Author: Ratko V Tomic
Date: 11:33:47 09/27/99
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On September 27, 1999 at 13:41:36, Fernando Villegas wrote: >Hi: >I think you have overstated your point beyond what is sound. IF the list was >published WITHOUT data about the hardware used, you could be right, but as much >it is clearly said what machine is used in each case, you simply have not >support for airing such blatant acusation. Everybody here know from a lot of >time ago how to add or rest perfomance according speed. And surely SSDF list is >made out for people like us, not for mass market customer that does not even >know about SSDF, What Elo is, etc. It is sad that SSDF list, that surely cost a >lot of time to people to do, may be targeted with such harsh and unspported >words. > In the absence of specific details, the best one could say is that they have allowed themselves to ba manipulated or bullied by CB. This much comes even out of the explanation SSDF has on their site about the earlier accusation regarding their relation with CB. While I wouldn't rank them with politicians, I think the comparison that I used, with doctors and their relation to pharmaceutical industry, is quite fair. There are ways to manipulate evaluators decisions without them even feeling they're being manipulated (that's why marketing talent gets paid big bucks). This being a common practice not only in computer but in every other business, there is no reason to imagine chess software would be exempt (a few years ago a whistleblower in PC-Magazine told about how Micorosoft manipulates reviewers; he had to look for another job). I think pro-CB bias by SSDF last few years (for which they have been accused of already), including the latest 1 in 200 odds pick of 4 CB programs and no other, for the top of the chart (by virtue of putting them on the top hardware), shows clearly to any objective observer that there is some manipulation of SSDF by the CB. While its mechanism may be unknown, the influence itself is quite plain. All that said, I still appreciate and find valuable the efforts of the SSDF members. It's only that it takes a bit more of reading between the lines (e.g. extrapolation for different machines, speeds and RAM) than it used, to to get the truer picture from their results.
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