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| 2004/5/9 [Uncategorized] UID:30111 Activity:high |
5/9 Buddies turn in Sasser worm creator. Inquire whether they can receive
$250K Microsoft reward. Yay!
\_ so... i'll write a worm... you be my friend, we split 50/50
\_ ok, cool... and you'll do the jail time, right? |
| 2004/5/9 [Uncategorized] UID:30112 Activity:nil |
5/9 I HAVE CRUSHED ALL MY OPPONENTS ON THE MOTD! I HAVE THE POWAH! MY
PENIS IS THE GREATEST! YEAAAAAARGHHHH!!!! |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/India, Politics/Domestic/911] UID:30113 Activity:kinda low |
5/9 http://breaking.examiner.ie/2004/05/01/story145446.html Why you shouldn't believe every report about terrorist plots uncovered \_ WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA? \_ At a guess: Because people are always shouting at him? |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Recreation/Travel/LasVegas] UID:30114 Activity:high |
5/9 My roomate gambles online 4-5 hours a day. He is really really good
(he's a pretty smart guy) and says that he actually makes
money because most of the people who play online are not that
smart. Here's my question. Say you're smart and can count cards,
know the statistics, etc, is it REALLY possible to make *consistent*
money by gambling?
\_ No, because eventually the casino will decide that they don't want
to play with you anymore.
\_ In games like poker, yes. At least if you make a habit of playing
against poeple less skilled than you. And the house doesn't care
because they are taking a cut no matter who wins.
\_ You have to choose less-skilled poker players to play against,
but you also have to cover the house-rake and dealer-tokes(no
tokes online). You may *win* against other players, but still
not be able to cover the expenses. You also have play at the
proper money-limits (levels) _and_ have the bankroll and
stomach and discipline to handle it.
Consistent is probably not the best word, because you have
to be able to handle the fluctuations -- sometimes you'll have
a streak of bad luck. You can win in the long-run, but not
all the time. Very few people can make *real* money at poker,
even fewer can make it professionally, and do you really want
that type of lifestyle? How much does your room-mate win?
If it's only 500 per week, for 40 hours per week online, is it
*really* worth it? Are you *really* making money, or actually
losing time that could be used to make *bigger* money elsewhere?
There's a difference between "winning" at poker and
"making money" at poker.
\_ what about those famous MIT kids who got kicked out of
Vegas forever cuz they won too much $?
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/US/MITgamblers030915.html
Makes me want to be a math major at MIT
\_ Big difference between BJ and Poker, but both
can be beaten. When I was in college we tried the
card-counting thing but (1) it's quite a bit of
hard work and long hours and (2) it takes a bankroll
which we didn't have. My friend got banned from
one casino just because he was joking around saying
he was keeping track of how many Aces were left.
It's not enough edge to win, but it pissed off the
pit-boss enough to say he "wasn't welcome anymore" |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Recreation/Travel/LasVegas] UID:30115 Activity:insanely high |
5/9 Must see on History Channel today, 9-11pm:
"They were "Whales"--the highest of high rollers. Treated like
royalty by casinos worldwide, they won millions throughout the early
to mid-1990s. And nobody had a clue that they were MIT students, part
of an underground blackjack team--card counters who used mathematical
wizardry to win. This is the true story of the rise and fall of the
MIT Blackjack Team, featuring interviews with Ben Mezrich, author of
"Bringing Down the House", casino executives, security experts, and
actual members of the team."
\_ So they cheated and won alot of money?
\_ nope, they were just smart. very smart. card counting, for
instance, is not illegal in NV, but casinos are private
businesses and can ask you to leave for any reason.
\_ yes, they won a lot of money.
\_ They did not cheat; they just counted cards.
\_ They signalled to each other... thats cheating.
\_ I don't understand how you can say counting cards
is not cheating and signalling is cheating. Neither
or both. Both will get you kicked out if the casino
thinks you're making too much money off it.
\_ Counting cards is not cheating; it's just playing
wisely. Signalling involves breaking the rules.
Casinos, though, don't like either one, so they'll
kick you out for doing either.
\_ Okay, I want to know where it says signalling,
is illegal when playing blackjack in Las Vegas.
especially as applied to team card-counting,
is cheating when playing blackjack in Las Vegas.
\_ I believe it's something to the extent of
blackjack being a game of an individual (or
several) against the house. The house is
playing each person separately. I don't know
the exact maths of who has an advantage, but
signalling turns it into a team-vs-the-house
game, while simple card counting keeps it at
an individual level. -John
\_ Card counting is not illegal. Signalling is
not illegal. Barring counters and others
from a casino in Nevada is also not illegal
(non-disciminationary removal of persons).
However, it is illegal to bar counters in
Atlantic City. The reason is Nevada is very
pro-casino, New Jersey isn't. Follow the $.
Signalling the whale just a way of avoiding
the casino from seeing a counter. Instead
of a single player using spread bets (ie.
betting more they are favored), a whale
betting more when they are favored), whale
comes, bets big, and leaves when the
counter/signaller notes the count has gone
against the players. Nice technique.
\_ ObNitpick: I never said "illegal".
-John
\_ Thanks, that's what I thought.
Like you said, card counting and
"team card-counting" is not illegal,
but casinos are private businesses,
so they can refuse doing business with
you for any reason (short of the
discrimination exception).
\_ Any arrests you might see are barred
counters making multiple returns to
a casino. Then the casino can cry
"trespassing." In AC, card counting
is allowed, BUT the casino has the
right to reshuffle between hands
(ruining the count) or changing the
min/max bet possible (changing the
risk/reward for counter). Fun stuff.
\_ Signalling *is* cheating. If you do not think so
then place a call on your cell while playing. The
reason is that people have used computers to count
the cards and the partner will signal the result of
the computer. Counting cards is not cheating in
itself, but using a computer is. Imagine a parallel
to chess.
