Sigi_BC84

I think it's about the over-accelerated, estranged modern society. Not much more to read into it. Smoke some weed and then watch it on a video projector... very nice. --Sigi

You can interface with GIB directly, without going via the BBO software. There's no need to record a separate LIN file and open it with the BBO client. Here is the information you need: http://www.gibware.com/engine.txt --Sigi

I, too, dislike a lot of things about the system I am playing :-). It has been taught to us by better players from our club, but obviously there's a lot of room for improvement. I've actually read what was written about Inverted Minors response structures here before posting, and I guess we will change to a more efficient structure sooner or later. I didn't find any information about how high one should be forced so that was the main reason for this poll/thread. --Sigi

Are you speaking on behalf of anybody but yourself? I don't think you should use "our". I for one don't want to be included. That was not necessary, Roland. I guess what he wanted to say is that generally among Europeans the term "bible belt" would come to mind (probably even among US Americans?). If you disagree, simply say it. If Claus is speaking about "Danes" or "Denmark" I guess it is clear that obviously there will also be Danes who disagree. --Sigi

You still decide who you give your money to. The manager who runs the restaurant makes the prices and if they're too high he'll run out of customers. This is something the personnel has no influence over but at least they get their wage as long as they're working there. If you were serious about what you are proposing you'd would have to accept freely negotiable prices for just about everything (bazaar style). I think that's a bit inconvenient, especially at the supermarket... --Sigi

Tipping per se is not a bad thing, but the base wage should be high enough so that even with low tips you're receiving fair money for your work. In Germany it is considered polite to tip if the service was good, but not mandatory. I usually tip or else have a bad conscience most of the time. You also tip the barber, taxi driver and the pizza guy. Only, all these people already receive a wage which is worth their time and effort, so they are not at the mercy of the customer and at least in principle are free to change their employer if they are not content with their wage (NB they are not free to change their customer). Basically it's the same argument that you are making (freedom of choice or lack thereof), only applied to the waiter not the customer. --Sigi

(Obviously the above applies only if 3NT is not deemed a playable spot.) Hi, I'm trying to get to better agreements with my regular partner for inverted minors, so I'd be interested in how you handle this in your partnerships. We play a strong NT and show stoppers after 1m-2m, which establishes a game force (2NT and 3m are the minimum rebids by opener). So far nothing fancy. My question now is how high you are forced in your partnership after a game forcing action by either partner (even if your methods are different or if your 2m is already GF). 1. Can you stop at 4m or are you always forced to 5m if 3NT turns out to be a bad spot? 2. How do you handle the possibility of stronger hands (to play 5m/6m)? Do you play a 4m sign-off attempt as optional keycard ask? Or is partner simply expected to raise to 5m if holding extras? --Sigi

You took it way to literally :-). Like Uday said: After going via Start->Run... a box should pop up. The box has a text entry field, which you can use for running arbitrary commands. Enter cmd or command into that field and hit ok (or the return key). Then you will get a text window with a black background which you can use to run further command, such as the ping command given above. --Sigi

I think the proper term for this is "social market economy" -- unfortunately I'm not so sure anymore if it's a viable concept (financially). --Sigi

in all this time i've not once made personal remarks about you... my 'basic meaning and communication' skills are at *least* on a par with yours... anyone with any training at all in debate can recognize the myriad fallacies in your arguments, so maybe you're the one who needs to work on communication Since Peter decided to stop posting here, I will leap in to his defense. I've been following the debate between you two and I've got the same impression as Peter. You continued to try to worm yourself out of certain areas of this discussion which, as I assume, you are uncomfortable facing. You definitely tried to apply lawyer-tactics when nitpicking about objective vs. subjective morality instead of taking a clear position. You should at least recognize the possibility that to the audience you might have come across as the sore loser of this debate... (No offense intented, I'm just giving my impression Jimmy.) --Sigi

What I find highly suspicious is that North did not go for slam with that hand. Opposite a maximum weak two in Spades, slam is almost guaranteed. Certainly a wacky auction. But after souths pull to 5♥ I think it should have been clear that North got something wrong here. If proper defense wasn't hampered by the misinformation by South I think there was no damage to E/W. 5♥ was an overbid and if they misdefend it's their problem. --Sigi

You should play in my club. --Sigi

Interesting article, but its title when ripped out of context sounds pretty retarded: Scientists blame sun for global warming.

