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The Eudaemonic Pie
Thomas A. Bass
Publisher: Vintage Books (1985)
ISBN: 0-394-74310-5
Pages: 324
Reviewed: 1/97

In The Eudaemonic Pie, Thomas A. Bass recounts the exploits of a rag-tag assemblage of hackers, himself included, who spent a few years trying to outsmart the roulette wheel via wearable computers and complicated signalling schemes. The book's level of detail is always high, but wavers between the fascinating and the less fascinating. It's fun to hear about the interesting people who joined the project, and the types of expertise they brought to bear on the problem of predicting a roulette ball's path. It's less interesting to hear the details of some of the less remarkable shopping trips. But all in all, it was fun to read about, and I'm glad I picked it up.

Perhaps inevitably, the book ends inconclusively. You get the impression they not only didn't put the final seal on their own hardware, but that a boom in wearable roulette-beating computers was only beginning as the book ended. Since the book was written in the mid-80's, chances are there have been several new generations of roulette computers and counter-measures since it was written. Although the book has fallen out of print, I'd look forward to a follow-up.


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