\_ Signalling is not illegal. The whole phone thing is
to prevent possible communication between players and
spotters (see movie Casino for example). It also slows
up the game and is irritating. Computer use is just
counting on a different level. You can use it instead
of keeping a count in your head/chips or have it use
several different counting systems and then the user
decide which one to use. But definitely not illegal.
The only thing which is illegal is when dealers and
players collude to win. That's fraud.
\_ It's really not worth debating. Whether
or not it's illegal is irrelevant; if
for any reason the casino doesn't like
how you play, you're out of there.
\_ Of course it matters. There is a big
difference from being thrown out of
a casino and being thrown in jail.
\_ It is *not* legal to use a computer. Nevada
Senate Bill 467 (passed in 1985) says:
"It is unlawful for any person at a licensed
gaming establishment to use, or possess with
the intent to use, any device to assist in
projecting the outcome of the game." The
penalty for a first offense is 1-10 years in
prison, a $10000 fine, or both. A second
offense includes mandatory imprisonment.
\_ I'm into 20 min into the show. It's a #*&*($# enterprise! 20-30
really really smart MIT students, backed by investors and
management. Math majors, computer scientists, etc, you name
it. Man I want to start a UCB gambling team now.
\_ cool, please post on the motd if you start a team
\_ useful fact: canada's casinos are largely government run
and have a *much* more lenient attitude towards counting.
a friend of mine's math professor from a Canadian university
made a consistently decent amount of money each year counting.
\_ Yeah, but then you're betting with Canadian money, and we
all know how much that's worth.
\_ There was a write-up on these guys in Wired about a year back.
http://csua.org/u/78c
\_ Yeah, that was a pretty sweet article. For those of you like
me who missed the show, they'll show it again this Saturday at
6pm |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Computer/Rants] UID:30116 Activity:very high |
5/9 If Bill Gates designed buildings instead of software:
http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata5.jpg
\_ http://broken.typepad.com/b/2004/02/modernist_archi.html
What does Bill Gates have to do with anything? Microsoft may
produce bug-filled software with some ill-conceived features, but
they don't do avant garde nonsense.
\_ both have bad design and the name william h. gates.
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore.html
\_ That actually looks like a very cool building. I wish Gates
would design buildings.
\_ http://www.eecs.mit.edu/images/big-stata23.jpg you like?
\_ Again, yes, I do. It's refreshing to see unique and
and unusual building designs. Let me guess, you hate
it for those very reasons. right?
\_ it looks like something out of a demented dr. seuss
fantasy. it isn't exactly cool, just interesting in
a bizarre psychopathic way.
\_ No, I like interesting buildings, but this is the
worst design I have ever seen. I cannot imagine
people working in that space without going insane or
becoming very unhappy. I have heard that people are
already getting lost in this building. Have you ever
heard of Feng Shui?
\_ I can't help but be reminded of that Dilbert strip
where PHB's secretary convinced him the computer fan
was killing him. The fact that people take Feng Shui
seriously makes me sad. -- ilyas
\_ There are enough buyers who care about Feng Shui
that it seems to have an effect in certain Bay
Area housing markets. When I was house shopping
in Foster City, houses with obviously bad Feng
Shui were selling at a discount (of 10% by my
estimate).
\_ A lot of "bad feng shui" is generally annoying
even if you don't care about that kind of stuff.
For instance having a house at the head of a T
intersection sucks no matter what.
\_ This building has bad Feng Shui.
\_ NERDS!!! |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Computer/SW/Compilers] UID:30117 Activity:nil |
5/9 In gcc how do you force a binary to be build even though there are
undefined references, which you know will never be called during
runtime? ok thx
\_ That's normally a linker setting - for instance on Solaris, using
native ld (not gnu ld), you'ld want the -z nodefs flag passed to
the linker during the link phase (and probably -z lazyload so it
doesn't complain when you try to run it). I don't know the GNU ld
flag. -alan-
\_ from the archive:
What's the flag to gcc that will ignore "undefined reference"?
\_ isn't this an error and not a warning? how can you ignore it?
\_ well if you know a symbol is never referenced then you can
get away with it. I did the same thing with ctwm. I forgot
which flag you use for linking and ignore symbol not found,
I just rtfm but I can't seem to find it anymore.
\_ you can fake an empty definition
\_ This is standard behavior on VM. I didn't know you can do this on
Unix. |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Science/Disaster] UID:30118 Activity:high |
5/9 Why "10.5" is a load of horseshit:
http://www.earthquakecountry.info/10.5/MajorMovieMisconceptions
\_ did you actually believe the events that occurred in the movie?
or did you think we did?
\_ Of course not. I just found the link amusing.
\_ Some very interesting earthquake facts. Thanks for the
pointer.
\_ Wait, someone actually watched that mini-series?
\_ I wish I did now, just so I could better get all the parodies. |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:30119 Activity:moderate |
5/9 Sometimes I need to upload large files on my 1500k/192k aDSL. This
totally kills my Internet usability. Is there any uber cool BSD/Darwin
tool that will let me throttle a particular socket? If I could just
limit my FTP to something like 128k... tnx
\_ rsync --bwlimit=KBPS ...
\_ man ipfw
\_ cstream: http://www.cons.org/cracauer/cstream.html |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Uncategorized] UID:30120 Activity:nil |
5/9 RIP Alan King.
\- Thom Gunn -> dead. --psb |
| 2004/5/9-10 [Uncategorized] UID:30121 Activity:nil |
5/9 http://www.movie-list.net/exclusive/shaun-of-the-dead.mov Zombies rule. \_ Brilliant. Can't wait for the US release. |
| 3/15 |