DropQuest 2011 | Hacker News Reader

DropQuest 2011

dropbox.com

116 pointsambiate91 comments

A nice side benefit of this was discovering https://www.dropbox.com/edu, which doubles your space bonus from all referrals. I'm at 13.8gb now with a free account.

And I am at, what I think is, the current 20GB maximum. Weeeee :) Can't see how I would use that space though. It is too little space too keep my music, video or photos, and too much to store anything else.

I symlink all the music I care about into Dropbox, which gives me access to the music I listen to most at my office and on the road, but doesn't mean Dropbox hsa to have sufficient space to store ALL of my music. This hybrid works well for me personally.

yeah i store all of my materials for school, including high res versions of all of my textbooks so I can look them up and print things if needed. Also about 2 gb of audio lectures that are not otherwise mirrored online. I wish it had the space to store all my music, but I don't really have the money at the moment for a paid account. someday.

Me: "Cool, that was fun, and I got another gig of space."

My wife: "Yes, much better than forcing the kids to open Dropbox accounts."

(Which I did once, when I needed to share a big file!)

Doh!

Walkthrough: http://dropbox.pastebin.com/J5SkmzL6

A lot of people are stuck, and some might just want the extra 1GB, so I thought this could help. Of course, it contains spoilers.

(I am not the creator of the list, I just found it on twitter after I completed)

what about step 8, just a question mark?

Read the first letter of each line, go to the appropriate place, click the top most picture to see a URL.

I wasn't able to solve a couple of puzzles without the walkthrough, but am wondering about the solutions anyway. Will the Dropbox team or anyone else post some explanations afterwards?

http://erroneus.tumblr.com/post/2765996497/dropbox-dropquest...

Another blog post with slightly better explanations, found this link on IRC.

Another more detailed guide with some explanations: http://www.forumvancouver.com/threads/dropbox-dropquest-answ...

Whew. That was exhilarating. And damn OS X Preview and Color Meter for not showing the right colors. (I was too late for any of the prizes but I’m very happy about the 1GB. Oh, and the scavenger hunt itself was also fun and cleverly designed.)

Ah, this really bugs me everyday... anyone know how to get round this? Currently I strip out all color profile data, but don't know if thats the "right thing to do" for images going online.

Color management is a pain. I would love to get my hands on some kind of simple guide.

There goes productivity for the rest of the day...

Their blog and forum are constantly refusing connections……

yeah :( doesn't seem like they thought this one through. now i'll never know what asian cuisine they enjoy

Japanese.

it's quite frustrating when you know about the asian cuisine but cannot open the page!!!

Use google cache :P

It doesn't work – the referer is checked.

I bombed out at https://www.dropbox.com/votebox/3712/frozen-yogurt and wasted my entire day. I commend Dropbox for this awesome Saturday.

Any tips on 21? (The one about shared folders and the blue picture.)

hex code of pic, share the folder

I did that (shared with myself), but all that happened was that a .dropbox file showed up.

edit: figured it out. Thanks.

I created a folder named the hex code of the color, shared it with the email address hidden in the picture, and nothing happened.

Maybe their servers are overloaded?

Don't include the # in the beginning.

Definitely didn't include the #. Simply created a folder named 1F75CC, shared it with dropquest@dropbox.com and...nothing. Can't imagine what I'm still doing wrong, so I'm chalking it up to a bug on their end now.

It worked for me. The only thing I did differently was including the contents of the previous zip file (the image and the step21.txt) in the shared folder.

Same, dont know what to do at that page.

Hint: Hunt down the hunter at their team page.

This is a really creative way for dropbox to engage their customers.

They have to have a user to reward with extra storage for each step, though admittedly they could've offered a "challenge" track with the ability to sign up once you're engaged.

https://www.getdropbox.com/login#register Free registration, but part of the hunt is to created a shared folder with hex. You would need to install the client and utilize your free space.

