tried to sell some pokerchips on Craigslist - got a generic email asking me to verify the item I was selling was identical to the one in the video link the person sent to me (from a random hotmail account) - decided to keep the poker chips and not click the link
It's a great accomplishment, whether thru Government assistance or otherwise, she still had to play the game on the board herself.
There was a little to be desired in terms of format - whereas the FIDE championship has a series of candidate matches to decide who goes against the challenger, (qualifications of which keep changing) - the Women's championship is a shootout format where last year's champion busted out in round two, more like a poker tournament then the way FIDE handles the regular Championship.
Truth is, there is a lot wrong with FIDE right now and competitive chess, but Hou Yifan's accomplishment is probably the most important accomplishment in the chess world in 2010
Combat for the Atari 2600 is the first one I can remember - going thru all 27 games one at a time, driving tanks, figuring out how to manuever, and then suddenly getting bouncy shots and shots that go thru one side and out the other -
my first tech job was refurbishing a certain model of PC at the CompUSA tech shop - got me to where I'm at today - many a techie got his start in one of those little tech shops at a retail store.
lower profit margins are a drag on any business - almost inevitable but a fact of life - they lasted longer then the company I left them for by trying to diversify but I guess BB/CC will be taking over the world now.
when I was moving up in the world, I had a chance to get in with this company on the ground floor in '98 or 99 - being a Minnesota based company and all...
their old geek squad mobiles were 50's and 60's classic cars, and then they started using VW beetles - new ones.
They told me the story about helping the Rolling Stones with something and then those guys pretty much tagged along the rest of the tour.
Glad to see someone made it big - I went the networking route - no playing video games with rock stars...damn. -
we're also a massive US company with a tremendous infrastructure - this guy could be talking about my company although I thought we were a one quarter turnaround. However, emergency changes go in.
Here's the deal - on one hand, it's a ton of paperwork - on the other hand, you're in charge of a massive infrastructure, and replacing one firewall somewhere may block ports to a vendor and all hell breaks loose - so they document the threats like it's going out of style.
Nothing worse then sitting in the NMC, seeing a site go down, and wondering "well, do I need a tech out there or is this a Sat. night change"
so sometimes the paperwork is a result of a couple instances where someone brought down something big - maybe that's what happens in some of these companies - I know we had a crackdown before I came to work for them cause someone sent all the network's routes out an ISDN interface due to faulty metrics - oops - several thousand sites all channeling to a 128K interface for routing;)
I just shrug - I have tried to move my position into as much 3rd level support as possible - I don't do installs, so I don't do paperwork, and if someone breaks something it's generally their responsibility as the change maker to fix it, though we usually get called -
every IT job is almost the same - 1/2 good stuff, 1/2 bureaucracy - and you try to avoid that part. My new boss used to be an engineer - the first day he brought down nerf-type guns for us to shoot each other with - it is a decent stress reliever, and something only an engineer boss could have thought of, so I'm hoping for the best with the new guy - I think if I can explain issues to him in an engineer POV - (he's highly certified, not just a paper tiger) that I can get more done.
but some days I just shake my head - LOL. The shit that goes thru that we don't know about - especially with telco maintenance -
I was originally modd'd down for flamebait - I apoligize - I am not trying to start a political fight - but I am upset at the focal point of greatest resistance.
Imagine another 20 years of weather like last year and Cat 5 hurricanes 3 or 4 times a year. The Entire Southeas would become uninhabitable - uninsurable - our Port infrastructure would have to be totally retooled to keep supplies coming into the US.
This is heavy stuff, people - Katrina was the first example of the BAD stuff. We joke when it's winter about a 2 degree increase, but forget how the climate feels about it....
I am just MAYBE, MAYBE starting to think Mother Earth is getting a bit pissed off and swinging back?
It astonishes me the blind naiviety of these Republicans who insist they aren't convinced that Global warming is happening. Every year we get another story or two like this and they still have their hands over their ears going "LA LA LA - I CAN'T HEAR YOU." Even more naive is the notion that it can't affect us or that we can buy our way out of any issues it causes.
The house has smoke all thru the ground floor - the ceiling is burning two stories up out of sight and all Republicans can say is "Well, we're not convinced this smoke is our house. And we're not convinced that there hasn't been smoke here before and that this is natural geology - and we're not convinced the fire will spread to the ground floor if the building is on fire.
feels like the good ol' days - I don't feel the tech environments like that anymore - now it feels like "work your geek as much as possible for as little pay, and if he complains, ship his job to India"
I would say management lost a lot of respect for IT after the Y2K bug sorta fizzled out - sorta like Chicken Little syndrome...
but what do I know...I'm not a developer - just a network engineer.
