from stones to silicon
Go, a game estimated at perhaps 4000 years old, has been played with slate and shell stones on wooden boards for millennia. Computers have been programed to play but thus far have never surpassed the rank of strong amateur. The biggest impact recently of computers on the go scene has been (1) the advent of internet-based go servers, which let people worldwide play each other 24 hours a day; and (2) the standardization of a file format for recording and subsequent reviewing of games called SGF.
Last April I discovered that a small software company Indigonauts was distributing a java implementation of a go recording program for cell phones. I’d been wanting such a program ever since I obtained my Razr V3, which included java. I downloaded it, and it worked, and I happily paid the 4.95 euros price Indigonauts was asking for their gome program.
Unhappily it turns out there are some features that are unavailable to phones without jsr75, phones older than midp2. Phones such as mine. Features such as saving to files outside of the java vm. Features that I want.
So this program gome has motivated me to upgrade my phone. I spent a little time researching what’s current and will be ordering my new phone soon (once I confirm with my service provider that I can migrate my sim chip, with their account, to the new phone).
And so we see how stones and wood help drive the economy of technology.