La Vida

It is only three days later that I noticed that my mentioning of the post flood that overwhelmed POJ's webboard had been responded with requests to see my new comments on the incidents that occurred in relation with the latest and last internet preliminary contest. I can comprehend the motive and mentality behind the requests. As I wrote in the last log here, the contest organized by Xihua University could not be a satisfactory one. The most convincing evidence that supports my view in consensus with a good number of contestants, is that the problem 1004, conspicuously being a model of the longest non-increasing subsequence problem, accepted virtually only one solution during the contest. I cannot imagine that such an elementary problem that would appear in almost every tutorial on dynamic programming could have troubled all by one team in the contest. Lamentably worse still, no official response to this dubious issue has been heard so far, and I, personally speaking, am not expecting to see one as I believe that there is very unlikely to be one. I have been driven reluctant to further comment on the incident for I can see no hope of a reasonable resolution of the issue but the despair of being imposed an unsettling settlement. So, coming to the conclusion, what shall we do? Nothing but to accept the fact, mentally and, more importantly, practically. Life marches on regardless of any setback encountered by any single individual. When we are too powerless to evade and/or change the difficulties posed by life, all we can do is to abide them and live on bravely. Still remember the proverb? 'Tomorrow is another day.'

Concluding from my experience as the moderator of POJ Monthly between May 2006, when I first assumed the post, and June 2007, after when I would have to prepare for TOEFL, I can perceive as undebatable that it is a task marked by immense difficulty to make a programming contest perfectly faultless. Therefore, I have always been grateful to those keen participants who have kindly forgiven the mistakes the administrative staff committed in the past, and who never interrupted their support for the contest.

I have to acknowledge that currently I do not have an answer to the question "How can POJ Monthly be held without flaws?" in light of a factual shortage of manpower – I worked alone on the contest and so did Dzx, and both of us have ever been forced to pernoctate in order to complete in time preparation of the contest. Nevertheless, this can become no excuse for any trouble that occurred. Specifically, I am referring to the time limit issue concerning the most recent edition of the contest, of which many complained about several problems that allowed time limits which proved to be too tight. Several days ago I relaxed the limits and had all solutions to involved problems rejudged.

It remains to be decided whether I will administer the contest of November 2007. There also exists the possibility that Dzx and I will engage in a joint effort. This depends on my progress on preparation of application for admission in graduate schools abroad.