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Dec-14-10
 | | Annie K.: <You didn't even have to translate that page:> But that would take knowing something...? ;p |
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Dec-14-10
| | Annie K.: :) Keep that TinEye link handy, btw; it's very useful. There's also http://www.gazopa.com/ but I've found it not to be so efficient... although it may be the more comprehensive search, but its algorithm for recognizing actual similarity sux. |
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Dec-14-10
 | | Domdaniel: I keep all your links handy, sweet. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: My 1995 computer had a state-of-the-art Mac version of Photoshop, and in those days I had a printer. So I whiled away weeks doing things with images, just as I used to do in the era of Heartfield-style collage. But I poured a cup of sugary cofee into the motherboard. And when I got it going again, I managed to set fire to it. Been out of the image loop since. When I moved to PCs I never got round to the picwork stuff. I useta build typefaces pixel by pixel, byte by byte. Sort of like cave art now. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: You wanna know something? You know something.
Least, I think I'm a thing. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Annie K.: You're not a "thing", sweet. You're one of this planet's few claims to having intelligent life. :) And cave art is wildly successful ackshly, ask any tourist bureau... Sometimes I don't understand computers. What's not to like about coffee?! ;) |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: That's cute. I'm failing miserably in this klu hunt because I persist in trying to use my intelligence, while all the in-the-loop folk are using automated pixel scripts and image subroutines and such. I could live with that. Some of the best writers, SF and otherwise, have been lo-tech (but never Luddites). I've discussed the shape of the typewritten paragraph and the sound of handwritten dialog with some of them. And anyway, I imagined all this tech stuff years ago. The fact that it's arrived just frees me to imagine other stuff. Thanks, hon. You're a brick. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Annie K.: You're welcome. :) And I've been called all sorts of things, but that one's new to me... heh! A coupla conjectures:
1. the reason there were no klus published during the live broadcast today was in fact because ceegee realized this creates an attention-requirement clash; and 2. the klus are easier this year, perhaps because our admins decided to please the majority rather than the minority, for a change. And I would very much like to see what you'll come up with when you get around to imagining other stuff. ;) |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: They *say* the times were randomized so that folk all around the world would have equal chances - but they would, wouldn't they? There was a live clue during a London game a few days ago, and somebody actually commented on how few kibitzers seemed to be around. So, yes.
I've been keeping an eye on the number of users logged in -- it averages around 200 with names plus maybe 700 anons. I'm with the names (bloody showoff), though I used to be anon. Point is, while the total sometimes rises to about 1200 (when all of North America and Europe is awake at once), it almost never drops below 500. My conclusion? There are more people keeping odd hours than there are geographically (dis)advantaged ones. Also, more people now keep their browsers on their persons. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Annie K.: <They *say* the times were randomized so that folk all around the world would have equal chances - but they would, wouldn't they?> Well, I believe them, in general, but I do think they may have manually put the clue due to be released during the live broadcast on hold - as it was released within minutes of the game's end. Yeah, <AgentRGent> commented on the quiet the other day, and I suggested it may have to do with the clue hunt. The walls may have had ears. They often do. ;) And yes, probably a lot of non-Americans are "living on American time", because those are the hours of "most action" around the net. I'm logged in from my IPhone a lot too, but it's a limited access - not technically, I could access most things except Flash-based apps, but typing (i.e., posting) is more difficult, and actually solving clues would be next to impossible - IPhone can handle only one app at a time (browser OR notepad OR calculator, etc.), and the multiple pageloads required for going through bulk game pages would probably give it a nervous breakdown. So I can follow the action from the IPhone, but for actually trying to solve a clue, I'd want to be sitting by a nice PC. ;) |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: And now for something completely different. A topic switcheroo to, gasp, *chess annotation, the art of*. Should one be sparing with exclams, hand out question marks like penalty points in purgatory, or what? Can a '??' be followed by a '!!'? Or is it always one or t'other? Robert Huebner famously annotated Anderssen's Immortal Game - with something like 14 '?' and '??'s, a couple of '!?' and '?!' and barely an unqualified '!' in sight. Another example. Take this position.
click for larger view
Black has just played ...Rxd4.