I submitted the review for Civ 3 in Slashdot almost 4 years ago to the date - yowzers - http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/ 02/0237227&tid=9&tid=10
I have not yet bought Civ 4. - I have enjoyed many a great hour with Civ3 and it's expansions - I recently upgraded to XP which prevented me from finishing the game on Space Race but for the most part, still enjoyed it although I've been migrating to console games lately.
I'm apprehensive on the 3d engine - I hated Panzer General 3D - a sequel to my beloved 2D wargames Panzer and Allied General - I want the game I enjoyed years ago, and it just feels like it's changing too much -
but at the same time, I remember how much I didn't like the old look of Civ 2 with it's 2D graphics and no depth or the old Civ 1 which was just a flat down view - and how changes made to every game eventually made me appreciate it more - who needs spies that can take out City Walls or that whole Spy network when you can pay an automated spy network and get past the micromanagement.
So I'll buy it when I get back - I'm eager to write another review.
RB
When I took C programming in College, one of the points our professors made was if you like your program, rewrite it...
the first time you write something, it's always hackney'd - and it gets that way till you figure out what you want to do and how to do it - afterwards, it then becomes so much clearer to see ways to clean up the code and fix issues...
so one of the first rules he had was once we were almost done, restart our stuff - it ended up being a lot cleaner/modular the 2nd time around...
of course, that won't help MS, but good for the rest of ya to know;)
maybe learning how to copy Ipod tunes to multiple computers is just what the Dr. ordered to start someone down the road to unlocking the next propritary file format -
reminds me of all the hollering they did about Dungeons and Dragons a few years ago - they were saying how a schitzophrenic shouldn't play it, how it was dangerous to kids (not to mention religious nuts saying how was devil worshipping)
ANYTHING can be used as escapism and blur lines between reality and fantasy - so it's MMORPG's right now - big deal - tomorrow it'll be holodecks -
but the fan film Troops was pretty damn funny - in that, you're watching Stormtroopers on Tatooine in a regular day, just like a camera crew follows Cops -
it ends up they blast the Jawa's for resisting arrest and fleeing, and the killing of Uncle Owen/Aunt Beru was a domestic dispute they broke up when Beru came out with a thermal detonator to get that SOB of a husband she had...
Wil (clevernickname) did an awesome tribute to J. Doohan on his website (well, it's actually the text of the speech he gave at the con. where James Doohan last appeared on Sat., I think - go to wilwheaton.net for more.
that's what his last couple posts are about...the goodbye convention...definately worth checking out.
and he's right...how many engineers/pilots and geeks in general were inspired by this guy? -- I remember reading an early work with some bio material where James said he sat down and tried to figure out all the mechanics and theories behind how the Enterprise worked after the first season, just so he could answer fans questions more credibly and accurately.
"If you want the reputation as a miracle worker...always multiply your estimates by three!"
In a way, he should have been high up on the list for a transplant...although he wasn't in the worst shape physically, leaving the cancerous liver in there increased the possibility of it spreading to other areas and killing him in a way most liver failures don't.
If I was dying, I'd donate my organs to someone specific and allow my family to do the same...and to hell with anyone who says I can't... - it's STILL my body and choice to give them or not.
I remember seeing it the first weekend thinking "this looks like a great sci-fi epic...but I don't know anything about it and I don't want the plot spoiled for me, so I better go see it this weekend"
holy crap...I am now dumber then I was before going to see that movie...my life is now lesser then what it could have been as a result of it...it was like listening to some of Jewel's music....crap.
RB
Re:all the time - I'm whiskeytown
on
Geeks and Poker?
·
· Score: 1
but he is a math wiz....LOL - he did pull that out of his ass vs TJ - but they also got a thing in positively 5th street where they ask him a parlor trick -
they ask what's 3789 * 8387 - and he figures it out in his head in about 10 seconds - faster then any of us can do it on paper -
apparently, he also has a talent of being able to fling a playing card thru a banana from 15 feet away...now THAT would be cool to do in the cubicle -
RB
Re:all the time - I'm whiskeytown
on
Geeks and Poker?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
no - but it's creative editing -
you'll see only the footage of the best hands...bear in mind, you're seeing maybe 5 percent of the hands actually televised - they'll edit it to keep the good stuff and throw away the bet/fold action.
