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Winners of the 'Google CodeJam 2004' Contest 149

Posted by michael from the only-one-man-would-dare-give-me-the-raspberry dept.
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."
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Winners of the 'Google CodeJam 2004' Contest More

Winners of the 'Google CodeJam 2004' Contest

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  • Direct link to the winners circle (Score:4, Informative)

    by Dancin_Santa ( 265275 ) <DancinSanta@gmail.com> on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:39PM (#10547569) Journal
    http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/codejamwinner s.html [google.com]

    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 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Emugamer ( 143719 ) * on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:06PM (#10547710) Homepage Journal

      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 (Score:5, Informative)

        by harves ( 122617 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @02:41AM (#10548905)

        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'.

        • "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.
          • 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 everybod
        • 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)..
    • 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.

    • I agree (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @01:46AM (#10548715) Homepage Journal

      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.

      • Have you actually read about the Google File System? Because if you're talking about this paper [google.com] 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

        • 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.
          • Interesting. It probably won't work for very long though, as Google seems to be trying to stop third party clients...
        • Dude. Check his ID. You just got trolled by "Pan T. Hose."
      • 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

    • Does this count? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1 6 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 you

  • Not much info available (Score:3, Interesting)

    by haluness ( 219661 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:39PM (#10547572)
    So what did he win the $10K for?
    • 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).
      • 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 (Score:5, Interesting)

          by chrisd ( 1457 ) * <chrisd@dibona.com> on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:27PM (#10547805) Homepage
          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 (Score:2, Informative)

            by 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), t

    • Re:Not much info available (Score:5, Informative)

      by SilentStrike ( 547628 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:51PM (#10547644) Homepage
      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 [topcoder.com].

      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;).

  • Working on Windows boxes? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jarich ( 733129 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:40PM (#10547575) Homepage Journal
    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

    • it doesn't matter (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:46PM (#10547613)
      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 (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Otter ( 3800 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:06PM (#10547704) Journal
        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.
        • 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.
          • I'm still waiting for the Cobol category...
          • 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...
          • 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.

            • This is complete, utter bullshit.

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

              • 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.

                • 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?

                  • 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

                  • 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!

      • Re:it doesn't matter (Score:5, Funny)

        by droleary ( 47999 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:13PM (#10547741) Homepage

        Creative people see beyond linux vs win

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

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

      • 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:Working on Windows boxes? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lachlan76 ( 770870 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:46PM (#10547618)
      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 ;)
    • 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? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cookiepus ( 154655 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:09PM (#10547721) Homepage
      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? (Score:1, Informative)

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

  • Ob. Family Guy Quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by Faustust ( 819471 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @08:53PM (#10547650) Homepage Journal

    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?

    • Ob. Orgazmo quote (Score:5, Funny)

      by seanadams.com ( 463190 ) * on Sunday October 17, 2004 @01:02AM (#10548591) Homepage
      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.

  • Thanks. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by adam31 ( 817930 ) <adam31 AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:56PM (#10547901)
    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. (Score:5, Informative)

      by xYoni69x ( 652510 ) <yoni.vl@gmail.com> on Saturday October 16, 2004 @10:28PM (#10548041) Journal
      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.
    • 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... (Score:5, Funny)

    by voxlator ( 531625 ) on Saturday October 16, 2004 @09:56PM (#10547904)
    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

  • GCJ overlapped IOI this year (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xYoni69x ( 652510 ) <yoni.vl@gmail.com> on Saturday October 16, 2004 @10:04PM (#10547940) Journal
    Hi Google,

    I was a contestant in IOI 2004 [ioi2004.org] (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 [topcoder.com] - 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

  • Felicitaciones! But you better start running! (Score:4, Informative)

    by chord.wav ( 599850 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @12:26AM (#10548451) Journal
    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! (Score:4, Funny)

      by aled ( 228417 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @10:44AM (#10550039)
      He has time at least until this gets to the media. I doubt kidnappers read Slashdot ;-)

      This is Argentina, the country of adventure.
    • 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 /.!!!
    • 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 t
  • 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

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