etherwiz

Hi All. I started this to see the How to use this forum. Can I use regulare HTTP commands in my text ? Why when I vote in a Poll I can not return "Back" to anything prior to that poll. The Code Buttons look great but where are the Help Files ? I did not see an area where this was discussed so I tried to start one. _*_Dave

The Chat.Wav is also used for a Friend LogIn wav. I would like to know both, but with out confusing the two. I know there is now NO TIME for what my ex's called "Fun Programmig", but a real neat thing would be for the client program when displaying a chat line and running across a "#" (Pound Sign) with out a space (or Null) after it, would test for the existance of a file in Netsounds named the letters following that "#" (untill the Next space in encountered). If the file exists then play the file, if it does not either print the "#xxxxxx" or don't print it on the chat line (I would perfer printing it in case someone is saying #1 ...................#2...........................#3) either way is fine. We who are writing here can then go find the grrrr, slap, smotches, wolfcry, doorbell, whatever we have the mind to find. We can assemble it and then a standard set of "sounds" can be included in the updates/installs. Doing it this way would allow a club (or group of friends) to send specific files to each other and play them playing with each other. If it got sent to someone else it would just apear as "#xxxxxx" (or not appear as wanted). Perhaps the No Sound option would force an aditional check after the file existance check, if File Exists then If SoundOption = Yes then Play("#xxxxx"). Then EveryOne could Have Whatever Sounds they wanted and not bother BBO with specific requests. But Beware: Like EveryThing Else - there WILL BE PEOPLE who will make Disgusting Sounds. (to me that could be very iinteresting, but I do have both a broad mind and a broad acceptance so what might be "bad" for someone would be either funny or poor taste to me). The Ideal Thing is any objectional sounds could be used - but only by thouse who knowingly load them on thier machine. And a simple library of unoffensive sounds can be supplied with installing BBO. Of course it would add a test for each letter of the chat - but somewhere there is a simple move text routine that be subbed with a test for sound that performs the move to the line display register if not a sound, and calls the play sound rtn if a file exits (and Sounds=On). But maybe not .... Just a more detailed suggustion. _*_Dave

Surely No One has More then 30k of Contest Rules ! We do not have to send the entire ACBL volumes. Please excuse a dumb question, where can I find the rules for editing a Bridge Movie File, the difference to a Bride Hands Submission for Tournaments, and a Contest Rule FIle. Even the basic editing commands would help, I tried guessing but I seam to only load one hand to a tournament at once. Tnaks to anyone who can popint me in the proper direction. _*_Dave

As always you can ask me to help at anytime. My schedual is vary varied however. If I am online I do try to play as much as I can, but if I am not ina Tournament Please Ask Me. ALso you can ask me several days ahead and I can probably answer yes/no. Sometimes things come up and I have to change my plans - but not often. And I would useally know a few days ahead (unless it is a paying customer that wants HELP RIGHT NOW (I can not afford to refuse!). But that is becoming rare nowadays. In other words - Just Ask, but normally only for the short time deals. _*_Dave

Sometimes when in Bridge Master Deals - the sample ones - I get a Blank Delt Screen - i.e. a screen that the cards are SUPPOSED to apear on, and then the client program ends in an error. Happend three times out of eight trys - and I was not running much else on the machine at the same time.

There is a lot of talk about the longer tourneys. Very few seam to be supporters of the shorter length (8 or less). Yes I know these do not get fair results, but what is fair is any one player has connection problems? And on top of that there are quite a few members here who can not play in long tournaments, for one reason or another. This reason may be that they can not sit for that long (at a real Tournament they can complete a board before movement is called and walk around - perhaps even to the bathroom). ANother consideration is for thouse who do not smoke inside - they need a break every few hands. There are a number of reasons a break would be needed. Perhaps if a round could be started only by the a TD's click then breaks could be flexiably allowed. This would allow Timed Rounds the proper breaks - however would give the TD's another thing to do. It would also unify the unclocked rounds (much like increasing one round in a timed event to gice a break), Unfortunately this not only complicates the programing but it complicates the TD's duties as well. Perhaps a break could be programed every (so many) boards for (so many) minutes. In any case anything over 16 boards needs a break. ANyting over 32 boards would need at least one change of TD's (which by the way can be done with existing software).

