frankiii's blog

New Xen and KVM Virtualization Blog

2010-09-05T11:10:00.001-05:00

Not much shogi stuff happening in my life recently...been caught up pretty heavily in my technology pursuits. So I'll shamelessly plug my new blog here! :D It's about open source virtualization with KVM and Xen.

open source virtualization with KVM and Xen

:)

Tournament Complete!

2009-12-17T08:59:00.006-06:00

At long last, the brainking.com September 2008 Shogi Open is complete and I was lucky enough to pull it out! The first-to-three finals ended 3-0 in my favor, primarily due to the other player walking into the same documented trap each time. I remain baffled by my ability to win these matches though I feel pretty good about the results.

As before, if anyone has the time and ability to review one or more of these matches and provide input I'd appreciate it tremendously.

On a related note, if you are a fan of shogi and have not already found the site, there is a new discussion forum:

The 81-Square Universe

It looks friendly and promising. I haven't been able to spend much time there, but I hope to do so in the future.

Shogi Teaching/Review Resources?

2009-10-20T09:14:00.004-05:00

Hello again, Internet. The finals of the 2008 September Shogi Open has arrived and, as it turns out, it is a "3 wins match" which I assume means that the first player to win three matches will win the tournament. Since it would appear we're only playing one match at a time, this could go on for a while. :)

The first match is actually about to conclude quickly as I will checkmate my opponent after his next move. So that's the good news. The bad news is that I'm still baffled as to how I'm winning any matches at all. As I've mentioned before in this blog, I cannot beat even the easiest Shotest Shogi AI yet I'm winning matches against real humans. I've been subscribing to the same theory as I did with chess.com where I also won more matches than I expected...basically, I'm thinking that I am spending far more time per move than my opponents.

It certainly can't be due to study or practice since I have not been working on tsume shogi lately, nor have I been reading any shogi books or playing any shogi matches outside of this tournament. So, before I start to get a big head and think myself some sort of shogi savant I'd love to have someone put me in my place by taking a look at my matches and confirming that I'm terrible. :)

However, I don't know of any way to get that kind of help. The go community has a wonderful resource called the Go Teaching Ladder:

http://gtl.xmp.net

The online go servers like KGS also provide easy interfaces to review matches with better players. The chess community also seems to have similar resources along with outstanding software that can analyze games. It would appear that the english-speaking shogi community has none of that (at least as far as I can find).

Can anyone help or point me in the right direction? Thanks!

Leggett's Japanese Chess

2009-08-21T13:52:00.003-05:00

I returned this week from a family vacation in Toronto with a new item for the bookshelf: Japanese Chess by Trevor Leggett. Outside of the fact that I paid basically twice the amazon price at an Indigo bookstore, I am pleased with the book. It's most certainly for beginners (even going so far as to add a silly paper board and paper pieces in the back), however I was able to pick up a few ideas in the annotated sample game and the section on openings is presented well.

As Toronto has a large Japanese population and is packed full of Japanese restaurants (there are, literally, 2 or 3 on every block in the area we stayed downtown!), I began to wonder if I could perhaps find a new Shogi board. Unfortunately, I could find no Japanese shops at all! I even asked one sushi restaurant's waitress and manager for advice and they could offer no help.

During the trip I also became quite addicted to sudoku but that's another topic... :D

Onto the Finals...

2009-08-04T08:35:00.002-05:00

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm onto the finals of BrainKing's 2008 September Shogi Open. :) Each semifinal bracket contains three players and each of those three players has two matches against the other two players in the bracket. This morning I checkmated my second opponent, leaving me with 3 wins and an insurmountable spot in first. I am up a rook and my position feels very solid in the last match, so I could possibly go 4-0 in the semifinal bracket. Quite a surprise for someone who cannot even defeat the lowest AI in Shotest Shogi 3D.

The other bracket is still running and it would appear that it may continue for months as one player is taking two weeks per move. As a result, his matches are only on move 17. He also has the highest rating in the tournament so hopefully he'll lose. ;)

Early Second Round Wins in September Shogi Open!

2009-04-10T09:26:00.005-05:00

I must confess that I'm a bit excited right now. In the second round of BrainKing's September Shogi Open, I've managed to quickly earn a couple wins against one of my two opponents. Both games were pretty loose and crazy as we were making many moves per day, but I was able to build mating attacks by applying pressure and doing my best to avoid the urge to profit materially. Instead of trying to capture pieces as I would in Chess, I tried to ignore unimportant threats and keep focus on attacking the king...things worked out for the best. I made a load of mistakes, but I feel for the first time in my Shogi "career" that I'm reading pretty well and seeing the entire board.

Hopefully I can keep this up in the coming weeks or months it will take to finish these other two games.

BrainKing Update

2009-04-06T11:10:00.004-05:00

Well, here's a brief update of the September Shogi Open at BrainKing. The first round has completed and, since there was a three-way tie in our bracket, the next round just took all three of us! :D There are now two brackets containing three players in each.

September Shogi Open First Round Concluding

2009-04-05T08:37:00.004-05:00

Yes, I am still here! The first round of the September Shogi Open over at BrainKing is still running. A good deal of the fault lies with me as I was extremely busy in the middle stages and was sometimes using upwards of 10 days per move. The tournament settings specify 10 days per move and BrainKing gives additional time for delays, so it's clear that this could (and has) run for months. Even so, I prefer to make my moves much more quickly.

That said, I am in the final round in our bracket, one move from mate, so the longest it will last is another 15 days if my opponent takes the full time before making his move, resigning, or letting the clock run out. At that point, we'll be at an interesting roadblock. Three of us will be locked in the #1 spot, each with 6 wins and two losses.

Player A beat Player B twice.
Player C beat Player A twice.
Player B beat Player C twice.
All three players won their other four games.

So each of us will have six points in total and our tiebreak number, as far as I can tell, will be the same. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this. Only one player can move onto the next round since the three players from other brackets all ended up with a higher point total.

One other thing I should point out is that Takodori has blogged about the availability of Trevor Leggett's book "Japanese Chess: The Game of Shogi". Apparently, this is a revival of his "Shogi Japan's Game of Strategy", which was published in 1993.

Shotest Shogi Developer Interaction

2008-10-15T11:41:00.003-05:00

Well, good news! The Shotest Shogi developers are taking an interest in the community and have posted on the xbox.com forums:

http://forums.xbox.com/22673704/ShowPost.aspx

"As requested, developer dropping by. :)

Thanks for your support guys. As you've noticed, whilst the game's doing very well in Japan we're kinda struggling back home a bit. We're talking with MS about what we can do to get some more exposure over here.

A game like Shogi's never going to have a massive userbase, but it would be nice to get *some* westerners playing!"

Good luck to the SS team!