Bluffs make for exciting poker, so they'll show a disproprotionally high amount of them on TV - just like reality TV will show more drunken outrageous behavior then the people sitting around watching TV
editing, man...
RB
all the time - I'm whiskeytown
on
Geeks and Poker?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I've been playing poker for a number of years, and study the game online in twoplustwo.com - where I post as whiskeytown - I also play quite a bit online.
There are some mathheads who are World Class Players...Chris Ferguson is one - a second class of character is the newbie who watches too much WPT/WSOP and thinks he should push all in with 88 - these guys sorta hurt the third class of player - the ones who play you more then the cards.
More then one professional player has griped (unfairly) that no good player would call some of the bluffs they made, and that too many amateurs are diluting the pool in the WSOP main event. It jumped from 700 to over 2200 this year - an incredible jump -
As of today, in the 80 of 2200 players left, 3 of them (including Chris Ferguson) are former WSOP winners, so the cream is still rising but not like it was when there were only 70 players.
I think it'll slowly die out as a fad - esp. since most folks want to play NL these days, and those games never last long - too easy for someone to go broke in one mistake - but it's good for poker -
but all the popularity is very good for tourney players - more money in the pool, and a lot of folks watch TV and don't realize they see a lot more bluffing on there because for one, it's a final table and two, it makes for better ratings then bet, fold action.
Poker is a winning -EV if you're better then most of the other players at the table, and with so many fish, it's not hard to be better anymore:)
I've seen computerized card counters - but being able to read a roulette wheel, that's something...
some people who would consider themselves professionals do the same thing by eye - make a guesstimate based on when the roulette employee releases the ball - but to do it with computers - well, that's just wrong:)
but if it ain't illegal, it'll be hard to prosecute - it's like counting cards...not illegal, but you'll get your butt booted from the casino pronto -
Slashdot Mirror
tried to sell some pokerchips on Craigslist - got a generic email asking me to verify the item I was selling was identical to the one in the video link the person sent to me (from a random hotmail account) - decided to keep the poker chips and not click the link
ah well -
rb
It's a great accomplishment, whether thru Government assistance or otherwise, she still had to play the game on the board herself.
There was a little to be desired in terms of format - whereas the FIDE championship has a series of candidate matches to decide who goes against the challenger, (qualifications of which keep changing) - the Women's championship is a shootout format where last year's champion busted out in round two, more like a poker tournament then the way FIDE handles the regular Championship.
Truth is, there is a lot wrong with FIDE right now and competitive chess, but Hou Yifan's accomplishment is probably the most important accomplishment in the chess world in 2010
Combat for the Atari 2600 is the first one I can remember - going thru all 27 games one at a time, driving tanks, figuring out how to manuever, and then suddenly getting bouncy shots and shots that go thru one side and out the other -
then biplanes, then jet fighters -
good times
RB
my first tech job was refurbishing a certain model of PC at the CompUSA tech shop - got me to where I'm at today - many a techie got his start in one of those little tech shops at a retail store.
lower profit margins are a drag on any business - almost inevitable but a fact of life - they lasted longer then the company I left them for by trying to diversify but I guess BB/CC will be taking over the world now.
RB
for once, I am in alignment with the world -
hypnotoad rules -
rb
when I was moving up in the world, I had a chance to get in with this company on the ground floor in '98 or 99 - being a Minnesota based company and all...
their old geek squad mobiles were 50's and 60's classic cars, and then they started using VW beetles - new ones.
They told me the story about helping the Rolling Stones with something and then those guys pretty much tagged along the rest of the tour.
Glad to see someone made it big - I went the networking route - no playing video games with rock stars...damn. -
RB
we're also a massive US company with a tremendous infrastructure - this guy could be talking about my company although I thought we were a one quarter turnaround. However, emergency changes go in.
;)
Here's the deal - on one hand, it's a ton of paperwork - on the other hand, you're in charge of a massive infrastructure, and replacing one firewall somewhere may block ports to a vendor and all hell breaks loose - so they document the threats like it's going out of style.
