During college, I was hooked on IRC. I used to spend a lot of time on it. I also took a course in Unix/C programming, so as part of a side project, I developed an IRC Poker Bot. I recollected many good memories, and definitely learned a great deal from it.
I passed on the code to Pierre Fournier and Yves Lepage for maintenance and further development. They took it as far as they could, before eventually retired it. I’m grateful for their involvement and dedication to it!
Below was Pierre’s entry in Wikipedia about the poker bot. Wikipedia is about to delete this entry due to “lack of interest”. So I’m posting it here for posterity.
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PBot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Original author(s) | Rudy Amid |
|---|---|
| Initial release | June 1995 |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Available in | English |
| Type | IRC bot |
PBot was a computer program that ran on Internet Relay Chat in the EFnet channel #poker which allowed users to play poker with fictional money. Based on standard 5-card draw poker game, the bot could handle up to 6 players and was in service between 1993 and 2002.
Contents
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History
PBot was originally written by Rudy “Radix” Amid. In early 1993, after the success of his first IRC game “MooBot” [1], he went on to think that someone would be inspired to make a poker bot. Of course, no one seemed to have the time or the inclination to make such a bot, so he went on in February 1993 to start making a poker bot.
Radix era
Radix completed an alpha version of PBot in late February and tested it on EFnet IRC. It wasn’t as easy as he expected; the bot was riddled with all sorts of mysterious bugs as he was testing the user interface aspect. The bot was written with ircII scripts and the poker module was written in C. It didn’t take long for him to realize this 80% ircII scripts bot was not fast and powerful, but it was the best way to debug and perfect the command line parsing; recompiling the program on the fly without killing the bot. By March 1993, he started to put the poker module together as one big C program, eliminating the need to rely on ircII scripts to parse the commands. The bot at this point had many commands and was flexible enough to program. From then on, he concentrated on the poker game itself.
By late March, he was ready for PBot’s beta-testing. He called on a few dedicated users on IRC to discuss ideas and play the game. There were lots of ideas and modifications to be made. Tweaking the program proved to be the hardest. Slowly, after one feature was added at a time, bugs appeared and debugged. The process was painstakingly slow but he was determined to get it up and running, as he knew this bot would prove to be the best bot that ever happened to IRC. After his exams in April, he started to work full time on this bot. Spending countless hours modifying and testing with his beta-testers. Ideas kept pouring in.
Finally, in June, he had a fully functional poker bot. Modifications did not stop then but it was time for him to slow down and let the bot make itself known to the world. In August 1993, he had to leave the country for a few months, and have given this bot to Lyverbe for safe keeping, continued maintenance, and development of PBot.
Lyverbe era
At that time, the main goal of PBot to handle an IRC poker game was successfully achieved. Lyverbe’s goal was to add features, security and documentation to the software. He introduced:
- User privileges (known as Gods and Cops)
- Banning system
- Flood protection
- Account database
- DCC connections
- Complete online help
- Player personal setup
- Top winners list
- …and many more
With the code getting insanely bigger, he separated the single source file into multiple source files. Managing the code was half the work where the other half was managing the IRC channel itself, and this is why he created user privileges to help him out while being away. These users had additional commands to handle troublemakers.
In a short period of time, PBot gained a lot of popularity. On January 9 1995, a mailing list was created as well as a website, which was not that common back then. Two conventions were held with the first one in Montreal (August 4-6, 1995) and the second in Chicago (August 2-3, 1996). A GUI was created for the mIRC client [2].
Post Lyverbe era
In September 1996, after 3 years of constant work on this project, Lyverbe decided to let go. He gave the project to Cirra who moved the bot from EFnet to Undernet. She eventually gave the project to Jupiter1.
PBot stopped operating in late 2002. However, the code is still in working condition meaning that it could reappear at anytime.
During its decade of existence, PBot has created new rings of friends [3] with a common place to hang out and chat. Conversations have even created its own glossary of terms[4]. Tournaments have been organized [5] to create variety in the standard routine game.
See also
References
External links
—
What do popular modern movies look like a long time ago? Here are some examples:
In 1950’s, Ghostbusters trailer:
In 1940’s, Forrest Gump done by Frank Capra:
In the 1920’s, Matrix done as a silent movie:
In the 1880’s, Star Trek as “Steam Trek”:
Bonus: Raider’s of the Lost Ark done in 1951:
Research in the UK showed Tuesday is busiest day of the week. It’s not Monday as most people will admit. People use Mondays to gear up (slowly) for the work week.
But for me, it’s actually Friday that’s the most busy. Here, people are anticipating being busy on Monday. Everyone tries to wrap up work, as much as they can before the weekend starts. When Monday arrives, it will be less hectic and daunting. I can actually look forward to work on Monday!
