Motivation & incentives ...

Adam@Home — Gocomics.com

Chess on TV II

Saw Cold Case - Strange Fruit. A very sad episode, as most Cold Case episodes go. A piece of paper with the notation "Nf3 Nc6" was found on the victim's body. They tell you that for 42 years no one realizes that those represent chess moves. Maybe the episode writer also believed that there won't be any chess players in the audience as well. A character identifies the chess moves, and she goes on to say that these represent the Ruy Lopez. This is followed by a flashback that shows the initial moves of "e4 e5". The clincher is the move sequence "1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6" represents a standard king pawn opening. It's the third move "3. Bb5" that distinguishes the opening as the Ruy Lopez.

Another thing. Since the flashback was in 1963, it is more likely that the chess notation used would be the descriptive notation rather than the algebraic notation shown. Thus, the paper should show "N-KB3 N-QB3".

Chess on TV

Saw "Mr Monk and The Genius" which has Adrian Monk pitting wits against a supposedly brilliant chess player. Throughout the episode they show this chess player frequently thinking several steps ahead of Monk, alluding that he is not just your ordinary dim-witted criminal. Quite interesting in a light-entertainment type of way.

Then there was this scene where Monk wants to learn more about chess and about this chess player thinks. He goes with his assistant's daughter to a park where chess players (and hustlers) play. They settle down with one and play a game ... except the player with Black moves first! Kind of strange and unbelievable for a show that supposes highlights the more mental aspects to get this fundamental rule of chess wrong.

By the way that game ended quickly with the hustler winning executing the Fool's Mate.

April Rankings for Chess Players

Some changes from the last rankings, but the top 2 is still the same. Should be an interesting match coming up.

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2812	17	1975
2	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2783	14	1969
3	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2770	27	1990
4	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2759	0	1975
5	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2756	27	1987
6	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2754	37	1982
7	Jakovenko, Dmitry	g	RUS	2753	5	1983
8	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2751	13	1977
9	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2751	0	1979
10	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2748	14	1983

ChessBase.com - Chess News - April 2009 ratings: Topalov 29 points ahead of everyone else

Priorities

In today's demanding world, it becomes quite difficult to juggle the many responsibilities. Sometimes, it's easy to lose sight of what's really important ...

Pearls Before Swine

Irony

Sort of hits this spot on.

Reality Check free online comic strip library at comics.com

Leadership and Managers

In todays's challenging work space, organizations need both leaders and managers. Most times, these elements may reside in the the same person. The article below gives a good overview of each, and their differences.

Leaders vs. Managers….. Are they really different? | The Practice of Leadership

What do you do if you need information?

It looks like the days of having book-shelves filled with encyclopedias are going to be over. As the Internet becomes more prevalent, people are using it more and more to find information and to communicate.

How Important Is Search to Users?

Computer future

It looks like there's a tug-of-war for who get's to do more: the CPU or the GPU.

Netbooks and the Death of x86 Computing

Topalov leads in the January 2009 FIDE ratings

FIDE January 2009 Top Players Rating List (taken from Chessbase)

