Winners of the 'Google CodeJam 2004' Contest

astrab writes "The Argentinian programmer Sergio Sancho, 30, won the 'Google Code Jam 2004' programming contest, whose final was held yesterday in Google HQ (Mountain View, CA), and pocketed $10,000. According to Dirson, Sergio studies at UBA (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) and works at the Research and Development Center which Core Security owns in Buenos Aires. More information also in the official Google Blog."

Comments

fp

[zerin]

fp?

consider the jihad

[regressiontest]

consider anti-slash

Re:consider the jihad

[ptlis]

Don't you just love irony?

Direct link to the winners circle

[Dancin_Santa]

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/codejamwinner s.html

Coolness. If there was any one company I would trust to "Do no evil", it would be Google.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

j00 suckm fucking googel-zaelot.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[nuclear305]

"Coolness. If there was any one company I would trust to "Do no evil", it would be Google."

I guess you missed this story then...

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Emugamer]

Coolness. If there was any one company I would trust to "Do no evil", it would be Google.

I would agree if it was based on classification of who of the companys who have as much influence on the world as google, would Do No Evil, but googl bows to much to comercial and political views for me to trust it anymore.. maybe 4 years ago, but now that so many people use it, the powers that be are focusing their attention on it...

It reminds me of the movie; Toys

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Emugamer]

I guess you missed this story then...
if there ever was an example of google being evil, it would not be that.. if you read beyond the headline, the article and actually think about it (or read some of the comments) this is a piece of software that does what it says its going to do, and could be abused... just like my high quality cutlery. economic pressure and Political censorship might be better tools

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, damn those Google people who want to 'do no evil' and decided not to break laws. Not breaking laws is soo evil, they should stop doing it.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

