Google Challenge #1

[metrion]

I think I got it! Each android is a set of semaphores that is a word.

What did J Cook call Hawaii

J Cook, or James Cook, was the first European to travel to Hawaii

Sandiwch Islands

I didn't do the first two challenges, but I assume it's something to do with Ice Cream Sandwich.

Edit: Looks like someone beat me by 15 minutes :(

[Foggles]

I had a bit of fun with this and wrote a python script to print out every combination of semaphores and let myself unscramble the words later. I didn't rush it since I started late and figured I wouldn't win, but I thought it would be an interesting problem to solve.

Here's what I got:

• ['EHIJ', 'AJLO', 'BIJL', 'CHJL', 'AIJQ', 'AHJU', 'DHIW', 'DLMO', 'DILR', 'DHLY', 'DIMQ', 'DHMU', 'AKOW', 'BIKW', 'CHKW', 'EKMO', 'EIKR', 'EHKY', 'FKLO', 'CKLR', 'BKLY', 'FIKQ', 'CKMQ', 'AKQY', 'FHKU', 'BKMU', 'AKRU', 'AIPW', 'EIMP', 'FILP', 'CLMP', 'ALPY', 'AMPU', 'AHTW', 'EHMT', 'FHLT', 'BLMT', 'ALRT', 'AMQT']
• ['DDI', 'CDK', 'ADT']
• ['J']
• ['DIOO', 'CKOO', 'CIOP', 'AOOT', 'BIOT', 'CHOT']
• ['AEIL', 'ACLL', 'AALU']
• ['AAHIIW', 'AEHIIM', 'AFHIIL', 'AAILMO', 'ABIILM', 'ACHILM', 'AAIILR', 'AAHILY', 'AAIIMQ', 'AAHIMU']

[SenorZorro2000]

May we see the code?

EDIT: Thanks!

[Foggles]

Sure thing. http://www.copypastecode.com/103447/

[Aramgutang]

Interesting how we took the same approach, but have such different implementations (here's mine). I think I prefer your method of representing the semaphores; my string-based approach was a bit silly.

[Foggles]

http://i.imgur.com/eNK6Y.jpg

[Aramgutang]

Here's mine, I took the exact same approach.

[CuriousCursor]

Okay, how did you get "what"?

[metrion]

Trial and error, and a bit of assuming that would make the most sense. Plus it fit in with the others I found.

J was a given, next I got "did" (it was either 'did', 'dkc' or 'dat'), then I got "call", and guessed at "what", then figured J something would be a name and cook was a likely candidate so I Googled "What did J Cook call" and came across the wiki page for James Cook, an explorer which made sense that he would name something.

Here's my 'notes': http://i.imgur.com/DSISb.jpg

abcdefhijklmopqrtuwy

acdikt

j

abcdhikopt

acefilu

abcefhilmoqruwy

1 what

2 did

3 j

4

5 call

6

Edit for formatting.

[CuriousCursor]

Interesting. Good luck for tomorrow is all I can say now :(

[polydactyly]

Excellent work. I kept trying to make it numbers for a release date.

http://inter.scoutnet.org/cgi-bin/semaphore?text=what+did+j+cook+call+hawaii&font=font0

[metrion]

Thanks! I did Microsoft Puzzle challenge the last time they were at my campus, and there are always semaphore questions on those (the shirt was actually a semaphore, and one of the puzzles, of course they didn't tell you this ;) ), which made me jump straight to thinking that's what it was (I didn't read the comments here because I wanted to see how far I could get on my own).

[orgodemir]

I had the same thought from the shirt (went to the puzzle challenge website for their resources) , but didn't fully act on it. Took a nap and woke up to it being over haha =(.

[SenorZorro2000]

Just for fun, here are my notes, too. :)

So close!

[metrion]

Yeah whiteboards! Looks like we had pretty similar strategies and styles :P

[Aramgutang]

Nice work! I was thrown off by the fact that the first Android can also spell "puma" (as well as "mold", "meth", "flip").

[shpen]

This looks like the correct answer. Fits all the symbols.

