COBOL is king, always will be.

Solid and reliable code that works period!

http://www.kongregate.com/ runs these often as well. They are great fun. Newgrounds and Kongregate are two of the biggest flash sites.

Most of us use flash develop http://www.flashdevelop.org/ it is a free open source IDE for ActionScript/HaXe, that and the flex SDK (one comes bundled with flash develop) are all you need to develop for flash.

Then it would just be a matter of signing up on the site and getting involved.

Most of the problems (not all obviously) flash has are because of the lazy morons that are writing the flash games/apps etc. not the player. I have seen some shitty code in my day but some of the stuff I have seen in in actionscript would make you cry. It is to bad really. Actionscript is a solid language add on top of that HaXe and you have an even more robust language.

The ability to rapidly develop insanely low quality code that works is why it is so attractive. That doesn't mean all AS code is crap though, there are some seriously good flash developers out there.

Mod parent UP not down.

Whomever modded this down must not live in America because this is exactly the way our political system works. (sadly)

Don't believe me? Think I am just being paranoid and cynical? Think I need my tinfoil hat?

Go and look up who is in charge of the Food & Drug Administration.
Go on, I will wait...
Yea that is the person that is telling us what is safe for us.

Go ahead and do the same thing with just about any other government agency!!!

It is SOCIALISM!
We have the best medicine in the world and it will destroy that! (we don't and it won't)
Pull yourself up by your boot straps!!!
and countless other responses.

I am a chef. I work hard for a living. I have had ~3 jobs in my life that I had the option to get health/dental insurance for, only one of which was worth a crap.
I am 38 years old and a white male. I have no dependents and have never been married. I am obviously capable of working and taking care of myself. In short, there is nothing for me. I know this will sound racist and I don't mean it to be really but if I was from any other ethnic group I would qualify for pretty much anything and everything from medical care to extra school assistance all the way down to special low rate loans to open my own business. I am not suggesting I deserve these things I am just saying that is the way it is. Salaries have dropped so much in the last 10 years in kitchens it is borderline sickening.

I need health care badly. I can't afford anything worthwhile. All the plans I have looked into would either reject me because I have pretty bad blood pressure problems, or they are to expensive, or so bad I am better off without it. The dental plans I have looked at are in the same boat. I desperately need dentures.

I don't have a problem paying for my life. I also enjoy working hard. There is no other feeling like it in the world when you see a customer that just had one of the best meals he/she has ever had and completely enjoyed the experience. It is a great feeling. We all have to eat! My job is to make your experience the best I can and that is a lot of fun.

We need health care in this country badly however sadly our government is run by businesses not by the people. So I don't ever see it happening without a semi-revolution.

Until the camel's back actually breaks we are stuck I am afraid.

Poker is a game of skill.

Being able to read another players tells etc are skills as well.(good) Businessmen, salesmen, doctors, anyone in customer service have well developed skills in reading other people.

I disagree with the computer thing. A novice player (we would call them a level 1 thinker) would get crushed by a computer I am sure. The computer can be programmed with high knowledge of probabilities etc. and thus always make the right mathematical choice. Against a seasoned player those mathematically right choices will get confused by bluffs, stop-n-goes, pitches, stealing. etc. because they are hard to factor in and as the computer model adapts and updates its internal probabilities and begins to catch the pro the pro can simply switch gears and continue to crush the computer (rinse and repeat). It is not hard to destroy a mathematical poker model.

When they start lumping in crap like blackjack into the equation is when things get really screwy. Blackjack is not poker. (I don't know that they have said otherwise)

The PPA has been trying to get legislation passed for years (since it was banned) for this. All of use that play poker professionally, or semi-professionally have been screaming for protection for this. Legalize it and regulate it so we can play in piece. I don't have a problem paying my taxes and do so. Most players I know don't really give it a second thought they have to pay taxes and they know it. It is the weekend warrior donkey that might not be paying his taxes.

Although it is true that any player no matter their skill level can sit down and win a bunch of money from the best player in the world it won't happen consistently. Almost all of us keep databases of our hands (online play) some are massive. I average ~3000 hands a day last year. That is obviously just over 1 mil. hands. I know exactly what my win rate is and I also know that I "swing" sometimes I have cold times and sometimes I have hot times. It happens. That does not change the fact that the game is a game of skill not luck. Mathematically models don't usually concern themselves with 10, 100, 1000, or even 10000 hands. A decent mathematical model of a player is a min. of about 20k hands. (this is a disputed figure many people feel differently about this) personally I would say 100k hands at any given buy-in level is a good measure of your abilities at that level. Also by that time your numbers will be your numbers and you don't have to worry about calculating your standard deviation etc.

Poker is a game of memory, math (statistics and probabilities), and social skills like reading people. It has not now nor will it ever be and I can't wait for them to turn it back on full power so I can get back to augmenting my income with it.

A Note about them shutting down PokerStars and FullTilt:
PokerStars did the right thing and had all the money in other accounts so the player's money was safe. When the government came knocking they were able to say this is our player's money accounts let us give them their money.

FullTilt did not. They screwed the pooch big time. (after telling us all that the money was separate a while back).

Sorry I rambled on so much.

People run hot and cold sometimes that is true. (Moneymaker ran hot as a nova during the WSOP)

The above quote is a very bad example of why people think poker is luck.

AKs vs. 43o is only a 65% favorite. That is all. Not much is it.

Your a bunch of math guys around here. Here are the numbers. (whips open poker stove)

    21,423,686 games 19.485 secs 1,099,496 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

        equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 65.843% 65.56% 00.28% 14045162 60932.00 { AKs }
Hand 1: 34.157% 33.87% 00.28% 7256660 60932.00 { 43o }

Isn't this the excuse we hear from almost every piece of software on linux. It is in beta is the most overused excuse for poor documentation and programs being haphazardly put together with no polish.

I am not above it, I have created many little tools I only use on my local lan that will never be released.
It gets pretty old hearing anything associated with linux say this.

Notes:
1) Yes windows is better in this area. (though not by much).
2) A few (ubuntu/red hat/openSuSe/etc) have done a great job polishing up linux for the end user experience.

Question, Why are the Ubuntu guys getting all crazy and releasing stuff before it is ready? Do they have some direct monetary competition that I am not aware of? (very possible)

I have supplemented my income for years playing poker and I know this for sure. It is not gambling, it is a game of skill.

I have been supplementing my income by playing poker online for years. This really hurts. When I logged into Poker Stars today I freaked out a little. Looks like these guys were into some shady stuff though so :-/

Well since your talking about our government I am forced to ask one question. Is that a rhetorical question?

There are many places in our country that there is only one option. When one of these big chains comes in and builds it generally kills every other business in the area because the town can't support both and obviously the mega stores can charge a much smaller price.

Literally???

Which states tax the sale of foods?

As trollish as this might look to some people the parent post is right. This IS what is going to happen sooner or later. When 10% are calling the shots and sticking it to the other 90% the 90 is going to get pissed sooner or later.

Just as a heads up to any of the rich folks reading. Even the wealthy military generals are still middle class by station and won't abandon their men when the shit hits the fan. (maybe a few but not enough to matter)