About 500 programmers from all over the world took part in this contest. We (Timus Top Coders team) want to thank everyone who found some time to participate. We worked hard during last several weeks - for you... We hope you enjoyed the problems and the statements ;) Thank you all! And thanks to Vladimir Yakovlev, the admin of Timus Online Judge, who helped us a lot.

We are glad to congratulate the best programmers, who solved 5 or more problems:

1. LouTianCheng (China)
2. Shangri-La (China) - [they used dirty account!]
3. cqfwdghy (China)
4. Himalaya Multalisks (China)
5. Ivan Metelsky (Belarus)
6. Tim Green@Counter (China)
7. Zhu Chenguang (China)
8. Zhukov Dmitry (Russian Federation)
9. Soldiers of Unfortune (Russian Federation)
10. SczTeam (China)
11. Amber (Citizen of the Earth) - [he used dirty account!]
12. PHOENIX (China) - [he used dirty account!]
13. Korduban [Kiev] (Ukraine)
14. arti (Kazakhstan)
15. XYZ (Citizen of the Earth)
16. Rostislav (Bulgaria)
17. winlll (China)
18. abc (Cambodia)
19. Dmitry Korolev (Russian Federation)
20. Chmeli_BSU (Belarus)
21. Andrey Mokhov (Kyrgyzstan)
22. SarCraf & iRabbit (China) - [some solution are the same!]
23. SnakeEater (Citizen of the Earth)
24. Hurricane_NET (China)
25. Samsonov Alex [USU] (Russian Federation)
26. Ulan Degenbayev (Kyrgyzstan)
27. Ivankov Dmitry (Russian Federation)
28. traveller in winter (China)

And we want to give our special award "For the Will to Conquer" to Dmitry Ivankov, who tried his best to solve the problems despite the incrediable number of attempts. Our congratulations, Dmitry!

The problems will be added to the Volume 5 soon.

As for dirty accounts and multi-AC solutions on problem A, an investigation will be performed within one or two days, and we will punish someone who tried to play unfairly. Shame on them! And my respect to the ones who solved the problems honestly.

Edited by author 22.04.2006 21:57

Great thanks to the authors of the contest for 5 hours of challenging game. The tasks were quite interesting, the problemset was rather balanced, but... just two things:

1) The statements are very funny, but they are too long. And sometimes they can't be read at all, i.e. three paragraphs of flood don't make the task better.

2) I got my two last accepted's using some kind of "magic", like i++ => ++i, adding "inline" and so on. Either the timelimits are too hard, so such mad optimization is required, or they are too big ,allowing bad solutions work.

> 1) The statements are very funny, but they are too long.
> And sometimes they can't be read at all, i.e. three
> paragraphs of flood don't make the task better.

No one forced you to read them all, especially the backgrounds, during the contest ;) We just tried to prepare really good problems with interesting and funny stories. And we did it, at least, the texts seem to be much better than we have on NEERC or CBOSS. Do not forget a lot of programmers will solve these problems after the contest, and we hope they will be pleased with the statements.

> I got my two last accepted's using some kind of "magic",
> like i++ => ++i, adding "inline" and so on. Either the
> timelimits are too hard, so such mad optimization is
> required, or they are too big ,allowing bad solutions
> work

The time limits were thoroughly coordinated. If the solution passes the time limit it is quite good, you may believe me :) As for "inline" and so on - it is not a "magic", but obvious optimization features, which should be know by any good programmer. We have just remind them of such things.

If you have concrete questions or proposals about the time limits and the contest I ask you for writing me at dimanyes@mail.ru if you speak Russian, and at dimanyes@yahoo.com if you do not.

А вы, ребята, хм, как бы это сказать, обалдели совсем. Какое мне дело до политпропаганды в вашей стране? Вы много материалов изучили по делу газа, прежде чем дерьмо изрыгать? Funny stories, значит? Какого черта я должен читать про "оранжевых друзей" и про "будущее за чужой счет"? Сколько вам лет, много ли вы в этот, чужой, счет вложили собственных усилий? Многого достигли, чтобы возомнить, что имеете право такое писать? Задачки решать научились? Таких много. Каждый год по 300 человек на IOI ездит.

Относительно "оранжевых друзей" - для вас это - тема из анекдотов; 99 процентов из россиян, сладостно хихикающих по этому поводу, на самом деле имеют для этого не больше оснований, чем мартышка, которой от рожденья тычут в нос оранжевую картинку, и, если она смеется, дают банан.