Folding Shogi Board

2008-10-07T08:49:00.008-05:00

Well, as I've mentioned in the past, I purchased a folding shogi board through eBay and there were delays with the delivery. I did actually receive it and I must say that I'm rather disappointed. Considering the price ($45 + $7.50 shipping and handling) and my experience with similarly priced go and chess sets, this set was not a great purchase. It's very small with poor quality wood and incredibly cheap plastic hinges. The plastic pieces are actually ok, but there are a few with excess paint or scratching.

At any rate, here are a few photos. The first is in comparison to a floor goban to get a feel for the size and poor wood quality.

Here is a close-up of the pieces and the board grain.

And finally, a shot of the plastic hinge. I doubt this will last very long.

All in all, a disappointment. But at least I have something to work with while following along with the Fairbairn book. My search for a good shogi set continues. :)

Progress Update

2008-09-19T08:59:00.002-05:00

Ugh. Shogi is a TOUGH game. It is a VERY tough game. I feel like I have made no progress at all, despite the fact that I'm studying tsume shogi problems, playing many games against Shotest Shogi, and trying to make my way through the Fairbairn book. I get the feeling like Shogi may turn out to be like golf...it's difficult enough to drive you crazy, yet every once in a while you make a good solid shot which keeps you addicted and makes you play another 20 lousy games until you experience the feeling of making that one good shot again. In Shogi, it's not a golf shot...it's a tesuji or, for me, something as simple as finding a pin or a fork.

In Chess, I feel like I've made quite a large amount of progress...certainly enough to beat many humans and weak computer problems. I'm at the stage where I actually can think about why I'm making moves and my game has purpose. Chess isn't *that* much different from Shogi, is it? Well, I think part of the problem is simply that there is no quality learning material for Shogi here in the West. If the Fairbairn "Shogi for Beginners" book was a chess book, I'd have tossed it by now and moved onto another one. I suppose I'll save a full review for some point after I finish it, but for now it's safe to say that there is very little I like about his teaching style or the actual book layout. It's very disappointing.

On the Shotest Shogi XBLA front, I've made a couple friends from the xbox.com forums but have yet to play them online. They're beginners just as I am, so hopefully we'll be able to play at some point and maybe learn a few things together.

More Shotest XBLA Impressions

2008-09-11T08:19:00.004-05:00

I've had the chance to play more Shotest Shogi for Xbox Live Arcade and am still very pleased with the game, especially considering its low price. I've completed the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Tutorials and each was worthwhile, though short. I touched on the Beginner Tutorial in a blog entry yesterday.

The Intermediate and Advanced tutorials introduce four castles (mino, boat, yagura, and anaguma - "bear in the hole" for Hachi-one Diver fans), a handful of tsume shogi, and a couple hisshi ("brinkmate") problems. I plan on revisiting the Intermediate and Advanced tutorials since a lot was presented in a short time and I certainly did not absorb it all. Apparently there will be future DLC (downloadable content) that contains more instructional material. I definitely would pay for more tsume shogi.

I also played a few games versus the lowest ranked (1000) AI. It would be interesting to see how the 16 personalities compare to the PC version since I cannot even compete with the lowest skill level on the PC. It's fun to win every once in a while. :) Like I wrote earlier, the interface doesn't get in the way too much and it works about as well as can be expected with a game controller.

The game is not without its problems, though. As I mentioned yesterday, the piece placement sound is not a wood click as it should be. The presentation is nice, but there's far too much wasted space. On an HDTV, the screen is wider than it is taller.

In the screenshot above, just look at all the space wasted to the left and right of the board. Instead of placing the text somewhere like my artistically rendered red box, they put it at the bottom, which covers the board. That wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that they put the file coordinates there! Why not move the coordinates to the top where they won't be obscured? There's no option to change anything, which is extremely disappointing. I'd love to be able to move the text so that I can fully expand the board and get a better resolution on the pieces. They look so excellent on the PC version, but they don't get a chance to truly shine here because of the layout.

The sound and layout problems are issues that the developers can deal with. However, a much more tricky problem is that there seems to be nobody playing online! Last night around 8pm Eastern Time, I could not find a Ranked or Player (unranked) match at any time settings. Part of my initial excitement about Shotest Shogi on XBLA is that I thought it would become my main way of playing online. I see the Leaderboard is full of Japanese Xbox users so I know that people are playing. I wonder if we in the US are segregated from the Asian users? If so, that is a major problem. There seems to be very little interest in this game here, and posts I've made in the xbox.com forums barely receive any page views, let alone responses.

I sure hope the online situation improves, but for now I'm going to continue to enjoy playing the AI.

Shotest Shogi Now Available on XBLA

2008-09-10T08:41:00.006-05:00

I checked as soon as I woke up, and thankfully it's here. I didn't have too much time, so I completed the Beginner Tutorial to get it out of the way. As it turns out, the Beginner tutorial ends with a full match that is nicely annotated. It's not quite as detailed as the games in "Logical Chess: Move by Move" by Chernev, but it's well done and I definitely plan on reviewing it again. It *may* be a bit too difficult for a true beginner, but I could be wrong.

As with the PC version, the graphics are outstanding and the pieces (which default to Western style) are nicely detailed. The environments (inside and outside) add to the feel of the game and the music, to my taste, is somehow more appropriate and pleasing than the PC version's (which I've turned off). The controls obviously will not be as easy and intuitive as using a mouse, but they don't get in the way too much and I can't really think of a way to improve them at this point.

The only problem I noticed with the XBLA version so far is that the piece placement sound has changed from the nice substantial wood click sound to a softer chess-like felt on wood sound. I don't understand why they would have made this change and I hope a future update addresses this.

Easily worth the $10. :) I look forward to playing the game later!

Shotest Shogi on XBox Live

Shotest Shogi on Xbox Live Arcade This Wednesday!

2008-09-08T11:49:00.007-05:00

shotest on wednesday

yes it is finally here

i will be happy

Shogi Blitz Deathmatch

2008-09-07T11:29:00.005-05:00

I've had a couple warts on my toes for quite some time and I've had them treated by a doctor for over a year. No matter what he has tried (including a painful surgery to cut them out), they've made their way back. Searching again over the internet, I've found a new process that I have not yet tried. The first step involves soaking the area in hot water for 15 minutes. The problem is, what should I do for those 15 minutes?

Well, inspired by the 24 hour 1 minute blitz "deathmatches" in Hachi-One Diver, I've decided to do mini deathmatches every day with Shotest Shogi 3D. :) The quickest blitz setting with Shotest is, unfortunately, 10 second byoyomi, so I've had to settle for that. I've completed my deathmatch session today with a final result of 0 wins and 6 losses. I wonder if I'll ever notch a win?

September Shogi Open at BrainKing

2008-09-07T08:07:00.002-05:00

I've registered for the September Shogi Open tournament over at BrainKing. There is a maximum of 15 players (currently 13) and the time setting is 10 days per move. That's awfully slow, so I'm sure this will take a while. The major problem with a slow tournament is that I won't be able to join another one, even if all my games are completed since unpaid players on BrainKing can only be registered for one tournament at a time. Either way, the players don't look to be rated too highly so hopefully I'll be able to compete a bit.

