TrialBid

I don't get to play the Money Bridge formats much because of the IP restriction. I can play when I'm in Chicago (fairly often) and when I'm not too busy then (not so often). My limited experiences suggest three things: 1. A human must always declare. Others have mentioned this also and it may be in the works. The sooner the better, I say! 2. Please, please, please, put some work into GIB's ability to recognize a claim situation. Or, alternatively, allow the GIBs to analyze a claim when a button is pressed, just like "real" BBO. I just had to watch GIB play 6 more cards after there was a single dummy sure-trick result. On another hand, 3 extra cards, and its tempo isn't exactly blistering. The general object in money bridge if you play well is to play more hands. If GIB wastes time, well ... time is money. 3. For all of us who, like me, might be able to play for real money only occasionally, please change the software to allow playing the money formats "for fun" _from any location_ so that we can be better prepared to play for real money when we're in a location where it's legal.

This is a far more interesting topic than I thought! Note that in Law 17 the auction is not finally, finally over until the opening lead is faced. So, until the lead is made, the period for correction under law 21 B.1 remains open. In fact a player, realizing he has failed to give or given wrong information, should speak immediately to minimize the damage rather than wait his turn to call. We do that on BBO via chat or the alert process, normally--then if necessary call a director. It is worth noting that the attention level of all participants is likely to be at maximum as 7NT is bid, Dbl'd and Redbl'd, so a discussion of those calls, if warranted, will surely take place before the lead. Passes following 7NTxx certainly do no great harm. Like wearing neckties, we do many things of ceremonial interest only.

Perhaps I should have addressed Law 17. It is designed for bridge played in a fallible world. If BBO were to emulate the Laws exactly, undercalls, and bids out-of-turn would be possible. In that fallible world, someone might undercall 7NTxx, the auction be condoned, and would continue until ended by 3 passes. Just as we (sensibly IMO) don't allow irregularities that can be prevented, we don't need three passes when no more bids are possible.

It has taken me 2 years on BBO to see it, but tonight it happened. I saw 7NTxx and 3 passes were required following the Redbl. That is not correct. The Redbl is the end of the auction.

As Gerardo said, don't try running wine as root (sudo)! Very bad! You may also want to add to synaptic the following repository so that you can keep up with the latest wine (currently 0.9.11): deb http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ binary/ More complete instructions are at http://winehq.org/site/download-deb There's a new wine release nearly every month and the progress in stability, reliability, attractiveness, and compatibility has been modestly dramatic. Running under the newest wine, you'll be offered a chance to download the mozcontrol and have it automatically installed. I suggest you wait until the control is installed before leaving the opening BBO page.

Abalucy's answer to me as to why I wasn't selected suggests that this needs to be examined more deeply. From the chat log: ABALUCY (Lobby): hi i don't know because it said nosubs I know by inspection that only about 3 or 4 players were missing. I can see why that could be a helpful strategy from the director's point of view. How about listing them in reverse order of last keyboard (or mouse?) activity? You time out inactive sessions so you have the data available somewhere.

For the second time, I've had an odd experience after signing up as a sub in an Abalucy tournament. Shortly after the tourney started I signed on as a sub. I went off to kibitz a team match and soon Abalucy was advertising for subs. I went back to the tournament and it showed I was still registered as a sub. Why did it not show me on his list? He said it did not and that he'd wished he had seen me on the list as I'm in the club in good standing as far as I know. While I'm on the subject, I do believe that the list of subs is presented to directors in alphabetical order. What I've begun to suspect is that most directors who fill sitout places simply start inviting at the top of the list. That seems wrong to me. How about the software presenting subs in order of registration? Or in random order each time the list is accessed? It's a small point, but I believe it is BBO's attention to lots of small details that has made it great and keeps it getting better.

All in all, I'm basically delighted with BBO under wine. Version 4.7.0 just arrived by autoupgrade. I continue to upgrade wine as new versions arrive. I'm at wine v 0.9.10. I install it via sourceforge rpm on Mandriva 2006. (uday: discussion about money bridge moved to separate thread)

Thanks, Gerardo and Uday, for helping me get clear on what was what. I can confirm [sYSTEM] LINUX_WINE=Y BROWSER_TYPE=A works great when native ATL.DLL is used and the Mozilla ActiveX control is installed as described by Gerardo on 11/11. I can now add also that it seems to work even better (more briskly) under wine 0.9.1 which was released about a week ago and I installed tonight.

