entertainment archive at FraudWasteAbuse

Archive for the 'entertainment' Category

May

Blackjack: How to count cards

By JSwan 66 Comments

Categories: games, travel, entertainment, vacation and income

Plans are still tentative, however it looks as though some of the characters from FraudWasteAbuse are going to Las Vegas next month. I happen to be an avid blackjack player, so I thought I’d share some the technique I use for counting cards.

Blackjack is one of the few casino games with a memory. A slot machine, for example, does not have a memory - previous plays on a slot machine do not affect future outcomes. In blackjack, on the other hand, once a card is played it cannot be played again for the remainder of the shoe/deck (whichever is being used). This adds a level of predictability to the game.

Of course, remembering every card that gets played is impossible, even on a single deck game. You could use a computer to do the tracking, but that would be cheating (and it’s illegal). Aside from it being impossible, even if you could track the cards in such a way you still couldn’t predict the order of the remaining cards.

The key is identifying the overall favorability of the remaining cards for the player vs. the casino. Generally speaking, high cards (10, Queen, King, and Ace) are good for the player and low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) are bad for the player. The reason for this is that the dealer must play until 17 is reached, but the player can stay with any value even if it’s less than 17. So if a dealer has a hand valued at 15, and there are more high valued cards than low valued in the shoe, then they are more likely to draw a 10 and bust (so any players still in the game win). On the other hand, if there are a lot of small cards the dealer is more likely to “make” the hand and not bust.

So how can you know if there are more high or low cards in the shoe? You count them. There are several counting methods, but the easiest one is called the “high low” method. The method is simple: Each card has a count value of -1, 0, or +1. For each card dealt, you add the card’s count value to a running total in your head. High cards (10, Queen, King, Ace) have a count value of -1, low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) have a count value of +1, and all the other cards (7, 8, 9) have a count value of 0. If you count all the cards in a deck or shoe this way, the count will be zero.

A deck with a count of zero is considered neutral; the house has a very slight advantage over the player. A deck with a negative count is bad; the house has a more definite advantage over the player. A deck with a positive count is good; the player actually has an edge over the house.

To thwart counters, casinos often use six-deck shoes. This greatly reduces the significance of the count, however it can still be counted. This is where the true count comes in. The true count can be determined by taking the current count and dividing it by the number of decks left in the shoe. For example, a count of 5 with five decks left in the shoe means that there is only a true count of one (5/5=1).

Don’t go running off to Vegas yet, though. Learning to count is only the beginning; you also need to know - and be able to appropriately modify - basic strategy.

Good luck!

Mar

Geeks who go too far

By FraudWasteAbuse 4 Comments

Categories: technology, life, movies, geek, humor, entertainment, Star Wars, nerd, science fiction, Star Trek and Stargate

I’ve been a Star Wars fan as long as I can remember. While I was too young to have seen the original movies when they first were in theaters, I remember watching them on television when I was a kid. I also enjoy a few of the Star Wars game and I’ve even been know to occasionally look at the Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia when I’m bored. It doesn’t go much farther than that.

On the other hand, I am not much of a Star Trek fan. I enjoyed several of the movies, but I could never really get into the shows. The shows were too preachy, too predictable, and too full of technobabble. The Prime Directive was annoying and the idea of a utopian future Earth failed to suspend my disbelief.

This leads me into the subject of this post. On one of my previous entries I mentioned a newsgroup I used to read called alt.startrek.vs.starwars. As you could probably deduce from the group’s name, its purpose was to be a place where nerds could gather and debate over whose imaginary spaceships were better. Much of the discussion actually consisted of fan fiction in which posters would write stories set in the universe of Star Trek or Star Wars (or both!) and insert their online persona into the story. While reading some of the hilariously intense debates (aka flamewars) about works of fiction, I came across a few especially serious individuals and internet sites.

One particular real-life character of interest by the name of Wong seemed especially passionate about his love and analysis of Star Wars. Not only would he fiercely argue that Star Wars was clearly superior to Star Trek, he also enjoyed scientifically analyzing Star Trek and Star Wars technology. No detail of the movies was too trivial for a heated, emotional discussion. Wong had no qualms about insulting and putting down those who he felt didn’t have an effective scientific grasp of Star Wars or Star Trek. If you can imagine Richard Dawkins as a Star War fan then you’re beginning to get the idea. He even owns a website which contains much of his analysis. Take this example of his analysis of Star Trek: Insurrection:

Personal Cloaking Devices

Analysis

Much has been made of the personal cloaking devices which were seen in the opening sequence of STI. However, we can see in the film that they are actually not true cloaking devices. Instead, they are using some sort of large-scale hologram system, to create the illusion of invisibility. How do we arrive at this conclusion, which will undoubtedly be hotly contested? There are two critical pieces of substantiating evidence.