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2796	8	1975
2	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2791	11	1969
3	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2779	19	1969
4	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2776	17	1990
5	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2771	20	1977
6	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2761	27	1987
7	Jakovenko, Dmitry	g	RUS	2760	40	1983
8	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2759	20	1975
9	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2751	23	1979
10	Movsesian, Sergei	g	SVK	2751	16	1978
11	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2750	16	1982
12	Shirov, Alexei	g	ESP	2745	19	1972
13	Wang, Yue	g	CHN	2739	28	1987
14	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2733	28	1983
15	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2733	17	1968
16	Ponomariov, Ruslan	g	UKR	2726	9	1983
17	Kamsky, Gata	g	USA	2725	16	1974
18	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2724	29	1985
19	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2723	28	1986
20	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2723	27	1976
21	Bacrot, Etienne	g	FRA	2722	40	1983
22	Alekseev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2718	33	1985
23	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2717	10	1983
24	Adams, Michael	g	ENG	2712	29	1971
25	Sasikiran, Krishnan	g	IND	2711	24	1981
26	Ni, Hua	g	CHN	2709	15	1983
27	Karjakin, Sergey	g	UKR	2706	17	1990
28	Vallejo Pons, Francisco	g	ESP	2702	34	1982
29	Bu, Xiangzhi	g	CHN	2702	9	1985
30	Rublevsky, Sergei	g	RUS	2702	0	1974
31	Akopian, Vladimir	g	ARM	2700	33	1971
32	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2699	19	1987
33	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2696	28	1990
34	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2693	29	1983
35	Naiditsch, Arkadij	g	GER	2693	17	1985
36	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2693	8	1976
37	Malakhov, Vladimir	g	RUS	2692	18	1980
38	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2691	7	1989
39	Dreev, Alexey	g	RUS	2688	24	1969
40	Efimenko, Zahar	g	UKR	2688	15	1985
41	Vitiugov, Nikita	g	RUS	2687	28	1987
42	Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	g	UZB	2687	22	1979
43	Bologan, Viktor	g	MDA	2687	15	1971
44	Tiviakov, Sergei	g	NED	2684	10	1973
45	Almasi, Zoltan	g	HUN	2680	27	1976
46	Cheparinov, Ivan	g	BUL	2679	31	1986
47	Sargissian, Gabriel	g	ARM	2678	20	1983
48	Moiseenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2676	9	1980
49	Motylev, Alexander	g	RUS	2676	6	1979
50	Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter	g	ROU	2675	25	1976
51	Harikrishna, P.	g	IND	2673	26	1986
52	Areshchenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2673	5	1986
53	Timofeev, Artyom	g	RUS	2671	26	1985
54	Volokitin, Andrei	g	UKR	2671	21	1986
55	Jobava, Baadur	g	GEO	2669	24	1983
56	Najer, Evgeniy	g	RUS	2669	18	1977
57	Milov, Vadim	g	SUI	2669	10	1972
58	Miroshnichenko, Evgenij	g	UKR	2667	23	1978
59	Fressinet, Laurent	g	FRA	2666	8	1981
60	Tomashevsky, Evgeny	g	RUS	2664	19	1987
61	Short, Nigel D	g	ENG	2663	31	1965
62	Guseinov, Gadir	g	AZE	2661	17	1986
63	Nielsen, Peter Heine	g	DEN	2660	10	1973
64	Sutovsky, Emil	g	ISR	2660	7	1977
65	Onischuk, Alexander	g	USA	2659	25	1975
66	Sokolov, Ivan	g	NED	2657	17	1968
67	Tkachiev, Vladislav	g	FRA	2657	8	1973
68	Inarkiev, Ernesto	g	RUS	2656	30	1985
69	Zhang, Zhong	g	SIN	2656	9	1978
70	Grachev, Boris	g	RUS	2655	14	1986
71	Savchenko, Boris	g	RUS	2654	19	1986
72	Postny, Evgeny	g	ISR	2652	28	1981
73	Berkes, Ferenc	g	HUN	2651	9	1985
74	Predojevic, Borki	g	BIH	2650	36	1987
75	Fridman, Daniel	g	GER	2650	30	1976
76	Rodshtein, Maxim	g	ISR	2650	25	1989
77	Bocharov, Dmitry	g	RUS	2647	36	1982
78	Amonatov, Farrukh	g	TJK	2647	26	1978
79	Roiz, Michael	g	ISR	2647	24	1983
80	Smirin, Ilia	g	ISR	2647	14	1968
81	Delchev, Aleksander	g	BUL	2647	9	1971
82	Tregubov, Pavel V.	g	RUS	2647	9	1971
83	Beliavsky, Alexander G	g	SLO	2646	35	1953
84	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2646	22	1992
85	Avrukh, Boris	g	ISR	2645	23	1978
86	Bareev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2645	4	1966
87	Nyback, Tomi	g	FIN	2644	15	1985
88	Khenkin, Igor	g	GER	2644	10	1968
89	Karpov, Anatoly	g	RUS	2644	8	1951
90	Zhang, Pengxiang	g	CHN	2644	7	1980
91	Lastin, Alexander	g	RUS	2643	13	1976
92	Graf, Alexander	g	GER	2643	9	1962
93	Shulman, Yuri	g	USA	2639	20	1975
94	Mamedov, Rauf	g	AZE	2638	16	1988
95	Navara, David	g	CZE	2638	10	1985
96	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	g	BLR	2636	29	1973
97	Zvjaginsev, Vadim	g	RUS	2636	11	1976
98	Vescovi, Giovanni	g	BRA	2635	0	1978
99	Georgiev, Kiril	g	BUL	2634	28	1965
100	Riazantsev, Alexander	g	RUS	2634	19	1985
101	Gustafsson, Jan	g	GER	2634	8	1979
102	Kobalia, Mikhail	g	RUS	2634	7	1978

Back to dumb terminals ...

After all the advances in computing, it looks like it's back to dumb terminals. Though now it's terminals with steroids, i.e. thin clients and virtual machines!

Companies Seek PC Alternatives

Software for the Blind

Here's a guy who's making a difference: software to help the disable, namely the blind.
For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can’t

Happy New Year!

One of the new things I wanted to do this year is to blog!
So, here's the first attempt ... Let's see how it goes for the year ...