|
Hey guys and girls, I'm really late in getting this up, but goons have always made up a strong contingent of this contest, so I feel obligated to make my annual post about... the IBM Master the Mainframe Contest ontest ontest http://www.ibm.com/university/contest Here's your chance to actually program in Cobol. This is the eighth year we've been putting this on, and it's on record to be the biggest one so far. There is NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY and it is open to high school and college/university students in the US and Canada (sorry Quebec). The contest itself is broken up into three parts, which gets increasingly difficult. Part 1 should taken anywhere between 1-2 hours, and you get a tshirt. Part 2 ramps it up and bit and expects you to figure out a bit more on your own. Be in the first 60 to nail this at 100% correct and you get an IBM prize pack, which includes an IBM hoodie, a USB stick, water bottle, messenger bag, stress-relief ball, notebook and pen and a static cling decal. Part 3 takes it to another level and runs through the end of the calendar year. Be the top five to finish that and you get a tablet of some sort and a trip to Poughkeepsie IBM to hang out with all of the cool kids for a few days. As much as people joke about a trip to Poughkeepsie, NY not being a prize at all (har har har) it's a good time. You get some nice meals, tours of some of the facilities, and I might even take y'all out to the raised floor to point at various expensive pieces of hardware and make up specs about them. If you've ever sat and thought about how many credit card transactions there must be in a day, or how communications companies maintain links with satellites in space, or how the nations banks, insurance companies and healthcare industries operate at all, then you're starting to get into the realm of these beastly machines. These things can operate at 99% capacity 24/7 with no downtime, and that's just expected. You'll be working on the same multi-million dollar systems that keep the world spinning. The contest is open to students, and if we have any educators reading this, we have special resources available to teachers and professors who want to make this contest part of their class. Registration is open now: https://contest-reg.dfw.ibm.com/uscanada_2012/ More details: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/u...me/details.html  The contest is on! GO GO GO! Any questions, please message me. Good luck! bisticles fucked around with this message at Oct 1, 2012 around 13:20 |
| # ? Sep 24, 2012 13:48 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2013 20:43 |
|
|
Cool, I might actually have time to complete part 2 this year. Can we just put in Prof. Bisticles if there's nobody at our school that's involved?
|
| # ? Sep 24, 2012 19:17 |
|
|
i barely GNU her! posted:Cool, I might actually have time to complete part 2 this year. Can we just put in Prof. Bisticles if there's nobody at our school that's involved? Yes, please do 
|
| # ? Sep 24, 2012 19:55 |
|
|
I'm already signed up for this. Managed to get two t-shirts, and pulled off a top 60 last year for part 2. Time to see if I can pull off the prize pack this year!
|
| # ? Sep 24, 2012 21:33 |
|
|
nuvan posted:I'm already signed up for this. Not gonna lie... I might steal someone's hoodie if I don't get my own.
|
| # ? Sep 24, 2012 22:59 |
|
|
bisticles posted:Not gonna lie... I might steal someone's hoodie if I don't get my own. No kidding, IBM hoodie ==  About the only downside is that I'll be starting 20 minutes late, since I'll be in class until 12:20 EST, but I figure I can recover from that though.
|
| # ? Sep 27, 2012 18:57 |
|
|
Is there any age limitation on this? I'm 27 but a senior in university, would that be an issue? Edit: I mean maximum age.
|
| # ? Sep 28, 2012 04:49 |
|
|
oRenj9 posted:Is there any age limitation on this? I'm 27 but a senior in university, would that be an issue? Nope, not at all. Anybody in any school is eligigible.
|
| # ? Sep 28, 2012 09:38 |
|
|
I won an engraved Ipod mini from this contest six years ago. It finally broke down last week. Thanks bisticles
|
| # ? Sep 28, 2012 09:46 |
|
|
bisticles posted:Yes, please do I signed up under Prof. Bisticles as well if you don't mind
|
| # ? Sep 30, 2012 05:02 |
|
|
Don't mind at all, I love it. If anyone is reading this and looking to sign up, I Dr. Bisticles and Detective Bisticles PHD are still available last I checked.
|
| # ? Oct 1, 2012 13:19 |
|
|
Just an hour and a half until go time!
|
| # ? Oct 1, 2012 14:56 |
|
|
Well part one didn't take long, hopefully I get the T-shirt. Now to do part two after class!
|
| # ? Oct 1, 2012 16:54 |
|
|
Never mind, apparently I can't read, and mistook "business days" to be "minutes"
|
| # ? Oct 1, 2012 20:39 |
|
|
I got pretty far a few years ago (the 3 mainframe-moon shirt year). I think I also got first place (or something good) in the photo competition ( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...&type=3&theater ) Totally wish I could enter this again, it was fun as hell, in that stay-up-until-2am-coding-rexx kind of fun. If you can, you should definitely give this a shot.
|
| # ? Oct 1, 2012 20:45 |
|
|
Got part one done, but stuck on the stupid quiz in part 2. I've got 11/12 right but just can't figure out which other one is wrong.
|
| # ? Oct 1, 2012 22:33 |
|
|
Wish I could drop some vague hints your way, but making this thread is literally as involved as I've been in setting up the contest this year. The MTM Facebook page has some tips that might help. Also, Jick Magger, your picture is set to private. Can you post it here? ALSO - Our first installment of Mainframe Haiku Theater! OCTOBER FIRST IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER DAY MAINFRAMES BE TRIPPIN' - Austin Wentz, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology surely you guys (and girls) can do better than that!
