ping pong rawr

I've been playing ping pong daily for a few weeks now. It's fun and if you've never played, I suggest you go out and get a ping pong table along with all the necessary accessories. It's nearly as addictive as go.

New Hardware

I got a Nintendo Wii in May; an iPod nano a couple weeks ago; and a new MacBook Pro last week.

A year or two ago I think I wrote that I hated Apple. Ever since I learned of Boot Camp and seeing my coworkers use it, I started liking the idea of owning one myself. When I heard of the iPhone, I was immediately sold. I really like the idea of the iPhone. It's shifting the focus to software. If you're a programmer, you no longer have to worry about whether the phone has such and such buttons at such and such locations; you can just create buttons... Or at least that's the direction I imagine the iPhone will take: tremendous flexibility. I could be wrong though; you might never be able to do more with it than what Apple allows (I think at the moment that is creating apps for safari).

So I've been interested in investing in a Mac, but never had the opportunity or the need to get a new computer. With the back-to-school special (free iPod nano 4gb) and the release of the new Santa Rosa chipset, along with the school discount ($200) I only get before I graduate in August, I decided it was as good a time as any to get one. I'll just pay for Leopard when it comes out (with the savings I've mentioned).

I even got a new multifunctional printer to boot. A nice office-quality Canon PIXMA MP600. I really like it so far. Currently $100 off when buying with a Mac.

So I've spent a good bit of the weekend getting used to Mac OS X. Read about 500 tips from macosxhints.com. I think I've finally got most of what I need on here. I'm still learning all the shortcut keys and such. I really like the OS. Far more than Windows.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also got high-speed internet in May. I'm living in cottage country now and high-speed hasn't been available here when I first came here a few years back. Now that I'm living here full-time, Rogers decides to offer an Outdoor Modem (which is like satellite but receiving the signal from a tower). What perfect timing. It's as fast as cable most times, but with severe weather, it degrades to dial-up speeds and sometimes loss of connectivity. Oh well, I'll settle with getting a ping of 60 in Team Fortress Classic most of the time.

Haven't played go in forever, so I guess I better make up for lost time.

KGS admins do a great job

I was watching a game between a couple 6 dans when a [6d?] started making stupid comments. Checked his profile and saw he had played just one game against a fellow German client user who was [1k]. Checked out the game and it's fishy. I instantly figured rank booster...

Anyway, I log in again a few hours later and check the status... This time he has won a ranked game against another fellow German client user [2d?] and is now [9d?]. Wouldn't ya know it, the [2d?] guy hasn't played a rank game since he played one against the aforementioned [1k] a month ago.

In fact, when I was checking out his account, he was rank boosting another account up to [9d?]. I hate rank boosters with a passion. They're worse than sandbaggers and even escapers. Sandbaggers at least is giving free lessons to weaker players. When someone escapes, you know you've won. Way better than those who keep playing on either trying to win by time or your lack of concentration (of course some escapers do this first). Plus, escapers eventually escape one too many and you get the win anyway. Rank boosters on the other hand are worthless to everyone. They're basically trying to get a free lesson from higher ranks (if they have the courage to play any) or they're messing around on kibitz misleading weaker players.

I go to tell a Super Admin about it, opening up a private chat tab, but glue's already looking at the [1k] vs [6d?] game! A few minutes later, all 4 accounts are either [?] or [-]. Great to see an admin doing a fine job on KGS.