pilowsky

It is not completely straightforward. The best format is .png "portable network graphics". The file size is critical. If it is too big, BBO will not accept it. There are free sites on the web that will resize your image, crop them and change the format. You can put a different image on the Forum. Sometimes when you load an image on BBO it can be visible to others but not to you. The reason for this is unknown to me.

The main purpose of schools is to provide child-care so that parents can be productive in the economy. Knowledge is what the person acquires from those around them. If they are lucky, the people around them are skilled at helping them acquire tools to gain knowledge. Stuffing knowledge into people never works. One of Australia's largest schools is the (https://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/) School of the Air in Alice Springs. It covers an area as big as the continental USA. I've been there. It only has 120 students. It could be bigger. Most tertiary campuses also provide distance education. When I was in one of my schools (we moved a lot - I went to 8 different schools before University) it became so dull that we reached an agreement with Mrs B. that as long as we passed the weekly test three of us could study in the library. Her Husband taught me algebra at university. Bridge has never been better since it's been a distance sport. When I listen to sleazy politicians attempting to justify massive school re-openings, knowing full well that this is simply so that they can 'get the economy rockin', and save their cosy parliamentary sinecures it makes me reach for a bucket. These people have no shame. They would throw their parents into a fire for a dollar. This is what it means to live in a failed state with no adequate health care for all. What is the collective noun for a group of people that believe that everything will just get better if you pray? A Republic?

You are right, wrong, and focussing on the wrong issue. All at the same time. Quite an achievement really, well done. Of course, I saw the same documentary, but the planes and the building are a tragic metaphor to emphasize the importance of avoiding aliasing which is what the Nyquist theorem and oversampling is all about. If you really want to read the technical specifications about planes and stuff. Here is an article. Discussing the documentary that we all saw. As I recall the guy in charge only scheduled 11.5 minutes for every meeting. Or some similar precise time. This attention to detail is good because it keeps things ticking over, and gets the project completed on time, but it can mean that the fireproofing turns out to be inadequate and lives are lost. Remember the lives? It always amazes me when I visit some of these structures - including the Sydney Harbour Bridge - that there are plaques and signs with information about span, height, nuts, bolts, idiots that cut ribbons, but nothing about the workers that died on the job, who literally sacrificed their lives so that I can smile, as Clive James put it at "the crushed diamond sea and the azure blue sky". Who gives a ***** about the planes? Edited to remove the first link. Thank U John. Point remains.

I think that they are all the same. MP is matchpoints. The number of players in each one is different. Because the maximum number of masterpoints available is affected by the total number of players, and because MP1 seems to attract the largest number of players this means that the "quality of candidature" - as we say in the educational business - is clearly going to be strongest. The best will be better than in a smaller pool. The worst might be worse. If you want to test your skill level, then entering the $0.39 MP with over 1000 players daily is a pretty good way of doing it. In the same way, if you want to look for a good job, you go to New York, London or Beijing. Not Snokfokl Arkansas - although I'm sure the people there are delightful.

There are so many. Each writer has a 'voice' that different readers will prefer even if the information is similar. Additionally, bidding is a partnership agreement. Even 2♣ can have different meanings to different people. What do you guys think of Mike Lawrence's "Judgement at Bridge 2"?

