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Subject: Re: And the reason to purchase CSTal is what again?

Author: James T. Walker

Date: 17:33:09 08/21/99

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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



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