boris3161

I've had this problem for some time with both Firefox and Chrome. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing has worked. The only way I've found of getting around it is to use IE. Sorry!

Thanks, Frances. In this particular case, it was a match held at someone's house and no TD was present to give an immediate ruling. As it happens the result on that particular board was not critical to the outcome of the match. Thank you all for your comments.

Playing a teams match under EBU rules, my partner opened 2 hearts with a fairly feeble 7 card suit and 5 points. Our opponents bid to 3nt and went down by 4 tricks. They immediately "reserved their rights" on the basis that a weak 2 shows a 6 card suit. There was no partnership agreement in force as we are not a regular partnership. So, can anyone clarify, under EBU rules, is one allowed to open a weak 2 with a 7 card suit? (I can't see any problem with this but I don't know for certain) Thanks in advance.

Another oddity on teaching tables is that if you move from playing to kibbing, you can't always see all the hands - despite the setting being "show all hands". You can leave the table and rejoin or you can set it to kib a single hand and then back to all hands. This is very useful if you happen to be the teacher 'cos the table closes if you leave it!

I don't think I trust any politician. Gordon Brown is no worse than any of the others. It reminds me of the old joke Q: "How do you tell if a politician is lying?" A: "See if his/her lips are moving".

What is the collective noun for Bankers? A Wunch :)

I think there may be a problem with teaching tables where the host is sat at all seats. I can see it fine in the download version but the flash version just shows an empty table with no cards - it makes following the lesson a little difficult! ;)

As an outsider with no political axe to grind and no vote, isn't it a bit strange that Obama whose message is "change" picks a political insider like Biden? To me, this tends to suggest the change he brings won't be very profound....

It is called an unassuming cue bid and suggests a strong raise (limit or better) in openers suit (minimum 10 points and 4 card support). It is often played that way in acol too.

[hv=d=n&v=b&s=s9hq9854d653cakjt]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] Playing SAYC, partner opens 1♥ and RHO bids 1♠ - what should you bid? I'm torn between 2♠ and 4♥. What criteria inform your choice? Thanks in advance.

It may be rational to choose not to live - but I don't agree that a lot of people are likely to be in such a situation. Many people may find that temporarily life is pretty bad and, if you are in that situation, your range of possible options seems to decrease. However, suicide is a permanent solution (as far as we know) to a temporary problem. If life is that bad, usually the best thing to do is to talk it over with someone - a friend, a minister, family, a therapist or anyone who will listen - not to get solutions from them but to enable you to explore your feelings and to come up with your own solutions. I volunteer with a group called Samaritans (www.samaritans.org) - if you find your life is not worth living, you could do worse than contact them - it might not make any difference - but, then again, it might.....

As acol players, my partner and I are currently learning/revising SAYC. I dealt myself the following hand and opened 1♥: [hv=d=s&v=n&s=sqj4hkq975dkqtca5]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] My partner responded with 1♠. What should my rebid be? I think it should be 2♦ but is this forcing and why? Thanks Boris

As an update, I am pretty convinced my problem has nothing to do with BBO. It is just the nature of the application that makes it obvious when an unrelated problem occurs. I think it is something to do with DNS servers and my ISP (Pipex) though, needless to say, they don't agree... :D

OK - I think I may have other problems this evening ;) Is the IP Address in the bbover.ini file the IP address I'm using - my ISP has asked me to use tracert to try and uncover problems. I'll keep y'all informed.

Anyone for Bridge/Tag team wrestling? :)

Am still investigating the problem with my ISP - currently thinking seems to be that BBO uses port 9999 - which is often used for peer-to-peer downloads and may be throttled by the ISP at times of high demand - hence the delays. Does this make any sense to those more technically competent than me?

I think the roots of this conflict go back a lot further than 50 years. Well over 500 years in my opinion. Remember that the Moslem world has a different sense of time to the Western world. The crusades are still remebered with hatred. There are also arguments that suggest that the British Empire tried to harness Moslem extremism in both World Wars to its cause - and then carved up the Middle East to its advantage to exploit the oil revenues. The US is actually reaping the effects of a long history - much of which it was not responsible for and of which it is, for the most part, unaware. I think the solution might be somewhere along the lines of supporting moderate islamic factions. The trouble is that the media seem hell bent on defining all moslems as evil - and this is just making the situation worse.

