HIGH OCTANE Poker and the ON OFF SWITCH ?

Having spent a considerable time playing Online Poker its time to for an update to my original post Late Night Poker Online With Ninjas.

First the good news. It appears the "Short Stack Ninja" software "Bot" that regularly infested the tables appears to have disappeared. Whether this is due to direct action from the online poker company or better educated poker players learning how to combat the Bot and therefore reducing its profitability for the human controller remains unclear.

All of the traits I mentioned in my previous report remain a reality and a concern but I want to talk about a slightly longer term pattern that I have witnessed many times over and you can hear spoken of on many of the tables.

The ON - NONE - OFF Switch

We have all heard ourselves saying "..oh its one of those days.." or "...I'm just having a bad day at the office.." and of course playing online poker should be no stranger to that concept.....

However, there is definitely something artificial about having a bad or good day on these tables. The main separator between having a good or bad day is Luck. As an experienced player, we recognise when we have played like a chump and taken a few stupid risks and been punished. It happens to the best players in the world, sometimes you cant stop yourself but this is different....

Bad Beats - A Bad Beat occurs when you match your great hand up against your opponents weaker hand and the Odds say that you are expected to win that showdown. Odds of you winning normally range between just better than 50-50 to perhaps 10-1 on that you will win. Now suddenly this gives us something to measure. Luck should be random and as such, an excess of bad luck is a bad day.

Now The Point - I have identified by keeping my own records that the luck I experience on these tables comes in blocks rather than spread randomly. What I mean by this is that I experience a few days of excessive luck where I seem to make hands from nowhere, regularly hitting silly flushes or straights etc to win hands I have no right to. Then equally, it is exactly as though a switch has been thrown and this completely reverses. It becomes one stupid, almost impossible loss after another. In fact is feels very much like you are being "set up" for a fall. Every time you get a fantastic hand, your opponent produces an absolute monster.

Now this can of course happen occasionally but the issue here is that this goes on and on and on for day after day. If you continue to play you will lose lose lose. Unless you start folding pocket Aces and Kings or folding any hand unless you have the nuts your cash will drain away with one staggering blow after another.

Eventually the storm clears, the sun starts shining and the ON - NONE - OFF switch moves away from the OFF setting.

It is my belief that the software although technically not favouring any particular player and not breaking any laws is designed in a sophisticated fashion to generate excitement and interest on the tables. The effect I am talking about is the manifestation of that software design technique in practice.

I think it is important that players recognise that they are not playing poker with a standard deck of cards with their friends on a Saturday night but are instead participating in a game of "High Octane Poker" designed by a software engineer whose favorite film is The Matrix......

Car Insurance - Trips to The Post Office Not Covered ?

..Just about to click on "BUY NOW" at gocompare.com the car insurance compare website but it failed so I had to call the insurance agent direct to arrange cover.

I was shocked to find out that I would not be covered by BELL Insurance if I drove to the Post Office to take some packages and letters related to by business.

This is despite taking out Insurance described as: "Business Use By Proposer and Spouse" !

Apparently I can make as many identical trips to the post office with letters and parcels for Aunt Sally, but if I also take a package that is related to my business, then I would be breaking the conditions. Of course no problems would have arisen unless I had a terrible accident in which case a representative for the insurance company would probably be attending any inquest.

The reason explained to me by the agent was that delivering commercial goods could not be covered by the insurance policy and taking the goods to the post office constituted the first leg of the delivery process.

That made me wonder how many other people are running this particular guantlet every day without even realising it....



My personal idea of Commercial Delivery as over and above normal business use would be a van travelling around with a large quantity of Packages delivering to customers in the region/country.

However, they clearly stated no cover for any business related post office trips and cited eBay as an example. I just struggle to identify any additional risk exposure to the insurance company for such a daily trip just down the road that would merit the wish to exclude. In fact the extra risk is almost zero as the same trip will be made to the same area at approximately the same time most days anyway to collect kids from school.

Also I honestly believe there must be many people out there in the same position that haven't given this a thought and could be driving uninsured with all the potential problems that involves in the event of an incident.

