So I was thinking about why I'm not using Lunix at home. I don't really have many reasons not to, as all the programs I use on my desktop are not Windows-only with the exception of a couple chess programs: Chessmaster and the Convekta software. I don't use Chessmaster all that much, but I use the tactics training software from Convekta fairly often. The other chess stuff I have can be done in Lunix, as it's all free stuff like scid and FICS interfaces. I suppose the main barrier is dealing with the music and hard drive space and what Windows and Linux can read and write to. But I have another 320GB drive lying around somewhere and that should be anough to take care of that. I prefer amaroK to iTunes anyway. The laptop would have to remain on Windows because of wireless connectivity, obviously (it doesn't work on Lunix). YNAB can go on Lunix, too. But, you know, until I'm done with CT Art 3.0, it would be silly to switch, since I use it every day. Shutting down and booting back up to switch programs is just a waste of time. I suppose wine or VMWare or something could be a solution, but just sticking Windows for now is also a solution.

I'm not getting much training lately. School, church, social life, major crick in the neck have been conspiring against me. I'll be at it tomorrow, though. SQUATTING. And then I'll be doing a lot of school work and studying. I should put in at least an hour every day of study from here on out in preparation for nonsense.

Here's a hint: don't produce something in a foreign language, even if it's just one sentence, if you don't speak the language well enough to know if it's wrong. In some cases this requires near-native fluency, or at least very good idiomatic fluency - particularly if you're saying something that is likely to be idiomatic. This pretty much discards the idea of using something like Google Translate unless you are desperate. It should also give you pause before volunteering a translation unless you're pretty good with the language.

I started Yusupov's book (Build Up Your Chess Volume 1) and am enjoying it so far. It's fairly tough.

We should make vegetarian chili. We have the dry beans instead of canned beans. There are pros and cons. Pros: cheaper. Cons: have to remember to soak them beforehand, have to make choices about how much to make. With cans, you just grab a couple cans of black beans, a couple cans marked chili beans, grab a couple onions, maybe some tomatoes, and go to town with the seasonings.

Anyway, I got a bunch of work done today.

Interesting: http://www.westportchessclub.org/computer-chess/Houdini-1-5a-x64-v-Deep-Rybka-4-1-x64--100Games.htm

A match between what was stereotypically known as the best chess engine for a few years (and which has now been shown to have stolen large amounts of code from a GPL engine) against a genuinely free (and open source? not sure...) engine that has recently climbed to the top of the charts. Incidentally, I use Houdini for my own chess analysis because it's free. Houdini seems to be creaming Deep Rybka as of the third game.