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User Profile for BGBlitz author

User Name BGBlitz author

Member Since 2003-04-27

Total number of Feedback Posts: 8

Total number of comments: 1

Last 10 Feedback Posts by BGBlitz author  [ Search for All ]

BGBlitz 1.5.0 (Mac OS 9)

Response to Game Author  

So I will here recapitulate the story again, just the facts nothing else: - With version 1.0.4 Byrum includes the possibilty to use Radu's board for Macfibs. Without asking permission what makes Radu upset and IMHO he was right with this. - When Paul Ferguson, the author of MAcFibs was made aware that David uses the MacFibs themes, he put a note on the site that this isn't allowed. David still offers the possibility to load those boards. AFAIK he only removed any special reference to Radus GoldChrome board and changed the documentation. Just recently he put on his website, respect the authors roghts. - His glassboard has copied and imitated the background and points of the two leather board. see this picture www.bgblitz.com/glass_vs_2leather.jpg. (BTW Radu has shown me a Glassboard clone [only the board, no checkers etc] and he needed less than 5 minutes to come from 2_Leathers to glassboard). 1) I never ever said anything about your SW, neither good nor bad. 2) I don't compete with Absolute BG in any way and I don't care about your downloads in any way. BGBlitz competes with Snowie, GNU-BG and Jellyfish which are know as the strongest programms and I have strong indication that BGBlitz is at least as strong as Jellyfish and beat GNU-BG at the computer Olympiad. BGBlitz is for serious students of the game and/or players which will become better in Backgammon. Absolute BG ist for people which like BG as a pastime and nothing more. This is totally ok. 3) David Byrum is attacking me in my personal integrity. I too can say that I never ever met such an underhanded person like him. He says I want to discredit his SW, but If I wanted to discredit Absolute BG, wouldn't it be a much better way to post critics under several nicks? As David did after the first trouble with his usage of Radu's GoldChrome board from MacFibs. There were postings from "eagle eye" and "backgammonlover" for BGBlitz saying more or less "good stuff, too bad it allows illegal moves and Absolute BG is much better stuff". We resolved the trouble and he removed those postings (@David: I was pretty sure that they were from you, but that you *removed* them brought me the evidence) Now when you look at Davids BG which is also from David Byrum you may suspect some posting as self promotion too....see that "eagle eye" and "backgammonlover" gives David's BG 5 stars (i.e. self promotion). Then look further. If you analyze the diction you will suspect that catalyst, backgammon1 and tiburon are too synonym for David Byrum and naturally he gave himself 5 stars always. Some further interisting stuff: tiburon and backgammon1 posted the same lengthy comment word by word. Accident? Around David Byrum are happening too much accidents for my taste. So much for *his* integrity. What would have been my and Radu's appropriate reaction? What if his imitating would have gone without reaction, what should I or Radu (because it is his work) do if he next clones another board or two? And this is not a remote possibility. He threated me in a mail that he would make Absolute BG compatible with BGBlitz boards and he has already 95% of the code ready! I'am a very peaceful person, and I would like it very much to come to any reasonable agreement. If he created the hole stuff, why don't he simply changes the points and texture and everything is allright? It could hardy take more than an hour or two and would support the fact that he did it accidently. [alert admin]

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Sunday, September 14 2003 @ 01:31 PM PDT

BGBlitz X 1.5.0 (Mac OS X)

Thanks David  

Thanks David, - finally you learned that me and Radu are different person. - finally you removed most of your postings ( altough I would have been more thankful if none remained) I'm full of hope that you will sometimes learn, - that I never to intended to competete with your SW (for good reasons and you will soon learn why) - You will learn that Radu was only upset that you uses him graphics without permission (each at MacFibs and from BGBlitz) and - that lying when there is an obvious evidence is not an effective strategy - that it is a better strategy to act reasonable instead of acting like rabid dog And you will surely regret that you call my integrity into question very soon. [alert admin]

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Monday, July 07 2003 @ 11:51 AM PDT

BGBlitz X 1.5.0 (Mac OS X)

