Interview with Robert Houdart

[Martin Thoresen]

Can be found here:

http://www.tcec-chess.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=154

[velmarin]

Nice interview, Robert Houdart always very polite and very intelligent.

Thanks Martin for his tournament has left me impressed.

[Don]

It was a great interview and well thought out. Thanks for posting it!

[Albert Silver]

Can be found here:

http://www.tcec-chess.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=154

Is the site down? I cannot open the page.

[Paloma]

Hm, ok here

[Eelco de Groot]

Maybe Albert should change browsers for the interview? Google Chrome seems to hang, not unusual. I always thought it had something to do with the hosts file blocking some ads, then the page hanging. But Internet Explorer works here. Haven't read the interview, maybe tomorrow but thanks for the interviews Martin

Ah, Google Chrome now has the interview too, with some delay, so that probably wasn't what Albert experienced.

Eelco

[chetday]

Thanks for another interesting and informative interview, Martin. Good reading, both of them.

[Albert Silver]

Maybe Albert should change browsers for the interview? Google Chrome seems to hang, not unusual. I always thought it had something to do with the hosts file blocking some ads, then the page hanging. But Internet Explorer works here. Haven't read the interview, maybe tomorrow but thanks for the interviews Martin

Ah, Google Chrome now has the interview too, with some delay, so that probably wasn't what Albert experienced.

Eelco

The problem is the same with all three browsers: FF, Chrome, and IE.

Ex from IE:

This page can't be displayed

•Make sure the web address http://www.tcec-chess.net is correct.
•Look for the page with your search engine.
•Refresh the page in a few minutes.


FF:

The connection has timed out

The server at www.tcec-chess.net is taking too long to respond.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

and Chrome:

Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to www.tcec-chess.net
Suggestions:
Try reloading the page
Search on Google:

[Eelco de Groot]

Strange Albert! Maybe it is a network problem, or something at the server's end. In that case it may be just a temporary problem?

Some excerpts of the interview that I liked:

You have previously stated that you do not have a formal programming education, so what do you do for a living?
Robert:
I’ve been programming from since I was 14 years old, and have always tried to diversify my training and experience – which was one of the reasons for choosing mechanical engineering instead of computer science. But in the end it was inevitable that I would end up in software, and for over a decade I have been working as a software engineer/architect.

As you are perfectly aware, the jungle telegraph is hard at work at all times so we have often seen that there are a lot of misinformation spread around the net with regards to chess engines. Can we expect Houdini 4 in 2013?
Robert:
I hope to have a new Houdini version ready near the end of the year, but I don’t know yet when it will be marketed.

I use 2 servers (16-core and 32-core) to play about 100,000 games per day, with each game taking about 20 to 30 seconds.

An amazing amount of games! I have not read Don and Larry's response to this question which I assume they were asked as well, but it is probably the same order of magnitude in games. Can Stockfish' new testing framework keep up with this? And how will other programmers manage in this compettition, and what will the situation be in september when Martin is planning a new tournament? Maybe the scene will have changed completely! Well it is certainly interesting still! I don't think computerchess is on the way out as some said even at the time of the defeat of Kasparov by Deep Blue.

Regards, Eelco

[velmarin]

Albert,
I send you the interview
  by private message.