I watched some of the videos on the site, and now my opinion is that his newest videos are much better than the old ones. He seems to keep his tempo much better now. And according to his biography, he seems to be taking a pursuing a Bachelor degree in piano playing.
This was the only pdf I could ever be arsed to read fully on a PC, which says a lot about the interest I picked in it... It's very interesting if you're interested in game making, so all nerds go and fetch it:)
Yeah, that's the problem with making very low level programs and/or programs which use undocumented features... which of course any decent programmer should avoid as much as possible:)
Are you concerned about the physical welfare of children? How much money have you spent trying to improve it?
Do you mean that no-one spends money to improve the physical welfare of kids? Starting with parents who make an effort in giving them good food, and ending in many other places...
It wasn't intended as a troll, it was intended as advice. Unless you want your children to be more and more unhealthy, you should put McDonalds where it deserves to be...
The World Finals programming language tools include Java, C/C++, and Pascal. See the Programming Environment Web Site, for detailed configuration information. Prior to the World Finals, the judges will have solved all problems in Java and C/C++, but not necessarily in Pascal. The decision to drop Pascal as a 2006 World Finals language will be ratified at the 2005 World Finals.
Each team will be provided with a single computer and a calculator. All teams will have equivalent computing equipment.
Contestants may not bring any printed materials or machine-readable versions of software or data to the Contest Area. Contestants may not bring their own computers, computer terminals, calculators, or other electronic devices to the Contest Area.
Each team member may bring an unannotated natural language dictionary. On-line reference materials will be made available as described at the Reference Materials Web Site. Each team will be permitted to provide a PDF file of up to 25 pages of notes within the limits described at the Team Certification Web Site. Details are provided at On-Site Registration Instructions.
It's 25 pages then, instead of 5:) Other things which seem to be new - they give a calculator now, it should be handy, and Pascal seems to be falling off the cliff...
I don't think they restrict access to linux man pages and things like javadoc (for the unfortunate ones who use java on those contests and have to write dozens of lines in order to read the input)...
But I agree that those restrictions are often stupid.
I'm sorry and I don't want to sound like a troll, but judging from your post it seems to me that you don't know jack shit about programming or those contests.
Yes, there are some mental challenges in programming, but for most part, it's straight forward (especially object based programming)
Those are not straightforward programming contests, they're algorithmic oriented contests.
here are real geniouses out there that can code in assembler, etc, but for most part, coding is like any other labor job.
It doesn't take any genius in special to code in assembly. In fact, most assembly programming is hard work but doesn't require any special brain to do it, compared with programming in other languages (I'm not talking about comparing idiots who only know java and the like).
If programming is so easy, I dare you participate in some programming contests similar to the one being discussed in this topic. Keep us updated on the results later:)
Fast maybe, but flawlessly definitely not. The speed restraint of the competition causes participants to hack their way through their problems any way they can. Good programming practices go out the window immediately.
Yes, flawlessly. Each wrong program you submit involves a penalty to your score, and you must have time to solve the OTHER problems. I didn't say the programs were very well made, that's not the objective of the contestants (though it can help in some cases). I didn't say anything about good programming practices.
"Knowing a lot of data structures"
I'll give you that one.
Thanks.
Why memorize the answers to solved problems? Most students in the competitions I've been to don't worry about memorizing answers. We all just bring our Data Structures and Algorithms books with us instead.
Did I say anything about memorizing the solutions? What I meant was having enough experience in order to code the variations fast enough. The winners know the solutions to those problems like the palm of their hands, even if not completely by heart.
Oh, and if you think those three things are all there is to being a good programmer, well, I just don't know how to respond to that.
I don't know about that specifically, but in one of those contests I heard an interesting story about the Russian contestants, which shows how seriously they face those competitions.
Some guy from Russia went with his coaches to a maths or computer science contest (I can't recall), and his performance was below what they expected. In the next day, they were all going for some sight-seeing in the city where the competition happened, and some of the people from Russia were going to see the sea for the first time. Since his performance was considered bad, they forbid him from going with them, he stayed in the hotel:O
I mostly agree with what you say, but I think those contests are partly a good indicator of how good a programmer is. There are 2/3 components which are necessary to win a competition like this:
- Knowing how to program fast and flawlessly - Knowing a lot of data structures, and knowning how to choose the right one for a problem (mainly trees, tries, hash tables, vectors, linked lists, graphs and ocasionally special data structures for geometrical data) - Knowing how to solve some classical problems, mainly in dynamic programming and graphs, where a lot of problems are used again and again in those contests (though with variations or presented in an obsfucated way).
I'd say that the first two are indicators of knowing how to program well. The third one is more discussible, since there are a lot of schools which prepare their contestants to know those algorithms by heart... I'm not saying they don't understand them, but that component alone doesn't show much ability to me:)
Well, here in Portugal NO-ONE says dates like that, fortunately... Even if we did, it's kind of different because when you say it that way, there's no chance of confusion (the same isn't true for dates expressed with numbers).
Slashdot Mirror
I watched some of the videos on the site, and now my opinion is that his newest videos are much better than the old ones. He seems to keep his tempo much better now. And according to his biography, he seems to be taking a pursuing a Bachelor degree in piano playing.
