[Walddk]

hrothgar, on May 16 2006, 06:42 PM, said:

> What are the "very large hassles involved"?

We're worked Vugraph's together before Dave.  You know all the bullshit that is involved as well as I do (most likely better).  I know that an enormous amount of work went into broadcasting the junior camp in Sydney.  Even with a lot of advanced work we ran into some unanticipated problems with the broadband link and had to re-wire the LANs.

Absolutely right, but why should that be different for the Cavendish organisers than anywhere else in the world? They still struggle in many places, but allow me to say that they do a pretty good job elsewhere and that Europe and Australia are way ahead of North America in that respect.

Planning is the key word. Jan Martel realises what this is all about. I am sorry to say that this is not yet the case in regard to other organisations in USA, private or public. They really should take a good look at how they do this in for instance Poland, Scandinavia, France, Netherlands, England, Australia and Ireland.

Is it really degrading to ask others, even people in smaller countries than your own, how they go about it? I don't think it is. We can all learn from each other. Here is an area where the USA could learn a few things if they cross the Atlantic Ocean. No offence intended, just a piece of advice.

Roland

[mrdct]

hrothgar, on May 16 2006, 12:42 PM, said:

> What are the "very large hassles involved"?

We're worked Vugraph's together before Dave.  You know all the bullshit that is involved as well as I do (most likely better).  I know that an enormous amount of work went into broadcasting the junior camp in Sydney.  Even with a lot of advanced work we ran into some unanticipated problems with the broadband link and had to re-wire the LANs.

Sorry Richard, I thought you were referring to hassles for event organisers for whom all they really need to worry about is getting a hand data file cut up into smaller bits and giving it to the operators. I'll admit that there are some hassles for the vugraph operators, but all in a day's work.

My message is that in most cases doing vugraph coverage is to all intents and purposes completely unobtrusive and requires nothing from the organisers other than:

- hand data files;
- possible minor modification to table placement/orientation; and
- a venue with a phone line or internet connection in the playing area.

For coverage of one or two tables, the vugraph operators) can just about turn up with a laptop 30 minutes before showtime if the organisers have advance knowledge to prepare the hand data files and have a phone line or other internet connection available.

[JanM]

Walddk, on May 16 2006, 01:04 PM, said:

Absolutely right, but why should that be different for the Cavendish organisers than anywhere else in the world? They still struggle in many places, but allow me to say that they do a pretty good job elsewhere and that Europe and Australia are way ahead of North America in that respect.

Planning is the key word. Jan Martel realises what this is all about. I am sorry to say that this is not yet the case in regard to other organisations in USA, private or public. They really should take a good look at how they do this in for instance Poland, Scandinavia, France, Netherlands, England, Australia and Ireland.

I wish that I knew the solutions as well as I know the problems.

And, realistically, the Cavendish is different and more difficult than other events. Why? Because of the way the event is run and the security issues. It's a pairs tournament, with 3 board rounds. The organizers (correctly in my opinion) don't want future hands on a computer that's connected to the internet. So instead of loading up the hands for an entire session at the beginning of the session, and at the same time entering the name of the event, the session, etc, we have to go through that procedure every three boards. Sure, it's a reasonably easy procedure (wish it was easier ) but by the 18th time you've stuck a USB pen drive into your computer and hit F2 and checked that the path is still correctly in there and the name of the event, etc are right, it feels as if it's a major difference. And someone has to put the hands on those little pen drives; someone else has to bring the drives to the operators and then pick them up later. It really does add to the "overhead" of running the tournament. And the operator job is tougher - not only do you have to deal with the 3 board segments, but you have to change the names (and flags) for each round. I had to do that after I'd put up the first hand, which of course I couldn't do until all the players were seated (if any computer genius or BBO genius out there can tell me why other operators were able to put new names in the blank screen and have them there for the first board of the round whereas I wasn't, please let me know!).

In addition, someone has to tell the players to go to the Vugraph room every three boards - again, not much effort, but it adds to the work of the organizers or directors or whoever's doing it.

And in Las Vegas the hotels really overcharge for internet connections in meeting rooms. The Cavendish used phone lines, which were slow and added to the operator load (I wish I had a dollar for every time I thought I'd already entered a bid only to discover I hadn't because I'd typed it before the phone line was free). I don't know what that cost, although I was told it was not cheap. I know that when the USBF did Vugraph from the USWBC in Las Vegas a couple of years ago, we paid $1200 for 3 days of high speed internet, in one room.

