IRIX and Software

i actually prepared this for christmas but since the forum was down i'm just posting it now ...

it always bugged me that there was no proper ebay proggie for anything but windows. yes there're some java based tools but java ... oh well. and even those didn't run well on unix or even not at all. other implementations were rather humble and especially for those running an sgi server something like that would be very handy instead of having the desktop running with the sniper thing until the auction is finally over.
so as a little xmas special this year i figured i could share one of my own: RACbay, an ebay sniper.
should be quite obvious what it does and what it's for but just in case here's a short show off list

• what it can do: bidding on auctions
• what it cannot do: everything else
• it's compact: just 120kb (dso version)
• it's compatible: runs on irix4 and later
• it's fast: easily beats the java based tools even on irix4
• it's bloat-free: because it runs on irix4
• did i mention that it runs on irix4?
• it has 2 styles: motif classic and indigo magic. switchable at will (irix5 and later)
• it's discrete: not sharing your data in any way. no cloud or feedback or other crap like that
• unlimited auction count (well, as many as unsigned int can handle )
• straight forward use
• brief and clear log messages
• does not rely on nor alter your system clock
• builds for all irix versions from 4.0.5 to 6.5.30; static and dso. database and config files are interchangable
• switchable use of either the .de or .com site

now of course there's a catch
it's using the ebay api and therefore my dev id so i'm not gonna provide a public download. if you're interested just pm me and you shall have one. i will however take the liberty of rejecting requests if for some reason i don't wanna trust the guy with my dev id. e.g. if you just joined or made 4 posts in 6 years then i have to decline politely

and just in case for the record, this is in-house software without any warranty whatsoever. it's not open source and the user is not entitled to anything. i'm providing this for free and just from the good of my heart - uugh sorry, okay that got a bit too cheesy but you get the idea


EDIT: Tru64 version added

Outstanding! Another not-so-small step to keep IRIX relevant as a daily driver.

Thanks foetz. PM sent

I'm not sure if this is a silly question, but does it matter if you logging ebay.co.uk rather ebay.com?

Once again, foetz: you rock!

uunix wrote: does it matter if you logging ebay.co.uk rather ebay.com?

no, what matters is where you bid i.e. buy. if you bid through ebay.co.uk and win the auction then all further actions such as complaints, payment and whatever else have to go through ebay.co.uk. no matter where you're from.

and thanks of course for the compliments

Amazing! Is it a Viewkit app? If you stripped out your ID stuff then wouldn't you be happy to let us have the source code? We could graft in our own user IDs, compile, and it'd be good, yes? And to think I thought I was busy during the nekochan downtime writing a program to recreate Julian Braun's "how many time you will get each hand vs. the dealer's upcard" in 100,000 hands of casino 21. Braun was working at IBM at the time, it was the 1960s, and he wrote the code in fortran. Needless to say I haven't written a line of fortran since college so I'm using C++...

vishnu wrote: Amazing! Is it a Viewkit app?

it works on irix4 so no, it can't be. it just has 2 different sets of x resources. run it with option -s and you have the sgi look. otherwise the motif default i set.

If you stripped out your ID stuff then wouldn't you be happy to let us have the source code? We could graft in our own user IDs, compile, and it'd be good, yes?

hehe maybe one day but for those who have their own ebay dev account i could add an option. however those users are a minority.

And to think I thought I was busy during the nekochan downtime writing a program to recreate Julian Braun's "how many time you will get each hand vs. the dealer's upcard" in 100,000 hands of casino 21. Braun was working at IBM at the time, it was the 1960s, and he wrote the code in fortran. Needless to say I haven't written a line of fortran since college so I'm using C++...

ha nice, a hobby thing or do you work for one of these poker sites?
anyway sort of a pity to replace fortran with c++ for a calculation proggy

foetz wrote:

vishnu wrote: If you stripped out your ID stuff then wouldn't you be happy to let us have the source code? We could graft in our own user IDs, compile, and it'd be good, yes?

hehe maybe one day but for those who have their own ebay dev account i could add an option. however those users are a minority.

Hmmm yes I suppose that's true I don't have one...

foetz wrote:

vishnu wrote: And to think I thought I was busy during the nekochan downtime writing a program to recreate Julian Braun's "how many time you will get each hand vs. the dealer's upcard" in 100,000 hands of casino 21. Braun was working at IBM at the time, it was the 1960s, and he wrote the code in fortran. Needless to say I haven't written a line of fortran since college so I'm using C++...

ha nice, a hobby thing or do you work for one of these poker sites?
anyway sort of a pity to replace fortran with c++ for a calculation proggy

It's just for fun, I was a semi-pro 21 player back in the 90s. As far as I've been able to determine nobody's got Julian Braun's original fortran code. For this one, what he did was innumerable 100,000 hand sims and then averaged them. I'm seeing pretty wide deviation on either side of the numbers he's published in his table. It's table B-21 in chapter 5 of Lawrence Revere's book "Playing Blackjack as a Business," a fine educational tome...

vishnu wrote: As far as I've been able to determine nobody's got Julian Braun's original fortran code

yeah i just had a look myself and all i found was a newsgroup post from one guy who said there's no digital copy. anyhow fortran is very good when it comes to backward compatibility so assuming it was something like fortran II or IV just a couple of changes might be enough to make it work with more recent compilers. after all stuff like that is exactly what fortran is for

does it show that i'm a fortran fan?

foetz wrote:

vishnu wrote: As far as I've been able to determine nobody's got Julian Braun's original fortran code

yeah i just had a look myself and all i found was a newsgroup post from one guy who said there's no digital copy. anyhow fortran is very good when it comes to backward compatibility so assuming it was something like fortran II or IV just a couple of changes might be enough to make it work with more recent compilers. after all stuff like that is exactly what fortran is for

does it show that i'm a fortran fan?

Well, after fifty years of almost continuous development you gotta figure they're going to have something that's pretty useful by now. Wish I could say as much about X Windows, the X Toolkit and Motif...

foetz wrote: i actually prepared this for christmas but since the forum was down i'm just posting it now ...

Thank you very much for this tool!

Once more thank you very much for the RACbay! It won several nice auctions for me (recently a PSION MC200).

ha, thanks for the feedback. glad it works fine for you