Newly Implemented Automatic Redeals Are Disruptive!

[H20Colors]

The new automatic redeal that BBO has instigated whenever a new person joins the table is terribly disruptive and reduces the enjoyment of the game. Please rethink this! Maybe have the automatic redeal ONLY occur when a kibber enters the table. Or just remove this feature altogether! I recently sat at a table and as players came and left, the system redealt hand after hand after hand - This was disconcerting and discouraging to the people at the table. Bid after bid was for nought as the redeals kept occuring. Someone said it was instigated to somehow reduce cheating, but I think that the disruptive experiences we've had with all these hands being jerked out from under us in the bidding process has a much more negative effect than any redeeming values of thwarting an occasional cheater. And we all know that if a cheater is determined to cheat, he or she will find another way around this.

 

Please stop redealing our hands every time a new person joins the table!!! Perhaps you could consider allowing the host to check a box to disable that feature, or something like that.

 

Thanks!

[Bbradley62]

This is in the "BBO Today" notices, which appear front-and-center when you sign on to BBO:

Auto-redeal bug

The recent server upgrade contains a bug that causes hands to sometimes be redealt automatically when a new player joins a game that does not contain at least 4 bids (including pass). We are aware of the problem and we will fix it very soon. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

[brian_m]

This is in the "BBO Today" notices, which appear front-and-center when you sign on to BBO:

 

Not necessarily. It depends on the software in use. I use the Windows client under WINE and Linux, and no such notices are displayed.

[diana_eva]

In the windows version there's a pop-up displayed at log in showing BBO news. You can find it in the options button above chat area > "Show news". It's possible that it doesn't show properly on the configuration you use, but it's not a common situation.

[brian_m]

In the windows version there's a pop-up displayed at log in showing BBO news. You can find it in the options button above chat area > "Show news". It's possible that it doesn't show properly on the configuration you use, but it's not a common situation.

 

BBradley seemed to assume that the OP should have seen the news about the redeal problem. I just pointed out that some of us don't seen the news articles.

 

I'm sure the Windows version shows the news correctly *provided* you're running Windows. Some of us don't see why Billy G. needs to get any richer.

[inquiry]

BBradley seemed to assume that the OP should have seen the news about the redeal problem. I just pointed out that some of us don't seen the news articles.

 

I'm sure the Windows version shows the news correctly *provided* you're running Windows. Some of us don't see why Billy G. needs to get any richer.

 

I will not speak for BBO, but if your combination of using a program written to work under windows doesn't work as it was designed because you choose to run a windows emulator under a different operating system, and refuse to run the BBO preferred "browser-based" flash application which will work surely with Linux, then my answer to you is you have no reason to complain. Even more so if you reason is such that it is based soley on a desire to make Bill Gates any richer. Do you think your decision is keeping Mr. Gates awake at night wondering how he might get your money in the future?

 

But let me add that I don't begrudge Gates for his fortune. In fact, his fortune has turned out to be good for me both professionally and socially. And you know what, it has been good for you too.

 

In my case, his "hookworm vaccine initiative" funded my Department Chairman's program and that funding indirectly and directed benefited me while I taught immunology. Since I retired from the university, his purchasing a share of bridge base online has helped make BBO more financially sound and the influx of cash has helped hire additional programmers, and behind the scene people to help with things like automating the vugraph, adding voice commentary, develop mobile applications, fix bugs. In retirement, that influx of cash might be what lead to the BBO being able to pay me for some of my services (none for working on this forum, however).

 

So at the very least, you benefit from Mr. Gates fortune by having a better BBO to play bridge on. Your playing here probably profits Mr. Gates in some way. Do you see "bbo ads"? Do you play in bbo rating point events or play money bridge? Even if you don't get the ads, or spend money on BBO, the fact that you play might help attract others to play who then do get the ads displayed on their screens or do play in rating point event. That adds to Mr. Gates fortune.

 

How else has Mr. Gates fortune touched us? He has funded a number of vaccine development programs. I mentioned the hookworm one (an estimated more than 1/2 billion people worldwide are infected with hookworms). His "foundation" gave 750 million dollars to a global initiative out of Sweden to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This is in addition to his foundations "malaria vaccine initiative" (see http://www.malariavaccine.org/about-overview.php). Since there has been an alarming development of anti-malaria drug-resistant Plasmodium (parasite the causes malaria). There is also his "Dengue Vaccine Initiative," and maybe more initiatives I am unaware of.

 

While I lived in DC, the Gates Foundation announced a huge level of support for high school students in the "poorest" part of town. This included a mentoring program for students in school, and college scholarship for the same group of students. The District of Columbia is a unique place, unlike other large cities, there is no "state" support for schools...as DC is not in any state. That also means no "state-based" scholarships like you might find in Virgina, Florida, etc. This was clearly a huge area of need. I checked, and that program is going even stronger today than back then.

 

There is so much more good that Mr. Gates is doing with his money. One of my favorites is a recent challenge to universities to design toilets that can capture and process human waste without piped water, sewer or electrical connections, and transform human waste into useful resources, such as energy and water, at an affordable price. This challenge lead to the design of some really nice new toilets, including a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity, another toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water, and a toilet that sanitizes feces and urine and recovers resources and clean water.

 

Ever see the movie "Unknown" staring Liam Neeson? Part of the premise of that 2011 movie was that an arabic prince was funding the develop a drought resistant strain of corn to give to all of mankind. The premise could just as easily been based on Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is actually funding just that research. The benefits of such a corn line was clearly stated in that movie, and would be a huge boon to both third world farmers, and wouldn't hurt any of us after the drought we had in the mid part of the country this year.

 

So while your goal is to not add to Mr. Gates fortune for whatever reason, I wish others with outrageous fortunes were as socially responsible as Mr. Gates... but then, maybe that is just me.

 

 

 

 

[Bbradley62]

I really hate that we can't upvote posts made by staff.

[brian_m]

I will not speak for BBO, but if your combination of using a program written to work under windows doesn't work as it was designed because you choose to run a windows emulator under a different operating system, and refuse to run the BBO preferred "browser-based" flash application which will work surely with Linux, then my answer to you is you have no reason to complain.

 

<snip>

 

WINE is a collection of libraries designed to allow Windows programs to run under Linux - the name is even derived from Wine Is Not an Emulator. But, leaving that technical point aside, would you kindly indicate to me where in my postings I have made any complaint?

 

The OP obviously hadn't seen the news article relating to redeals, and neither had I. A reply was made which was at least implicitly critical of the OP for not looking at the news article. I merely pointed out that some of us don't see the news articles.

 

Yes, I know BBO would prefer us to use the flash application. I've tried it, and I prefer the old client. As long as BBO provides the choice, and the old client continues to work satisfactorily via WINE, then I will continue to use the old client.

 

I don't have either the time or the inclination to go through your long rant in response to what was meant to be a jocular aside. I'm well aware of Bill Gates's philanthropic record.

 

For the record, my PC came with a copy of Windows installed. Microsoft made their sale. However, I prefer the Open Source concept, and so nuked Windows in favour of Debian. My PC, my choice.

 

I shall do my very best to remember to use more emoticons in future.

[H20Colors]

I do not use the old Windows version of BBO - I am an Apple user and use the web based BBO application. There is no automatic news on display when I log in, so I did not know that these recent redeals were an error. Just so you know.

[diana_eva]

I do not use the old Windows version of BBO - I am an Apple user and use the web based BBO application. There is no automatic news on display when I log in, so I did not know that these recent redeals were an error. Just so you know.

 

On the web version there is a BBO Today section on the first screen you see when you log in. Each of the links displayed under the read heading "BBO Today" opens a news article.