Also for the record I think it is simply ill-judged and should be changed by all insurance companies immediately to differentiate between a small business taking the post to the local post office (Should be Normal Business Use) and Commercial Deliveries most of which involve vans that end up scratched and dented due to trying to deliver 80 parcels a day to addresses they struggle to find down unknown narrow lanes.



Following another attempt to argue the case, I called BELL customer services again today to continue and was told it is a grey area that really had to be decided upon as this sort of insurance request is currently routinely declined.

He then discussed the matter with more senior colleagues and they decided to refer it to the underwriters for a policy decision.

I have just received notification from them that they are now changing the interpretation so that delivery of business goods to the Post Office now does not in fact come under commercial delivery, does not even come under business cover but is now included under Social Domestic and Pleasure, with any business goods onboard covered up to the value of £100.

On the wider issue though, I also spoke also to the insurance agent of my other vehicle and they have no answer for this problem also. They are now referring to their underwriters...

Now comes the Irony - My other car is insured by the Post Office Insurance Services! So I may become disqualified by the Post Office for taking Parcels to the Post Office…!

I would definitely recommend you check with your own insurance company if you are in doubt yourself and I will get back to watching my Worzel Gummidge dvd

Bad Delivery Service Destroying Amazon Credibility

I recently ordered a badminton racket for my son from Amazon UK. Delivery time was suggested to take around 4 working days.

I received an email telling me the item had been dispatched 3 days later - so far so good.

After a further 5 days had passed I decided to contact Amazon to find out what had happened. Finding a phone number for Amazon UK wasn't easy but for those who are interested, the Amazon UK Free Phone number is 0800 279 6620. Press option "8" for a human!

The human in question kept telling me not to worry and the item would be with me in another 7 days time.

I pointed out in an increasingly frustrated tone that I was already worried because I know of no delivery service within the UK that spends 12 days driving around looking for a particular address!

I demanded to have the tracking number and details to investigate myself and eventually found out what is going on.

Apparently, the item is passed to the Amazon contracted courier, in this case TNT. They then spend 3 days "processing" it and then take a business decision whether they are prepared to actually deliver it or not.

If they decide not to deliver the package they will then arrange to have it passed onto the Royal Mail which from their point of view is "dispatched". In actual fact it took another 2 days to get to the Royal Mail.

Royal Mail then schedule this as a standard parcel delivery which they state takes 3 to 5 days from posting.

The conclusion of all this lark is a ridiculous wait for your product and no customer support to speak of. Short term gain for Amazon profits, long term loss of reputation.

Whole Of The Moon

...I was listening to a CD of Celtic Songs the other day called Best Of Celtic Woman and was suddenly struck by one particular track called "Whole Of The Moon" sung by a relatively unknown artist called Rachel Earwicker.

The song was previously released by The Waterboys but this was her own version of that track. Its a lovely version and she has a great voice and it makes you wonder how many artists there are out there with stacks of talent but have never had that lucky break.

Anyway, if you like, have a listen and let me know if you think its nice, or if I am starting to slowly go off my rocker and perhaps should be put out to graze...

The link is above, then click on the Listen To Sample Icon. The clip loads fast but is low quality.

Download hangs on local http server

..I have been to hell and back over the last week trying to solve a stupid problem on my windows XP Pro machine.

It started when I noticed my IE7 freezing when I tried to access my own website on my own local web server over http. It was random but got a lot worse the larger the page or file size. I decided to set up a 10Mb file test and try downloading this from my web server to my local PC but this was impossible to complete without freezing up.

At first I couldn’t understand this effect because downloading 100Mb over the internet from a remote website on the same PC worked perfectly. First impression was to blame the web server, but this could not have been responsible because I have 8 other PCs and laptops that were perfectly able to download the same 10Mb test file without any problem.

I eventually solved the problem, but on the journey, learned some useful information especially from a great helpful guy called Bob Konigsberg with whom I made contact through the ITKnowledgeExchange website.

I have documented the facts here and hope that you might also find the steps interesting, so I will list the steps I took and the final result...

THE PROBLEM DEFINED

If I try to download a big file or serve a largish page locally from my web server to my development PC over HTTP using any browser I am experiencing a random freeze.

