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Favorite Programming Contests?
SandSpider asks: "Sometimes, the daily grind of programming can wear a person down. Sometimes, people need challenges to expand their abilities and outlook. My personal favorite is the ADHOC/MacHack Showcase, where you spend up to 48 hours straight programming something impressive, perhaps with the conference theme, perhaps no. Sure, there's no prize, but it's the recognition from other programmers that makes it worthwhile. What is everyone else's favorite programming competition, and what did you do for it?"
International Obfuscated C Code Contest
/^([Ss]ame [Bb]at (time, |channel.)){2}$/
Write some code and you win your job!
http://icfpc.plt-scheme.org/
:)
No language restrictions, very interesting problems. quite prestigious to win. it is great!
The only downside is that it is only once a year. It is fun to do it in a language you don't know as a forced crash course too if you don't expect to win.
It starts this weekend! so start preparing.
http://notanumber.net/
Perl Golf, http://terje.perlgolf.org/, used to be my favourite programming related past time activity couple of years ago, when I programmed with Perl. Even though I haven't programmed with Perl in a log time, I still think that the Perl Golf is one of the coolest contest around.
Advice: on VPS providers
This contest has already been slashdotted, but the idea is sublime: "write code that is as readable, clear, innocent and straightforward as possible, and yet it must...do something subtly evil." And the prize is beer!
What I say does not represent the views of my employers, my friends, my cats, or myself.
I enter circuit cellar contests whenever I can. The development kits alone are worth the cost of a one year subscription (Linky! *looks at the 60Mhz ARM board and tries to come up with a project idea* --buddy
I'll second the OP's favorite. I've only attended for two years, but it's a great conference. I'm for sure going again this year.
I came in second place two years ago in the showcase by teaming up with someone else to write a networked Pong game that literally played across the screens. The paddles were on the end computers, and the ball would bounce across all the computers between it. It hovered over the desktop, which we demonstrated by showing a QuickTime movie playing in the background on one of the computers. I think the best part was that the text showing the score spanned all the computers hooked up. We called it AirPong, because we happened to be networked over Airport.
However, the winner's entry was great. It was Unstoppable Progress bars, a haxie that turned the system progress bars, which fill up with "aqua" colored liquid, into un-capped bars that would spill out and fill up the window.
It's a great experience with developers gathering in the atrium of the hotel and teaming up as needed to create really great things.
If you're a Mac/UNIX programmer, or are even remotely interested in it, I highly recommend it.