here's the rules

Story: Microsoft Buries $10,000 For People With IE8's User-Agent StringTotal Replies: 46
Author Content
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
5:34 PM EDT
1. The Promoter is Microsoft Pty Ltd, 1 Epping Road, North Ryde 2113. ABN: 29 002 589 460. (Promoter) 2. Entry is open to Australian residents aged 16 years and over only. Entrants under 18 years should seek parental permission to enter. Employees of the Promoter, and their immediate families, its retailers, suppliers and associated companies and agencies are not eligible to enter. 3. Promotion commences at 12:00am (Sydney time) on 17 June 2009. Entries close 11:59pm (Sydney time) on 17 September 2009. 4. To enter the competition, the entrant must follow clues released by @Tengrand_IE8 on Twitter and on http://www.tengrandisburiedhere.com. The clues section on http://www.tengrandisburiedhere.com is only viewable in Internet Explorer 8. These clues will lead the entrant to the hidden webpage. 5. The hidden webpage can only be viewed in Internet Explorer 8. The entrant must have download Internet Explorer 8 to successfully view the hidden webpage. Upon discovery of the hidden webpage, the entrant must register his/her details, via the hidden webpage 'Claim' button. 6. The first successful registration received via the hidden webpage by the Promoter will be adjudged the winner of the competition. 7. The winner will be announced at 11:00am (Sydney time) on 18 September 2009 at 1 Epping Road, North Ryde, NSW, 2113. 8. The winner will also be notified by email on 21 September 2009. 9. The winner will receive $AUD10,000, to be paid to the competition winner by cheque. 10. The Promoter's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. No responsibility is accepted for entries not received by the Promoter. 11. If the prize is not claimed within 3 months of the email, the prize will be forfeited. 12. The prize winner must, if required by the Promoter or the prize supplier, sign a legal release in a form determined by the Promoter in its absolute discretion. 13. Subject to any applicable law which cannot be excluded, the Promoter and its related bodies corporate shall not be liable for any loss, (including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss or loss of profits), expense, misadventure, accident, personal injury, death, damage or claim which is suffered or sustained (whether or not arising from any person's negligence) in connection with: a. Undertaking any travel connected with the competition or improper use of the prize won; b. Any act or omission (whether negligent or not) of the prize winner, or any person associated with them; or c. Any circumstances outside the Promoter's reasonable control. 14. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the validity of entries and to disqualify any entrant who the Promoter believes either has tampered with the entry process or has submitted an entry that is not in accordance with these Conditions. 15. Details from all entries will be collected and used for the purposes of conducting this promotion (which may include disclosure to third parties for the purpose of processing and conducting the promotion) and for publicity purposes surrounding this promotion. By entering this promotion entrants consent to the use of their information as described. Entrants may access and/or change their data by following the procedures in the Promoter's privacy policy which is available at http://www.microsoft.com/australia/privacy. The Promoter will only use your personal details for marketing purposes outside those described above if you "opt in" to join the mailing list when prompted. 16. Winners will be published on http://www.tengrandisburiedhere.com by 21 September 2009.
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
5:40 PM EDT
I have Windows 7 beta on a VM and I use IE 8 at work, so I reckon I'm covered. FF on Linux with User Agent switch works just fine to follow the clues.

BTW the clues are released on American time not Australian time, as it's already the 19th here, and no clues have yet been released.
caitlyn

Jun 18, 2009
6:14 PM EDT
Australlian residents only? Does that mean that MS no longer cares about any market outside of Australia?

(OK, that was tongue in cheek.)
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
7:45 PM EDT
Obviously their caring for Australians is quite cynical as they have arrogantly used servers set to US time, not Australian time.
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
7:46 PM EDT
What would be really cute, would be for LXer members to gather all the information need to locate the secret server, and have an Australian... me for example register for the money, and then donate the money to a Linux/FOSS cause.
caitlyn

Jun 18, 2009
8:16 PM EDT
I like the way you think :)
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
8:28 PM EDT
Anyone who wants to help can PM me with the information.
montezuma

Jun 18, 2009
10:00 PM EDT
Funny but the website linked to in the conditions is down. Too many beers probably. Yuck Yuck (I'm an Australian so you can't accuse me of racism)
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
10:08 PM EDT
Hope it wasn't Fosters
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
10:09 PM EDT
Wouldn't want to accuse them of having no taste, would we.
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
10:21 PM EDT
Go to this address http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/ and click on the See all the clues button It goes to http://twitter.com/tengrand_IE8

there are some stats on that page

* Name Ten Grand * Location Sydney * Web http://www.tengra... * Bio We've buried $10,000 somewhere on the internet and if you're the first one to find it, you keep it.

0 Following 2,728 Followers

which tells me there are only 2,728 people (that's less than the number of people in the district surrounding my small country town) looking in on this, and judging by the fact that there is a FOSS page that links to it, many of them are FOSS users using FF with User agent switcher.
montezuma

Jun 18, 2009
10:28 PM EDT
Yeah got them with my malware8 handy useragent switcher in Firefox. Now where did I leave that VB? Beats the hell out of the Brooklyn Lager I have to put up with in NYC...
tracyanne

Jun 18, 2009
10:35 PM EDT
You poor bugger, having to drink American beer.
montezuma

Jun 18, 2009
10:45 PM EDT
Yeah it's a different world alright. Had a great "relapse" in FNQ a couple of years back. Tons of VB on the beach and great scones and cream for afternoon tea. I'd forgotten about God's own Earth.
tracyanne