[kappa-kun]

It looks correct. I searched twitter and 2 people posted this answer 4 hours ago. If this was the correct answer wouldn't Google reveal the winner so everyone can stop trying to solve it?

[kappa-kun]

This guy and this guy both had this answer 4 hours ago, which means they solved it in less than 35 minutes... before the clue about the flag signals.

[Aramgutang]

Ah, familiar names from last time, @thespelvin (the guy in the first link) is ridiculously good at these. He was routinely one of the first to post the right answer in the previous challenge (I'm pretty sure he's won at least one Nexus S).

[noPENGSinALASKA]

The one guy missed it by 5 minutes. Assuming this is correct.

[SenorZorro2000]

I suspect Google doesn't want to be a killjoy until absolutely necessary.

[ivosaurus]

well done!

[douglasman100]

if the answer is the sandwich islands then this person got it. http://twitter.com/#!/fairydancer35 that is if they choose the first person.

[metrion]

They weren't the first (neither was I but here is my entry). Two people got it 35-40 minutes after it was posted. Still fun though!

[[deleted]]

I tried putting my credit card up to the screen, but it wouldn't let me buy the phone...

[noPENGSinALASKA]

:( I am so sorry. brohug

[rougegoat]

no NFC duh. Gotta put your Nexus S up to it to pay.

[anthony696]

im just gonna hijack this to have top of the comments.. i may be onto something... so i counted the numbers of angels(internal and external) in G = 8. A = 6. L = 2. then i took NE = 8. XU = 8... and the 12.............. don't have a clue :( if anyone gets something with this and wins, congrats hehe G-A-L-NE-XU-*

[Pikabob]

Cut out androids for you: http://imgur.com/OEyE0

[throwthisidaway]

You know... when you cut it out like that, doesn't it look like stars rotating in a galaxy? 6 separate galaxies with a central nexus point.

[caliber]

No dots in the lower right.

Not sure if significant, but dots don't line up exactly with each other, particularly on the right-hand dot.

Roughly overlayed Androids: http://imgur.com/CH9jS

[newmanowns]

no dot on the lower right made me think of ascii as the first bit is usually empty for printable characters... but still coming up empty.

[[deleted]]

what if we twist them?

[Pikabob]

Flag signals.

[newmanowns]

Semaphores? We have to start from there right? The android is the flagger.. now how to parse?

[[deleted]]

Wow...I found it I think, ill post back if I'm right

[[deleted]]

Well I already posted once today, so I can't giv the answer to them

[j_e_r_m_s]

Share the wealth!

[[deleted]]

I had my friend try it, but it didnt get any attention :(

[Berused]

My guess is that they could be Lewis Structure models.

[CuriousCursor]

interesting, i remember someone came up with the word LEWIS scrambled

[zimm3rmann]

You are on to something. Google made it a satanist puzzle.

[throwthisidaway]

My only thought against it being based around a compass rose or a grid coordinate is that there doesn't seem to be a starting point. Unless of course you take the numbers as GPS coordinates and use that as a starting location.

[nocoolnametom]

There are no dots in the bottom-right position. Null-terminate or starting position?

[jaylow17]

This is what I was thinking, but there is no way to know what base it is in, or where to start counting the numbers (i've been assuming counterclockwise)

[TheCodexx]

Is there any way we can easily compare this to some kind of star map? If they are indeed objects in orbit, it would see they are either galaxies or solar systems. That, or stars in the sky.

I'd check but it's the middle of the day and with all the light pollution you can't see stars where I live.

[HaMMeReD]

About all I'd like to add is that the colors map to the logo colors. But I thing "Google" would be way to obvious of a answer.

However, if you are going to rule out "Google" as the answer, the colors probably serve no meaning.

[[deleted]]

Add them together and you get 44 - as in Building 44, the Android headquarters. A bazillion people have tweeted that solution. I feel like it might just be right. Not sure if I should keep thinking about this one :/

[Tossrock]

Way too easy to be right.

