I feel you should "pick me" to receive a free trip to the TCO 2006


By dplass
TopCoder Member

I feel you should "pick me" to receive a free trip to the TCO 2006 because I have "earned" this trip already for a variety of reasons.

First of all, last year, in the 2005 TCO CDDC, I had enough points to compete in the on-line development finals, but had a conflict with both the on-line finals and on-site finals. As a result, I missed out on the trip to the on-site finals last year. If I could go on-site this year, it would be as if I had made it both last year AND this year. (Unfortunately, this year, I got sick during week 2 of the CDDC and didn't recover enough to enter in either week 2 or week 3. Since my week 1 submission came in 6th place, I wasn't able to submit enough to make it into the top 8 this year.)

Secondly, I am an AVID TopCoder fanatic. I have competed in 70 algorithm competitions over the last 5 years, I almost never miss a night-time (eastern-time) SRM. Also, I have submitted over a dozen design and development competitions (combined) and I have won seven of those competitions, providing quality designs and implementations of TopCoder components for its customers. To improve the TopCoder community in general, I have made over 2000 posts to the forums, pointing out bugs on the website, answering questions, and having a good time with the other coders there, which fosters happy feelings among the user base. Meeting many other "famous" TopCoders in person would be an added thrill - while I have made "friends" with them online, I have yet to meet any of the "in real life".

Thirdly, I already write about my TopCoder "adventures" on my blog at Livejournal.com. My personal blog contains my own triumphs (and frustrations), and I participate in a community which writes their own reviews of the problems in the SRMs and discusses other algorithms. Similarly, I have already been written about in the media with my TopCoder adventures. I was interviewed by Inc magazine (January 2006 issue) regarding my TopCoder experience in both design/development and algorithms. Sending me to Las Vegas will allow us to build upon this publicity and I would easily be able to provide the required blog entries.

Finally, I would really like to win the trip to meet all the great TopCoder employees who have been so helpful and hard-working (especially dok, TheFaxman and ivern) so I can thank them in person for putting up with me and providing, and improving, such a great website. Meeting Mr. Hughes in person would also be an added "plus".

So, as you can see, I am "the ideal candidate!" I look forward to meeting all of you in person in May. :-)