Since the date of the post mentioning installing the Mozilla ActiveX control was Nov 11 and the announcement of 4.5.3 was Nov 16 I am obviously not clued in to where the latest information is coming from if I was supposed to figure out that the comments didn't apply to either 4.5.0 or 4.5.2. Where is this information coming from? Nevertheless, I've now tried running 4.5.3 with this command: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="atl=n" BROWSER_TYPE=A wine "C:\Bridge Base Online\NetBridgeVu.exe" Yes, news works. If I put the BROWSER_TYPE=A into bbover.ini where I first thought it was to go, that doesn't do it. Where is this information coming from?! However, the hang-up going to a tournament or to a table is the same as ever. Is there still a newer, unannounced version that everyone knows about but me?!

Follow the instructions for modifying bbover.ini, add the [system] section as detailed elsewhere, and BBO seems to work well under wine. So far, I cannot replicate Gerardo's success w/o specifying Linux--which disables news and use of ActiveX as I understand it. Even after registering the mozilla activex control, via regsvr32 mozctlx.dll, apparently successfully, I found w/BBO v 4.5.0 & 4.5.2 I have trouble using chat and/or entering a table. The latter problem has been reported as a wine bug and is still open although of less importance now that there is a workaround (using the Linux selection). Below is what the debug output says from 4.5.2 when I try to enter a table. Are there any native DLLs being used or other DLLs to register that would help? I'd still like to be able to run the full BBO under wine and be rid of the eternal "Waiting for response from server..." message that occurs under the standard version. This is wine 0.9 running under Mandriva2005. [steve@mediapc Bridge Base Online]$ ulimit -m 200000 && wine "C:\Bridge Base Online\NetBridgeVu.exe" err:ole:CoGetClassObject class {96749377-3391-11d2-9ee3-00c04f797396} not registered err:ole:create_server class {96749377-3391-11d2-9ee3-00c04f797396} not registered fixme:ole:CoCreateInstance no classfactory created for CLSID {96749377-3391-11d2-9ee3-00c04f797396}, hres is 0x80040150 err:bitmap:DIB_GetBitmapInfo (1452650526): unknown/wrong size for header fixme:msvcrt:MSVCRT__sopen : pmode 0x01b4 ignored fixme:ole:OleCreate {8856f961-340a-11d0-a96b-00c04fd705a2} {00000112-0000-0000-c000-000000000046} semi-stub! err:ole:CoGetClassObject class {4955dd33-b159-11d0-8fcf-00aa006bcc59} not registered fixme:ole:CoCreateInstance no classfactory created for CLSID {4955dd33-b159-11d0-8fcf-00aa006bcc59}, hres is 0x80040154

I'm trying to deal with the Err=3001 situation as I work on making BBO work under standard wine. I see several references to 4.5 Beta but no specific information as to how to find new available betas. Occasionally in the past I see fred's message "New Beta available" with a specific link but nothing recent for the 4.x series. I'm getting the feeling the cloaking of new versions is deliberate. Am I missing something? How do I get in the loop?

Chicago implies several things, at least as some of us learned it. 1. Deal scoring is different. A part score is carried forward. A part score made on the 4th deal has a 100 point bonus. 2. After 4 deals each player is given +/- points equal to the nearest 100, +50 being rounded up--at least in the US. European players normally round down, I believe. This carries into the strategy of the 4th deal on occasion. A 20 point overtrick may be worth a full point because of rounding. 3. A passout calls for a redeal by the same dealer with the same vulnerability. 4. The standard vulnerability sequence is sometimes modified to be None, nonDlr, nonDlr, Both. This is a matter of preference. Those who think "killing the vulnerability" (opening a subpar hand in 4th chair so that the opponents cannot score a potential vul game in the redeal) is an important part of the game use the standard sequence. Those who consider it a bush-league tactic use the modified version. Lot's of these niceties might be especially important if there's any interest in playing money bridge on BBO. And, if there is enough interest, maybe BBO$s could be won and lost (with a small service fee, of course!).

