Comments on CSTutoringCenter

I am undecided about this.
I think Kender makes a good point. This is a great place for scriptkiddies to get some easy points, but having said that, the same could be said for hackquest's logic challenges, bright-shadows' logic challenges, or any site which have well-known problems which the solutions could easily be found on google if a user so wishes to use that method.

Personally I love working on math problems with pen/paper a calculator and a brain (and sometimes even by writing programs) but I would not use a math engine like mathematica if I could help it.

Regards,
sabretooth

@shadum:
Well, you've had a higher math education than I have.
And I still have no idea what any of those math challenges were about. I wouldn't know the difference between a derivative and a differential if my life depended on it..
I just entered them in Mathematica (which I downloaded for the occasion, no prior skill) and the answers rolled out.
So yes, you can in fact just plug them in without knowing what you're doing.

An that's why I think it should not be scored.
No skill or knowledge are required. (except the knowledge that there are math programs and the skill to download one).

@sabretooth:
yes, some challenge answers can be found on the internet, but that is not going to net you an easy 12000 points.

Quote from Kender

Feb 13, 2011 - 19:11:25

@sabretooth:
yes, some challenge answers can be found on the internet, but that is not going to net you an easy 12000 points.

Agreed!

@ Kender:
First, I mean no offense to you. I remember seeing you back at HackQuest when I was first starting out, and I knew next to nothing, and I guess I'm still starstruck.

The probability and trigonometry challenges are word problems. I don't know how you could 'just plug those in'. Most of the others do give formulas, so your point is much more applicable there, but I still remember fighting with some of them to get the correct answer, and I did learn what it all meant in the process. It is not that I think you have no point at all. You do, but I don't think it is a strong enough point to justify not scoring those challenges. Some challenges are just easier than others. Some challenges are more prone to 'mindless' solutions. I could name another site, actually, where it is much easier, in my opinion, to get 12000 points, but I still think those challenges should be scored. They aren't worthless, just easy.

@sabretooth:
I must have solved at least half of CST's math challenges with pencil, paper, and calculator. That is my preferred method too, when the numbers aren't oppressive. Crunching numbers for the sake of crunching numbers isn't fun. Some combination of tools takes care of that. I don't feel any differently about that than I feel about using, say HashCat, to crack an MD5.

A different point: I think that as a site owner you could address these issues and create challenges in such a way that web searches can't give the answer and people can't just plug in a formula, but I don't think an 'aggregator' site like WeChall should get too much into policing the individual challenges offered on linked sites. I think you would end up with a messy and unfriendly situation very quickly.

Quote from shadum

Feb 13, 2011 - 20:06:25

@ Kender:
First, I mean no offense to you.

None taken. We're just expressing our opinions here.

Quote from shadum

I could name another site, actually, where it is much easier, in my opinion, to get 12000 points, but I still think those challenges should be scored. They aren't worthless, just easy.

Then you should comment on that. We are trying to make and keep the scoring as fair as possible.
Saying that you get too many points for a site is not criticism of the site in question. Far from it. It is merely an indicator for the "difficulty level". A 30000 points site is in no way better than a 10000 points site. Just 3 times as difficult to complete.

Quote from shadum

I don't think an 'aggregator' site like WeChall should get too much into policing the individual challenges offered on linked sites. I think you would end up with a messy and unfriendly situation very quickly.

Absolutely. My original comment was not to state that WeChall should alter the CST scoring. But since the site itself already keeps separate track of the programming and math problems I thought it would be easy for them to make an adjustment.

And I still think they should

i think regardless of whether math challenges are included in wechall, we are all at the same relative disadvantage/advantage. it may take some people hours of pen and pencil calculations, while it takes other people a few clicks with wolframalpha. and some people may know answers just by looking at it. It's a matter of using the best methods and experience to accomplish the same goal... just like any other challenge. computer science, security, mathematics and logic are all intimately related and if I were teaching a course on network/computer security. Day one would be number theory. (that is the case at MIT). just my 2 cents

@Kender - If it is that much of an issue, could there be some kind of compromise? For example score the math challs but lower the score threshold manually for the site due to this?
I am still undecided about this situation as both sides have valid arguments.
For those who wish to cheat, there will always be a way. For those who don't - don't penalise them by removing the scoring for their hard work. I think however as you stated - 12000 points is a lot for 'brainless' work for those who want to play it that way.
I believe a compromise should be considered,

sabre

Interesting discussion, but I have something else in mind now...

### Edit below ###
I've managed to blow my login...
I recently changed my pass and can't login anymore. I used a "§" in my pass (e.g. 123pass§) and when I click on "lost pass" I get a mail containing my pass being 123pass§.

Perhaps it is already a known problem with a certain encoding. It isn't for me, so maybe you can help me bypass my problem.
I already tried to enter my pass with that additional character, but it didnt work. Can you think of any way I can enter a pass which might match the broken password?

It is quite hard to google for something like the paragraph character. Any idea appreciated!

Thanks,
tripleedged

€dith: Problem solved, Alex (admin) just answered my mail. I'll leave my problem here, because I'd still like to know if I had any chance to solve this issue myself. Might happen again on another site, some other user or while programming a backend myself...

Hello all. It's Alex here. I just want to let you all know that we are planning an expansion of the site very soon. Hopefully this will be done by the beginning of September when everyone goes back to school. Here are some things we are working on:

1. More programming challenges (this is a must!)
2. A new challenge section
3. Facebook integration with the site in addition to a brand new Facebook application.

Stay tuned and thank you for the continued support!

Sincerely,
Alex

Alex, I am very glad to hear that. I love your site ( and I love the programming challenges ).

What will be the nature of the "new challenge section" that you mention, if it isn't a secret?