Annoyances

Universities & Poker: gambling for & with students

Times are hard for most universities. One argument for this is that there are too many institutions offering university courses in Sweden (see the Swedish debate). We are simply too few people to support the institutions. So it’s not surprising that the universities and polytechnics/university colleges are fighting to get students to apply to their courses.

The University College of Borås is now offering a 7,5 credit (full Swedish academic year is 60 credits) course in Game Theory & Poker. The purpose of the course is to increase the students fundamental understanding of game theory applied to poker. The course begins with an introduction to game theory and games with incomplete information (specifically poker). The focus of the course is on the mathematical side, psychological and cognitive aspects of the game are ignored. 

OK, so I can understand how poker can be used to illustrate game theory, but to put the focus squarely on the gaming aspect does little for the understanding and development of game theory as a subject.

Online poker has become a big subject in Sweden. It is, strangely enough, often presented in the media as being exciting and profitable. Young people (read: university students) are attracted by the lure of the online lifestyle and easy money. By presenting the course in such a way the university college of Borås is contributing to the glamourisation of gambling – which most people should know tends only to make the house rich, not the players.

In addition to this, the course is an example of the how low can we go mentality the scramble for students. Naturally I sympathize with the universities need to increase the number of students but the way in which this is done is not irrelevant. Teaching poker is hardly the basis of useful skills in the job market or in life.

Can the teachers, department & university honestly say they have the best interests of the students in mind by creating and offering this course?

Posted on by mklang

You've got to be kidding?

Consumer Law and Policy Blog has a great article on the moronic “browse-wrap” agreements, a derivation of the “shrinkwrap” licensing terms that appear inside packaged software. The Browse-wrap agreements is the terms and conditions which the company believes that they are able to enforce on anyone who happens to browse over to their website.

In fact the company Inventor-link has the following terms in there browse-wrap (“Privacy and User Agreement):

Furthermore, we strictly prohibit any links and or other unauthorized references to our web site without our permission.

So even without visiting their website they claim that people cannot link to their site without their prior consent.

Consumer Law and Policy Blog writes:

Depending on the circumstances of the case, browse-wrap agreements may or may not be enforceable. Where a company has included a provision prohibiting fair use for purposes of criticism, however, it is hard to see how any court would enforce the agreement. Readers of a site have little opportunity to review and agree to such terms, and a reasonable consumer who had reviewed the terms would be unlikely to agree to them.

Attempting to control linking is not a new phenomena. Back in 2001 KPMG attempted to intimidate the owner of a website and prevent him from linking to the KPMG theme song (oh, yes!) by claiming that he had not been approved through a “Web Link Agreement”, read the story (and the cheesy song lyrics) on Wired.

The article over at Consumer Law and Policy Blog contains an interesting analysis of the situation and I recommend that everyone should read the article and take a stand to make sure that idiotic licenses (?) such as these become as worthless as the code they are written in.

Posted on by mklang

Tellytubbyland

Most human differences can be overcome, but there is one unbridgeable divide. The world is split between people who play golf and people who don’t. Each faction regards the other as an alien lifeform. One is astonished that any human fails to see that life without golf is not worth living. The other watches grown men in two-tone shoes dragging a bag of sticks round Tellytubbyland, and shakes its collective head with incredulity.

One of the best writers in the fields of injustice is George Monbiot. He dares to ask the questions most of us prefer to avoid. He then takes the answers to their logical conclusion. These traits have earned him praise and criticism. For my part he is one of the most important journalist/writers of our time. In a recent column he picks an easy target environmentalism and golf and explains simply and logically the negative effects of the sport.

One study suggests that an 18-hole course requires, on average, 22 tonnes of chemical treatments (mostly pesticides) every year: seven times the rate per hectare for industrial farming(22). Another shows higher rates of some cancers, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (which has been associated with certain pesticides(23)), among golf course superintendents(24). Courses consume staggering amounts of water(25). Many of them are built on diverse and important habitats, such as rainforests or wetlands. In some countries people have been violently evicted to make way for them.The problem is particularly acute in South East and East Asia, where golf is big business, and land rights and the environment are often ignored by governments. There are hundreds of accounts of battles between peasant farmers or indigenous people and golf course developers. In one case in the Philippines in 2000, two farmers resisting a course planned for their lands were mutilated and dismembered then shot dead(26).

Read the whole article Playing it Rough (originally published in the Guardian 16th October 2007) at Monbiot.com

Posted on by mklang

…and one EULA to rule them all…

Sorry for the geeky title but when I came across this over on Boing Boing it struck me that licensing is going way, way beyond contract theory in an attempt to control the rights over the users. From Boing Boing:

The Software may contain third party software which requires notices and/or additional terms and conditions. Such required third party software notices and/or additional terms and conditions are made a part of and incorporated by reference into this EULA. By accepting this EULA, you are also accepting the additional terms and conditions, if any, set forth therein.

Most EULAs (end user license agreements) tend to make sure that the user has little or no rights at all. EULA’s can also conveniently be changed without notifying the user of the changes. This means that the software user should consider herself lucky if her equipment works at all.

The example above goes beyond that. By agreeing to the EULA you also agree to any terms or conditions of third party software the original company may choose to install. This makes it impossible for the user to even attempt to control her rights against the software manufacturers.