It should be fun!

Slow Week for Shogi

2008-09-05T09:09:00.003-05:00

Nothing much has happened in my Shogi world lately. I did start reading the Fairbairn book "Shogi for Beginners" and I've also progressed through more of the tsume shogi book I purchased at Mitsuwa. Surprisingly, the Fairbairn book is going slower because the first set of problems are much harder than anything I've come across in the other book. It's definitely not what I'd expect from a "for Beginners" book, but that's probably a good thing. Glancing through the other chapters, it looks like there's a lot of great material.

I also purchased a basic wood folding shogi set with plastic pieces from an eBay seller in Japan, but that has not shown up yet. The EMS tracking number I was given indicates that it left Japan on August 25, but I still have not received it. I'm not feeling all that great about this at the moment and I suspect I'll never see the board. When a seller's first email states that he won't refund the cost of shipping if it doesn't show up, my instinct is to say he's not going to send it. I hope I'm wrong about this one.

Update: The EMS tracker now shows that the package left Osaka on September 5. I wonder what they did with it for the past 11 days...perhaps they like Shogi.

Shogi at Mitsuwa: Failure and Success

2008-08-23T14:41:00.004-05:00

Well, I decided to take the family down to Mitsuwa Marketplace in hopes of finding some shogi players and possibly a board. We were there from 12:30 to 2:00pm or so and did not see anyone playing. I asked a number of shopkeepers and nobody knew anything about a regular gathering of players. So, we sat down and enjoyed some sushi. :) After eating, I did a few google searches on my iPhone and came across an email from 2000 stating that the club meets from 9:00am to noon. I'm going to email a few people this week and hopefully I'll have more info.

The search for a board also came up empty. We even checked a Japanese Toy and Gift shop in the general area of the marketplace and they didn't have anything. They did have some rather risque girly action figures, so we quickly left before the kids had a chance to notice. :)

In the bookstore inside Mitsuwa, however, I managed to find a tsume shogi book (pictured above)! I looked around until I found what appeared to be a game section. Then I saw some Sudoku books and knew I might be close. Finally, I looked at a few bindings hoping to recognize a shogi character when BINGO, this one popped out at me. I pulled it out, opened it up (upside down, since I forgot to read backwards) , and saw the shogi board diagrams. I'm really excited about this one since I wanted a tsume shogi book and there are none published in english. I wish I knew what all the text says, but for now I know enough to get me going.

Hopefully it's not a book for high dan players. :o

Mac OS X Shogi Software

2008-08-21T11:21:00.009-05:00

Since beginning iPhone development, I've had the opportunity to use Mac OS X again. If I'm going to spend much time with it, obviously I will need some Shogi and Chess software. :D The Shogi selection is small, but the applications are of very high quality.

As an application for playing Shogi, I use Shogi Z by MacBrains:

Shogi Z

The graphics (both Japanese and Western tile sets) are beautiful and the tile placement sounds are very pleasant to my ear. To register the trial version, it's a mere 1500 yen, so you can be up and playing for less than 15 bucks. My only little complaint with the application is that, upon startup, the main window draws in the top left of the screen and then immediately redraws in the middle. I'm more anal-retentive than most people and it's almost embarrassing that these little interface glitches do bug me, but they do. :)

As a study tool, MacShogi by Eric Cheymol fits the bill:

MacShogi

Like Shogi Z, the graphics are outstanding. However, this application makes it easier to play through variations and review games. Eric even provides a large number of games suitable for opening in MacShogi. The software has only been compiled for G4 so there are a few small issues with running on a modern Intel-based Mac, but I've exchanged emails with Eric and he has plans to release a new build this week. I look forward to it.

Shogi Equipment

2008-08-20T11:59:00.002-05:00

While I have Shogi software for each of the three operating systems I use, there are certain times where I'd really like to have a physical board to play and practice with. It would also assist with my turn-based online games since I could test out variations without using software.

There appears to be a dearth of online shogi vendors so the options are limited to Yutopian and Yellow Mountain Imports. I won't mention Kiseido since their prices are pretty ridiculous and they are tough to deal with in terms of actually making an order and payment (I've bought a go book from them in the past).

Yutopian offers a foldable agathis board with cream-colored plastic pieces:

https://www.yutopian.com/yutop/cat?product=CJ001&category=CJ0

I believe this is the same set that is sold at The Trading Centre. To me, it looks pretty nice. The problem is that the Yutopian web-site is so unprofessional that I do not feel comfortable providing payment information. They were actually down for most of the day yesterday. If they offered paypal it would be fine.

YMI offers a few all-wood sets, however the wood for both the board and pieces looks rather cheap:

http://www.ymimports.com/Shogi%20-%20Japanese%20Chess/

I may also try to visit a local japanese marketplace here in the Chicago suburbs. If I don't find anything, another option would be to simply bite the bullet and buy it from The Trading Centre which is based in the UK. The costs would be higher, but they do accept paypal. I've used them twice so far. Once for Shotest Shogi 3D and the second time to buy the Fairbarn book which I could not find from a US vendor. I ended up paying close to $50 for a $20 book. If the book arrives in a timely fashion and I have not yet found a set locally, I may just buy from them again.

Diving Into Online Shogi

2008-08-19T18:48:00.009-05:00

I've begun playing shogi online! For turn-based action, brainking.com fits the bill despite its ad-heavy interface. For real-time excitement, playok.com has a really nice java applet-based multi-game interface. I'm not a fan of java applets, but this one is definitely usable.

I just completed my first game there now and lost on time despite feeling well ahead. I was clicking madly with 5 seconds to go (out of the 10 seconds in the blitz byoyomi) but nothing registered. Sigh. I guess the moral of the story is to avoid blitz online. :)

I'm lotsoblots at both sites, so feel free to challenge any time. :)

Oh, and I'm using the traditional pieces exclusively now, so I expect to miss more than a few moves! :D

Changes

2008-07-25T09:52:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I updated this blog, and this won't be much of an update. But, I'm just noting that I've changed the layout around a bit and added a chess.com banner to the right. I've begun playing chess in April and have been finding it to be much more enjoyable than go.

As I've mentioned to my friend, KillerDucky, I enjoy strategy but I need a game with a payoff. Chess has a payoff where Go does not. Passing a couple times and counting up stones at the end of a game doesn't quite give me the satisfaction of a checkmate.

