Mystery Box Challenge

[martinbogo]

I'd like to bring back the Mystery Box challenge. I've got enough materials and time to put together about 10 challenge sets.

Interested?

Up to it?

(hell, am ---I--- up to it? LosT, you'll be one hell of a hard act to follow. I only hope I'm as demonic as you at puzzles.)

-M

[PunkAB]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

First things first, did you get the nod from LosT? If anything, he could fill you in on issues he enountered. Plus, his endorsement would go along way with the MC faithful.

Personally, I'm always up for a challenge, and I'd love to see the MC kept alive. Just don't want any toes stepped on or bad mojo hovering over what is by far the coolest contest ever. ;)

Oh, and make all of your "protection" money checks payable to Grifter.

[Nikita]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

I don't think so. It's just MY opinion, but I think that it's L0sT's contest and he has the rights to it. I think it's up to HIM if he brings it back or lets it die on a high note. I personally have seen things that were started at DEF CON and then taken/copied by someone else at another con and I found it highly rude and offensive.(Well, at least you asked first.) We don't have Robot Wars anymore, why? Because it was a concept that was created by someone and in my opinion they own the rights to that game and the name. But I wish it would come back too.

The Mystery Challenge was an amazing contest and is in MY opinion legendary. It's not to be copied and its mastermind can not be replaced. No matter your talents, resources or best intentions, I would not do it. To me, when leadership exchanges hands in these types of well known events, it's kin to replacing Bond. Some would say we should have quit replacing him at Connery. Sure, it's still entertaining, but he's lost his balls bit by bit, and gotten more smug in the face, and we all know it.

There has to be another way you can use your ideas, energy, etc to creating something cool and equally challenging or rewarding to attendees. There are probably other contests that might want someone like you that is willing to add some new flare and help out. Best of luck to you.

[PunkAB]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

I would tend to agree. However, LosT hinted along these lines last year, making it a communal effort. Haven't heard much since, though. I would say there would likely be a general consensus that without LosT giving the go ahead, it's a dead in the water issue.

And Lost could take Connery any day of the week. ;)

[TheCotMan]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

I saw this thread shortly after it was created and was going to reply with content similar to what PunkAB and Nikita provided. Instead, I sent an email to Lost[boy] to ask if he was planning to, or interested in handing his contest over to someone else, and linked to the thread. However, I did not hear back from Lost, and had not heard back from him for about 4 weeks, long before this thread was created.

As it turns out, he was replying to me using SMS to a pre-paid phone I had that died several months ago. I put-off getting it replaced so long that I lost that number. As a result, his SMS replies were going to the bit bucket, or a very confused new owner of that phone number. Because it was a cheap pay-as-you-go phone, there was no easy off-phone sync, so I lost all of the numbers that were on it when it died.

In summary, his reply said: Lost[boy] has no plans to hand off this contest to anyone else. (This is not exactly what he sent in SMS, because he doesn't usually refer to himself by his own handle instead of using pronouns like "I" or "me".)

This does not mean he is or is not running this contest this year, and it does not mean he is or is not running this contest next year. He is busy with other things, one of which has been announced on the forums. At least one new forum will be created by his request once I get a description for it, and now that we have SMS, maybe sooner rather than later. (Forum title? Ah. You will have to wait until I get the description. :-)

If you want more details, you will have to wait for him to reply.

So, where do you (martinbogo) go from here? The only thing I have influence over at Defcon is the forums. I am not a goon, and I don't work while at Defcon. All I have is advice based on experience:

It would be a bad idea to create a contest with "mystery" in the name, and have puzzles or puzzles in boxes or a contest styled like "Lost @ con mystery contest" and "Mystery Challenge" and "Mystery Box." This does not mean this theme is locked down, and nobody can create a contest with a puzzle in it ever again. If you want to create a new contest that is different from Lost's contest, and call it something else like, "PUZZLED! a MartinBogo Production" or "Hidden-Crypto Redundancy or Fault Tolerance?" or something else, and then get an okay from Pyr0 if planning to run it in the contest space, or Nikita if planning to run it in the speaker space, then it might not lead to drama.

If you disregard this, and Pyr0, Nikita, DT or someone else approves your contest, I will follow with creating a forum for it using whatever name was approved, but if you want to minimize drama, the advice above should make your life much easier. :-)

The only value in advice is what you make of it.

Good luck!

[LosT]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

I'm flattered an humbled.

I always encourage people to make their own contributions and efforts- martinbogo, I encourage you to make something that is uniquely yours- You don't need my stuff, you've probably got some great ideas and things to create-

There will be opportunities in the future.

Some things never change.

Some things never stay the same.

Mystery Challenge isn't dead. But I've said too much already.

LosT

[Ellen]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

:) I love Nikita's response. IMHO Mystery Challenge is more like a part of LosT than an event hosted by him. To those of us who participate, replacing LosT would be less like replacing Bond, and more like making a completely different unrelated movie with the same title. You can't re-crate the contest without the man, because he IS the contest.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, Martinbogo. :)

(And you too, 1057 <3)

[martinbogo]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

LosT, I was waiting for your reponse before doing anything. I agree with all the feedback posted here. I love the Mystery Challenge, and I miss it, but it's definitely your thing.

