Author: Frank Schneider
Date: 12:29:53 07/31/01
Go up one level in this thread
Hi Bruce, On July 31, 2001 at 14:31:34, Bruce Moreland wrote: >On July 31, 2001 at 13:16:04, Frank Schneider wrote: > >>Hi, >> >>if all programmers agreed to use single-machines (maybe except Ferret) >>the change in rules would be without effect. >> >>Frank > >I am not a prima donna either. don't get me wrong - the request was not addressed at you but at participants who can get both a fast single- and a fast multi-processor machine. > >But the rules were posted, and here come the Chessbase washing machines. We'll see, but anything with more than 2 processors is imho not a "micro". > I >don't like this at all, but the rules are the rules, and I have to decide >whether I want to spend a thousand bucks on a plane ticket and take a week away >from my family (I won't miss my family that much, but my wife will go insane >looking after four kids herself, and that is the bad part of me leaving for a >week) and then be non-competitive. > >I decided that I would like to be competitive if I am going to have to endure >this crap again, so I called several computer shops in my area and had them >build me a machine which I am hoping will be done in time. This is the only way >I can have a *realistic* chance of not looking like a complete idiot when >playing against machines that require a hand-truck or worse to move. Ferret was close to winning the title more than once and I'd like you to win this time. > >Everyone who is SMP and can get an SMP machine should bring the best one they >can get if they want a chance to make the best of this bad situation. I don't >see what good deliberately crippling one's self will do. > >I don't know if there is anything that anyone can do about this: > >1) A boycott makes the event less rich, gives a title to Chessbase for free, and >perhaps makes sponsors even more wary about supporting this thing. It's also >just a whiney and non-productive thing to do. Someone boycotts every damned >year, and it's gotten boring. Yes, Gromit will be there - on a single bought especially for this event. Frank > >2) Using a cheesy machine on purpose is just a waste of your own time. > >3) Loud bitching (my normal mode of action) makes sponsors wonder what in the >hell kind of idiot lunatics they are sponsoring, so perhaps they won't pay up >next time, as well as doing *absolutely no good*. I've been trying to get very >simple things changed for *years*, and nothing *ever* happens. The rules for >when you can change your time are stupid, and I point this out every time, but >every year someone just does copy/paste on the previous year's rules. If >something as trivial as that won't change, how will anything else change? > >4) Throwing out the ICCA leaders won't do any good, because they are the only >ones who are keeping this together in *any* state. It takes a lot of work to >put something like this together, and the number of people who will do anything >is almost zero. We have enough trouble getting people to moderate this stupid >group, much less organize events and wear suits and go talk to sponsors and so >on. All we get by going down that road is a situation wherein the only events >we get are amateur tournaments that nobody pays attention to and commercial >publicity stunts. > >So everything is just dicked. At the risk of identifying myself as being >completely in la-la land, maybe these people will finally figure out that it's a >good idea to listen to the programmers. Maybe they'll finally figure out that >the internet is a two-way communication medium and start using it as something >other than a place to announce faits accompli. > >That's probably a stupid thing to hope, but we'll see. I'm afraid that at the >rate things are going we're going to end up with an ICCA that can't even >maintain the journal, much less a sensible yearly event. > >bruce
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