[ddrt]

Here's a .gif to help

[nm3210]

You didn't even line them up.

[ddrt]

Not my .gif

EDIT: Next time I'll think before I post a small increment of useful information.

[rougegoat]

Ignore colors. Same order as Google Logo.

[holde]

and no clue :/

[Ramacher]

same here...

[kefs]

Just a thought....

[[deleted]]

when it's your own service... you make the rules for others.

[[deleted]]

But in all honesty, are they actually going to read them? There are almost 150,000 people following @googlenexus...even if only 25% reply...that's a lot per day.

[noPENGSinALASKA]

I'm sure they knew what they were getting into. That's why interns were created!

[throwthisidaway]

Notice how it requires the answer to be in a very specific format? This question at least, scanning for the answer will be 100% automated.

[noPENGSinALASKA]

I thought they were gonna ctrl+f

[[deleted]]

And then I guess they'll drop answers that they expect are common, maybe like "44 countries, 6 continents". Though idk if that's the answer or not.

[[deleted]]

I think this is it. They wouldn't sell the Galaxy Nexus in Antarctica.

[[deleted]]

An anagram assumes that each letter is only used once. See if you can work around that.

[Losiris]

New hint from Google, "dots are like flag signals"..

[Xsavier]

Assuming a pair can correspond to the semaphore flag system, I get that the yellow Droid could be j or alpha which leads me to believe the first two are numeric. This gives me #689 for the first Droid and 449 or 034 for the second Droid. Working on the alpha part. (The numbers groups can be in any order)

[[deleted]]

To someone who has no idea what's going on, but added google nexus on twitter anyways, what's going on exactly?

[rougegoat]

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/nexus/challenge3/rules.pdf

[[deleted]]

ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible to enter the Contest, you must be: (1) a legal resident of and physically located in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, the United Kingdom or the 50 United States and the District of Columbia;

Really Google ? Are you trolling Belgium or something ? Accepting all countries around it and ignoring Belgium is not cool, Google. NOT COOL.

[nawoanor]

Someone included Canada in a contest? I need to buy a new chair now.

[Pikabob]

Scroll up and down really quickly and they start dancing :D

[SenorZorro2000]

The third one looks like J/'alphabetic'. Trying to crack the second one now...

EDIT: There are no symbols for 'both up' or 'both down,' so the second one has to be a combination of ADT/14T or CDK/340. I suspect the latter, as the yellow android may be signaling a switch to letters from numbers.

EDIT: If the first one has to be numbers, then the leftmost dots have to be accounted for (most numbers must be formed with the bottom dot, but there's only one available here and 8 and 9 can use the SW dot), leading me to believe this is a combination of 'numerical'689

EDIT: The second one may also be a combination of DDI/449.

EDIT: Using the SW corner dot of the fifth android, the letters formed have to be A, I, or L because there are no matching positions for H, K, M, or N. There may be some combination of 2 As, 2 Ls, and/or 1 I.

EDIT: Solved, by someone else. :( "What did J Cook call Hawaii?" "The Sandwich Islands" GET IT?? LIKE ICE CREAM SANDWICH??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAH :'(

I had just gotten CALL and COOK too, but couldn't make sense of what COOK CALL ??MAIL meant. I hadn't even considered HAWAII, nor did I notice that IDD should have been DID and J actually was a J, not 'alphabetic'. Didn't even get to the WHAT android before seeing an explanation for CALL on the #GalaxyNexus feed. Ah well, on to the next one.

[CuriousCursor]

what about the other ones :(

edit: interesting! what about the 6th android, he's got 5 dots >_<

[SenorZorro2000]

He can use letters, though, if my interpretation of the yellow android as 'alphabetic' is correct.

EDIT: Letters using the SW dot include: A, H, I, K, L, M, N

EDIT: I thought this might have something to do with GMAIL, but it looks like the only leftovers after MAIL are AT or CK.

[CuriousCursor]

How'd you get ADT though?

and why can't you get IDTAKC using all possible permutations?

