Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

شاید زندگی آن جشنی نباشد که آرزویش را داشتی، اما حال که به آن دعوت شده ای تا می توانی زیبا برقص.

– بایزید بسطامی

تصمیم گرفتم این پست رو فارسی بنویسم. آخه همش انگلیسی که خوب نیست. اینطوری حداقل یه احترام کوچیکی هم برای خواننده ها قائل میشم، برای اونایی که ترجیح میدن فارسی بخونن تا انگلیسی.

همین امروز (البته بهتره که بگم دیروز، چون دو سه ساعتی هست که از 12 شب گذشته) با یه سایتی آشنا شدم که برام خیلی جالب بود (سایت ted.com). این سایت مال انجمنی است که از سال 1984 شروع به کار کرده، کلمه TED مخفف Technology Entertainment و Design است. به قول خودشون کنفرانس TED همه ساله اندیشمندان و عاملین رو از رشته ها و با طرز فکرهای متفاوت دور هم جمع می کنه تا در مورد تجربیاتشون در یک بازه زمانی 18 دقیقه ای صحبت کنن. بهترین این اجراها و صحبت ها رو آنلاین برای مشاهده و دانلود روی وب سایتشون قرار می دن.

هدف اصلی این وب سایت انتشار ایده های مختلف هست. خیلی چیزای جالب توش پیدا میشه. مثلاً اینو ببینین! یا این یکی.

I do not know if you recall the announcement in my homepage’s News section about GCJ, here I’m discussing an issue in a bit more details. The Google Code Jam, unlike previous years which were used to be held via TopCoder, has been started but this time with the contest management system they have provided themselves at Google. In their eligibility rules they have stated that residents of countries under U.S. sanction programs could not participate in the contest. As a result no Iranians could take part in the contest. It’s a shame for Google, many arguments and discussions have been made about this issue. Some could be found here and here.

Jelani Nelson a rated TopCoder member boycotted this programming challenge. You can read more about his point of view in the above links and here. It’s a nice move in my opinion, I admire him.

This year, the same as the previous four years, the coding challenge was again held in IAUM. It was great. Last year I could not go to Mashhad to be in the Contest Site, as I had to finish my MSc thesis up for the defense. After two semi-final contests between 46 contestants, who were qualified through a number of online contests, the Great Finale held on Friday August 15, 2008. This year I was in the Scientific Committee and the Judgment team. But due to the lack of enough time I was facing as ever, I could not be of much help. I just helped in the idea for some problems and was present in the contest site doing the judgment runs and stuff. But I should really thank Yaser and Hadi for their great efforts on preparing good challenging problem sets. Here is Hadi’s post in his weblog about IAUM-CCC 5, it’s nice. The technical committee, the same as last year, have done a great job on holding this contest making everything neat, from the contest site to all the lateral stuff.

For more information on the contest, problems and results refer to homepage and blog. I’m including some undersized pictures, captured by my camera, from the contest here:

More photos also are in my repository. If you want, just leave a comment or email me.