Microsoft Australia’s “Ten Grand is Buried Here” treasure hunt is over, prize claimed

tengrandfound

The Microsoft Australia competition “Ten Grand is Buried Here” which stirred some up a little bit of controversy just a little over two months ago has just come to an end earlier this week with at least one person who claimed the $10,000 prize on a hidden website. Whilst a winner has not yet been formally announced, it’s believed that user “puppydog4l1f3” on the Australian Whirlpool forums was first to claim the prize. The winner is Gavin Ballard of Brunswick East, Victoria.

The marketing agency behind the competition on behalf of Microsoft Australia, Wunderman Australia, wrote on the competition’s Twitter page,

“Congratulations to all who played. We hope you enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and that your brains don’t hurt so much from the last 2 months. This game was designed to create excitement and fun on the internet by doing something new and different, thanks to Internet Explorer 8.”

Now that the competition is over, it can be revealed that the hidden website was www.fastsafeprivatebetter.com – a nod to the features of Internet Explorer 8. And if figuring out the address wasn’t enough, one would also had to figure out the password which is now known to be “courval”.

Although you might have missed out on the ten grand, if you’re still interested in the puzzle, I’ve cached a list of all the clues (plus some future clues) and their respective answers in a PDF document. Be careful though, reading it may make your head explode.

13 insightful thoughts

  1. @Alex: It’s still there actually, but I figured out it needs you to login first. I’ve uploaded it to this site for convenience.

  2. fast?! safe??!! private???!!! better??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?.. LOLOLOLOLOLOL

    IE -what a joke.

    as for the clues.. jeesh people went through that :S

  3. this puzzle is very similar to trying to figure out some of Microsoft’s buggy software… just remember all those IE6 workarounds you still have to apply to your web sites…

  4. “this puzzle is very similar to trying to figure out some of Microsoft’s buggy software… just remember all those IE6 workarounds you still have to apply to your web sites…”

    quoted for impact.

    yes plenty of clue searching to do when trying to find workarounds/reg tweaks or better alternatives to Microsoft’s junky designed and architectured crap.

    btw I’m sure MS is quite happy many useless businesses and retard IT admins leave IE6 on PC’s to put users through the hassle of such shit… I mean it all counts towards there failing IE market share. Personally I say make websites that don’t work or look shit when viewed on IE (specially IE6).. sooner it gets dumped the better.

  5. Wow, those clues were pretty in depth and well plotted out. Anyway, I’ll still use IE8. I just need a simple browser for browsing, and IE8’s security is pretty top notch if you ask me.

  6. They call those clues?
    They only made random statements and tried to vaguely associate it with anything remotely related to IE8.

    Clue 98:
    “He ran down the hill and fell”
    A quick bing search reveals that people who run down hills often fall, and also that most people running down hills wear shoes, and people who wear shoes have feet. Feet are important because the people behind IE8 also have feet!!!! This will be important later in the game, when you try to figure out what a potato and a famous singer from the ’80s have in common.

  7. Lol RobertR, I was thinking the same thing. It’s amazing that anyone was able to win, those clues were crazy and super vague. There’ no way I would’ve won, there’s just no way.

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