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Chrome OS Puzzle-Solver Scores a New Google Cr-48 Laptop

by Terrence O'Brien on December 13, 2010 at 01:02 PM

Google Puzzle
Google loves to make people solve puzzles. The company often posts them in obvious places for all the world to see, so it was a bit of a surprise when Sylvain Zimmer, and a few of his co-workers at music site Jamendo, spotted an equation hiding in the background of one of the new Chrome OS marketing videos. Zimmer immediately started trying to decipher and solve the lengthy string of symbols and numbers. After working on the puzzle for hours, the group eventually reached x = 900.91/191605050401140404051920181525 ~= 4.7*10^-27.

Many hours later, the final "aha" moment happened during Zimmer's commute home: the numbers were letters. The 900.91 at the beginning of the equation was clearly a stand-in for goo.gl, Google's URL shortener. The rest of the numbers, when fed through a basic cipher, spelled out "speed and destroy." Zimmer then typed the resulting URL into a browser, and a form popped up congratulating him on winning a brand new Cr-48 (one of Google's Chrome OS prototype notebooks). While the prize has already been won, feel free to try your hand at the MENSA-approved equation in the image above.

Tags: chrome, chrome os, ChromeOs, google, puzzle, sylvain zimmer, SylvainZimmer, top, web

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