Answer to Byrum  

So I will here recapitulate the story again, just the facts nothing else: - With version 1.0.4 Byrum includes the possibilty to use Radu's board for Macfibs. Without asking permission what makes Radu upset and IMHO he was right with this. - When Paul Ferguson, the author of MAcFibs was made aware that David uses the MacFibs themes, he put a note on the site that this isn't allowed. David still offers the possibility to load those boards. AFAIK he only removed any special reference to Radus GoldChrome board and changed the documentation. - His glassboard has copied and imitated the background and points of the two leather board. see this picture www.bgblitz.com/glass_vs_2leather.jpg. (BTW Radu has shown me a Glassboard clone [only the board, no checkers etc] and he needed less than 5 minutes to come from 2_Leathers to glassboard). 1) I never ever said anything about your SW, neither good nor bad. 2) I don't compete with Absolute BG in any way and I don't care about your downloads in any way. BGBlitz competes with Snowie, GNU-BG and Jellyfish which are know as the strongets programm and I have strong indication that BGBlitz is at least as strong as Jellyfish and beat GNU-BG at the computer Olympiad. BGBlitz is for serious students of the game and/or players which will become better in Backgammon. Absolute BG ist for people which like BG as a pastime. This is totally ok and especially it's usabilty is very well. 3) David Byrum is attacking me in my personal integrity. I too can say that I never ever met such an underhanded person like him. He says I want to discredit his SW, but If I wanted to discredit Absolute BG, wouldn't it be a much better way to post critics under several nicks? As David did after the first trouble with his usage of Radu's GoldChrome board from MacFibs. There were postings from "eagle eye" and "backgammonlover" for BGBlitz saying more or less "good stuff, too bad it allows illegal moves and Absolute BG is much better stuff". We resolved the trouble and he removed those postings (@David: I was pretty sure that they were from you, but that you *removed* them brought me the evidence) Now when you look at Davids BG which is also from David Byrum you see that "eagle eye" and "backgammonlover" gives David's BG 5 stars (i.e. self promotion). Then look further. If you analyze the diction you will suspect that catalyst, backgammon1 and tiburon are too synonym for David Byrum and naturally he gave himself 5 stars always. Some further interisting stuff: tiburon and backgammon1 posted the same lengthy comment word by word. Accident? Around David Byrum are happening too much accidents for my taste. So much for *his* integrity. What would have been my and Radu's appropriate reaction? What if his imitating would have gone without reaction, what should I or Radu (because it is his work) do if he next clones another board or two? And this is not a remote possibility. He threated me in a mail that he would make Absolute BG compatible with BGBlitz boards and he has already 95% of the code ready! I'am a very peaceful person, and I would like it very much to come to any reasonable agreement. If he created the hole stuff, why don't he simply changes the points and texture and everything is allright? It could hardy take more than an hour or two and would support the fact that he did it accidently. [alert admin]

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Friday, July 04 2003 @ 09:55 AM PDT

Absolute Backgammon 1.4 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)

