At best, Google gets positive PR and face time with top young developers, who they'll peg for interviews after school. This is about the people, not the ideas.
They aren't even waiting until "after school." Google offered a series of interviews to any finalist who wanted it.
Sun, IBM, and many others have sponsored TopCoder competitions in the past. They have since backed off of them. I'm not certain as to the reasons, but TopCoder has received a LOT of criticism. The problem with their approach is that it only proves that the coder can think and type fast. It does nothing to address teamwork, cleanliness of code, design capabilities, engineering ability, or many other areas that are critical to a real world programming job. These contests can be a fun way to compete with your peers, but my guess is that a lot of companies have found that placing too much empahsis on the results is a good way to get burned.
The TopCoder competitions do a great job of measuring coder's abilities to quickly come up with and implement the correct algorithm to some non-complex problems. So, as long as companies realize that, the results of TopCoder competitions can be useful to them. It would definitely be foolish of a company to hire programmers based solely on this, just as it would be foolish to hire solely based on GPA or class rank or some other measure. But, all of these can be useful when combined with other things, hopefully including an interview or two.
I don't think that TopCoder is lacking sponsors. They have started to increase the number of Single Round Matches (SRMs) they hold, and have recently reintroduced prize money provided by sponsors to some of them (like one occurring tomorrow at 9:00am EDT).
That said, the only viable reason I can see for competing is if you enjoy it, as you could make a lot more money for your time doing some real work.
Maybe I should have said more, too. The ways that Google gains from this are by the apparent goodwill they receive, and from the recruiting of quick thinking computer programmers.
I'm certain that they don't benefit from the code that is written. The problems are designed to challenge coders to come up with the right algorithm quickly, not to do something useful for Google. The problem authors have to provide a reference solution, so these are not unsolved problems. The problems are almost always something that could be solved by most programmers given enough time and a book on algorithms. The challenge is in coming up with solutions quicker than others while not making mistakes.
The coders benefit from this by enjoying the competition, the prize money, and the potential opportunity to work for Google (if they want).
First of all, it cost them over $155,000, as that is how much prize money they gave out. They also spent quite a bit to fly 100 people to the bay area, put us up in a hotel, etc.
Second, everyone competes on the same problems, and they are problems that most people could solve given enough time. Google does this to encourage programming, as well as to recruit programmers, not to benefit from the work these programmers do.
I don't know if this makes you feel better or worse about the editors, but it looks to me like the summary was simply plagiarized from osnews.
Re:DLL encryption will render this ineffective
on
The Open-Source Detector
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· Score: 5, Insightful
This tool is meant for commercial software companies to use, to ensure that they are not mistakenly using GPL code in their programs. It is not for open source developers to find misuses of their own code.
If you follow the Linux Kernel mailing list at all, it has been fairly apparent for the past week at least that Linus would be using "git" to manage the kernel. He has been putting a lot of time into it. So, my guess is, yes - the editors had "inside" knowledge
You'll put the "Low-Sodium" salt makers out of business!
I came across a container of "Low-Sodium" salt in the grocery store and had to compare the nutrition information. Indeed, it had 2/3 the sodium per 1 teaspoon serving of the similarly shaped "regular" salt container next to it. And, the net weight of the container was 2/3 as much.
Not only this, but this salt that takes 50% more volume for the same weight also cost 5 times as much as the "regular" salt.
If people in the US measured salt by weight rather than volume, they could no longer make a fortune off of low sodium diets.
Why is this offtopic?
Which do you think Galileo would rather have named after him, a global positioning system or a travel agency? It seems clear to me that the cooler tech lost the Galileo name.
That would be nice, but unfortunately hibernating is not the same as suspended animation. Hibernating animals still lose muscle mass and use energy. The metabolic rate decreases but does not stop in hibernation.
The issue was raised by Green Party Alderman Jens Muehlhaus, who warned that patent issues could grind some of the city's departments to a halt in the future. The issue involves a proposed directive on software patents that is being considered by various European governments, including Germany, France, and the U.K.
My impression is that Jens Muelhaus, who is a supporter of Open Source software, brought the issue up with the hope of discouraging the passage of software patent laws.
although 11b is not screaming it is better than modem
Assuming you could actually get 11mbps over that distance, that would be screaming compared to most cable or DSL access. The fastest DSL available in the city of 100k I live in is 6mbps downstream and 1.5mbps upstream.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe I should have said more, too. The ways that Google gains from this are by the apparent goodwill they receive, and from the recruiting of quick thinking computer programmers. I'm certain that they don't benefit from the code that is written. The problems are designed to challenge coders to come up with the right algorithm quickly, not to do something useful for Google. The problem authors have to provide a reference solution, so these are not unsolved problems. The problems are almost always something that could be solved by most programmers given enough time and a book on algorithms. The challenge is in coming up with solutions quicker than others while not making mistakes. The coders benefit from this by enjoying the competition, the prize money, and the potential opportunity to work for Google (if they want).
First of all, it cost them over $155,000, as that is how much prize money they gave out. They also spent quite a bit to fly 100 people to the bay area, put us up in a hotel, etc. Second, everyone competes on the same problems, and they are problems that most people could solve given enough time. Google does this to encourage programming, as well as to recruit programmers, not to benefit from the work these programmers do.
I don't know if this makes you feel better or worse about the editors, but it looks to me like the summary was simply plagiarized from osnews.
This tool is meant for commercial software companies to use, to ensure that they are not mistakenly using GPL code in their programs. It is not for open source developers to find misuses of their own code.
If you follow the Linux Kernel mailing list at all, it has been fairly apparent for the past week at least that Linus would be using "git" to manage the kernel. He has been putting a lot of time into it. So, my guess is, yes - the editors had "inside" knowledge
You'll put the "Low-Sodium" salt makers out of business! I came across a container of "Low-Sodium" salt in the grocery store and had to compare the nutrition information. Indeed, it had 2/3 the sodium per 1 teaspoon serving of the similarly shaped "regular" salt container next to it. And, the net weight of the container was 2/3 as much. Not only this, but this salt that takes 50% more volume for the same weight also cost 5 times as much as the "regular" salt. If people in the US measured salt by weight rather than volume, they could no longer make a fortune off of low sodium diets.
Why is this offtopic? Which do you think Galileo would rather have named after him, a global positioning system or a travel agency? It seems clear to me that the cooler tech lost the Galileo name.
That would be nice, but unfortunately hibernating is not the same as suspended animation. Hibernating animals still lose muscle mass and use energy. The metabolic rate decreases but does not stop in hibernation.
although 11b is not screaming it is better than modem
Assuming you could actually get 11mbps over that distance, that would be screaming compared to most cable or DSL access. The fastest DSL available in the city of 100k I live in is 6mbps downstream and 1.5mbps upstream.