foobar
Last week, something weird happened on a Google search page. I was searching for “list comprehensions” when part of the result page right underneath the search field opened up with a black header.
It couldn’t have been a browser toolbar - I’m inoculated from them. So at first I just figure it was some sort of Google doodle for a special occasion or whimsy easter egg that my random mouse movement unlocked. I already clicked my search result link before the animation loaded and I had a chance to glimpse at the prompt. I didn’t take a screenshot, but it said something like, “you’re searching for something we’re interested in, would you like to take a challenge?” I might searched the web for a screenshot of this later.
Well my result page loaded, but I wanted to see what that was about. I clicked back on my browser but the search page was blank and just waiting for my new search terms. I typed in list comprehensions again, but clicked the 2nd suggested link instead and was led to like “list comprehensions python”. I entered the search term just as before, but nothing weird showed up. So I waited.
Well it appeared again. This time I see options like Yes and No. So of course I clicked yes in the little black browser toolbar looking prompt.
I’m brought to a black screen with just a few short lines of words. A terminal
prompt. I’m user guest. Mounted on guest’s home directory.
foobar:~/ guest$
Very interesting. I can do this. I entered ls. Nothing happens.
Huh. I hit return a few times. Getting new prompts. It is working… ls again.
One file: start_here.txt
Bingo.
>> cat start_here.txt
Type request to request a new challenge.
>> request
Wall of text. It’s a word problem about doctors and pirates. Whoa a programming problem! Neat!
I have 48 hours to complete it. But I still have MTA subway turnstile data to crunch. I switch desktops to finish my function but I’m still thinking about the rabbit hole I just entered.
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