Driver to drive?

Thu Sep 02, 2010 9:42 pm   

On Sep 2, Joe Snod <joe.s...@yahoo.com> wrote:

During job interviews, Microsoft used to present brain
twisters to candidates (maybe still do), looking for
ingenuity, resourcefulness, etc.

One item: "How would you move Mt. Fuji?"

You are an interviewee. How do you answer?

--
Rich

Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:02 pm   

On 2 Sep., 20:42, RichD <r_delaney2...@yahoo.com> wrote:

"where do you want it?"

:)

-Lasse

Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:14 pm   

On 02/09/2010 19:50, osmium wrote:


--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onetribe - Occult Talk Show

Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:16 pm   

On 09/02/2010 11:42 AM, RichD wrote:

"Tell Bill Gates that Oracle was making money with it where it is".

(I would rather starve than work at Microsoft).

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:20 pm   

On Sep 2, 1:42 pm, RichD <r_delaney2...@yahoo.com> wrote:

That's easy.
I would just open up any Microsoft mapping program and point out that
they had the coordinates wrong!

-mpm

Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:03 am   

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:42:25 -0700, RichD wrote:


I don't even know where mount Fugi is.
I know the mont Ventoux
and maybe a few others
but is it important ?
maybe I could generalize:
give me a fixed point and I could move the universe

AvK
[Oh, and I don't want to work for microsoft. Just in case]

Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:35 am   

"Dan" <dantex1_at_aol.com> wrote in message
news:2d201217-8c49-4b66-93ae-edfe268e7513_at_d8g2000yqf.googlegroups.com...
On Sep 2, 10:42 am, RichD <r_delaney2...@yahoo.com> wrote:

You're probably right.


I'd prefer to work for a company where, if you have a would-be customer who
asks something along the lines of, "How do I move Mt. Fuji?" (i.e., some
near-impossible task), they're being serious and fully expect you to come up
with a serious answer rather than being cute or clever and telling them you'll
give them a photo of the mountain or that you don't need to do anything at all
because the Earth is constantly in motion anyway.

Of course, when someone asks you to do something that's close to impossible,
the only serious response is that you first need to find out a lot more
details as to what the problem really is and what the constraints are; in the
case of Mt. Fuji it's pretty self-evident that the first barrier you'll have
to moving the mountain is far more political than technical -- until you get
permission to move it, there's little point in spending many engineering
dollars worrying about how it's going to be done! (It's not uncommon for a
customer to e.g., ask you to move Mt. Fuji when in actuality all they want to
do is build a railroad from one side of it to the other and it's actually
perfectly acceptable to bore a tunnel through it, which ends up being far
faster/earier/cheaper.)

---Joel

Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:40 am   

RichD wrote:


So M$ is full of people who didn't answer "I don't."

Makes lots of sense.

--
Les Cargill

Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:47 am   

On Thu, 2 Sep 2010 15:24:43 -0700 (PDT), Dan <dantex1_at_aol.com> wrote:


Exactly.

My immediate reaction would be that the question is being posed as a
test of judgement (and maturity).

Thus, my answer, with almost no delay:

"You don't! Next question?"

quasi

Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:50 am   

RichD wrote:

Fri Sep 03, 2010 1:24 am   

On Sep 2, 10:42 am, RichD <r_delaney2...@yahoo.com> wrote:


I think that such a question serves more to study how you will
"respond" to such an open-ended question while under pressure than it
is to see what type of technical solution you may come up with. In
fact, attempting to answer in a technical way may just open the door
nice and wide so that you can walk out and away from the unsuccessful
interview ( unless of course, you think anyone can easily just pop
off a viable technical way to move a mountain while sitting in an
interview ).

:-)

Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:07 am   

On 09/02/2010 02:14 PM, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:

No, Bing is connected to Yahoo, not Google.

(Microsoft now does all the searches for Yahoo, which explains why my
Altavista searches are broken. So now I have to find out if Google
advanced search is any good).

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:07 am   

On Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:47:08 -0500, quasi <quasi_at_null.set> wrote:


Or maybe they're also testing for a sense of humor (in which case, I
like Sjouke Burry's simple response "Piece by piece").

quasi

Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:09 am   

On Sep 2, 11:42 am, RichD <r_delaney2...@yahoo.com> wrote:


A peak is typically located by the coordinates of the
highest spot. If it's a smooth peak, the sensitivity of
that high spot is large to the movement of relatively
small amounts of material. So, small motions are easy.

Travel cost is large, though, I'd hire a local agency to
perform the work, and maybe a second to inspect it.

Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:33 am   

On Sep 2, 2:51 pm, Spehro Pefhany <speffS...@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat>
wrote:

Or take a bucket of earth from the north face and dump it on the
south.