Actually, as I pointed out already, it doesn't always work fine. Some problems arise using VNC. for BBO. My initial post on the subject was fairly long already, so I didn't try to offer a full catalog of options and their effects, but I'd be glad to offer suggestions if anyone is having specific difficulties. As for the available Windows PC, I know it is not a solution for everyone but I said that already. Many people have a Windoze box gathering dust. BBO works acceptably on some relatively decrepit hardware. and only requires Win95 or later, afaik. And if the choice is avoiding Windows or playing on BBO, I've made my choice. And VNC lets me play on my preferred machine in my preferred room of the house wihtout having to find room for a second box there. Yes, I'd like to be running it on Linux--under wine, or better, natively, but that is another thread.

Another effective way to run BBO if you primarily use a Mac or non-Windows OS is to use some version of VNC. Quoting from http://realvnc.com, authors of the original version, "VNC (Virtual Network Computing) software makes it possible to view and fully-interact with one computer from any other computer or mobile device anywhere on the Internet. VNC software is cross-platform, allowing remote control between different types of computer. For ultimate simplicity, there is even a Java viewer, so that any desktop can be controlled remotely from within a browser without having to install software." If you don't have access to a separate Windows machine and/or the thought of networking them intimidates you, read no further. Still here? Good! To use VNC to play on BBO, start by getting VNC software for both your machines. There are several versions available. Google "download vnc" will get you lots of places to start. Using realvnc.com software may not be the best choice if you don't want to spend any money. They have a free version but it's very limited because they sell their more feature rich versions. I use TightVNC myself, http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html Mac users see this note at http://tightvnc.org/faq.html#macosx On your Windows machine you'll need to install the Windows version of VNC server. In the installation, be sure you specify that you want the server to run as a system service, so you won't have to worry about starting it yourself. To forestall any questions, the Windows machine is also where you'll download and install BBO software as well if you haven't already. Install at least the VNC viewer software on the other machine. Sometimes the viewer and server are packaged separately, sometimes together. Starting the viewer may be as simple as double clicking on the icon for the file vncviewer and entering the IP address of your Windows machine. However, that gets you the default options and may not be optimal. I usually open a console window and invoke it something like this: vncviewer -encodings hextile -quality 1 -compresslevel 2 192.168.1.106 The only thing usage problem if had using BBO with VNC is that in play, if you claim, the claim box sometimes doesn't display on the remote machine. A workaround: do not claim while you have any tricks to lose. After clicking claim, when the focus leaves the BBO window (the BBO title bar goes from colored to gray), hit enter and the invisible claim box will close and submit your claim for all the tricks. A java-based VNC viewer that may work on any machine that has Sun Java is available but I haven't used it at all. If anyone tries it, will you please add your experiences to this topic?

I'm delighted to find this thread here. I've been trying to make NetBridgeVu.exe run under wine and I've been getting tantalizingly close. A note I've not seen elsewhere here: to run NetBridgeVu.exe 3.9.3 with standard wine, you must have WINEDLLOVERRIDES='atl=n' to execute at all. Wine bug 1882 seems to be the barrier we are all waiting to get through. Transgaming's version gets past this problem but seems to have trouble with symbol fonts. So I'm holding out for seeing this run under plain-old-wine. If you are just looking to display hands that the "myhands" pages or your hard disk archives have (the .lin files), here is a perl script I use to invoke NetBridgeVu.exe to display a .lin. For that purpose it works fine under wine. You must save this file on your machine, chmod it as +x and then (if using mozilla or firefox) when you click on a .lin file, you can answer "Open with" and browse to where you saved the file. You'll need to change the imbedded paths to where you have BBO and your temp files. #!/usr/bin/perl open OUT,">/home/steve/tmp/bbo.log"; print OUT scalar @ARGV,join "~",@ARGV; close OUT; system 'WINEDLLOVERRIDES="atl=n" /usr/local/bin/wine \'C:\\Bridge Base Online\\NetBridgeVu.exe\' '.join(' ',@ARGV); system 'rm -f '.join(' ',@ARGV);