If i may add something. If my wife (when I was married) ever caught me in a bad bid she would not raise the phione to disconnect me, but would simply watch while calling me names. On the other hand if she saw me playing a good slam she would take a pair of sissors and CUT the Phone Line. I know this because she once ripped the phone off the wall to hit me with it. This was the third time the police took her out of the house ! But back to what is more likely to occur in the adverage disconnetion. At least I hope no one has married someone like my Ex! No one has commented that in the situation, when a pair formed by the Partnership Desk (where no one knows the other) makes a bad contract and then one starts calling the other names, the act of teh intentional disconnect is not relavent. The name calling should be stoped. First I would ask that person to stop, then I would sub that person out if he/she continued. Yes it would be an intentional disconnect - but my (the TD) intentions! I have started to make notes on the players notepad when this happens and if a second time happens I will send ABUSE a note, mentioning that it is the second time I saw this. I would also attach a copy of teh Log showing the name calling - I always keep my log recorded.

I am in favor of voluntary mentoring. But not required. The danger of requirements is that it starts to evolve into control – and that statement is for the people who believe that requirements can be imposed with out controls. I mean no disrespect for anyone when I write that. There are some people who believe they can start requirements for TD’s, and still let the TD’s conduct their own games. There is a significant danger in that. Right now members of BBO can play in any tournament they care to, if they dislike the way one is run they can simply avoid that particular director. Now generally we as TD’s believe that adjustments are needed and sometimes justified. But even directors who agree that an adjustment is needed might not agree with one certain adjustment. In a broad view, just look at the people who agree/disagree with the average adjustments automated when a hand time outs and does not complete. I think the philosophy of BBO includes a wide variety. And that also includes tournaments. The minute we impose certain requirements means that certain people might impose their values on adjustments made and maybe even the people who should be allowed to play. This danger is reduced greatly if the people making those judgments admit that it is possible to carry this too far and to watch out for teaching becoming preaching. It sometimes starts out accidentally, just the Teachers saying what they would do in certain circumstances, and then those actions become the law. There is a reason that BBO did not totally eliminate the Redo from Tournaments. For example, should TD’s teach new TD’s not to allow Redo’s.just because sometimes the refusal of a redo can create distribution at a table. Perhaps that distribution would have happened anyway, as I have found that the same people seam to cause most of the troubles I have directing. Maybe pretty soon the Tourneys for Fun will have to stop because TD’s will be expected to perform adjustments and not allowed to say “No Adjustments” in the description? This may not be a good example of what I am saying, as I tend to carry my examples and allegories to the extreme. They do not call me a Fire-Preaching Buddhist Fundamentalist for nothing! As far as mentoring goes, I am in favor of it. Many have asked me to help them start directing tourneys, and I have set up their first and co-directed it with them. Then when they are approved I often co-directed with them until they were sure, or not as they wanted. One way of insuring “proper” TDs would be to require co-directing before they are approved to hold tournaments on their own. Perhaps even easier would be to require an existing TD’s endorsement before allowing them to hold tournaments (enabling the Create Button). This would be simple way to require some direction experience and not imposing certain behaviors on the prospects. Just a thought, the requirement of an endorsement of a TD along with the letter requesting the Create Button. The TD101 course is great, but should really become the HELP associated with BBO. The adjustments lecture is also great, but needs to be expanded and perhaps more examples of to code an adjustment would be nice.

A Lot of Blue and Purple. One thing I did notice - going to any place where I page Up/Down (Tournamant Conditions, general reading) ending in a Termination of the BBO Client program. Now I do run a few things at the same time, but they never bothered anything before. But the first night I used the new version I had three unexpected terminations in a Row (reading Rules of Contest for Team Matches). The next day I had two simular occurances. It may mean nothing but I thought I would say something. I do miss a lot of the buttons, and I also miss the colors Yellow and Red for buttons too. But it is easier to get around. When it first comes up the Letters are small size. Theer are a lot of people that will frighten because they do not see easily. MIght be beeter to start with the larger displays (at least in Chat). Thanks, _*_Dave

Well, Actually, back then I did not realize it was a Sacrifice Bid. Some people MAY just get it right - and really not know why. Mostly now a days I get it wrong and realize after the play of cards where I went wrong. Better players will realize that and correct it a lot sooner ! And of course the best never make mistakes, right ? :) _*_Dave

:) This does even incluude the another alternative . . . . The just plain lucky. Sometimes that happens to the greatest of fools. Also there is always when you and your partner passes but the bidding from the opps is such that just after they bid 4Hearts you realize that you and your partner have 10 spades between you (and therefore must have SOME Voids or singletons) and Down 3 NonVul is better then 4Hearts Vul and made (with overs yet). But that is not really a psyc bid. It is good bridge that can occur to even a bigginner. :rolleyes: "You PASSED untill we bid game - AND THEN BID 4 Spades ? You Must Be Cheating !" _*_Dave