So if morons were outlawed, you'd have no problem with a Google representative killing you? After all, you wouldn't want them to break the law, right? After your balls drop. you'll (I hope) come to realize that some laws, such as the ones that require censorship for the Internet in China, are unjust and that we have a duty not to accomodate them, as does any U.S. based company.

~~~~

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Goosey]

Spoken like a true Anonymous Coward.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[polecat_redux]

If there was any one company I would trust to "Do no evil", it would be Google.

Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but on what basis do you make that claim? Google is in fact a for-profit corporation after all.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

Says he risking all the karma and glory associated with a 600k+ troll ID and no real name in his profile.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[mattgreen]

You don't have to have a basis to make an absurd claim on Slashdot. Google is officially 'hip' with the kids here until they slip and then we hate them. Unless its the third week of the month. Or the moon is full. Gah, I can't keep up.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[harves]

OK, I'm getting sick of this. From all the evidence I have seen, Google bows to political pressure just the same as any citizen. Give me an example where Google has tried to impose it's own opinion on people of the world? Where does it use it's brand power to impose it's political or self-serving commercial views (which would be evil)?

Bowing to politicial views of a country is not evil. Just because it has power in the world (as a trusted source of information and thus a fantastic propaganda machine) does not mean that the heads of Google should wield that power for any reason. Google should not be a 'knight in shining armour'.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

and no real name in his profile.

Josh Szepietowski

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[BasilBrush]

A for-profit public corporation has a duty to act in the interests of it's shareholders. And one of the main parts of that is to try to make a profit. But that's not the only responsibility they have to the shareholders. They also need to adhere to their stated aims, as purchasers of stock have bought on the basis of these aims. And one of those stated aims as published in the prospectus is "To do no evil".

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[BasilBrush]

Oh look! A slashdotter hating Microsoft apologist. How novel.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Breakfast Pants]

"Bowing to politicial views of a country is not evil." Putting aside questions as to whether the civil war was indeed about slavery, I think the people who fought for the north might disagree with you.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[polecat_redux]

They also need to adhere to their stated aims, as purchasers of stock have bought on the basis of these aims.

Perhaps, but when their stock splits multiple times and still continues to maintain a respectable trading price (as with MSFT), I doubt many shareholders will care. Keep in mind that shareholders are also for-profit entities.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be mistaken my comrade, because IN CAPITALIST USA... companies influence politics!

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Jamesie]

Everyone knows that windows XP is greater than Linux XP!

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

Using whois on the guy's domain is cheating :).

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Anonymous Coward]

Using whois on the guy's domain is cheating :).

Yeah well, at least I didn't post his address and phone number. I had it in there, but when I previewed the post it seemed mean spirited.

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Emugamer]

for such a geek icon, google has not been evil but has displayed a very neutral stance as apposed to activist when it comes to specific things. I realise that now as a publicly traded company, they might benefit from that neutrality, but I think they could be very powerful tool towords geek goals (anti- cesorship, and personal information protection)..

Re:Direct link to the winners circle

[Krid(O'Caign)]

At the time, slavery wasn't all that big a deal in the north - people just didn't *care*, and wouldn't have gone off to die so that a bunch of 5/7ths people would go from legally being property to merely effectively being property. No, to them the civil war was more about a bunch of uppity southern folk thinking they're such big badasses (... and the tobbacco and cotton crops, and tax dollars, and etc...). I'd say that slavery was ranked about 37 on the list of reasons the north fought, just below everybody having to update thier maps to reflect the changes. Regardless, bowing to political pressure is not in and of itself an evil act. Google is providing a service, and this means that they have to compromise in authoritarian nations like China and France. These alterations are limited only to the nations that demand them, *you* can search for anti-chinese-government sites all day on google if you like. So in China they can't show anti-government sites, it's a requirement of doing buisness. Heck, thanks to the MLATs if they don't concede to France's demands, they can be arrested and tried under French law!

Not much info available

[haluness]

So what did he win the $10K for?

Re:Not much info available

[Dancin_Santa]

It's like the ACM except for Google. It isn't about doing their research for them (well it is, but it just doesn't be as blatant as asking them to build stuff with the Google SDK).

Re:Not much info available

[haluness]

It's like the ACM except for Google.

I realize that, but don't we get to know what he did with the google SDK? Might be a pointer to what Google will be bringing out in the future

Re:Not much info available

[SilentStrike]

He won the final match, so he got the $10k. It was just like an ordinary Topcoder Single Round Match (problems were written by TopCoder employees, not Google Employees). You can read more about TopCoder here.

I competed in the tournament and qualified (was about 160 out of 2500, first 500 made the cut) in the qualifications, but then lost in the first online round (280 out of 450 in round 1, needed to be 250).