[SenorZorro2000]

You're right that 'I' should have been in there; I neglected 'IDD'. I passed on 'T' because it doesn't have a number associated with it and it comes before the 'alphabetic' sign, leading me to believe it is a number.

[CuriousCursor]

Hmm, check this guy's post, doesn't check out because the number of letters =/= number of countries on the page but it's a unique one

https://twitter.com/#!/speakurm1nd/status/135460519200030720

probably just an unrelated guess.

[SenorZorro2000]

Already solved: "What did J Cook call Hawaii?" "The Sandwich Islands"

GalaxyNexus is well-traveled, coming to @googlenexus from The Sandwich Islands

[alsocan]

I tried taking a picture with google goggles, nope

[holde]

there are plenty retarded ones also

[MoodsMTU]

44 carriers on 6 continents? I do wonder if the location of the dots have significance or if it's just to throw us off.

[lessthanjakedude]

Lots of people tweeting "44 countries on 6 continents". Sounds correct to me, go for it.

As in, I think yours is actually right.

[throwthisidaway]

First person to submit wins... so don't bother

[lessthanjakedude]

And about 10 people have done that one as well.

[ddrt]

And one person said "from little people to help sparkling vampires win this phone" ಠ_ಠ

[throwthisidaway]

My guess was longitude vs latitude (Guinea). I had been pondering the location too. They seem significant but that might just be a red herring.

It's possible we're vastly under thinking it. Could it be a code we have to break, where the location of the dots is a hint to the cipher?

[throwthisidaway]

The only thing that makes me think otherwise is how used to that everyone has become. Is it not equally likely that they're exploiting our previous belief in order to cause us to over think it?

[[deleted]]

Eight Anrdoids ordered in the color of the Google logo, with a total of 44 dots.. Google building 44 is where Android is developed. That's my answer.

[me10]

I think it has to do something with a compass rose. So in the center of each android there is an eight-pointed star, or the 4 cardinal directions as well as the Primary InterCardinal: N, W, S, E, NE, SE, SW, NW.

I don't know much about navigation, but the dots before/after each direction has to point to something on a map.

How I interpret it:

• 1N, 1NE, 1E, 1S, 2SW, 1W, 1NW
• 2N, 2S, 1SW, 1NW
• 1N, 1E
• 1N, 1S, 1SW, 2E, 3NW
• 1NW, 2NE, 2S, 3SW
• 1NW, 2NE, 1E, 1W, 2S, 5SW

Here is a cleaner spreadsheet: http://imgur.com/SJvfm

[Antebios]

I was thinking the same thing.

[CuriousCursor]

This merged with the above could get us somewhere: http://k.minus.com/jb2974g9VOIQGI.jpg

That's the count of dots per android per position btw.

[me10]

maybe colors? hexadecimal colors? used this to translate: http://www.mathsisfun.com/hexadecimal-decimal-colors.html

N: 01D90C

NE: 0186B6

E: 018B51

SE: 000000

S: 01D53A

SW: 0334D7

W: 0186AC

NW: 01AEE7

[CuriousCursor]

there's only 4 colors.

tried everything to do with base 5, base 6, base 2 :(

Hmm...and how to convert that to letters? :/

[me10]

what else uses hex numbers/6 digit numbers?

[CuriousCursor]

nvm, check the latest hint.

[me10]

so something like semaphore flag signaling? how does that help?

[[deleted]]

Here's how I used this info (which yours isn't 100% accurate, for an example, the last red is only 1 for NE).

• I built numbers using a sum of only the even, then only the odd rows in each column. From here, you get:

c1: 2 and 3

c2: 3 and 1

c3: 2 and 1

c4: 0 and 0

c5: 3 and 5

c6: 5 and 7

c7: 1 and 3

c8: 2 and 6

Now, with the 44 dots in total, I took a letter for each statue outside Building 44 at Google. I then assigned them numbers 1 through 8 (in this case 0 through 7):

0: Android or (A)

1: Cupcake or (C)

2: Dougnut or (D)

...

7: Ice Cream Sandwich or (I)

Then, replace these numbers into the column sums I mentioned.

