“An X-ray poker machine was employed to read facedown cards and a rigged card-shuffling machine was also used in the plot, prosecutors say.”
Would love to know more about such a machine, if anyone has any insight. Are these developed underground? How expensive could they be?
If it can efficiently take in a deck of cards and deterministically return a rigged deck in a reasonable amount of time, I would be fascinated at how they solved that problem.
Many shuffle machines read all the cards, do the shuffle in software, then sort the cards accordingly. Here's a guy on Wired showing how to rig a poker game:
As someone who knows a bunch of card tricks myself, I have learned to resist the temptation to do an impromptu 'ambitious card' routine just because a deck of cards and an audience is in front of me before a poker game.
> There are _so many_ ways to cheat at poker that you should basically never play a private game outside of close friends.
Playing in an actual regulated casino or poker hall eliminates most of the technical risk of a fraudulent shuffle. The risk to the enterprise of losing their gaming license keeps things honest. Imagine the net effect of Bellagio’s shuffling machines or dealers being rigged.
But nothing can eliminate collusion of players. You’re best bet for that is your own self awareness. If your spidey sense is tripping, listen to it.
Thanks for the link. So basically, you are at a private game and if everyone has their phones out (and you are also an unsuspecting idiot), you are screwed.
Crazy that there is a USB port exposed outside the machine.
The card-shuffling machine is an obvious vulnerability.
But I'm provisionally calling BS on the "X-ray table." Based on (admittedly limited) experience with X-ray imaging, I don't believe that X-rays can read ink on playing cards. It would have to be a backscatter machine, which is even less discriminatory than a transmissive machine. Would need to see some evidence that this is possible.
If nothing else, the sheer size and bulk of such a machine renders the concept incredible. If I could build something like that, I wouldn't use it to cheat at cards, I'd sell it to the TSA!
Should we feel happy solving our problems with our fancy tools? Are our tools and in-depth knowledge a distraction to inflate our egos, or a sign of self-respect and passion?
I’m inclined to believe the latter. Our fancy tools provide so much more utility beyond keeping us happy. Our tools teach us new things and stretch our curiosity and creativity. Our happiness stretches us to solve more problems and ask better questions.
I think strengths are more difficult to define than weaknesses, because they are very context dependent. “Speed” may be useful in certain situations, but in many cases “speed” can be harmful in more ways than just overlooking details. You miss out on opportunities to learn, to ask for help, to become better at thinking critically as a software engineer.
What the idea of “strengths being weaknesses” reflects is how much we identify with our present state of ability. It seems like we get it backwards. We ask our jobs to fit us as people, rather than how we as individuals can become best for the job.
Yeah, it's impressive that someone built this. But the most impressive thing to me is that he has a group of friends who have been doing LAN parties together for 30 years. I can't think of anyone that I know that still does that.
lol. i’ll dunk on Apple as much as i’ll dunk on any other OS, but they wouldn’t be as praised for security if they had to manage the infrastructure and users that Windows supports
