Sad day ... for 3bc
DeusExMachina
REGISTERED
For the first time I know of in the relatively short time I’ve been around here, 3bc—the perennial chart-topper whom I deeply suspect uses some performance-enhancing tool—has failed to record a faster time on the Freecell Game-of-the-Day than legitimate players. https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=887317506
Kinda like if Lance Armstrong had managed to merely tie runner Steve Prefontaine, despite the advantages of doping and riding a bicycle. Gotta be humiliating, one would think.
Just goes to show you: even computers have an off day.
For anybody who questions the legitimacy of my score, here’s evidence: 
[If and when 3bc provides similar documentation, I'll bow to his or her superior and impressive talent and stop mocking him or her with derisive usernames that I use while mastering a game.]
Comments
I misread that as ‘I’ll bow to kiss her posterior’ which made me hope that you hadn’t been too early counting your chickens DeusEx
Who sez there's no trash talking in Solitaire? Being atop the Leaderboard comes with respect from me. DeusEx.
3bc doesn't need to prove anything for me. Play on.
@fingsaint ...nice smiley face
I didn't mean for that response to sound snarky, DeusEx, but to expand....I could envision myself, if I had the know how and the chops, conceiving, building and implementing some sort of computerized gizmo cheat devise. And once achieved...using it for a week...a month...maybe two. But I would soon tire of it because I wasn't actually doing anything. Your vids are amazing and a good learning device and I don't see how anyone could play faster...but a couple months ago I couldn't envision you doing what you do either.
For me, the proof of honest play is the fact that they've been doing it for quite awhile.
get a life
@homedoggy: When dealing with me, of all people, you needn't ever worry about snarkiness, intentional or not.
I have tremendous respect for 3bc's abilities when it comes to finding solutions with very low move counts. S/he is routinely in the top 3 by that measure. While that accomplishment could also be computer assisted, I have no reason to suspect that.
What makes me pretty confident that the times are illegitimate is precisely the fact that s/he tops the board by both metrics in the same play. It might be counter-intuitive, but there's typically an inverse relationship between move count and the number of taps/clicks. That is, playing for minimal move count takes more actions than using power moves to maximize speed. Ultimately, a higher number of actions is the enemy of speed, rather like the number of curves on a racetrack (as well as radius & banking, but I digress).
As to your suggestion that it's not credible that 3bc would cheat for so long because s/he would "soon tire of it because [s/he] wasn't actually doing anything," that would be a compelling argument if the charge was that the scores were completely bogus. But that's not my theory of the case. Instead, I believe that 3bc enjoys playing and is extremely talented--at playing for low move count. Furthermore, s/he doesn't like that the official Leader Board for the games of the day rewards speed over move count. Maybe add in a dash of suspicion that people like me who routinely book times in the 5-10 second range must be cheating somehow, and you end up with someone who has no qualms about using a tool like ReMouse to convert totally legitimate low-move-count games into chart-topping times. Compared to the time it must take to fine-tune the solution to minimize the move count, recording the actions in ReMouse or equivalent and tuning the playback speed to achieve the fastest time is trivial.
One point on which I totally agree with you is that 3bc doesn't have to prove anything (at least not to you or me). But I reserve the right to draw my own conclusion and express my disdain through usernames with derisive plays on "3bc."
@cantnonymous: I would absolutely love to get a life. I mean, I already have one. It's far from perfect--I don't get out with my friends often enough, my wife has M.S., we have too many cats, and at least one of them prefers the hardwood in our living room to the litter box. Oh, and at the risk of stating the obvious, I spend way too much time playing Freecell. But overall, my current life's pretty good. Regardless, who wouldn't want another life??!?!!?. So ping me if you know where I can get one.
Thank you Deus in regards to the theory of life, kept me from being snarky as you and homedoggy have eluded to.
DeusEx...A while back I was having trouble with folks who couldn't comprehend what your videos have shown us. Maybe 3bc has a secret and doesn't want to share or ignores the forum side. Or perhaps @cantnonymous is a thinly veiled disguise.
You're of a more generous spirit than I am, @homedoggy. If I ever find myself on trial (for Second Degree Felony Snark, no doubt), I want you on my jury.
If you're right that 3bc's has some totally legit trick for times as low as 2 seconds (https://greenfelt.net/freecell?game=686960134), then s/he certainly might not want to share. In this vein, a point I meant to add above: I'm not quite full enough of myself to expect 3bc--or anyone else, for that matter--to give a ... um ... polished coprolite what I think.
Speaking of my videos, to give myself some real-world editing projects for the video app on which I'm a quality engineer, I've added graphics to screen captures of a few games highlighting the series of taps. While it would be presumptuous to post links publicly here, I'd be happy to share with anyone who's interested. Just shoot me a private message...
