Saturday 31 October 2009

Da Vincible Code

Klueless again. And lovin’ it. The 5th edition of the most awesomely cool, mind-numbingly addictive, and kick-assingly challenging quiz is back. Think clues hidden in page sources, in urls, in gif file names. Infinitely geek-worthy, and then some.

It’s built by the folks at IIM-I, as part of their annual fest. Used to be called IRIS for 4 seasons, now they’ve changed it to ‘āhvān’. For me, Klueless is the one thing that reinforces the perception that these business schools have the coolest and smartest minds in the country.

I have been hooked on to this online game since its 1st season, long before internet addiction automatically meant FB status, Tweets, or Reddit browsing. Each level transcends awesomeness exponentially, about 30 of ’em. There are no time constraints. Or any other restrictions. You are free to use google, wiki, or anything you dare to touch or click. And you will still tear you hair apart for days together trying to figure each level out. You need to decipher cryptic source codes, crack a level which has a clue that refers back to a past solved level. Hit back buttons, refresh buttons, hit yourself… you gotta do it all. Like I said, awesomely geeky. And tons of fun, especially the elated feeling you get once you go past a level. You almost raise your hands triumphantly as to say “Eat this Mr. Langdon.” Yeah, it’s that sort of game.

(Side note: Managed to get on their Hall of Fame in the 1st season, back in ’05 (#481). Though cracking each edition hence, haven’t been able to be in the early bird list).

Can’t hardly wait to dig holes again (no you needn’t be an html geek to crack it, just a cipher-junkie). The 5th issue is coming this November 5th; am already rubbing sweaty palms in anticipation. Bring it on.


Earlier editions:

The K5 facebook page

Update: You can decipher how big a fan I'm of this by the number of times I used the words "cool" and "awesome" in this post. I feel like a kid elephant in a chinese candy shop.


6 comments:

Ravi said...

I'm sure the entire Klueless Team at IIM Indore loved reading this post. Not just this years' but the teams of every past edition... :)
Good luck dude... Hope to see you on the Hall of Fame once again.

Ravi Mehta
Class of 2010, IIM Indore

Flickering Cursor said...

Thank Ravi. You (and your team) does a great job every year. And I'm sure this year won't be any different.

Cheers!

kedar said...

this is indeed a cerebral number. good you let us in on this thing. i can stop playing minesweeper now.

Flickering Cursor said...

@kedar. welcome to mindsweeper. 16 hours to go.

Gayatri Mahadevan said...

so, what happened to K5??

Flickering Cursor said...

K5 HoF closed down when I was stuck at level 34. Then lost motivation. Now to wait for #6 this November.