Hi nixers !

Here is an idea I had : weekly contests !

What about giving people challenges about UNIX, and give them a whole week to solve it, however they want. One they found their solution, they post it in a [spoiler] tag, and at the end of the week, the community vote for the best solution (You can't vote for your own solution obviously)

I don't know if we can turn a normal thread into a poll after it was posted, but the implementation doesn't matter ATM, just tell us if you'd be interresting in such a thing !

For example, here are some contest ideas (if you have more, share it !)

• Write a script to tidy a directory (put files named "20140819-marakech-0001.JPG" into "pictures/2014/08/marakech/0001.JPG", etc...)
  
• Find a way to download youtube videos by providing the search terms only
  
• Explain what a kernel is to a 5 yo child
  
• Get the fastest boot time, from pressing "power" to your first terminal window (needs video)
  
• Get the lowest RAM usage (scrot/picture as a proof)
  
• Get your computer to tell you events ("You have a new mail", "critical CPU usage", "Battery under 5%", ...) instead of using a status bar
  
• ...
  

Who's in ?

Very interesting.
They have a lot of those on unix.com. It kinda look like your "programming challenge" but related to unix only.

I just wanna say: "FUCK YEAH"!

It's a great idea. I'm in!

^

Even though I have very little time.

That sounds like an awesome idea! count me in!

I'm in!

Sounds cool. Count me in.

Im in. :)

I guess we're enough to start a contest next week then :)

Do you have some idea ? Or you can choose from the ideas I had. We're not too much yet, so I guess we can all settle on the theme of the first contest.

I personnally find the RAM one funny as a start. We could name it "The milkiest way"

I agree. I think I have a good shot at winning, too, because I have the bare minimum RAM it's posible to run a usable OS on - 32 MB. Although I did get FreeDOS to run on 8 MB, but that's not*nix...

I support the lowest RAM contest. Maybe we should put some minimum requirements on it, though, like you need to have a web browser open, text editor or similar. If you don't, you'll just get people who kill every process other than init and their shell and win easily.

You're probably advantaged here, for sure. But be careful, you could be surprised ;)
That's a good point though. We leave users the choice of their programs, but some are mandatory. Let's say...

• Web browser
  
• Text editor
  
• IRC client
  
• Music player
  

Is everybody ok with this list ? (And this contest)

Is there going to be a prize?

No. At least, I can't give a prize to somebody. If anyone wants to give something, it's up to them

Bragging rights.

You could always download more ram to not use as a prize. Are we going to put this RAM contest in its own thread?

Once at least 5 people agree on the subject of this contest :-)

Well, I'm OK with it.

I'm OK with it. Not sure how I'll do though.