I would like to clarify the Earlier Post I made here. I was congradulating Gwen on her work for the Tournament Schedual BOARD. That ment the Web Page that displays the Times/Days of the BBO Tournaments, and alows a second page to better define the Tournaments. I suggested adding a text area the the TD could fill in with more details that are not on the Flags in the BBO Tournaments (i.e. additional info then (not) Undo's, Timed or not) but the details display is a very good, consistant job. There was no reference to any thing other then the display of the schedual and maybe the whole TD Courner idea. In no way can I think of anything I said that "flaming", and I have re-read it 14 times. For petes sake it was 5 sentances that were meant to express graditute and thankfulness for the Hard Work that was obviously done. How anyone could say these 5 sentences are inflamatory baffels me. :rolleyes: _*_Dave

Simple Question. Do these work if partner has a Red Dot and is NonResponsive. Or only for a name totaly in red. Sometimes I go to a table and someone has a Red Dot but was not RED in the list of tables. Thanks, _*_Dave

I hope this goes here. :unsure: The Scheldual and the TD's Board is Excellent ! Gwen (I think is is her work) should really be congradualated! It is ecellent. Perhaps allowing a text file - Like Condition of Contest would help , but the work is, as Tony the Tiger once said, GREAT. _*_Dave

Complaints about Alerts are always fun to handle. Goes Double for Opps that do not share a same lanuage ! And does not help if I share none with either opps. It has happened but almost all the time one person at the table understands English enough to make it work. I know that one thing that could really help (most times) with hionest mistakes is that someone familar with each system write short one liners in each language possible on some common card (or web site) where you could see each explaination in a language picked byu a drop down box. Would take way to much resources and requre by far too many people working together to cover all the languages possibly used here. Better then that key the Language displayed by the flag of teh countries so possible to match anyone opps without knowing what country thier flag is for. ANother Dream suufers from lack of resources. For experts and above (really Advanced and Above) the calls should be easy. They should be familar with MOST systems played here and at least know something about if an explaination is off. The problems comes when Beginers or Novices have given to them "12+Cl or 18+G or 7-11 5c". Now this may be english - or it may not be, There is no way to tell unless you know what the devil they are talking about. Maybe everybody "here" should but that will not include a lot of Begginers/Novices and maybe even some Intermediates/Advanced. Our good fortune is that hopefully the Int/Adv will not want to admott they can not understand it ! But the person who explained did an honst job in trying to explain it. And this is when they and I all share a common language. We all have been there when when we (as TD) share no language with both partnerships. And then you can also get the ones that do give the absolute min explaination, also perhaps misleading but Technically correct. Lastly I think it only proper to metnion the ones who "FLAN" or "Splint"and expect a novice to know what that means. Sometimes these will even call the director because the requester for Alert Definition keeps asking (and by-gods-sake I allready TOLD them Flanery (or Splinter bid or whatever the abriev. ment). And we do this for FUN ? Yes sometimes you gat a legit call because the Alert was misleading (is very rare for me), and sometimes you get a legit call because the Alert was not given. Most of the times the call is because of miss understanding what was said. Unfortunately all calls take time and that takes time away from every other table. Increasing the time for round is not always fair because some people have to be somewhere by a certain time. They may even have another tournamenteither to be or run at a certain time. If 8 rounds go from 7 mins each to 10 or 12 it is almost certain that someone will not be someplace they should be. Has this been crytic enough ?? You are just lucky that nothing has reminded me of a Parable or Allegory yet. _*_Dave

If dummy is surpressed (muted) during a tournament perhaps it should be linked to the Kib'ers ability to talk with players. If Kib'ers can then the dummy sure should. If we want to go to that far why not do like True "live" play where the dummy can not see opps hands ? It does seam to advoid a lot of complaints from players. Perhaps more concern should be given to "innocent" things the dummy can say during play that might give the declarer a second thought. On the other hand I am willing to put up with that chance if the table can become "more social" with a friendlky conversation. Half of the time I would not mind an early call for CLAIM if the tricks are 100% certain. After all I (and.or my partner) can always refuse it. Besides, by the real "law" if the hand can be played in any shape or form that obeys the instructions given for a claim so it goes down - it must be played that way. However we do not seam to use that rule much here. There is almost never an explaination given with the claim but the ability is there to do it very easy. For another thing, I personally do not like to claim untill I have all Trump left, well maybe a few Aces/Kings or a handfull of what both opps are out of if trump is pulled would do it too. :D

