Technology – Page 13

The role of technology in chess and cheating

At the start of the 2015 World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, where security was tight so that watches and pens were not allowed in the playing hall, GM Hikaru Nakamura of USA tweeted:

[tweet https://twitter.com/GMHikaru/status/642007269387866112]

I beg to differ. The proliferation of cheating in chess tournaments was brought about by the level of sophistication in our technology today, so that watches (or smartwatches for that matter) and even pens can be used to cheat in chess games. Thus, it is not cheating per se that forced players to part with their watches and pens during games. Instead, it is advancements in technology that made cheating more accessible, thus thrust tournament organizers to be stricter about their rules.

Make Space for iPad Pro — the 12.9-inch Apple tablet

Stayed really late last night to watch the Apple Event on my Apple TV. After the boring discussions about the Apple Watch, Tim Cook eventually introduced the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPad Pro during an Apple media event in San Francisco, California, September 9, 2015. Reuters/Beck Diefenbach

At 12.9-inch diagonal size, the screen is much like most laptops there currently are in the market. I surmise it is now positioned to take on the laptop market this time. That is, if those who consider replacing their work laptop with the iPad Pro are not deterred by the idea of expending additional dough for the Smart Keyboard and/or Apple Pencil.

Quick specs of the iPad Pro after the jump»

Colinear WordPress Theme and the broken ‘Related Posts’ section

Update (September 11, 2015): I submitted a ticket to WordPress Support about this issue, and it appears they have acted upon it promptly. Kudos to a certain David who responded to my ticket. The related posts section design is now fixed in Firefox.

I’m using the Colinear theme right now, and so far I’m loving it–except for the broken design when using a ‘large and visually striking layout’ in the related posts section.

Here’s the screenshot of the options window complete with the preview of how it is supposed to look like:

And this is how it actually looks like: Check out how it actually looks like after the jump »

‘Featured Images’ is a WordPress feature that badly needs fixing

We’ve seen WordPress improve over the years. Unfortunately, not all these improvements help better our experience. Indeed, you cannot please everyone.

Take for example the Featured Images feature. A lot of themes display the Featured Image, should you have tagged one in your post, as is right before or after the post title. These are not magazine-style themes and the featured image is presented nowhere near special at all. Why didn’t they just remove it altogether?

Below is a screenshot of my blog post with a Featured Image using Colinear theme: Check out the screenshot after the jump »

Thinking Twice About the Features We Want in Our Cars

According to Top Gear Philippines: Study shows carmakers are pouring money into features we don’t even use.

The more high tech the cars have, the more things that could go wrong. This is exactly what Phil Edmonston was talking about in this CBC News video:

So don’t fret if you can’t afford that shiny new luxurious mid-size SUV. It is a valid excuse, although I sound sour-graping by saying so.

Why I’m reluctant to install a dashcam

Top Gear Philippines (TGP) writes: Every driver should now get a dashboard camera; here’s one for your consideration.

I have to say the TGP article isn’t really about selling the idea of why dashboard cameras are a must for all drivers, but I myself am totally convinced that indeed I should get one. In fact, the same Transcend DrivePro 200 is in my short list.

The only problem I have with that is dealing with the cables that go with the setup. Not that I always keep a nifty car dashboard and/or console, but the nasty wirings is surely an additional item to worry about.

So, unless there’s a dashboard that enables a nifty setup, I’m holding off my purchase.

How to delete Personal (IMAP/POP) accounts in Gmail Android app?

There's no option in the Accounts & sync settings. — There’s no option in the Accounts & sync settings.

Apparently, you can’t! Or, at least that’s how it is in my LG G2.

That’s how Android cannot totally win me over iOS. There are just a lot of problems they can’t seem to fix.

LG G4 and Beyond

Pocketnow: LG wants to make a new flagship, even more powerful than the G4 will be

But to hear some new talk from company execs, it’s not the G4 that will get us really excited, but what’s next: a phone that “stands above the G series” as an even higher-end option.

If it’s higher than the G4, what does that make my LG G2, then? Plain old Android device?

I just hope LG won’t neglect updates for my G2. Up until now, we’re still waiting for the Android Lollipop OS version update.

Remembering the payphone, again!

As per Scott Fearon, CFA, on Bad Connection: What Today’s Investors Can Learn from the Death of the Pay Phone

Back in the late 1990s, I received a steady stream of research reports from prestigious Wall Street brokerages recommending the stocks of, you guessed it, publicly traded pay phone companies. There were four of them still in business at the time, and as the reports pointed out, they were all attractively “cheap” by traditional valuation measures, such as their price-to-earnings multiples or market capitalization-to-revenues ratios. Not only that, but recently enacted deregulation was allowing pay phone operators to boost the prices they could charge for local calls, leading to predictions of new “windfalls” on Wall Street and in the financial media. Of course, in hindsight, we can see that those forecasts were wildly off the mark and that there was a clear reason those stocks were such bargains: They were well on their way to oblivion. The widespread adoption of cellular phones had already started, and it wasn’t going to stop. But at the time, many investors dropped their coins into the slots of these classic value traps and never got them back.

This, of course, reminds me of my earlier post about the Payphone: Continue reading Remembering the payphone, again!

That stupid Facebook app built in browser

That stupid Facebook app built in browser is just plain stupid.

They need to put it back to open in the default browser, may it be Safari for iOS or Chrome for Android. That way it’ll be easier to share the webpage in any app other than the stupid Facebook app.

This now gives me more reason to stop using Facebook altogether.