this is an article in the http://www.dallasnews.com/ Jesse Zbikowski wore a yellow tie, purple-tinted glasses and one red and one blue shoe as he hacked Yahoo's Web sites one evening in late September - at the company's own request. Yahoo Inc., based in Sunnyvale, California, invited Zbikowski, a 29-year-old self-employed computer programmer living in San Francisco, and 500 other software hobbyists to an event it called Hack Day. The goal: get smart programmers to combine Yahoo's existing Web services with their own coding skills to create new products. The 24-hour coding fest, fueled by pizza, beer and a performance by the musician Beck, is one example of how companies such as Yahoo, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are tapping new talent. Computer savvy people in their 20s and 30s are helping create ways for consumers to use the companies' most popular applications, including mapping, photo sharing and instant messaging services. the whole article can be found at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/ptech/stories/121306dnbushackathons.1b97e8.html