6 ms·

Fascinating story, but that article reads like the journalist took troll stories from 4c as sources. Seriously, whoever wrote this appears to be clueless. > "a

Fascinating story, but that article reads like the journalist took troll stories from 4c as sources. Seriously, whoever wrote this appears to be clueless. > "a robotic voice told them to find the prime numbers in the original image. By multiplying them together, the solvers found a new prime" Excuse me? > "TOR is an obscure routing network that allows anonymous access to the “darknet” — the vast, murky portion of the Internet that cannot be indexed by standard search engines. Estimated to be 5,000 times larger that the “surface” web, it’s in these recesses that you’ll find human-trafficking rings, black market drug markets and terrorist networks" Sure... the "surface" web is just the tip of the iceberg, right? Journalism at its best.

clarry 13y ago
> > "TOR is an obscure routing network that allows anonymous access to the “darknet” — the vast, murky portion of the Internet that cannot be indexed by standard search engines. Estimated to be 5,000 times larger that the “surface” web, it’s in these recesses that you’ll find human-trafficking rings, black market drug markets and terrorist networks" > Sure... the "surface" web is just the tip of the iceberg, right? Journalism at its best. They seem to have confused some concepts. But the deep web isn't something mythical made up by 4chan trolls or science fiction writers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web
- tedunangst 13y ago
  Your wikipedia link would include my bank account as part of the deep web, since it's hidden behind a password login. Good to know I'm keeping company with human trafficking rings and terrorist networks.
  - enkephalin 13y ago
    from the wikipedia article >> Private Web: sites that require registration and login (password-protected resources). so, yeah.
  - na85 13y ago
    Yep, your bank account is definitely part of the deep web, a totally-mundane term easily conflated with what some call the 'dark web'.
moocowduckquack 13y ago
Excuse me? Is a Daily Telegraph writer, don't expect scientific literacy. I remember reading an article about Fred Hoyle, in a copy of the Telegraph that I found on a train, where they described him as a 'famous astrologer', so them not understanding what a prime number is doesn't really surprise me.
- rbanffy 13y ago
  > Is a Daily Telegraph writer, don't expect scientific literacy. This is high-school math.
  - saraid216 13y ago
    This is a little tangential, but this thread made me think of this: > Well, Professors Kimball and Smith, welcome to journalism, where “bad at math” isn’t just a destructive idea — it’s a badge of honor. It’s your admission to the club. It’s woven into the very fabric of identity as a journalist. http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-fears-and-learned-to-be-good-at-math/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-f...
  - Mikeb85 13y ago
    I'm amazed when people can do a basic percentage calculation, never mind knowing what a prime number is...
keithpeter 13y ago
"There, a robotic voice told them to find the prime numbers in the original image. By multiplying them together, the solvers found a new prime" That made my eyes bleed, but OA has given me a superb Maths revision lesson for some bored teenagers. I'd already planned to get them decoding a ROT13 text by reference to letter frequencies, and now this 'quest' as well. Nice.
egocodedinsol 13y ago
But how do you feel about the story itself? Lots of journalism has inaccuracies, but I'd rather know what you think about such a weird and intriguing phenomenon. Most people here understand quite well that primes are not closed under multiplication, by definition, and it wasn't really central to the story. Neither was their weird understanding of Tor.
archgoon 13y ago
>> "a robotic voice told them to find the prime numbers in the original image. By multiplying them together, the solvers found a new prime" #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("%d\n",2147483629*2147483647); } $ gcc test.c -o test 2> /dev/null $ ./test 19
- cynwoody 13y ago
  $ python -c "print '0x%x' % (2147483629*2147483647)" 0x3ffffff600000013
  - vijucat 13y ago
    R terminal: > 2147483629*2147483647 [1] 4.611686e+18
    - ramintran 13y ago
      Please. The only proper answer is to gather as many friends as you can and all implement the peasant's algorithm together.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
amirmc 13y ago
Sounds like someone got confused between 'dark matter' and 'dark net'.
owarida 13y ago
The primes in question = 509, 503 and 3301. 509 and 503 was the width and height of the image. Obviously, you don't get a new prime after multiplying these numbers together though. ;) For those who don't find this immediately obvious, keep in mind the definition of a prime ... Well, he obviously has misunderstood both TOR and the definition of a darknet. The surface web _is_ just the tip of the iceberg though, but that's because it's defined as the part of the web being indexed by public search engines. Your private Facebook posts, your Gmail inbox, private Dropbox files, and so on, are all parts of the so called deep web according to this definition. Due to this, it's not a very meaningful concept, and says absolutely nothing about the size of any "human-trafficking rings, black market drug markets and terrorist networks". PS. I'm the Joel Eriksson that Chris interviewed for the article in question, and for anyone who would like more detailed and less sensationalist information about the Cicada 3301 stuff, feel free to read my writeup at http://www.clevcode.org/cicada-3301/ http://www.clevcode.org/cicada-3301/. :)

