the frig blig

don’t piss off your teacher in texas

frog — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:58:08 +0000

Teachers in the Harrold school district in Texas are to be allowed to carry concealed firearms when the new school term opens this month. — BBC News

If I was a student in Harrold I’d sure as hell want to pack my own heat to defend myself against the bastards and even the odds. It’s your right according to the second amendment to the U.S. constitution… oh right, you’re not a citizen until you’re 21 in this country…dang!

feng yun wins ing as 2008 go congress enters yose

frog — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:53:13 +0000

Feng Yun 9P defeated Yilun Yang 7P last night to win the 2008 Ing Masters tournament. The middle game featured a difficult fight, which prompted commentator Takemiya Masaki 9P to remark, “You shouldn’t have to try that hard. It’s better to think as simply as possible. Both players are too much into it — they want to win badly because it’s the final match.”
Here is Feng Yun reviewing the game of a congress participant during a lecture this afternoon.

computer defeats 8P go professional

frog — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:02:30 +0000

A historic sign of the times occurred this afternoon when computer go program MoGo defeated Korean go professional Myungwan Kim 8P at the 2008 U.S. Go Congress in Portland OR. The computer played with a 9-stone handicap and won by 1.5 stones.

MoGo was written by French programmer Sylvain Gelly and ran on a borrowed European supercomputer with 800 CPUs. MoGo is available for download at Gelly’s home page.

With the current pace of technology I now expect to see computers defeating human professionals playing even games in my lifetime…a vision both exciting and depressing.

I just installed MoGo on my laptop and played it a quick game, and I’m impressed, it played some moves so good it was spooky…but MoGo’s yose sucks. OTOH I made MoGo play white…if I gave it 9 stones and more thinking time it would probably give this 8k a run for his money. I’ll try it, but not tonight.

why playing go is fun

frog — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:31:06 +0000

Takemiya Masaki 9P spoke to assembled participants at the 2008 U.S. Go Congress this afternoon at Portland State University. Here’s some of what he said during the first 30 minutes:

Everyone wants to get stronger at go and everyone wants to win games. Are you playing your moves at the first spot you wanted to play? Or do you change your mind because you think that move has problems? That kind of thinking keeps you from improving.

No one ever believes me when I say this.

The desire to win keeps you from playing the move you want to make. The move you want to play represents your own style. You can play one hundred games but if you don’t play your own moves it’s as if you played none.

Many people learn to not play their own moves because those moves have made them lose games. By sticking with your own moves, you may lose more, but eventually you will learn how to make these moves work and you will start winning. It is more satisfying to play the move you want to play. Don’t worry about losing.

Everyone has a different way of thinking about the game. The technical aspects of go are not that important. The game has infinite possibilities. What’s important is the way you think and feel about the game.

You think that professionals are reading ahead and considering variations — no. Thinking ahead too much is detrimental. Not just about go but life in general. So pros aren’t thinking, they are developing a feel for the game. They are thinking about the game at the speed of sound, but feeling the game at the speed of light.

Getting stronger is gradual; nobody starts out strong. Strong and weak players think about the game differently. A beginner is thinking about where to play and will it work or not. A pro isn’t thinking about where to play, but about what’s important on the board.

Understanding potential threats also is important. If your body is unhealthy, it restricts your movement. Go is similar. If your groups are healthy they can fight well. Sometimes you have weak stones, this affects your play. Learn good vs. bad shapes. Good shape wins more games.

People think that having the most territory wins games — no. I blame go books for this misconception. It’s not who has the most territory who wins — it’s who has the most territory at the end of the game. So don’t play territorial moves, play shape moves. With many good shapes you will win naturally.

Why is go fun? One reason is because every game is different. In many situations in life, uncertainty brings anxiety. But life is enjoyable because it’s unpredictable. If you knew what was going to happen for the rest of your life, why bother to live it? Not knowing what’s going to happen makes it more fun. Every go game is like a journey to a new place. And it’s fun to discover cool new moves.

Play with courage, not with fear.

–Takemiya Masaki, 2008-August-05

summertime

frog — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:36:40 +0000

Hanging loose at the beach in Yachats, in the zone.

amufflercana

frog — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:25:24 +0000

The muffler in my auto blew on the way down to Oregon. The Corvallis repair shop I had it replaced in had these muffler sculpture dudes out front.

matt gets around

frog — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:02:07 +0000

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This link was posted on Josh’s blog and it’s just so sweet I had to post it here on the Blig.

plf in 08 (alley art)

frog — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:27:51 +0000

Two images from an alley, yesterday in Pioneer Square:

independence jive

frog — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:10:11 +0000

Crow wants to know: What makes my country think it’s better than all the other countries?
Crow wants to know: Why does my country invade other countries on a regular basis?

Frog rolled his big yellow eyes, finally letting them focus on a point an inch in front of Crow’s beak. And he said:

“It’s like this, Crow. Cuz we live inside of these borders we’re all right. Cuz them other folk live inside of those other borders they’re evil.

Everybody knows it is most honorable to destroy evil.”

Frog started hopping back and forth on his legs as he warmed up.

“If you get hurt while destroying evil we will give you a precious purple medal you can wear with pride, and everyone will know you’re a hero. And if we kill more of them than they kill of us, we get more points…and we win! The more we win, the better we look, the better we feel and the better we ARE. Stronger, bigger and sweeter than we are now!”

Crow cocked his head and watched Frog jumping up and down croaking “Brighter brights! Whiter whites!” and spat out Caw! Caw! Caw!* and with a flutter of black wings he was gone.

* Translation: ‘What — it’s not about the oil?’

updated sqlver

frog — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:37:01 +0000

I updated the sqlver utility (available on the Bamboo utilities page) to detect versions up to Sqlserver 2008; the display format is also more human-friendly than before. Current version is 1.1.