Nothing worse then sitting in the NMC, seeing a site go down, and wondering "well, do I need a tech out there or is this a Sat. night change"
so sometimes the paperwork is a result of a couple instances where someone brought down something big - maybe that's what happens in some of these companies - I know we had a crackdown before I came to work for them cause someone sent all the network's routes out an ISDN interface due to faulty metrics - oops - several thousand sites all channeling to a 128K interface for routing
I just shrug - I have tried to move my position into as much 3rd level support as possible - I don't do installs, so I don't do paperwork, and if someone breaks something it's generally their responsibility as the change maker to fix it, though we usually get called -
every IT job is almost the same - 1/2 good stuff, 1/2 bureaucracy - and you try to avoid that part. My new boss used to be an engineer - the first day he brought down nerf-type guns for us to shoot each other with - it is a decent stress reliever, and something only an engineer boss could have thought of, so I'm hoping for the best with the new guy - I think if I can explain issues to him in an engineer POV - (he's highly certified, not just a paper tiger) that I can get more done.
but some days I just shake my head - LOL. The shit that goes thru that we don't know about - especially with telco maintenance -
RB
I was originally modd'd down for flamebait - I apoligize - I am not trying to start a political fight - but I am upset at the focal point of greatest resistance.
Imagine another 20 years of weather like last year and Cat 5 hurricanes 3 or 4 times a year. The Entire Southeas would become uninhabitable - uninsurable - our Port infrastructure would have to be totally retooled to keep supplies coming into the US.
This is heavy stuff, people - Katrina was the first example of the BAD stuff. We joke when it's winter about a 2 degree increase, but forget how the climate feels about it....
I am just MAYBE, MAYBE starting to think Mother Earth is getting a bit pissed off and swinging back?
RB
It astonishes me the blind naiviety of these Republicans who insist they aren't convinced that Global warming is happening. Every year we get another story or two like this and they still have their hands over their ears going "LA LA LA - I CAN'T HEAR YOU." Even more naive is the notion that it can't affect us or that we can buy our way out of any issues it causes.
The house has smoke all thru the ground floor - the ceiling is burning two stories up out of sight and all Republicans can say is "Well, we're not convinced this smoke is our house. And we're not convinced that there hasn't been smoke here before and that this is natural geology - and we're not convinced the fire will spread to the ground floor if the building is on fire.
idiots - naive, blind, idiots
I usually don't post on these...
:)
and of course, the technology and the means are probably decades away....
but yah, this might be a cool superpower to have
RB
I read the article -
feels like the good ol' days - I don't feel the tech environments like that anymore - now it feels like "work your geek as much as possible for as little pay, and if he complains, ship his job to India"
I would say management lost a lot of respect for IT after the Y2K bug sorta fizzled out - sorta like Chicken Little syndrome...
but what do I know...I'm not a developer - just a network engineer.
RB
and as that wasn't bad enough - I gave the Civ 3. Limited Edition tin to a friend and I think he used it to hide weed in - LOL -
RB
I submitted the review for Civ 3 in Slashdot almost 4 years ago to the date - yowzers - http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/ 02/0237227&tid=9&tid=10
I have not yet bought Civ 4. - I have enjoyed many a great hour with Civ3 and it's expansions - I recently upgraded to XP which prevented me from finishing the game on Space Race but for the most part, still enjoyed it although I've been migrating to console games lately.
I'm apprehensive on the 3d engine - I hated Panzer General 3D - a sequel to my beloved 2D wargames Panzer and Allied General - I want the game I enjoyed years ago, and it just feels like it's changing too much -
but at the same time, I remember how much I didn't like the old look of Civ 2 with it's 2D graphics and no depth or the old Civ 1 which was just a flat down view - and how changes made to every game eventually made me appreciate it more - who needs spies that can take out City Walls or that whole Spy network when you can pay an automated spy network and get past the micromanagement.
So I'll buy it when I get back - I'm eager to write another review.
RB
When I took C programming in College, one of the points our professors made was if you like your program, rewrite it...
;)
the first time you write something, it's always hackney'd - and it gets that way till you figure out what you want to do and how to do it - afterwards, it then becomes so much clearer to see ways to clean up the code and fix issues...
so one of the first rules he had was once we were almost done, restart our stuff - it ended up being a lot cleaner/modular the 2nd time around...
of course, that won't help MS, but good for the rest of ya to know
RB
every hacker or geek had to start somewhere -
maybe learning how to copy Ipod tunes to multiple computers is just what the Dr. ordered to start someone down the road to unlocking the next propritary file format -
RB
took me 10 seconds to realize the source and another 20 to realize it wasn't April 1st -
not really worthy of a Slashdot mention, but what the hell -
RB
reminds me of all the hollering they did about Dungeons and Dragons a few years ago - they were saying how a schitzophrenic shouldn't play it, how it was dangerous to kids (not to mention religious nuts saying how was devil worshipping)
ANYTHING can be used as escapism and blur lines between reality and fantasy - so it's MMORPG's right now - big deal - tomorrow it'll be holodecks -
it happens....
