following KU as long as in polls in Football and of course Basketball!!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Still waiting for October
I'm still waiting for October, when hopefully, TransWarp's account will be back up and running. It's a long wait, would probably happen on Oct. 2, 2009, I know I am having withdrawl...but what can you do, life revolves around money, just as Pink Floyd's famous song points out. I just know it cannot come soon enough. Hope to see you soon!
To timhortonsknight, I'm hanging in there bro, I hope you can do the same! I'm surprised you just found the Finnish page on highest ICC ratings, been in my links for quite some time :P
To timhortonsknight, I'm hanging in there bro, I hope you can do the same! I'm surprised you just found the Finnish page on highest ICC ratings, been in my links for quite some time :P
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sadly, a wait til October and other ramblings
Sadly, I will have to wait until October to renew TransWarp's Account. I am having major Warp Drive withdrawl ;) Sometimes bills just catch up with you and it happened to me. Chess is a very expensive hobby from playing OTB to playing online now. With ICC raising prices (although it is worth it for the coverage of major tournaments and such and online video articles), for a computer account which does none of that really, in addition to your regular account (Which you do access these perks) can be very tough on the fixed income types.
As with playing OTB, you have to have local membership, USCF membership to play in sanctioned tournaments. The average player pays for the prizes of the GM's who get to play for free, they get to play free on ICC too, but this is to help bring members to the site. This is the problem of not having major company sponsorship of Chess Tournaments in the United States. If we could get them to do so, like some of the software companies (not necessarily chess software) or other high visibility companies, it would really be nice to see major tournaments here in the US. Can you imagine if Coke-Cola sponsored a tournament? Or the Pepsi Pawn Push, wow that would be nice. But it won't happen, as chess players are still regarded as nerds here. It's almost bad for a teen's social life to be in a chess club! Schools really need to press the fact that chess helps people learn other things! USCF had a slogan for this at one time, I guess it didn't catch on.
Msybe it will happen someday. But dang do I wish TransWarp was online! I guess it shows I'm not an effective blogger who can bring in additional income with my sad little blog. TransWarp's website even got too expensive...I don't see Obama turning things around yet. He may have a Presidency like Jimmy Carter, many promises, a good man, but didn't achieve much. Later he did though, with effective peace journies around the world. He may be more famous for that than his Presidency. Nothing to be ashamed of though! A lot done by a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia! He also had the Iranian Hostage Crisis to deal with as well and the failed rescue attempt didn't help matters. But can't say he didn't try. Wow, I really got off subject! :D That's what TransWarp withdrawl does!!
Have a good one peeps!
As with playing OTB, you have to have local membership, USCF membership to play in sanctioned tournaments. The average player pays for the prizes of the GM's who get to play for free, they get to play free on ICC too, but this is to help bring members to the site. This is the problem of not having major company sponsorship of Chess Tournaments in the United States. If we could get them to do so, like some of the software companies (not necessarily chess software) or other high visibility companies, it would really be nice to see major tournaments here in the US. Can you imagine if Coke-Cola sponsored a tournament? Or the Pepsi Pawn Push, wow that would be nice. But it won't happen, as chess players are still regarded as nerds here. It's almost bad for a teen's social life to be in a chess club! Schools really need to press the fact that chess helps people learn other things! USCF had a slogan for this at one time, I guess it didn't catch on.
Msybe it will happen someday. But dang do I wish TransWarp was online! I guess it shows I'm not an effective blogger who can bring in additional income with my sad little blog. TransWarp's website even got too expensive...I don't see Obama turning things around yet. He may have a Presidency like Jimmy Carter, many promises, a good man, but didn't achieve much. Later he did though, with effective peace journies around the world. He may be more famous for that than his Presidency. Nothing to be ashamed of though! A lot done by a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia! He also had the Iranian Hostage Crisis to deal with as well and the failed rescue attempt didn't help matters. But can't say he didn't try. Wow, I really got off subject! :D That's what TransWarp withdrawl does!!
Have a good one peeps!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Hopefully TW back soon
Hopefully, TransWarp will be back online soon. I am short of funds, I may not be able to get it back online in September, it depends of course on bills. Real bills come first of course, not hobby bills. At least in our household it does! My Dad has helped on the last 6 months, I cannot ask him again, after all, it's not his hobby. The price of cable tv, especially now with HD is so expensive, I would almost go back to the days of when we had to get up to change channels, now one of the first words kids learn is "remote" or "mote"! At first it was easy, we only had two channels to pick from in South Dakota, then it got to three! The horror!! I never saw ABC until I moved to a different town, (or visiting relatives in other towns). So with cable and internet combined, it gets quite expensive, luckily, my Dad covers the internet part, but with all the commercials still on tv, you would think it wouldn't be so expensive...but all this technology .