Oh, and I've also begun learning Shogi. I purchased Shotest Shogi 3D for the PC and will certainly be getting the Xbox Live Arcade version in the Fall. Interestingly, the XBLA version will include quite a few tutorials and puzzles. The PC version (which at $40 costs 4 times as much as the XBLA version) includes none of this. So, the only "tutorial" is watching as the computer crushes me over and over. :)

Decent Sound in KGS/cgoban3

2008-01-09T21:25:00.001-06:00

As I've reported before, there was a way to replace the default ugly KGS/cgoban2 stone sound with a sound file of your choosing. That method also worked in the cgoban3 beta. Well, it's been a while since the full release of cgoban3 and I now find myself back on KGS. However, I see the full version no longer allows this same method since it's been digitally signed. I believe I've found the way around this:

mkdir cgoban_tmp ; cd cgoban_tmp
wget http://files.gokgs.com/javaBin/cgoban.jar
jar xvf cgoban.jar
rm META-INF/KGS2007.*
cp /archive/misc/multigo_stone_fsf.wav org/igoweb/go/sounds/stone.wav
jar cvmf META-INF/MANIFEST.MF cgoban.jar .
sudo cp cgoban.jar /usr/local/cgoban3/cgoban.jar

That's it! Beautiful sound yet again. :)

By the way, I am not a java developer so I'd appreciate any comments on a better and/or easier method.

Update 2008-01-15: Added the . parameter to the end of step six.

New Dominoes from Domino Depot

2007-02-03T12:57:00.000-06:00

I've recently purchased a few domino sets and have had some difficulty in finding exactly what I want from a reputable and responsive online vendor. Now that I've found one, I figured I'd make this post to help out anyone else in this situation.

Having already owned a set of regular ivory colored double six dominoes, I wanted to pick up a nice two tone jumbo set with spinners (as pictured). Google searches never quite turned up what I was looking for, so I turned to eBay. After a search and lots of browsing, I found what I was looking for from a seller named col.mustard. While I would have preferred a common vinyl snap case, this set was packaged with a wood box...a small detail that I could easily overlook. I ended up paying $14 plus $9 shipping and prepared to wait.

I did not have to wait long, however, and my family was soon playing with these big snazzy dominoes. :) I also own a similar set of double nines and these new dominoes (while perhaps manufactured from the same company in China?) are slightly nicer in that they seem more uniform in shape and have a darker black backside. It's quite possible that's it was just the luck of the draw. There was one flaw...the five-ace's spinner was not driven in fully or straight and, as a result, was hanging out. I emailed col.mustard he immediately responded, saying that he'll send me out a replacement right away. Great service!

In the paperwork accompanying the domino set was a flyer promoting col.mustard's website, Domino Depot. There you can find this set and others at excellent prices. In fact, the set I purchased is actually only $11.95 (plus the $9 shipping cost) direct from the site. The URL is:

http://dominodepot.com

I am in no way affiliated with the site...just a customer and fan.

Have fun!

Decent Sound on KGS with cgoban2

2006-07-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

The two things that have bothered me most about KGS are both related to the cgoban2 java client program: sound and graphics. Considering that go is such a beautiful game played on equipment unmatched (IMO, of course!) by any other game for its aesthetic value, it always stuck me as odd that I'd be clicking down virtual stones on a drab lifeless board with dull thunks.

For reasons unfathomable to me as a programmer (considering that there is such a broad user support base around the application), the author of KGS has decided that there will be no graphical or sound-related options. So, I decided to take a closer look at the jar file in hopes of finding a simple structure of sounds and graphics which I could then replace at will.

Well, one fix is better than none...sounds are clearly to be seen inside the jar structure. Board and stone graphics are not, so I am guessing that they are embedded xpm code inside the class files. :( Oh, well. At any rate, after a bit of trial and error, I have changed the stone placement sound! If you are interested, here is a brief step-by-step.

Prework:

Find a stone sound you like. Personally, I love the stone click sound from MultiGo (beware, Windows only). Any wav file (or 8-bit u-law sun audio file, I think) should do just fine.
Make a copy of your cgoban.jar file for safe keeping. If you break anything, you can simply copy it back. For unix people, I assume you know where you installed the cgoban directory. For Windows users, check out C:\Program Files\kiseido\cgoban. The cgoban.jar is right in there.
Make a temporary directory and copy cgoban.jar into it.

Steps:

Open up a terminal window (or command prompt for Windows users) and navigate to your temp directory.
"unjar" the cgoban.jar file with the command:
```
jar xvf cgoban.jar
```
This will extract the contents of the jar file.
From there, copy your good sound file as:
```
org/igoweb/client/swing/sounds/stone.au
```
Don't worry if your file is .wav...changing the extension to .au will not hurt anything as java will still be able to open it.
Update your cgoban.jar file:
```
jar uvf cgoban.jar org/igoweb/client/swing/sounds/stone.au
```
This will replace the existing stone.au in the jar file with your new stone.au file.
Copy the new cgoban.jar file into place in your cgoban installation directory (where you found it in the first place).

That's it! Hopefully, when you run the app your dull thunk sounds will now be melodious. :)

PS: I would love to simply place an updated jar file here that you could download, but that would probably go against both the cgoban and MultiGo distribution terms. :(

UPDATE:

The BETA of version 3.0 has been released. Unfortunately, it includes no improvements to the graphics or sound. Fortunately, though, this procedure will still work. The only change is that, now, the path for the sound file is:

org/igoweb/igoweb/client/swing/sounds/stone.au

Note the extra "igoweb" directory.

Bubble Breaker Game High Scores

2006-07-08T12:46:00.000-05:00

I've been asked a few times about Bubble Breaker high scores...unfortunately, the game shipped with Pocket PCs and smartphones does not have a convenient means to share high scores. The Bubblet version does, though, so you can easily compare:

Bubblets for Pocket PC High Scores

I do question a few of the top scores, but most look reasonable.

Bubblet Confusion

2006-06-29T18:17:00.001-05:00

On a completely unrelated note,

There seems to be a lot of confusion around Bubblet, Bubblets, Jawbreaker, and Bubble Breaker. Namely, because some people have copied the game and not even had the common decency to change the name. One developer/copier even refused to change the name of his clone after repeated requests based on documented customer confusion. I suppose it's always easier to trick customers into buying fakes of a well-known brand than to legitimately interest them with a new product. Sigh.

The original version of the game and all other legitimate versions of the game come ONLY from oopdreams software. This includes Bubblet for Palm OS, Bubblets for Windows CE, Jawbreaker for Pocket PC and Smartphones, and Bubble Breaker for Pocket PC and Smartphones. The latter 2 ship built-in to all recent Windows-powered handhelds and smartphones.

Here are links to the "real deal":

Bubblet for Palm OS

Bubblets for Windows CE Pocket PCs and Handheld PCs

Bubblet for Windows Desktop

Update: August 2008

Our game has been ripped off a few times already by bad fakes on the Apple iTunes App Store! They try (and have succeeded in their own way) to capitalize on all the work I've done over the years by cloning the app and stealing the name. Some people have gone so far as to clone our new tilt functionality. I'm amazed and disgusted at how dishonest and thieving these scumbags are. Some people will stoop incredibly low to make some money. They don't care who they hurt along the way.

Our game is called Bubblets Tilt:

Bubblets Tilt for iPhone

JawBreaker for iPhone

Bubble Breaker for iPhone

Please do not purchase or support the fakes!