Лично Ковалеву: ты свой ротик открывал насчет того, что Тимус, мол, мать городов русских, не место, где один может обидеть другого. Мне за тебя было обидно, когда Дмитрий Тишкин, как мне казалось, тебя обижал. По-моему, я достаточно внятно заступился, и не жалею - думал ведь, за *человека* заступаюсь. Так вот, друг друга, значит, нельзя, а страну, значит, можно? Газ мы у вас крадем, значит? Я краду? Мои друзья крадут? Почему в связи с играми, которые устраивают "высшие" чины, и настоящая суть которых останется известной единицам, весь мир должен наблюдать, как три прыща поливают дерьмом "братское государство"? Оччень мне интересно, какой скандал бы развернулся, если бы на испанском сервере (а лучше на каком-нибудь канадском, если такие есть) было бы что-то похожее про Америку. Сколько разговоров про "тупых" американцев, которые учат квадратные уравнения в последних классах high school'а, насчет этого знать не могу, зато вот что точно - свою страну они ого-го как любят, за километр не подступишься. За такой треп вы бы одним легко удаляемым сообщением в форум не отделались бы, а влетели бы в кругленькую сумму, да и ресурс вполне могли бы закрыть после суда.

Кстати, что касается ресурса. Тимус - один из моих любимых сайтов, и мне очень грустно видеть, как вы (авторы и админы) позорите этот международный online judge.

И только не надо мне про то, что это, мол, шутка, а у меня, мол, чувства юмора мало. Разберусь.

П.С. Очень жалею, что во время тура программист занимал во мне слишком большУю часть, и я не послал вас к чертям собачим прямо тогда. Противно.

From the moderator: I do not delete this message only because I want everyone to see what polite programmers are trying to learn the Top Coders to be politically correct. Enjoy!

Edited by moderator 25.04.2006 03:07

Agree with Michael Rybak!!!

You know, every statement to each for our problems is really a joke ;) That is why I do not feel offended with your - a bit impolite :) - message.

You are mistaken when you think we wanted to offend Ukrainian programmers. If we laugh at Orange Revolution leaders (without names in fact) it does not mean we do not like them. As you could see we laugh at almost everything - at Russian life ("Heating main"), Russian programmers ("Beerhouse tale", "Jedi riddle 2" and "Pascal vs. C++"), Russian business ("Credit operations"), Russian culture ("Rectangles 2"), Russian army ("War games")... But no Russian programmer complained ;) Next time we may write something funny about the USA (in fact the problem "Freedom of speech" is slightly about it ;] ) for your satisfaction.

See, we may change the word "Ukraine" to anything else immediately - just propose something! But I doubt it will change the situation. Everyone knows the described story very well. And it worth laughing at. But no one thinks it was you who was stealing Russian gas ;)))

We are apologize to all the Ukrainian, Albanian, American, Mexican and Russian programmers who took part in our contest and might feel hurt by our problems. Relax and smile, guys - and enjoy the problems themselves. We are beyond the politics and religion. Programming is our politics and religion (what a beautiful slogan!)

Freedom of speech - just watch what you say

Edited by author 23.04.2006 12:12

Michael просто плохо выступил и захотел злость вывести на люди))) ((шутка) здесь надо смеяться:))))

Дмитрий я надеюсь, что следующее соревнование(если оно будет) проведете в воскресенье. А то так хотелось поучаствовать, а никак.

З.Ы. жду шуток про американцев))))))

We may hold it in the middle of July, but we do not know whether hundreds of programmers will particiape in it in summer... As for Sunday - I think in summer it does not matter for you ;) But Sunday is the most probable day.

Jokes about the USA? Sure! ;) And Michael's message suggested us a brilliant story for the next problem about Three Programmers, who were pursued for their political views. Oh, a life in the world of political correctness appeared to be so cruel for those truth-lovers... How to help Three Programmers to escape the fagoting ("сожжение на костре" in Russian)? Wait for our third contest - and you will know it :)

Edited by author 23.04.2006 22:02

In fact, as a one of administrators of this site I agree with Michael: texts of tasks from "Timus Top Coders: Second Challenge" are at the edge (and sometimes even beyond the edge) of allowed. I'm sorry that I did not look at the tasks before the contest. And I think that tasks will be partially rewritten to avoid offending visitors of this site.

As for "[Censored] pipelines" and "Pascal vs. C++" - all the changes needed are already done. We do not mention You-Know-What country, which likes to steal Russian gas, and people, who were very smart to drop Pascal from IBM ICPC.

As for the other texts - nothing will be changed by someone except the members of Timus Top Coders team. As the authors we are completely responsible for the statements - and NOTHING will be changed without our permission. And I doubt someone can prove us the statements are somewhat incorrect.

If someone is lack of humour - he should not read the backgrounds and maybe should not solve our problems at all - there are still more than 400 problems here.

If someone is still offended despite our apologise - he may complain to the UNO - http://www.un.org ;)

P.S. The statements for the Third Challenge will be very funny also. Do not be afraid of someone could force us to write politically correct, but boring stories.

Edited by author 24.04.2006 01:06