Tarnished Chrome...

It looks like there's some tarnish on Google's Chrome browser. According to a post on Gizmodo, Google's EULA provides for the following:

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

It's likely not quite as bad as the Giz post makes it out to be; you're not actually transfering ownership of your stuff to Google (as in: you don't need permission to use it yourself), but it's pretty much the next best thing (for Google).

There is, of course, the argument that Google is simply protecting itself against claims arising from the reproduction, adaptation, etc. of content in connection with its delivery to other users, but if that's the case, then why not say it that way?

Indeed, the way the EULA is formulated, I suspect this may be the proverbial camel's nose, and may eventually become the standard way for media giants to address the sticky problem of collecting royalties from people who use stuff not actually owned by said giants (as was the case recently when the AP established payment guidelines for bloggers to use copyrighted text from AP articles that, in some cases, include quotes taken with no remuneration from copyrighted blogs).

This raises an interesting point: You don't have to use Google Chrome to surf the web, but what if your connection to the Internet depended on your agreeing to transfer all rights to your content to, say, your ISP?

Cheers...

Chess again...

One of the campaigners, Peter K., turned out to be a USCF member, which I found out after watching him kill some time playing on the ICC (Internet Chess Club) server while waiting for stuff to come together at the Fili hotel. We got to talking and eventually, he offered to lend me a copy of his current Chess Life, which I declined as I am already a member of the USCF.

To make a long story short, The Hunger™ has been reawakened, so I signed up for a week's trial membership, only to be told that since my IP address could not be uniquely linked to my computer, I could not take advantage of the trial (which seems kind of strange, as anyone who gets their IP via DHCP - and it would seem to be a fairly large group - falls into the same category).

Anyway, rather than get huffy and drop the idea, I decided to invest in a year's membership to see what there was to see.

In my opinion, the major draw of online chess is the "blitz" game, which is a lot faster than traditional over-the-board (OTB) play, with time controls in the vicinity of between 5 and 15 minutes per side, or as short as 2 minutes per side with 12 seconds added for each move (I'm sure there are shorter time controls that still qualify as "blitz," before one devolves into "bullet" games, but I stay away from such stuff).

The last time I played online chess was back in March on the Free Chess Server, but as I mentioned in that post, my play was pretty poor. The intervening six months of inactivity did little to improve my game.

On the ICC server, I was able to handle the beginner-level computer program that's eternally available to take on all comers, but that was about it. Playing against humans, my record was spotty, with several losses resulting from a failure to grok the position (simple stuff, like leaving pieces en prise).

Still, if you keep at it long enough, things start to snap back into place.

In a recent 15/15 game (15 minutes per side), I was down to less than a minute of time, my opponent had nearly 8 minutes left, and I came to the realization that my opponent was playing without much reflection in otder to exhaust my time.

With about 30 seconds left, and having just lost a pawn advantage, I actually had my mouse positioned over the "Resign" button, but instead of clicking the mouse, I repositioned the cursor and moved a piece. My opponent responded immediately, and it began to dawn on me that, with a bit more carelessness on my opponent's part - I won his Bishop because he was too busy trying to run down my clock - his efforts to screen his King from checks by my Rook might land him in hot water.

With less than 15 seconds on my clock - and with victory pretty much a lead-pipe cinch despite having lost his Bishop - my opponent ducked his King behind a wall of mixed pawns, allowing me to checkmate him with my Bishop. I am sure my relief was as vehement as his shock, though you never can tell.

Despite the fact that the result was more a consequence of my opponent's self-inflicted error than excellent play on my part, the result managed to rally my spirits. I ended the session by playing a game of pure clarity, where the path to victory after winning the d-pawn was as clear to me as if it had been lined with helpful billboards. (Then again, it must be said that my opponent did not try very hard to complicate the game.)

No time for chess now, though. There's too much stuff to do.

Cheers...

Ballpark guess, anyone?

My container yesterday was about full of chanterelles and king boletes, so I was only able to take pictures of what appeared to be fairly numerous specimens of...?


Emerging from the ground


The underside, which presents a fairly impressive veil.


Gills, not delicate at all, at first glance.

I plan to go back, if the weather and my gas tank hold, and do a proper specimen collection. Any tentative guesses?

Cheers...