Al, you should try the following: Dial in with the "dodgy" modem and open a DOS box (by going via Start->Run... and entering "cmd"+Enter). Then run the following command: ping -n 10 bbo.bridgebase.com and look at what average time it reports. Repeat this for other popular sites (like www.google.com etc.) and compare the average times. Repeat with the "good" modem and see if there's any difference. --Sigi

Look, all I've said is that you sound deranged. This was a comment targeted at your "policitical and religious trolling" (as quite nicely put by Richard) in combination with your apparent inability to deal with the fact that some people actually couldn't care less about God (or the US, or Bush, or ...). My remark was not about your policital/religious views expressed here but about the double moral standards that you (apparently) apply towards free speech. To put it bluntly: Dwayne may trumpet anything but don't you dare to touch one of his holy cows (no pun about holiness intended). My apologies if I'm wrong here, but this is the impression one gets when reading that posting of yours above. It is not your views but your way of expressing them that I find difficult to handle (in case you don't understand what I'm talking about here: you keep making highly controversial statements without backing them with any arguments, apparently for no other reason but aggravating the readers of this thread). --Sigi

You are sounding more and more deranged. Let me remind you that you jumped at somebody's throat because that person dared to post the sentence "The worst invention is religion". Now you ramble about free speech. Let's talk about double moral standards again. --Sigi

What bidding conventions are activated (ie. which book does it use)? It would be helpful to have enough information to setup an offline copy of GIB (the one you can buy on Gibware's homepage) in exactly the same way as the robots on BBO. Also I'd like to know which kind of leads and signals GIB uses. Thanks, Sigi

Regarding GIB's bidding: I think the settings of the bots should be published ASAP so that people can start practicing bidding with an offline copy of the software (I'm playing with GIB occasionally and after a while you really get a hang of its bidding style). --Sigi

God forbid! Well, weak players are weak, and most of the fields in BBO tourneys are really weak. People get freaked out by the Trebuchet (2♣ forcing with Wk2♦ included)! If you really want to make sure not to get any gifts due to system in these fields you have to play BBO Basic or a simple 2/1 flavour. I'm sure the Kaplan Inversion will be too much already in that regard... Strong Pass systems are in an entirely different league, mainly because of the Fert, which 99% of the players (and 100% of the pickups) are not prepared against. This is, of course a guarantee for good scores, if you are "opening" and it's their hand. It is a dilemma, that is correct. But as I said above, the only way to teach them is to confront them with hardcore methods, otherwise we are missing a great opportunity to blow some fresh air into the game. --Sigi

LOL, who cares? This institution is only respected if it is the will of the ones really in power (read the_saint's post above if you haven't yet). --Sigi P.S., regarding "corruption" (from the movie "Syriana"): "Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks he’s gonna run this up the flag pole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. (mimics prosecutor) “But, Danny, these are sovereign nations.” Sovereign nations! What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? “But, Danny, they’re codified by the U.N. charter!” Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods! (beat) ...Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a ***** Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. (beat) Corruption... is how we win."

Hmm, what about the game interest relay over 1♦/♥? To me this is a highly controlled psyche (suggesting an inv+ where you could as well hold a bust with fit for opener or a takeout against openers suit with not much in it). The risk is really low and there is no "fielding" because opener has no captaincy. To me this is the equivalent of psyching 2NT over mini-multi or weak-two. --Sigi

FD has a few rough edges that should be taken off before "going mainstream" by heavily advertising the feature (one of them is the inability to restrict its use by hosts). However it might not be a bad idea to educate TDs about FD, so that if it comes up in their tourneys they know what they're dealing with (and about the implication that the partnership can see their own explanations). --Sigi

I would not. I even think that it would be beneficial if more people would play unusual methods in events where this is allowed. This would help create a bridge culture of which unregulated bidding is a part of. It would also heighten the TDs' awareness of what to allow in their events and what not. I think that most TDs don't even consider the possibility of pairs like DrTodd/foobar turning up, so they don't bother about installing restrictions for their tournaments in the first place (most people play natural methods, with the occasional Strong/Polish Club). The only restrictions I've seen so far have been "no polish club", "no multi", "no psyches". This is presumably because the TDs don't know of any other unusual methods to disallow. What would happen if in a tourney with the above restrictions you start playing Dejeuner? You'd certainly comply with the regulations but still would be way outside the intended system bounds. If more true system freaks were around in BBO tourneys (without feeling bad about it), maybe even the occasional TD would bother to look at existing models for regulations (eg. the WBF ones) and start labeling his/her tourney appropriately (eg. "Everything upto and including WBF RED systems allowed", which would be a very complete and definite description). --Sigi

As you know I am not American, but I still find that comment insulting. Insulting maybe, but I must admit that I was inclined to respond along similar lines... --Sigi

Well, basically I say that international law should be recognized by every and any country, no matter how big or powerful -- this is the ideal, but unfortunately laws are there to be broken, also on the international level. The US are powerful enough to be able to step over international bodies like the UN if they assume it's beneficial to them. The last euphemism they have used in that regard was "coalition of the willing". If the UN are too slow in their reaction to certain world events, the problem should be solved by attempting to modernize the UN instead of rendering it worthless by performing continuing unilateralism. --Sigi