Techno Go

2005-12-06T09:20:00.000-06:00

While reading a review of some software that I'll never use, written for an OS that I will probably never use again, I came across an image of a dog who had apparently appeared on the cover of a techno album (music I never listen to). Reckoning that a dog on the cover of a music album is funny stuff indeed, I clicked the link to check it out. Lo and behold, dogs are playing go!

The Mole - One Foot On Either Side of The Ladder

New Goban

2005-12-04T11:23:00.000-06:00

ChiyoDad has been doing a lot of goban research and has, after quite some time, made a decision on a really nice-looking table goban set from chinese importer Yellow Mountain Imports. While doing this research he came across a reasonably priced auction from the same vendor for a floor goban. Knowing that I have been in the market for one, he left a message on KGS and the rest is history. :)

Here is a link to the eBay auction:

Kaya 5.9" 15cm Go Board and Yunzi Stones Game Set

And here is an image which I will augment as I take shipment and shoot my own photos:

The yunzi stones are biconvex which I have mixed feelings about. I really like the idea of having a single flat side based on the images I've seen of chinese pros using those flat sides to denote special meaning during a review. At the same time, I think biconvex probably feel better and look better. So, in the end, I am happy about the stones but have conveniently left myself something to complain about. :)

More info to come...

Metropolis Redline Espresso

2005-12-01T09:06:00.000-06:00

Well, I had planned to try Vivace's espresso blend but quickly remembered that there's another local well-respected roaster / coffee shop whose beans I've never tried. Metropolis Coffee, who have a nice photo-laden website, produces Redline espresso. I believe the name is a reference to the Chicago (DA BEARS!) "El" train red line.

At any rate, running low on Black Cat, I placed my order online for a pound each of Redline and Redline Decaf on Tuesday morning. Wednesday evening, a package arrived with the 2 pounds (or more -- the bags seem larger) of coffee with a Tuesday roasting date. Ahh, the benefits of a local roaster! Included with those bags came a smaller sample size of their Schweik's blend (roasted 11/25) and a nice hand-written thank-you note.

Since I had already drunk a couple soy lattes that night (which is somewhat rare for me) I decided to wait until morning to try the Redline on a clean palate. First up, a double shot of espresso. I figured I'd try the Code Brown grinder settings (11 on my Rocky) and, first attempt, pulled a beautiful 28-second double shot, pictured below in the beautiful Intelligentsia demitasse (photo taken about a minute after). I don't quite have the vocabulary to describe the shot since there were some unique tastes but it was an excellent shot and I think it may be one of the best I've had anywhere! No bitterness, lots of body, and some interesting sweetness which is what I'm having trouble putting a word to.

Judging by the straight espresso, I thought this blend would make for a great soy latte. I was not disappointed. As with the shot, this was one of the best soy lattes I've ever had. Redline is most definitely a keeper and I can certainly imagine myself regularly drinking it. I look forward to tasting what the rest of the week has in store for these beans.

Code Brown Wrapup

2005-11-26T08:45:00.000-06:00

The Code Brown espresso I blogged about earlier has run its course and the ballots are in...it's good coffee! Once I managed to tune the grind and dosing to create the 25-28 second pull, a stronger body stood out and it wasn't so citrusy or tart as before. This espresso blend is also great in my soy lattes because it doesn't get overpowered by the soy milk and it manages to push its own flavors through. My wife, who normally drinks Decaf Black Cat, tried Code Brown in her latte (regular milk) and liked the taste, too.

Now, would I buy Code Brown again? Well, right now I am back to Black Cat with plans on next testing Espresso Vivace's famous espresso blend. Once I complete the rounds of testing popular blends such as this, I can easily see myself coming back to Code Brown as an occasional change in my Black Cat routine. Time will tell. In the meanwhile, here's a shot of my last soy latte art with the Code Brown.

Iron Man Results

2005-11-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

The KGS November Iron Man Tournament has wrapped up and, I must say, it was a lot of fun. Every match was interesting, I improved as a player, Zero9090 came in 2nd place, and I met some new friends. On the downside, I could only play 9 out of the 20 games due to not-quite-unexpected-but-unexpected-anyway problems on the homefront and I merely finished in 29th place. Of those 9 games, I won 4 but would have won 2 of the remainining 5 if it were not for monumental boneheaded errors, including one on what should have been the last move of the game. :( Oh, well, I think it's those kind of errors that both discourage me and challenge me to improve.

The tournament format itself is interesting, but I leave it feeling that, somehow, it's flawed in that the ranking used as a base for the handicaps is determined at registration time --- not actual game time. So, the winner turned out to be some 16k player (no, I'm not going to say sandbagger even if you make me say sandbagger!) who signed up as a 20k. Although I'm sure there are holes in any system, perhaps there is room for improvement here. What I take out of all this is that, if I want a crown, I need to improve enough to play in the open tournament where every game is played on even terms.

Special thanks go out to both NannyOgg and yoyoma, who helped tremendously with multiple reviews and learning sessions. It is because of them that I was able to get so much out of these games and improve from them. Next month's tournament should be fun!

Code Brown Espresso

2005-11-17T09:22:00.000-06:00

I have been a loyal drinker of Intelligentsia's Black Cat Espresso for a good year or so. On the business side, the company is great...they're a local Chicago roaster, they're extremely communicative, and they always manage to get the beans to me a day after roasting. On the coffee side, Black Cat is very forgiving to my lackluster barista skills and equipment. It possesses what I consider to be a very rich and deep taste that's perfect both in the shot glass and in a soy latte. My experience with other beans, namely Terroir's single origin espressos and Paradise Roaster's Espresso Classico, has not been very good and has kept me coming back to Intelligentsia.

Since I have a great new Expobar Brewtus espresso machine now (which makes me the single point of failure), I thought I'd test the waters with a few espresso blends that have been getting praise on coffeegeek. First on the bill is Coffee Emergency's Code Brown. Straight away, the company impressed me by sending out a personal email explaining when the coffee would roast and ship. Next, when the coffee did arrive, it was accompanied by a selection of 4 Baker's chocolates. Nice touch. Now for the actual coffee.

I ended up producing 2 double shots and 1 soy latte. So far, the results are promising. I have not quite dialed in the grind for a 28 second shot, but the espresso was still tasty with abundant thick crema. As a side note, the last shot I pulled used 11 on my Rancilio Rocky grinder where I'd normally be at 13 or 14 with the Black Cat...I still don't understand why I have to grind the BC so coarse. Anyway, back to Code Brown, it certainly tends more (in my opinion) toward the Daterra side than the Black Cat side since it's lighter and fruitier rather than heavy and earthy. Surprisingly, it stood up very well in soy milk and its nice dark reddish crema provided an appealing backdrop for latte art. We'll see how everything works out once I nail the grind and experiment with brewing temps. Coffee is always exciting!

