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这两天因为《达芬奇的密码》上映，符号与密码成了闲聊的主要内容，聊起此事，不少同学都惊叹于神秘的西方宗教符号，其实与咱们天天使用的汉字相比，西方那些符号简直是不值一提了，因为汉字本身就是丰富多彩的符号，稍微探究一下汉字的演进，里面有趣的故事要比 blade 或是 chalice 丰富的多。

举个例子，譬如一个"女"字，甲骨文中通常的写法如下：

晚上去看了《达芬奇的密码》。昨天第一天上映，因为怕人多，所以没去，今天去的时候仍然要排队，门口还有些大概是教会的人在散发关于这部电影的小册子，没有去领。我们这儿的电影院以每20分钟一场的速度播映着，但是上座率还是很高。英文版《达芬奇的密码》的书我看过，前阵子因为玩Google与Sony Pictures的游戏，又拿出来大概翻过，呵呵，还要感谢他们最终给我寄了一个 Cryptex。

以前总结过这部书，很典型的美国人眼中的世界：勇敢正义又有绅士风度的美国人，刻板守旧又爱玩些阴谋的英国人，漂亮性感但是有需要美国男人呵护的法国女人以及愚昧自大的法国男人　－－　美国流行小说以及电影里几乎固定化了的National Character。不过总的来说情节还是有吸引人之处，否则也不会全球畅销了。而看过书以后，电影也有必看的道理：书里提到了很多有名的建筑与景观，电影可以一一生动的展现给你。同时也好奇，导演会怎样演绎这个故事。

jayshree's photo

Up to now, for the Da Vinci Code Quest game, no confirmation email of the finalist was sent out by Google or Sony Pictures. However, to everyone's surprise, the CRYPTEX is being sent out. Several players have already got it, ranging from Florida to Ohio to Montana. The package was mailed via USPS mail from Burbank, California. Since there are 10,000 finalists, some of them may get the cryptex a bit later.So just be patient and wait for the good news!

First of all, although the rules state that it officially ended today at 1 pm EST, the game actually ended much earlier. Some friends of mine got the following screen after they completed the game before 1 pm EST today. Maybe there are just too many players.

Second, if you successfuly registered after you completed the game, now in your Google personalized home page, you will get the following message:

So all of us finished the 24 puzzles. By and large, the puzzles didn't test your knowledge or intelligence but your time and patience. For today's puzzle, you have to get up before 12 pm if you're at Midwest. It's really painful for me because I usually go to bed very late. ( I guess all the doctoral students throughout the country have to stay up late. At least all my classmates do so.) Anyway, I managed to get up at 11:00 am thanking for a FedEx guy who delivered a parcel for me. Then I sat before the computer and waited for today's puzzle. It was boring to wait so I finished reading two papers on Cheap-Talk games. And then the quest started and was solved. So what to do next?

First, if you answered the last puzzle, you will be directed to page where you need to enter your Google ID. And then you need to submit your information such as email address, name, mailing address and so on. After submitting the information, you will see the screen below:

If you see the above screen, that means you're done for today. Then the next thing is to wait.

According to the rule of the game, the quest will end tomorrow at 1:00 pm EST. After that, they will find the first 10,000 people who completed the quest. Email notification for the finalist will be sent out by May 15, 2006. And then, "Finalists will be mailed via U.S. postal service, for scheduled delivery by May 18, 2006, a limited edition Cryptex replica and a screen shot of 4 codes (the "Finalist Prize"). One of the included codes will open the Cryptex. Inside will be a scroll with instructions on how to access the Final Puzzle Challenge online. Prior to May 18, 2006, Finalists will also be e-mailed instructions at the email address provided by each Finalist on his/her Official Contest Entry on how to access the Final Puzzle Challenge."

Let's wait and see :-)

呵呵，今天是最后一天的游戏了，但是这个游戏的内容在公布以前似乎就已经被人发现了。首先是有人发现了Google为这个游戏新添加的Video，其实这个非常好找，因为前几个主人公的录像已经放出，只有Sophie的还没有，所以提前被人给搜索到了。然后开始流传虚假的测试题，煞有其事，但是事实证明后来的题不是流出这些，今天的题其实挺简单的，答案分别是：

1. 2
2. so dark the con of man
3. madonna of the rocks

最后两道题在书上反复出现过，第一道题出得有些傻。呵呵，我用了一分半钟解答了这些问题，并在游戏开始的前3分钟内提交了最后的注册表格，不知道能不能拿到那个可爱的密码罐子，期待ing。好了，24天的游戏结束了，希望有个happy end：）

今天的游戏是地理，看来Google 真的把观察游戏放在最后压轴（呵呵，其实今天的才是压轴戏），因为观察游戏相比而言是最难的。今天的拼图，其实根据以前出现的拼图很容易就可以猜出来是那里，我们已经做过纽约、罗马和伦敦，那么这个肯定是Paris了，事实上也是。然后需要找出九个Cinquefoil，这个也挺明显，然后连接这个九个Cinquefoil就会出现一个Chalice，问题是问的是 0,1,4,9... ...这个数列的名称是什么，呵呵，不知道为什么会问这么个问题，这就是一个平方数列，所以今天的很容易就可以通过了。只有明天最后一天的题目了，拭目以待：）

呵呵，今天的游戏没什么太大的意思，重新回到书的内容上去了，并且因为是选择题，又不限制回答的次数，所以即便是试也可以试出来，当然如果对书比较了解，还是可以很快做出来的。第一道问题问 Priory of Sion的头叫什么名字，答案是The Nautonnier，第二题问谁不是Priory of Sion的成员，答案是 Nicolas Poussin；第三个问古希腊的生育女神的名字，答案是Isis。

今天的游戏还是老样子的挂图，按照先大后小的原则很快就可以完成。今天的问题仍然是Google Book搜索，我遇到的是：

According to Vol. XXIII of The Eclectic Review, the secret of scotch education is developed by what writer？

答案很容易就可以搜索到，在这里。

More words about today's "searching" quest: Don't trust google's book search too much. I mean sometime the book search will make mistakes when you search certain book titles. For instance, if you search "Vol. XXIII of The Eclectic Review", you will find the right book quickly and then it's just a piece of cake to find the right answer for the question as I did above ( the "scoth education" one); but when I helped some other guy to find the answer to According to Vol. IV of The Eclectic Review, what author has a fervid imagination and wonderful power?, Google Book Search was totally misleading. When I searched "Vol. IV of The Eclectic Review", the returned result is actually not Vol. IV of the book. So it is futile to try to find the answer in the wrong volume. I didn't realize this until I exhausted all the possiblities. Then I found the problem and solved it quickly. The answer is Ruskin.

今天的游戏是修复油画，虽然污渍的数目增多了，但是按照原来所说的原则仍然可以很快的将油画复原，一定要注意从四周到中间的顺序，不然很可能有边缘的污渍被孤零零的放在那里，无法被清除。今天的问题仍然是要用到Google的Book Search，我遇到的是：

What words divided by tons appear in The Numismatic Chronicle?

Answer: HOC OPVS DEI