Host: “Are you a supporter of legalizing online gaming?”
Romney: “No. No, I’m not.”
Host: “Why not?”
Romney: “Uh, uh, gaming has a social affect on a lot of people. I don’t want to increase access to gaming and I feel that we have plenty of access to gaming right now through the various casinos and establishments that exist and in some states there are lotteries that are used to fund their schools and budgets and so forth and I don’t think online gaming would encourage or improve that setting.”

Ah, I get it you’re opposed for moral reasons and because you want to protect the lottery. So you must never do any friendly wagering yourself…

Here’s lists of
Comcast approved cable modems
Time Warner approved cable modems

Here’s a diagram showing the set up and two different ways I demo turning the lights on and off.

As I mention in the video, you can not use a lamp module with a CFL light bulb, so if you want dimming capabilities you will have to go back to incandescent bulbs, otherwise I recommend the appliance modules. You do not need to buy any software if you are reasonably technical you can use the free webserver software located here: http://www.iphonehomecontroller.com/tag/x10/

Free App – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/netawake/id288779132?mt=8
WOL – Magic Packet Sender – http://magicpacket.free.fr/
Wiki – http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WOL
Router Firmware – http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation

Website: http://www.tenjin.org/RemotePad/
App: http://itunes.apple.com/app/remotepad/id291741057?mt=8

1. Elance.com but for contractors and localized (they always rip ppl off and overcharge, would be nice if they could bid on jobs online and users could read previous customer reviews)

2. Pet collar gps/pedometer so you never lose your dog and can see how much your dog exercised each day

3. Watch with pedometer

4. Survivor reality show broadcast 24/7 instead of the usual 1 hr recap of 3 days

5. Grant applying service for professors. Professors want to do research. It’s what they are good at and what they love doing. They do not want to beg for money. You could make a business that writes grant requests on behalf of professors.

6. Pickup game app. It’s hard to find a bunch of people to play a basketball/baseball/whatever sport pickup game. App would put people who are in close proximity to each other that want to play sport together

7. Movies tickets are all the same price. Don’t know what the business idea here is exactly but there has to be some sort of arbitrage opportunity. It costs the same price to go see any movie at the movie theater, but Avatar cost like $200 million to make and Slumdog Millionaire costs like $5 million. Clearly a ticket to go see Avatar should cost more.

8. Facetime app with Miis. Facetime app except instead of actually seeing video of each other, you see an avatar that the other person can control/make do things like smile, be sad etc

9. Clothing size conversion app between different clothes retailers. Is a Gap medium a Banana Republic Large?

10. iPhone speakers that take over the audio playing for your phone when you set it near them so no need to actually plug your phone into the player

11. American made app. App/website that lists American made products.

12. Lunch hour app. Instead of a happy hour app, an app that shows only lunch specials

13. An app idea submission website. Everyone submits app ideas and people vote on what they think the best idea is. The one that wins gets a cash prize.

14. A smart fridge that automatically orders groceries for you to be delivered by Amazon Fresh/whoever. I think this one is quite a few years away but it will happen eventually. There’s a couple food items that people always need to have in their fridge: milk, eggs, bread etc. Why bother going to grocery shopping when you can just have your fridge automatically order a new batch when the last one’s getting low?

15. Smart razor and smart toothbrush. All our electronic devices are going to be hooked up to the internet eventually so a razor and toothbrush seems like a natural progression. The idea would be that you could look at your phone and look at how long you brush your teeth on average, at what times you brush, if it were smart enough, how you could improve your brushing technique. You could get points for flossing etc.

What is Git?
Git is a version control software. Basically this means that any time you have a project, document, file or folder which you update regularly you are going to have different versions over time. Sometimes you want to roll back changes or at least look at what you changed. Git allows you to do this without copying, pasting and saving every version as a new file.

I played WSOP event #13 the $1500 no limit hold’em shootout Wednesday with no success. I’m not really surprised just a little disappointed, I mean I think the avg winning player cashes in something like 15% of these things? I thought I played pretty well, but I was unsure of a couple decisions I made prior to busting.