KGS Hiatus

2005-11-16T23:38:00.000-06:00

I've suddenly decided to take another small step in my young go journey and declare a minor KGS hiatus. While I love the site and, heck, even subscribed as a KGS Plus member, something that Zero9090 said in jest about lurkers has hit home. All I've been doing lately on KGS has been lurking - that is, chatting, beating up on some hapless bots, and throwing in an occasional game or two with my new KGS friends and fellow go students. Part of the problem has certainly been due to family matters out of my control (which will probably make me withdraw from the ironman tournament I was so excited about earlier) but most of it has been that, when I could actually play, I'd only login and begin chatting or observing. Also, there have been times when I simply want to play and NOT chat, but I dread logging in and having people observe the game and then later review it. While I love reviews and appreciate really good reviews like yoyoma has provided, there are times when I just want to sit down and play, score it up, and play again.

So, I'll be on IGS for a while. It's not the nice club atmosphere of KGS, the client programs are not quite as clean and reliable as cgoban2, and I still think it's much more tedious to find a game for someone of my rank with their challenge system. But it's almost all go, almost all the time. :) Maybe I'll see you there. But if we meet, let's play!

Latte Art

2005-11-12T11:02:00.000-06:00

Nothing much new to report. Studying lots of go problems, both from goproblems.com and my Graded Go Problems books, in preparation for the KGS November Iron Man Handicap Tournament. The two goals of the tournament, as far as I can tell, are to play as many of your scheduled games as possible and to win as many as possible. Games are scheduled every 6 hours over a 5 day span for a total of 20 games per player. With my timezone being US/Central, I am scheduled to play at 2am, 8am, 2pm, and 8pm. I do plan on making an effort to play every game, which would tack on an additional 7 days of KGS Plus to my year subscription. I have been meaning for some time to subscribe and I actually registered this week, so I'm pleased about that.

Being a handicap tournament, obviously rating plays a large role in determining how your games will play out. The way KGS handles this is to lock your effective rating for the tournament at entry time. For me, that was 18k. Right now, though, I'm 17k and, if things go as planned, I will be 16k by next week when the tournament begins on the 20th. So, perhaps that will help me out a bit. :) With 4k players in the tournament, I'll certainly need all the help I can get!

Aside from go, I'm still learning the ins and outs of my new espresso machine, the Expobar Brewtus. I've been extremely pleased with everything about the machine, but actually right now I'm a bit ticked...as I looked for a URL I found that the Brewtus II has been released and there was no indication of that when I bought the original a few weeks ago. Oh, well.

At any rate, while I am still working on my steaming and latte art, I have produced a couple near decent rosettas using soy milk. Here is an example.

Why, hello!

2005-11-04T08:51:00.000-06:00

Again, it's been way too long. After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back and playing go with a vengeance. The past few days have seen me playing around 10 games per day online in addition to studying the game with the help of some books I recently purchased from Kiseido. The two I'm reading now are:

Basic Techniques of Go

Graded Go Problems for Beginners, Vol. 2

After reading the first chapter of BTOG and studying the first 100 problems or so in GGPFB, I played what I feel are probably the two best games I've come up with so far. I still have problems in the endgame where my mind shuts off, thinking the game is over and won, only to watch my opponent flail around and grab a seki or fill in all dame and then kill a large group that had no business dying as I pass away my moves. I actually lost 3 games this week where I was up by more than 25 points but turned my brain off within the last 5 moves to lose. Perhaps if I lose a few more like this I'll pay more attention. :)

On a fun note, last night yoyoma goaded me into playing ChiyoDad (22k at the time vs my 18k) in a 4 stone handicap match and it was a blast. I have never played with so many observers (the ChiyoMob) and the game was definitely tense, with many long thoughtful pauses. In the end, despite the fact that I think I played pretty well, he ended up winning by a nice 20+ point margin due to the fact that I just did not make headway into a large territory he built up on the left side of the board. I think I may try to play more handicap games as white in the coming days because it certainly makes me think harder about big points and territory values.

On another fun note, I won two auctions on eBay for Hikaru No Go toys. :) As I was explaining to ChiyoDad the other day, these are ostensibly for my kids, but I really wanted to play with them, myself!

My daughter enjoys watching Hikaru and perhaps these toys will help her and my infant son get more interested in playing go. I need someone to play with me on a real board!

Been a while...

2005-09-14T20:25:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since the last update. Things have been hectic around here and I have not been able to play much go. I have, on the other hand, been playing quite a bit of High Stakes Poker (tm) and it's been an excellent experience. :) Mostly, this update is to mention a new (?) blog I found over at Sensei's:

MrOoijer Blogs

Very interesting, if only for the remodeling photos. :) His blog also reminds me that I need to find a way to quickly convert SGF files to nice diagram images under unix.

Marathon Go Championship Complete

2005-09-02T08:07:00.000-05:00

The 5th Cho Chikun Judan Cup 42.195 Marathon Go Championship is over. I didn't play anywhere near as much as I had hoped and I finished up in 68th place with 72 games played. The top player actually managed to play 652 games in 42 days. Yikes! High-kyu buddy Zero9090 did us all proud by finishing in 16th place with 207 games. If he had not played so often on KGS during the same time he certainly would have placed higher.

I look forward to next year's event!

Downtime

2005-08-31T02:18:00.000-05:00

While running some late-night jobs for a project I'm working on, I played a couple games of go and watched a few games of ChiyoDad's, as well. Despite the fact that a silly endgame mistake cost me a 2 stone handicap game against a 17k player, I learned quite a bit. A lot of that can be attributed to the fact that NannyOgg stopped by to watch and review the game with us. I need a virtual NannyOgg bot to always review games afterwards!

Alas, the go server picked a horrible time to go down so we could not finish. :( I waited probably 20 minutes or so before giving up, and since the jobs were finishing I decided to head off to bed. Maybe again some other time.

Thanks again, nanny!!

cgoban2 unplugged

2005-08-29T09:46:00.000-05:00

This entry isn't so much a blog as it is a way to document something I found useful in the event that it might be useful for others. When playing on KGS this weekend on my unplugged laptop, performance was abysmally slow. Window redraws took at least 10 seconds, switching room tabs took at least that much time, and observing a game was impossible. All other applications ran fine, CPU utilization was less than 5% at all times, and I saw that the CPU speed was throttled down to 600MHz - still a reasonable speed.

A quick google found others with similar problems. The situation looked a bit grim and I began to wonder if the holy grail of go playing - wireless internet bathroom go - was out of reach for KGS players. I had such a great time playing wirelessly on IGS at Panera that I knew I had to take that next step and I wanted to be able to do it on as many servers as possible.

Now, stepping back, I know java's slow, but it cannot be THAT slow, can it? Well, I still don't have an answer for that. But another post finally did get a response that pointed to a solution.