1. When the observation post’s camouflage hologram was disrupted by Data’s phaser fire, all of the operatives simultaneously became visible. This indicates that the invisibility of all operatives was dependent upon a central facility.

2. “Cloaked” operatives still cast shadows, as seen in the first screenshot below. This indicates that the objects are not truly invisible. If they were, they would not cast shadows, even when viewed using an advanced sensor system. One could always argue that the “cloaked” operatives are blocking something other than visible light (such as one of the Federation cultists’ never-ending new forms of technobabble subspace-related radiation), but the shadows are clearly being cast in the same direction as the shadows being cast by the buildings, plants, etc. They are therefore being caused by the blockage of light being emitted by that planet’s sun.

The funny thing about people like Wong is that they treat these movies like the directors and editors never make mistakes. Instead of merely accepting that there are shadows because the film makers goofed, he attempts to come up with some absurd technobabble explanation for it all. My favorite part of the quote is when he calls Star Trek fans ‘cultists’, completely ignoring his own fanatic behavior. There’s more great material at that site as well.

My personal favorite recurring debate is over whether or not Alderaan (you know, that planet that the Death Star blew up in the movie) had a planetary shield. Evidence for or against this theory consists of a few frames of film from the first Star Wars movie. But that doesn’t stop obsessed fans from writing huge treatises on the subject. The idea that George Lucas would put such minute details in a movie that, at the time, had no fan base is absurd.

Hopefully, the obsessions of others will become your entertainment.

Mar

The art of internet trolling and capitalizing on gullibility

By FraudWasteAbuse 1 Comment

Categories: internet, humour, life, art, humor, entertainment, funny, weird, satire, offbeat, Usenet, troll, newsgroups and trolling

For about ten years now I have been an avid user and fan of newsgroups. For those of you who don’t know, newsgroups are the original message boards and forums. They are internet forums in their rawest form: decentralized, unregulated, and unmoderated (there are a few exceptions, however). There are hundreds of thousands of newsgroups, although only several thousand of them see regular postings.

While I typically spend most of my time on various political groups, one of my favorite newsgroup pastimes is finding a great troll post. A good troll is a rare work of art. Many try but few succeed. I myself have created a few successful trolls over the years, however I am neither creative nor patient enough to make a regular habit of it.

Over the years I have come across a sizable amount of entertaining trolls; some of which I would like to share with you today. If you consider yourself an emotionally sensitive person or don’t find entertainment in other people’s gullibility, this article is probably not for you.

We have all heard of the person who, after building up trusting relationships within a community, fakes his or her own death and sits back and enjoys the weeping. This particular troll does the opposite. Instead of faking his own death, the troll poses as a dead person and nonchalantly acts as if he had no idea that anyone thought he was dead and had simply been away for a while. What made this troll work was that the deceased was well known among the newsgroup regulars but only one or two of them actually knew him in person. What worked against this troll was that he had already been plaguing this newsgroup for days beforehand, so it was more difficult to catch the regulars off their guard. Most of the fun came to an end when someone who had attended the dead man’s funeral spoke up.

You can read the whole thread here.

Another newsgroup that’s usually ripe for a good troll is alt.suicide.holiday. The group is typically filled with posters moaning about life and talking about killing themselves, although it is questionable as to how many actually go through with it. One enterprising troll decided to pose as a member of a suicide prevention organization. The troll claimed that the posters’ IP addressed had been collected and that their families will soon be informed of their suicidal postings. Watch how several of the posters halfway freak out. With posters with names like NothingToLose, Suicidal Failure, and catchingthebus, the troll was practically guaranteed to succeed.

You can read the whole thread here.

One of my personal favorites was a post to several gardening newsgroup. The troll claimed to have become a vegan and wanted to encouraged like-minded people to come visit her online journal, which she claimed had become somewhat of a community. Unbeknownst to the readers, the link did not lead to her journal, but a vile picture of three very old homosexual men having gay sex. Several poor readers had their eyes burst into flames before someone posted a warning. A more diligent newsgroup regular would have noticed something amiss if he or she had simply noticed that the message had been crossposted to alt.space.monkey.invaders and alt.spacebastards.

You can read the whole thread here.

The last thing I would like to share today is the Anagram Troll. The Anagram Troll is notorious around Usenet for posting absurd, barely on-topic messages to hundreds of newsgroups at a time. Most of these messages are lame, but often one is posted that is quite humorous for its obvious absurdity. Many of the replies to the post are also fun to read as well. Posts with subject lines such as “A gay [blank] raped me” and “[blank] comes into your bed” seem to be a common theme. The Anagram Troll frequently changes his handle, so his posts can be difficult to locate.

An example of his posts can be found here.

The above trolls are just a select few of the myriad of trolling examples where one can be entertained at the expense of another’s gullibility or emotional instability. Quality trolling is an excellent way to release one’s inner creativity and I highly encourage it at every possible opportunity.