The competitions on TopCoder are fun in general. If you want to hone your algorithm skills, I recommend you compete. And you can even put your referer as rrenaud when you sign up;).

Re:Not much info available

[chrisd]

Actually it wasn't connected to the google codebase at all. The questions were all general computer algorithms related. I checked in on the contest, it was really cool!

On of the problems was a game space solving question, I don't remember what the other two were, but some of the topcoder contestents mentioned having heard of if through slashdot, so I'd imagine some might post.

Chris DiBona

Re:Not much info available

[Anonymous Coward]

The game space thing was a 6x6 version of 'peg solitaire', with a max of 12 moves. The problem size was chosen so that you can do it using brute force, but only if you search in both directions (from the start and goal state) simultaneously. If I had figured that out 5 minutes earlier, I would have won :-(

The two easy problems were:

- a[1]=b[1]=1, a[n] = either a[n-1] or b[n-1], b[n] = a[n-1]+b[n-1], given a pair of values figure out n.

- Build a magic square using the standard algorithm (see wikipedia), the only problem being that the square was 40000x40000.

Cool

[memodude]

This sounds cool. Too bad the US didn't win... :(

Re:Cool

[Shky]

I was unaware there were teams, let alone teams based on country.

Argentina didn't win, the US didn't lose, Sergio Sancho is the winner, and it shouldn't matter what country he's from.

/Canadian

Re:Cool

[militiaMan]

10K in the U.S. is not much. Rewards should be set by cost of living. Otherwise any country with a high currency value is doomed to become stupid.

Re:Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck off cockbag

Re:Cool

[militiaMan]

10K in the U.S. is not much. Rewards should be set by cost of living. Otherwise any country with a high currency value is doomed to become stupid. Due to government set exchange rates. So much for free trade.

Re:Cool

[aled]

just what a looser would say ;-)

from .ar

Re:Cool

[njko]

true, but in argentina we have a culture of everything from outside its better (even developers) so this is very important for my country.

Re:Cool

[FinalCut]

who says 10k in the US isn't much? Hell, it would be a great addition to MY bank account.

Working on Windows boxes?

[jarich]

Anyone else notice that all the contestants were on Windows boxes? I thought Google was a Linux oriented shop.... There's a picture on the blog

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[lachlan76]

Not all programmers have Linux experience, but just about everyone has used Windows.

It would have been nice if they didn't use the new colour scheme though, no-one should be subjected to that ;)

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[Creepy Crawler]

So? Does using Windows mean you cannot get a job done?

Employers dont care what OS/language/thought you use, AS LONG AS YOU GET THE JOB DONE.

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[lachlan76]

Unless you use Windows-specific API calls that mean it can't be used on a Linux server.

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[Anonymous Coward]

All using Windows? Wow. I thought the rolling hills and blue taskbar was a new theme for Gnome. Hmm.. but now that I look more intently, that is definitely the default Windows XP desktop! Thanks for pointing that out, mate.

Posting anonymously to avoid the inevitable -1: Troll

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[cookiepus]

What you mean to say is that the Google -server- farm consists of Linux machines. Who knows (or cares?) what OS google uses for their workstations? I wouln't be surprised if they let their people chose, also.

All the code I write runs on Solaris but I have a Win2k workstation.

No one has been shocked by this except for you.

-E

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[Creepy Crawler]

Ok. Tell me what algorithms can only be used within Windows API?

Please do. Ill be waiting.

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it wasn't that bad. They had kindly installed emacs (both X and Gnu), and the applet is the same anyway.

Too bad windows doesn't come with perl though :-/

(oh, and Sergio is a nice guy. Good for him!)

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[macmurph]

The competition was hosted by an org/company called Top Coder, not by Google.

The first round was in Java, which is relatively platform independent.

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[Anonymous Coward]

They use linux workstations with vmware for Windows interop.

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[lachlan76]

Not the algorithm, but the implementation. Of course, I doubt Google would use any of this code, but if they did, can they use software written for Win32 on a Linux box? No. All it shows is that they aren't exclusively a Linux shop, and they don't plan to use this code on their servers. Which no-one really expects anyway.

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[Harry8]

Who knows (or cares?) what OS google uses for their workstations?

They use some version of Red Hat for their worstations.
At least that is what Marc Merlin said at Linux.conf.au this year.

Who cares? Can't help you there...

Re:Working on Windows boxes?

[analogGirl]

The competitors weren't given a choice, they had to use Windows boxes. Actual Google employees get to use their operating system of choice.

what's better

[C_REZ]

gold in olympic basketball or winner of google code jam '04?

Re:what's better

[Otter]

I dunno -- do you think Manu Ginobili makes more than $10,000?

Re:what's better

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think we'll be winning Gold in Basketball for a while....

Re:what's better

[C_REZ]

what the heck with the change in score?

it doesn't matter

[ArchieBunker]

The operating system is merely a tool that is used to complete your work, not a religion. Creative people see beyond linux vs win.

Re:it doesn't matter

[Otter]

Also, note that the contest allowed solutions in Java, C++, C# or VB.NET. Mono notwithstanding, you can see where Windows was the preferred environment.

Re:it doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

Although you make a valid point for general use, in a competition like this you'd probably want to be usuing your normal setup. Use your normal coding environment with your normal tools and everything you are used to. It speeds development and makes you happier through the proccess.

I know when I code minor things, like what and editor considers a word, can throw me off and just give me a generally bad disposition while using it.