You can create a shared folder from the web interface.

https://www.dropbox.com/dropquest2011/wall_of_fame

Very cool. Can anyone confirm that getting a 500 from nginx when trying to go to the forums for step 2 isn't part of the puzzle?

Correct, getting 500 errors from the server is not part of the puzzle.

What about getting 500's from the blog?

I'm getting no where from there

I guess this is working a little too well for them...

This thing was like trying to get support from Google. Step Two divide a number. Go to the forums. Then what?

With the exception that this is supposed to be, y'know, fun.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the finish line isn't, even with the hall of fame and all that. Oh well.

Dropbox <3 You ;)

Dropquest can be completed in 60 seconds. Here’s a list of the minimum number of steps required to do so: http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/dropquest-2011

In case anyone has finished and is looking for more puzzles just for fun, you can try the original http://www.deathball.net/notpron/

No prizes though :(

Full folution and walkthrough: http://b4it.tumblr.com/post/2775347938/dropbox-dropquest-201...

Officially giving up. Level 21 seems to be buggy - I've shared the folder multiple times with dropquest@dropbox.com and nothing shows up.

Yeah, I got stuck at the same place. I got most of the way there on my own though, so I'm pretty proud. :-)

Same problem, but I cheated my way past -- hints at the irc channel (including a link to solutions to every problem, but I was on the last one by then ;)

Ughh...no clue how to play Sodoku! Any hints on that one anyone? I seriously don't know how to play it.

you have to have one and only one of each character (typically 123456789, but in this case its letters) in every column, row, and 3x3 sectioned off square. i'd suggest going out and finding a really easy sudoku puzzle and solving it. they're really easy once you get the concept.

Pretty challenging one too.

http://www.sudoku-solutions.com/

I used this. Knew the basics of Sudoku but eh, bit tedious to try and actually work it out for me.

Is 28 supposed to have a 'bug'? Or is that the clue? Hmm..

Hey guys, I'm totally stuck on 39.. any advice?? :S

you mean 29?

Is it possible that Step 17 is platform dependent?

Find the HTML code for the color.

Yeah, I got that, with hex and all, but when I use digital color meter I get a different reading on each of my monitors, thus the question.

Use an eyedropper in GIMP, PS, etc. to get the digital value (don't read off monitor)

Funny Acorn didn't work but PS did. Go figure.

Stuck on Level 19...how far is everyone else?

Stuck on step 8. I found the secret message but I can't figure out what to do with it.

Edit: Doh! I analyzed it too deeply when it was staring me in the face.

Same here. Been trying everything since I found the message 30 minutes ago.

There's a secret word...look at the first letters of each line. Go there and look carefully at anything visual.

Thanks, I kept thinking it would be in the source somewhere!

gah its down

anyone have any sort of cache or mirror or hint.. sucks to stall out on a database connection error..

Damn. I thought the fact that it was down was part of the puzzle despite how silly that seems now.

Also stuck there =(

What I don't understand is that there is no Step 9. I jumped straight to step 10. Did I miss something ?

edit : there is no step 12 also. But at the end of step 11 one's can read "You must be pretty tired though, so maybe it's time to go home and get some well-deserved rest."

so resting must be the step 12 hehe

I'm stuck on 13, any hints? Edit: The Haiku one.

me too. I'm stuck on the haiku one.

Did you know there was a haiku contest a while back in the Dropbox forums?

got it. hint: haiku contest hint 2: japanese

Hmm...I seem to have found step 17 from step 14.

Been staring at 18 for too long.

Solve the anagrams

Stuck on level 1... haha

Sounds like you're in the lead. Go go rkudeshi!

I wish...someone tweeted about an hour ago that they finished the entire thing!

Now I'm stuck on 21 and I swear it involves the Dropbox Wiki, but I can't find anything...

Hint: you can sync up and collaborate with Dropbox :)

me too. bjf??

Tip: It's not BJF. Translate again.

got it!

stuck on 27...

Epic!

help with 29?

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