Thursday, December 20, 2007

0096 2251 2110 8105

It all began with this sequence of numbers - "0096 2251 2110 8105". Now very few people will get it, 'n among that who would probably see this blogpost is '0' . So what is this number sequence anyway? It befuddled many my friends when i put this up as my status message on gtalk. Some responses i got -
A: Is this your old credit card number? but in ulta? :)
B: whr are you? (yea i don't know, which country can possibly have such number :) )
C: whats with that 0096 code?
D: you started drinking?
E: is that you credit card number?

Whereas a simple google would have given one the answer. The first result in google would tell you that it is the last line of 'Even Less' song by Porcupine Tree. Though it is people 's tendency to disbelieve even when something is in front of their eyes. :)

So yes, what's the significance of those numbers? If you proceeded after the first line you would have come across this -

It's the same number (0096 2251 2110 8105) as an E05 recording on the Conet Project discs (track 3, disc 1) by Irdial, all of which you can download for free here: http://irdial.hyperreal.org/"

But it was actually the second result which made me want to dig deep. Now me too had never heard of something like E05 recording or Conet Project. So imagine my surprise when i stumble on this wonderful world of Shortwave Numbers Stations - http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm
Seems like its straight out of some Ludlum's spy thriller. :)

The website says the TCP is currently out of stock, but you can access some of the recordings at
the Internet Archive. In case you didn't know abt Internet Archive before, check it out, it is one brilliant concept!

Now 'm just waiting to catch some shows on this. 'n yes do get and listen to 'Stupid Dream' by Porcupine Tree.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fuck you and your book too
You can have it back
When I'm gone these songs
Will be my tracks

And I had a stupid dream that I could change things
But I'm a martyr to even less

I hate the ground that I have walked on
Nothing I've done has ever mattered long

n0umena said...

i read it

and i got it

crispy said...

READY
READY

I set up the Darwin Streaming Server on a server tonight, and in searching for pre-packaged material that was good for testing, I happened upon The Conet Project files. I have always been enchanted by the ghostly sound of shortwave radio signals coming out of thin air in the darkness of the wee hours. These eerie recordings, with their potentially sinister purpose obfuscated by their complete senselessness, were exactly what I needed.

After a lot of errors and troubleshooting, my Watson-come-here-I-need-you moment came with that sequence of numbers. I thought I'd enter them into Google to see if those specific numbers, chosen for me by fate and random timing, would decode to something that would unlock the meaning of life. I expected to find nothing but random matches of the numbers alone, or at best, in a non-consecutive series.

How strange that I should come up with a direct hit on that sequence, in a very intelligible blog posting no less. How many people would have lifted that specific sequence from that very file out of all 150 of them?

Stranger still, I had never heard of Porcupine Tree until very recently when a friend of mine suggested that I get some and check it out. I did as he suggested, but I have yet to hear it. Now I learn that they have a song using the very random sequence of numbers I plucked out of a vast collection for a random Google search.

END

Hal said...

I need your help!

My mother and I are in very serious danger.

They're now following us; I had to toss in a Red herring to throw them off track.

I have cracked the password for Hal's guest user ...
It is: grzegorz

See what you can come up with, and let me know.

DO NOT post this information to Hal's blog.

-Thad

Jim said...

"yea i don't know, which country can possibly have such number"

Jordan. Their numbers (from outside) begin with 00962.

AleSallyJane said...

Once i listened Stupid Dream by PT before i went to bed. The following morning i the only thing i had in mind was this sequence of numbers. It was so intresting finding out the real meaning of it.
Thank you, for your explanation! *

Unknown said...

Also "A Half Built House" by We Were Promised Jetpacks

3828 said...

?

Unknown said...

Something led me to these numbers u would never belv itnot in a million yrs cuz I cant believe it.its scary.

Unknown said...

Ps I never even heard of porcupine true. These numbers mean something im convinced of it. Seriously.