Oleg's Big Party

A most beautiful day

Today, I woke up. Today could have been just like yesterday, or like any other day if not for Jordan. Who’s Jordan? He is a master of (or master in) mathematics at my happy university, but more notably he is from PEI (you know that tiny coloured dot on the map of Canada visible only because it has a label attached to it? He is from there). Jordan (and countless others living in PEI) prove that people in (or from) PEI do exist. One day, he discovered my blog and encouraged me to continue this Big Party. And he is a great encourager, for follow his advice I did.

This semester at university is over (for those who still have exams, me included, it will be over in a few days, but this sounds technical, so lets just agree that its over). This means that Jordan and dozens (or rather thousands) other university kids are on vacation. There are some unfortunate kids still stuck in highschool (schoolers) who are not yet experiencing summer joys (and not playing with summer toys).

So this semester is over. And for me it ended especially well (this might be a little premature for I still have an exam left, but as I have studied for it, there is little reason not to celebrate; again, lets forget this little distraction). This is where people ask me for my summer plans, and since I am blogging, I definitely should share these with you. However, I really don’t like making plans, but I can’t leave you empty-handed either, so I am going to have to make stuff up. And I am very good at it too (here are parts 2 and 3). We’ll see. More next time…

Hello from University

Hello friends and all. I am at a better computer lab now, and the web browser actually displays the “save” button so I can post my articles without first having to email myself home, getting there, and posting. Another advantage of this computer lab is that those loser-people just aren’t here (they are probably upstairs in that crappy lab). This means I can make fun of them without worrying that they will hate me and stuff. I will be coming here more often, until then, later.

From University

Dear readers, I am at the University, math department, computer lab, sitting with bunches of random people. You won’t even believe who these people are. They are first and foremost, strange. Very, very strange if not peculiar. This guy to the left, he is typing as fast as I am typing this entry, and there are two other schmucks sitting beside to the right and laughing at him. And now some other guy is coming in, looking around. If I didn’t know that he was an not an idiot, I’d genuinely believe so. But sadly he isn’t. There are also other people walking around looking for spare computers, well actually they are not, because there are plenty spare computers around, but trust me, they are walking, looking, looking. Looking, perhaps staring, staring so much that I am hoping they are not looking at my screen right now, watching me write this message where I make so much fun of them. Ok, they are not looking here, but they are definitely looking for something. But I’d doubt they will find anything as there is nothing here. Such strange people these folks are!

Update: I tried to post this at university, but they didn’t have a save button on the blog page. Had to do it off home. Bummer.

Last Exam

Haven’t posted in a while… yeah, I know. Oh well. Anyway, today is my last exam in the stupidest of all courses, lol. I think its officially called the History and Philosophy of Science. Or was it the Philosophy and History of Science? No, no, I think I got it right the first time. I guess I will find out when I get to the exam location. I think the exam is on Galileo and quarks. Well maybe not quarks, we didn’t do very much in the course, just Galileo (actually we had a midterm on Dar…, Darwin was it?). In fact, we didn’t do anything in the course, except perhaps, write an essay. Oh well, thats done now. Don’t need the luck, but I can take some pity for having to go early the morning through the snow (exam starts in one and a half an hour).

What a nice professor-guy

My computer science prof surprises us every day. First lecture, he showed us how to navigate Slashdot. Anyway, we are in this descending auditorium where the prof is at the bottom with his laptop, and projecting screen. Oh, he also has wireless. He is telling us about our exam schedule: “I am not allowed to in any way announce the exam schedule. The reason behind this… if you mishear me, it will be on my hands. So, I am not announcing anything…” He goes to the the University website, and clicks “exam schedule” and says “Later tonight, or some other time, you will look up your exam schedule.” From projection screen we read “Dec. 18 somewhat-PM BR”. So we ask him, “Where is BR?” He changes window to campus map, circles around the building and says “To find where the building is, after class in your spare time, make sure to check out the exam map and look it up.” Heh. All, what can I say? What a nice prof-guy.

Happy birthday, Oleg!

You know, I just realized it was my birthday, 20 minutes slow. Most people don’t know that, so lets see if I can turn the day into something special.

Update: It was something special of a day after all: my complex analysis professor has cancelled class and my favourite hot dog guy gave me a free drink. I wish… well!

From home to university

For me, every day… is a big adventure. It all begins with riding my favourite rocket to Wellesley or College, and each time, new surprises await me. The subway was stuck 20 minutes between Sheppard and York Mills stations. Then I hear mumbling out of the intercom, “Btchz bztch fire Lawrence… shuttle busses will take you from York Mills to Eglinton” (apparently, there was a fire at Lawrence station). The angry passengers were dumb. Instead of listening to the instructions, they were shouting: “What did he say? What the f%#k am I gonna do now.” Yeah, anyways - it was not their fault. If the TTC screwed us over by forcing us to bus around Yonge, they should have at least made the subway ride short and delightful - and not keep us wasted underground. If there was a real fire preventing the subway ride across Lawrence, it would have to make headlines. (I mean, if it wasn’t serious, we didn’t have to stop at the f%#king station, we could have just rode past it.) We’ll have to wait and see.