His tempo sucks in the Mario song video. Quite cool though :)
Another reason for all you Winblows users to switch a different os. If Mr. Reznor himself uses a mac....
Care to explain why?
This was the only pdf I could ever be arsed to read fully on a PC, which says a lot about the interest I picked in it... It's very interesting if you're interested in game making, so all nerds go and fetch it :)
Not only did they blew it with that attitude, they also proceeded to record St Anger :S (what's the best smiley to express disgust?)
Not to mention stuff like this...
You were not the only one ;)
And your nickname is "Lemmy Caution"? :D
Yeah, but being good at math shows that you have the basic mind skills which are used in computers...
Yeah, that's the problem with making very low level programs and/or programs which use undocumented features... which of course any decent programmer should avoid as much as possible :)
Perhaps backwards compatibility will require software updates/patches for the games?
;)
That's a contradiction
Are you concerned about the physical welfare of children? How much money have you spent trying to improve it?
Do you mean that no-one spends money to improve the physical welfare of kids? Starting with parents who make an effort in giving them good food, and ending in many other places...
It wasn't intended as a troll, it was intended as advice. Unless you want your children to be more and more unhealthy, you should put McDonalds where it deserves to be...
Perhaps you american guys should focus on eating less garbage like McDonalds...
It's 25 pages then, instead of 5
Other things which seem to be new - they give a calculator now, it should be handy, and Pascal seems to be falling off the cliff...
I don't think they restrict access to linux man pages and things like javadoc (for the unfortunate ones who use java on those contests and have to write dozens of lines in order to read the input)...
But I agree that those restrictions are often stupid.
I'm sorry and I don't want to sound like a troll, but judging from your post it seems to me that you don't know jack shit about programming or those contests.
:)
Yes, there are some mental challenges in programming, but for most part, it's straight forward (especially object based programming)
Those are not straightforward programming contests, they're algorithmic oriented contests.
here are real geniouses out there that can code in assembler, etc, but for most part, coding is like any other labor job.
It doesn't take any genius in special to code in assembly. In fact, most assembly programming is hard work but doesn't require any special brain to do it, compared with programming in other languages (I'm not talking about comparing idiots who only know java and the like).
If programming is so easy, I dare you participate in some programming contests similar to the one being discussed in this topic. Keep us updated on the results later
Next question please...
Next question please
Which year and competition (regional or final?) was that? Do you have a link to the problem set? Is that problem in the uva judge?
By the way, in the finals you can't take books with you, only something like 5 pages of printed material...
Fast maybe, but flawlessly definitely not. The speed restraint of the competition causes participants to hack their way through their problems any way they can. Good programming practices go out the window immediately.
Yes, flawlessly. Each wrong program you submit involves a penalty to your score, and you must have time to solve the OTHER problems. I didn't say the programs were very well made, that's not the objective of the contestants (though it can help in some cases). I didn't say anything about good programming practices.
"Knowing a lot of data structures"
I'll give you that one.
Thanks.
Why memorize the answers to solved problems? Most students in the competitions I've been to don't worry about memorizing answers. We all just bring our Data Structures and Algorithms books with us instead.
Did I say anything about memorizing the solutions? What I meant was having enough experience in order to code the variations fast enough. The winners know the solutions to those problems like the palm of their hands, even if not completely by heart.
Oh, and if you think those three things are all there is to being a good programmer, well, I just don't know how to respond to that.
Please read my post with both eyes.
I don't know about that specifically, but in one of those contests I heard an interesting story about the Russian contestants, which shows how seriously they face those competitions.
:O
Some guy from Russia went with his coaches to a maths or computer science contest (I can't recall), and his performance was below what they expected. In the next day, they were all going for some sight-seeing in the city where the competition happened, and some of the people from Russia were going to see the sea for the first time. Since his performance was considered bad, they forbid him from going with them, he stayed in the hotel
I mostly agree with what you say, but I think those contests are partly a good indicator of how good a programmer is. There are 2/3 components which are necessary to win a competition like this:
:)
- Knowing how to program fast and flawlessly
- Knowing a lot of data structures, and knowning how to choose the right one for a problem (mainly trees, tries, hash tables, vectors, linked lists, graphs and ocasionally special data structures for geometrical data)
- Knowing how to solve some classical problems, mainly in dynamic programming and graphs, where a lot of problems are used again and again in those contests (though with variations or presented in an obsfucated way).
I'd say that the first two are indicators of knowing how to program well. The third one is more discussible, since there are a lot of schools which prepare their contestants to know those algorithms by heart... I'm not saying they don't understand them, but that component alone doesn't show much ability to me
I think that ACM contests in the US have more relaxed rules, so when those teams go to more serious contests, they don't do very well...
:(
I was in the south-western european contest myself, where the rules are similar to the ones used in the finals, but my team didn't get through
Well, here in Portugal NO-ONE says dates like that, fortunately... Even if we did, it's kind of different because when you say it that way, there's no chance of confusion (the same isn't true for dates expressed with numbers).