clarry 13y ago

> > "TOR is an obscure routing network that allows anonymous access to the “darknet” — the vast, murky portion of the Internet that cannot be indexed by standard search engines. Estimated to be 5,000 times larger that the “surface” web, it’s in these recesses that you’ll find human-trafficking rings, black market drug markets and terrorist networks" > Sure... the "surface" web is just the tip of the iceberg, right? Journalism at its best. They seem to have confused some concepts. But the deep web isn't something mythical made up by 4chan trolls or science fiction writers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web

tedunangst 13y ago
Your wikipedia link would include my bank account as part of the deep web, since it's hidden behind a password login. Good to know I'm keeping company with human trafficking rings and terrorist networks.
- enkephalin 13y ago
  from the wikipedia article >> Private Web: sites that require registration and login (password-protected resources). so, yeah.
- na85 13y ago
  Yep, your bank account is definitely part of the deep web, a totally-mundane term easily conflated with what some call the 'dark web'.

moocowduckquack 13y ago

Excuse me? Is a Daily Telegraph writer, don't expect scientific literacy. I remember reading an article about Fred Hoyle, in a copy of the Telegraph that I found on a train, where they described him as a 'famous astrologer', so them not understanding what a prime number is doesn't really surprise me.

rbanffy 13y ago
> Is a Daily Telegraph writer, don't expect scientific literacy. This is high-school math.
- saraid216 13y ago
  This is a little tangential, but this thread made me think of this: > Well, Professors Kimball and Smith, welcome to journalism, where “bad at math” isn’t just a destructive idea — it’s a badge of honor. It’s your admission to the club. It’s woven into the very fabric of identity as a journalist. http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-fears-and-learned-to-be-good-at-math/ http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/11/matt-waite-how-i-faced-my-f...
- Mikeb85 13y ago
  I'm amazed when people can do a basic percentage calculation, never mind knowing what a prime number is...

keithpeter 13y ago

"There, a robotic voice told them to find the prime numbers in the original image. By multiplying them together, the solvers found a new prime" That made my eyes bleed, but OA has given me a superb Maths revision lesson for some bored teenagers. I'd already planned to get them decoding a ROT13 text by reference to letter frequencies, and now this 'quest' as well. Nice.

egocodedinsol 13y ago

But how do you feel about the story itself? Lots of journalism has inaccuracies, but I'd rather know what you think about such a weird and intriguing phenomenon. Most people here understand quite well that primes are not closed under multiplication, by definition, and it wasn't really central to the story. Neither was their weird understanding of Tor.

archgoon 13y ago

>> "a robotic voice told them to find the prime numbers in the original image. By multiplying them together, the solvers found a new prime" #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("%d\n",2147483629*2147483647); } $ gcc test.c -o test 2> /dev/null $ ./test 19

cynwoody 13y ago
$ python -c "print '0x%x' % (2147483629*2147483647)" 0x3ffffff600000013
- vijucat 13y ago
  R terminal: > 2147483629*2147483647 [1] 4.611686e+18
  - ramintran 13y ago
    Please. The only proper answer is to gather as many friends as you can and all implement the peasant's algorithm together.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

amirmc 13y ago

Sounds like someone got confused between 'dark matter' and 'dark net'.

owarida 13y ago

The primes in question = 509, 503 and 3301. 509 and 503 was the width and height of the image. Obviously, you don't get a new prime after multiplying these numbers together though. ;) For those who don't find this immediately obvious, keep in mind the definition of a prime ... Well, he obviously has misunderstood both TOR and the definition of a darknet. The surface web _is_ just the tip of the iceberg though, but that's because it's defined as the part of the web being indexed by public search engines. Your private Facebook posts, your Gmail inbox, private Dropbox files, and so on, are all parts of the so called deep web according to this definition. Due to this, it's not a very meaningful concept, and says absolutely nothing about the size of any "human-trafficking rings, black market drug markets and terrorist networks". PS. I'm the Joel Eriksson that Chris interviewed for the article in question, and for anyone who would like more detailed and less sensationalist information about the Cicada 3301 stuff, feel free to read my writeup at http://www.clevcode.org/cicada-3301/ http://www.clevcode.org/cicada-3301/. :)