For more on EULA’s see, for example, this article I wrote on Spyware.

Posted on by mklang

Kissing Policemen

A Russian photograph depicting two kissing policemen by a Russian art collective has been excluded (banned?) from an exhibition of contemporary Russian art due to be exhibited in Paris next week. Alexander Sokolov, Russia’s culture minister has banned the photo entitled Kissing Policemen (An Epoch of Clemency).

Apparently Mr Sokolov sees the photo as a political provocation and has banned it together with 16 other works. (via Guardian Online)

Well no one will try to argue that Russia is a tolerant society or that the position of minister of culture is there to promote the arts.

The photo is a variation on, or homage to, the British artist Banksy’s Kissing policemen.

Kissing Policemen by Banksy (photo by David Singleton)

Posted on by mklang

Plagiarism Saga

Following the embarrassing case of plagiarism at my university (Göteborg) has turned into a long process (here, here, here and here).

The brief outline of the case is that a researcher acting as a supervisor for a mastes thesis used some of the students work in a conference paper without referencing the work of the students. Apparently the students were mentioned in the oral presentation of the paper. Not that this matters.

May 2005: The conference when the paper was presented.

November 2005: The plagiarism is addressed by the Faculty, unsure what they actually did probably just decided to send the errand on to the ethics committee.

May 2006: A split ethics committee is not in agreement and send the case on to the National Science Council (Vetenskapsrådet)

March 2007: National Science Council reaches the conclusion that the researcher had behaved in an unethical manner by plagiarising student essays.

June 2007: The expert group at the Science council reach the same conclusion.

September 2007: The Human Resources Committee at Göteborg University is the body with the power to punish the researcher for her actions is unable to act since the university failed to notify the researcher, in writing, that disciplinary actions could be taken. This notification must take place within two years of the waking of the errand.  This means that since nobody at the university bothered to notify the researcher in writing during the past two year no disciplinary actions can be taken.

This situation has been handled incredibly badly….

Posted on by mklang

Anarchist Cookbook Terrorism Material

A 17-year-old was arrested in England for “collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism”. This is naturally terrible. But when you find out that the information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism was the book The Anarchist Cookbook! This is really stupid. Not only is the information simply a collection of readily information but the book is also available online and also on the Amazon UK page. So why should this get you arrested.

Picture 17-4 The teenager faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000.The first charge relates to the possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year.

The second relates to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism.

Amazon.com’s page for The Anarchist Cookbook contains a note from the author, William Powell, who says “The book, in many respects, was a misguided product of my adolescent anger at the prospect of being drafted and sent to Vietnam to fight in a war that I did not believe in.” (via BBC & Boing Boing)

What kind of terrorist needs to a buy this silly book? It’s available via links from Wikipedia and its available for download here (among other places). If possession of this book is a violation of the Terrorism Act then would linking to the same be aiding and abetting?

Posted on by mklang

C'mon, catch-up!

This is not a moan about information overload (or frazzing) but it is scary how many email messages, blog posts, voicemail, facebook messages (etc, etc & etc) are created each day. Usually reading and reacting to messages as and when they appear is an excellent tactic. But going offline for extended periods means that the pile of  (what? data, information, communication, interaction, knowledge or just plain crap) is almost overwhelming.

Today was spent traveling and doing hamster work (running round the wheel without getting anywhere). Replying to email, voice messages and tonight, the main event, scanning through my favorite blogs. Too many posts. So much stuff I want to comment on. The problem is when the pile of work has grown this much my main impulse is to ignore it.

But then again there is a masochistic desire to push through the pile of work and get to the other side… Or at least to blog 🙂

Posted on by mklang

Unhappy lists

The National Geographic website contains plenty of wonderful reports and pictures. This makes the website well worth visiting regularly. The website also now contains two new unhappy lists. One is the ten most polluted places in the world: La Oroya (Peru), Noril’sk (Russia), Linfen (China), Sukinda (India), Chernobyl (Ukraine), Kabwe (Zambia), Dzerzhinsk (Russia), Vapi (India) and Sumgayit (Azerbaijan)

The abandoned lead mines in Kabwe

It is all too easy to see that pollution has occurred somewhere else (preferably far away) and to forget that pollution has occurs as part of larger global system where even those of us in unpolluted countries are responsible and will be affected by the consequences.

The second list is the announcement of the most endangered species of 2007. These are the Western Lowland Gorilla, Chinese river dolphin, Egyptian vulture, Santa Catalina Island rattlesnake, Banggai cardinal fish, Gharial and Coral. This list is the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There website is another which is well worth visiting both for their images and the sobering information.

Banggai cardinal fish

Posted on by mklang

Microsoft Spyware Patent

Rejås writes that Microsoft has applied for a patent for a Spyware application. Spyware is a program, system or infrastructure that monitors the activities of computer users. Most Spyware is used to build up profiles in order to create efficient direct marketing. Similar systems have been patented earlier by Claria (formerly Gator).

For more information about the ills of Spyware you can read Spyware – the ethics of covert software, an article I wrote a few years ago. There is lots of good stuff written about Spyware so this is more a place to start.

Posted on by mklang