Bill Gates plays chess... and loses in less than 2 minutes

It is great to see chess in the spotlight. So the world's richest man Bill Gates... vs the young world champion Magnus Carlsen. Take a look at the game here. And if you want to see move-by-move analysis. You can see here. Yes, that bishop is a wrong move. Why castle close to that approaching queen? It is kinda curious why Carlen bring out the queen so soon as that is usually not so recommended.

Now having a lot of money does not imply chess ability. But Gates actually plays better than some people I have seen (poor me need to play/watch such games). Now Carlsen is a world champion. Challenging a world champion is is like knowing to dribble a basketball ball and try to challenge Michael Jordan... It is like able to punch and then try to challenge Mike Tyson. You get the idea.

Gates' chess ability... may be able to win level 2 or 3 in Chess Titan from Windows 7. Where the heck is Chess Titan in Windows 8? Argh! Gone!

One wrong move can cost you the game. This is fact of life in chess. Perhaps in the business world too (and that disastrous wrong move for Microsoft is Windows 8!)

If the news item is about Carlsen playing with another grandmaster level guy, even if the game is truely awesome not too many people really cares... most are just interested in how Gates play. But it is nice to see chess in the spotlight. Look there is a reason why this game is still popular to this day.

Goodbye Sears

Sears used to be mighty. Decades ago that was like THE department store to go to for everything... for appliances and just about everything else. The once tallest building in the world bears its name. It occupied the CENTER of Chicago at State & Madison. But that store is closing, probably soon running out of business altogether. News here

How can such mighty department store fail? My guess would be it isn't keeping up with the rest of the world. The styles of its clothing are too old school. Its appliances are old school. Well the entire retail business isn't doing so well as people buy stuff online now... It is inevitable. But for things like appliances I prefer to see the real machine.

I feel sorry for the 160 hourly employees... they can apply for a new glorious career at another Sears or... K-mart.

The article says, "State Street is performing at the highest level that it has in decades." Oh yeah? I never see as much crowd in State St as in Michigan Ave. Though Block 37 is nice but it is more than half empty.

Now this is why I am not a financial dude, why does the stock go up when this appears to be bad news? Oh CPS will occupy that building... and I wonder why. Would it be smarter for another retailer to come pay more rent? Another reason I am no financial dude who understands this.

My guess for the next goodbye will be... Radio Shack. Why they have so many stores and just how many little radio controlled toys they can sell to keep afloat?

Can you really learn Algebra 1 in... 24 hours?

Saw this book in my periodic math section bookstore tour. Can you really learn Algebra 1 in... 24 hours?

If so, why are high school students taking entire year (ok, 9 months) to learn this... and most don't even learn it well. I flipped through this book. Excellent stuff. You'd hope your textbook was as good. I do recommend high school students to take a look.

Look folks, it does take more than 24 hours to Algebra 1. Students need some time to practice a bit to get comfortable because going to next topic right? I suppose you need at least a day or two to practice factoring a tri-nomial? and a few more to get comfortable with the notion of (linear) functions even of 1 variable?

Yes, I do believe the (probably American only) high school math curriculum is dragging way to long. 4 years of high school cover so little and too many students simply just FAIL even their curriculum is so easy.

But 24 hours is... too ambitious.

I'd say a more realistic time frame may be... 3 months?

Goodbye Dominicks

The once mighty Dominicks Finer Foods is going to be gone soon. Go to one while it still remains open. Take a picture if you like to witness the end of an era. How sad. The Chase branch within has already been closed. Those nice-looking-young-blue-shirt folks are gone forever. A handful of elderly Dominick clerks still remain in the stores. There are so very few merchandise left. The whole store just look depressing.

Once upon a time, I saw it sells green onion for a whopping $1.50 a batch. I predicted "the end is near" Look at that fruit section. Not many people there buying anything. How do you compete with others? It is just too expensive. And its water spray system sprays at everything, even at gingers? You don't need to.

Once upon a time, I went to a human cashier, without a sticker on that napa, the guy flip flip and flip his code book and then ask me "what is it?!". Waita minute I thought Dominicks is supposed to be "people who know their food"?

