A comment today from a reader asked for a summary of all the RIF puzzles found so far. I'll post them here, along with solutions (in white text so you'll have to highlight the answers to read them). Please keep in mind that these are the puzzles that I'm aware of - there might be more. If I've missed one, please let me know. (By the way, I emailed Poe and asked if I could post these solutions - the only one I'm not allowed to provide right now is the last puzzle I discuss below.)
The first puzzle found is in the upper-right corner of the large grey rectangle. Move the mouse over the area until you trigger it. The puzzles is:
JRARRQNTRAGFJVGUTBBQC
EBOYRZFBYIVATFXVYYFNT
RAGFHFRAKGEBOBGFGBNFF
VFGJVGUVAIRFGVTNGVATN
AQPBYYRPGVATVASBEZNGV
BASBEBHEPYVRAGFPURPXU
RERSBEZBERVASBEZNGVBA
BANHTHFGGJRAGLSVIR
If you use a ROT13 encoder/decoder (http://www.degraeve.com/rot13.php) to convert the code, it changes to (drag your mouse to select the text below to see it:
WENEEDAGENTSWITHGOODP
ROBLEMSOLVINGSKILLSAG
ENTSUSENXTROBOTSTOASS
ISTWITHINVESTIGATINGA
NDCOLLECTINGINFORMATI
ONFOROURCLIENTSCHECKH
EREFORMOREINFORMATION
ONAUGUSTTWENTYFIVE
So apparently some new info will be released tomorrow (August 25, 2006)
The next puzzle found wasn't a puzzle, but was a hidden link. Highlight the line below for its location.
Move the mouse around inside the letter P in the word September until the point changes to a hand. That's the hidden link.
The next puzzle was a little more difficult to solve. This one is a little trickier to find and solve. Highlight the line below for directions to find it:
The puzzle is located on the right side of the large grey rectangle. You have to move the mouse around carefully, but when you hit the trigger you'll see two columns of text pop up and the words "Yes and No" and "On and Off".
Highlight the line below for the instructions on solving the puzzle:
I'm not going to paste the long column of text here, but to solve it simply start with the first letter, F (in FAIL) and then skip every other letter: So FAIL ROSE would be FIRS (skip the A, L, O, and E.) Keep doing this as you read down the column of words. The message spells instructions to email the RIF. If you sent an email before August 20 to the RIF you received
an email from Poe with a special message and a reward that has yet to be announced... (I'm very curious... has anyone who solved it heard what the reward is?)
The next puzzle I encountered (not sure if this one came before the next one) was a hidden message embedded in the PDF file that Poe sent to nxtasy.org. Highlight the line below for instructions on finding the message:
In the first "story" on the PDF (about the missing scientist) there are letters in the story that are bolded. They are fairly easy to find and this one wasn't that hard to solve. Read the bold letters in order for a website to visit.
The next puzzle (which may have appeared before the PDF one above, not sure) was a word jumble found in the lower-right corner of the large grey rectangle. It's been unjumbled now, but if you figured it out, it spelled out sudoku.html. If you go to www.rifagent.com/sudoku.html it took you to the next puzzle.
The last puzzle I'm aware of is the actual Sudoku puzzle. I was not given permission to provide the solution for it, but basically just solve the sudoku puzzle. They kindly gave a link to a wiki article that gives the rules if you are unfamiliar with it... and if you're not good at it, find somebody (it's worth it!)
That's it... if I've missed one, please add a comment.