[Deanrover]

BBO founder and all round good guy celebrates his 21st birthday for the 20th time on Sunday. I'd like to take this opportunity to saw how damn special BBO is.

As a non programmer it is easy to get frustrated with the pace of progress of BBO. Say introducing a ghoulash feature, or improving team games, how hard can that really be? What do Fred and Uday do all day? But the truth is very different:

i) Look through the archives of the "suggestion for the software" forum and you will see that a scarily high percentage of the ideas have been implemented.

ii) I have been playing online poker recently. Some of these sites made up to $500 million in profit last year, and rate to make at least twice that much this year. You would have thought they could afford brilliant (and numerous) programmers.

And yet the truth is that BBO's software surpasses that of the online poker sites in almost every way! E.g. on the 2nd biggest site, hand histories are not written to your c:. so you have to request them, and can only get 200 at a time (which would be < 1hr for a multitabler). And even then it is in an ugly, incomprehensible .txt format, unlikely BBOs instantaneous and graphical hand histories (with free Deep Finesse analysis!). And if you need help, you can not just ask someone online. You have to email support, and they can be up to a day responding!. Compare this to BBO, where there are almost always some yellows (who are volunteers!) online to assist. Fred and/or Uday will respond to your emails promptly, you can watch some of the best players in the world, tools such as the partnership bidding room are developed and provided for you, Vugraph with great commentary. And BBO is free! It truly is amazing.

Furthermore, and much more importantly, Fred is the sweetest guy you will meet. He has done a lot for me. He and Sheri organised a trip for me to work in the Cavendish in Las Vegas, and be put up in a luxury hotel room. And before that, they let me stay in their house! Oh, and one small point. They had moved into their house 1 day earlier!

So congratulations on everything Fred, and have a great 40th!

[keylime]

I have to pen my thoughts to this as well from the foothills of Alberta on assignment -

There are so many superlatives that could be used to describe Fred. Frankly I don't think I have the lexicon to depict accurately Fred, so I ended up settling on this one:

mag·nan·i·mous - adj

1. Courageously noble in mind and heart.
2. Generous in forgiving; eschewing resentment or revenge; unselfish.

[From Latin magnanimus : magnus, great; see meg- in Indo-European Roots + animus, soul, mind; see an- in Indo-European Roots.]

<courtesy of dictionary.com>

What else needs to be said to this letter perfect definition of our fearless leader?

[Walddk]

In another thread, "Friends of Fred", we saw how Fred just hates to be in the limelight. Fortunately Fred can't decide EVERYTHING regarding BBO, so I will use one adjective that can't be translated into any other language I know of.

Fred is bionic!

Can it be put any better than the quote I use for my signature? That sums it up as far as Fred is concerned, doesn't it?

So what else is there to say but ......

Til lykke med fødselsdagen gamle dreng!
(I'll leave to you to figure out what *that* means).

Roland

[luke warm]

happy b/d fred, best wishes for you, sheri, uday, and bbo

[Double !]

And on Super Bowl Sunday, even.!!!!! Have a great & happy one!

[dogsbreath]

hi Fred ..Happy birthday.. hope to see you in Ireland sometime ..y will be VERY welcome
rgds Dog

[aisha759]

Best wishes on your birthday Fred )

We should have a party on BBO and Sheri won't have to do the dishes afterwards.... Magic can lick them clean

Have a great day!!!

Aisha