ClashOfTheCoders
Latest
Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: The winners revealed
The Clash of the Coders drew to its climax Saturday night as teams presented their projects and a good time was had by all. In the end team Raisin' Elevens took the crown, laying claim to geek victory for the next year (plus an extremely generous equipment purchasing allowance). They created an app-testing utility that enables developers to evaluate the way users interact with their product. Intended primarily for in-house use (although it could possibly be sold to third party developers sometime in the future), their project, Krendler, provides cross-platform interface recording. Although superficially similar to products already out there on the market, Krendler's automatic web integration and beautiful view visualization truly set the app apart. Well done to team Raisin' Elevens: Mark Dalrymple, Gregg Rothmeier and Steve Sparks. Team Daedalus did not disappoint, although they just missed the crown and squeaked into second place. Their brilliant device management system is (cover your eyes, TUAWians) an Android-based solution for tracking test units. Unplug any unit from the board and it immediately prompts you for your name. You type it in and the unit checks out in your name, with an associated web service tracking and monitoring that loan. Not sure who grabbed that Galaxy note? The Daedalus project had that covered. My favorite part of this system, is how it offered a plug-to-sync simplicity. Plug the unit back, and it automatically checks back in. Brilliant. Team members included Chris Stewart, Eric Jeffers and Darren Pottinger. In third place were the Wynners. (Yes. I tried to dock them five points for that name, but it didn't take.) Brian Hardy, Zac Stewart and Paul Turner created a OpenCV-based system to scan already-used crossword puzzles and transform them into ready-to-play versions. If you've ever been stuck on an airplane with a partly filled-in puzzle in the back of the flight magazine, you'll understand these developers' pain. The scanned interface was ultimately beautiful and polished. I want to mention two other teams of note: "Team Edward" (Yes, I know) delivered one of the least sparkly (see what I did there), yet ultimately most important projects. Perhaps a bit overlooked, this team created an app to scan a web domain and produce an intelligently collected list of important words, phrases and names. You can then feed that list into a generation system to provide beautiful and exciting navigation tools. We only got to see the beginnings of what looks like a really promising project. Finally, Team Spazberry Pi delivered the "we are such Apple geeks, we live and breathe and bleed in six colors" that most TUAW readers will be waiting for. They created a ginormous 4-foot-tall joystick that ran a game, where flying nerds had to fight off NSZombies. No puns were spared. Erica reported from Big Nerd Ranch's Clash of the Coders, the shop's annual internal developer challenge.
Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: Projects
As the teams battle away on the Clash of the Coders, ideas are quickly becoming reality as developers are hard at work on their projects. Some projects are, admittedly, utilitarian. Now is a great opportunity for devs to create in-house tools for use during the rest of the year. In a shop that caters to Android as well as iOS development, tracking and managing dozens of Android variations can prove a big challenge, as BNR works to create apps for many-shaped phones and tablets. Other projects are all about the fun. One team is building a giant joystick, another electronically scrubbing already-started crosswords from the backs of those on-line airline magazines. One of my favorite projects, however, is less technological than inspirational. The Carter Center has been monitoring the eradication of the guinea worm, a parasite that's been documented throughout human history. A Nerd Ranch team is working on an app to promote awareness. In 1986, when the center first started its campaign there were 3.5 million cases reported across Africa and Asia. By 2012, that number had dropped to just 542. "Guinea worm disease is poised to be the next human disease after smallpox to be eradicated," writes the Carter website. The team's app offers background, support links and -- if they manage to pull it off -- a countdown clock that reflects the success on the war of the guinea worm over time. Do any of the teams have a lock on the win? It's still too early to tell.
Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: Rule-based lock screens
One of the nicest things about hanging out with coders is the exposure to their pet personal projects. Brian James Turner at Big Nerd Ranch has been working on a new take on lock screens. Hosted at github, Turner's project transforms the iOS lockscreen from a series of memorized numbers or letters into a logical sequence of choices. Each challenge screen is randomly generated. Instead of a number grid or password entry field, you see a set of geometric objects. You enter your password by following rules. "For example, my passcode might be small green, triangle," he explained. If you tap a small object followed by a green one and then a triangle, the system lets you in. It's a novel take on a familiar challenge, and there's never "one" right answer. Even if someone is looking over your shoulder, it will be hard for them to duplicate the reasoning. For example, was the first choice small, green or circle? In the current proof of concept, an overlooked three-choice sequence represents up to 27 possibilities. This complexity expands as the password grows longer and the shape and color vocabulary expands, providing ever greater levels of lock screen security. Erica is reporting this week from Big Nerd Ranch's Clash of the Coders, the shop's annual internal developer challenge.
Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: How BNR smote the NDA
The Big Nerd Ranch has conducted iPhone development courses all the way back to the very beginning, when the App Store first launched in 2008. Doing so had its challenges. At that time, Apple had imposed a nondisclosure agreement on all developers, with little indication if and when it would ever be lifted. As a registered developer, Big Nerd Ranch had to comply with Apple's rules. Under the terms of this agreement, developers could not discuss details of the OS and the SDK -- a limitation that challenged any business based on development training. BNR CEO Aaron Hillegass devised an insane, brilliant and counter-intuitive solution. Leveraging a little-known clause in the agreement, he conceived a way to make an end-run around the letter of the law while still holding classes. He hired his students. Each student signed an agreement promising to deliver one (1) line of code to Hillegass upon completion of a week of on-site consultation. In return, he paid each student a sum of $1 and spent that week teaching them the basics of iPhone development As contractors, students were entitled to discuss project details with their employer, and he was able to freely instruct them. At the end of the week, Hillegass issued certificates of completion... and paychecks. Erica is reporting this week from Clash of the Coders, BNR's annual internal developer challenge.
Big Nerd Ranch Clash of the Coders: Innovation, fun, inspiration
Founded 12 years ago, Atlanta's Big Nerd Ranch is well-known among the Apple developer community as a prime source for corporate and individual training. Created to provide professional services for Apple technologies, its mission has grown to include both contract programming as well as instruction for Android, iOS, HTML 5, Ruby on Rails and Windows 8. Recently merged with Atlanta's Highgroove Studios, BNR is about to kick off its second Clash of the Coders in-house event. Highgroove was a Ruby-on-Rails studio specializing in building back-ends for apps like Words with Friends. Clash of the Coders is a private affair, established to allow trainers and developers to take time away from working on other people's solutions and invest in their own creativity. I was invited to take part in this year's events as an observer and an honorary participant, to explore what goes on behind the doors when Big Nerd shuts down for three days to devote itself to coding mayhem. It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, and a lot of hard, intense development. Founder and CEO Aaron Hillegass explains, "We shut the company down and team up so we can do significant amounts of programming in those three days." For a lot of developers, the ability to work a project from start to end is a precious one. "Programmers who are working for other people can get frustrated when they don't have time to do experiments and push things beyond the demands of the client. We wanted to create space for that deeply satisfying form of creation." Charles Quinn, Highgroove founder and BNR co-owner adds, "A lot of developers work at being good consultants -- they spend their time doing one part of a system, but there's always a desire there to work on all parts of the system from idea to marketing, seeing that concept all the way through." "It's really really fun," Hillegass corrects him, "but more importantly we learn a lot. We learn what we're capable of, we learn about these technologies and, most importantly we learn what our employees want to work on." I'll be checking in throughout this event, to share a little window into the developer world from those who live it.