I quite like them although I prefer the group challenge format (Forum challenge is the biggest). This is why. There are several things to bear in mind when playing in a best hand tournament. The most important thing to remember about a best hand tournament is that just because you have the most HCP, that doesn't mean you have the 'best hand'. Also, just because South will always have the most HCP points of any of the individual hands, this does not mean that NS will have the most HCP as a pair. Once you make this realisation your score will improve dramatically. Part-scores will become your friend. If you have 14 HCP and East and West each have 11+, then your chances of making a slam are dismal. When you add in distribution, a box of tissues is needed. When I started playing in robot daylongs I assumed that I was going to get a lot of practice at Declarer play. The results do not bear this out. Here is what happened to me today. I scored, what was for me, a reasonable 45.74%. I even scored a slam on board 3. But my best board was 4H-2! (85.9%). It turns out that if I had played in defence on 5 out of 8 boards I would definitely have come in the top 25%. On the plus side, you do have the most HCP. This is a blessing and a curse. Why? Because North definitely does not have more points than you. So, if you open the bidding, don't expect much from North. It will never be there. Except, in terms of distribution! Sometimes North will surprise you. Next, when you play in a robot tournament remember that you are actually playing in multiple tournaments that become intercalated to form one big tournament. This is an anti-cheating measure. But it has some negative effects. The big negative is that in matchpoints in a small field a small error in bidding or play can be very costly. Here's an example from today. 4HN+2.....1 680 100.00% Sample Movie 4HN+1.... 6 650 87.50% Sample Movie 3NS+1.....1 630 75.00% Sample Movie 4HN=.......14 620 48.21%Your Movie And.......... 7 more people below me. At IMPS, 1 trick ought to be less costly - at match points, your loss is doubled. Things can get worse. In the same tournament as above, on a different board, there were only 18 players. This is where I scored 85.9% with 4H-2 scoring -100. The robots EW made 3S for -140 and 55.88% and the people who made 4H-3 scoring -150 score 23.53%. Two days ago I was delighted to get a top board but only scored 64.58%. So did 18 of the other 25 people that played the board. That's the problem with robot daylongs. It looks like you are competing with over a thousand other people but in fact, you aren't. You get to play 8 boards and there is a ceiling on some of your boards. The really good players always do well. They always will. I will always stuff up a board here and there. That's bridge. The interesting feature of matchpoints scoring is that it follows the rule of 123. This is a statistical rule that states that 68% of the population sits within 1 standard deviation of the mean. 95% within 2 standard deviations, and just 1 lies outside 99%. Here you can see that my result makes me boringly average along with 14 others, 7 people were mild over-achievers, and one crafty individual found an extra trick. As an aside, a corollary of the rule of 123 is that to adequately parametrize a curve - that is take enough samples to see something properly - you should take at least 20 samples. This is because at least 1 in 20 could be due to chance. By definition. This is probably why most Club sessions are 24 boards long (at least in Australia). This sampling theorem was worked out by a guy called Nyquist. The engineers in the audience grossly oversample because they don't want the bridge/building to fall down and kill people. Tragically, even their cautious calculations can go wrong. The Twin Towers in New York were over-engineered to with-stand a direct hit from the largest airliner of the day. Planes got bigger. And finally, you are going to get hands like this. https://tinyurl.com/y6tlsbb6. You might have the most HCP, but who's having the most fun - if robots had fun. I think the West robot does.

:). You are all completely right. What I have learned this week is how to take it slow. I figured that I might be able to finagle into 6NT without giving too much away, but in the end, outsmarted myself. Something which I'm sure you will all agree should not be too hard to do.

Does this mean that only people without a trace of imperfection are allowed to... he posited aposiopesically. As one of my ancestors might have posted.

It made Mary Great. Again

She (Bari Weis) is right. Anti-semitism is rife in America. It is also rife in the Bridge community. I have experienced it personally. I am an atheist. I believe that is no more likely that there is any kind of God than there is Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. But I am Jewish. This means that my ancestors have collected a lot of valuable information for me, which they wrote down and put in a book. Subsequent ancestors added to this information and I am very happy about it. Unfortunately, the use of this information enables the accumulation of wealth and power by small groups of individuals. Targeting groups of individuals according to their skin colour, hair colour or sexual orientation allows criminal organisations such as the (insert your favourite here) to flourish. Currently, there are companies selling masks into the US market with realistic, but bogus, certificates of authenticity. Criminals do not care about peoples lives. They only care about money. It is like being concerned about acquiring masterpoints but not being concerned about being better at Bridge. This is why Trump lies and cheats. He thinks that acquiring money for himself is the point. He does not understand that when you are elected as President, improving the well-being of the entire community is the point. People that condone anti-semitism as trivial are missing the point. Antisemitism, along with misogyny and homophobia are all just devices used by pathetic, weak people who have no real ability of their own, as a power-play to manoeuvre people who are more able than them away from something that they want. If the person was not identifiably Jewish, they would choose another characteristic to smear. In Australia Julia Gillard was attacked because she was a woman. As though this somehow made her less capable. One particularly artless Radio person called her "Juliar" - which made him sound like a demented toddler. It's pathetic really, but it worked for Hitler, and Trump got elected using the same methodology. The Big Lie was first described in Mein Kampf.

