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Has SomerBLINK ever submitted its code for review?

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Mens Barviainen
Arataka Research Consortium Holdings
Arataka Research Consortium
#1 - 2013-10-29 21:46:29 UTC
Not posting with my main because reasons. Blink

The question is: has SomerBLINK ever had its systems reviewed by a reputable source?

With any sort of gambling institution, the whole point is to fleece users of their hard-earned geld. To ensure that the game isn't too rigged, machines, programs, and rules are certified by third-party organizations (often run by the state) to ensure that the fleecing occurs above-board as a take, rake, or probable loss rate, as opposed to by some sort of cheating by the machine that the user can't be aware of.

SomerBLINK, to my knowledge, doesn't have any sort of certification. This in itself isn't grounds for suspicion.

Now, the issue: when I first started BLINKing, I bought some GTCs because, hey, it was a way to get BLINK credit without necessarily draining my wallet in-game, and I needed to re-up my subscription anyway. I then proceeded to play BLINKs and promo.blinks. I saw a guy in one of the BLINK channels joke that he'd had a good week, and had been told 'You'll win three promos, and never again.'

Then I won three Promos in fairly rapid succession (I'm on fire! Woo!), and then realized that I'd made out like a dog. A while later, I had more expensive projects, and GTCed up to fund those projects. Lo and behold, I made out like a dog, and won three Promos at a pretty rapid rate. And since then, I've been using those tokens they give you for promo blinks for weeks, a month, and I haven't had a single promo win since, despite many hundreds of promos having been played.

I'm sure I'm just not getting lucky, but here's the problem: it makes sense for SOMER Blink to hook people who buy GTCs especially, because they give SomerBLINK actual money. Could it be that people who buy GTCs, or donate lots of ISK get their odds for promos or wins bumped, so that they get hooked? Because let's face it. If you gamble and lose, you go away. If you gamble and win, you keep gambling-- and keep gambling, and keep gambling.

And SomerBLINK wants to hook people who are willing to buy GTCs, because that's how they make their living.

Has SomerBLINK had its code certified? Is SomerBLINK cheating to hook people willing to buy GTCs?
Unsuccessful At Everything
The Troll Bridge
#2 - 2013-10-29 21:48:23 UTC
No, Yes, and see the entire front page in GD.




Since the cessation of their usefulness is imminent, may I appropriate your belongings?
Alavaria Fera
GoonWaffe
#3 - 2013-10-29 21:52:18 UTC
Pretty sure ccp has said they are a good honest group you should feel proud to give your credits gained from paying for a gtc through them to

Triggered by: Wars of Sovless Agression, Bending the Knee, Twisting the Knife, Eating Sov Wheaties, Bombless Bombers, Fizzlesov, Interceptor Fleets, Running Away, GhostTime Vuln, Renters, Bombs, Bubbles ?
ElQuirko
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2013-10-29 21:54:55 UTC
Alavaria Fera wrote:
Pretty sure ccp has said they are a good honest group you should feel proud to give your credits gained from paying for a gtc through them to

The IRL equivalent to this is the US government giving weapons manufacturers or PMCs tax breaks because of their excellent community work.

Dodixie > Hek
Vera Algaert
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#5 - 2013-10-29 21:55:12 UTC
Blink staff like to link to http://cogdev.net/blink/roll_winner.php but of course you have no way to verify that this is actually the code that is being executed on the site.

To my knowledge there hasn't been any independent audit.

.
Frying Doom
#6 - 2013-10-29 21:55:19 UTC
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standards.
For example
VIADEN wrote:
Panama has no information exchange agreements with other countries. That means that an official letter from the tax office in your country to any of Panamanian banks or government agencies will fail to produce the result. In most of cases, such a letter will remain unanswered. That is what is meant with sovereign country. Panama is independent and unlimited by any other country. It has its own government and is not subject to another power.

