Senegal is a land of magic and mystery. People there use their heads for recreation! How? Well, here's an example. The photo you see above is a game called Wari I got in Kaolack, Senegal. I went to Sengal to give the opening presentation for the SeneJUG. The rules are pretty simple. You move the beans around and the winner takes all the opponent's beans. Here are the rules, a little more specifically.

Now, here's the challenge. Write a program, any way you like, and show the Contest Town something that works, and you win! Cambridge Web Design will sponsor this first contest, and the winner will get a check for $50. The deadline for submitting your entry is midnight, tonight - December 27, 2009, Eastern Standard Time USA.

Yep, that's not much time, but you know what to do. CWD will judge the winning entry based on completeness, user interface (if any), and elegance. CWD will be the sole judge, and CWD's decision is final.

Submit your entry to this email address: contest @ codetown dot us. You can send a link to a web app, a binary, anything you think shows a complete solution that we can run here at CWD HQ, in the Swamp.

If you have questions, just ping me at contest @ codetown dot us.

If there are no entries by midnight tonight, stay tuned. We'll extend the deadline and let you know what the new rules are. Good luck!

Views: 689

Replies to This Discussion

Extend the deadline a week or two and I might take a shot. Today's schedule revolves around the 'Life on Mars' DVD I got for christmas. Sis says the show is offbeat, weird, and full of strange twists. Kinda like me.
Looking back, I'm not certain that was a compliment!
Well, let's look at this as Contest 1, Phase 1. But, think about it. Wari is a universally well known game, The possibilities are broad. It could be an iPhone program. Let me see...yes just as I thought. No Wari for iPhone. Think of what people are missing out on in the game world. You should have seen me playing with the vender in Kaolack. I learned the rules in just a few minutes, but it was a very challenging game. And, he won. They are selling it in Starbucks these days!

As for "offbeat, weird, and full of strange twists", it beats being boring.
I am catching this with only 3 hours to go. Does the program have to be about the Wari game?
Yes, the program has to be about the Wari game. Now, wait until you see the next contest!
OK. Then I won't have time to put something together. I'll wait for the next contest and learn the rules of the game in the meantime.
I wrote a web app in Clojure. You can play the game at http://ericlavigne.net:8054 or see the source code at http://github.com/ericlavigne/island-wari/

We have a winner! Congrats, Eric. I ran the app on my Mac and from your website. Would you like to collect your $50 prize immediately via PayPal or in person at the next GatorJUG meeting? I'd love to devote the meeting in part to describing your Clojure implementation.
Thanks, Michael. I prefer to pick it up in person because I don't often use PayPal.

I would be happy to talk about my code, but I don't think it will take a large chunk of the meeting. It is just one file with about 100 lines of code, plus a folder full of images.

I delivered a Clojure presentation earlier this year for GatorJUG. If anyone is interested in hearing about Clojure again, I'll be delivering the same presentation again (with minor updates) tomorrow evening for a Ruby user group.

http://www.meetup.com/gainesville-ruby-users/calendar/12048499/
Perfect. We'll update the meeting announcement with a blurb about your description of the Clojure app you wrote to win the first Contest Town contest. Thanks, Eric. You rock!
The Ruby meeting that I mentioned has been cancelled.

Here's a shot of Eric Lavigne (l) receiving his prize for winning the coding contest from Mike Levin.
In this last photo, it looks more like a million dollars, than $50!!! :)

Lamine

RSS

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

QCon London 2025 Day 2: The Form of AI, Securing AI Assistants, WASM Components in FaaS

The 19th annual QCon London conference took place at the The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, England. This three-day event, organized by C4Media, consists of presentations by expert practitioners. Day Two, scheduled on April 8th, 2025, included a keynote address by Savannah Kunovsky and presentations from five conference tracks.

By Michael Redlich

Presentation: Lessons & Best Practices from Leading the Serverless First Journey at CapitalOne

George Mao explains Capital One's serverless-first approach, driven by efficiency and regulatory needs. He shares valuable lessons on CI/CD, concurrency, and cost management, along with actionable best practices for development (SDKs, runtimes), deployment (packaging, ARM), and observability for senior software developers and architects.

By George Mao

Edera Protect 1.0 Now Generally Available

Edera has announced the general availability of Edera Protect 1.0, a Kubernetes security solution designed to enhance container isolation and address longstanding security challenges in cloud-native environments.

By Craig Risi

Inflection Points in Engineering Productivity for Improving Productivity and Operational Excellence

As companies grow, investing in custom developer tools may become necessary. Initially, standard tools suffice, but as companies scale in engineers, maturity, and complexity, industry tools may no longer meet needs. Inflection points, such as a crisis, hyper-growth, or reaching a new market, often trigger investments, providing opportunities for improving productivity and operational excellence.

By Ben Linders

Gemini to Arrive On-Premises with Google Distributed Cloud

Google's Gemini models are set to revolutionize on-premises AI with their upcoming launch on Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) in Q3 2025. Partnering with NVIDIA, organizations can harness advanced AI while maintaining strict compliance and data residency. With flexible infrastructure and secure environments, Gemini enables real-time insights for data-driven decision-making across industries.

By Steef-Jan Wiggers

© 2025   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service