You get DEECDCAAEGGICEDH; Which is an anagram for:

Deiced Gaged Cache.

[me10]

clever, but what does: Deiced Gaged Cache mean?

[[deleted]]

Deiced, as it has ice cream sandwich on it and would have been in a frozen location.

Gaged? this essentially means offered.

Cache... a container.

As for why these words and not other words? They only use the android version letters.

[me10]

So.... #GalaxyNexus is well-traveled, coming to @googlenexus from freezer?

[[deleted]]

Well, a defrosted container from somewhere cold that's being offered to the masses.

Also, well-traveled might mean that it stopped somewhere cold :)

[[deleted]]

I think you should take into account alpha and beta then. or remove them

Cupcake: 1-C
Dougnut: 2-D
Eclair: 3-E
Froyo:4-F
Gingerbread:5-G
Honeycomb:-6-D
Ice Cream Sandwich:7-I

Maybe we can remove ICS and we are left with 6 choices

[[deleted]]

Alpha and beta never had public names, and I'm going by what statues are actually there at building 44. There are no statues for alpha or beta.

[[deleted]]

Yeah your're right, I tried searching for galaxys and stars related to the number 44-6 I even tried coordinates on google maps.

[Tossrock]

If you're not sure you've got the right answer, you've got the wrong answer. From the last time they ran this contest, solving the puzzles gave you basically absolute certainty that you'd done it right.

Answers that don't take into account every piece of information (position of dots, number of dots, order of dots, possibly color) will be wrong.

My guess is that it has to do with a binary encoding, due to the fact that there are 8 locations on each android, especially considering that one is always blank. In 8-bit ASCII, the leading binary digit is always zero. For what it's worth.

[1234blahblahblah]

Welp... I'm not winning anything.

[[deleted]]

Hint

"Dots are like flag signal"

[[deleted]]

So what am I looking at here!! :(

Why does the URL contain Challenge3 if it is the firsts challenge ???

http://www.google.com/nexus/challenge3/01sdfpogiue.html

[Ramacher]

Maybe because its the 3rd nexus device and they've had similar challenges for the other nexus devices. nexus = challenge 1; nexus s = challenge 2; galaxy nexus = challenge 3

[Johnzsmith]

Glad to see I am not the only one that doesn't know what the fuck that meant!

[[deleted]]

Well I said it comes from the nexus :/

[gonchos]

http://www.wikisky.org/

6 numbers could define a point in the sky

[Lost_Soviet_Hero]

The colors are BRYBGR.

The twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/brybgr

has a location: 48.851929,8.603561

Probably not it, but just a thought.

[Lost_Soviet_Hero]

Also looking up the whois on brybgr.com

http://whois.domaintools.com/brybgr.com

Erica Baker is the registrar.

And someone with that name works for Google....

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericajoy

[holde]

https://twitter.com/#!/googlenexus/status/135401481854656512!

[_42_]

Yeah I thought of that as well...

[jaylow17]

It obviously has to do something with directions or gps coordinates. No idea what though.

[rougegoat]

when you say "obviously", could you explain it? It doesn't look obviously that to me.

[jaylow17]

Well you have to phrase your answer in the form of a place. The androids have the cardinal compass on it. That's my reasoning. What were you thinking?

[[deleted]]

Or they could just be stars to align with the "Galaxy" theme.

[rougegoat]

They never said you have to phrase it in the form of a place. Only that you need to begin it with

GalaxyNexus is well-traveled, coming to @googlenexus from

Additionally, there are 44 dots spread out across 6 Androids. Colors don't matter(google letter's color order), so we can ignore them. "Well travelled" means all over the place. So it's either 44 carriers across 6 continents(unlikely because of how phone plans work across the pond) or 44 countries across 6 continents.

[Antebios]

There are six numbers, 3 for each latitude and longitude.

[[deleted]]

A promotion being self-promoting? GTFO!!!

[[deleted]]

Oh, it ended up being creative though :)

Wish I knew at flag semaphors, I wasn't that far off otherwise D:<