This is about the programming Challenge running during February that I mentioned on Friday. If you're undecided about entering the challenge, take a look at this video on Youtube showing two of the best bots in action.

Talking about a challenge is one thing but seeing it in action is another and it's quite fascinating watching the blue on red action. I must start videoing some of the monthly challenges!

I worked in the avionics industry for a couple of years in 1990 when Ada was the only allowed language for defense projects in the US and UK. Nowadays military aircraft still have millions of lines of code inside them but surprisingly so do many automobiles.

Ironically while typical combat and the latest commercial aircraft have between 2 and 6 million lines of code, a top end automobile will have 100 million lines of code across the various components. Not all components are life threatening if they fail - e.g. the alarm, satnav, tire pressure monitoring or the climate control would be a nuisance if they crash but if the antilock brakes or the engine management system fails it could be a lot more dangerous. It's no longer a piece of cable that opens up the carburetor when you hit the gas but a blackbox that transmits signals to increase fuel flow, change the timing etc. Fixing things is a lot harder and usually it's an expensive replacement.

My guess is that this software is mostly embedded C or C++ but if anyone can confirm or deny I'd be interested. It's expensive to develop and debug these systems and a large portion of the cost of a car (35% to 40% is one figure I saw quoted) is now software and electronics.

Thanks to Lennie for the tip off. This looks interesting. The DragonFireSDK will let you create iPhone Apps in Windows in C++. You can run them on a provided simulator, debug using Visual Studio (not sure if it's full or Express versions) and install it on a (shush) jailbroken iPhone.

However where it gets interesting is that you can use it to put apps in to the App Store and get paid. You can do this is in the traditional way as a registered developer(and pay $49.95 to Zimusoft for their Windows sdk) or do it for free through Zimusoft who distribute it as part of their brand but pay you all (they take nothing) of the royalties through Paypal.

There are samples and you can download it and take a look at it now.

Tron was a so so film from the early 80s when Computer Generated Images were a lot cruder than today and I believe a sequel is on its way. For the time it had a few Wow moments and it spawned a computer racing game where you and your opponents have bikes that leave a wall behind as you zoom through an entry. You bot must outlast your opponent and not crash because it ran out of space.

That game is the subject of an AI challenge at the University of Waterloo in Canada and is sponsored by Google. C++ and C# are among the allowed languages for entries and you can compile the C++ starter package with Visual C++ Express Edition or GCC. The interface is very very simple so even beginners should be able to write code for this. There are a variety of test courses provided in text files and bots (in Java). A C# starter pack will be provided shortly. About the only rule is don't take longer than a second to decide your move.

The Challenge runs through most of February and started on February 4th so you can start now. There are already 166 entries so don't expect it to be easy!

• Link to Top Ten Programming Contests