“It’s what I call ‘mental masturbation’, when you engage is some pointless intellectual exercise that has no possible meaning.” – Linus Torvalds
Currently I have some idle time at my job (waiting for a new project), so I thought I don’t want to get too rusty. Programmer has to program… I have found Project Euler, a site dedicated to math/programming problems by Colin Hughes (aka Euler).
So if you want to exercise your head (and fingers) look no more: http://projecteuler.net
To make things more interesting, I’m solving some of the problems in C++, not my first programming language :)
So far I have 17 solutions under my belt, some of which use brute force so I might get back to them some time.
Happy hacking :)
Hm, interesting. Wouldn’t it be more useful to contribute to some open source project or something?
Some of the problems do not require any programming at all. I solved problem 5 in two minutes with a piece of paper and a calculator.
Open source requires some serious commitment and time, these exercises are fast and fun. One problem requires 2-30 minutes… I don’t think that involvement in open source and playing with these problems can be compared :)
First problems are very simple and yes, nr. 5 is one of them.
Problems which have been solved by 3000 or less people are more interesting, try them.
Good way to sharpen the saw. Working on an Open Source project is not something to do when bored, it is a lifestyle change.