2011年2月6日日曜日

TopCoder Training in Shibuya, Tokyo

This month here's a series of TopCoder training lectures in Shibuya, Tokyo.   It was the first day, and there are 3 days to go (on coming Saturdays).  Luckily I could reserve a seat for myself.

The lecture series is organized by Application Planet Inc., and they are trying to double the number of "active" TopCoder members in Japan ("active" means to join competitions frequently enough... at least once in last 6 months).  They've been working on the lectures since last year (or so I've heard).

I hope there'll be more active members in Japan, and maybe better single round match schedules for members in Asia, at least once in a few months.  TopCoder single round matches are so great in that it's open to everyone, but it's virtually impossible to join one if it's held like at 11 am on a weekday..., especially if you work for a normal company (I mean, if you are a developer for certain companies, you might be able to manage to join a competition and still show up not so late for your average day...).

The lecturer is Naohiro Takahashi, a famous redcoder in Japan, who goes by "chokudai."  He's a junior student in a university and writer.   He's got so many great achievements (you can find a bunch of them if you just google it).

Lectures and labs there were great, and it's also really a good opportunity to actually be able to listen to red coders and to know they are also human :-) and (some part of ) how they've got so far.  It's mostly aimed at beginners and good for people looking for other folks who are struggling too, like me.

So I just need to practice more and more...