Did I misinterpret this response to 4NT - what was GIB telling me? GIB North opens with this hand [hv=pc=n&n=skj92hj3dak654ck8]133|100[/hv] E and W pass throughout. I have: [hv=pc=n&s=saq86hk52dqtcajt2]133|100[/hv] North opens 1♦. I'm pretty excited. I have 16HCP. I'm thinking slam. I ask for Aces. North "thinks" for a moment and then replies: 5♠ Two or five key cards; queen -- 3+ ♦; 11-21 HCP; ♦Q; 12 -22 total points Seriously? I blame myself for bidding 7NT which West - holding the ♥A doubled. LIN

As you know I am a pretty one-eyed supporter of GIB. But this just happened. The contract only makes 5♠. I could see that while I was bidding, but in a fit of hubris and stupidity I ignored the warnings of my wise robot partner and bid 6♠ anyway. The hand is matchpoints from a daylong. I know that I have the most HCP, so I also know that North cannot possibly have what I need. When I create a LIN file and give it to GIB to play, they bid and play in 5♠! Now I get the results. Here is the PBN. Me 6♠-1 4.84% my movieSomeone else 4♠+2 91.94% by one person - their movieTop board misplayed by GIB (it happens) 100% 6♠- their movie What's the bug? The contract is only makeable if you don't bid it. It is an auto da fe. GIB truly is like the Spanish Inquisition! Each player gets a different lead: I get the ♥34♠ gets the ♦10 duck!And 1♠ / 2NT / 6♠ gets the ♣A, ♣[hv=pc=n&s=sakqt4hqj862d7ck2&w=sh9743dqt9632cat8&n=sj852hakdkj5cq964&e=s9763ht5da84cj753&d=s&v=e&b=3&a=1sp2np6s(why%20not%3F)ppp]399|300[/hv] I suppose it is not really a "bug". If you read "The Dream Machine" by Mitchell Waldrop, which discusses the origins of personal computing and the critical role played by JCR Licklider, you will learn that the original bug was an insect that shortcircuited the hardware. What happens in software is something else. space for smerriman Here, in order to play against GIB you would need to know through some sort of mystical disclosure system what sort of lead system it follows depending on the bidding sequence made. Clearly, by giving the computer no information at all, Top Board succeeded in gaining the edge. another space for smerriman This, of course, means that the people in the optimum contract of 3NT+2 missed out on their rightful place in the sun. I guess even robots lie sometimes.

One fact worth knowing for Australian consumers (gbb483 can correct me with superior knowledge) is that only Telstra has a SIM in its MODEM. This means that if there is an outage in your area the MODEM will switch to the telephone network without interruption. This is one reason (additional coverage and a wired landline vs VOIP) are the reasons Telstra costs more. I do not know what effect the eventual change to NBN will have on Australian consumers.

I accept the challenge! I shall try harder in future .

Thank you for that helpful advice. You are absolutely correct. In this case, The block of text was transcribed precisely as written. As I pointed out, The 'voice' is arcane in its expression. I also pointed out that it is freely available on the web. Punctuation and paragraphing do make a big difference. They are often done poorly. Something that persists to this day in some Bridge books. My advice, Copy and paste the story into a text editor and you can hit enter as often as you like. That's what I had to do when I transcribed it. Careful attention to making writing meaningful and intelligible is something that I devoted a lot of time to when training students. Short sentences are also valuable. I also like lists. Careful proof-reading is important: something I often fail to do when making posts. I'll stop here in the interests of brevity.

at last, someone on BBO can spell yroni

Thank you for the change to declutter the tournament structure today. It is much easier to navigate. Something else that would be really helpful to me would be a countdown clock in hrs:mins (just above Register in the screenshot would be perfect!). This is a much easier way for me to see how much time I have to play the tournament and decide whether or not to enter. Even better would be to express it in "boards/min". This would be similar to what is done at the supermarket. After all, A tournament is a perishable commodity. Finally, Even if I go over time and cannot be included in the final scoring, is there any reason why I can't still play the hands I'm dealt? Since I've paid for them?

That's a great idea! I've just been running through a bunch of hands. That would be very useful.

It can take a while (minutes). I have also noticed that at certain times of day when BBO is extremely busy it takes longer.

And here we run back into the same old problem. What is the point of arriving at a table and saying "we speak ancient Aramaic"? Then it turns out that you don't. A woman sat down to play as my pick-up partner and said "I play EHAA". I was delighted, but it turned out that she had no idea who Eric Landau was. And when I opened 2♣ with a weak hand and 6♣, there was a Director call. How many forms of Acol are there? to say nothing of the curious spellings?

This is incorrect. Use Ookla (speedtest.net) to test your speed - it's free. Mine is ping 9ms 58.53 Mb/s up and 4.59 Mb/s down. The carrier is important, but that is not the problem. It is a server-side issue.

and fwiw on a Mac option 266 0123456789 gives a nice collection of symbols including all of the SHDC, but in monochrome ♣♠ - but you can change the colour! - and size manually.

No chance I felt piquey just looking at it and I could see all the hands when I tried to play it!!! heel erg bedankt voor het advies Dude

AI is the shortest oxymoron