I played pretty tight early on and let the donks knock themselves out which I thought was common knowledge for basic sit n go strategy yet I still witnessed young (supposedly good?) online guys calling 3 bets out of position with 8Ts and crap. Sure the other guy ends up showing down T6s, but it all seems like pretty big spew to me. There’s no doubt in my mind these tournies are good value.

I basically play no hands except for the occasional blind steal or blind defense and find myself five handed with 500 less than the starting stack of 4500, with 4000 in chips. The structure is definitely quicker than the other 1500s, as it skips the 75/150 level and goes straight from 50/100 to 100/200 in level 4. I don’t really mind the jump, as usually most of the donks have knocked themselves out by this time, and it’s mostly a shove luckfest at that point, but it’s worth noting.

Anyways it folds to me on the button and I have the two beautiful looking Jacks for the first interesting decision. I make a standard 2.5x open to 500, and the small blind who has me slightly covered with 5100 in chips makes it 1300 to go. At this point I’m licking my chops ready to get it in expecting to be a pretty sizeable favorite when the big blind ruins my party and instantly announces he is all in after looking at his cards for about 5300 total.

$100/$200 No Limit Holdem
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/

Stacks:
UTG $20,000
CO $10,600
andr3w321 (BTN) $4,000
SB $5,100
BB $5,300

Pre-Flop: ($300, 5 players) andr3w321 is BTN Jd Jh
2 folds, andr3w321 raises to $500, SB raises to $1,300, BB goes all-in $5,300

Final Pot: $7,100

The fact is I think the big blind isn’t doing this with Tens ever, as he should at least think about folding and the same for AQ. The small blind can also easily have a higher pair than me. If I fold I’m left with 3500 or 17.5 big blinds with no antes or an M of 12 and still an okay reshoving stack. If I call I may triple up and cripple two of my opponents. If I fold I let them tango with no risk to me, and in all likelihood say goodbye to one of my competitors and am left four handed with plenty of time to find a good reshove spot. What would you do?

Well, I ended up folding and I was really unsure of my decision, but utilizing poker bluff tools I was able to find I made the correct play. There are two scenarios that can play out if I call.

1) SB folds and I am headsup with the BB for a pot of 9,300 chips
2) SB overcalls and I am 3 way for a pot of 12,000 chips

For the first scenario I have equity of 36.2%.

Hold’Em Equity Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Board:
Dead:
Equity Win Tie Wins Ties
Hero: 36.24% 36.03% 0.21% 360271 2147.00 { JdJh }
Villain 1: 63.76% 63.54% 0.21% 635435 2147.00 { QQ+,AKs,AKo }

Solving for expected value I find that by making this call I lose 138 chips on average. A clear losing play.

Call Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Amount to Call: 3500.00
Total Pot After Call: 9300.00
Pot Odds: 37.63%
Equity: 36.15%
Expected Value: -138.05

For the second scenario I find I have 28.56% equity.

Hold’Em Equity Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Board:
Dead:
Equity Win Tie Wins Ties
Hero: 28.56% 28.18% 0.38% 185177 2479.67 { JdJh }
Villain 1: 46.43% 44.74% 1.69% 293954 11110.17 { QQ+,AKs,AKo }
Villain 2: 25.01% 23.06% 1.94% 151520 12771.17 { 88+,AJs+,AJo+ }

Solving for expected value I find that by making this call I lose 76 chips on average. Not quite as bad, but still a clear losing play.

Call Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Amount to Call: 3500.00
Total Pot After Call: 12000.00
Pot Odds: 29.17%
Equity: 28.53%
Expected Value: -76.40

Of course being results oriented like we all are, after I fold the sb decides he has to call with his AQo and the big blind tables AKo. Jack on the flop and AK ends up taking the 10,000 chip pot down. Obviously, if I could have seen their hole cards I’d have known I was making a -2000 chip decision, but at least I can take solace in knowing I made the theoretically correct laydown.

So then I’m down to four handed and manage to get a walk in the big blind before my final bustout hand comes. It was pretty standard, but worth analyzing nonetheless.

