That post seems to be missing.

pennomi 20 points 7 months ago

I saw something similar in an interview question once. You’re on a desert island and all you have is a laptop with connectivity to the internet (not gps like on a phone). How do you get rescued? Your battery won’t last forever!

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nkk 36 points 7 months ago

make fun of taylor swift on twitter, the swifties will track you down in a matter of minutes

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Cenotaph 19 points 7 months ago

Ping a bunch of different known locations and extrapolate a rough location through response times, then use voip to call the coast guard that presides over that area and coordinate rescue using their knowledge of the area while I ping servers in a smaller and smaller geo region to attempt to narrow the search

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squaresinger 15 points 7 months ago

Reminds me of that old story of the email server that couldn't send emails farther than 500 miles: https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html

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Cenotaph 6 points 7 months ago

Thanks for that, I had totally forgotten about this story!

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0_o7 4 points 7 months ago

What kind of ping are we talking about? I'm curious if it would work. Network ping is based on algorithms, topology, congestion and other variables, not necessarily the actual distance between locations.

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marcos 17 points 7 months ago

Well, telling emergency services how you got there is probably enough for them to find you.

The most pressing question is how do you contact emergency services. Do they get email?

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pennomi 26 points 7 months ago

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CheeseNoodle 16 points 7 months ago

Dies after 6 hours of trying to make an online phone call via various websites and constantly getting stuck because they want an excessive amount of personal data that I don't have on hand with me on the island. The laptop had an 8 hour battery but beating myself to death with a coconut just seems preferable by that point.

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marcos 6 points 7 months ago

Now that you mentioned it... Can most people access their emails from a strange island without their phones? My guess is they can't.

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CheeseNoodle 6 points 7 months ago

You can if you don't use gmail, or sign up for one without 2FA, the trick is going to be getting anyone to believe you're stucko n a desert island.

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trxxruraxvr 14 points 7 months ago

If the laptop has a camera, share pictures of the night sky with emergency services. They might have some difficulty but should be able to find someone who can determine the position from the stars. Depending on how long the battery lasts see if you can figure it out yourself and share what you find.

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Eq0 8 points 7 months ago

Wow, you have incredible faith in a laptop camera! On my phone the moon is often castello recognizable…

But then, you can download a sky map and figure stuff out on your own then? How precise can that be?

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logicbomb 12 points 7 months ago

"I would search for a website that collects the best answers to the most idiotic interview questions, and follow the instructions I find there."

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pennomi 6 points 7 months ago

This is the best answer, unless you actually want to get hired of course.

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squaresinger 9 points 7 months ago

Snap a picture of the surroundings on the laptop webcam and upload it to the geoguessr subreddit.

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someguy3 8 points 7 months ago

Hmm first backlight all the way down. Then coast guard website, police website, search and rescue. Then post on uh oh I'm going to say it Reddit and hope it gets noticed. Hope with all of this you have some idea of where you are/were/how you got there. See if you can find a VoIP service if you have to call.

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Rhaedas 3 points 7 months ago

Challenge Rainbolt and zi8gzag to find where you are and send a plane.

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stupidcasey 8 points 7 months ago

Hmmm... Na I wouldn't call anyone either. I'd hate to inconvenience them.

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kahdbrixk 4 points 7 months ago

I wish any smartphone would last that long ^^