suggestions and support with the mystery. This morning I had a breakthrough on the QR Matrix that was printed on the letter. I mentioned in yesterday's post that there is an embedded image at the top of the letter. This is what it looks like:
When I showed it to Brandon at work, he explained that it is a QR matrix - basically an image that can be scanned to reveal data - like a bar code or UPC symbol. After giving me some explanatory leads, I found my way to a download of a QR matrix decoder. I scanned in the Matrix, and opened it in the decoder.
Lo and behold the QR-Code yields the following message:
So what does this tell us? Not much in terms of moving forward, but it does reinforce that this mystery is based on finding the other people the clue connects me to. See this explanation of Prisoner's Dilemma.
One more piece of the puzzle: In the comments of yesterday's post, there was a lot of focus on the meaning of SQUALLOOPI. Many people tried anagrams, and translations of anagrams. This morning I received an ANONYMOUS comment on the post which reads:
Please leave me some comments with suggestions.
Thanks for the outpouring of suggestions and support with the mystery. This morning I had a breakthrough on the QR Matrix that was printed on the letter. I mentioned in yesterday's post that there is an embedded image at the top of the letter. This is what it looks like:
When I showed it to Brandon at work, he explained that it is a QR matrix - basically an image that can be scanned to reveal data - like a bar code or UPC symbol. After giving me some explanatory leads, I found my way to a download of a QR matrix decoder. I scanned in the Matrix, and opened it in the decoder.
Lo and behold the QR-Code yields the following message:
AMAZING! I am thrilled that the decode actually worked! Here's a screen shot of the moment of truth.
"If you have gone far enough to read this message then haven't you already made up your mind? Is the choice really even yours? This is a prisoner's dilemma after all."
So what does this tell us? Not much in terms of moving forward, but it does reinforce that this mystery is based on finding the other people the clue connects me to. See this explanation of Prisoner's Dilemma.
One more piece of the puzzle: In the comments of yesterday's post, there was a lot of focus on the meaning of SQUALLOOPI. Many people tried anagrams, and translations of anagrams. This morning I received an ANONYMOUS comment on the post which reads:
"you dont want to know what it means"Is this for real? Is this someone throwing me a red herring? I'm going to take it as real for now. But if I don't need to know what SQUALLOOPI means, what purpose do the letters serve?
Please leave me some comments with suggestions.
Labels: rant
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2020/2385612616_340d2c9834_o.jpg
if you turn it upside down and crop it a little, you get a different set of letters. Don't know if that helps, or complicates matters.
Interesting TurkeyHeart (whoever you are). I've tried working with that, and still nothing. Any thoughts?
What's keeping the piece of paper on the key? Clear tape? Is it possible that there is something written on the other side?
Clearly the Illuminati is behind this. Hail Discordia!
O.k. Here is my brainstorm so far:
The letters have assigned number values and this will lead you something.
Try putting a mirror on the half line that seems to be drawn and see what you get.
The word Pi (3.14) is in there...maybe more with the numbers.
If this is a cypher, the clue to what letters stand for what may be revealed in the letter. If you could scan in the actual letter for us that would be great.
The prisoner's problem is what peaks my interest the most. Have you broken your silence by going public?
That's it for now. I still think that you should make a YouTube video so if anyone else searches for sqalloopi you will show up.
Good luck!
I liked your idea that the letters could represent a phone number. I still like the idea of reading squalloopi upside down and backwords. I did that and came up with 3 more NY area codes.
squalloopi
Written backwords and upside down. The 'a' is assumed to be an 'e'
idoolleubs
matches with my work key pad as
4,3,6,6,5,5,3,8,2,7
NY area codes are:
Area Code: 212, 315, 347, 516, 518, 585, 607, 631, 646, 716, 718, 845, 914, 917
212
315
347
516
585
607
631
646
716
718
845
914
917
I removed all area codes that don't match the numbers we can use. Here's what's left.
I didn't have time to work out all the combinations of the remaining numbers.
347
646
845
no
have you tried putting squalloopi into QR code?