$100/$200 No Limit Holdem
4 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/

Stacks:
CO $20,000
BTN $10,600
andr3w321 (SB) $3,500
BB $10,900

Pre-Flop: ($300, 4 players) andr3w321 is SB Ks Js
1 fold, BTN raises to $500, andr3w321 goes all-in $3,500, 1 fold

Final Pot: $4,200

Button opens to 500 and I am in the small blind with about 3500 chips. I have KJs and shove all in. Using Poker Bluff Tools’ fold equity calculator I can guess that the button is opening roughly 70% of the time here and calling all broadway, aces and pairs. With those assumptions I get a fold equity of 60.65%. Plugging the calling range into villain 1, and giving myself KJs I get an equity of 46.75% when called.

Hold’Em Equity Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Board:
Dead:
Equity Win Tie Wins Ties
Hero: 46.75% 44.96% 1.79% 404203 16057.50 { KJs }
Villain 1: 53.25% 51.47% 1.79% 462698 16057.50 { KTs+,QTs+,JTs,KTo+,QTo+,JTo,22+,A2s+,A2o+ }

Plugging in the remaining unknowns for the Semi Bluff Calculator and solving for expected value I get a positive chip EV of 545 chips.

Semi Bluff Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Equity When Called: 46.75%
Pot Size Prebluff: 800.00
Bluff Amount: 3400.00
Fold Equity: 60.65%
Expected Value: 545.41

Unfortunately, results were he called with KQo. I have KsJs, flop is Ts8s6h giving me hope, but the turn and river were no help and I was out in 4th at my table. If I wanted to I could figure out an optimal shoving range for myself in this spot given my assumptions(set EV to 0 and then solve for equity to get 28.51%, change hero’s hand from KJs to 100% of hands and you still get 38% which means you’re still profiting 287 chips by shoving 100% of your range if he folds that often), or even use the Call Calculator to figure out from my villain’s perspective an optimal calling range given my shoving range(he needs 48% equity to call).

Call Calculator by http://www.PokerBluffTools.com
Amount to Call: 3000.00
Total Pot After Call: 6200.00
Pot Odds: 48.39%
Equity: 48.39%
Expected Value: 0.00

Please let me know if all the above was simple enough to follow along or if you you’d like me to make a youtube video walking through the hands or any other hands for you. I hope you can see the power of Poker Bluff Tools and will give it a try.

In case you missed it last week:

I think the poker bot argument is a very good microcosm of what is going to happen to all games and sports(not to mention jobs) over the next century. Let’s take a look at a few:

Jeopardy
As I’m sure you’re all aware Watson destroyed the best Jeopardy players handily in a much publicized match in February 2011. Does this mean the end of Jeopardy? For now only IBM has the capabilities to use the machine and it takes up the size of a large room, but how long before the technology is in the hands of everyone and the size of your fingertip? How will Jeopardy stop cheaters?

Nascar
As I’ve mentioned before on my blog Google has a self driving car How long before they enter a car and driver into a Nascar race? And win? They first came out with the cars over a year ago. It’s only a matter of time. Is Nascar going to ban cars that aren’t driven by humans? Will all the teams eventually get virtual drivers? Think about how much faster the races will be. Fans will love it. Or will they? Does it take the excitement out of the sport when you know someone’s not risking their life driving the car at 200mph? What about all the sponsors and the drivers decked out driving suits? What happens when the driverless car wins? Is the driverless car going to do a couple of victory donuts? Are the programmers who tweaked the driving algorithm going to rush the track and douse each other in champagne? Are the fans going to go wild for the computer nerds who made it happen? Is the whole fanbase going to change from that of the average working family to that of battle bots?

Baseball
These robots pitch and hit a ball. This video is from over two years ago.

Golf
There’s already machines out there with the perfect golf swing. How long before they take down Tiger Woods?

Soccer/Futbol
This one’s a long way off still but Robocup runs a robot soccer competition every year and has a publicly stated objective:

“By mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win the soccer game, comply with the official rule of the FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.”

