Ram, Chris, and Ian at 5am Sunday morning
Early Saturday afternoon, hundreds of hackers filled tables in a cavernous building in San Francisco, staking out their power cords and testing the Internet connection. This was the start of TechCrunch Disrupt's 2011 SF hackathon. CloudFlare jumped in to sponsor pizza and a $1,000 prize for the best CloudFlare App created during the hackathon.
Eight members of the CloudFlare team were there during the event to support hackers, answer questions about our new developers site, and hand out pizza.
CloudFlare pizza plate
We Have A Winner!
After watching 130 one minute presentations, CloudFlare couldn't stop smiling at one demonstration.
A team from Hungary decided to think small, with an elegant game played only in the 16x16 pixel space commonly occupied by the favicon, the tiny image in a browser tab. Among an audience of their developer peers, the game from the United Task team earned applause, laughs and some gasps for their original name, which abbreviated "FAvorite Game icon."
CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince was pleased to hand over the big money (literally) and name this hack as the winner of CloudFlare's $1,000 cash prize.
Quickly, the team turned their hack into a new CloudFlare App, available for free to all CloudFlare site owners. The App, named Favris, turns your favicon into a small tribute to the world's favorite block game.
The Team
Lepi, Hagyma, and Bence visiting CloudFlare office
We first met the United Task team after they presented their hack. Since Sunday, we've had a chance to welcome three members of their team to the CloudFlare office, and asked Hagyma a few questions.
How did you come up with this idea?
While doing serious stuff, we sometimes have crazy things in mind. One of us Gabor was reading about html canvas, and told us about it. Shortly we knew, we have something for the HACKATHON!
How did you work together?
We mostly worked against each other, we set in front of just one laptop and shouting at whoever was typing. One of us [Kescke] was unable to come to TCD, he was probably the most effective from overseas.
How long did it take?
It took more than we thought, but thank God, we didn't have to present before noon on Sunday. :)
Why did you come to TechCrunch Disrupt?
We are a webapp dev company from Budapest, Hungary. We did many things for clients, and decided to go on with some of our ideas as a startup. Since we don't have experience, we wanted to see how things are going in the valley.
Enjoy the newest CloudFlare App
Install Favris on your CloudFlare-powered site today, for free.