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Subject: Re: Comments on SSDF by Mr.Diepeveen * The Two Computer Quest

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 09:42:24 03/06/04

Go up one level in this thread


On March 06, 2004 at 12:21:11, Mridul Muralidharan wrote:

>On March 06, 2004 at 06:08:31, Rolf Tueschen wrote:
>
>>On March 05, 2004 at 19:44:56, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>
>>>On March 05, 2004 at 18:23:44, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 05, 2004 at 15:51:47, Thoralf Karlsson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On March 05, 2004 at 03:54:57, Afzal Siddique wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Hello All,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>http://www.aceshardware.com/forum?read=105063596
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Afzal
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>>I have never asked Vincent Diepeveen for money in order to test his program.
>>>
>>>>That is correct. You told me that you were lacking hardware that much that
>>>>without another machine or 2 you would not be able to garantuee me that diep
>>>>would be soon at the list.
>>>
>>>So from that statement (we don't have enough PC's to test Diep) you concluded
>>>Thoralf was asking you to send him 2 PC's?
>>>
>>>Ed
>>
>>
>>Dear Ed,
>>
>>please stop playing these games and let me answer for VD. Yes, of course, a
>>young programmer MUST understand the words of TK this way! Period.
>>
>>VD wanted to reach the goal that his program was tested as soon as possible.
>>Understandable wish. Now the responsible man from SSDF says that he could only
>>do this if he had more resources - BUT of course he hasn't yet. OF COURSE this
>>does NOT say word for word that Vincent should send hardware as soon as
>>possible. But the implication is absolutely clear. Taken that VD WOULD have done
>>this, the SSDF certainly wouldn't have rejected the kind present.
>>
>>But all this is only part of the overall general problem!!!
>>
>>And we should thank VD that he has published this here in CCC. The other aspect
>>of the problem is that a company like ChessBase has more resources than just a
>>young programmer. THEY make an invoice with an autoplayer and whoopieee, the
>>SSDF is accepting it. Later it was found out that this autoplayer gave FRITZ an
>>edge. At that moment also Ed Schröder began to jump up and down. A kind of war
>>began.
>>
>>So here we come to the final aspect of this problem. Speaking in terms of
>>history. Overall, these parts of the "SSDF problem" could be defined as follows:
>>
>>   *** the SSDF is held by amateurs, by certainly sympathetic hobby freaks
>>
>>   *** due to a lack of resources SSDF had to test by hand in the early days
>>
>>   *** due to that same aspect SSDF became open for manipulative tools
>>
>>   *** in consequence gifts of hardware alone _could_ influence the results
>>
>>This is all, what Vincent is saying and this is correct. If the SSDF were really
>>independent, they would test completely without contacts with the programmers.
>>They would buy the progs in shops and they would test them. They would test in
>>the spirit of the potential clients, the end-users. The whole communicating with
>>the programmers and their companies makes the SSDF object of almost invisible
>>manipulations.
>>
>>Also herefore Vincent gave perfect examples. The invoice of special "books" and
>>"learning files" is obviously a tool to manipulate the results of the tests
>>because the programmers want to react themselves on the reactions of the other
>>collegues with newer program versions on _their_ progs. Obviously this has no
>>longer something to do with independent and reliable testing standards.
>>
>>To make this absolutely clear: a test, once begun, does NOT allow a tester to
>>later make all kind of replacements or manipulative novelties because that
>>simply and perfectly destroys the validity of the tests! (Just to tell the truth
>>to many testers here around: you should NOT update your progs in a test
>>"tournament" because that makes the whole tournament invalid.
>
><snip>
>
>
>Hi Rolf,
>
>  Very nicely put.
>I would like to point out another thing - Vincent mentioned that he was asked
>for Hardware : some 6 years or so back - not yesterday or last year !

No

Vincent admitted that the ssdf did not ask him for hardware but only said that
they have not enough hardware to test it immediately.

>
>Ed also keeps mentioning - "not anymore" - does this mean that there
>may/defintely(!?) have been problems earlier on in the past ?
>Could this h/w request also be a thing of that same past period ? :)

It was not about hardware request but about the Fritz autoplayer that was not
public at that time.

Things were changed since that time.

Uri



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