This is fantastic ! I should use lager, darker and more IMPACT to say that. I did not really play to much with the older softeware, but this looks great It looks like I have more then one thing to thank Gerardo for. This is really neat developement work you are doing. [hv=d=w&v=n&s=sakt32h65d76ckjt8]133|100|just a test to use this (onhanded test) ♣ ♦ ♥ ♠[/hv] I am really fasenated by your work here and will be on the edge of my seat as you develope this program. Great Work ! Applause to both Gerardo and Inquiry (and any one else working with them on this project) !! _*_Dave

First off what you want as a special bidding box is availible (in larger form) as convention card. That can be pre loaded so you can one for each partner you play with. Also, in my mind, the convention card does not have to be entirely filled out/ Just filling in the highlights of what you use would be better then nothing. In an ind tournament I am lucky that my partner will even say 5 card major. I usually read thier card and if I can not play it I type "My Card P?", if I can I say "Your Card P!". Then the opps know which card to read. Problem is when partnered with a non-english speaking and their card is in thier language, Definately do NOT type "Standard" to anyone with a French Flag. French Standard is considerably different from what the USA calls standard. So quick easy greetings with your system might be miss-interpted and have drastic results. But there has to be some "standard" way to communicate to your partner an your opps how you are going to play this hand/ The people that figuare that out will be the most consistant high placers (and you do notice who always cones in the first ten spots or so. I know this has made me look for thouse names and then I will spend a couple tournaments just following them around and noticing how they greet their partners each round ! :D _*_Dave

Starting a Tourney early seams like a good idea. When it is is full (or looks like no more will sign up). However there may be people who just quit spmething, signed for the tourney, and went for a cup of caffine (coffe or coke or tea is common and waiting for something to start is good time to do it). Sometimes (mainly for small tourneys I run totally by myslef) the people message me to start it NOW as they do not want to wait 5 or 7 more minutes. Sometimes I do that. I send a message to the Tournament that I am doing and just do, and that is wrong. I should message the tourney that I am about to start x minutes early early and then give time for someone to object. Question: I thought that Tournament message went to anyone in the Tournament room or Tournament Table. It would be nice to also send it to registered (and maybe registered at the Partnership desk)/ Even if they are not in the Tournament Room and doubly so if it has not started yet. If that is possible (may be too musch to do) then it should also be easy to send a Two Minute Warning to the Reg'ed people. Just thinking out loud here Thinking has allways got me into trouble, or so my Ex's tell me. :D _*_Dave

Either solution would require a large expense in prorammer's time. But it would be nicer to give a warning a few minutes before the start time. A lot of people might forget they reg'ed for a touney if teh they did so a lot earlier and then got involved in a lively fun table. A Tournament should take precideince over a reglar Main Table, and I think the club tables have some priority allready. Perhaps a "reminder" part should be nstalled in the client to simply remind the user he is reg'ed for a touney in a few minutes, hours or days. Perhaps that could also inculde VuGraphs, Lectures, and training sessions inside clubs. That MIGHT be worth the expense of he job - but a BIG HOWEVER HERE. There are programs on the internet - FREEWARE - that does these things allready. Of course the user has to install and maintain them A lot of people allready use macro editors that generate chat lines for them. :D Of course you could always provide a link when a registration is appoved to the Outlook calendar :D

I like the idea of blind indy. Msybe a bit too complex to make real, for the small gain it would provide. But then lately I think I would be in favour of a blind anything. Doubly so blinding the dealers. But they are blind allready arn't they? Well then mabe just for the pain . . . . . :angry:

