Snooker: Celebrating 40 years at the Crucible
In 2017, Snooker celebrated 40 years at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. It moved to this venue in 1997, which is now recognised at the start of the modern era of the same. In this article, we look at some of snooker’s history, along with some of its major characters and a few of its […]
How Isaac Newton could help you beat the casino at roulette
Imagine walking into a casino with a computer strapped to your chest. Solenoid electromagnets thump against your body telling you where to place your bet on the roulette table. Suddenly, you start getting electric shocks. You rush to the toilet to undertake emergency repairs, hoping that the casino staff do not realise what is happening. […]
Postdoctoral Research in Malaysia
I was fortunate enough to recently be invited to write a piece for the (Malaysia) Star newspaper. The piece I wrote commented on the postdoctotal research culture in Malaysia. The article starts: “In a university, academic staff are paid to do three things: research, teach and deal with administration. As universities are largely judged by […]
We should be just a number, and we should embrace it: Extend the use of ORCID?
Delighted to receive the news today that our article entitled “We should be just a number, and we should embrace it” has been accepted for publication in The Electronic Library. The article supports the use of unique identifiers for the scientific community. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is just one example of a currently available tool. […]
The unintended conseuqences of sports rules: Olympic examples sought
Liam Lenten and I recently published an article in the European Journal of Operational Research entitled “When Sports Rules Go Awry“. The essence of the article is to look at examples when sports rules had unintended consequences. For example, there are cases when it is beneficial for a team to score an own goal in […]
Basic Betting: The Micro Bytes Back – 25 years on
Almost 25 years ago I wrote a self-published book that tested gambling systems using programs written in GW-BASIC. I recently came across the spiral bound book and the 3.5″ floppy disc. After struggling to borrow a 3.5″ floppy disc drive I eventually manged to get the programs copied onto my desktop computer. I had a […]
Is it possible to card count a blackjack computer?
The header picture is a five dollar blackjack machine in Las Vegas (at the Palazzo), and a very good game it is too. I spent quite a few hours playing it (basic strategy). I did see another version of the machine – at Monte Carlo and Mirage, and I actually prefer those machines as they seemed […]
When Sports Rules Go Awry: How TheConversation led to a collaborative paper
Whilst looking through Conversation articles I came across an article entitled “When scoring an own-goal is the only way to win” by Liam Lenten. By coincidence, I had just read another article about an analysis of sporting rules from the perspecive of Operations Research, written by a good friend of mine – Mike Wright from […]
AlphaGo: Computers and Game Playing: A Very Timely Lecture
Today (14:00, 07 Mar 2016 in F1A09 at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus) I am giving a two hour lecture on Computers and Game Playing. This lecture could not have come at a better time. At the end of January, Google’s DeepMind reported that AlphaGo had beaten the top European Go player (Fan Hui) […]
Christmas 2015: Advent calendar of research
In the run up to Christmas I have been posting each day that is (loosely) related to Research and Knowledge Exchange, and is also Christmas related. I thought it worthwhile just summarsing them here so that you can take a look at them from from one easily accessible place. Deck the halls with research stories […]