My python solution to the problem on the Fog Creek job app page http://www.fogcreek.com/Jobs/Dev/

fog creek job prob

#!/usr/bin/python
the_letters = 'acdegilmnoprstuw'
target_hash = 910897038977002
target_word_length = 9

def possible_strings(given_hash, string_so_far=''):
    try:
        given_hash = float(given_hash)
    except ValueError:
        raise Exception('Hash must be a number')

    if len(string_so_far) >= target_word_length:
        return string_so_far

    for l in the_letters:
        pre_division = given_hash - the_letters.index(l)
        if not pre_division % 37:
            p = possible_strings(pre_division / 37, l + string_so_far)
            if p:
                return p

def hash(s):
    """actually unused, but this is how the hash is calculated"""
    h = 7
    i = 0
    for l in s:
        h = h*37 + the_letters.index(s[i])
        i += 1
    return h

def brute_force():
    import itertools
    import sys
    for s in itertools.permutations(letters, 9):
        s = ''.join(s)
        h = hash(s)
        print '%s = %s' % (s,h)
        if 910897038977002 == hash(s):
            print s
            sys.exit(0)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print possible_strings(target_hash)