Google Is Searching For Beautiful Minds at MIT

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/21/google-is-searching-for-beautiful-minds-but-so-far-no-m-i-t-students-have-broken-its-code/

by code_devil • 17 years ago

19 11 17 years ago

techcrunch.com

biohacker42• 17 years ago

Maybe the best at MIT don't feel like being the new kids at a club full of Standford alumni.

jgroch• 17 years ago

TechCrunch assumes the answer is a phone number. But maybe you're on to something. And the answer is something like "QUIT MIT JOIN STANFORD".

alexgartrell• 17 years ago

Recruiters are always pulling this "let's be edgy and relevant crap." It's two extremes, Googlers with the "Prove that you're smart enough for us!" and Microsoftees with the "You're sooooo smart, you should apply here!" (Actually, "Hey, Genius!" Oddly enough, once you've put in your paperwork the hiring processes are exactly the same.

This is the kind of crap that gets freshmen excited, but no one else is going to stop doing real work.

iamwil• 17 years ago

Or maybe MIT students don't want to work at Google.

asciilifeform• 17 years ago

As far as I can see from the outside, Google is much like any other Java/Web 2.0 cube farm: miserable salt-mine drudgery - though with above-average pay, plush armchairs, and free lunches.

Here is what one notable Google escapee had to say after doing his time:

"The interchangeable component model of software engineers seemed to work reasonably well there. It's just not a business model in which I wish to be involved, at least not on the component-provider side. So after a year at Google I quit and returned to JPL."

- Erann Gat: "Lisping at JPL"

(http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html)

If you have any creativity in you, being a fungible cog will always suck. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Mongoose• 17 years ago

What is with TC constantly offering up its t-shirts as petty tributes? Who the hell actually wants one?

jpwagner• 17 years ago

Maybe 5 years ago there was a billboard on the corner of Vassar and Mass Ave that was "[the first 10-digit prime in consecutive digits of pi].com"

Obviously that piqued my interest. Once solved and visited, it was simply an upload link for your resume for generic jobs at google.

So anti-climactic.

dschobel• 17 years ago

You have to wonder whether the CS faculty at Stanford, MIT, et al are thrilled or disappointed with the perception that they've become a pipeline for 9-5 coders (even if it is google).

timcederman• 17 years ago

617-274-8660

If that's the correct answer (which according to a TechCrunch commenter, with working showed, it is), it's not Google. There's a voicemail system saying something along the lines of "Congratulations on solving the second, harder puzzle. Unfortunately, we're not Google, but leave your name and number - you won't regret it."

schemer• 17 years ago

Looks like the banner is haning inside the athletic center/hockey rink, your ad placement is all wrong. It's should be in 36-100 or something.

larryfreeman• 17 years ago

Here's the solution if you are interested:

"Congratulations Keep Seaching or call 617-639-0570 x10"

Here's the mapping of the solution:

0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

456789ABCDE2FGHIJKL0MNOP1QRS3TUVWXYZ

Here's how you solve it if you are interested:

1) Pick out CONGRATULATIONS

The mapping is pretty straight forward with some gaps in the letters and some ambiguities.

2) Among the ambiguities are the letters J,O,B,S which map to 0,1,2,3

3) That resolves the ambiguities and the resulting map above is the logical result.

Google Is Searching For Beautiful Minds at MIT

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