This sounds insanely fun & reading this got me really excited, just subscribed a moment ago!
Announcing Starfighter
221–230 of 418 posts
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#222I'm all, involved? and stuff? You can, like, ask us stuff, I guess. Let me answer the most frequent questions we're getting right here: "CTF" stands for "Capture The Flag". Conventionally, it's a contest with a collection of "flags" each of which is guarded by a programming puzzle; teams of people compete to collect flags. What we're doing is not a conventional CTF, but if you want to get the flavor of what we're doi…
I got completely stuck on the first level of Microcorruption. Should I even attempt this new stuff?
Yes. And as someone who also was stuck for many moons on later levels of that challenge: keep going. Research. Ask questions -- people will help. Honestly, I had no expectation of getting past the first microcorruption level but goddamn if it doesn't feel good when (not if) it happens.
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
"(a) For the same reasons you'd noodle with any other game" I play games for fun and to relax. "(b) For similar reasons to the ones that make you noodle with a programming language you doubt you'll ever use in production" On your website, it says that these will actually be real problems for real companies. I would think it's something I would see in production? "(d) Because for some of the technologies/concepts we w…
Usually CTFs / wargames / whatever are the only way you ever get to work with stuff like radio or telephony protocols, credit cards, homegrown crypto... Also you can probably expect things dealing with custom VMs, file formats or networking. Say for instance one of the challenges involves a machine with a broken TCP/IP stack, so you have to write your custom client that can talk to it, how often do you do that in rea…
Thank you. Exactly this. Try to make a list of interesting stuff you'd like a chance to play around with, in a highly structured environment that handholds you just long enough, and that eliminates all the nonsense required to get dev environments working, or expensive subscription fees, or bankrolls, or laboratories... those are all places we want to be.
Part of the problem I had earlier today was with the words "fun" and "player". I think the words I was looking for were "participant" and "rewarding".
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#224I'm all, involved? and stuff? You can, like, ask us stuff, I guess. Let me answer the most frequent questions we're getting right here: "CTF" stands for "Capture The Flag". Conventionally, it's a contest with a collection of "flags" each of which is guarded by a programming puzzle; teams of people compete to collect flags. What we're doing is not a conventional CTF, but if you want to get the flavor of what we're doi…
A Frickin' awesome idea.
My best wishes in your success!!!
I look forward to the results.
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#225I get what they're trying to do, but did this read like a rant from a crazy person to anyone else? Just the first header block read like they were creating some kind of videogame company... and then finally at the bottom of that text block, "Oh, it has something to do with interviews..." and then halfway down the next section, "oh, it's that kind of CTF". Anyway, seems cool if they can make applying for jobs more int…
It reminded of how pickup artists market their books/seminars[0], which gave me a little chuckle. Nevertheless, I'm excited about this, and signed up immediately.
[0]: www.blueprintdecoded.com/
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada."
This was how Thomas announced to me that Starfighter would exist and I would be CEO of it. I was confused as heck until I actually saw the movie.
lol!
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#227I get what they're trying to do, but did this read like a rant from a crazy person to anyone else? Just the first header block read like they were creating some kind of videogame company... and then finally at the bottom of that text block, "Oh, it has something to do with interviews..." and then halfway down the next section, "oh, it's that kind of CTF". Anyway, seems cool if they can make applying for jobs more int…
It read like an infomercial to me...I closed the page after the first two sections.
patio11's writing style seems to run that way. I find it difficult to read, but he's presumably tested it. Maybe he got stuck at a local maxima.
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
A CTF is a game that one plays by programming. I wish I could point you to competing CTFs that you can sign up and play right now, but most disappear from the Internet because they are fiendishly difficult to keep running. Ask me (or any team that has shipped one) why if you're curious. One example would be MicroCorruption. https://microcorruption.com Thomas and Erin helped build it back when they were still at Matas…
> A CTF is a game that one plays by programming. Or, much more commonly, it's a popular game mode in any number of multiplayer games. You're using some really niche jargon without properly qualifying it.
When somebody asks for a definition of a word, it's not generally considered necessary to explain the term and then also go into detail regarding other, unrelated definitions of the term.
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
The crypto challenges were how we (for instance) hired Alex: http://sockpuppet.org/blog/2015/03/06/the-hiring-post/ I think we plan on making minimal demands of our users, and none of them involve grooming them for prospective employers. Look, the reality is, most of the people who participate aren't going to be looking for a job when they do. So all our incentives are to make the experience itself rewarding to parti…
>I think we plan on making minimal demands of our users, and none of them involve grooming them for prospective employers. >most of the people who participate aren't going to be looking for a job when they do. This is weird, and I'm sensing some miscommunication between you and patio. I'm only hearing about this as a tool for proving my worth. Your major marketing (as far as I'll likely ever be aware) has CAREER CARE…
Patrick.
You're fired.
Anonymous Throwaway Account? Yes, you over there. I'm looking RIGHT AT YOU. Yes you.
You're the new CEO.
Get to work. Explain this to everyone else on HN. The clock's ticking!
Re: Announcing Starfighter
#230>Unfortunately, the technology industry is fundamentally unserious as to how it presently identifies and employs engineers.
Ok, so lets replace whiteboarding ancient algorithms and useless trick questions with a capture the flag game!! That'll make the industry seem less "unserious."
This is so unfathomably ridiculous. I can't believe you're marketing this as an interview replacement. If I get asked what my "Starfighter score" is before a job interview, I will be running as fast as I can in the other direction before they finish their sentence.
There will be people who become great at this game, and if (god help us) this gains momentum, they will get jobs.
I can only hope the rest who are developing applications and actually writing programs will come out on top, and employers will recognize that some people want to build things and not just improve their ranking in a game.