Example:-
I try to download a 5Mb zip or mp3 file via HTTP from my server to my problem desktop PC.
I enter the http address in the browser, I am then offered the open or save window...
I select save, the download reaches anything from 5% to 30% complete but then freezes and sits there forever "downloading".

This can happen on any file type including html files, but if the file size is small then it isn’t noticeable as all works OK 95% of the time. Occasionally, I get a blank page served, but if I make a refresh then the page normally renders OK.

Now what makes this weird are the following facts

1 - I am running two servers live and test. The problem is the same on either server
2 - I have 8 other PCs here that do NOT have the same problem accessing the servers.
3 - If On the problem PC I access the same file by simply copying via windows explorer over the network there is no problem.
4 - I have ruled out any hardware problem by swapping the complete HDD into another identical machine but this still fails.
5 - The problem machine has NO trouble accessing any other www servers with HTTP over the internet, only my local servers with http.
6 - I have tried with multiple Browsers with same result.
7 - Compared IE advanced settings and add ons line for line with the 3 month old working version.
8 - Set up a new administrator user on the problem PC but still same problem
9 - As I have 2 domains, I joined the other domain with the problem PC but same problem
- I have run Adaware, AVG reports nothing and I have run registry checks


So in conclusion the problem occurs due to some relationship with http access between my one Problem PC and 2 local servers. Those same servers are currently successfully serving pages to the internet without problems.
I have an old backup copy of my HDD from around 3 months ago and this does NOT have the problem, so whatever has caused this has occurred in the last 3 months. I have uninstalled any software products during this time, but it hasn’t helped.

My own personal theory at this stage is that the problem appears to be related to throughput errors. The bigger the download, the more likely the http protocol locks up. It is as though some parameters have been changed to affect the buffering or something in that area of which I know nothing...

Steps Taken to Analyse and Solve this Niggling Problem

STEP 1
Test to see if this problem is IE7 related or whether it is the same using Firefox.
- Result is that it is not Browser Dependent

STEP 2
Compare the Network settings against the 3 month old copy for these protocols
Client For Microsoft Networks
File and Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks
QoS Packet Scheduler
Internet Protocol(TCP/IP)

- Result is that all the settings are all 100% the same on both machines. This is not surprising as the Old Working OK version was in fact a clone of the Problem PC made approx 3 Months ago.

STEP 3
Download a copy of the free open source analysis tool called Ethereal and this captures a whole lot of information that is happening at the time the download is happening.

- Result is The Ethereal traces showed the PC was producing packets with an incorrect TCP checksum which would indicate faulty hardware i.e. time to swap out the Ethernet card for a new one and un-install and re-install new network card drivers.

- Unfortunately the result is exactly the same with the different Ethernet card fitted. I am not surprised at this, because one of the tests I did earlier to rule out any hardware failure was to remove the HDD of the problem PC and insert it into another physically identical PC connected to a different network cable and this still displayed the problem.

- I have to conclude that the problem is system software related but I have also ruled out browser dependency...


STEP 4
Run a Disk Check on all Data Sectors
- Result is no errors found

STEP 5
Now Uninstall ALL TCP/IP related network components and re-install

…now this one is a bit tricky. There seems to be no official way to uninstall TCP/IP in Windows XP Pro so I had to complete the following steps: -

1 – Display Properties of the LAN
2 – Highlight Client for Microsoft Network and click Uninstall
3 - Highlight File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks and click Uninstall
4 – Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) cannot be uninstalled, so I followed an unofficial procedure as follows:-

* Boot into Safe mode with networking
* Delete keys Winsock and Winsock2 from the registry
* Edit the nettcpip.inf in c:\Windows/inf file and set the MS_TCPIP.PrimaryInstall Characteristics value from 0xA0 to 0x80
* Open the LAN properties, click on Install, click on have disk, point to the windows/inf directory and Now its possible to uninstall the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
* Restart the system into normal mode
* Edit properties of LAN again and then install the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
* Reboot Finally for the Last Time

- I also uninstalled IE7, downloaded a fresh copy from Microsoft and Re-installed that.

