Rounds: Here.
Peter Smith returns to the champion's chair but this time as a bona fide champion. Richard notes that forty-seven years ago Peter was "right at the cutting edge of computing", and asks for more information. Peter explains that he was working on a computer called CSIRAC, which was built by the CSIR (the name at the time for what is now called the CSIRO) not long after the Second World War. (He adds "at Melbourne university", but it is not clear if he means it was built there or he was working there; certainly the latter is true but the former is not: CSIRAC was originally built in Sydney and later transferred to Melbourne.)
Richard asks for more details about it, and Peter says that the machine would have comfortably filled the studio. (That surprises me, based on some of the photos, but perhaps the more interactive photo selection available at the museum's pages will give a better idea; presumably there was more to it than the obvious selection of cabinets, and the depth is a bit unclear.) He says that it was immensely powerful for its day, but by comparison with today's computers: "Think of the cheapest, smallest mobile phone you can get and that would beat it hands down". He finishes by mentioning that the computer is now in the Melbourne Museum, and he is glad that he is not in there with it.
Tonight's challenger is Christopher Weldon, a writer who has moved house fifty-seven times. That is really quite a lot of moves, and naturally Richard asks about the reasons behind that. Christopher responds that there has never been one real reason for it; sometimes it was an important move due to a parent having a new job, and sometimes it was because the shower head was a bit dodgy and they wanted a new one. While he was living with his parents most of that travel was in Queensland and a bit in the Northern Territory; since he has been living by himself it has been generally Canberra and now Melbourne.
It was a nice close game tonight; Christopher got the early advantage in the second letters round, only for Peter to draw level again with a much better result in the first numbers round. Peter then took the lead with an excellent find in round four, and carried that lead all the way to the conundrum. Christopher needed to solve it first to win, and did so when he found an extremely fast solution to what seemed like a difficult conundrum. Christopher got the win, 46 to 43.
I started off with a relatively poor miss -- a word I've found many times before but not this time. I had good results for the most part thereafter, but failed to solve a tricky numbers game that was nonetheless approachable. Christopher was too fast for me on the conundrum, but I got there in due course and my main rounds had kept me in front.
Showing posts with label Peter Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Smith. Show all posts
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Friday, 26 October 2012
Ep 78: Peter Smith, Mark Duggan (October 24, 2012; originally aired November 17, 2010)
Rounds: Here.
Dom Saric successfully retired last night, so we have two new challengers today. Taking the champion's position is Peter Smith, a retired computer consultant who currently works as a part-time I.T. lecturer. Back in the early 1990's, Peter helped investors to win thirty-eight million dollars on lotteries. What they did was to look for lotteries around the world that slowly jackpotted to very high potential winnings (I gather the slowness was important since it meant that the lottery would not attract large numbers of other people with the same idea, like an isolated large lottery would do). Then they had to ensure winning by buying every single outcome for the lottery, which might be as much as nine million entries.
Their consortium had to spend around seven million American dollars, which in those days was around ten million Australian dollars, in order to get all the requisite tickets. A successful result for them, almost quadrupling the seed money. Apparently it made two and a half thousand people very happy.
Taking the challenger's position is Mark Duggan, a business consultant and qualified chartered accountant. Mark moved to Australia ten years ago and spends several hours a week as a volunteer on a crisis telephone line, talking to people about all kinds of problems. He also helps to train new volunteers through their journey from knowing nothing about telephone crisis counselling through to being qualified to sit and work on the phones with any kind of caller.
It was a close but low-scoring game tonight, with neither contestant able to gain any points from the numbers rounds. A round where both contestants declared invalid words also kept scores down, and otherwise they mostly matched results. They went into the conundrum with Peter ahead but not safe; he buzzed in late with an invalid answer, but Mark was not able to use the extra time to solve it and Peter took the win, 24 to 17.
I started off reasonably well, but things slipped in the latter stages as I missed solving a numbers game that I should have and then failed to find two tough maxima. My conundrum speed was all right but not fast, but I'd done enough to get the score back up to seventy which is a relief after the previous two games.
Dom Saric successfully retired last night, so we have two new challengers today. Taking the champion's position is Peter Smith, a retired computer consultant who currently works as a part-time I.T. lecturer. Back in the early 1990's, Peter helped investors to win thirty-eight million dollars on lotteries. What they did was to look for lotteries around the world that slowly jackpotted to very high potential winnings (I gather the slowness was important since it meant that the lottery would not attract large numbers of other people with the same idea, like an isolated large lottery would do). Then they had to ensure winning by buying every single outcome for the lottery, which might be as much as nine million entries.
Their consortium had to spend around seven million American dollars, which in those days was around ten million Australian dollars, in order to get all the requisite tickets. A successful result for them, almost quadrupling the seed money. Apparently it made two and a half thousand people very happy.
Taking the challenger's position is Mark Duggan, a business consultant and qualified chartered accountant. Mark moved to Australia ten years ago and spends several hours a week as a volunteer on a crisis telephone line, talking to people about all kinds of problems. He also helps to train new volunteers through their journey from knowing nothing about telephone crisis counselling through to being qualified to sit and work on the phones with any kind of caller.
It was a close but low-scoring game tonight, with neither contestant able to gain any points from the numbers rounds. A round where both contestants declared invalid words also kept scores down, and otherwise they mostly matched results. They went into the conundrum with Peter ahead but not safe; he buzzed in late with an invalid answer, but Mark was not able to use the extra time to solve it and Peter took the win, 24 to 17.
I started off reasonably well, but things slipped in the latter stages as I missed solving a numbers game that I should have and then failed to find two tough maxima. My conundrum speed was all right but not fast, but I'd done enough to get the score back up to seventy which is a relief after the previous two games.
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