Source: http://www.viaden.com/products/panama_license.html

Any spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors are because frankly, I don't care!!
Alavaria Fera
GoonWaffe
#7 - 2013-10-29 21:57:23 UTC
ElQuirko wrote:
Alavaria Fera wrote:
Pretty sure ccp has said they are a good honest group you should feel proud to give your credits gained from paying for a gtc through them to

The IRL equivalent to this is the US government giving weapons manufacturers or PMCs tax breaks because of their excellent community work.

No, it's god themselves giving you otherwise unproduceable relics

Triggered by: Wars of Sovless Agression, Bending the Knee, Twisting the Knife, Eating Sov Wheaties, Bombless Bombers, Fizzlesov, Interceptor Fleets, Running Away, GhostTime Vuln, Renters, Bombs, Bubbles ?
Alavaria Fera
GoonWaffe
#8 - 2013-10-29 21:58:08 UTC
Frying Doom wrote:
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standards.
For example
VIADEN wrote:
Panama has no information exchange agreements with other countries. That means that an official letter from the tax office in your country to any of Panamanian banks or government agencies will fail to produce the result. In most of cases, such a letter will remain unanswered. That is what is meant with sovereign country. Panama is independent and unlimited by any other country. It has its own government and is not subject to another power.

Source: http://www.viaden.com/products/panama_license.html

Is that how they avoid taxes... huh.

Triggered by: Wars of Sovless Agression, Bending the Knee, Twisting the Knife, Eating Sov Wheaties, Bombless Bombers, Fizzlesov, Interceptor Fleets, Running Away, GhostTime Vuln, Renters, Bombs, Bubbles ?
Karak Terrel
Foundation for CODE and THE NEW ORDER
#9 - 2013-10-29 22:00:05 UTC
Even if they let you review their code, how would you be able to verify that's the same code that is actually running?

Also probability...
Lors Dornick
Kallisti Industries
#10 - 2013-10-29 22:03:01 UTC
Mens Barviainen wrote:
Not posting with my main because reasons. Blink

The question is: has SomerBLINK ever had its systems reviewed by a reputable source?

With any sort of gambling institution, the whole point is to fleece users of their hard-earned geld.


Why didn't you just stop there?

Because the whole point of any gambling institution is to fleece it's marks of their cash.

There's nothing more to it, it haver never been and will never be.

Why bother with what methods they use?

CCP Greyscale: As to starbases, we agree it's pretty terrible, but we don't want to delay the entire release just for this one factor.
Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Get Off My Lawn
#11 - 2013-10-29 22:04:33 UTC
Please stop.

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
Frying Doom
#12 - 2013-10-29 22:04:36 UTC
Alavaria Fera wrote:
Frying Doom wrote:
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standards.
For example
VIADEN wrote:
Panama has no information exchange agreements with other countries. That means that an official letter from the tax office in your country to any of Panamanian banks or government agencies will fail to produce the result. In most of cases, such a letter will remain unanswered. That is what is meant with sovereign country. Panama is independent and unlimited by any other country. It has its own government and is not subject to another power.

Source: http://www.viaden.com/products/panama_license.html

Is that how they avoid taxes... huh.

VIADEN wrote:
Internet gaming companies domiciled in Panama enjoy complete tax exemptions. Customs duty concessions are given for imports needed to carry on Internet gaming. As long as the income made from Internet operations is to jurisdictions outside of Panama, there is no income tax, withholding tax, sales tax or VAT tax.

Lovely company for CCP to get into bed with.

Any spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors are because frankly, I don't care!!
Alavaria Fera
GoonWaffe
#13 - 2013-10-29 22:09:28 UTC
Frying Doom wrote:
Alavaria Fera wrote:
Frying Doom wrote:
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standards.
For example
VIADEN wrote:
Panama has no information exchange agreements with other countries. That means that an official letter from the tax office in your country to any of Panamanian banks or government agencies will fail to produce the result. In most of cases, such a letter will remain unanswered. That is what is meant with sovereign country. Panama is independent and unlimited by any other country. It has its own government and is not subject to another power.