Result - Bad news is that the same fault persists!


STEP 6
Now time to visit www.sysinternals.com and download the following two free Microsoft tools that offer more detailed analysis of processes going on at the same time.

The first tool is called "TCPView" and gives a lovely indication of network traffic in real time as it happens.

The second tool is called "Process Monitor" and this gives out a huge volume of information for every process that is doing something again in real time. This tool needs a bit of "tuning" to remove unnecessary messages. This is easily achieved by using its rich set of filters e.g. you can right click on any particular process like "iexplorer" and select "include" to display only Internet Explorers activity.

- Result of this allowed me to see the "WriteFile" activity during the download. Now this could be very useful in some situations, but in this case it did not lead me to the answer.
- However, one interesting effect was that while the Process Monitor was running, that in itself improved my problem so that I could download up to 10Mb. Although as soon as I made the file larger (400Mb) I had the same problem again. This was a weird effect but obviously no solution.

STEP 7 - THE SOLUTION
Suddenly thought of trying to restart my machine in Safe Mode with Networking and see if the problem was still there.

- Result was that in Safe Mode the problem disappeared and the downloads worked perfectly.
- This meant it was likely to be a software driver of an application causing the problem. I therefore carried out the following: -

- 1) Create a "GHOST" Disk to Disk Copy of my HDD so I can play around with no risk.
- 2) Restart back into normal mode.
- 3) Go to Add/Remove Programs.
- 4) Work through each program and uninstall every possible candidate making a restart after every 3 uninstalls. Immediately retry the download.

- Using this method I eventually found the troublemaker and cured my PC!!

The culprit? Well this turned out to be Zonealarm version 7.0.362.000 and I wish to God I had started that search in reverse alphabetical order!

So I installed al older version of Zonealarm and that gives no problems. Just to double check, I re-installed version 7.0.362.000 again afterwards and the problem was instantly back.

So Check Point, given the right circumstances your latest version has a bug in it!


Phew!

Pixord P400 IP Camera Review

I have just forked out £220 on a nice looking new fangled IP camera by Pixord, model 400W P.

For those that dont know the difference between an IP Camera and a webcam, the difference is that an IP camera has a network card inside it allowing it to be attached directly to your internet connection and act like a mini computer in its own right with its own video server software running on the camera.

So all you do is set it up and (subject to a decent broadband connection) you can then from any computer in the world, type in the appropriate web URL and be directed straight to the live camera picture.

This makes for a great way to keep an eye on your young kids while someone is babysitting, perhaps your house while on holiday, entertaining your husband on the oil rig or any kind of live surveillance...

Hardware - The Physical bit

Right well I have actually completed all of the above and I can report that the camera itself seems to be well made, easy to fit up and the picture is OK. Only problem I have found physically with the equipment is with the sound. I need to scream like a madman from 2 inches of the body of the camera before it becomes audible to a viewer. I am yet to get to the bottom of this fault.

Software - The Clicking and Typing bit

Now this is a fabulous example of how difficult it is to choose a device by just looking at it or even seeing it in a shop delivering a picture on a screen. The Software Side of any device is just as important and in this case I would argue more important.

I am afraid this is where the device comes crashing down as it is an example of what happens when a company scrimps on or rushes out a bare bones version of supporting software. I have written to the company with my test results an I include the points I have mentioned to them below: -

Detailed Report To Manufacturer Concerning the Equipment

Having now installed and tested the Pixord P-400W IP Camera, I would like to report my findings to you: -

1 - Using the Camera out of the box with the latest version of IE7 with updates is actually not possible unless you first install the components from the provided CD. Obviously this has the drawback that no remote person with the latest IE7 can view your webcam ! This problem is solved only by downloading and installing the latest version of the Firmware from Pixord. This is worrying for the future.

2 - Sound is actually working, but sound volume is virtually zero, unless I scream at the lens on the camera.

3 - I have set up the motion detection option to email me via my own mail server. This seems to work, but all I receive is an email with an attachment of approx 1 second long AVI file. This displays a screen which has captured no motion at all, even though I have walked slowly through the door, past the camera. The motion detection area has been correctly created to cover most of the field of view. I suspect it is behind the action.

