Thread: Google Summer of Code

  1. #1
    Registered User Tonto's Avatar
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    Google Summer of Code

    Are any of you thinking about doin g the google summer of code? The applications just opened up yesterday but, they don't last long, submissions until April 3rd I believe -- There are lots of awesome participating projects like mozilla, boost, wikipedia. Here's the megalist

    List all accepted organizations

    I would be very interested in this -- but there's a lot to think about! What are your guys' thoughts?

  2. #2
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    I thought about it, but why?

    You don't need a summer of code to join a project. Plus I'd rather do the work when I can/want, not by some random date.

    Also I've got other projects/uni/work running so that's enought for me.

  3. #3
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    I will be submitting a proposal to Boost in a few days once I have a number of minor details worked out.

    Quote Originally Posted by zacs7
    I thought about it, but why?

    You don't need a summer of code to join a project. Plus I'd rather do the work when I can/want, not by some random date.
    That is one reason right there: I never finish anyth, so this is a good time to get motivated to finish what I have started

    Besides, for the less well to do, the money could mean the difference between being able to focus on one's project and having to work to pay the bills.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

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    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    The only thing I think sad about Gsoc is that it is restricted to students registered at a formal institution, and/but there are no restrictions on other outside commitments. I can understand it would not be fair to have them competing with professionals who have already graduated, but in that case there should be a restriction, vis. the amount of other work you are supposedly doing at the same time, since these "students" could very well also be professional anyway. I also know that school is very expensive some places, but I would bet that most of the "winners" actually live in countries where their education is free or very inexpensive. So google is gonna give $5 million to some brat kids while they live at home with their parents for the summer AND are allowed to work full time in addition.

    I also think it's ironic that for many applicants, their only or primary and perhaps sudden interest in open source software may simply be that they can get $5000 quick. Then they will take the money and after they graduate go take more money, as much as they can, from whoever will give it to them, and their "interest in open source" will be a memory. Google would like it to sound like they are doing something nice for the community, but really what they are saying is that all the other people, hacks or hobbiests or whatever, who in the past no doubt developed into "the community" are not worth anything, and that this is mostly a tax write-off (hence the restriction to registered students, so it's an "education grant") which means Google ain't being nice with their money at all -- they are being "nice" with money they otherwise would have had to pay in taxes.

    But, despite or because of my bitterness, I'm now scrambling to get into a math course and negotiating with my mom about her basement in the hopes I can spend one last summer as a brat kid
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  5. #5
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MK27
    I can understand it would not be fair to have them competing with professionals who have already graduated
    Actually, that is one part I don't understand: graduate students are allowed to participate as student developers, even if they have had extensive professional experience.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  6. #6
    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
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    GSoC is a great program. I did it three years ago and had a great experience, also made enough money to pay my rent for the summer. I also got a t-shirt and a "gift" (mine was a nice leather-bound google notebook). I worked on Eclipse, fun times.

    I'd apply again this year but I already have an internship lined up for the summer. I definitely encourage people to apply though. If you really want to have a good chance, look at the suggested projects for the organizations you're considering and contact the mentors to help guide your proposal.

  7. #7
    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by laserlight View Post
    Actually, that is one part I don't understand: graduate students are allowed to participate as student developers, even if they have had extensive professional experience.
    I don't think that's a big issue. The types of projects organizations want range from dead simple but time consuming (monkey work a second year undergrad could do) to complex implementations that require the expert knowledge of a PhD student.

    Both types of projects are important, and the grad students are likely not proposing the same types of projects as the undergrads.

  8. #8
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    Also, it isn't in my "summer holidays". It's smack bang in the busiest time of the year.

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    Disrupting the universe Mad_guy's Avatar
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    I'm currently working on a proposal for haskell.org to work on GHC's garbage collector.
    operating systems: mac os 10.6, debian 5.0, windows 7
    editor: back to emacs because it's more awesomer!!
    version control: git

    website: http://0xff.ath.cx/~as/

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    Registered User Tonto's Avatar
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    You're the best mad_guy. I just pushed out of the way all of the midterms I was facing and now I'm thinking about which projects to work on. Hmmm ---

    Some of my faavorites are like Music Brainz, SDL, wxWidgets, but I've yet to look or think about coding opportunities

  11. #11
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    I'm busy on this. But I'll take a look at google summer of code if I get a chance.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by abachler View Post
    I'm busy on this.
    I especially like this one:

    OBJECTIVE: To develop and demonstrate methods and tools for real time fusion of information from thermal and visual videos of the face for passive characterization of stress, anxiety, uncertainty and fatigue for man-machine interface applications
    I can only think of one machine where this kind of feature will be useful in a military context...


    Besides, it's hard to hold the US army up to ridicule after reading this:

    Diarrhea affects most military personnel deployed overseas, reducing troop readiness and personnel performance. [...] Twenty percent of those affected were unable to perform their tasks while afflicted.
    Greets,
    Philip
    Last edited by Snafuist; 03-28-2009 at 02:59 AM.
    All things begin as source code.
    Source code begins with an empty file.
    -- Tao Te Chip

  13. #13
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    Well, the one I specifically applied for was -

    OBJECTIVE: Develop a robotic control system that incrementally learns driving commands based on current sensor
    inputs and past experience.
    First stage in building the Terminator. Hopefully I will get it and not some PhD that will make a critical error that makes the system think people are roadside bombs or some dumb ........ like that. Neural networks are good for making that kind of mistake, because the ..............s I've worked with never train them correctly and always misapply them to problems that are better solved with hard coded AI.

    As for teh stress and fatigue thing, think - pilot stress and fatigue, not automatic torture machine.
    Last edited by abachler; 03-28-2009 at 11:23 AM.

  14. #14
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Right, project applications end in less than 4 hours. It appears that Boost has something like 50 applications, so it looks like a pretty tough competition. As a last ditch effort for increasing my chances, I would like to ask if anyone has any suggestions for improving my proposal: Boost GSoC 2009 CGI Library Improvement.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

  15. #15
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Okay, my proposal was accepted. Did anyone else get a proposal accepted?
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

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