When TW wasn't online a lot recently, I had been fighting pneumonia and now after an mri found out why my shoulder hurts so much, some sort of problem between where the bicep connects to the shoulder, not sure if a tear or what, "flap" something was mentioned, going to look that up next. Great thing about internet, helps me keep up with what my meds do as well as my disability and it's problems. Just go to WebMD or something, don't have to call your doc to explain every little thing.
But back to the subject, if I can pull off paying my bills, I will try to get TW back on the first week of Sept, after I figure out my budget, it's not like it's been getting much play lately anyway, I would like to thank ARMCOMPOSER for agreeing to playing some unrated games, personally, I think anyone rated over 3000 should be able to put up 1 rating point. It's not that TW is a point seeker, but it has worked hard to get where it is, plus I have as well ;) Working on books, settings, etc. And after all this work, risking 15 points for a draw and 31 points for a loss, while gaining only 1 point for a win, there's just no incentive. Getting to 4000 1 or 2 points at a time, while going 15 points backwards for a draw, then having to wait for 16 games to get those points back plus 1, while waiting days for games, you have to set some rules. At least TransWarp has ALWAYS accepted any time control! Despite seeking popular time controls like 1 1, 3 1 and 15 0, it's variables just say bullet, blitz or standard, not restricting players to 0 or 1 second increments. This is popular by some machines that are human only, and I think a bit of a cop out. The machine has the advantage, let the humans try to get any advantage they think they need, whether to out blitz the machine with 0 increment, or outthink the machine with 5 seconds increment is the way to go, in my opinion. Then there's sinferno, claiming that every game it played was watched by ICC in setting it's record, there is no way that ICC could watch every game and confirm it followed the rules set forth by the "official" record rating. It has no more proof that it has achieved it's official record over TW's unofficial record other than that it's a Official Developer Account. Sure, I didn't make Rybka, but I never used another engine, always accepted any time control, so other than that I didn't make and develop Rybka, I feel that it's record is just as official. But that's just me.
Anyway, I will get off my soapbox and hopefully save enough money to renew TW's account (Oh yeah, the developer's also get free accounts, so they don't have to renew just to keep their record alive for as long as it stands, but if I want TW's unofficial record to stay up there until it's broken, I have to keep renewing my account). If it's unofficial, why make me keep paying to keep it up there? To keep ICC in the money of course. It's always something.
When TW wasn't online a lot recently, I had been fighting pneumonia and now after an mri found out why my shoulder hurts so much, some sort of problem between where the bicep connects to the shoulder, not sure if a tear or what, "flap" something was mentioned, going to look that up next. Great thing about internet, helps me keep up with what my meds do as well as my disability and it's problems. Just go to WebMD or something, don't have to call your doc to explain every little thing.
But back to the subject, if I can pull off paying my bills, I will try to get TW back on the first week of Sept, after I figure out my budget, it's not like it's been getting much play lately anyway, I would like to thank ARMCOMPOSER for agreeing to playing some unrated games, personally, I think anyone rated over 3000 should be able to put up 1 rating point. It's not that TW is a point seeker, but it has worked hard to get where it is, plus I have as well ;) Working on books, settings, etc. And after all this work, risking 15 points for a draw and 31 points for a loss, while gaining only 1 point for a win, there's just no incentive. Getting to 4000 1 or 2 points at a time, while going 15 points backwards for a draw, then having to wait for 16 games to get those points back plus 1, while waiting days for games, you have to set some rules. At least TransWarp has ALWAYS accepted any time control! Despite seeking popular time controls like 1 1, 3 1 and 15 0, it's variables just say bullet, blitz or standard, not restricting players to 0 or 1 second increments. This is popular by some machines that are human only, and I think a bit of a cop out. The machine has the advantage, let the humans try to get any advantage they think they need, whether to out blitz the machine with 0 increment, or outthink the machine with 5 seconds increment is the way to go, in my opinion. Then there's sinferno, claiming that every game it played was watched by ICC in setting it's record, there is no way that ICC could watch every game and confirm it followed the rules set forth by the "official" record rating. It has no more proof that it has achieved it's official record over TW's unofficial record other than that it's a Official Developer Account. Sure, I didn't make Rybka, but I never used another engine, always accepted any time control, so other than that I didn't make and develop Rybka, I feel that it's record is just as official. But that's just me.
Anyway, I will get off my soapbox and hopefully save enough money to renew TW's account (Oh yeah, the developer's also get free accounts, so they don't have to renew just to keep their record alive for as long as it stands, but if I want TW's unofficial record to stay up there until it's broken, I have to keep renewing my account