Something tells me the usual environment for these coders wasn't 100% Windows XP.

Re:it doesn't matter

[droleary]

Creative people see beyond linux vs win

. . . beyond the moon and stars . . . beyond heaven and earth . . .

. . . all the way to the land of . . . Macintosh

Re:it doesn't matter

[CPrimerPlus]

I've always wondered why Top coder didn't allow you to use Python or even C. If your comfortable in the language expressing your self in it shouldn't be a problem. I find this espeacially annoying. Mostly about python.

Re:it doesn't matter

[JavaRob]

The operating system is merely a tool that is used to complete your work, not a religion. Creative people see beyond linux vs win.

That said, I'm still awfully curious to know what languages they chose to answer each question: Java, C++, C#, or VB.net.

Yes, it wouldn't mean that language was *better*, or even better suited to real-world coding tasks... I'm just curious.

Re:it doesn't matter

[TopShelf]

I'm still waiting for the Cobol category...

Re:it doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

idiot!!!

Re:it doesn't matter

[spongman]

you can program topcoder solutions fine in C, but if you're not using C++/STL then you're at a distinct disadvantage. That goes for C/C++ programming in general, of course. let the flame war commence...

Re:it doesn't matter

[BasilBrush]

Any experienced python programmer would have a big time advantage over Java, C++, C# or VB.NET programmers for most classes of algorithm. At least if the competition is all about the speed at which you can code an algorithm. They'd have more problems if speed of the resulting code was also a metric.

Re:it doesn't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

C/C++ is not a language, however C and C++ are 2 seperate languages.

You failed my interview, thank you, please dont apply again. Next.

Re:it doesn't matter

[Q Who]

This is complete, utter bullshit.

Besides, most TopCoder "reds" code in C++.

Re:it doesn't matter

[BasilBrush]

What's bullshit? I've coded professionally in C++ for about 6 years, and Python for about 6 months. I guarantee you I could code any algorithm quicker in Python then C++. It simply takes a lot less lines to do anything in Python and you spend a lot less time doing non-algorithm related stuff.

Now, do you have any resoning to support your cry of "bullshit"?

TopCoder "reds" don't code in Python, because that isn't allowed.

Re:it doesn't matter

[Q Who]

What's bullshit? I've coded professionally in C++ for about 6 years, and Python for about 6 months. I guarantee you I could code any algorithm quicker in Python then C++. It simply takes a lot less lines to do anything in Python and you spend a lot less time doing non-algorithm related stuff.

Perhaps you are a bad C++ programmer. I guarantee you I could code any algorithm quicker in C++ than you would in Python. What's your TopCoder rating?

Re:it doesn't matter

[BasilBrush]

What's your TopCoder rating?

LOL! I work as a software engineer and have done so for years. I don't piss about playing games at what I do all day as a job. You may still be at the stage of trying to prove yourself, I'm not. Clearly you are not a professional, and you certainly don't know both C++ and python to any degree, or you wouldn't make such a silly assertion about the speed of development in the two languages.

Now if you actually want to make some comment about language features to justify your position, then we can talk. But if you are so stuck for arguments that you start on the ad hominems instantly, then it's pretty obvious you have nothing to say.

Re:it doesn't matter

[Tofino]

What's your TopCoder rating?

ePeen size challenged! Write an algorithm to correctly determine the size of the challenger's ePeen while not revealing yours!

Congrats to the fellow south american! :-)

[rolling_bits]

From a brazilian.

Cheers.

Re:Congrats to the fellow south american! :-)

[C_REZ]

what's the brazilian way of saying cheers?

Re:Congrats to the fellow south american! :-)

[gustgr]

It is nice (or even astonishing) to see that the well known "rivalry" between brazilians and agertines is disappearing.

Re:Congrats to the fellow south american! :-)

[Lisandro]

That only applies to soccer, trust me :) I've been to Brazil a lot of times and always been treated great. I extend the same courtesy to Brazilians visiting Argentina.

Re:Congrats to the fellow south american! :-)

[aled]

You must be kidding. But is not that bad, it's like sibling rivalry.
Oh, Agertines must be very old...

Re:Congrats to the fellow south american! :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

regal!

Pronounced "ragaw".

Ob. Family Guy Quote

[Faustust]

Brian: Hola, me llamo es Brian ... Nosotros quieremos ir con ustedes.. uhhhh ...

Sergio(spanish): Hey, that was pretty good, except when you said "me llamo es Brian," you don't need the "es," just me llamo Brian.

Brian: Oh, oh you speak english

Sergio (sigh): No, just that first speech and this one explaining it.

Brian: You .... you're kidding me, right?

Sergio(spanish): Que?

if u think this is cool u r stupid

[cinnamon colbert]

What does it cost google to run this contest - peanuts for a large company. I imagine they own the code - and they get a lot of good pr. typical, harvard mbas running emotional circles around techies, the techies so stupid they don t even know they are being explotied

gmail :)

[Anonymous Coward]

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-517235 8b19-6f45f145ca
https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-13556c 0563-18969179a8
https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-bc9b11 50e2-0bef3ba2a4
https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-d6f302 cd83-e0644e7ef5
https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-62e3c6 9d32-22621daaff
https://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-b0ab39f1a8-6c3f07 c84e-b9e70ce4cd

What were the problems?

[Anonymous Coward]

What were the problems?

Re:gmail :) - HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy shit (no pun intended) - how the hell did they do that? i'm using firefox w/ most javascript disabled, and i don't know how it took control of the browser like that.

Don't click the link, especially if you're in a public lab. it puts a picture of a person, with what's supposed to be crap on their face. and the browser window jumps aruond the screen so it's hard to go back or do anything. and out of the speaker comes a loud blasting "hey everybody - i'm looking at gay porno" which repeats over and over.