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2012 00:33 |
|
|
Huh that's weird, I figured facebook just let all my info flow out like a dump truck onto the internet.
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2012 18:59 |
|
|
Jick Magger posted:Huh that's weird, I figured facebook just let all my info flow out like a dump truck onto the internet. That *is* one of my favorite pictures of all time. I think I used it in a presentation a while back.
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2012 20:03 |
|
|
I was totally expecting hello.jpg on 2.5 (the ASCII art bit).
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2012 22:36 |
|
|
Part 2 Wall Of Fame is up! Hope we've got some goons on there
|
| # ? Oct 12, 2012 15:28 |
|
|
Aww, I don't see my name at all, and never did get the part 2 submission confirmation. I sent an email to the zskills address, hopefully someone can find my submission.
|
| # ? Oct 12, 2012 17:28 |
|
|
I'm up there! Got my email yesterday. Can't wait for my hoodie/bumper sticker.
|
| # ? Oct 13, 2012 00:41 |
|
|
mmm11105 posted:I'm up there! Got my email yesterday. Can't wait for my hoodie/bumper sticker. Same here, but I didn't get an email at first so I thought I messed something up when I did my submission. Turns out I was over my storage quota for my email. Looking forward to January!
|
| # ? Oct 15, 2012 04:27 |
|
|
Bump. I hope people are still working on this, and if people are in the Poughkeepsie area and curious about these systems, message me. I might be able to get you a tour of the raised floor.
|
| # ? Nov 7, 2012 16:06 |
|
|
Part 3 is just judged by the best entries and not the first ones in right? I finished the first two challenges a while ago but haven't had time for the rest.
|
| # ? Nov 7, 2012 18:12 |
|
|
i barely GNU her! posted:Part 3 is just judged by the best entries and not the first ones in right? I finished the first two challenges a while ago but haven't had time for the rest. That's correct. No rush on Part 3.
|
| # ? Nov 7, 2012 18:34 |
|
|
Sorry if I missed this already but what do the hoodies and shirts look like this year? Or is that a secret? I'm a part 2 weiner and am eagerly awaiting a mainframe sized box of swag to show up at my door.
|
| # ? Nov 12, 2012 19:20 |
|
|
I realize the contest is almost over, but I signed up for this just to give it a try. My school just started a new graduate program for Enterprise Systems that I am considering and figured this would be the best possible place to start. Apparently as a student I'd also have access to a zEnterprise mainframe specifically for learning on.
|
| # ? Nov 27, 2012 15:26 |
|
|
Wow, that's fantastic! If it's a program set up through IBM, then it's likely the same physical system that you'll be logging into for the contest, too. Enterprise systems knowledge doesn't get a lot of press or buzz on traditional tech sites, but it's definitely a world that gives you a unique perspective on things. Plus, we're always getting emails from contestants saying how they got calls from companies wanting to hire them just based on their familiarity with the systems.
|
| # ? Nov 29, 2012 00:44 |
|
|
bisticles posted:Wow, that's fantastic! If it's a program set up through IBM, then it's likely the same physical system that you'll be logging into for the contest, too.
|
| # ? Nov 29, 2012 02:09 |
|
|
If any of you are interesting in working on systemz there are plenty of jobs out there if you know where to look. Canadians: CRA in Ottawa is always hiring people who have graduated in the last year.. rarely they have professional jobs. http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/apps/caree...RY06-Index.html
|
| # ? Nov 29, 2012 02:15 |
|
|
I realize this thread is a few days old, but would there be any worth in a zOS/COBOL/JCL or mainframe related thread? Some people still work on that stuff. Please don't judge them too harshly.
|
| # ? Dec 4, 2012 23:12 |
|
|
Shirts going out today. If you're a size XL, there's a good chance that yours truly personally manhandled your shirt before stuffing it into a UPS bag.
|
| # ? Jan 17, 2013 18:11 |
|
|
bisticles posted:Shirts going out today. If you're a size XL, there's a good chance that yours truly personally manhandled your shirt before stuffing it into a UPS bag. Do you have any idea of the popularity of the various sizes of shirt?
|
| # ? Feb 5, 2013 05:45 |
|
|
Hope it's not too late to post my haul:   Sorry, forgot to take a picture of my hoodie/shirt.
|
| # ? Feb 5, 2013 06:47 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2013 20:43 |
|
|
Nice stuff! I do know that typically when you order a bunch of shirts, they have a "general distribution", and then they can skew the distribution based on the participants. You're going to be giving away far more XXLs at a monster truck show than you would be at a triathalon, for example. I know that we started out with a standard distribution, and have tweaked that over the years. I'll get you a better idea in a few, hopefully. edit: XXL 6% XL 11% L 29% M 35% S 19% bisticles fucked around with this message at Feb 6, 2013 around 18:39 |
| # ? Feb 6, 2013 14:25 |
|
