I've been to many programming competitions like that (and always came 2nd.. Damn it!)

The contests I've been to (local versions of ACM ICPC) that allowed Java and C/C++.

I've also tried TopCoder's contests and Facebook's.

In the ACM contests the algorithms aren't really time-consuming so Java's slowness doesn't really matter, however, because the input and output are in files, Java's approach to dealing with files is very annoying.

In TopCoder there are many options (VB (not .NET), C/C++, Java, Python, and I think Perl), again, time isn't of essence here.

In Facebook's algorithm contests however, the algorithms are pretty complicated and need to be damn efficient, I did have a hard time with Perl because it's slow, however, they claim that all the algorithms can be run in the allowed time limit.

I guess it's pretty clear that time isn't a big issue in these contests (well, except Facebook's but that's because if you solve the problems you can apply to work there!).

Like I said on my blog[1], "Linux developers ARE innovative, just not in the right path".

I'm glad somebody else brought this up.

PS: I use Windows 7 RC now.

[1] http://ljuwaidah.blogspot.com/2009/04/linuxs-desktop-environments-are-failing.html

I myself had some really bad teachers, including some that don't teach at all, some that claim that you've copied from the Internet because you used punctuations (I'm not kidding!), etc... I really think that this is illegal in a way, notes ARE private properties, as long as they're not copied, and even if the were copied, she still has no right to take them out of the students' bags; that's theft, if she really wants to do something about it she can sue them, but not just take the books. However, I do agree that not doing anything about it is probably the best thing a student can do 'cause teachers CAN fail students and the management will believe the teacher unless other students support the one that is complaining which is unlikely 'cause they don't want to get into trouble themselves.

That's a good pickup line ;)

just curious, how mini are "mini black holes"? and how fast do the "suck"?

Yes, but it also says: 2.2 You can accept the Terms by: (A) clicking to accept or agree to the Terms, where this option is made available to you by Google in the user interface for any Service; or (B) by actually using the Services. In this case, you understand and agree that Google will treat your use of the Services as acceptance of the Terms from that point onwards.