Author: pete
Date: 08:24:03 08/22/99
Go up one level in this thread
On August 21, 1999 at 20:33:09, James T. Walker wrote: >On August 21, 1999 at 20:17:58, James T. Walker wrote: > >>On August 21, 1999 at 20:03:10, pete wrote: >> >>>On August 20, 1999 at 12:23:05, KarinsDad wrote: >>> >>>>On August 19, 1999 at 17:43:36, Thorsten Czub wrote: >>>> >>>>[snip] >>>> >>>>> >>>>>We have worked much on making CSTal think in the right situations. >>>>>It would be a very easy thing to let CSTal interrupt search >>>>>10 seconds or 1 minute before time runs out. >>>>>Chris is too lazy and has no interest in programming >>>>>stuff like this. he is interested in making the engine stronger. >>>>>he has shown many times in the past that he is not interested in >>>>>doing stuff he has no heart-beat for. >>>>>even if it weakens the program. >>>>> >>>>>maybe it is very difficult for other people to understand. >>>>>because they live a life to OPTIMIZE on quantifying things. >>>>>But chris does not NEED to bugfix those things. >>>> >>>>This type of business immorality is the type of thing that makes customer's >>>>blood boil. I recently purchased software which failed on my system due to my >>>>system just barely making the minimum requirements (CPU-wise). I sent an Email >>>>to the support group at the company and got back a message that due to the large >>>>number of Emails, it would take 5 to 6 days to get back to me. 12 days later, I >>>>sent them another Email. A month later, I have still not heard back from them. I >>>>guess they figure that if they ignore the few customers who have problems with >>>>their software long enough, those few customers and their problems will >>>>eventually go away. >>>> >>>>CSTal is not free. If it has a bug, it SHOULD be fixed. Chris has no problem >>>>taking the money from his customers, therefore, he should have no problem fixing >>>>ALL of the bugs. Defending his actions shows that you are a true friend, but it >>>>also shows a lack of concern on what is really important. As a true friend, you >>>>should also be concerned about Chris' reputation in our small community, even >>>>though Chris may not be concerned about it. >>>> >>>>Evidently, Chris has the freedom to ignore these types of things. But, that will >>>>not endear people to him or CSTal. I made a decision some time back to NOT >>>>purchase CSTal mainly on Chris' reputation. My choice. As it turns out, maybe >>>>that was not such a bad decision after all. >>>> >>>>KarinsDad :| >>>> >>>> He concentrates >>>>>and has the freedom to concentrate on doing whatever he wants. IMO >>>>>a very privileged situation. he does not need to fix it, because he >>>>>earns his money with other things. Amateurs have IMO the same priviliged >>>>>situation. they don't need to do things they don't like. >>>>>Ed or Marty or Matthias Wüllenweber e.g. have more pressure on their shoulders. >>>>>They are forced to do certain things. If they don't do it, whole >>>>>bunch of customers complain over the whole internet. >>> >>> >>>As I agree that you have the freedom to buy or not buy everything you like for >>>sure I don't agree with the thoughts about Tal. >>> >>>Some people don't seem to realize that Chris Whittington and Thorsten Czub are >>>two different people and I don't think Chris ever would have said that losing on >>>time is a cool feature :=) >>> >>>I was an early buyer of CSTal2 ; I didn't understand a few things and there were >>>a few bugs still ; _everything_ was fixed , _everything_ was explained . The >>>support was simply great , fast and friendly . >>> >>>pete > >Hello Pete, >I'm sorry but I can not agree with you. I told Chris about the losing on time >problem the first week I owned the program. It still is NOT fixed. I have sent >several emails concerning the fact that certain EGTB's will not work with >CSTal-2(KPPKP,KQPKP). The program crashes about every tenth game when running >it on ICC as the relayer. He was told about that and his answer was to the >effect that that was "pretty good". In spite of the problems CSTal-2 has I >still like it. I am however disappointed in the attitude that the problems I >mention are not important enough to fix. There is a problem in trying to run >auto232 games vs a Fritz GUI program. CSTal-2 will not properly work as the >"Master" in this setup. Part of the problem may lie with Chessbase and the way >they implement the auto232. So everything is not fixed. I use CSTal-2 everyday >on ICC/FICS and every day I lose games due to crashes. I wish this were not the >case but it is. If you are not using the auto232 function you may very well be >completely satisfied. As I said, in spite of it's problems I still like the >program. >Jim Walker Hi Jim , I thought about some time if I should answer per email . But as this seems to be a public issue : I can only talk about _my_ experiences . I don't care for some features a prog doesn't have ( database support , etc ) . But if a feature is promised it really should be there . That is the reason I will never buy a genius again , and it might take a very long time until I think about purchasing another nimzo. Tal did have problems with autoplayer ; it is said everything is fixed with 2.03 , I haven't tried it : if you are right , you are right to be annoyed. With egtb ; I use the 5-man ones with the Hiarcs CD as I have limited disk space, if others don't work I agree this should be fixed. I looked for a proper explanation of inner eye as it wasn't in the manual ; a week later it was on the webpage ; I hated all the kibitzing when I wanted to play with my human account ; 2.03 fixed that ; I asked some questions about setting up Tal automated at ICC ; answered in about 2 hours ..., so why should I complain ?? The loosing on time to my experience seems to happen only at very long time controls when Tal is stuck in high-ply-search at the last move before time control or at extremely fast time controls like 1/0 so it never was a problem for me; and the way I used it the program _never_ crashed although I use it under NT which is not even said to be supported ; maybe this only happens under autoplayer . Suggestion : mess cstalx on ICC ; that was the way I used . I think problems with using Fritz interfaced with Tal might get lesser support as I as programmer would also have lesser interest to fix that ; who knows what causes the problems ; maybe it is Fritz itself ? greetings. pete
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