tasuki’s blog

I use the internet all the time. About 20% of my internet usage involves searching for some kind of encyclopaedic info (dictionaries included). Another 20% consists of mostly random funny or interesting things, like reddit, digg, links from friends. And finally, communication with other people makes up around 60%.

I sometimes do write emails, but mostly just use various forms of instant text messaging to talk to my buddies. I have tried voice over ip (skype, to be concrete), and I have to admit that it is very useful… that is, if you don’t need to talk to more than one person at a time.

Which brings me to my main point: when talking to my pals using instant messaging, I often talk to many (more than five) people simultaneously. Although this sometimes leads to delays (errm, nope, my 6 hour delays are not caused by communication overload but simply by me not noticing you ), it is still quite manageable once you get used to it.

It is technically impossible to achieve the same level of paralelity in voice based communication. Sure, you could receive the voice messages one after another, and respond them, but it would break the flow. In instant messaging, you can see the last few lines of a conversation, which reminds you about what was going on. Also, in case you need to retrieve some info from the past, skimming through chatlogs is much easier than listening to all the voice messages.

Simply put, I don’t want to receive voice messages, I want to receive text messages.

Now how about the input? This is where many posibilities arise for the future. Voice input (transformed into a text message) seems to be the easiest and the most viable option for the near future. However, it does have some pitfalls, and I personally feel more comfortable using my keyboard.

Another option would be controlling input by thought. Or… maybe not. Imagine you are talking to a girl or… oh well, that was definitely a bad idea.

So to sum it up, I think the future of text messaging is still rather bright. I can’t imagine anything replacing text output. The input part is a bit unclear, but I don’t really care about it all that much anyway.

Discuss.
[...]

Please?
[...]

Pretty please?

I started the trip in Warsaw, where I came to participate in a tournament. I played against Seok-bin in the first round, and only lost by 7 points, which is probably my biggest go-achievement as of yet In next two rounds I have beaten two 4d, and after that I lost to a 2d by half a point. That kinda sucked, but it still didn’t stop me from winning a 2gb iPod nano. So overall, the tourney was a success for me. I’d also like to thank vertigo and the sushi girls.

The following day, Azael took me and spirit to Warsaw Uprising Museum. It presented the war in a very raw way, which was rather frightening but interesting to experience.

After that we (with spirit and Azael) moved to Lodz. We stayed there shortly so I’ve just seen the center of the city and Jewish cemetery, but overall it left a good impression on me.

I don’t feel like writing about LSG events chronologically, so here are a few things in more or less random order:

• During the first week, the weather was horrible, it mostly rained and it was damn cold. The second week brought a significant change, so we could spend a lot of time by the lake (and in the lake).
• I got drunk (vodka) to the point where I wasn’t able to walk or even stand up. This has never happened to me before, it is cool to have experienced it.
• I won the main tournament at LSG (Memorial Jerzego Sacharzewicza) by winning 6 out of 6. I got lucky several times, including the win against Merlijn by half a point. I won the Haengma book and it got lost/stolen (I know exactly on which table I left it and it just wasn’t there the next day).
• The latest time at which I went to sleep was quarter to seven.
• I might have smoked something illegal and I might have liked it.
• I’ve seen several people jumping full clothed into the cold lake late at night for just three beers.
• I played pairgo championship with a 24k and we beat a pair consisting of a 5k and a 1d. Pairgo sometimes really is unbelievable.
• I experienced something which hurt me very deeply, but managed to recover in about three days. I’m getting close to becoming an emotionless robot.
• Together with spirit and fiszu, we won the team tournament (handi -2, so it wasn’t that difficult for a strong team to win). I won Korean Fuseki book (the large red one).
• I went on several walks with several different people during the night. Night walks (and night talks) for the win. Somehow people are much more sincere and there is a better atmosphere, at least that’s how I perceive it.

My thanks to everyone who attended these events. Biggest thanks go to vertigo, Azael, Ela, Spirit, method, kotasza, Dorotka, fisz and soui.

PS: Photos so far: kamila (great photos, but just a few), kotasza (mobile photos: quality = 0, size = huge), sh/yapee (many photos, good ones) and finally great photos by ignus.

PPS: Oh yeah, in case you didn’t know: Spirit is totally NOT interested in underage girls.

PPPS: LSG 2008 starts in about 350 days, hope to see you there.