There is another form of cheating not even touched by these three pages of emails. When the dummy tells a partner to claim the play may be obvious to that partner, but may not be what the declarer was planning to play. Perhaps it will just cause the declarer to rethink some plays he had decided on, perhaps not. But I think the claim button is not enabled for the dummy for a reason. There are other more subtle ways too, talking about the play of a previous hand in a way that could affect the current play. If someone actually went to the trouble of setting up “signals” we would probably never know. Quite frankly if someone comes aCalling saying “they are cheating” I am thinking hat they are poor losers (maybe apart from a slow response to an obvious claim). This is why more and more of mine are called “For Fun” and “No Adjustments Made”. In fact most of the ones I have run lately are “make ups” for tournaments gone bad or crashed for one reason or another (mainly missing TD’s), and I run solely for the masses who missed out on some conclusion. A canceled Tournament never has a winner. May be I am an innocent babe playing with a marked deck, but I would prefer to believe that people are not routinely cheating. At least not most of them most of the time. Perhaps this is the type of innocence needed for a second marriage to work. Or perhaps it is the type of innocence that causes a second marriage to fail. Point of view I guess. What I hate is a player that tells his partner (the declarer) to claim, and then blames that on one of the Opps being late to the table. “Well I just had to say CLAIM, the opp was late getting here”. This when that “opp” was actually on time and the majority of the tables not even started yet ! To me that is rude as well as cheating. And then the TD comes to table, tells the offender not to tell his partner when to claim and makes no mention of the rudeness. This rudeness, not really the cheating, but the rude behavior cheating causes, is what can really spell the end to something good. It is the interaction between people that also draws us to this game. You know some of us ride motorcycles, some of us wheelchairs, some watch football and some watch ballet, even a large portion of us might like opera and others Oprah. But whatever we ride, watch or listen to, we think in terns of the play of the cards. If there was only one way to play the cards then we would not be here, would we? There is something I would like to bring up – totally not in topic with this. There are a few (not many) youngsters who do play here. One is my 13 year old daughter who has never told anyone here her age. There are few from the city high schools and I do not know if they have told even their partners exactly how young they are, but that might become a factor at some time. I know this sounds silly (and it may be silly) but the internet is a fearsome thing and even laws to cover the situations it can present are not covered. I hate to say it – age verification to play bridge – but perhaps those more knowledgeable then I talk about it. A second topic, if I could. Banning a player. The simple fact that this can be done with out the banned player even told he was being banned astonishes me. No way to defend against accusations if they are never presented. Not even a private whisper (let alone a few lines in a chat room, which I feel is a reasonable expectation). This person had finished sub’ing in one tournament, had just taken a seat in another tournament to sub again, was playing a hand, and in front of over 70 Kib’ers – BAMM – was banished. I hate to see old politics from a now non-existent site be used to carry grudges against people here. For one thing this IS a NEW SITE, for Pete’s Sake at least use NEW POLITICS here, not the same old same old. And definitely a YELLOW should not extend old grudges to here. As BBO grows larger and larger, which it surely will do, perhaps a new rule should be a single Yellow can not ban a player. Perhaps at least a second Yellow should also endorse the banning, preventing personal likes/dislikes/grudges from interfering with what “should” be done. Perhaps even a Yellow who wants to ban some one that he/she has openly demonstrated grudges to before should remove him/herself from that conference where the offending player is accused and tried and convicted in a split second. If you can not remove the Yellow with a known prejudice against the player, let the player at least bring a chat log to such a gathering. In any case the banned person should at least be told they are banned and why. Now this is a privately owned site and no one can force their presence here - but to be banned with no explanation in front of over 70 people as you sit to sub at a table? We all know that people will usually think the worse of another, but that surely would cause anyone to think poorly of both a saint and a devil. I would appreciate some serious response to this and I hope that all these topics belong in this forum. _*_Dave

If you are running a ROunter (or a gateway (machine) that could also be blocking BBO. A router (or gateway pgm) offers an alternative for ports as well as aproval of ports. M interent service (Verizon DSL) does block most ports so this is always fun to check. Good Luck :unsure:

I think a CHAT Line Item (Directors for Tourney) would be very usefull, but would give TD's another thing to look out for while TDing. It would definately be a bad idea to give that to players (as some are allready calling another director if they disagree witha ruling already made by someone else). But it would be nice to speak to all directors in a large tourney by typing one message.

Actually it is not needed to measure the time to thik - only the reaction time. It would be GREAT if a TD could see the time it took for palyer (or partnership if not Indiv) takes to make responsies. If one side had 11 mins and the other 4 mins then it is obvious who should be penalized. Does it really matter if this time is true thought (over a hard board to play or defend) or just killing time to get a better score? The result is the same. The board was not completed in the time alloted for everyone. And the TD can see who was taking more time. I guess what I am asking for is the list of tables show not only the Round/Board that table is on, but the "Delay" time recorded by the server between bids/card play. While we are at it, you can make the Table Number Flash if a Director Call is still OutStanding at that table. Of course the falsh would be turned off when a Director visits that table (not nesc. resolving the issue, as for some players some issues will never be resolved). Of Courese the Delay TIme (total per board) would have to be included in the Movies as wellas the Table Number. Perhaps this reaction time can be displayed as a flag between the N/S chairs and between the E/W chairs. Perhaps the Board Number could be displayed as falg in the table number (forcing the TD's to convert the Board Number to a Round Number, no big deal and would tell not only which tables are on which round but which tables are running late for the current round). But perhaps I am just dreaming also. :P