Career and Interests

[Will Singleton]

I think VR left MIT prior to graduation, iirc. Maybe someone could confirm, not that it makes any difference.

[M ANSARI]

I agree, I think if Vas would work in some other field he would make orders of magnitude more money. I also tend to think that he is not making nearly as much money with Rybka as he could be. But then again marketing and business acumen are totally different fields than writing a chess program. You can have the best product in the world, but without the right business formula or marketing formula you really are not making too much money. I think if Vas would get a professional marketing company with the correct contacts he could probably make tons more money. I bet MS or Google or even Chessmaster could be approached and would find the "world's strongest chess engine" an extremely attractive addition to put somewhere in their stable. The cost of such an addition would not even be factored in such huge conglomerates as it would be minimal to them. Again you might have the best product in the world but someone with half as good a product and the proper marketing will make a lot more money than you. This can only lead to the conclusion that Vas is not in it for the money and more than he enjoys doing what he does without the stresses that might come with a different strategy.

[Gian-Carlo Pascutto]

I agree, I think if Vas would work in some other field he would make orders of magnitude more money.

Why on earth do you keep making such a blanket statement without any kind of reasoning or supporting data, despite it being already shown to be very unlikely?

I bet MS or Google or even Chessmaster could be approached and would find the "world's strongest chess engine" an extremely attractive addition to put somewhere in their stable.

If you look at what Microsoft and Apple are already shipping with their OS, then this also doesn't seem to be supported by actual evidence.

[Gian-Carlo Pascutto]

Outside of US the reality is very different.

The same student if it was in Europe he could get around $50,000.00 per year if he was very very lucky, but realistically he could get less.

And I even don't mention what the same student could have raised if he choosed to remain in the university as a researcher, in Italy we are talking of the same wage of a worker in an assembly line (is not a joke!).

And I am not talking about average students, but our best people, students that can easily beat hands down _any_ Microsoft $150,000.00 employer.

I don't think it makes sense to compare US and European wages. Students who go to a top US university tend to finish their studies with huge debts from paying the tuition, and they need a solid income to pay that back. Likewise, they don't even get basic things like health insurance so they have to pay all of that from that wage. They can be fired with minimal notice, etc. Average number of payed holidays in US is 13, compared to 42 in Italy. You cannot just look at the $ amount.

You can compare what the local MS or Google branches pay here, compare to other companies, and see that it's entirely in line with industry standards.

[bob]

Outside of US the reality is very different.

The same student if it was in Europe he could get around $50,000.00 per year if he was very very lucky, but realistically he could get less.

And I even don't mention what the same student could have raised if he choosed to remain in the university as a researcher, in Italy we are talking of the same wage of a worker in an assembly line (is not a joke!).

And I am not talking about average students, but our best people, students that can easily beat hands down _any_ Microsoft $150,000.00 employer.

I don't think it makes sense to compare US and European wages. Students who go to a top US university tend to finish their studies with huge debts from paying the tuition, and they need a solid income to pay that back. Likewise, they don't even get basic things like health insurance so they have to pay all of that from that wage. They can be fired with minimal notice, etc. Average number of payed holidays in US is 13, compared to 42 in Italy. You cannot just look at the $ amount.

Where is that coming from? I doubt that even 1% of college graduates accept jobs that don't provide health insurance. The low-level jobs such as Wal-Mart and such don't for part-time employees, but I do not see college grads having this problem. And while a student, at least in the US, you will have university healthcare provided, all have a student clinic for this purpose.

Most grad students don't leave with huge debt either. Medical students, yes. Normal grad students, no. Most here at UAB either receive scholarships or work their way through school to avoid this problem

You can compare what the local MS or Google branches pay here, compare to other companies, and see that it's entirely in line with industry standards.

[bob]

I think your assumptions is incorrect. A good computer program depending on marketing skills can make you millions in a very short period, just take a look at ChessMaswter.
I spent 15 years working for one ompany as the senior accountant and thus know my way around accounting software. I once head of a man who had written an entire accounting package. It consisted fo many different modules such as ie. Gl, PY, AR, Payroll, inventory, etc.
Each one could be run as a seperate package or all run as a complete accounting package. For a superior accounting package he did not charge very much ie. only $ 695.00 per package. To some this may sound high but believe me for large corporations it is not. His annual sales amounted to about $ 100,000.00 a year and he was quite happy as far as I know.
One day though a large maketing company approached him and promised to make him more money in one year than he had made in the last 10 years if they could have full control of the sales price.
They then went on to advertise the entire package for a low price of $59.00. Needless to say the man made $6,000,000.00 the very first year and then retired. Mass marketing can make miracles happen if done right.
Bill

Chessmaster has not made "millions" for someone. It sells for 10 bucks a copy. A few years ago someone internally quoted sales figures of over a million copies, _total_. That is $10M gross, out of which the programmer would be lucky to extract $1,000,000. Over _many_ years. This is not a giant market, compared to typical applications You aren't going to sell a million copies of Rybka in a year. When Crafty was the only freely available program around other than gnuchessx, it took about 8 years to reach the 1,000,000 download mark. For something that was absolutely free. And which was the strongest thing available for free as well. You might reach one million in a year if you give everyone $10 to take a copy for free. Otherwise, not in computer chess.

[towforce]

What was the reason for Vas choosing this business?

Does anybody know what he is like as a person?

[Spacious_Mind]

Didn't VAS one time offer $100.000 purse to play his engine? That sounds like real money to me.

[mcostalba]

Average number of payed holidays in US is 13, compared to 42 in Italy.

Sorry, but where did you hear this ???

In Italy the main employment contract (that for industry workers) fixes in 160 hours per year (4 weeks) the holiday period that are normally splitted in 2/3 weeks in August and 1/2 weeks from Christmas to the new year.