It would appear that ATI video adapters (mine included!) include configurable functionality called "PowerPlay". This is intended to decrease battery usage by allowing you to throttle video performance in order to conserve power. Honestly, I don't really notice much of a difference with all my other applications, but for some reason it just brutalizes java apps, cgoban2 included. Disabling PowerPlay or simply configuring it toward more performance while on battery power is the simple fix.

10th PandaNet Cup

2005-08-26T11:07:00.000-05:00

IGS seems to be having lots of events lately, and that's really great. The Cho Chikun Judan Cup Marathon is still running and, even though I'm out of the running, I continue to enjoy it. Their latest event is the PandaNet Cup, which are a couple tournaments (even and handicapped) with cash and and "original goods" prizes. This is apparently the "10th Internet World Amateur Go Championship".

Even though I'd have absolutely no chance, I'd love to play in the handicap tournament. Any opportunity to get in a number of matches against better players is not to be missed. The only problem is that I really cannot in good faith make a commitment to play the required matches since I will have a number of outside influences directing my free time for the next few months.

Maybe next year.

Sandbagging My Way to 1 Dan

2005-08-25T23:06:00.000-05:00

I've been sandbagged again. And I feel fine!

Sure, I lost by 77.5 points against a 22k with barely 600 IGS-PandaNet rating points but, gosh darn it, people like me. I learned a bit, enjoyed the game, and I'm 150 points closer to 1d. ;)

What more could I ask for?

Anyway, tangential words for the wise. If you're just looking for a close game and you're a 20-22k goon like me:

* avoid 22k players from Japan with ~600 rating points and gobs of games played :) :)
* avoid BC players with gobs of wins
* don't use the seek function ... you'll probably end up playing an aforementioned BC player

Otherwise, go for it. As Peter wisely pointed out to me, if they're willing to play the game, take advantage of the learning experience.

New glGo

2005-08-22T23:14:00.000-05:00

I'm happy any time I get a chance to upgrade my software and, today, glGo has been updated to v1.3.1. This version has a number of excellent changes, including one that allows for a skin configuration file. This makes the flat skin look even better by allowing last-marker location control.

Download it from here:

http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/glgo/

Along with the new version of the software, the main IGS-PandaNet glGo web site now has a skins page which points back here for the flat skin.

Woo!

3-3 Invasion

2005-08-22T07:37:00.000-05:00

I think I need to study senseis much more. I failed miserably on back-to-back 3-3 invasions which cost me a game I think I would have won against a 19k (which I played as white). I made a true misclick in the first invasion, but just bumbled through the second.

SGF

I don't know if I've ever successfully made one of these basic invasions and I don't think I've ever stopped one of them, either. :( I think I'm just going to play it out on my real goban over and over and over. :)

Wireless Go

2005-08-19T05:55:00.000-05:00

I'm off to pick up my brother who's in town for the weekend. I'm leaving early so that I can hang out at a Panera and play go over their free wireless access. So, if you see me on IGS and I suddenly vanish, perhaps my battery died or I lost a signal. :) And if you see me doing crazy, stupid things, then someone probably sniffed my password. :)

- update -

I did manage to play one game while drinking a decidedly poor coffee at Panera. It was a blast, even though I ended up losing to a 22k? player by 4.5 points. I should have won but komi was set to 0.5 for some reason. I'm guessing it was because I was 22k+ at the time versus his 22k? provisional rating. Either way, that's not the point. I really enjoy the close games as every small point matters in the end. This evening I won a game against a 22k by over 50 points and, despite the fact that it pushed me back up into the 21k range, it did not have quite the same tension and suspense.

On the Cho Chikun Judan Cup front, I had a miserable week and did not play more than 3 games in any one day. Partly I was busy, but partly I had a bit of trouble finding people to play matches with. I don't generally play BC players because most that I see are simply much better unranked players (but I am reconsidering this decision since I should probably WANT to play better players). The 21-22k players just didn't seem to want to play when I was looking. Oh, well. I'll have to come on strong next week if I wish to place top 50.

On a related note, I think the switch from NR to BC is a bit of a mistake on IGS. The idea of having a Beginner's Class is a great one, however there are clearly some very good players who simply do not wish to have a rank. Right now there is no good place for them, since they're lumped in as BC. It makes it much more difficult for a player like me to give the true beginners a game or to perform a seek and find an even game, since a BC still falls under an even game for me at the 22k and (I think) 21k ranks. Perhaps we need to keep BC and simply bring back NR for those who don't wish to take on a rank.

On a completely unrelated note, I ordered an official Ricky Williams 2003 All Pro football game jersey and it arrived by UPS today. It's awesome. :)

Great Go Day

2005-08-15T23:41:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to say for today, except that it was a great day for go. I only managed to play 2 games, but one of the games was with Peter Strempel, author of my favorite go program, glGo. Being rated 8k?, he gave me 9 stones of handicap. Even that was not enough, as I found myself struck dumb and intimidated like I usually do in these situations. It was one of those games when you make stupid moves that you actually know are stupid AS YOU'RE MAKING THE MOVES. Oh, well. I don't think I can actually learn much from this particular game, considering how badly I played. :(

So why was it such a great day for go? Well, after the game, I chatted his fingers off for a few hours. :) I now know quite a bit more than I did before about glGo, IGS, and internet go in general. I have to say that I have even more faith now that glGo (already the best go client program IMO) will continue to get better and that IGS also will continue to be an excellent place to play and may even improve, too. We also discussed some of the small work I've done on the non-textured skin, the rank grapher, and the stats html page generator, which was fun for me.

Anyway, I'm tired, so I'm signing off, number 22k+ in the rankings, number 1 in your hearts.

Hope for the hopeless

2005-08-12T21:22:00.000-05:00

Just an update. Since the last entry I've played some of my best go ever and, despite a few "hopeless" invasions, I was able to weather the storms and pull out a few victories. A good deal of credit should go to NannyOgg who reviewed a game of mine and gave me lots of great insights that I immediately put into work.

Just goes to show that, for me at least, go is heavily influenced by one's current disposition.

By the way, right now I'm observing the Jie Li 9d vs Thomas Hsiang 7d US Masters Final on IGS. Incredible commentary. I wish we had this kind of input on all high dan matches! :)

Hopeless

2005-08-11T10:28:00.000-05:00

If you've read previous posts, you've seen me say that I welcome hopeless attacks into protected territory as a learning experience. Well, maybe I don't any more. This morning's first game was against a 19k. I played really well (for me!) and managed to find myself ahead once all the borders were basically completed. Sigh. Take a deep breath. Relax. Then came a slew of white stones flying in on what were well-protected positions. "Oh, brother, this guy's a sore loser!" was my first thought. Immediately my disposition soured and I just wanted to get the game over with. Of course, what happens when you get ornery? You make stupid moves. And I made a bunch. Big loss.

He offered to play another and, despite the fact that I was still ornery and making relatively quick moves (I'm on tilt! I'm on tilt!), by the time the borders were completed I was ahead again by a decent margin. Of course, in flew the white stones, this time into even better protected areas. At that point, you could stick a fork in me, because I was done. I considered just resigning (as my IGS opponents might) but I played it out, made a bunch of stupid moves, and then resigned (while whining about how I need to improve my corner protecting if I'm going to play him again).

