Oh, one other thing. I've started playing Go, apparently the oldest game in the world (sorry to any readers who are "on the Game" - it's not quite as old as that!) Dead simple, played on a lined board, 9x9, 13x13, or 19x19 lines. Like this:

four rules:

1. Starting with black, players alternatively put a stone on an intersection
   
2. A surrounded group is captured and taken off the board (a group is made up of stones connected along lines, and is considered surrounded when it has no "liberties", no connection to a blank intersection along a line)


3. A position cannot be repeated during the game


4. The score is calculated by subtracting the number of prisoners from the total "territory" - surrounded blank intersections (having removed "dead" groups, groups that would inevitably be surrounded if the players continued sensibly)

That's it. The only other rules are esoteric tournament rules that most people (who aren't anal or professional referees) don't know anyway, usually variations on the third and fourth rules. The board in the picture is a nice floor-standing one, and would set you back about €2000 (that's nearly $2000 at current rates). I got mine - a foldable table-top one - for €15 from a shop in Amsterdam. I've played on hastily-drawn envelopes, and have heard of a guy who made his own stones by painting pennies.

Anyway, it's really interesting, despite being simple it gives rise to some really complex games. If you're interested, have a look at The Way To Go, which has a downloadable booklet explaining the game in more depth. There are lots of places to play online too, I'm currently using IGS and Dragon Go Server.

Enough advocacy for one day, I think.

posted by Jeremy Smyth 10:59  |  

A Slight Return

A critical mass of people have said they've been here "and you haven't written in ages. What's up?" Yeah, true. Nothing new there. Actually, I've had a really interesting few months, and haven't really been sure what to write, if anything. I hovered over the "blog" link several times, to jot some little thing in, and never did.

So what's been going on? Lots, really. Colleagues leaving through wastage, not being replaced, heavy workload. I'm writing manuals at the moment, designing a few courses in Java and potentially a few other things. Working to heinous deadlines. Other deadlines approacheth... the academic year for the Software Systems course is nearly over, so the anticlimax of the last assignment and the rush of pre-exam review are days away, exam is in three or four weeks. Hope they do well, not a bad bunch all told. Some more interesting than others, you know who you are ;-)

In other news, I'm kinda single again. Less said about that the better, for fear of incriminating the guilty or victimising the innocent or something like that. Not that there is any guilty or innocent party... OK, I'll shut up now :-)

I've been getting the urge to travel lately. Reading all about my friends' travels to mexico and australia and hawaii and new zealand. I think it's time I upped and left for a while. Maybe 2 days or something :-) How about the solomon islands? Java? Guam? Saipan? Or maybe Doolin?

posted by Jeremy Smyth 10:34  |