Author of the blog here, happy to answer any questions.

Man this guy can write,

"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, Feinstein, and King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school"

Who is 'King'?

Rep Peter King of NY who has a hardon for protecting the children from terrorists.

Lemme get out the `FUEL' moleskin, ....ah,yes:

Mitch McConnell James Baker Dick Cheney Bush POTUS' Feinstein Peter King

Got it. thank you.

I had a similar experience, 2 telephonics and 4 on-site interviews. This is a blog post from an ex-googler and it explicitly mentions the manhole question was banned. http://www.technologywoman.com/2010/05/17/debunking-the-goog...

Engineering Blog post about it, including the reason for choosing hbase,

http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/the-under...