Dominicks wanted to know your phone number every time you buy something to keep track of you like the NSA. Refuse to give? You will have to put up with even more outrageous prices without the-"Fresh Card". Even if you keep track of everything I ever bought you still run out of business. I suppose Dominicks can remain alive if it cuts its prices to attract more customers, cut its 24 hour into close-at-midnight-to-save-some-money. But I am sure they rather throw away food, close their doors, than cut price.

Looking forward for its new reincarnation as Mariano's. It is survival of the fittest. I feel sorry for the elderly folks who work there for perhaps decades.

Chi-beria

A new term for Chicago: Chiberia... combinging Chicago and Siberia.

It has been a long while (if there ever was) that cold weather caused closing of schools for 2 consecutive days. For many people, they can work-from-home. The last time Chicago get this cold people were using 56K modems I suppose so it isn't so possible.

Cold weather plus a foot+ of snow isn't very fun. Stay warm and safe. Wind chill at -40! Is it Fahrenheit or Celsius you asked? Answer: it doesn't matter. See my note here. Every algebra 1 teacher should take this as an opportunity to teach a real-life lesson of x-y axis... Here is a real application of x and y!

Watching people play chess on an elaborate chess set

Ok so I visited a shopping mall and delighted to find two people playing chess on an elaborate set (not those sad looking cheap 2½" king set that I once owned).

If someone is going to invest that much money on that I suppose they must be decent players. I hope to see a great match. Great players often take time to think about each move. Ok they move pretty fast, good, let me what we got here.

Ooh, a white bishop is taking position to catch the rook... come on black, move it! Nope black didn't. But did the bishop take the rook? Nope it made a useless move with another piece that deserved to be marked with "??". Ok a queen moved, but moved into a square that it can be taken. Boom. queen taken. That player didn't even frown. A queen sacrifice for a checkmate? Nope, as if nothing happened. The player just keep on losing pieces. Ok, a white pawn is pushed up two spaces next to a black pawn right on that same row. Ideal time for en passant. Nope, black didn't do that, probably never heard of it. That row of pawns are all torn apart and the guy still wants to castle... ok there is a bishop looking at the path of that one square that the king is moving through ok? so castling CANNOT take place. At that point I can't hold myself and told the player he can't castle there.

I am glad I was not told to "get the heck out of here". That game ended soon. and next game starts, and one player even wasn't sure where to put the queen. How hard is it to remember black-queen-on-black-square and white-queen-on-white-square? I am at least glad the lower right corner is indeed white. Ok, another game started, after pushing a couple pawns as first move, a knight did not jump toward the center but jump to the edge. What type of opening is this?

The whole idea of any game is for enjoyment. If these players enjoy playing like this it is perfectly fine. It is great that they still play with things not requiring electricity. Just about everybody play on their phones with something nowadays.

Ok do I sound like a good player? I am NOT. I am forever humbled by the chess games I have on my phone.

New Year Note

Famous people have New Year addresses. Read about the (new) Pope's address here. Edward Snowden made a Christmas address too. The NSA is out of control. I hope something is being done about it soon. It IS unconstitutional alright.

The world is still in turmoil. Boom! bombings here and there around the world. Still non stop violence in Chicago. Francis says, "time to stop ourselves in this path of violence and search for peace". Amen. As if all the terrorists/rebels/oppressors out there would just listen to him and go "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." (Matthew 4:17) I pray peace on earth like those Angels were singing about, but wait, read that line again, there is this "on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:14) Perhaps this clause is making people fight, who are among the group that has His favor rest?

And it is cold and snow and weather is going out of whack in many places. Its global warming you hear?

Ok, for most people there is not a whole lot you can do about world situations. but you do your part. Recycle that can you hear? Chicago has already made it easy for you. It is outrageous to find a can in regular garbage when the recycle bin is just steps away.

You can make your own New Year Address to yourself too.

This year... I'd like to find some time to refresh my Android programming. Time to do some 4.0+ things. But yikes my USB busted... perhaps I'll need a new phone. I still don't have a good doable new Android app idea. It's a long drought. I'd like to renew my book on the Android market. Need some updated screenshots and also fix some text. I'd like to continue with that find-time-to-exercise campaign.