4 - The Properties settings of the motion area are just unintelligible. Sensitivity I can understand, although it needs an example i.e. (1) detects a crawling ant where (100) is only triggered by a raging bull. Also how do I understand what values "SAD" and "Motion Vector Threshold" should be set to ?

5 - Also I can’t seem to configure the motion detection. How does it work ? How long can it record for in seconds, before / after motion stopped / what quality to set, how long does the camera need to be standing without motion before the motion trigger is reset etc... ?

6 - On D1 setting, screen freezes repeatedly if there is plenty of movement in the picture, and browser needs to be restarted. This is just as bad on both wireless and cable, although surprisingly better on wireless. It does however drive you crazy. I have to say that this has been improved a bit by the latest firmware upgrade.

7 - If I physically move the camera, massive pixilation occurs, this in itself can be expected, but on one occasion the IP address of the camera was totally lost just by moving the camera 2 feet to my left. I could not discover the camera again, even with the IP-Installer. I switched it on and off numerous times, only way I got it back in the end was to open the saved ip-installer cfg file and make a synchronize. After 1 minute camera re-appeared under its IP address !

8 - Why is there no option to have a detachable resizable screen view so it can be placed conveniently on the screen ?

9 - I can’t work out how I use QuickTime/VLT to be able to view the streaming MPEG4 from the camera instead of the Pixord software. It would be nice to see an example of how to achieve this.

10 - What do these sort of messages mean that are displayed within the software to the end user (see below) what am I supposed to know ?

Note:Alert Message can be set by listen AP
(CGI ex:http://192.168.1.200/alertcfg?action=apply&
alert1_enable=1&alert1_ip=192.168.2.172&alert1_port=2203&alert1_msg=oct03)

11 - I feel like the software package that accompanies this camera/video server is just a bare bones version that barely works. Can you confirm if they are about to release a fully functional software platform to support this hardware properly in the near future, or is this as good as it gets ? I keep looking on the CD thinking and hoping that I have failed to find the real user software that comes with this product !! Unless I have missed a basic point here, it’s safe to say that this product as it stands is less than satisfactory. I would be interested if you could let me know your own experiences with this unit.

Conclusions

This is a frustrating example of a product that could be great if they spent another 3-6 months on perfecting the software side and providing a rich set of facilities through the user interface that would allow you to use the built in capability of the camera.

In a way I dont want to give it back, on the hope that there will be a new firmware release next week that will complete the job and implement all the facilities I mentioned.

However, the stark reality is that having spent £220 I on this combined unit, I know I could buy a stand alone video server and separate camera for the same price that would have been superior.

Anyway, the company, they have described my feedback as "great comments" so I am waiting in anticipation for their technical reply....

Bank Transfer Confirmation ?

Unbelievable really, that we are in the 21st century and still put up with this concept of service.

I am talking about a bank transfer I made a few weeks ago to Belgium. Now because of the type of department it was sent to, it was impossible to get confirmation from them that the bill has actually been paid. If I just left it, I would receive the late payment fine in the post.

So it suddenly dawned on me what a shocking system that is still in place today for making such a transfer. First of all I have to pay £30 for the bank to make the transfer in the first place. Secondly the bank makes the transfer and tells me it could take up to 7 days before it is credited into the account (what is that delay all about?).

But here is the killer blow: - My bank is completely unable to confirm that the money has been received by the receiving bank.

If you think about it, that is quite ridiculous. I have just coughed up £30 and they cant even confirm the cash has been received !! Its a joke and none of us ever complain about such an archaic system.

I insisted I wanted a confirmation, so after half an hour on the phone I am told the best they can do is send a "Swift" message to the other bank to ask for confirmation of receipt. I must then phone the bank back after 7 yes seven working days to find out the answer. I phoned yesterday, 10 days later, only to be told they still havent heard, so phone back again next week some time.

Isnt that a pathetic way to operate ? I can get an auto receipt of an email anywhere in the world, but transfer a massive sum of cash and nothing can be done.

This is in fact all UK banks that operate like this, its not just a one off....