Mystery Company Recruiting Talent With a Puzzle

An anonymous reader writes "Google has previously used coding competitions to locate top talent. In a new twist on the idea, an anonymous tech company is posting a help-wanted ad that challenges developers to find out who the company is. A little digging and text mashing reveals a website containing a Web 2.0 puzzle that makes notpron look like child's play. So, fellow developers, who is this company, and, well, what is the significance of the date '01-18-08?'" Update: 12/12 20:20 GMT by KD : Replaced link to a removed Craigslist ad with a mirror.

Comments

Anonymous Coward?

[Crimsane]

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that that company creating all of this is the same one to submit the story.

Re:Here's the contact info (spoiler warning)

[corychristison]

As I had figured... it indeed is an IP address.

1: dollar and daily universal register had the year 1785 in common. 1785%100 = 85
2: the date of transition (=>) between the two rulers was 512. 512/2-1 = 255
3: Sherman Anti-Trust and Van Gogh have the year 1890 in common. 1890/9 = 210
4: Tycho's supernova was in 1572. 1572/12 = 131

Going here: http://85.255.210.131/

Only reveals 'yes';

Re:Here's the contact info (spoiler warning)

[Anonymous Coward]

That's TinyURL's IP. At the bottom it says /* 34w4wa */

http://tinyurl.com/34w4wa redirects to http://groups.google.com/group/wanted-master-software-engineers

Re:Significance of the date "01/18/2008"

[corsec67]

ISO dates have one HUGE advantage:
They sort alphabetically into chronological order. Just as long as you add 0s before single-digit days/months, it doesn't matter what kind of field delimiter you use, they will all just sort correctly. Very, very useful.