Ok, for those who haven't been here forever, there was a time when 3bc was on top of leader board for pretty much EVERY game. After a gazillion moans and snipes and some downright meanness 3bc did eventually disappear for a while. Now s/he is back but only seems to be playing selected games. Let's just let them play by whatever means and move along.
I see what you mean, @jabba . I’ve just looked in the forum archives and 3bc was getting stick way back in 2013. Got to give full marks for tenacity and determination to compete and sticking with the same username despite it all!
Great name, DeusExMachina, (god from the machine), perfect for what you are doing. Sorry to hear about your wife and that pussy cat.
I am always impressed with your times.
As Jabba said, 3bc has been here before. If i remember it correctly, it was Jim or David who called him/her out on the forum way back when.
HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa
crush that bot, Deus! YEE HAW!!!
Woot woot!!!
Perhaps 3bc would like to reply to all this.Seems a bit one sided to me.
1 2 4 3bc is coming for you
4 5 6 3bc gonna beat you ....
This is how it gets done:
This is how it gets done:
no zip files accepted?
Can't wait until it takes you 0 seconds to beat all the games. Now that will bea real accomplishment!. In the meantime, try GIVING someone else a chance to win fairly, but that would be much too complicated for your brain - i.e using your HEART....
I won’t be impressed until 3bc or Denny figure out how to record a negative time. With a fast enough computer (and a DeLorean tricked out with a flux capacitor) they should be able to get their bot or macro to finish before it starts, right?
Ooooo, the postscript to your 23 January comment may have to come into effect @DeusExMachina if @3bc gets the zip file attachment to post
Waiting eagerly (but not holding breath)
Well that's good, cause you got to breathe in order to play. Hey, when they get to 0 seconds, they will have reached the ultimate time, and there will be no more need to play anymore. So then, others will have a chance to win in regular human(e) time. Although even a simple mouse gives us a mechanized advantage. Thankfully, my love of the games has to do with good old problem-solving. Have Fun!
The video:
Deus, the screen capture graphics capability is an illuminating enhancement. Nice job. Made it significantly easier to see exactly what you did over on the "bear" thread. There are so many ways to skin a bear.
Amazing speed 3bc. Kudos!
Thanks for the video @3bc! I feel the forum traffic would drop by 10x if we just pinned your video to the bug report page and turned off the holiday cards.
Truly impressive, @3bc. I bow to your superior skill, and I humbly retract all my derision. Thanks for sharing the video.
Following your steps, I was able to carve a second off my best time on that game. Still a second shy of your time.
What’s striking about your solution is how critical pacing is. At 4 points I have to wait a beat for auto-play to run its course. Having 1 or 2 such pause points in a game is pretty normal, but getting the timing right for 4 of them is challenging.
Do you play on a tablet or a touch screen laptop?
Anybody smell something burning?
Okay okay...if you're playing a game on a ship in the Pacific...and you cross the International Dateline...does that give you a negative 24 hour time on the game?
Yeah, I think it’s smoke from 3bc’s fingertips.
@homedoggy, crossing the international date line shouldn't give you a negative time. Nor should changing the date on your computer. We use something called a "monotonic clock" which counts time but isn't related to the actual "wall clock time", so it never skips backward or forward.
@3bc: Thanks for the video! Thanks to videos like yours and the ones from @DeusExMachina, we've got video proof that the really really fast times aren't due to cheating (something we've continually said but not everyone believed
).
Well, there is still Denny & his macro (but he’s been AWOL or MIA for a little while)
@DeusExMachina and @3bc, thank you for ur time and energy in producing the freecell vids, it's a joy to watch true masters play the game .. .. .. BRAVISIMO!
And cyf posting all hopeless scores at the same, even though their games take a few minutes each. I would like to see a video of that.
Still not sure i get where you all are rushing to, I prefer to slow down, and appreciate the creative energy, and see the moves unravel. And evolve. Hope you make 0 seconds soon, 3bc! But then what's the point of playing. Your done before you started.
Oh, sure, @jim... but then what would we Forum Answerers do for fun?
Am I the only one who is surprised that after sooooo long there is a post from 3bc. (people who have been playing for years will know what I am on about). Oh and go you good thing for posting a video and proving you aren't the bot everyone was thinking you were.
@jabba my guess, and pure speculation extrapolated from the scant details attached to the YouTube post, is that English is not 3bc’s first language so the forum posts probably only draw 3bc’s attention if @3bc is mentioned in the title of the forum thread or hailed in the body of the thread with the @ pre-cursor symbol and so worth the translation effort to see what’s going on.
Total conjecture, of course