Now 26.Rxd4 Qxd4 seems roughly equal. Maybe White was concerned about the Zwischenzug 26.Rxd4 Nxg3+(?!), but it seems to run out of steam, eg 27.Kh2 Qxd4 28.Kxg3 Qe3+ 29.Bf3(!) and Black hasn't enough. 29...g5 30.fxg5 Qxg5+ 31.Kf2 Qh4+ 32.Ke2, and White is fairly safe with a material plus and distinct counter-attack chances. So instead white played 26.Kh2 and was hit with 26...Rxa4. My first question is easy. If we annotate 26.Kh2?, can we also say ...Rxa4! ...? I would, in both cases, but some purists insist it should be a blunder plus due punishment *or* a normal move and a brilliancy. The game went on with
27.f5?! (not best, but a good attempt to complicate a bad position)
Incidentally, 27.Qxa4? is worse, though it takes a few moves to prove it: 27.Qxa4 Qe3 28.Qc2 Qxg3+ (or ...Bxh3!?) 29.Kh1 Bxh3 30.Bxh3 Qxh3+ 31.Qh2 Qf3+ 32.Qg2 Qxf4 and Black runs away with it ... The game ended:
27.f5?! Rc4!
28.Qe2 Bd5!
1-0
I give Black 3 exclams: 26...Rxa4!, 27...Rc4!, 28...Bd5! -- is this too many? Does White deserve a '?' for allowing it to happen with Kh2? ...?
How can it take 3 exclams to defeat one little mistake? Should 27.f5 be ? or ?! (the guy was at least trying)? Questions, questions. Have we a style sheet on this?
Oh yeah, the game is D Khismatullin vs I Nepomniachtchi, 2010. I was looking at Fianchetto Grunfelds earlier ... |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: I wasn't *really* changing the subject, btw. Feel free to continue on any earlier topic. Just needed to show that I'm not *totally* obsessed with the qui ... queen and her handsome family. Have a look (on wiki) at the top 40 heirs to the British throne. Funny names, funny people, hilarious rules about 'bastards' and 'papists'. If you happen to be one of the former, you can't get back on the list even if your parents subsequently marry. And if you're the latter, you seem to be deemed 'legally dead'. I'm never gonna make Queen at this rate, as an apostate-papist non-subject of indeterminate bastardry. Sorry, Mum. *Of course* you were married.
;) |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: My approach to Klu arrival is now akin to the worldview of a Buddhist prostitute. They come when they come. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Annie K.: <I wasn't *really* changing the subject, btw.> I know, it was cross-posting. :)
<My approach to Klu arrival [...]> LOL! That's the spirit! ;) |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: I'm hallucinating Bishops. Well, minor pieces. Maybe I should call it a ♘ ... |
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Dec-14-10
 | | OhioChessFan: <I'm never gonna make Queen at this rate, as an apostate-papist non-subject of indeterminate bastardry.> A great line by Lenny from Laverne and Shirley, when they discovered Squiggy was something like #80 in line for the throne: "We figure one good plague, and he's almost a Queen." |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: Remember the otherwise forgettable movie King Ralph? They line the first 80 or so up for a commemoration photo and suffer a terminal camera accident, wiping out the house of W. Except for John Goodman, 81st in line. And, well, from the Colonies. One's corgis simply pined away. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: Actually, "apostate-papist" is wrong: I'm a *heretic*. I think the Reformation was a Good Thing, apart from all the religion. |
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Dec-14-10
| | Domdaniel: And so to bed.
No Pepys, pls. |
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Dec-14-10
| | OhioChessFan: I had a look at Wiki. I am still trying to figure out if it's worse to be a papist or a bastard. |
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Dec-15-10
| | Domdaniel: I go to sleep for 2 hrs and I miss the Chnese remainder theorem. The Chinese envoy was here ... |
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Dec-15-10
| | Domdaniel: On this date last year the GOTD was R Bauer vs B Finegold, 2001, which I found by accident a day early. Not sure if I 'solved' a clue since ... |
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| Dec-15-10 | | dakgootje: well, there is an unsolved number-clue now - just what you wished for christmas! |
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Dec-15-10
| | Domdaniel: Numb and number ... |
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Dec-15-10
| | Annie K.: There's been a lot of keyboard-layout based clues this year. I'd look into which letters could correspond to those numerals, if I could be bothered. ;) |
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