Source: http://www.viaden.com/products/panama_license.html

Is that how they avoid taxes... huh.

VIADEN wrote:
Internet gaming companies domiciled in Panama enjoy complete tax exemptions. Customs duty concessions are given for imports needed to carry on Internet gaming. As long as the income made from Internet operations is to jurisdictions outside of Panama, there is no income tax, withholding tax, sales tax or VAT tax.

Lovely company for CCP to get into bed with.

Oh, it's one of those tax haven places. Not bad.

Triggered by: Wars of Sovless Agression, Bending the Knee, Twisting the Knife, Eating Sov Wheaties, Bombless Bombers, Fizzlesov, Interceptor Fleets, Running Away, GhostTime Vuln, Renters, Bombs, Bubbles ?
Mens Barviainen
Arataka Research Consortium Holdings
Arataka Research Consortium
#14 - 2013-10-29 22:15:28 UTC
Karak Terrel wrote:

Also probability...


Except that I saw a guy win two 1/300 promo.blinks in the AU TZ in a row, a 1/90000 occurrence, and then he won a 1/500 promo.blink for 3x hulks about twelve hours later.

Promo.blinks seem awfully streaky.
Thead Enco
HR..
#15 - 2013-10-29 22:16:27 UTC
Frying Doom wrote:
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standards.
For example
VIADEN wrote:
Panama has no information exchange agreements with other countries. That means that an official letter from the tax office in your country to any of Panamanian banks or government agencies will fail to produce the result. In most of cases, such a letter will remain unanswered. That is what is meant with sovereign country. Panama is independent and unlimited by any other country. It has its own government and is not subject to another power.

Source: http://www.viaden.com/products/panama_license.html



Well they did stop a North Korean freighter filled with old soviet missle tech being smuggled thru the Panama Canal.
Leigh Akiga
Kuhri Innovations
#16 - 2013-10-29 22:20:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Leigh Akiga
Frying Doom wrote:
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standardsl


Ah but the owner and operator (Somerset Mahm) is an American living and working in America. I wonder if they declared that 130k or if its housed in some offshore account. The whole thing is creepy and seedy and it stinks that CCP got sucked into it.

Get this crap outta my fake internet spaceship universe
Mr Epeen
It's All About Me
#17 - 2013-10-29 22:24:04 UTC
Somer has as much right to scam stupid players as any of the other thousands of people jealous of his success.

Mr Epeen Cool
Leigh Akiga
Kuhri Innovations
#18 - 2013-10-29 22:27:08 UTC
Mr Epeen wrote:
Somer has as much right to scam stupid players as any of the other thousands of people jealous of his success.

Mr Epeen Cool


The real life connotation- as in real life dollars from being an ETC affiliate is what people are having a problem with sir..

Are you saying Somer has the right to be a scammer IRL as well?
Embarased for You
Oooooo Burn
#19 - 2013-10-29 22:27:22 UTC
ITT - people who don't understand cloud computing, and think the node they ping from their location is where a business is located.

User name relevant.
Money Makin Mitch
Paid in Full
#20 - 2013-10-29 22:34:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Money Makin Mitch
Leigh Akiga wrote:
Frying Doom wrote:
I think the best answer is that http://cogdev.net Somers site is registered in Panama, a place with such wonderfully strict laws and high standardsl


Ah but the owner and operator (Somerset Mahm) is an American living and working in America. I wonder if they declared that 130k or if its housed in some offshore account. The whole thing is creepy and seedy and it stinks that CCP got sucked into it.

Get this crap outta my fake internet spaceship universe

I have to admit, that part does look pretty shady and is interesting if true. I personally would do the same thing though. I'd let the Panamanians have it before I'd give a dime to Barry Soetoro. The location of their servers doesn't necessarily imply wrong-doing, although when taken with all the other stuff recently disclosed, it does add up for bad publicity for Somer. It would be helpful if they would give us a public statement concerning these matters.
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