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Chris Shiflett

Hi, I’m Chris: web craftsman, community leader, husband, father, and partner at Fictive Kin.

The Race Begins

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The Race Begins was posted on Sat, 28 Aug 2004. If you liked it, follow me on Twitter or share:

14 comments

1.Ammar Ibrahim said:

What puzzle? This clock?

Wed, 06 Oct 2004 at 05:07:43 GMT Link

2.Chris Shiflett said:

Yes, the clock is the puzzle.

Wed, 06 Oct 2004 at 05:12:41 GMT Link

3.BDM said:

It's an animated gif file, probably generated through php, which "advances" the clock every 2 seconds. It starts from 1:11 . However, it does not always advance by the "correct" amount of 2 seconds.

Thu, 07 Oct 2004 at 06:53:43 GMT Link

4.Marco said:

Hey Chris, did anyone solve this yet?

Sun, 10 Oct 2004 at 01:27:58 GMT Link

5.Chris Shiflett said:

Ben Ramsey did earlier today. He's still the only person who has solved it, but I unfortunately only had one prize - a free pass to take the Zend Certification exam.

Sun, 10 Oct 2004 at 01:45:27 GMT Link

6.Todd Patrick said:

BTW: What is the answer to this puzzle?

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 at 21:38:35 GMT Link

7.Neha Katira said:

I am curious to know the answer.

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 at 19:10:21 GMT Link

8.Jatin Chimote said:

Perhaps, I am a "too late" late to arrive at this page :) , but where is the clock ? I don't see anything.. Was it removed !

Or

May be I am turning blind ... help me god.

Mon, 01 May 2006 at 08:35:24 GMT Link

9.Chris Shiflett said:

You should be able to see the clock now.

I totally forgot to explain the solution to this in my blog, but here's the first hint:

1. coordinates, not time

Mon, 01 May 2006 at 14:14:41 GMT Link

10.Sumaira said:

strnage .. done know .. juts ... some sort of increment in time .. may follwoing some techniq ...

when u will tell about this puzzle?

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 at 10:26:56 GMT Link

11.Sumaira said:

If u already give the pass.. or if anyone win that puzzle then plz tel about it ????????????

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 at 10:37:27 GMT Link

12.Fred said:

BDM is right, but this is only an animated gif to be convinced copy it on your desk and open it with internet explorer.

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 at 13:37:07 GMT Link

13.Pedro Amaral Couto said:

I see the GIF has all frames (the coordinates) when I download it. The amazing thing is that it always starts with the same time when the page is refreshed. The image file uses a cookie for a PHP session (I'm using the Firebug). If I clean the cookies, the animation resets when I refresh the page. The session is used to set a cursor for the first frame we see. It seems it's possible to generate animated GIFs with PHP, but you could also change a GIF file contents to set the first frame (a coordinate).

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 at 17:34:46 GMT Link

14.wanderingbear said:

My guess is that rather than (hh:mm) it's more (x,y) coordinates.

The hour is the x coordinate, and the minute is the y coordinate. (Could be swapped, doesn't really matter as the difference would just be a rotation)

Plot points at each of the (x,y) entries and see what the picture/result is.. Seems like a lot of work, but that's my thought

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 at 17:08:12 GMT Link

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