Category: questions

Teen Patti flaws

For those who have played this famous card game (on which a movie starring Amitabh Bacchan was recently made) would realize that the ranking of the hand (3 cards dealt to the player) would be as follows.

Hand	Frequency	Probability	Odds
Three of a Kind	52	0.24%	424.00:1
Straight Flush/Pure Sequence/Pure Trail	48	0.22%	459.42:1
Straight/Sequence/Trail	720	3.26%	29.69:1
Flush/Color	1096	4.96%	19.16:1
Pair	3744	16.94%	4.90:1
No Pair/High Card	16440	74.39%	0.34:1
Total	22100	100.00%	0.00:1

When there is a tie, then the person owning the highest value card wins. If there is still a tie (in case of the color) then one owning the lowest value card loses. For the ultimate tie breaker, the sequence of the card suits: spade, heart, diamond, and club in descending order of rank is used.
The fact that 3 of a kind are ranked higher than a Pure Sequence is a serious flaw in the game. As we can see from the table, pure sequence has a lower probability, hence should be considered as a superior hand.
To sum up a quote from the Vedas:

Without any fault of hers I have driven my devoted wife away because of a die exceeding by one [an unsuccessful bet]. My mother-in-law hates me; my wife pushes me away. In his defeat the gambler finds none to pity him. No one has use for a gambler, like an aged horse put up for sale

questions

Robin Hood and CSR

Across the ages, there have always been supporters to the very concept of Robin Hood i.e. it is OK to rob the evil. Also In today’s civilized world, one cannot expect that much bodily harm for being unpopular, yet one is not surprised if the people being closed minded and biased against Bad Guys. This is something which is terrible for business and hence companies have to walk an extra mile to develop a favorable public opinion.
Although there is no denying fact that many companies, out of altruism, work towards making the world a better place. However for a majority of the companies CSR is part of their PR activities.

questions

Facebook

It has been often said that a guy can forget a birthday only once in his entire lifetime. (because the girl will make an example out of you and make sure that this unpardonable crime is never repeated)
However, whoever said those words has actually never met me. I have been on Orkut for quite some time and have primarily used it for birthday reminders.
I am a member of another networking website Linkedin, but I have never taken the trouble to find out its benefits. All I knew was that when I had a steady job, I was bombarded with all the emails from headhunters trying to place me, when I really did not need their help. And last month, when I tried to use it to get myself a good summer placement job, all I ended up was dead-ends.

Recently, I was invited to join Facebook. Although I am not new to networking sites, but I found this very intrusive. One the homepage, people can actually see what you are upto. That means not only your profile (the view you want to show to others), but also what your friends say about you and what you have said to others. Basically the entire facebook looked to me as one organism which keeps tracks of all your activities.
In the real life, we all meet a certain percentage of jerks. Since we usually share common friends, schools/colleges/offices with these people, these networking sites sites would always put you in the list of people you might know off. Hence encouraging these people to again pry into your life.

In old days, screen name was a perfect cover. You could always pick up a screen name and conviniently seperate your real life from online life. However with picture and video sharing, it has become increasingly hard.

Question: In the era of networking sites, where people can come to know about you from not only what you say and write, but also what other write/share about you, how do you maintain your privacy?