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You still need II and III for Machete order (IV V II III VI). This order makes the most narrative sense by skipping the toy commercial that is The Phantom Menace and treating Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith as an extended flashback.

Grab Harmy's "Despecialized" versions, and if you must, watch in Machete Order - ie IV, V, II, III, VI. ie insert ep2-3 as a 'flashback' after Empire before moving on to Jedi. Forget the mess that is TPM, thus removing the cutesy Anakin and almost all of Jar Jar. http://www.nomachetejuggling.c...

Ah, the Machete Order http://static.nomachetejugglin...
My favourite is actually a slight variation:
4 - A New Hope
5 - Empire Strikes Back
1 - The Phantom Edit (Fan edit version with lots of the hokey crap taken out. Actually makes it a decent movie. It's mentioned in the link above).
2 - Attack of the Clones
3 - Revenge of the Sith
6 - Return of the Jedi

This is known as the "Machete Order": http://static.nomachetejugglin...

Let me explain. There were five Star Wars films. Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were made first. Years later, Lucasfilm made Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which should be watched as a flashback between Empire and Jedi . After Darth Vader's identity is exposed at the end of Empire (it's not a spoiler if you speak Dutch), we see how the situation was set up, and then we see how it ends. Just skip the cash-in that was The Phantom Menace.

If you have someone who has never seen the Star Wars movies before (yeah right)...

Recommend that they watch them in Machete Order.

Have him watch Star Wars in the Machete Order and then get him started on the Timothy Zahn books, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. They are awesome! I loved them when I was a kid, and still do.

Wow, I just re-watched the Bi-trilogy with my kids and can really see why the machette order is so much better. brilliant. especially the parallel it sets up with luke following in his father's road to hell via good intentions. I never saw that with clarity because of the original order.

Thanks!

Have him watch Star Wars in the Machete Order and then get him started on the Timothy Zahn books, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. They are awesome! I loved them when I was a kid, and still do.

Interesting, I might have to try watching in that order one of these days. Though I suppose that would mean having to actually buy the prequels...

I agree with the Zahn books. I couldn't remember what age I read them, had to look it up on wikipedia to see that I was 12 when the first one came out - but I remember wondering for years why there were no Star Wars books to read aside from a few (young) children's storybooks. Judging by other books I read at the time, 8 is probably old enough assuming some familiarity with the original movies. Actually thinking about it, even this new and incredible Machete Order wouldn't fix the inconsistencies between Zahn's books and the prequel trilogy, so might be best to drop the prequels entirely, watch the original movies, and then read the better Star Wars books (Zahn and Stackpole would be my picks).

Have him watch Star Wars in the Machete Order and then get him started on the Timothy Zahn books, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. They are awesome! I loved them when I was a kid, and still do.

For those looking to respect the storytelling of the original trilogy while still recognizing that some of the prequels have some sort of place, consider the Machete Order. Quite ingenius.

The movies are viewed: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and Return of the Jedi.

The exceptional reputation step was clearly expressed as a shortcut, meaning you'll be in demand rather than the other way round. It doesn't apply to most people - certainly not to me - but it applies to others, some of whom are having their exceptional talents completely wasted because they've transitioned from an active researcher to a sort of trophy/ambassador (aka PR) role.

Top school - I expressed that this was an advantage, but neither necessary nor sufficient. For all the meritocracy, the old boy benefit is still clear.

Re recent changes - true, I haven't looked into it in the past few years. Glad they've dumped the puzzle crap.

Re subjective "how would you improve" thing - it seems that's a known question for certain roles. I'm not surprised - it's a common management type question, but it's not very useful unless you're given time to research and answer the problem in more concrete terms.

I had a mixture of algorithm-type questions, OO design and programming questions (C++ and Java), and some system design questions. All of these topics are applicable to a software engineering position.

No, I'd say that being given an appropriate amount of time to tackle a realistic software engineering problem is applicable to a software engineering position - even if that means going the classical IBM way and providing long probationary challenges. Knowing basic algorithmic complexity/OO stuff is just repeating the tests you took when you got the good grades at school, and I think such exercises are just the interviewer wanting to play teacher.

No one at Microsoft or Google gives a shit if you can memorize standards.

Random search corroborates: HTTP cookies, TCP congestion, API knowledge, etc.

No one at Google or Microsoft is going to ask you questions about your attitude or motivations, except perhaps your recruiter (who doesn't have any say in whether you get hired).

No, but they're asking questions which are engineered to guesstimate this information, just as any employer does - even quirky questions like the Stormtrooper one. If you don't spot this (or, specifically, never reacted in a way which suggests that you've noticed the purpose of a certain question) then, erm, maybe that works to your advantage. Contrast academia where I've found a certain amount of exploring the purpose of a question is encouraged.

TrackMeNot is the dumbest thing ever.