So - while it's super funny - how the hell did they code that? thank goodness i wasn't in a public lab clicking on that link (which by all means appeared to come from gmail too).

Re:gmail :) - HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

how the hell did they do that?

Using various programming techniques that are obviously too complicated for your feeble mind to understand.

it puts a picture of a person, with what's supposed to be crap on their face

What makes you think its not crap?

out of the speaker comes a loud blasting "hey everybody - i'm looking at gay porno" which repeats over and over.

Yes, perhaps you were looking at gay porno? Jeez, I dont know!

how the hell did they code that?

Again, this would be too complex for anyone with an IQ such as yours to understand.

Re:gmail :) - HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

You clearly don't have javascript disabled properly.

Wow, what a dumb idea...

[WIAKywbfatw]

Yeah, right. So by that rationale, you should have a first prize of, say, $50,000 if the winner is from the US but only $10,000 if he's from India. Do you realise how dumb that sounds?

Good code is good code: it doesn't matter where it's written, who it's written by or where the writer got his education. If you know what you want then it doesn't matter if the programmer you employ to do the job is based in Silicon Valley, Bangalore or Buenos Aires. The sooner you realise this fact (and the possible implications that it has for you), the better.

It's precisely because Indian coders can do most (if not all) jobs as well as their US counterparts that has US companies turning to them: why pay a guy five times as much because of his geographical location if you don't have to? To reiterate my point again, don't expect to get paid a premium just because of your latitude and longitude.

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[fizban]

It's not always just about good code. It's also often about time of implementation, flexibility for change, and domain knowledge, which can not always be accomplished with outsourced development. This is why some companies are turning back from outsourcing after finding that it's costing them more to send their solutions offshore and why some companies haven't even considered outsourcing, because they know it would kill them.

So, when you're paying a programmer more in the U.S., you're paying not just for the coding, but also for the proximity to you. It's not a premium, just a cost of doing business.

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[register_ax]

Mod this down please. This poster is pretty naieve about how the world works. That's why there are all those trade rules and what not. It is the reason why sweat shops exist. Wage is relative. Money is relative. So many massive depressions around the world has been as a result of pegging a nation's currency to another nation's whose is stronger. Don't get drawn in by the topical socialist message "all people are equal." I mean that's true, that's obvious. But the decisions those people make, and thus nations, are not equal. Zimbabwe for instance hit an inflation point of about 620% increase of January of this year. $10,000 wouldn't be shit for him. The plane ticket to America where his money would be worth something would cost him damn near $5,000 US dollars alone.

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're correct -- code is code, programmers are programmers

Why pay someone five times as much indeed? And be subject to all those pesky labor laws in first world countries. Laws it took many, many decades of workers being treated like crap to bring about!

And of course, theres the cost of living. Just because it costs 5X more for you to live in the US, don't expect to be paid for it! That's crazy talk!

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[militiaMan]

It would cost 5X times as much if exchange rate where set by the market instead of governments.

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

Zimbabwe for instance hit an inflation point of about 620% increase of January of this year. $10,000 wouldn't be shit for him. The plane ticket to America where his money would be worth something would cost him damn near $5,000 US dollars alone.

Er, what? The US dollar is worth the same everywhere in the world. What high inflation means is that the Zimbabwe dollar is worth less and less compared to other currencies, so prices in Zimbabwe dollars rise rapidly.

Flights between New York and Harare are currently $800-$1200. Regardless of which end you start.

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[register_ax]

Er, what? The US dollar is worth the same everywhere in the world.

Correction, the US dollar is worth the same everywhere in the world when spent in the US.

Currently the exchange rate of US dollar to the euro is 1:.80. Now the dollar would be worth the same as it is worth in the US if products would also be adjusted for the relative price increase/decrease, but given there are more than two currencies in the world, that is not feasible.

I figured the flight to be $800 here so I was close. I was too lazy to look it up. It's not the same there because purchasing power is different due to inflation. Although it wouldn't probably be 800*6.2~$5000, it wouldn't be the same either.

The world is not perfect. Economics suck. There is no clear path. The Mexcian Peso crisis of 1995 where the dollar had a fixed peg to the dollar shows one example, and Russian ruble crisis during the early 90s demonstrates removing price controls which shows how inflation works pretty much over night.

So while people may be equal, nations, and their economies, are not.

Re:Wow, what a dumb idea...

[militiaMan]

I forgot the not after would. Whups.

what was the specific challenge?

[ErichTheWebGuy]

Anyone know what the specific challenge was that Sergio solved? That's just evil to announce to a community of hackers and programmers and not announce what he did

go sancho go!!

[Anonymous Coward]

there should be a new meaning for the word 'groso' and thats gotta be 'Sergio Sancho'

congratulations! everyone should be partying instead of whining just because an Argentinian guy won. buuu!

hope you spend one or two k usd in your welcome-back-home party.

Re:go sancho go!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Totally agree with that.... too bad i'm in Mendoza, AR... but still... really cool that a guy from Argentina.... (even from a public university... like UBA) made it all the way against the best coders in the world..
