Bangalore yet again!

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted - this is probably the biggest break I've ever taken from blogging. It's been rather eventful and fun(though not all of it). A potted history follows, from the last blog until now, in chronological order.

First item of note: Nearly a month ago, some damned SOB stole my shoes from the rack outside the 3rd floor lab at college. It's the least used lab, and far enough up that few people pass it frequently. On top of that, there was a cricket match between the profs and the students, which left the place even more deserted than usual. Naturally, some unworthy scoundrel who passed by saw my wonderful pair(my uncle had brought them for me from New Zealand just a few days before) and coolly walked off with them. He also grabbed another guy's Nikes, but they were insignificant in comparison with mine.

It's highly unlikely that the fiend in question reads my blog, but just in case he does, I'd like to inform him that if I ever find him, I shall introduce him to the shoes I'm wearing at that point, preferably at very high velocity and targeted at vital portions of his anatomy. Dude, whoever you are, count yourself lucky if you get away spitting up just blood and teeth.

To everyone else, if you find me pounding the stuffing out of some fellow, now you know why. Feel free to join in and add a kick or two. Lynch mobs and hard, blunt objects are welcome.

The chap who had the weirdest reaction to this was the principal, who spoke to us in a very odd fashion. His voice got progressively louder, and he seemed to be biting off his words - almost as if he were annoyed by the entire thing and pissed off at us for actually bringing it to his attention. It was eerily similar to the behaviour of some minor government functionary who has no real power and massages his ego by bluster and noise. So what else is new?

Right, that's the bad stuff. On to the good times, and the reason I'm going to Bangalore again.

For those who came in late, Google is holding another India Code Jam. The name is a bit of a misnomer, really, since it involves 11 countries from the general vicinity - India is just the biggest one around, that's all.

The qualifiers were held a while back, and I made it to the top 500 without any difficulty, despite the fact that I just solved one of the two problems. More of a surprise was Sagar, who also made it through. He's still a grey at TopCoder, so he was incredibly happy.

On to Online Round 1 - only the top 50 make it to the onsites, and I was terrified I wouldn't make it. Just my luck - I came in 56th because I stopped to check if a brute force to the 500 would time out or not. I completely went down the wrong road on the 1000, thinking knapsack all the way until 2 minutes were left, when I suddenly realized that it was inapplicable to vectors - all this insistence on having direction as well as magnitude, you see. ;)

I was really depressed - so close and yet so far. To my surprise, a couple of days later I got an invite to the Google Code Jam finals group, and so I posted there, saying essentially "Hey, WTF?!". Turns out that those of us who were on the borderline were backups in case some of the finalists couldn't make it.

I'm sure everyone sees where this is going now. Suffice it to say I was walking on air the day the mail advancing me to the finals came along.

Oh yes - Sagar made it to the top 250 scorers, and will be the proud recipient of a Google t-shirt. Of course, I'll be the only one who can show off the shirt in college(I should get mine at the onsites, I think). Poor Sagar will have to wait till later for his.

Perhaps I should also mention that Sagar was almost 28 ranks away from the 250 before system tests, and didn't expect anything. I told him he'd make it, and he promised me a Dairy Milk chocolate if he did. To paraphrase a certain Bollywood actor "Hum chocolate ke liye kuch bhi kar sakte hain."

Of course, I forgot about the chocolate, and he didn't, so I was pretty pleasantly surprised when he produced one a couple of days after the results.

My flight to Bangalore should be leaving tomorrow morning at around 10:30 AM, and the actual finals will be on Friday morning, followed by a Google job interview on Saturday. Life is good!

It'll be interesting to see the finals first-hand - I wonder how high Nishant(niphoton) will place this time(he was last year's 4th place winner). He's gonna be battling aboyner and konqueror this time, and a whole lot of TC yellows from Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and so forth. And last year's winner ardiankp is actually red, so he might just kick all our butts again...

I suddenly find myself wishing I was better at challenges.

I think I'll do a quick read of stuff from CLRS - this is the last chance I'll have to read and practice until the finals.

Part of the fun is meeting other coders, of course. It'll be great to meet some of the guys I've only talked to in the arena. Perhaps I can convince my dad to let me take the digicam along too. Expect photos if that happens.

Now for lunch, and some frenzied practice. Wish me luck!