Monolithic0117 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I stumbled upon this video, named "What's in the box?" today. It was originally posted on YouTube, and seems to be either a viral video made by Valve, hinting at a new production, or a fan-made tribute to the Half-Life franchise. There was also a link to a website, http://www.whatsinthebox.nl/ in the YouTube posting. So far there's nothing but a fancy graphic, a list of credits for the video, and the heading "Soon the world will find out", but this is still very, very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 The source code for the website was very interesting. especially this bit: <!- - Every medium, as its ancestors - -> <!- - Every pro, has his anti's, now you think about that - -> (thanks to Septim for noticing that btw) And this is what you get if you try to print it: http://www.whatsinthebox.nl/anti.jpg (thanks to septim again lol) Finally, when I do a whois check (using whois.net - I dont have a whois tool on my pc atm sadly), I get told my IP has been blocked from performing any queries. Querying other sites works fine, however. More info as I find it out :D EDIT: Well, it's definitely by someone with plenty of cash available - those sounds which aren't from lost/half life would be to difficult to make for most amateurs (they have to be specially made for the video, they fit in with the rest of it so well), the special effects are pretty professional, not to mention getting the entire area they filmed in (which includes several roads and public areas, so it would need permission from the local authority) cleared of people, set up (the fallen over bikes, dropped bags, all the cars/bus scattered about - which would have cost a load of money to begin with) - it would all have been too expensive for an amateur. So that rules out a fan video. If it werent for the fact that in all the news tickers you see in the vid it says 'Greatest Catastrophe Since Black Mesa', I'd say it was the trailer for some random film. But I think it's almost certainly by Valve. Now we just have to wait and see what they say about it :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skree000 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 odd... WHOIS information for whatsinthebox.com : Welcome to the Network Solutions Registrar WHOIS Server. The IP address from which you have visited the Network Solutions Registrar WHOISdatabase is contained within a list of IP addresses that may have failedto abide by Network Solutions' WHOIS policy. Failure to abide by this policy canadversely impact our systems and servers, preventing the processing ofother WHOIS requests. To see the Network Solutions WHOIS Policy, click on or copy and paste the followingURL into your browser: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml If you feel that you have received this message in error, please contact us at:[email protected] and include the following information: Whois Query: whatsinthebox.comYOUR IP address is Date and Time of Query: Thu Mar 19 08:46:51 EDT 2009Reason Code: IE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PureSnipe Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Ahh, perfect! I'll do some stuff in photoshop to see if there's anything hidden in that image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PureSnipe Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Well well well.... Quite a LOT hidden in plain sight!! I'll upload the enhanced image.http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f104/PureSnipe/Photoshopped/anti_enhanced.jpgLook at the large word on the bottom that was originally hidden - ATTAINABLENESS. This whole formula is talking about the energy required for something. Doesn't say what, but it's a snippet of a formula used to calculate the amount of energy required for a task. Read it. Try and make sense. I can't type all my thoughts. Sounds a whole lot like valve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monolithic0117 Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 It all seems to match the blueprints of a solar energy device of sorts and the production costs, etc.. The edges are illegible, and the cube is blocking the center, so its difficult to make sense out of it. The central equation does seem to be a formula of sorts, as PureSnipe pointed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PureSnipe Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-99108.html This is a physics formula. Give me a while and I'll see if I can't figure it out. EDIT: Don't even need to do that! That formula appears to be one that's just specifying the dimensions of that cube on a physics type level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monolithic0117 Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 I'm very positive its describing a form of device utilizing energy-conversion techniques, namely solar energy. It seems as if its an excerpt from one of those brochures that they give out in conferences and the like. At the bottom of the word-cloud, it repeats the top of the word-cloud. The "Attainableness" makes it seem as if its describing a never-before-seen method of energy conversion that is close to becoming produced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Yeah, its just the same few lines of text repeated over and over again, about how their new solar energy device thing is cheaper and more effecient than the current solar panels. Never says what their device is though. Also, the credit thing at the bottom is just a load of random nonsense, all the names are just the 2 words "timsmit", "tibault", and "neils" in different orders. Wonder if that means anything? EDIT: I just recorded the screen with the website on, to see if that flashing text at the bottom says anything much. Sadly, I cant seem to find a program thatll play it frame-by-frame (everything I've tried only seems to show every 4th frame, helpfully). So far I have managed to see the words READ and FAST, as well as BOXR (which could have been somewhere in the transition between saying box and something else). The rest I saw mainly seemed to be strings of numbers and letters. I'm gonna try and find a video program that'll let me watch it frame by frame, so I can get a proper look. EDIT: Done. Nothing there... the most ineresting thing I found was when it said UUUU READ FAST :rolleyes: lol EDIT EDIT: Gamespy: Valve: Live-Action 'Box' Video is NOT Official Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTerminator2004 Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Figured I'd mention this for those who might be interested - I'm fairly sure its not a viral now, but its still pretty damn cool. www.whatsinthebox.nl has been updated - try clicking on the different sides of the circle. Theres a new short video, some newspaper cuttings, an updated version of the original video, and a weird text box password thingy. Pretty cool. The entire site is also just a redirect to http://babel-research.eu/witb/ - the http://babel-research.eu page is pretty cool, well worth a look. And the Hanso foundation logo at the bottom is a link leading here: http://www.thehansofoundation.org/ I don't know what exactly this whole thing is, but whatever it is, its pretty damn awesome! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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