Campus Ambassadors Event Idea Bank

Developers vs Hackers (or can be given a fancy name like CyberWars or something)

Contributed by Angad Singh (Sun Tech Lead)

Interestingly, this is an idea I got while working with a friend on making a script to consume sites like way2sms.com and 160by2.com to send a free sms with an automated bot whenever there is new email in a gmail account. The automated bot would be a simple server side script (php, jsp, perl, python, anything) which would transparently login to the host, fill up the form to send the sms to the preprorammed recipient, all done automatically without any human intervention - using GET/POST requests and/or HTML scraping.

Now we thought we can create an event around this. In the above case, the developers of way2sms or 160by2 (for example) could always put in place a mechanism to not us automate the process - for example by putting a captcha in the sms submission form. They could also take a more user-friendly route - to use random variable names for the form fields. But then the hacker could easily parse the HTML contents of the form page to get the random field names first and the use these field names to submit the GET/POST request and voila, it's re-hacked. The developers could ofcourse use stricter methods like SSL, or Java Applet based authentication with their self-designed protocol, etc - it could still be hacked. Even captcha could be hacked using image processing, it would only take time. The point here is that this could be converted into a turn-based strategy game with the Hackers vs. Developers. Developers design a web application of software system and the hackers have to attack it in some way, automate it, or compromise its security. The developers then get their turn and they have to fight it back by developing patches to their code to get around that loophole the hackers exploited. This is exactly how Microsoft works by the way and it would be a fun event with various levels and rounds spanned across a week or even a month of time.

OpenSource Marathon

Contributed by Angad Singh (Sun Tech Lead)

We've been talking about conducting marathon races for SFD. But how about an OpenSource Marathon? An open source software development marathon! One in which there are 2 teams as big as 20-30 members each. Both teams are given a task - make a browser, make an email server, make an FTP client, make a game, anything - one specific topic or requirement for a software. Now they will be given 1 single day to make it - using the open source development paradigm - mailing lists, discussion, issue tracking, wikis, IRC, etc for collaboration. Training could be given before hand on the development tools and environment provided. Both teams will undergo the entire software development lifecycle of collaborative analysis, design, implementation, testing. They will be evaluated seperately on each round. The task would be appropriate so that they can make it in 1 single day. It's a marathon. An OpenSource Development Marathon.

OpenSource Treasure Hunt

Contributed by Angad Singh (Sun Tech Lead)

There are some web-based technical treasure hunts which involve the contestants to find a clue in a web page somehow and advanced to the next level (another web page) and so on until they reach the end. notpron.com is one such example. The clues may be hidden inside the page's HTML source, written in morse code inside a photo on the page, may have to be moving the mouse over some element of the page, or be decrypted, debugged, etc. It requires a witty and clever mind to crack the puzzle. An open source treasure hunt could include tasks / puzzles at each stage which use knowledge of open source software. The nature of the tasks could be such that they require open source software. For e.g., the first task could be to configure GRUB to boot into the correct OS (by first booting an OpenSolaris Live CD, and changing grub's entries to find the partition which has the OS), then resetting the root password to be able to login into the system, then opening an OpenOffice spreadsheet which has puzzle requiring using the math functions of the spreadsheet, finding a clue inside Netbeans by activating the right plugin, etc. There could be one task in each software. This can involve the entire spectrum of Sun's open source software or even beyond.

OpenSource Crossword

Contributed by Angad Singh (Sun Tech Lead)

The OpenSource Treasure Hunt idea could be extended a bit further by ending sequence of tasks, one leading to the other with an OpenSource crossword, one in which all words names of open source concepts or technologies. The contestants would get the clues to solve the crossword's words in each round of the treasure hunt (at each stage). We could have them solve it throughout the treasure hunt or even at the end.

The Technical Dumb-charades (more of a fun event)

Contributed by Angad Singh (Sun Tech Lead)

How about adding a technical side to the act of dumb-charades? This idea fuses together a "tech quiz" with dumb-charades. As in the normal routine, there will be a guesser and the actor. The actor will be given a 1 line clue from which he/she has to find the name of a technology - we'll give them a teaser and they have to guess / think of the technical term. For example, the clue could be "The only IDE you need" and the answer is "Netbeans". Then the actor would enact this term in normal dumb-charades fashion and the guessers will guess the term. It takes technical know-how as well as being a fun event. The same could be made more technical by make the actor first debug a program to get the technical term to enact in its output, for example.

Add your event, competition, contest ideas here in this format..

Contributed by Your Name - linked to your blog (Sun Campus Ambassador, ABC University)