Blog Contest Winners
Winner 1: moh_taha_eg
Good Morning
I was never involved in a Blogging process but actually, I have been involved in at least 15 onsite contests before, so I can really think about what the online and the onsite audience like to see in the Blogs and the newsletters.
News
The most important issue in this process is surely the news and statistics. So, in an onsite event I like to be among the crowd from the very morning until the last moment of the day, so that I do not miss anything. So, I think that I can get every single action that is happening and pass all the information to our audience through the Blogs. Also, do not worry about photos and videos; I know that the fans of every contestant like to see them in the important moments.
Thanks for my friend Christina for drawing this for me
Languages
Regarding languages, I can speak English and French fluently. I have been studying both languages in my school for 13 years and then 5 years of computer Engineering studies in English at my University. I like usually to add some sort of sarcasm to my articles and photos. I know surely that the audience doesn't like arguments like "Giving up smoking is very easy, I have even done it 40 times before" :-) ... I think that I have good arguments better than this.
Statistics
Also, I think that we may start our blogs early giving some numbers, surveys and questionnaires that show the opinions of the qualifiers and famous TC members. I know that all TC members like statistics more than anything else. That's why statistics would be on the top of the priorities. I will try to record as much as I can concerning the event and the contest and make the required information available.
TCO07 Algorithm Finalists
Contest Experience
As a contestant, I have participated in 4 ACM-ICPC regionals and 4 ACM-ICPC nationals. As Egyptian team leader, I have participated in the last couple of IOIs in Mexico and Croatia as well as ACM-ICPC finals in Japan 2007. Being a problemsetter, I also participated in the last 4 national Olympiads in my country.
Concerning TopCoder, I am a yellow coder in algorithm competitions here. My rating oscillates between 1800 and 2000 inclusive :-). I can give some notes about the problems in the Blogs (not like Petr notes sure) but anyways I consider myself familiar with TC problems style after participating in more than 130 rated events here.
By the way, I was quarter finalist in the last TCCC 2006.
I think that's all... Bye for now :-).
Winner 2: tywok
I just went to www.topcoder.com/tc and saw that the blog contest is ending in a couple of hours. It is 2:18 am here but I don't feel sleepy. I am used to that in part because of the long hours during night SRMs. And here is what I got to say: after almost getting to red and then losing all my rating to low yellow, after almost screwing up the last TCCC qualification because my credit card was not accepted in the Starbucks wireless connection and having to run home for more credit cards, after almost losing a flight during round 2 because my 500 was not passing the testcases while my flight was in boarding status, I have to admit I don't see any chances to get to a tournament in a couple of years.
But I really think I could be a the best video blogger. I really like meeting different people and I feel I could give you a good impression of how TCCC really is. I forgot to say, I also stay late quite easily, so I could tell you about what happened during the night parties. Of course there are some! There are much more poker games than the official tournament. Actually, what I most remember and what I am most proud of from the TCCC I participated was when I won a poker game of about 20 people where the last people standing were reid, misof and John Dethridge :-)
Of course, you won't probably ever know if you don't pick me!