just one more word
congrats man... we shall all be proud for ya..

Thanks.

[adam31]

Sweet! Thanks for a link to the problems! It's really interesting to know how much money was won or where they're from.

Anyway, I did notice that Reid Barton was a 3rd place finisher. I recognized the name from a book called Count Down by Steve Olson about the U.S. High School Mathematics Olympiad team in 2001. Good read about geniuses in high school. What's interesting is that programmers are usually mathematical, but not necessarily the other way around -- that one person can be near the top in both fields (esp 2 years out of high school) is remarkable.

Re:Thanks.

[xYoni69x]

Yes - Reid Barton is becoming a very recognizable name around contests of this sort. He participated in the IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics), the IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad), the Putnam (an American mathematics olympiad), and of course the Google Code Jam (and maybe others I missed - ACM?). In short: This guy owns you and me.

It's actually common for people to participate in both computer science and mathematics contests. Remember, the CS contests (IOI, ACM, GCJ) are about computer science, not just programming. (Obviously you have to know how to program, but that's not at all what you're being tested on.) The problems themselves are very mathematical, so the people who participate are usually pretty mathematical themselves.

Re:Thanks.

[danila]

The Russian team on IMOs usually consists mostly of people from a St. Petersburg math school (239). From personal experience there I can say that most of the kids who are good (as in exceptional) in math can be good in programming, but not everyone likes it. Those who have computers early, who are introduced to programming and who don't have other time consuming hobbies will easily become top performers in both programming and math.

Google Geography Lesson...

[voxlator]

Additional cash prizes went to the other top 50 finalists, who are working or studying in the United States and in 16 other countries, from Scandinavia to central Europe to Hong Kong, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

I know we have the EC, but 'central Europe' is now a country? When did we get downgraded from a continent?

I must have missed that one while I was reading the sports pages...:o)

--#voxlator

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[Anonymous Coward]

u truly are a fucking idiot. get a life u fucktard

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when is Scandinavia a country also?

Idiot...

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[acq3]

...and Scandinavia IS a country?

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[Entropy Unleashed]

You obviously haven't been playing enough Risk.

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[seanadams.com]

When did we get downgraded from a continent?

When you standardized your currency. And if you all don't take a stand against our retarded gowernment, we'll downgrade you again to the 51st state.

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[seanadams.com]

Er, I meant 52. Forgot about Canada. :)

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[Distinguished Hero]

Additional cash prizes went to the other top 50 finalists, who are working or studying in the United States and in 16 other countries, from Scandinavia to central Europe to Hong Kong, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
I know we have the EC, but 'central Europe' is now a country? When did we get downgraded from a continent?

Scandinavia, Honk Kong and Korea aren't countries either...

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, I meant 52. Forgot about Canada. :)

Ah, you'd be an American then.

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[mfh]

Honk Kong

Honky Tonk Kong? Certainly not a country.

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[opspin]

Actually Scandinavia isn't a country either, it's more like Denmark, Sweden and Norway (possibly also Finland)

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[deimtee]

I think you mean 53. - An Australian.

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[danila]

Finland isn't. But Iceland (and possibly Greenland, though they are a protectorate of Denmark anyway) is.

Re:Google Geography Lesson...

[Tim Browse]

Can't resist it... :-)

jam this

[Anonymous Coward]

google code-jam my flim-sham-spam-man

home with a 40,
feel so horny.
too drunk to cruise
time to order in some pussy

"no scratch
no snatch"

yeah thats right i troll now

goxAt

[Anonymous Coward]

irrecoverable While the pRoject Fear the reaper of the old going be a cock-sucking be any fucking Join GNAA (GAY And distraction personal rivalries I have a life to no matter how BSD managed to make when IDC recently have left in guys are usually name on the jar of dim. Due to the grandstanders, the reciprocating bad go of the minutiae prospects are very poor dead last of *BSD aaswipes OpenBSD. How many (Click Here

GCJ overlapped IOI this year

[xYoni69x]

Hi Google,

I was a contestant in IOI 2004 (the International Olympiad in Informatics) this September. I would have participated in the GCJ also, but unfortunately Google's dates and the IOI dates overlapped. See the "important dates" here - the Qualification Round was on September 15-16, and the IOI was on September 11-18. Oh well.

(There were people walking around with GCJ 2003 T-shirts. It was pretty amusing.)

Google: Something to consider for GCJ 2005. (IOI 2005 will be on August 18-25.)

Thanks,
Yoni

Re:GCJ overlapped IOI this year

[BarryNorton]

Next year why not consider a credible competition?

Re:GCJ overlapped IOI this year

[misof]

Well... I was at the IOI myself (as a deputy leader), and while I was too lazy to participate, one of "my" contestants did actually participate in the Qualification Round. When there's a will, there's a way.

Re:what's better -- US gets neither!

[Anonymous Coward]

doesn't matter much for us Americans, since the US won neither! go Argentina!

Re:gmail :) - HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

[Triumph The Insult C]

take a look at the actual link, compared to what you read. then ...

hint: are you feeling lucky today?

O(1) BSOD algorithm:

[Anonymous Coward]

QED

Felicitaciones! But you better start running!

[chord.wav]

Over here in Argentina, isn't very healthy to have your name near that ammount of money in the frontpage of the newspapers.
