It is hard to believe so far so few people joined the second qualifier, which makes this No.1 weigh much less. Perhaps all the attendees tried out in the first qualifier and no one cares about this one anymore, since they are in if they rank within 250 in any of the two qualifiers. For me, I missed the last one and so saved my energy to this round. Am I a bit too over-reactive? I hope not.

About the competition

Most of the problems were straightforward and there are a few bugs in the specifications, which some I managed to guess out, the others I didn’t. However, I captured the screen right away, instead of at a later time, because I will lose the rank quite soon due to the contest rules. When two persons’ final scores are equal, their ranks are determined by the order in which they submit solutions to the hardest problem. See that 75 point boy? He was busy thus he nailed down the hardest one on his first shot, then he sat back and could finish other things up. As long as he finishes all problems before the deadline of this round, he is the 1st. Ziyan is his name.

Woohooo

Why to join?

“It’s … our responsibilities and even professionalism …”

My intention to join this Software Development competition was actually not about any prizes, but take this chance to push myself to learn some .NET stuff, which is being referred to increasingly more popularly and somehow will be an essential skill for any Software Developers to have. Well, learning a new language should be a simple task for Computer Science students, right? It’s not about the OpenSource or ClosedSource technology debates, but our responsibilities and even professionalism require us to know the quite-well-known framework, concepts, and its advantages/disadvantages.

What’s next?

Second round would be harsh. First 24 people out of 300-500 students get in. I don’t doubt my problem solving skills, but it under a time frame. I probably won’t get rid of the thoughts like “O if I can’t solve this in five minutes, I am going to lose” in the middle of the contest. That’s why I don’t like any competition thing, first is I don’t like to see other people lose; then I don’t like to see myself lose either. It’s quite stressful as the two opposite ideas mix together, and take over controls back and forth. The result is that I couldn’t concentrate and most of the time, end up losing it. My philosophy is: if there is a chance that I will lose, even if it’s just a minimal one, in many cases I will just not bother to do it at the first place. To me it is the same as not watching a horror movie because I will feel really sad during the nights.

Last week was definitely a remarkable one in the IT geeks’ world. Immediately followed by hundreds of comments and trackbacks, the TechCrunch’s coverage on iPhone’s announcement have shown people’s great interests in it, no matter it’s positive, negative…or hybrid.

Out of those people commented, there are essentially two types of them: those who want one right when it’s available, and those who are the same but pretending not to.

To me it’s an absolutely fancy and yet usable piece. I definitely will get one someday if not on the first day of release…as I am still not as rich…

Apple kept up people’s expectation and respect to truly push technology and usability forward to next generation. I call them “making fictions real”.

Yet the border was quite clear on TechCrunch. People either like it or “hate” it.

“Consumers’ behaviors cannot be measured directly from the price differences”

Some of the concerns are

• The thing is way too expensive. Not for average American to afford.
• The thing is bundled with Cingular. Cannot be used more broadly.
• The thing is announced too early. Competitors will get time to breathe.
• The thing is fancy but too entertaining. Users won’t be sponsored by their companies.
• The storage is a bit too small.

My Takes on these

• There is one guy who listed three reasons but are essentially one thing - the sky high price.Honestly for $600 bucks I’d rather buy a PS3, or 2 Wii. At least they are bigger in size. But first of all, the US doesn’t lack of riches. If I don’t need to worry about my tuition, I don’t think $600 is too much of a big deal, given that it’s a real PDA + iPod + CellPhone, not to mention its full-body touch screen. It’s a hundred times better than Nokia 8801 which is still selling at $500. Consumers’ behaviors cannot be measured directly from the price differences.Just an example, I’ve been struggling for whether I should buy a $300+ graphics card for years, but I don’t feel any problems buying a $300+ trench for my GF. Same rule here, something is expensive doesn’t mean it won’t be sold well. It really depends on whether people think it worths it.
• There are still 5 months before the release, these kind of promotion related limitations, as analyzed by someone, are going to be removed quite soon, before the second release. It’s hard to imagine how it can be sold world-widely if it is really a bundle with Cingular.
• This is really fun to think about. Some criticized how stupid Steve Jobs is announcing this so early. And some others suggested a different standpoint.iPhone has been developed for 2.5 years, and so for the competitors to really catch up, 5 months is apparently not enough. Now the most interesting part came. It’s analyzed that Jobs announced the product 5 months early, with a bunch of highly polished model demos on Apple’s website, is intended to cease other similar products sales completely in next 5 months. Many users who wanted to buy a Blackberry soon now need to re-consider their purchase plans. It is like selling it to the future. He’s got “brilliant” strategy and great ambition. And of course this move is strongly backed up with the stunning features that iPhone uniquely offers.
• I agree. But I just care about I can get a good toy and there are plenty of people like me.
• It’s quite small. But even stupid people like me can think of a solution…use a cable to connect iPhone with iPod’s massive storage.