RB
probably not gonna happen,
but the fan film Troops was pretty damn funny - in that, you're watching Stormtroopers on Tatooine in a regular day, just like a camera crew follows Cops -
it ends up they blast the Jawa's for resisting arrest and fleeing, and the killing of Uncle Owen/Aunt Beru was a domestic dispute they broke up when Beru came out with a thermal detonator to get that SOB of a husband she had...
sorta put a funny spin on the whole thing -
RB
Wil (clevernickname) did an awesome tribute to J. Doohan on his website (well, it's actually the text of the speech he gave at the con. where James Doohan last appeared on Sat., I think - go to wilwheaton.net for more.
that's what his last couple posts are about...the goodbye convention...definately worth checking out.
and he's right...how many engineers/pilots and geeks in general were inspired by this guy? -- I remember reading an early work with some bio material where James said he sat down and tried to figure out all the mechanics and theories behind how the Enterprise worked after the first season, just so he could answer fans questions more credibly and accurately.
"If you want the reputation as a miracle worker...always multiply your estimates by three!"
RB
In a way, he should have been high up on the list for a transplant...although he wasn't in the worst shape physically, leaving the cancerous liver in there increased the possibility of it spreading to other areas and killing him in a way most liver failures don't.
If I was dying, I'd donate my organs to someone specific and allow my family to do the same...and to hell with anyone who says I can't... - it's STILL my body and choice to give them or not.
RB
I remember seeing it the first weekend thinking "this looks like a great sci-fi epic...but I don't know anything about it and I don't want the plot spoiled for me, so I better go see it this weekend"
holy crap...I am now dumber then I was before going to see that movie...my life is now lesser then what it could have been as a result of it...it was like listening to some of Jewel's music....crap.
RB
but he is a math wiz....LOL - he did pull that out of his ass vs TJ - but they also got a thing in positively 5th street where they ask him a parlor trick -
they ask what's 3789 * 8387 - and he figures it out in his head in about 10 seconds - faster then any of us can do it on paper -
apparently, he also has a talent of being able to fling a playing card thru a banana from 15 feet away...now THAT would be cool to do in the cubicle -
RB
no - but it's creative editing -
you'll see only the footage of the best hands...bear in mind, you're seeing maybe 5 percent of the hands actually televised - they'll edit it to keep the good stuff and throw away the bet/fold action.
Bluffs make for exciting poker, so they'll show a disproprotionally high amount of them on TV - just like reality TV will show more drunken outrageous behavior then the people sitting around watching TV
editing, man...
RB
I've been playing poker for a number of years, and study the game online in twoplustwo.com - where I post as whiskeytown - I also play quite a bit online.
:)
There are some mathheads who are World Class Players...Chris Ferguson is one - a second class of character is the newbie who watches too much WPT/WSOP and thinks he should push all in with 88 - these guys sorta hurt the third class of player - the ones who play you more then the cards.
More then one professional player has griped (unfairly) that no good player would call some of the bluffs they made, and that too many amateurs are diluting the pool in the WSOP main event. It jumped from 700 to over 2200 this year - an incredible jump -
As of today, in the 80 of 2200 players left, 3 of them (including Chris Ferguson) are former WSOP winners, so the cream is still rising but not like it was when there were only 70 players.
I think it'll slowly die out as a fad - esp. since most folks want to play NL these days, and those games never last long - too easy for someone to go broke in one mistake - but it's good for poker -
but all the popularity is very good for tourney players - more money in the pool, and a lot of folks watch TV and don't realize they see a lot more bluffing on there because for one, it's a final table and two, it makes for better ratings then bet, fold action.
Poker is a winning -EV if you're better then most of the other players at the table, and with so many fish, it's not hard to be better anymore
RB
I've seen computerized card counters - but being able to read a roulette wheel, that's something...
:)
some people who would consider themselves professionals do the same thing by eye - make a guesstimate based on when the roulette employee releases the ball - but to do it with computers - well, that's just wrong
but if it ain't illegal, it'll be hard to prosecute - it's like counting cards...not illegal, but you'll get your butt booted from the casino pronto -
RB