Software

Yesterday Google launched a beta version of his new browser: Chrome. 

On one hand, first independent analysis show that this application uses less resources than Firefox and Internet Explorer. It introduces some good features, as the internal task monitor... On the other hand, as it's a beta version, there are already 3 security bugs described and you'll need to upgrade to java 6.10 version if you want to use any java tool on this browser. KGS' homepage appears to be somewhat unformatted and the java applet doesn't load. I've tried a few other applications (not java based) such as EidoGo and they work perfectly well.

Unfortunatelly, there is only the windows XP version available, MAC and Linux versions are supposed to be released on the forecoming weeks. You may be surprised by the news if you already know that Google is the main sponsor of Firefox, but is is all logical if we take into account google's plans... By the way, if you are used to Firefox's keyboard shortcuts, I'm glad to tell you that they are exactly the same in Chrome.

The more I'm using unix systems, the more homesick I'm of windows. It is very secure and has lots of advantages when compared to Microsoft's operative system, but the lack of powerful go software for Unix as well as good drivers for 3D cards are two of the major drawbacks.

Today I've been playing with some programs and Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) trying to get them working.

Here you have the results, ordered from worst perfomance to best.

Worst:

Good:

Other newer programs such as Universal 3D chess... show problems mostly related with the 3D card drivers. On the specific case of U3DC, the drop-down menus are disabled and the variation tree doesn't work, once you click on the variation tree, the program breaks down. On the other hand, it is a very good piece of software for making demostrations and so on.

If you want to get more information on how to load these programs as well as screenshots and a nice trick for loading them if you have a windows partition, click on the continue reading article

Here you have a review on the final release of Universal 3D Chess:

Currently you can only watch it through youtube or download this version with a 1036x676 resolution HERE (encoded with Xvid).

The final public realease is already available at the project's homepage: VoilaMonsieur

When I saw that there some beta testers needed to work in the project I signed up immediatelly as I wanted to get involved in the project. The fact is that I can't tell you much about the program but I'd like to show you this image I got on my laptop with some boards opened, different zooming on each board, with the 3D ultra-high-details enabled, so that you make yourself an idea of how it looks like

The image is made on a 1440x900 resolution (but compressed with JPG, in order to save space). You should take into account that this image does not represent the actual quality of the final product.

If you want to see more images and know more about this program go here: U3DChess at GoDiscussions.com