Answer to Julian  

>As someone who has used and enjoyed both BG Blitz and Absolute Backgammon >(and thinks there's room for both), I'd like to see the >end of this fighting over boards (I have no connection at all to either >company except as a customer). I totally agree with you Julian. >David has posted new boards that are not too similar to Radu's -- >unless you consider the format itself to be only within the scope >of Radu's skill nobody says that. But the new boards have only changed the color of some parts. This takes an graphics artist in photoshop about the same time I need to type this sentence. Even I, unskilled at graphics, could come from glassboard to the other 2 designs in less that an half hour (probably less). The groundwork for a new Board, textures, fontselection, rendering and so on takes much more time. And the copied triangles are still the same!!! >there are other boards made by others on BG Blitz's site, which are also >similar to his designs and to David's -- >is Radu claiming that these authors also "stole" from him? Most boards on the BGBlitz site are quite dissimilar (exception mahagony grey/texture which are a variation) and there was never such a claim to any other author. >How about the boards at Macfibs >-- some by Radu, others by different artists, some very similar -- are >these folks also "stealing?" No, and no one ever said this and I don't think that they are similar. And there is surely no part with is identical in another theme. >In my opinion the new different color boards David has posted resolved the >issue for me -- the pieces and other significant features >were always different than Radu's, there was never a discussion, it was always the background (which is an imitate) and the points which are copied. >now the colors aren't close either here I disagree. The pieces which were copied/or an imitate are the background and the points. The points are still identical and the color change in the background needs less than 30 seconds in photoshop, so that resolves nothing. >I believe that David created these, and that the evidence on BG Blitz' >site and on Macfibs amply demonstrates the silliness >of the claim that Radu is somehow unique in his ability to create >boards. No one ever claimed that Radu is unique. But take any board from Macfibs and BGBlitz or wherever you find one and hold them against each other. The probability to find two which are that similiar is very remote. And it is not a remote similarity. The pixels are identical!!! Even David Byrum concedes that it resembles it (where hardly distinguishable would be more correct). To make it clear once again, only Background and Points are questionable. Frame, Dice, Cube and Checker are different and no one complained about that. >I really like Radu's boards for BG Blitz, and I really like David's >boards for AB - I believe they are different and botrh good, and I would >really like to see this bickering end NOW. I'am totally sick of this issue too because it cost me time I would like to invest in improving BGBlitz, just I can't accept if David Byrum attacks my personal integrity. Cite David Byrum: "Once again they are taking the low-road. It is unfortunate that instead of competing on merit, they have to resort to such tactics." and further "the author of BGBlitz and his board creator Rabu, have taken every opportunity to publicly denigrate me and to advertise on my product page in version tracker. They have no legitimate reason to do this except to gain attention to their game" This is disgusting. If I wanted to discredit Absolute BG, wouldn't it be a much better way to post critics under several nicks? As David did after the first trouble with his usage of Radu's GoldChrome board from MacFibs. There were postings from "eagle eye" and "backgammonlover" for BGBlitz saying more or less "good stuff, too bad it allows illegal moves and Absolute BG is much better stuff". We resolved the trouble and he removed those postings (@David: I was pretty sure that they were from you, but that you *removed* them brought me the evidence) Now when you look at Davids BG which is also from David Byrum you see that "eagle eye" and "backgammonlover" gives David's BG 5 stars (i.e. self promotion). Then look further. If you analyze the diction you will suspect that catalyst, backgammon1 and tiburon are too synonym for David Byrum and naturally he gave himself 5 stars always. Some further interisting stuff: tiburon and backgammon1 posted the same lengthy comment word by word. Accident? Around David Byrum are happening too much accidents for my taste. So much for *his* integrity. So I will here recapitulate the story again, just the facts nothing else: - With version 1.0.4 Byrum includes the possibilty to use Radu's board for Macfibs. Without asking permission what makes Radu upset and IMHO he was right with this. - When Paul Ferguson, the author of MAcFibs was made aware that David uses his themes, he put a note on the site that this isn't allowed. David still offers the possibility to load those boards. AFAIK he only removed any special reference to Radus GoldChrome board and changed the documentation. If he would have asked the authors before, probably no one would have complained. - His glassboard has copied and imitated the background and points of the two leather board. see this picture www.bgblitz.com/glass_vs_2leather.jpg. (BTW Radu has shown me a Glassboard clone [only the board, no checkers etc] and he needed less than 5 minutes to come from 2_Leathers to glassboard). What would have been my and Radu's appropriate reaction in your opinion? What if his imitating would have gone without reaction, what should I or Radu (because it is his work) do if he next clones another board or two? And this is not a remote possibility. He even threated me in a mail that he would make Absolute BG compatible with BGBlitz boards and he has already 95% of the code ready! I'am a very peaceful person, and I would like it very much to come to any reasonable agreement. If he created the hole stuff, why don't he simply changes the points and texture and everything is allright? It could hardy take more than an hour or two and would support the fact that he did it accidently. I'm curious to read your answer, Julian. [alert admin]

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Friday, July 04 2003 @ 09:36 AM PDT

Absolute Backgammon 1.4 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)

Creating the graphics...  

David said:
>Here is how I created the background in PhotoShop:
>
>Add a new layer
>Fill the layer with a color
>Select the Filter/Texture/Grain... menu item
>Adjust the sliders to get the affect you want
>That's all there is to it.

Oh what a precise description! Now everybody can start up Photoshop and come up with the exact same result!
Just that this description fits on 10.000.000.000.000.000 other patterns too. You really want to make anyone believe if you start up photoshop with dozens of paramters and Radu uses a 3D renderer with dozens of parameters the result is close to undistinguishable by accident?

Come on David, describe it excatly what to do, name the filters and so on so that anyone with photoshop can come out with the same result. In this case I will naturally excuse me. But I doubt you can.... [alert admin]

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Wednesday, July 02 2003 @ 11:31 AM PDT

Absolute Backgammon 1.4 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)

Judge Yourself  

>As the author of Absolute Backgammon and the creator of the graphics, I can
>say that none of the graphics were copied.
>They were all entirely created by me.

Judge yourself whether you believe that the "similarity" is by pure coincidence at www.bgblitz.com/glass_vs_2leather.jpg

>While the rows might resemble the rows in one of Radu's many boards,
resemble? it is close to impossible to distinguish them!