And Richard scares me with his suggestions of how easy it would be for a player to enlist the aid of a spectator to cheat in the event - I don't think people want to do this, but it's scary that it is even possible.

[mrdct]

I'm not familiar with the procedure for loading up a new set of three boards each round without closing the presentation, but I presume you are over-writing the vugraph.lin file in the BBO directory on the laptop with a new file each round. For a variety of reasons I think the superior approach is to start a new presentation each round. This will ensure the data, including names, is all captured properly.

When I was watching the Cavendish, I invariably changed tables each round to watch my favourite players so getting booted and then having to go to a new vugraph table each round doesn't sound like much of hassle given that I'm more or less doing that already.

As for names, when you start the presentation you should have a blank table before you redeal to the first board. You can enter the names right then and there I believe before you bring up the first board.

How real is the risk that someone in the big-bad internet will hack into an operator's laptop, locate the hand data file and then covertly communicate key information to players? I'd think very low risk, but the risk can be quite easily mitigated through the following steps:

1. On the operator's laptop don't have any directories (especially ones with hand data files) shared and enable the built-in firewall in the Windows operating system.
2. To the extent to which kibitzers are allowed in the event, they must be in the playing room before the start of the session and if they leave they cannot return.
3. Players to have escorts for toilet breaks.
4. Ban on any electronic communication devices in the playing room.

I guess it's possible for a hacker to use a packet sniffer or something similar to intercept the hand data when a wireless network is used; but basic WEP or WPA encryption should solve that problem and keeping players quarantined during session time ought to eliminate the risk of information being covertly passed to them anyway.

If it remains a concern for event organisers, perhaps Fred needs to have a look at the whole way in which hand data is loaded, stored locally, transmitted to the BBO server and transmitted to viewers.

As for Richard's "computer in the shoe" scenario, the chances of an invited expert pair deploying such a technology for a once per year event with a first prize that is tasty money, but certainly not the sort of life changing cash that could be had by duping a casino game, has to be remote in the extreme. But if organisers remain paranoid about it, you can buy a hand-held bug detector for about $200 which will pick up any electronic signals coming in and out of people's footwear. I think the players would find it quite amusing being swept for bugs before the start of a session!

My final comment, and one that I've made many times before, is that when event organisers book venues make sure that the terms of access to the internet are reasonable.

[JanM]

mrdct, on May 16 2006, 10:13 PM, said:

I'm not familiar with the procedure for loading up a new set of three boards each round without closing the presentation, but I presume you are over-writing the vugraph.lin file in the BBO directory on the laptop with a new file each round.  For a variety of reasons I think the superior approach is to start a new presentation each round.  This will ensure the data, including names, is all captured properly.

As for names, when you start the presentation you should have a blank table before you redeal to the first board.  You can enter the names right then and there I believe before you bring up the first board.
My final comment, and one that I've made many times before, is that when event organisers book venues make sure that the terms of access to the internet are reasonable.

I agree that it would have been better (for posterity at least) had we closed the tables and restarted them. However, that would not in any way reduce the "overhead" involved in distributing three hands at a time to each Vugraph operator, having each operator start a new table with the new hands and then taking the pen drive with the hands back to have the next round's hands installed. Perhaps you're right that no-one could have hacked into a laptop which had all of the hands, but I'm not about to blame the organizers of the event from being very security conscious, and I don't think there's anyone else out there who is . Sure, we could probably put all the hands on the pen drives and load three at a time, but as an operator whose husband was playing, I'm not sure I'd have been comfortable with having all the hands available to me, and I'm sure others would feel the same.

As far as names, I agree that what you say should have worked, but I assure you it didn't. I entered new names on the blank screen many many times (I just couldn't believe it wouldn't work). Each time when I clicked on reload to get the first board of the round, the names were those from the previous round, not the ones I had entered.

There are a lot of things to be balanced when choosing a venue. Las Vegas is very attractive for the Cavendish, because people like going there and it's okay to openly call the Calcutta auction, etc "gambling." I don't know why the LV hotels tend to be high priced for internet (from meeting rooms). I only know that all the ones we've been to have been.