Archive for December, 2005

In Search Of Meeting Invitation Webapp

Thursday, December 29th, 2005

I’m looking for a web-app that a frisbee group can use for scheduling games. Games occur often (one or more times a week, depending on the group) and have the same audience. There should be a way for someone to announce a game time and location that will be emailed to all members, and a way for each member to sign-in or out and leave a comment (like “will be late” or “bringing a guest”). And, of course, members should be able to check the status and see the sign-in status. E-mail access would be a bonus. The app needs to be responsive since game conditions can change on short notice.

Evite comes pretty close, but seems too heavyweight with the ads and self-promotions. Yahoo Groups does better at the group part but not as well at the event part. Plus it seems to have a big lag in message forwarding. Eventful looks promising, though it is in beta only and will surely get loaded up with ads like the others eventually.

The status quo is a simple unix app requiring an X-windows remote login to use :( . I’ve taken a webapp that the chess group was using and rebranded it for ultimate. It works OK, but it lacks any notification features.

GNU Chess Bugs

Thursday, December 15th, 2005

After porting GNU Chess from C to Java a few months ago, I reported a few bugs and suspicious code to the GNU Chess mailing list. I’ve finally gotten around to making a bug write-up on this site.

Before and After at the Concrete Bridge

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005

Duke Forest concrete bridge during droughtDuke Forest concrete bridge after drought


New Hope Creek normally gets pretty low in the summer, but our late summer and fall drought left the creek lower than usual. Above left is a photo from October 1st of the concrete bridge in the Korstian Division of Duke Forest. Above right is the same area from December 10th after two weeks of on-and-off rain. The creek flows over the bridge during periods of heavy rain, but we’ll take what we can get.

Unsophisticated Art Review : Emanuel Ax and Richard Stoltzman

Sunday, December 11th, 2005

I skipped the sold-out Bonnie Raitt concert last week, but Bonnie and Beth went and enjoyed it. Of note: a few rows of seats were added within the orchestra pit.

The performance of Emanuel “Manny” Ax on piano along with Richard “Dick” Stoltzman on clarinet was much better than I expected. After seeing several pianists at Memorial Hall this year, Ax was the first to offer any kind of visual feedback with his animations and facial expressions.

I didn’t care too much for the Debussy piece that they started out with. With a lot of gaps and pauses, it seemed to be missing something. Bonnie liked it, though, and found it reminiscent of old movie scores.

Things picked up, however, when Ax performed a long solo that may have been largely improvised. It certainly wasn’t on the program. The third piece was a more classical duet, and after intermission there were three more duets from contemporary American composers. These were lively with something interesting happening on either the piano or the clarinet or both.

The casual comments from the performers also helped make the music more enjoyable, I think. Ax expressed how wonderful it was playing Memorial Hall’s new Steinway and how much he appreciated that there was a laundry in the basement. During one pause between movements, a cell phone could be heard ringing and Ax answered it by playing a ringtone on the piano.

Fall Chess Round 4 Game 2

Thursday, December 1st, 2005

Black to moveAfter winning the first game, I was able to relax a little for the second game of the match. I played Black and quickly found myself getting bottled up in the diagrammed position. I decide to go in for the possibly-complicated trade with Nxe5. Post-game discussion revealed that White saw farther ahead than I did but not far enough. He expected to win material by having his pawn take at e5, f6 and e7 to threaten my queen while letting my bishop take at b5 and c1. With my queen threatened, I would have to give up the bishop, he thought. Luckily for me, I was able to use the newly opened file to exchange queens and rescue my bishop.

Black to moveAfter the smoke cleared, I had taken his rook and pawn at the cost of a knight. Not enough of an advantage for a clear win, but certainly an nice advantage, nonetheless. After some regrouping of pieces on both sides, White started to bring his king into the action to reach the next shown position. However, it turned out to be a blunder since the tactical reply Rd2+ won his bishop.


Black to moveNow I had a comfortable lead, and in the final diagram I found a move to improve my overall position while giving back a little material. After Rxc3 Rxc3, Bxe5 I was a piece up with three strong passed pawns, and Black soon resigned.

That gives me 4 wins, 4 losses and no draws for a solid third place out of five.