rod03801: Your belief is confirmed.

Gouwe gozer: I believe on the tournaments, it would depend on what the creator chose. There is the option when creating tournaments with games with "random" positions, to have everyone have the same set up or not.

As far as I can see is the same startposition in all my games in the same tournament. That means that my black games are equal in the starting position as my opponents when they play black. The same appears in my white games lol
A quick view in other games, in the same tournament, showed me exactly the same startingposition as well. I'm not sure the position is the same for the whole tournament, but I think yes In that case it's a fair tournament
The tournament I joined is a small one (5 players), it makes me curious for a bigger tournaments, everybody in the same position?

Fencer: On the other hand, I am not sure if I reset the start position if multiple invitations are created at once.
I'd bet on this last one. It has happened to me in several games too... However, I have many different as well and they were created at the same time too...

rabbitoid: Maybe statistically, but it is logically possible.
But you can blame Sun: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Collections.html#shuffle(java.util.List)

On the other hand, I am not sure if I reset the start position if multiple invitations are created at once.

Mostly random number generators are fair and pass every statistics test. The problem is that the generator has to be initialized somehow. After all, this is done by a computer. However complex the calculation, if you start with the same data you end with the same results, in this case the same "random" sequence. So what is mostly done is to initialise the generator by reading the system clock. Which works fine, provided you do it only once, maybe at system boot, and not game by game. I'm only guessing as to what might have happened, I have no idea how things are implemented here.

The fact is that two games are identical, which statistically is totally impossible.

rabbitoid: If they're identical, I might feel less hesitant to claim occasional dice rolling weirdness here, too.  But I really hate to move toward that conclusion, as I feel sure that the vast majority of "dice cheating" claims that are made against backgammon sites and (especially) backgammon software are completely groundless.  I do not wish to join the lunatic fringe.

ChessVariant: maybe they got created in the same split second and got the same seed for the random generator. I agree, it shouldn't happen.

rabbitoid: I didn't compare them one by one ... but are they identical ? It "shouldn't" happen, lol ...

I should have played the euro millions lottery, The odds would have been far better...

I created a bunch of 4 chess massacres, look at the starting positions of these two:
Massacre Chess (rabbitoid vs. mangue)
Massacre Chess (rabbitoid vs. Luciano672)

Can someone help poor trepil?? he seems to be caught in a vortex, or frozen in hyperspace

gogul: There could be some truth in that one because the Canadian north is expanding with people:))

Czuch: LMAO & you know what though did don't you:))))

Czuch: stone wheels, my friend. Most was made out of stones. Exept Paypal which worked with shells. Paypal is a very old company rising out of the "Pay Paleontological Corp.". Looks like you'll get booted from the board.

Czuch: No, Gerry is correct. The saying is there since the stone age.

"GERRY": I love this old saying: As Alaska glaciers melt, it's land that's rising.

rabbitoid: No, that's another issue. BrainKing is programmed to be triggered by PayPal (a secure HTTP request) just when the payment is received, so the whole process is fully automatic. However, this is still a PayPal-to-PayPal transaction, so I don't actually have the money yet.
What I am talking about is the PayPal-to-bank transfer (so the PayPal funds are converted to real money) which usually takes 5-7 business days to complete.

Fencer: Just for info: how long did an average paypal transaction take for BK? I ask, because the last time I renewed with paypal (during the easter egg) it was less than a minute between the final click on paypal and the confirmation on BK. I take it that it usually takes a bit longer?

Artful Dodger: Thanks. I think that AlertPay is the best alternative at the moment because we already use it and it had been successfully tested by BrainKing users many times in the past.
Furthermore, they transfer funds to my bank account much faster than PayPal. It usually arrives in the next business day.

Czuch: Don't count the chickens before they hatch.

Czuch:

"GERRY": I always thought the old saying was "dont put the cart before the horse"?

(V): I t all goes to the old saying would you buy a cart without a horse or are you going to pull it yourself:)))

"GERRY": Over here.. it was how on earth could some people make such bad contracts and decisions without full information on those they were buying. I mean... You'd want to see the full accounts first wouldn't ya!!