Moreover, the weekend is a sweet reward for a busy and stressful Friday.
It’s a Get-Things-Done attitude, and perhaps a survival instinct in the corporate world. I like this approach. It’s very commendable and a worthwhile habit.
No more “I Hate Mondays”. It’s common for people to dread coming into work on Monday. It’s common to “call in sick” on Monday.
Getting things done on Friday is not the only way to beat the blue Mondays. In this economy, with business trying to cut back on expenses, more people like the idea of a 4-day work week. It means less paycheck, but it gives more time to spend with the family, hobbies, etc. I believe it’s going to promote a much tighter schedule during the week, with less time wasted on idle work.
So, are you busy on Tuesday?
I’ve known the big screen adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin is coming. They just announced recently it’s going to be done near Christmas 2011! The title they chose was “The Secret of the Unicorn”. It’s actually a combination of three of the Tintin comic book stories into one: The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure. I’m guessing they’ve chosen them because those stories contain the introduction of Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and the memorable Marlinspike mansion.
When I was 8 years old, I had difficulty following the story lines. Maybe it was due to the language translation. Perhaps it was a cultural thing, as this is a European/Western – and I’m Asian. Asian comics were mostly influenced by Japan with their manga comics.
But, I loved Tintin comics mainly for the mystery and the epic story lines. The stories were also bold for kids.1 Back in Indonesia, drugs were not a widespread problem, so reading about it in Golden Claw was “educational”. Also, Captain Haddock’s excessive drinking problem was familiar, as a member of my family had the same issue. Back then, kids were less spoiled and grew up faster.
Then there was the fantastic voyage under the sea in Red Rackham’s Treasure got me glued to the wonderful drawings by Hergé. From a sample picture, I could see the details and they were not overwhelming. I also remembered trying to draw the shark-shaped submarine. I’m no artist, so it wasn’t even close to look like the one in the comic book.
Wikipedia and IMDB has an extensive info on the upcoming Tintin animated movie. The movie’s voice talents are made up of mostly British talents like Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, and Jamie Bell. Since this is a Peter Jackson movie, the incomparable Andy “Gollum” Serkis also stars. Serkis is a veteran computer graphics actor, as well as an incredible voice actor. So he’s a shoe-in for this movie.
It’s unclear who’s going to play Professor Calculus. The professor is pivotal in the story line for Red Rackham’s Treasure. I’ll be very surprised if they decided to leave him out, as he’s a major character in Tintin’s comic books. I have to realize this is a Hollywood production, so they’ll definitely take “artistic” license, and modify the stories to fit into a 2-hour movie. Either way, they need to clear up this confusion.
Meanwhile, the long wait continues…
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
- Target audience age 9-12 [↩]
Apparently, today is the Internet’s 40th birthday! According to Wikipedia:
After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and SRI International (SRI) in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET was one of the “eve” networks of today’s Internet.
I wrote about my first experience of being “online” using the Internet. Specifically, I was using it as a talk box to chat1 with someone in Italy. Then I used it for email and reading USENET articles.
It’s the most important medium for my daily life. My professional life is about maintaining Internet websites, serving e-Commerce and informational contents. I also maintain personal blogs to document my life. The Internet is also part of my social life, via Facebook and Twitter. Finally, it’s obviously the source of information with innovators like Google and Wikipedia.
However, who would’ve thought, after all of these years, the Internet has become a legitimate addiction? I admit that I have a mild addiction.2
It’s hard to separate myself from the Internet because it’s intertwined with my daily life. I now watch TV online via Hulu or Netflix. I listen to music online via Pandora or Blip.fm. I shop online via Amazon or Newegg. I play video games online via Steam or Facebook. I do my banking online to pay my bills, make investments, etc. Heck, I sometimes go to church online!
Fortunately, I’m happy to say not everything is Internet based. I still need to go to the supermarket, as my fridge still can’t call a local market to deliver groceries to me. I still need to go out with family or friends to a local restaurant (although arranging the meeting is being done online).
If there is one thing I like to do via the Internet (that I’m unable to do right now) is going to the office for work. Working from home is still underrated in my company. Unfortunately, it’s a political issue, so I’m stuck having to commute 30 minutes each way to/from work – when I can just turn on my laptop and be at work in 2 minutes. I don’t know when that will change. I can only hope the next generation of CEOs and managers will see the benefit and practicality.
So it’s been an amazing 40 years for the Internet. Here’s looking at another 40 years of good times online!
Photo Credit: extremeyarx
- Remembering Unix Talk, the new Internet thing to enhance that immensely is Google Wave. I still don’t have a beta invite, yet, but I’m looking forward to try it. [↩]
- Is there such a thing as a “mild addiction”? [↩]
Building IT
Jot It Down
