tinyurl.com/2mxgn -> discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=160966&ixReplies=23
f is the number we just found, and f, f, f are all 10 consecutive digits of e Their indexes are 1, 5, 23, 99 within e, or maybe 0, 4, 22, 98 depending on how you count.
com/njas/sequences/ There is an entry with 401 as the next number, but it is quite obscure. Not something you would come up with unless you knew about this site (which most people probably don't).
Simon Lucy Friday, July 09, 2004 Billboards are cheaper than you think. I'd read about companies doing this as a recruiting technique. You should follow through, maybe you can get a good job at a good company.
Oh well, it ended after step 2 That pretty much gives it away (the 49 thing) -- it was indeed a hiring plot, but not for Linux, interestingly. As I thought, the purpose was to find good programmers or problem solvers. Python is a wonderful little tool (along with Google to find the digits of e). As a side note, anyone who is a programmer who is curious about this and finds it a total chore to do in your favorite programming language (eg C, C++, Java) really needs to have something like Python under their belt.
Jan Derk Friday, July 09, 2004 That is a pretty cool tactic by google. For anyone who hasn't cheated like I did (ie used the information in this post to find out the *secret*), basically the last page is just Google asking you to submit you resume to them. Their idea (SPOILER I GUESS) being that if you were curious and smart enough to get that far then they would like to see your resume. At least for a while the resumes that flow through to that email address will be generally of a higher calibre (hopefully), as they put it, they are hoping to increase the signal to noise ratio. It reminds me of the movie starring Woopi Goldberg as a NY nicks fan, she used to leave a question on her answering machine that had to be correctly answered before she would listen to the message.
btt Friday, July 09, 2004 "Python is a wonderful little tool (along with Google to find the digits of e). As a side note, anyone who is a programmer who is curious about this and finds it a total chore to do in your favorite programming language (eg C, C++, Java) really needs to have something like Python under their belt. The great thing about Perl/Python/Ruby is that they allow you to quickly write your algorithm in very few lines of code without having to wrap it up in a lot of boilerplate. I highly recommend learning one of these three languages if you haven't already.
sir_flexalot Friday, July 09, 2004 Their email address doesn't seem to be working. I guess too many people have sent them messages, unless my ISP has gone bad again. Steve Jones (UK) Friday, July 09, 2004 JavaScript's quite nice for the purpose thanks to its anonymous functions. I've done a lot of JavaScript and hence tend to fall back on it, though I plan to learn Python at some point.
Friday, July 09, 2004 Excuse me for being ignorant, but how does one know what 'e' is? I assume it's some constant or theoretical number of some sort, but I haven't the mathematical background to be sure.
Steve Barbour Friday, July 09, 2004 Soon that ZDnet article will be linked on Slashdot. Has JoS been Slashdot-ed before, when some of Joel's articles that may appeared there?
Michael Friday, July 09, 2004 >>>Excuse me for being ignorant, but how does one know what 'e' is? It is the base of natural logarithms, almost as significant as pi in terms of how useful it is. Usually taught in a first, high school level, calculus course. If you're really interested, go to Amazon and search for the book "e: The Story of a Number". But anything involving natural logarithms and roadside advertising is too good to pass up.
org ) Friday, July 09, 2004 Ruperts not here, it was me. I occasionally tip him off to stuff that hasn't hit the mainstream. Sometimes its fun to watch an idea be spread around the world. I usually get the odd drink for my troubles (We live around a mile or so apart, so he'll sometimes stop off for a drink on his way home) Note as a journalist he's usually fairly hot on the technology as he was programming 386 networking OSs when I first met him twenty odd years ago (he even found an obscure bug IIRC "pop ax" affected the high bits of the eax register).
Peter Ibbotson Friday, July 09, 2004 And to throw in a useful link: Wolfram/Mathematica maintains a web site with brief descriptions of various mathematical concepts.
net Friday, July 09, 2004 In related news, here's a fun way to remember e It's all about Andrew Jackson, who served two terms as President of the United States. He served two terms: 2 He was the seventh president: 7 He was elected in 1828 (and served two terms) 18281828 Finally, if we had a square picture of Andrew Jackson and drew a diagonal line from corner to corner, we'd have a 45-90-45 triangle: 459045 Then, e to sixteen digits is 2718281828459045 Friday, July 09, 2004 ==> I was in some seriously advanced honors level physics and chemistry courses in HS and never once heard of 'e'. Then you were hoodwinked and I suspect that your classes were not as "seriously advanced" as you were lead to believe. I first ran into 'e' in first year HS algebra (with a very superficial treatment). Later (senior year) in Calculus had a very thorough treatment of the subject, and again (senior year) in Physics class practical application of the concept was clearly demonstrated. I took no "honors classes" in mathematics or physics -- my exposure to 'e' was through the normal curriculum. Sausage Friday, July 09, 2004 >>> I was in some seriously advanced honors level physics and chemistry courses in HS and never once heard of 'e'. Once you get to integrals in calculus you can't avoid it. mackinac Friday, July 09, 2004 There was calculus, but no 'e'. It's been many, many, MANY years, and my memory isn't so good, so perhaps I'm wrong. Or maybe 'e' was just something rolled up into the formulae and never explained on its own.
Say, I figured out it was Google and a major news source caught on. Through them, the final page in the easter egg hunt was posted for the world to see. So while I didn't solve the problem, my ingenuity did lead to the final page. I can't calculate the e of anything, but it could be worth a job. Of course, my answer would probably be: "We hate you, you spoiled our little game for us way ahead of time.
Miguel Friday, July 09, 2004 Man I admit I was a little lazy in posting the first step for Brian to figure out, but you guys don't have to TOTALLY spoil it (even though I sort of spoiled it). The answer was already there -- you didn't have to post the direct link for everyone to see. Man I can't believe ZDNet picked up on that already and even quoted me! The point is not that you can write that Java code in a short time/few lines. The point is that there is no way that is the ONLY code you would write to figure out the problem. Of course any language is fine if you already KNOW what you're going to write. But languages like Python and others are better when you just need to try stuff out, when the objective isn't known... you don't have to bog yourself down in any overhead, you just write what you mean and you don't have to think about it. Obviously I'm not saying Python is better than Java or whatever, it is just something to have under your toolbelt. BTW, the billboard is on the Ralston Ave exit going south coming from San Francisco. Trying to recruit some Redwood Shores people -- EA and Oracle?
Michael Eisenberg Friday, July 09, 2004 > Finally, if we had a square picture of Andrew Jackson and drew a diagonal line from corner to corner, we'd have a 45-90-45 triangle: I have a square picture of Britney Spears, will that do?
This thread is only a few hours old and already the mainstream media is writing actual news articles about this thread? I guess we do see a lot of fresh news first here though. Dennis Atkins Friday, July 09, 2004 > I was in some seriously advanced honors level physics and chemistry courses in HS and never once heard of 'e'. Unforunate further proof that education in this country has gone all to hell. Dennis Atkins Friday, July 09, 2004 Is there a number theorist in the house? f add up to something vaguely ...
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