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Subject: Putting DB chip into something the size of an Iomega Drive?

Author: Roger D Davis

Date: 18:00:56 05/24/99

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Seems that some people think installation will be a bear and others think it's a
minor issue. It occurred to me that maybe the DB chip could be put into a box
about the size of my Iomega Zip drive, or just a little larger, and plugged into
the USB port. Then there would no hardware installation problem, and the thing
would be portable, too. So carry it back and forth to your local chess club,
maybe even run it on your laptop on an airplane. Take it wherever. Seems to me
that would solve a lot of problems, if it could be done.

And that gives it another advantage over the micros: You can't often legally
install software on multiple computers for easy portability. With a DB box, all
you'd need to install would be the basic software needed to interface with the
box, just like Iomega the Iomega Tools disk, for example.

Possible?

Roger


On May 24, 1999 at 14:14:12, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On May 23, 1999 at 22:44:04, Roger D Davis wrote:
>
>>It's only one game, certainly, but it doesn't really look like Rebel had much
>>understanding of the game from the time it left book (other's appraisals, not
>>mine), and Rebel's lose supports the argument that the micros have their own
>>weaknesses, and aren't yet a real match for GM players.
>>
>>So where does that leave previous opinions about a DB board for the desktop?
>>We'll have to see what the next months of Rebel-GM games hold, but the market
>>for a DB chip is starting to look better and better.
>>
>>If Rebel consistently loses to the GMs, doesn't this just set the market up for
>>the entry of Hsu?
>Too much extrapolation from a single match.  When computers win, people rush to
>say that computers are now GM's.  When computers lose, they say that they are
>vastly inferior.  Quite frankly, we really don't know.  Rohde played
>brilliantly, and I would not be surprised to see another GM fall to the same
>attack.
>
>So what does it all mean?  Too early to tell.  But this sort of experiment (GM
>verses computer at 40/2) is just the sort of data we need to answer the big
>computer ability questions once and for all.  My warmest possible commendations
>for Ed ponying up the cash for experiments like this.  He has moxy.
>
>That a computer should lose to one of the best players on earth at 40/2 should
>not surprise anyone (nor should it be terribly astonishing if a computer should
>win such a match -- after all, even a GM can make a blunder or at least a less
>than optimal move).
>
>I think the Hsu chip market will not be enormous.  He will probably sell
>thousands, maybe tens of thousands.  But how many computer operators have the
>desire to open up the case and install a board?  Probably one in a thousand.  A
>lot of people have enough trouble with a normal software installation.  Asking
>people to do surgery on a computer is a bigger leap than many realize.  To
>people comfortable with such ideas, it seems ludicrously simple.  But many
>expert chess players are simply not the hardware type.
>
>I will be first in line to buy one.  But if millions of people buy one, I will
>be astonished.



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