a) I'm in, but I'm crap at organization.<div>b) I've done ~50 of these already, but would love to re-do them</div><div>c) Have you see sphere on-line judge? <a href="http://www.spoj.pl">http://www.spoj.pl</a><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Seth David Schoen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:schoen@loyalty.org">schoen@loyalty.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
I'd like to organize a group of people to work on Project Euler<br>
problems at Noisebridge.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.projecteuler.net/" target="_blank">http://www.projecteuler.net/</a><br>
<br>
This is a web site with around 250 discrete math problems, in roughly<br>
increasing order of difficulty, which are meant to be solved by writing<br>
a computer program. Easy example: "Find the 10001st prime" (problem<br>
7, solved by 41358 people); harder example: "Find the sum of all n,<br>
0<n<64,000,000 such that [the sum of the squares of the divisors of n]<br>
is a perfect square" (problem 211, solved by 719 people). Many of the<br>
problems dramatically demonstrate that an efficient program can be<br>
_much_ more effective than an inefficient one, and the site maintainer<br>
promises that (given the right approach) each problem can be solved in<br>
under 1 minute of CPU time on any modern computer.<br>
<br>
The system tracks which problems each user has solved. After you've<br>
given the correct answer to a given problem, you get access to a<br>
forum where you can see other people's code and discussions of that<br>
problem.<br>
<br>
I like Project Euler a lot and at certain points in the past I've<br>
spent a lot of time working on some of the problems there. They're<br>
a fun set of exercises in programming and algorithmics, and I've<br>
often thought that they would be a great match for Noisebridge.<br>
<br>
I propose the following structure for this group:<br>
<br>
* Regular weekly meetings of 40-60 minutes on some evening<br>
<br>
* Create a "noisebridge" account on Project Euler, as well as individual<br>
accounts for participants<br>
<br>
* Each week, choose k specific "individual" problems and n "group"<br>
problems where k>0 and n>0 and each of the group problems is harder<br>
than any individual problems (and the values of k and n are chosen<br>
by the group so that the total amount of time working on Project<br>
Euler is in a range that all participants are comfortable with)<br>
<br>
* Try to solve the "group" problems together in person at the space,<br>
entering the answers into the noisebridge account<br>
<br>
* Have people solve the "individual" problems on their own at home,<br>
and then present their answers to the group if there is any member<br>
who didn't manage to solve an individual problem<br>
<br>
Participants would need to know how to program in some computer<br>
language, but not all participants have to use the same language.<br>
<br>
You don't need to be a math expert to participate; if interested<br>
people turn out to have extremely different math backgrounds,<br>
we'll figure out what to do to make sure the group is interesting<br>
for everybody.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Seth David Schoen <<a href="mailto:schoen@loyalty.org">schoen@loyalty.org</a>> | Qué empresa fácil no pensar en<br>
<a href="http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/" target="_blank">http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/</a> | un tigre, reflexioné.<br>
<a href="http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/" target="_blank">http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/</a> | -- Borges, El Zahir<br>
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</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Crutcher Dunnavant <<a href="mailto:crutcher@gmail.com">crutcher@gmail.com</a>><br>
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