Liveblogging with the Liveblog Plugin for WordPress

I thought I’ve missed it when I was scrounging for a liveblog plugin when the Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad was about to start.

It appears I didn’t, because Automattic’s Liveblog plugin was released sometime last weekend only. Check out this video that explains what this plugin is all about:

[wpvideo tWpw6nCt w=480 h=269]

This Liveblog plugin could be a great blog extension if you’re covering live events, or just simply want to post one sentence updates to an event like the Chess Olympiad (which is a 2-week event).

I haven’t tested the plugin extensively yet, but, nevertheless, I just would like to point out some of my issues/concerns about it: Continue reading Liveblogging with the Liveblog Plugin for WordPress

Running Fritz 12 on a Mac via Crossover

Fritz 12 is a great chess product that unfortunately has no Mac version. I’ve installed it on a Bootcamp partition, and it works great. But I hate rebooting to Windows everytime I need it. Besides, all my files are in the OS X partition.

I also tried running Fritz 12 in a Parallels Desktop. It works fine as well, but then I have to boot Windows on top of OS X, which in the process they’re sharing the same computer’s resources, which proves to be an inefficient environment to run a resource hungry application like Fritz 12. I was only able to assign 3GB of RAM out of the total installed 8GB, and the application can only utilize 1 CPU out of the total 4.

So what about Codeweaver’s Crossover? Well, this is how it looks like: Check out the screenshot after the jump »

Updates from Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad

Liveblogging has been discontinued from this page since the end of Round 7 of [event]Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad[/event]. To check out the latest about team Philippines in the said event, check out the link below:

Philippines in Istanbul 2012

The score card of the match between the 35th seed Philippines vs. the 4th seed Hungary follows:

Bo.
Philippines
Score
Hungary
1 Wesley So
1/2-1/2
 Peter Leko
2 Oliver Barbosa
0-1
 Zoltan Almasi
3 Eugene Torre
1-0
 Ferenc Berkes
4 Mark Paragua
1/2-1/2
 Csaba Balogh

Below are the links for the Live Games Round 7 Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad:

Check out the Live Updates »

The Polgar Family

No doubt the Polgar Family of 3 women chess players and their remarkable achievements could now be considered as one of the pillars of the great and rich history of chess.

Recently, ChessBase reported:

For four years, an Israeli film-maker has collected archive material never seen before, and produced a documentary for Israeli TV that is epic and historic, but also personal and intimate.

And here’s the trailer to the documentary film: Watch the trailer »

Why Not ChessCube?

As you read through this blog, you might notice that I’m not so fond of Chesscube.

You know why? Because it’s so full of Flash. And you know what Steve Jobs has to say about Flash:

  • It is proprietary;
  • It has security problems and is the number one cause for Mac crashes;
  • Flash is a battery hog which doesn’t work well with mobile devices;
  • Use HTML5 instead.

And if you have kept up with the news lately, Adobe has removed Flash for Android from Google Play.

Now, have you seen a Chesscube app in the iTunes App Store or Google Play? There’s none, because they can’t do it.

That’s why I’m using an internet chess server like FICS for online play and Chess.com for correspondence chess.

Hiarcs’ Mac Chess Explorer is Now Available

Got a message today that Hiarcs’ Mac Chess Explorer is finally available:

At last, after a very long wait, it has finally come for us to check out.

It comes bundled with Hiarcs 14 and costs US$59.95 for the single-core version, and US$99.95 for the Deep Hiarcs (multi-core/multi-processor version).

By the way, there’s also the PC Chess Explorer. But what the heck, we’re only interested in Mac here, right? Continue reading Hiarcs’ Mac Chess Explorer is Now Available

DocScanner App – The Worst Update Ever in Mobile App History

DocScanner app for iOS devices is the number one example of a mobile app whose update has gone bad — indeed very bad.

When we talk about software updates (or upgrades), generally we expect improvements from the old version, may they be major enhancements in the interface and the whole software experience or just simple tweaks like bug fixes and/or patches.

But not in the case of DocScanner. In the Apple iTunes Store alone, the customer ratings has gone from a 4-5 stars to 1 star since the update from version 5.x.x to 6.0.x.

Before the update to version 6, DocScanner is one app I used to brag to peers and demonstrate the power of a smartphone, especially the iPhone. But now that great app is gone.

From my experience, here are the factors that convinced me this was the worst update ever: Check out the factors after the jump »

My most hated song gets revived, favorited, and liked

Sometimes I wonder, is it the end of the world yet?

I like music, and it could cover a wide range of genre. Depending on the mood, my taste for music could touch on country, rock, punk, pop, blues, hiphop, jazz, R&B, even classical and religious music. But most often, really, my mood leans toward being a little melodramatic.

Love songs are usually written and/or dedicated to a special someone, a parent, a child, a friend — just anyone close to your heart, someone you like the most, but NOT, really, not someone you should hate like the least.

And yet, the latter is the theme of the song, “Kunin Mo Na Ang Lahat Sa Akin”, originally by Jeremiah and recently revived by Angeline Quinto for the ABS-CBN program “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin”.

This music video alone has already garnered 1.5 million views and 2 thousand likes on Youtube. Check out the video after the jump »