Jun 19, 2009
6:05 PM EDT
Does anyone want to help on this project
montezuma

Jun 19, 2009
6:26 PM EDT
First Clue meaning: www (3000 upside down)
gus3

Jun 19, 2009
7:54 PM EDT
That has to be one of the more pathetic "clues" for hard-core geeks I've ever seen. That's more script-kitty level.
tracyanne

Jun 19, 2009
9:26 PM EDT
Well that makes me a script kitty, because I don't see how you get www from that clue
jdixon

Jun 19, 2009
9:56 PM EDT
MMM is 3000 in roman numerals. WWW is MMM turned upside down.
tracyanne

Jun 19, 2009
10:12 PM EDT
oh. I don't do Cryptic crosswords either, for the same reason that never occurred to me.
tracyanne

Jun 19, 2009
10:14 PM EDT
clue FbWiFnRg
Sander_Marechal

Jun 20, 2009
3:44 AM EDT
Well, it's not rot13.
tracyanne

Jun 20, 2009
3:55 AM EDT
no it's not
jezuch

Jun 20, 2009
6:03 AM EDT
Quoting:FbWiFnRg


Well, the small caps read "bing". I don't know if the rest is relevant or just chaff.
gus3

Jun 20, 2009
7:43 AM EDT
Query Bing for "FWFR".

No, I won't.
tracyanne

Jun 20, 2009
8:35 AM EDT
Bing Four Word Film Review
gus3

Jun 20, 2009
8:57 AM EDT
"It stinks! It stinks!"

--with apologies to John Lovitz
hkwint

Jun 20, 2009
10:51 AM EDT
Quoting:Query Bing for "FWFR".

No, I won't.


Can use Ixquick (metasearcher that respects privacy), Yahoo, Google, ask.com or even Wikipedia: All give the same answer.

FbWiFnRg -- was I the only one thinking 'framebuffer wireless function register'? I'm bad at this cr@p.

BTW: 10 million grand is burried - er I mean burnt - here: [url=http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=47.64432~-122.130531&style=r&lvl=14&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=1 Microsoft road, Redmond&encType=1]http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=47....[/url]
caitlyn

Jun 20, 2009
6:32 PM EDT
TA: I'm sorry I haven't had time to help. I've been dealing with a ferret emergency. I'm not all the good at this sort of thing in any case. I'm even worse on no sleep.
tracyanne

Jun 20, 2009
8:54 PM EDT
I hope it wasn't ferrets up your trousers.
tracyanne

Jun 20, 2009
8:56 PM EDT
Clue: You are now watching 370211931299
caitlyn

Jun 20, 2009
9:01 PM EDT
No, my ferrets don't go into my clothing except maybe a sweater in the winter. They are sweet animals and make great (if sometimes expensive) pets.
montezuma

Jun 20, 2009
9:23 PM EDT
http://www.bing.crappysearchengine

Sorry jumped to the third clue
montezuma

Jun 21, 2009
8:04 AM EDT
Third clue apparently refers to a book on buried treasures on ebay google not bing is your friend here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Buried-Treasures-You-Can-Find:-Over-7500...

Note the item number

Sounds like a place marker
tracyanne

Jun 21, 2009
8:22 AM EDT
Page no longer exists
chalbersma

Jun 21, 2009
2:53 PM EDT
Ebay item 370211931299

Found the answer on Google ironically it wasn't on bing.
hkwint

Jun 21, 2009
4:18 PM EDT
How many more clues are coming?

"www four word film review on buried treasures" doesn't ring a bell as of yet.
hkwint

Jun 22, 2009
5:00 PM EDT
Nxt clue: a predatory fish being earnest ED: Oscar Wilde

Even one more clue: Seems to be Regina --> Queen --> Victoria?
tracyanne

Jun 22, 2009
5:25 PM EDT
www four word film review on buried treasures --> Pirates of the Carabean

a fourword film review of Pirate of the Carabean
hkwint

Jun 22, 2009
8:09 PM EDT
Thought of that too, TA.

But then, well, there are lots of other movies about buried treasures. Indiana Jones series, the Mummy occasionally finds some, and probably tons of others.
tracyanne

Jun 22, 2009
9:00 PM EDT
Yeah, but given this is Australia, and that clue points to Victoria, maybe Eureka Stockade as in Australia gold rush (buried treasure)
hkwint

Jun 23, 2009
7:27 PM EDT
Just contributed to the 'Existing by coincidence' blog about the new clue ("Jobiska made a drink for Ian. Or Arthur".)

___

How about this coincidences:

Edward Lear also wrote "The owl and the pussycat'. One version is illustrated by Ian beck. Another version for kids, was written by Eric Idle, former member of Monthy Python (hence Arthur?).

In Victoria, Australia, there's a shop called "The Owl and the Pussycat":

http://www.theowlandthepussycat.net.au/
gus3

Jun 23, 2009
7:42 PM EDT
Except that Eric Idle played Brave, Brave, Brave, Brave Sir Robin. Arthur was played by Graham Chapman.
tracyanne

Jun 23, 2009
8:08 PM EDT
It's highly unliky that Microsoft would have "hidden" anything on http://theowlandthepussycat.com.au/ it's an apache web server
hkwint

Jun 24, 2009
11:36 AM EDT
Hmm, bummer.
flufferbeer

Jun 24, 2009
1:01 PM EDT
@tracyanne IIRC, there was a case a few years ago when M$ offered a free Acer Ferraru laptop to influential bloggers who somehow managed to give it$ Windblow$ Vista highly favorable reviews.
hkwint

Jun 24, 2009
3:56 PM EDT
Quoting:who somehow managed to give it$ Windblow$ Vista highly favorable reviews.


ED: True. http://www.istartedsomething.com/20061227/microsoft-free-fer...

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