Re: [tlug] [CFP] Call for presenters - May 10 Technical Meeting

[Kalin KOZHUHAROV <me.kalin@example.com>]

On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 7:18 PM, Travis Cardwell
<travis.cardwell@example.com> wrote:
> On 2014年04月24日 16:36, Kalin KOZHUHAROV wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 3:13 PM, 黒鉄章 wrote:
>>> If only there was some way to make virtual server instances that could be
>>> set with identical filesystem snapshots and spun up in seconds, each with
>>> their own IP addresses so any number of challengers could login and begin
>>> instantaneously ....
>>>
>> There are such solutions, but why bother?
>
> It depends on the exercises; ephemeral containers / virtual machines might
> be desired if doing privilege escalation, destructive modification of the
> filesystem, etc.  Reading what you wrote below, I realize that you have a
> different sort of "capture the flag" in mind. :)
>
yep, just solving "algorithmic" problems.

>> A simple linux set up with remote ssh is enough.
>> Everyone gets a home directory, nobody can sniff what others are doing
>> (and there is no time). If you want more, namespace separation (to
>> disallow people spoofing the options used for grep) or LXC is in
>> order.
>>
>> Tasks are given by copying a certain directory, submitted by producing
>> a file in ~/answer.txt ( a loop watches all ~/answer and greps for the
>> right answer).
>> Alternatively setup a git repo, clone in a new branch, commit/push
>> back, add a server hook to look for correct answer and play a
>> "BANG.wav". (branch is needed to prevent people from having unresolved
>> conflicts).
>
> This sounds like fun!  How about setting the server up to give users
> access to a sequence of challenges, one at a time?  When a user completes
> a challenge, the server can update a leaderboard webpage, announce it
> using TTS (example: "Kalin has completed challenge number one!"), and copy
> the next challenge into the user's directory.
>
Actually one at a time is a bit difficult and a bit "racy" - if there
is one good player s/he will win almost everything.
Having a batch of different problems means that more people can win a
battle (single problem) and one will win the war (all/most problems).
Of course that is just speed, not elegance of solution or other
programming contest.

Having a git (directly github) will have timestamping and logs (for
bad attempts).
If code is pushed, instead of answer, then others can look for and pilfer ideas.
Alternatively, if we limit the answers to a integer number, problems
can be donwloaded locally then answer shouted in the room (problem 4,
answer 34! -> WRONG!) This will heat up the atmosphere...

I am starting to remember ACM/ICPC contests form my uni days...

Cheers,
Kalin.