Boxing
Real Steel obv. By 2020 though… no chance.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. We may try to ban all new technologies like we did the shark skin suit for swimming or even the aluminum bats for baseball, but this won’t stop it. Sooner or later a cyborg is going to try to compete in the Olympics and it’s going to cause a lot of controversy.

-Accelerate and brake slowly
-Turn off the AC
-Close your windows
-Keep your tire pressure high
-Break as little as possible
-Avoid idling when possible(if the stop light is going to be >7 seconds it’s probably more fuel efficient to shut the engine off)
-When on the highway try to use cruise as much as possible and the “accel” and “decel” buttons instead of the foot brake and gas peddle as they are more fuel efficient
-55mpg is the most fuel efficient speed

Using some of these techniques I’ve increased my gas mileage considerably, though I’ll be the first to admit my sample size is a completely statistically insignificant two since I started trying it. I drive an old beater 1997 dodge caravan. It has official mpg ratings of 16mpg city, 22mpg highway and 18mpg combined. My last fillup before I tried hypermiling I got 18mpg. This should be fairly typical for the driving I do. The last time I filled up after I’d been hypermiling I got 22.7mpg. The majority of that last tank was highway driving, but it’s still almost a full mile/gallon faster than the rating and there was certainly some/albeit a small amount of city driving thrown in.

Some math on my average monthly driving:
700 miles/month @18 miles/gallon = 38.89 gallons/month*$4/gallon = $155.56/month
700 miles/month @19 miles/gallon = 36.84 gallons/month*$4/gallon = $147.37/month
Savings = ~$8.19/month per each mile increase in mpg

That’s like free Netflix! More importantly its free money, good for the environment, and fun/challenging to see how well you can do.

Safety
As with all things there are different levels of hypermilers. You will have to find your personal level of increased risk you are willing to accept for the increased savings at the pump. The hardcore hypermilers can double their gas mileage by shutting the engine off to coast when going downhill. I’m not that hardcore and I don’t recommend it. In neutral with the car off your steering and breaking ability will be hampered considerably. I will shutoff the engine at very low speeds leading up to a red light, but never at high speeds. If you google personal injury lawyer and hypermiling you will get a ton of hits. Shutting the engine off whenever you’re in traffic is going to decrease your safety by limiting your options and decreasing your reaction time in the case of an emergency but it will save you money at the pump. Try to be smart.

Maintenance
Hypermiling is going to be harsh on your car. Starting and stopping your engine constantly will wear your starter out faster. If you have a manual transmission you can save gas and your starter by popping the clutch whenever possible. This will be hard on your transmission. If you do it right the money you save with increased fuel efficiency will cover your additional maintenance fees with plenty left over. Some people recommend different rules of thumbs for how long you can idle at a red light and still save gas. I’ve read that starting the car uses ~6 seconds of idling time, but you will have to take into the additional maintenance costs to the starter so some people recommend a 10 second rule or even a 30 second rule. If you don’t have a fuel injected car, forget about trying to idle as starting your engine chugs gas, but you probably already know that (hence why you may be reading haha).

If you don’t want to try shutting off your car in traffic at all that doesn’t mean can’t call yourself a hypermiler. You can still utilize a number of the above tips. Try to accelerate and break a bit smoother, keep your tire pressure high, minimize the AC usage and try not to speed too much.

As you can see fuel efficiency drops off pretty quickly at high speeds. The difference between going 60mph or 70mph can be 5-20% worse fuel efficiency or the equivalent of an extra 20-80 cents/gallon at the pump. In a half hour trip of 30 miles, you would get there in 30 minutes driving 60mph or 25.7 minutes driving 70mph. Is that extra 4 minutes of time worth the extra dollar to dollar fifty you are paying for it worth it? Would you like to save/make an extra $20/hour by simply driving a few mph slower?

PS To anyone who says why don’t you just ride your motorcycle everywhere. My motorcycle gets ~50mpg which is great and all but I recently watched Mythbusters and was shocked to learn that Motorcycles emit 8000% more carbon monoxide than cars Not to mention I can’t cart ATMs on a bike and sometimes I just don’t feel like safety gearing it up for a quick ride to the grocery store.