With kidnaps beign in the top ten of modus operandies(?) prefered by delincuents, he should start applying for a (name a 1st world country) visa ASAP.
Professional tennis players had to ask the media not to mention the ammount of cash they won for that matter.

Re:Felicitaciones! But you better start running!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not bad :-). But you forgot some of your Latin, I guess.

modi operandi, plural of modus operandi

Re:Felicitaciones! But you better start running!

[aled]

He has time at least until this gets to the media. I doubt kidnappers read Slashdot ;-)

This is Argentina, the country of adventure.

Re:Felicitaciones! But you better start running!

[stm2]

There are more ways to loose your earned money in Argentina. The gov could allow your bank to keep your money.
If I were the winner, I would set up an account in a US Bank, far away from BCRA regulations...
Last time I checked, an Argentinean can open a saving accout for free in the US, but it needs to recommendation letters from local banks (I was told this on August this year in Miami, there are new post-9/11 regulations).

FELICITACIONES AL GANADOR SI LEE /.!!!

Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

Olympic Gold will get you laid

Ob. Orgazmo quote

[seanadams.com]

Man A: What's your name, again?
Man B: I am Sancho.
Man A: Look, I get a lot of people auditioning all the time. What makes you think that you'd be good enough for porno?
Man B: I am Sancho.
Man A: Great... but what do you do?
Man B: What do I do? I am Sancho.
Man An: And...?
Man B: And there are many Jeffs in the world, and many Toms as well. But I... am Sancho.
Man A: And...?!
Man B: Are you Sancho? No you are not. Neither is Scott Baio Sancho. Frank Gifford is not Sancho. But I...
Man A: You... are Sancho!
Man B: That's right.
Man A: Okay, you're hired.

:Goat

[Anonymous Coward]

Kreskin shitheads. *BSD leaving the pl+ay up my toys. I'm population as well Benefits of being during which I gig in front of your replies rather though I have never a GAY NIGGER tto much formality That should be *BSD has steadily a full-time GNAA are there? Oh, 800 mhz machine much as Windows Perspective, the on an endeavour wasn't on Steve's series of internal server crashes departures of and Juliet 40,000 This very moment, Play parties the [idge.net]

I agree

[Pan T. Hose]

Coolness. If there was any one company I would trust to "Do no evil", it would be Google.

I agree wholeheartedly. But sadly Google cannot trust their users to do no evil. As an example let's take this "Google file system." As much as I am usually against frivolous lawsuits, in this case I really hope Google will sue its authors and win. Why? Because this so called "file system" is a classical example of parasite which can only hurt Google giving absolutely nothing in exchange whatsoever. And for what? So its "developers" could have their project posted on Slashdot frontpage? So they could say "look, mom, how 'leet' I am"? I ask you, people, what if one day someone writes a "file system" stealing storage from Slashdot, saving its files in the form of gigabyte first posts filled with goat sex links and literally tons of uuencoded pornography? This is exactly the same, only much worse, because Google has much less intrusive advertisements and no corporate agenda. From every greedy US corporation, Google is unquestionably the closest to being absolutely perfect. And how do we say "thank you"? By stealing their property? By advertising this pathetic thief "file system" on the front page of the most popular website on the north hemisphere? I just wanted to protest and clearly state that I am strongly against it. I hope someone will start a paypal fund to help Google in court. We cannot tolerate such a behaviour. Please keep in mind that Google is not another IBM who didn't see anything wrong in helping Hitler or Cisco who is perfectly comfortable with building the largest machines of censorship and oppression in the history of human kind. Google is trying to do what is best for us. They deserve our gratefulness and, what is even more important, respect. The existence of script kiddies shamefully exploiting Google's superior services for their own miserable advantage is a precedence not only insulting to our intelligence but a one actually harmful for us in the long run, because that could possibly mean the end of fantastic projects from Google, when they eventually stop to think and inevitably say: "Hey, what's the point in making another contest? Why give them so much if they just want to steal from us? Maybe that popup pornography ads and paid search results placement weren't such a bad idea, after all?" I know I certainly would. Sorry for a long rant. I just love Google and I hate people who hurt it. Going back on topic, I think it was a great contest, even though I haven't won anything. Google is great as always. I wish every corporation would act that way.

Re:I agree

[ryanmfw]

Have you actually read about the Google File System? Because if you're talking about this paper then you're really really wrong. It was designed *for* Google, *for* handling all of *Google's* data. Not as some scheme to steal Google's storage space. Next time at least read what you're talking about.

Oh wait, this is Slashdot

Re:I agree

[perkr]

Nah, he's talking about a Python hack that was posted on slashdot a while ago, which made it possible to mount a connection to google mail and use it as storage.

Re:I agree

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he's referring to the gmail file system (he said google file system, but you should have figured out from the content of his post what he meant). There's linux and windows flavors, and they use the gmail service as a storage device in the same way you would use any other disk drive.

Next time at least read what you're talking about.

Indeed. Perhaps you should practice what you preach? Oh wait...

Re:I agree

[Fallen_Knight]

gmail FS not google FS, and the number of people who actauly use that will be SOOOO low it won't relaly effect google in anyway. Anyone who has the knowhow to run it will probaly also see how its fairly useless. might be good for backing up 1GB of data, but i dont' think GOOGLE will really mind if all of 10,000 users store 1gb of data, they are more then prepared for that i bet.

1GB is alot in terms of mail, but in music and video it isn't really that much. AND the RW speed would be horrid so alls you could use it for is backup.

Re: I agree

[Omniscient Ferret]

