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The Newtonian Casino is a book that tells Farmer's story. It is fascinating and I've read it twice: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Newtonian-Casino-Thomas-Bass/dp/

by forinti 15y ago

The Newtonian Casino is a book that tells Farmer's story. It is fascinating and I've read it twice: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Newtonian-Casino-Thomas-Bass/dp/0582057523 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Newtonian-Casino-Thomas-Bass/dp/...

msg 15y ago
It has a different title in the US, which was where I read it. Agreed, it's a great book. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie
- mikecane 15y ago
  And "The Predictors" follows the further adventures of Farmer, et al, and is worth a read too.
DanBC 15y ago
This is a fantastic book. It has interesting insights about gambling, and roulette, (some croupiers can learn the physics of their wheels and can learn to hit a number on a spin) and the details of how they go about building the shoe computers is fascinating. I don't know if anyone has built an equivalent computer with modern tech. I'd be interested to see how small it could be built.
- patrickk 15y ago
  "I don't know if anyone has built an equivalent computer with modern tech. I'd be interested to see how small it could be built." Now there's an app for Google Glass! (news just in: casinos ban patrons from wearing Google Glass on the premises). From the linked pdf paper there's this: "...apparently been using a laser scanner and their mobile phones to predict the likely resting place of the ball." Would love to hear how they did it. I'm really interesting in roulette. I wrote a Python script that plays online roulette (mainly to learn Python, don't actually expect it to make money.)
  - waterlesscloud 15y ago
    They'll have to ban AR goggles in casinos, no doubt about it. Card counting would get a lot easier with them, for example.
Estragon 15y ago
I really enjoyed that book, too. The main thing I took from it was that if they had put all that effort and dedication into something which directly improved people's lives, they probably would have made a lot more money. :-)
- jacquesm 15y ago
  That's why there's more of us and we all get to choose our own path. One person choosing a path that has a non-obvious net effect does not mean that there is none, it could be negative or it could be positive. We just don't know. Take the development of the computer, a good part of it was a bunch of guys attempting to get it to play chess, what direct improvement to people's lives could have come from that? http://www.chessville.com/billwall/EarlyComputerChessPrograms.htm http://www.chessville.com/billwall/EarlyComputerChessProgram... Indirect effects can launch whole industries and make lots of money, possibly not for the people that start it but still, it makes you wonder what's the best way to spend your time.

by forinti 15y ago

msg 15y ago

It has a different title in the US, which was where I read it. Agreed, it's a great book. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eudaemonic_Pie

mikecane 15y ago
And "The Predictors" follows the further adventures of Farmer, et al, and is worth a read too.

DanBC 15y ago

This is a fantastic book. It has interesting insights about gambling, and roulette, (some croupiers can learn the physics of their wheels and can learn to hit a number on a spin) and the details of how they go about building the shoe computers is fascinating. I don't know if anyone has built an equivalent computer with modern tech. I'd be interested to see how small it could be built.

patrickk 15y ago
"I don't know if anyone has built an equivalent computer with modern tech. I'd be interested to see how small it could be built." Now there's an app for Google Glass! (news just in: casinos ban patrons from wearing Google Glass on the premises). From the linked pdf paper there's this: "...apparently been using a laser scanner and their mobile phones to predict the likely resting place of the ball." Would love to hear how they did it. I'm really interesting in roulette. I wrote a Python script that plays online roulette (mainly to learn Python, don't actually expect it to make money.)
- waterlesscloud 15y ago
  They'll have to ban AR goggles in casinos, no doubt about it. Card counting would get a lot easier with them, for example.

Estragon 15y ago

I really enjoyed that book, too. The main thing I took from it was that if they had put all that effort and dedication into something which directly improved people's lives, they probably would have made a lot more money. :-)

jacquesm 15y ago
That's why there's more of us and we all get to choose our own path. One person choosing a path that has a non-obvious net effect does not mean that there is none, it could be negative or it could be positive. We just don't know. Take the development of the computer, a good part of it was a bunch of guys attempting to get it to play chess, what direct improvement to people's lives could have come from that? http://www.chessville.com/billwall/EarlyComputerChessPrograms.htm http://www.chessville.com/billwall/EarlyComputerChessProgram... Indirect effects can launch whole industries and make lots of money, possibly not for the people that start it but still, it makes you wonder what's the best way to spend your time.