Now, all this just stinks. I didn't start off the day in all that great a mood, and go (which I play strictly for fun) has worsened my mood. This is bizarre to me. I can lose a few hundred dollars in poker and not think twice, but lose a couple games of go where I thought I was ahead? No way.

Now, get this. As it turns out, I wasn't actually ahead in the first game. Nor in the second game! So, I'm the sore loser and I'm the one who wasted a learning opportunity. Ouch.

I'm going back to play. :)

glGo flat graphics

2005-08-07T20:38:00.000-05:00

I really love the glGo application and I love its realistic and beautiful graphics. However, there are times when I actually would prefer a graphics set more like cgoban2's or smartgo's. Whenever I'm using those, I feel like I'm studying out of a book or something, and that somehow comforts me. ;) So, I decided to make an alternate graphics "skin" that would replicate those other applications. I think it's worked out pretty nicely.

Click on the image for a larger screenshot.

I've made this available right here. Simply download it, unarchive it, and copy the data folder to the appropriate location for your platform. This is all documented in the excellent glGo manual, however if you're too lazy to look for yourself, here are those locations:

Windows: C:\Program Files\glGo\share\data
Linux: /usr/share/games/glGo/data/
Mac: /Applications/glGo.app/Contents/SharedSupport/data/

As I update the skin, I'll just replace the old file, so the download link will always get the most recent copy:

http://fejes.net/frank/go/files/glgo_images_flat.zip

Happy non-textured go-ing!

The man in the coffee beans revisited.

2005-08-06T17:53:00.000-05:00

Referring back to the entry from a few days ago, my wife found the man in 10 seconds and my 2 year old daughter found him in less than 2 minutes. Me thinking me the dumberest in the fambily.

I blame exhaustion.

2005-08-05T06:38:00.000-05:00

Well, it was late, and I was tired. Either way, I don't know what I was thinking. Rather than relying on blogspot to provide a backup facility, I should have just used my own. Once I decided to do that, the solution was easy on my Ubuntu Linux system.

# apt-cache search http mirror
# apt-get install httrack
$ mkdir docs/blog
$ cd docs/blog
$ httrack frankiii.blogspot.com

Backup complete. I think I'll stick here at blogspot for now. :)

New blog...

2005-08-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

Well, I really like blogspot, but there appears to be no way to easily backup the blog. For someone, well, concerned about backups like I am, that's just not going to work. So, check out my new blog:

http://livejournal.com/~iiifrank

Go Server Curiosities

2005-08-04T09:11:00.000-05:00

Every so often I try to get in a few games of go before heading out to the office. Since I don't have much time and it's still usually easier to find a game on IGS, and since I'm still competing in the Cho Chikun Judan Cup, I've been exclusively playing on IGS during these hours. I managed to play two games today which really illustrate to me how different IGS and KGS are for my level. Remember that I'm 22k on IGS and 21k on KGS. I am probably still a bit overrated on KGS due to having beaten GNUGo (13k) in a 6 stone handicap match but that doesn't really change things.

Anyway, the first game was against a 22k player from Taiwan. I was absolutely crushed and outplayed all over the board. At the very end, I tried to play out a somewhat complicated border attack and ended up failing. Just as I was about to click the pass button to begin scoring, he resigned, despite the fact that he was probably ahead by over 100 points! Immediately I chatted with him to apologize for the bad game and to explain that I'm still learning. He did not seem upset, but he must have been peeved enough to resign. I don't think he knows me personally, so it couldn't have been a birthday present. :^) This type of thing has happened before to me at IGS...I was playing someone who, by his rank, is a beginner like I am. However, near the end of a game he was (by my count) leading, he chose to resign rather than let me finish it out. Perhaps I'm reading too much into the resignation, but I feel like it's his way of saying that I'm insulting him by not resigning myself.

This has never happened to me on KGS and, personally, I don't quite understand why playing out a game or trying to exploit some weak stones would be bad etiquette, at least at our beginner level. We're all learning, after all, and obvious defeat is not always so obvious. I've been on the other side of this situation a few times and have welcomed the opportunity to defend against what appear to be somewhat hopeless attacks. I've defended against most, but have failed in a couple, too. All have been at least mildly educational.

Either way, I played a second game, this time against a 21k from Japan. This game I won by 18.5 points. And here is the whole interesting thing about IGS. At my level, anyway, it seems like a 50-50 proposition whether I'll have a closely matched game or not. I'll win an even match against a 20k+ then badly lose an even match against a 22k. Some 22k players have played (and won) hundreds of games, which doesn't quite make sense to me. Some 21k players have thousands. On KGS, it seems like this just doesn't happen. The better players move up over time, as I would expect.

In the end, it was fun, I chalked up two more games toward my CCJC score, and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee. Hopefully I learned something, too...

Find the man between the coffee beans.

2005-08-03T14:53:00.000-05:00

Wow, two blog entries. I'm really cool. But I just saw this and now have a clinical explanation as to why I am not a good go player. My right brain is a mess.

Apparently, if you can find the man within 3 seconds, your right brain is functioning better than most. It's functioning normally if between 3 seconds and one minute. You need more protein if it takes from 1 to 3 minutes, and your right brain is an absolute mess if it takes longer. The only advice at that point is to do more of these types of exercises in order to strengthen the right side of the brain.

Well, I tried for 3 minutes or so and didn't find it until a friend pointed it out. I'm not going to provide spoilers as to my search method but, in the end, it doesn't matter because I failed. Being vegan, I suspect I may possibly require more protein in my diet. And I also suspect that playing go could assist in developing my brain since it's so pattern and shape oriented. Very interesting stuff.

Well...

2005-08-03T13:06:00.000-05:00

Well, perhaps I do have something to write, even if nobody's reading. After all, most blogs are read-only so why should this one be any different?

Lately, I've been playing a lot of go (also known as igo, weiqi, and baduk). Being relatively new to the game, I am not very good. I'm playing at the KGS and IGS-PandaNet go servers where I have 21k and 22k ranks, respectively. I've read a couple books by an american professional named Janice Kim and they've certainly helped create some sort of foundation for my game. In the end, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

As a side project, being a programmer, I wrote some software that generates html statistics pages and graphs for my IGS account. I enjoy this functionality from the KGS account so I wanted to duplicate (or improve) it for my IGS account. I've found myself playing there quite a bit now that the Cho Chikun Judan Cup marathon tournament is running. Here is my resulting graph:

frankiii's IGS Rating Graph

For now, until I get authorization, I am not going to allow for other users to generate their own graphs. Hopefully that will soon change.

But why?

2005-08-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

I don't actually have anything to say.

First Blog

2005-08-03T12:38:00.000-05:00

Well, it's finally happened. I have a blog. I'm so cool.