Slashdot Mirror

The Henry Earl extension! If you don't know about Henry Earl, read up on him here. Show the brother some love.

So now the firefox plugin tracking how many times Heny Earl has been arrested for public drunkenness can now be upgraded to a map showing all the locations? Sweet.

I showed up for what I was told would be an informal interview (I had worked with many of the people there before). I was given a chair in the middle of a big room full of beanbags while the engineering group filed in and sat down. Then they each opened their laptops, pulled up a big list of puzzle interview questions, got on IRC with each other and grilled me for two hours.

I got the "Why are manhole covers round?" question (my answer was something like: "Uh... ah... err... Because the guy that invented the manhole liked round (and needed covers to match)?") and a few others like it, as well as some more "straight" tech questions (stuff like "What are your three favorite Unix commands and why?" and "How do sockets work?"). The only puzzle question I didn't answer on the spot was "How far apart are the hands on a clock if it's 3:15?" I said that there are no hands on a digital clock. Then when that got the looks I knew it would get I said "They aren't seprated" and immediately retracted it as being wrong. Then I said "Pass". On the way out the door, I figured the answer out and called the hiring manager on my cell phone. Apparently nobody got the clock one right.

I don't remember the other questions, but they were about half the nonsense "move Mt. Fuji" ones and half honest ones that tested analytical ability under some pressure. I got tired of the whole thing after about 45 minutes (witness my answer to the clock question). I started copping out with an attitude like "Look, nobody can be expected to know everything, but everyone should be able to find anything out and then quickly apply that knowledge. Let me use my laptop and I'll answer any question you want answered. Sit me in front of the hypothetical AIX machine and I'll figure out why it's not booting -- using some basic reasoning, a little general experience and the Net. But don't ask me questions my experience alone can't answer unless you expect me to also work in a similar vacuum. In which case I'm not sure I want to work here in the first place..."

I'm frankly surprised I got the job but I guess I said the right things.

I think those puzzle questions are more to make the interviewer feel smart than to test the interviewee. They want to instill a sense of "Ohhh, he's asking me really smart questions! I wanna work here with these 1337 people!" If I want to see moxie in an interviewee, I'll ask them to tapdance or something.

-B

Yeah, I get ya. I should have amended that a bit. I meant unless they put stipulations in the license (which might not necessarily be a 100% software livre license).

If an agreement with the world's largest superpower isn't going to stop them, how is something in the license?

It might not stop them, but it might allow you to wiggle out of any suspected culpability.

Now, there are closer lines to cross. What about accepting translations from the Chinese? In my role as the one-time maintainer of the GNU Unifont, I accepted Farsi glyphs from some Iranians. A paranoid might want to avoid that.

This is closer to what I was wool-gathering about. You would have a hard time defending yourself against being a "collaborator" if a two-way relationship existed (would commit priveledges in a CVS repository count?).

As long as you act as a software maintainer of civilian software, I can't see a solid case against you, even if you accept translations.

Maybe I'm a fatalist. I just can't get it out of my head that it wasn't very long ago that the US government actually rounded up and imprisoned US citizens purely because of their race. And it wasn't long after that we had the US Congress ruining people's careers because someone said the word "commie". I've just got the USA PATRIOT Act in my head, I guess. Ever since I heard an FBI agent talk about the Act, I've been thinking about political sorts of things in the context of over-reaching government authority.

-B

-B

I will certainly do that. This problem drove me nuts. Everyone said it was something different. Not unusual for a thing which has lots potential points of failure.

I also posted an edited version of my original slashdot reply on my web site. Google should be by soon to pick it up. Every time I figure something weird like this out I put it up there. Get some decent referrers from google, too, so it's helping someone.

-B

I think you're right. A a matter of fact, I think I can prove it.

Yep. I[ve proven that you are correct. Trouble is that Slashdot won't let me post my proof here, so I put it on my site.

-B

I plan on doing two things today:
1. Not turning on the TV for any reason whatsoever
2. Giving some cash to the EFF

I may make those actions my annual observance of "Patriot Day". Someone's got to look out for the public -- they don't even know they are under attack by their own government.

You're not the only one sick of the knee-jerk, draconian jingoism which is destroying our liberties. It's just an unpopular thing to say. The worst part? Last night it dawned on me that the terrorists have already won: we're a scared nation, attacking our own citizenry by way of "defense".

Anyway, I'm sad about what happened but enough is enough. I'm as proud as anyone to be American, and I love my country dearly, but something actually constructive needs to be done. And if I hear the word "Homeland" one more goddam time...

-B