*rubs hands together evilly*

So, here's my proposal. I love hardware, I love geocaching, I love puzzles, and I cackle with glee sending people on a merry chase... so here is my proposal:

Inside a solid wooden box, I have trapped a little hardware genie.
If you open the box, the genie will escape.
If you abuse the box, the genie will die.
It can sense the world around it, in mysterious ways.
If you fail to care for the box, the genie will get bored .. or worse.

The genie is Murphy's friend, a true Imp of the Perverse, and he laughs at Schrodinger.

It knows:
.. where it is.
.. how to knock on the box
.. how to communicate in other more subtle ways
.. how to listen to knocks.
.. where to find treasures
.. and how to unlock them

It may even know how to talk in ways other than knocking.

If you appease the genie, and keep it happy, it will reward you.

If you fail to appease it, it will lead you off the beaten path, to people, places, and things that might calm it's wrath.

---

Even though there is still a box ( I love the feel of wood, and it's appropriate to the theme. I just like the look and feel of a completely plain, unadorned, unmarked wooden box ) I think the idea now follows a fundamentally different path.

The contest will involve reverse geocaching, finding ways to interact with the genie in the box, how to cater to it's whims (like a demonic tamagotchi), social engineering, hopefully integrate with other contests underway if I can coordinate it, and a lot of fun for those involved. It's the Genie in the Knockbox.

It's May 9. To pull all this together and to have enough of them ready in time, I'd need to go/no go the idea within a week so I can get the PCB's made and the boxes milled. I've already pulled some code together, but there's also a lot of work that will need to be done before Defcon. (And some serious coordination to do between other people running contests, not to mention some help from the Rio)

-M

[TheCotMan]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

LosT, I was waiting for your reponse before doing anything. I agree with all the feedback posted here. I love the Mystery Challenge, and I miss it, but it's definitely your thing.

*rubs hands together evilly*

So, here's my proposal. I love hardware, I love geocaching, I love puzzles, and I cackle with glee sending people on a merry chase... so here is my proposal:

Inside a solid wooden box, I have trapped a little hardware genie.
If you open the box, the genie will escape.
If you abuse the box, the genie will die.
It can sense the world around it, in mysterious ways.
If you fail to care for the box, the genie will get bored .. or worse.

The genie is Murphy's friend, a true Imp of the Perverse, and he laughs at Schrodinger.

It knows:
.. where it is.
.. how to knock on the box
.. how to communicate in other more subtle ways
.. how to listen to knocks.
.. where to find treasures
.. and how to unlock them

It may even know how to talk in ways other than knocking.

If you appease the genie, and keep it happy, it will reward you.

If you fail to appease it, it will lead you off the beaten path, to people, places, and things that might calm it's wrath.

---

Even though there is still a box ( I love the feel of wood, and it's appropriate to the theme. I just like the look and feel of a completely plain, unadorned, unmarked wooden box ) I think the idea now follows a fundamentally different path.

The contest will involve reverse geocaching, finding ways to interact with the genie in the box, how to cater to it's whims (like a demonic tamagotchi), social engineering, hopefully integrate with other contests underway if I can coordinate it, and a lot of fun for those involved. It's the Genie in the Knockbox.

It's May 9. To pull all this together and to have enough of them ready in time, I'd need to go/no go the idea within a week so I can get the PCB's made and the boxes milled. I've already pulled some code together, but there's also a lot of work that will need to be done before Defcon. (And some serious coordination to do between other people running contests, not to mention some help from the Rio)

-M

Consider, also, [Syntax] is running "[forum=554]Defcon Geo Challenge[/forum]" described as:

Geo Caching with a digital twist. RFID Caches, Cryptography, Ciphering & GPS reveal digital caches on the Vegas Strip. (site) (twitter)

This does not mean there can be only one geo-caching-related contest, as there have been multiple wireless contests run in the same year, but you would want to make it sufficiently different as to not appear to be a duplicate contest.

Get people interested in your contest, and then get it approved for space with one of the people mentioned before, and I can verify and get a forum for it. Pyr0 posted a thread on what to submit and you can start there if you find other people are interested in your idea for a contest.

[martinbogo]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

Okay, noted the form that Pyro put together for submitting a contest. Using the Ideas forum as a sounding board has been a _very_ good idea, given the feedback I've gotten so far. I'll put it in once the idea has gelled solidly.

[Syntax] has a forward-geocaching contest, where the point is to be able to use your own knowledge of GPS to get to the caches.

This is turning it on it's end .. only the genie knows where it needs to be. The challenge is in communicating with it, and taking it where it wants to go, or doing what it needs done. It's a different kind of game than the Geocache, since it's not just about geocaching, and it's not a crypto challenge ( at least, not in the conventional sense ).

I'm thinking of the Genie as being a 4x4x4" unadorned cube that a small team of people (3-6) would work with.

-M

[astcell]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

Sounds like a Tamagotchi.

[SmittyHalibut]

Re: Mystery Box Challenge

This sounds pretty cool, actually. Where do I sign up?