(V): Isn't that the truth. I think the biggest concern over here is all the car company's

"GERRY": These days there in no guarantee for anyone to be able to run a successful business. We've had sole traders that have been around for decades now having to shut up. Some quite honestly saying that there is no help for them, banks won't help them, and the government will not help them.

And their mistake.. being in a field that the market has contracted so much there is not the business to operate. Even the last market collapse re Thatchers' boom and bust economic policy didn't break them.

Then there was the need to introduce a charge of corporate manslaughter...

Czuch: Maybe we should ask Fencer for a Better Business board & leave the politics out of it because we all know that there are not very good at running a sucessful busniness:))

(V): In the end the losers will be Paypal, as other and 'new' systems are available.

What are you saying??? The free market will work things out for itself???

...thought for sure you would advocate for the government to step in and make the evil paypal pay dearly for their bad business sense! Maybe even take over all online payment systems


Mayber we can move this on to the politics board.... have you explain to me the difference between the evil banks, who need the government to take over, or even your example of intel VS AMD, or online payment services??? How you can say in one breath thatpaypal will be a victome of its own bad business, but cant see that is how it should work for all businesses?

Bernice: Well... I can understand when you hit an organisation that denies it's made the mistake. I've been there... only to have them admit two weeks later that they did mess up. But they had annoyed me so much I went and changed to another organisation offering the same service... Turned out better for us as we now get more for our money

(V): Thanks for answering on Fencers behalf.

Bernice: Maybe he just doesn't want to go through all the paper work. In the end the losers will be Paypal, as other and 'new' systems are available.

Sometimes it just ain't worth it if an alternative(s) do just as good.

Bwild: well I had satisfaction from them.....but the point I was making....Fencer was whingeing about not enough room to explain his predicament on their email page.....is he able to ring someone? everyone apparently can ring, or isnt there a Paypal "office" in the Czech republic?

Bernice: I called them...but the rep (1st one) said to mail everything in.....2 weeks later...they had no record of me sending anything....3 weeks later...rep 3 said still nothing, and I cant revert back to a personal acct.

alexlee: yes mine is current for australia....sydney in fact.

Bernice:
The phone number I had was 1-888-221-1161. I just dialed it and it is still Paypal.

I know it wont probably make any difference as you have already made up your mind.

I had a problem with them and was able to TELEPHONE a representative, and the problem was sorted over the phone.....below is what I get when I click on the "contact us" link.......



PayPal Customer Service:
1800-073-263


6.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. Monday to Saturday AEST




Identification preference
To help confirm that you're the account holder when you call, we have the following personal information on file:

Credit card number Change

Would you like to change your identification preference ?

martes:  No worries.  Thanks for the understanding.  ;)

Thanks, that tiny lock icon was not something i was looking for :)

puupia: on the left side of your page, 5th link under the profile section you will see "Friends", that will send you to the right place

puupia: Go to your Friends list and you'll see a tiny lock next to the name of each of your friends.

How does one add/request public friends? I just tried to find an option for that but it just does not seem to catch my eye..

TheCrazyPuppy: Yeah, I guess you were, sorry, it seemed like you were also adding a bit of salt to the wound along with your "helpfulness", my bad...

TheCrazyPuppy: It only upsets me to see supposedly responsible, helpful people, act irresponsibly and unhelpfully...

TheCrazyPuppy: you should PM one of the Global Moderators with full details of the issue concerned and copies of all communication so far. The matter will be raised in the Global Moderator Fellowship, discussed and a decision made. The decision is final.


Thats all he needed to hear... the rest is just inflammatory to the situation.... even the most recent shark you posted, how is that helpful to anyone?

Pedro Martínez: LMAO :)))))

martes: LOL There is alot of them here Just put them on hide on all your board's & put them on block.I just removed all my blocked user's 5 or 6 day's ago & it start's all over again this time when they get blocked it's forever That is the only way you can enjoy this site & meet some very nice people & enjoy playing games:)))