I'm getting increasing incidences of BBO freezing while I'm playing - sometimes it catches up suddenly - often I can't wait that long. I'm still getting Internet access during these pauses because I can communicate via skype. I recall someone asked about this before but can't find the mail. Is there something I should be doing at my end to resolve the problem? The most visible symptom is that the number of people logged in remains unchanged for some time - and using task manager I can see very little traffic. If it is my ISP at fault (Pipex), what should I be telling them to get it fixed? Any other hints? Thanks in advance for any suggestions, it is getting frustrating and it seems a reboot is the only way to solve the problem.

I agree with the condemnation of excessive praise - but it depends on your partner's skill whether a "wdp" is warranted or not. When a beginner makes even a simple contract in an appropriate way, a "wdp" can be appropriate and appreciated. I may not give such approbation when an expert manages a straightforward contract. Praise should always be given, if appropriate, and, sometimes, even when not appropriate!

I think whether or not comments are made after a hand is played depends on the nature of the partnerships involved. With a regular partner, a comment can be given and taken in the right spirit. With a pick-up partner, there is no chance to assess how any negative comment will be taken if you want the game to continue. Also, I have found many experts are very good at giving hints to me, a mere intermediate. Advanced or other Intermediate players sometimes find it hard to make constructive suggestions and any comments come over as overly critical. On the whole, it is probably safer to get on with the next hand.....

One of the interesting implied criticisms in the original programme went as follows: 1/ Modelling the climate is complicated - a lot of assumptions are put together to build a model 2/ People have assumed CO2 increase leads to temperature rise 3/ If any of the assumptions in the models are wrong the results can be wrong (and the models are mostly "chaotic" i.e. small changes in inputs can lead to large changes in outputs) 4/ The assumption that CO2 leads to temperature rise is wrong 5/ Therefore the output from climate models is wrong. They also asserted that the input parameters were deliberately distorted to make the effects more dramatic. There is no doubt that the output from the climate models is simplified and condensed for publication but I really hope that the researchers using the models have done a better job than the programme suggests.....

I watched the programme when it was broadcast and a number of "facts" were raised that I don't have answers to. Chief amongst these were: 1/ If CO2 leads to global warming, why does the historical record suggest CO2 increases follow warming? There is agreement that CO2 and warming are linked but the programme suggested that CO2 does not lead to warming but follows it. 2/ If the greenhouse gasses were responsible for the current warming we should be seeing increases in temperature in the upper atmosphere. We aren't. 3/ The structure and funding of research follows political aims - so if I want to study squirrels in Sussex I link my research to global warming and, if I want to get published, I'd better make the link demonstrate the seriousness of the situation. 4/ Global warming is happening - but it is probably not man-made but linked to the sun and its cycles. 5/ Most species have survived similar warming events in the recent (geologically) past and so are unlikely to be devastated by this event. Life is more sturdy than some believe. I would like to see a refutation of the arguments put forward in the programme. It did seem to draw on a large number of eminent people but I have no way of knowing whether it was total rubbish or a reasonable analysis. Having said all of that, fundamentally I believe that it is not good to continue to squander the resources of the earth and to pollute our atmosphere - so any efforts we can make to minimise our impact will not be wasted.

Equally, the problem is not official messages from the club - but messages generated within the club and sent to everyone in it using the chat "To Club" facility. The facility is useful for finding players but it would be nice to be able to turn it off when you are playing. I never have any problem with the occasional "official" message from, for example the BIL, reminding me that a particular lesson or tourney is about to start.

[hv=d=n&v=e&n=saqt852hqt972dkck&s=shak854dqt2caq965]133|200|[/hv] This hand came up in the Partnership bidding room. We couldn't work out a realistic sequence going beyond 4♥ using acol - mostly because RKCB isn't going to help South much. Any ideas (using acol or sayc)?

Phishing emails usually ask for some otherwise unavailable information e.g. passwords, security information or account details. I can't see that being asked to validate that you sent an email can possibly offer the phisher any benefit.