ultimate edge

[daniel27]

I just finish the book Ultimate Edge, i wonder if that computer is at sale maybe in ebay or something.
Anybody read that book?
Daniel

[Pro21]

No that computer is not for sale, and it is now an antique. Hardware is 100 times better today. If you are interested in seeing one of these old computers I believe they have Taft's original David on display at Barona.

[Fmartin]

Billings mentioned 2 different computers in the "Ultimate Edge" book -- the Taft computer, and the one the dudes in the book built to do shuffle tracking.

However. the previous poster is correct. That computer ran at 1 megahertz, and had a total of 30K of memory.

30 K!!! As Billings says in the book, a word document with the word "Hello" takes up 24K.

I seriously doubt those things are available anywhere any more. But it would be pretty cool to see one.

[Fmartin]

BTW, I thought the book was just great. Really entertaining -- makes me hope I can do something like that in my life some day.

I lent the "Ultimate Edge" to a couple of friends of mine (who don't share my interest in blackjack), and they liked it, too. They didn't understand the blackjack parts, but they loved the stories.

[QFIT]

Keith Taft was a cheater that used his children in illegal scams that ended up with one if his children sentenced to prison, seriously harming his future. What a father. Frankly, I'm embarrassed to be in the same field. At a party where he was present, I was asked if I wanted to meet him. No way.

Advantage play is advantage play. Cheating is criminal.

[sagefr0g]

Originally Posted by QFIT

Keith Taft was a cheater that used his children in illegal scams that ended up with one if his children sentenced to prison, seriously harming his future. What a father. Frankly, I'm embarrassed to be in the same field. At a party where he was present, I was asked if I wanted to meet him. No way.

Advantage play is advantage play. Cheating is criminal.

ok, i'm a bit confused.
as i understand it Taft developed his devices in the mid 70's.
i had also heard the device laws in Nevada were the result of casinos discovering Taft's activities, where upon the device laws went into effect around 1985.

so did Taft and his child engage in this illegal cheating activity after 1985?

[Brock Windsor]

Originally Posted by QFIT

Keith Taft was a cheater that used his children in illegal scams that ended up with one if his children sentenced to prison, seriously harming his future. What a father. Frankly, I'm embarrassed to be in the same field. At a party where he was present, I was asked if I wanted to meet him. No way.

Advantage play is advantage play. Cheating is criminal.

I've never heard that what he did was criminal at the time. I think even today device law is ambiguous from state to state and country to country. The Ritz team was found not guilty. I've even asked one jurisdictions gaming commision if I could legally use a computer in a casino. Their response "I don't know, best to ask the casino first, it might make them nervous". Who makes the law? The people or the casino? I find QFIT's words about Taft are harsh based on what I've read about the man.. then again perhaps QFIT will expand on his opinion. Taft's children were adults when they participated in his attempts to beat the casinos with computers and video cameras (and ??) They chose to participate, the consequences were their own. Taft is a BJ Hall of Famer, would QFIT like to see Taft's removal from that exclusive list?
-BW