Questions, questions

Q: Does "school" mean just school in the rules?
A: Hell no, anyone in full time school or further (but not higher) education who will be 18 or under on 30th august 2004 can join in.

Q: Why doesn't the entry form work?
A: Whoah - don't jump the gun. You should be able to register here now, but the actual entry form goes live at around 4pm on Thursday when you get your first glimpse of the encrypted part of Aunt Aggie's journal. You will use it to submit your entry for each challenge.

Q: When does the Challenge start?
A: The first challenge will be posted here and on the sister site at Education.Guardian.co.uk at 4pm on Thursday 2nd October. The website is officially launched on October 1st and you can get more here then.

Q: Do the hieroglyphs in the menu bar mean anything?
A: That would be telling!

Q: Where can I get answers to my questions:
A: Here and on the info page.

Rules

The backroom boys have been busy, and I figure they've nearly finished wiring up this office. Still they wanted me to point out that until October 1st there will still be some changes to be made round here, including adjustments to the rules, so keep an eye out. Meanwhile I saw some of you have signed up to work for the Schulz Vandiver agency already. It'll be good working with you.

The first challenge gets posted at 4pm Thursday 2nd October. You can see it by clicking the number 1 on the pyramid on the front page after that time. I'll tell you more about the background to this case on Wednesday.

By the way, I got asked if team members had to all come from the same school. Guess not, but if you win we might need to get a teacher from each school to vouch for you.

Be seeing you,

Welcome

It might not look like much, and I guess the decorators still have some work to do, but once the partitions have been moved around I reckon this joint will seem just like home. I'm supposed to be starting work here on October 1st, but you never know, maybe if the decorators finish early I'll get my shingle up on the door and see who walks in.

Name's Harry, by the way, Harry Schulz Vandiver, and I figure it'll be fun getting to know you. Drop by any time. you never know what might be going on.

It might not look like much, and I guess the decorators still have some work to do, but once the partitions have been moved around I reckon this joint will seem just like home. I'm supposed to be starting work here on October 1st, but you never know, maybe if the decorators finish early I'll get my shingle up on the door and see who walks in.

Name's Harry, by the way, Harry Schulz Vandiver, and I figure it'll be fun getting to know you. Drop by any time. you never know what might be going on.

We'll start work on Aunt Aggie's journal on October 2nd. I'll post her first entry here at 4pm that day, and maybe we can work on it together. I'll say some more about how we got here nearer the time, but I figure if we brush up on ciphers before then it should give us a headstart. The backroom boys want me to read their guide to substitution ciphers, and you can download a copy here. It has hints on cipher cracking and three lesson plans. Get your teachers involved!

I have to go, I have to move the furniture round some more. See you later.