Dude. Check his ID. You just got trolled by "Pan T. Hose."

Re:I agree

[ryanmfw]

OK, I'll grant you the gmail file system bit. But, how am I supposed to know that he's actually talking about that when he is *explicitly* saying Google File System, when that *is* an actual thing. The next time I read something, even if it's grammatically correct, and everything referenced in it is correct, do I have to figure out what *might* not be what the author actually intended and write my reply based on that? No. I even linked to the article *on* what I thought he was talking about, which I read myself(it's pretty interesting, besides). So, whatever. Granted, that was a long tirade on my having read about what he was talking about. :-)

Re:I agree

[ryanmfw]

Interesting. It probably won't work for very long though, as Google seems to be trying to stop third party clients...

Does this count?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=16 20&ncid=1211&e=2&u=/sv/20041016/tc_sv/googlesdeskt opsearchisvaluableyetcreepy

Desktop Search does three things in particular that could compromise your privacy when someone else uses your computer:

First, the software keeps a copy of all your AOL Instant Messenger conversations. AIM, for many users, is like talking over the water cooler at work -- you say things you don't want preserved for posterity. Until now, AIM conversations with your buddies disappeared from your computer the moment you closed the discussion window. Desktop Search, however, makes a copy of AIM conversations and keeps them forever.

Second, the software keeps its own copy of all your Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail messages -- even after you delete them from within Outlook or Outlook Express. A confidential company memo, in other words, will still pop up during Google searches after you've emptied the Deleted Items folder in Outlook.

Third, the software keeps a copy of every Web page you visit and lists those pages in search results with the date and time of your visit. This even includes Web pages that are supposed to be secure from prying eyes, such as those run by online banking sites.

Ob. Quote

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm from Buenos Aires and I say kill them all!

I'm still waiting for my codejam t-shirt

[Anonymous Coward]

from last year.

thanks for the laugh

[fliptout]

mod up, por favor.

First-hand experiences

[electric_mind]

Being from Buenos Aires and a former student of the UBA, I can only say that this shows how well a person who actually puts its mind on it can compete with the best programmers in the world.
After the economic chaos we have been through in the last few years, only positive startups, against all odds and a corrupt government will save this country from extinction.
Note that many of us programmers are working for international projects (as in, programming some of the outsourcing project from the EU or USA) and I am a big fan of the USA - I have always wanted to apply the good aspects of that country to my own. I think we need to start working hard on all those issues, just like the USA did during the great depression.
Also, Microsoft is present at the Computer Science Uni, offering free Windows, Office and Visual Studio for students. Note that this is a country where the average computer user runs a pirate version of Windows and Linux is only a word they have heard somewhere.
On the other hand, I have met a handful of excellent, worldclass programmers who I'm sure will make a difference at least in their areas.

Felicitaciones, Sergio!

- Who needs a sig?

Google...

[Ilgaz]

Spies on peoples own desktops openly.

Even Copernic founder guy bitched about it.

For more info: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/google_des ktop_privacy/

As I said dozens of times and dozens of times I got -1 score, Google using beowulf and Linux doesn't mean they are "good" people.

Re:Google...

[Ilgaz]

not to mention about some of their people on board being Ex NSA people.

I really wonder if some linux/bsd/opensource using company invents a chemical weapon and geeks love to smell it...

I really wonder...

Re:Google...

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdotters have a similar blindness to IBM, one of the worst and most proprietary companies in existence.

Re:Google...

[FinalCut]

maybe you should consider taking up a career of looking for conspiracies while your at it.

gimme a break.

Re:Google...

[Anonymous Coward]

This article is very misleading, which is not surprising since it is mostly quoting negative comments from one of Google's competitors.

That is mostly media hyping

[nnappe]

Just another case of media manipulating information.
I am from Argentina. I know nobody who has been kidnapped. I know nobody who knows anybody who has been kidnapped. And probably I could recurse a few more times.
The focus that kidnapping has drawn so much attention is mainly due to the fact that kidnappers target famous/rich/powerfull people (the kind that gets the most attention from the media), the fact that the owner of a media holding is also the owner of a private security holding, and the fact that the security forces (police, primarily) were being suspected of corruption and abuse (during the riots of 2001) with members of the forces playing part in organized crime (even kidnapping ;-)
In Buenos Aires City (kind of the DC), there was just one kidnapping in the first half of the year. Considering a population of 3-4 million people, that does not seem like a major problem...

I doubt about your "first hand experiences"

[hppacito]

Hey man, get real! I didn't study at UBA, but linux is a word I first heard in 96 (and installed myself on Spet96 first time, Slackware distro), and from guys at UTN. Sorry if in UBA they only know about m$ tools, really sorry. The country will be saved of extinction if we Argentinians get rid of USA's influence in our goverment and so on. Again sorry for you being fan of such poor country which such poor behaviour. And for what I saw so far, most people around the world still don't know what is linux about. Great improvement it is done in some Goverment areas with open source for several years (Economia, INTI, just to mention you some I know of being there..., RHIDE y el kernel linux fueron mejorados por un muchacho que trabaja en el INTI). Por cierto, soy fan del hombre del bigote, la unica forma de levantar un pais es poner a todos a trabajar, ni regalar el dinero, ni sentarlos en una silla, una pala y a hacer zanjas! Por otro lado lo de Sergio es muy bueno.