Here is the "official video."
Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
21–30 of 33 posts
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#22After reading some of the speculation about it in the online forums, I thought "Wouldn't it be fun to set up something like this as a prank?" It almost sounds like something Woz would be into...
Ha, I had the same thought - which makes me think that this is almost definitely a big prank that someone set up. Evidence: - It was first posted on /b/ - Words like "TROOP" and "AGENT" are encoded in ASCII, and accessible by (nearly) any "passcode" that the user types in and the dead giveaway in my mind: - The "please stay on the line for the next available circuit" message played by the number was found to have bee…
also there is very little information given and that information isn't in a format that would be useful to its intended recipient. great, "AGENT" is at (x,y) and "AGENT" is at (a,b) and "AGENT" is at (c,d). but I want to talk to "AGENT SANDRA". !?!?!?! argh.
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ha, I had the same thought - which makes me think that this is almost definitely a big prank that someone set up. Evidence: - It was first posted on /b/ - Words like "TROOP" and "AGENT" are encoded in ASCII, and accessible by (nearly) any "passcode" that the user types in and the dead giveaway in my mind: - The "please stay on the line for the next available circuit" message played by the number was found to have bee…
also there is very little information given and that information isn't in a format that would be useful to its intended recipient. great, "AGENT" is at (x,y) and "AGENT" is at (a,b) and "AGENT" is at (c,d). but I want to talk to "AGENT SANDRA". !?!?!?! argh.
Could it be a multi-player Battleship-style game? A player enters his player ID ("agent number") to play. Once all of a player's assets have been destroyed it becomes "compromised".
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#24Nice marketing idea if this got to be 3rd on HN, my guess is a movie, or a video game as well
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#25Looking through and mapping the coordinates is very interesting. The ship groups are all in the bering sea and current OSI shows that no military trips are in transit of the straights.
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#26Halo 4's coming out soon. I'm betting on ARG.
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#27There was a time in my long ago youth when some friends and I came by access to a voice mail host system.
We made use of many of the unused numbers, some as mysterious messages such at this, others for less cryptic but no less entertaining fake organizations. Then we'd place free ads in the various free weeklies that cover many cities and college towns with the phone numbers we'd set up.
Ah, the olden days. If we'd had the web, we'd have been real trouble.
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#28In my opinion, there's no way that this is an actual intelligence or military operated switch.
I'm not firm in this belief because of the open nature of a phone line like this (that part seems fine), but because there is no reason for a real switch to use actual terminology like "agent" and "compromised."
This reminds me a lot of a Capture the Flag contest: you know you're not really hacking an intelligence agency, but sometimes it's fun to pretend.
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#29Sounds like a viral marketing stunt or alternate reality game.
Re: Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
#30After reading some of the speculation about it in the online forums, I thought "Wouldn't it be fun to set up something like this as a prank?" It almost sounds like something Woz would be into...
It would be awesome and easy to set something like this up on twilio. I would have chosen a 702 area code though and when posting about it speculated that it had something to do with area 51. ;)
The number seems to be owned by Level3, so its likely that its a VOIP line unless Level3 does regular phone circuits in the Denver area. (Source: http://www.telcodata.us/search-area-code-exchange-detail?npa...)