RankManiac 2010 on the road

I'm visiting San Francisco for the next few days to do some interviews. It's like a mini-vacation. They put me up in a really nice hotel. I ordered room service and my tray came with a vase and flowers. Plus, it had a cloth napkin and real silverware*. And all I'd ordered was a burger and fries! Awesome!

Anyway, I logged in and Googled our RankManiac 2010 site several times, since I have a brand new IP here.

* as opposed to fake silverware, which is made out of cheap metal and bends really easily. Honestly, I don't know how psychics can get a break. The spoons in the dining hall will bend if you look at them funny, no telekinesis needed.

RankManiac 2010 on the road

RankManiac 2010 vs. Campus Security!

Saturday night was one of the big parties that happens from time to time on Caltech's campus. In fact it was so big than some alumni came back for it. Unfortunately, one of the alumni got in a bit of trouble.

This particular alum wanted to save a few bucks, so he asked if he could stay as a guest. I told him that it would be no problem, and after the party he crashed on one of our couches. Later that night, two security guards woke him up and demanded that he leave. He explained his presence there as an alum, gave my name as a reference, and presented his old school ID as proof that he was, in fact, an alum. They confiscated his ID, refused to call me, and accused him of having squatted there for three weeks. Since his flight had only been the day before, this was obviously not true, but when he tried to show them his ticket information on his phone, they ignored him. According to them, staying as a guest would only be permitted with a signed note from the head of campus housing. They escorted him outside to the curb, where they were met by another security guard in a gray sedan. The security guards informed the alum that if he was seen on campus again, he would be arrested!

Luckily, he had the number of another alum who was staying nearby, so he had a place to stay for the night. However, not every visitor is so lucky.

The next day, when informed of this, I immediately wrote an irate email to the head of campus housing. Half an hour later, I had him on the phone and was explaining what had happened. He had no knowledge of the events, or of any policy requiring a signed note. He apologized to the alum via phone and intends for it not to happen again.

So it appears that campus security had gotten ahead of themselves. How chilling. This time, it was a mild inconvenience for an alum who could deal with it, but what about the future? Will they harass prospective students?

RankManiac 2010 vs. Campus Security!

RankManiac 2010 Redone

I've been considering how I would run the RankManiac 2010 contest if I were in charge. On of the pitfalls of the contest is the fact that it leverages existing social connections. Thus, the more well-connected students have a clear advantage over the less well-connected students. In addition, students willing to leverage their social connections will succeed over students who are unwilling to do so. The question, of course, is how to fix this.

In theory, the professor and TAs could set up a dummy internet, with its own mini-Google. Each student could then place pages on the dummy internet and see whose is ranked highest. It seems like this would become either an exercise in adding more pages than anyone else or the number of pages would be capped, either of which would make the assignment simplistic.

I think a big part of this assignment's worth lies in its interaction with the "real" internet. Like it or not, the Internet is the first and last word in modern information. Search engines are a big part of that, and understanding the algorithms they use to produce good search results is key to understanding the underlying structure of the Internet. For example, did you know that Google puts captcha tests on its webpages for known Tor exit nodes?

The existing social networks within the Internet are also key to understanding how and why it works. Systems like Reddit or Slashdot can give some insight into distributed computing problems. For example, with a distributed network of volunteer sensors working on some project, a trust system like Reddit's might be the best solution to stop new users from biasing the results one way or the other.

These interactions have a complexity that would simply be impossible to recreate in the mini-Google environment mentioned earlier. I don't really see a way to get around using the Internet itself as a sandbox for this kind of assignment.

I'll leave you with this picture of the Internet (from the Opte Project at http://www.opte.org/). It's a big, big place.

RankManiac 2010 Redone

The Ethics of RankManiac 2010

I got a few questions about the ethics of the RankManiac 2010 contest, especially considering the Caltech Honor Code. For those of you who don't know, the honor code states that "No member of the Caltech Community shall take advantage of any other member of the Caltech Community."

So, how does that work with a competitive assignment like RankManiac 2010? If I am winning, my grade is higher. Does that imply that winning is an unfair advantage? What about the path to winning? If I broke my classmates' hands so they couldn't type, that would certainly be unfair. What about more gray areas, like calling in favors from friends or linking from an existing popular website I happen to have access to?

On a normal Tech problem set, everybody has advantages. They're usually little advantages, like "I happened to see a similar problem at Math Camp" or "My TA gave me a big hint, while your TA gave you a little hint." Sometimes, they're even big advantages, like "I am a certified genius in Physics" or "My father wrote the textbook." With the collaboration policy, these tend to even out. My advantages become your advantages and your advantages become my advantages. This helps even things out. A contest like this, on the other hand, actively discourages collaboration (although it does not eliminate it. I was friends with these guys before this class and I'll remain friends with them afterward). So, without collaboration, do these individual advantages become "unfair?"

The Ethics of RankManiac 2010

CoffeeHouse

Last night, I was discussing my progress on the RankManiac 2010 assignment with Andy and Chris at the Caltech Student CoffeeHouse.

I was surprised how bad the vibe was. I wasn't comfortable ordering anything from the non-student employee behind the counter. The last time I was in there, he was kind of rude to me.

I remember sophomore year with the CoffeeHouse. I would go there often. I knew everybody who worked there, it ran smoothly, everybody was nice to each other (for certain values of nice). And now what? I can't even bring myself to order? Geeze.

Anyway, don't forget to visit my website: RankManiac 2010.

CoffeeHouse

RankManiac 2010 : New Facebook Page

Hi all,

You can now follow our exploits on our Facebook page. You can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Rankmaniac-2010/309799213382

RankManiac 2010 : New Facebook Page

RankManiac 2010 and making our site better

Our main page is now up. You can view it at http://rankmaniac2010.org.

We've been working hard at this webmaster stuff. We followed all the guildlines on the Google Webmaster site for making a website easy for Google to index. Now the waiting begins! I'm so nervous!

RankManiac 2010 and making our site better

Apple helps out RankManiac 2010 with loan of iPad

In order to help us increase our page rank on our site, Apple kindly loaned us one of their new iPads.

Ha, not really. That would be pretty cool, though.

Apple helps out RankManiac 2010 with loan of iPad

RankManiac 2010 : Our Mission

A competition: Caltech vs. Carnegie-Mellon University

As part of CS 144, a class at Caltech, we're participating in a contest. Last year at CMU, Professor von Ahn ran a contest among his students to see who could get the highest ranked page with the word "rankmaniac" on it. This year, the contest is at Caltech with Professor Wierman. The goal is to have the highest ranked page with the phrase "rankmaniac 2010" on it.

The grading scheme is pretty harsh. Half of the assignment is graded based on performance in the rankings. For getting on the first page of results: 10%. For beating the TAs, who are also doing this assigment: 30% (but nobody's going to beat the TAs! Virgil Griffith is one of the TAs!). For beating the highest CMU site: 10%. Then, additional bonus points for ranking very highly in the class.

We're taking the approach that good content will always be rewarded. So, I'm going to do my best to make sure that interesting posts are always going up on this blog! Wish me luck!

RankManiac 2010 : Our Mission