Tag Archives: ?otd

Question of the Day

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All laptops have a built-in UPS, and in fact one that generally can last at least a couple hours.

Why don’t all desktops have a built-in UPS? It wouldn’t have to be any bigger than the one that would be in a laptop. Usually, for the same cost a desktop gives you more features than a laptop, and it’s just silly in this day and age for a power failure to take out unsaved work on a computer.

Judge Poll

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Some background for those unfamiliar but might find this interesting anyway: The basic timing system in Magic is that when a player has “priority”, they can choose to (a) take an action, or (b) pass. If both players pass in a row, then (a) if there’s something on the stack (waiting to resolve), the top item on the stack resolves and active player get priority again, or (b) if there’s nothing on the stack, the current phase or step ends and the game moves on to the next phase. Usually, this formal description of timing is shortcutted quickly by the players, and most actual players wouldn’t be able to describe the details of how this timing system works.

The definition of “Cheating — Fraud” in the DCI Penalty Guidelines is “A player intentionally misrepresents rules, procedures, personal information, game state or any other relevant tournament information in an attempt to gain advantage.” Examples of this include intentionally lying, such as lying to a judge about what happened in a game, or lying to an opponent about one’s life total. (Bluffing about hidden information, like “You know I just have a Counterspell ready in my hand if you play that,” is fine; lying about public information, like “Sure, I take 5 damage,” when you know that you’re supposed to be taking 6 damage, is cheating.)

The poll question being asked in the DCI Judge Center:

Adam is in his Second main phase, has priority, nothing is waiting to resolve, but has taken no actions for 15 seconds while reviewing the board. Billy asks: “Can I play a Lightning Bolt now?”. Adam says “Sure”. Billy says: “Good. You passed priority. I choose not to play a Bolt. This phase is now over. Do you want to play anything during End of Turn?”. The judge should…
(a) …back up the game only at Regular REL (local store events like Friday Night Magic).
(b) …back up the game at any REL (including more competitive events like Pro Tour Qualifiers and Grand Prix events).
(c) …do nothing, this is legal.
(d) …disqualify Billy for fraud.
(e) …award an Unsporting Conduct warning to Billy and back up the game.

I was just curious if anybody here had any thoughts.

Question of the day

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Why are “mail fraud” and “wire fraud” different charges? Why isn’t there just “fraud”, regardless of the medium used for it? Likewise, why is “vehicular homicide” different from plain “homicide” or “manslaughter”? Does the medium used really change the severity or importance of a crime? Aren’t there already degrees of crimes (such as the difference between 1st degree murder and manslaughter)? Why would the medium used change the act that was committed?

Question of the day

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There are a lot of electronic money transactions nowadays. My “paycheck” gets electronically transferred from my employer’s bank account to my bank account, from where it is electronically transferred to merchants I do business with.

My question is, is there traditional cash (in the form of dollar bills) somewhere that is associated with all this electronic money? Or is there some currency in circulation that just begins and stays electronic?