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Google Nexus S Fun

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31 Oct 2011CPOL1 min read 4K  
Google Nexus (@googlenexus) Nexus S contest solution.

I happened to catch the second clue in the Google Nexus (@googlenexus) Nexus S contest about 20 minutes or so after they posted it. I didn't get the first puzzle; I thought I did but I was wrong. This one I was on the right track right away. The clue was:

Puzzle Challenge #2: There is more than meets the eye at http://goo.gl/MKoc8. You'll find the answer in a tweet.

So the first thing I did when I went to the page was look at the source code. At the very bottom of the page I found this:

.
                               I                I                               
                                I      ++      I                                
                                 IIIIIIIIIIIIII                                 
                               IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                               
                             IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                             
                            IIII   IIIIIIIIII  IIIII                            
                           IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                           
                          IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                           
                          IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                          
                          IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                          
                    IIII  IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  IIII                    
                   IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII 0110100001110100011101000111 IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII 0000001110100010111100101111 IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII 0110011101101111011011110010 IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII 1110011001110110110000101111 IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII 0110101001010000010011110100 IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII 100101101100IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII                   
                   IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIII                   
                   +IIII  IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  IIII:                   
                          IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                          
                          IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                          
                           IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII                           
                                IIIIII    IIIIII                                
                                IIIIII    IIIIII                                
                                IIIIII    IIIIII                                
                                IIIIII    IIIIII                                
                                IIIIII    IIIIII                                
                                IIIII,    IIIIII                                
                                  I:        ~I

I noticed the binary around the android's belly so I translated it into ASCII text and got the following URL: http://goo.gl/jPOIl.

I went to the URL and was faced with a puzzle with a timer. The puzzle involved rearranging letters, by swapping two neighbors, in a string so they were in the "correct" order. You could see how many were correct at the bottom of the page. It was pretty simple and I got the solution before the timer ran out (it took me a few seconds to recognize I was being timed).

275825/Picture_1.png

Clicking the Tweet your victory! button opened a web tweet box with the message:

@googlenexus Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Android!

I hope it's not against the rules to post the solution; I looked quickly through the legalese and didn't see anything forbidding it.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)