>the rest of the design, pieces, dice and cubes do not resemble theirs in any way.
Here we agree.

>A row does not a backgammon game make.
So why don't you create another background where you dont arise suspicion of using other people's work?
Wouldn't that take the heat out of the topic? Instead, you threaten me in an email that you will make Absolute BG compatible with all BGBlitz themes and have already 95% of the code ready. Who is taking the low-road here?

>Once again they are taking the low-road. It is unfortunate that instead of
>competing on merit, they have to resort to such tactics.
1) I alone stand for BGBlitz.. not "they". Radu stands for his graphics, which he has donated to BGBlitz and for other SW (MacFibs, JavaFibs) too.

2) I don't compete with Absolute BG nor David's BG. I compete with Snowie, GNU-BG and Jellyfish. Only If you had an AI of mentionable strength I would compete with your SW. You can have 100 times more downloads than BGBlitz, I don't care at all. Only if you had a strong AI would I care.

3) Radu has said, that you had taken his work without allowance. I hadn't said anything on your SW, neither good nor bad. I suspect you only want to distract from the fact that you where caught with the fingers in the honey pot.

>Many customers had requested that I allow the game to use the donated MacFibs boards. MacFibs boards had no restrictions when I
>created the ability to use them. After I introduced my game Frank and Radu got the author of MacFibs to post, on his web page,
>that the boards are only for MacFibs.

Isn't it necessary to ask before you use other people's work, especially if you make money with it? I asked the MacFibs boards authors and they donated stuff to BGBlitz. Further Radu made the author of MacFibs alert of your usage and he reacted as he did by putting that note on his site. There is no hurt-Absolute-BG-and-poor-David-conspiracy. You just have to be aware that if you make money with other people's work and without asking their permission, the reactions tend to be unfriendly.

>The authors of the boards have not done that however.

You forget to mention, that one of the authors was Radu-Dan, who explicitly forbid the usage of his theme. It seems always to be the case that you forget about parts of the story, especially the parts which don't favor you.
[alert admin]

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Wednesday, July 02 2003 @ 11:14 AM PDT

Absolute Backgammon 1.4 (Mac OS 9, Mac OS X)

Additional Information  

BGBlitz author: Radu donates graphics to BGBlitz as other do too. We are not further related in any way, especially Radu has no commercial interest on BGBlitz at all. He even payed BGBlitz! Look at parts of both themes: www.bgblitz.com/glass_vs_2leather.jpg and judge yourself whether the whole stuff is pointless. At www.bgblitz.com/themes.html you can see that there are plenty of themes and a note that copying is not allowed without permission. - David's SW has a feature to use themes from MacFibs altough on the MacFibs site is a note allowing the usage of the themes for MacFibs only. He doesn't care. BTW saying that you copied stuff from Radu and giving the possibility to judge that is advertising? What do you think is the appropriate action if one uses *your* work as his own, only slightly modyfied? >Since my site gets at least 5 times more downloads as theirs, they are >trying to hitch a ride on mine. Shame on you! David, believe it or not (from the communication with you, I know you wont believe that). I'm interested in writing the best BG-SW on this planet. This is very hard with competitors like Snowie, GNU and Jellyfish. And I have surpassed one of them already or being on par. You could have 100 more downloads than BGBlitz it wont bother me at all. I have much better ways to make money than spending my sparetime on such a project for 8 years (o.k. not more enjoying ways to spend my time). BTW if my English has some rough edges, please excuse, I'm not a native speaker [alert admin]

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Tuesday, July 01 2003 @ 01:10 PM PDT

BGBlitz X 1.4.0 (Mac OS X)

To JulianW. The…  

Delay is probably due to the Tutor. He checks whether you should have doubled. I'll check whether I could do this with a lower priority. If you have additional questions drop me a mail. [alert admin]

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Tuesday, April 29 2003 @ 09:03 AM PDT

Last 10 Comments by BGBlitz author  [ Search for All ]

Creating the background for the Glass board  

Oh what a precise description! Now everybody can start up Photoshop and come up with the exact result!
Just this descrition fits on 10.000.000.000.000.000 other patterns too. You really want to make anyone believe if you start up photoshop with dozens of paramters and Radu uses a 3D renderer with dozens of parameters the result is close to undistinguishable by accident?
Come on David, describe it excatly what to do and anyone with photoshop can…

Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)

Wednesday, July 02 2003 @ 11:23 AM PDT