So, we got out on York Mills station… and walked up to the buses area. Man, was it ever packed with people. Dumb people. Everyone was already late wherever they had to go, and tried to jampack themselves in the first available bus. Normally, crowds form three lines per bus: two at the rear doors and one in the front. When the crowd gets large and platform space is low, crowds form an angle at the rear doors. In this case, people in the front get on pretty quickly, and they are followed by people behind them. Well, this wasn’t a crowd. It was a mob. Groups of people were jamming in from the sides. Those dumb people weren’t waiting in line, they were cutting it, wait, not only cutting it, but also creating a barrier (a dense barrier, considering the people were being pushed through), so people who were rightfully standing in line couldn’t get past them ahead on the bus. Oh, and these b@$t4rds were standing on the f%#king road preventing loaded buses to leave, and empty ones to come on.

The TTC made no attempt to ease the situation. If you make people angry, they wouldn’t listen to you. Happy people don’t call tech support. But wait, it isn’t over. So, we got on the shuttle to Eglinton, and as soon as it zoomed out of York Mills station, the bus driver told us that the situation has been resolved and the fire had been disposed off. We could have just rode back in, but no: we were dropped off outside of Lawrence station without a transfer (the busses were jampacked, you couldn’t just go and beg the driver to give you one). Given the situation, the TTC booth personnel (they don’t deserve a better name) had to let us in without one. The smell itself was horrible, but it was upstairs, nowhere close to the tracks (the subway should have just rode past). It shows how horrendous TTC personnel are at analyzing the situation and figuring out a solution which keeps riders happy, and instead quickly rush to reroute and organize shuttle busses.

Okay, so this isn’t going to be in tommorow’s news. But, this event will be remembered, right here on the Big Party. TTC - the better way, ride the rocket, where every day is a fun day!

Wait in line

Yesterday, my dad and I went to the UofT bookstore to get me books, well… backpacks are not allowed there, so we needed to put our stuff in a locker. So, we open a locker, put in this stuff, and then some person comes up to us and says that he has been using this locker. Dad tells him that he wasn’t, and then he has the guts to cheerfully reply: “You’re an @$$hole.”

Actually, no — you’re the @$$hole. If you are waiting in line for something, stay there, and if you are staying in line, then act appropriately. We didn’t find the books I was looking for there, but the discount store had them in ample supply.

Higher Education

As of yesterday, University (of Toronto) has began (for some of you, it may be later or earlier). At a math course, the professor takes out a photocopied book and says: “You don’t need this book for the course, but I like it, I have ordered a few copies at the bookstore, I am sorry I don’t know how much it costs…” Class managed to contain laughter.

I don’t know much people: so far I met 5 people from High School, and 13 I had at least a conversation with (I have yet to decide whether the first set is contained in the second).

How unobvious things are...

I have plenty buddies and sometimes they surprise me. Today it was Eric Chen. I sent him a djvu file (similar to PDF) and gave him a website where to download the reader. He downloads that, and asks “I install it, right?” Reply was swift and brutal: “No sghit, Eric. Thats exactly what you do… (you download and install).”

Buddy, don't deny the facts

I am chatting with my “favourite” buddy Ivan Dimitrov now, and he is telling me how weird his new MIT dorm is. However, he is not really telling me why or how its weird (besides that he is in it) and then asks me whether I have seen dorms as weird as this. I tell him “yes”. Well, he tells me “no”. Listen, Ivan, don’t tell me “no”, when I tell you “yes”. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it. Its like telling a fat person, that he is not fat, when he really is fat. Such nonsense.

The Concept of Zugzwang

Zugzwang, best translates from German as “compel to move”. Normally, being able to move is a good thing, for it comes along with choice - to defend, to attack, to do whatever you want; however, at times, it can be quite disastrous! In Zugzwang, all choices are bad moves, so the player would rather not play a move at all (null move). In other words, all paths lead out of Rome. Zugzwang typically occurs in the endgame when there are a few pieces left on the board.

Chess engines often deploy a “null move” heuristic, which essentially is based on the assumption that in a reasonable position, a move is better than a “no move”. It effectively allows the computer to consider one less ply. While the null move itself is illegal, the position after it must be legal with the opponent’s turn, i.e the king cannot be left in check. In order to avoid a null loop, a chess engine does not consider a null move if the previous move in the search was also a null move. Usually, chess engines also filter out positions with a low number of pieces to avoid Zugzwang.

Players often think along those lines to gain perspective from the opponent’s side of the board - “What is my opponent thinking? What is he trying to do?” The null move heuristic does not work in every game. For example, in checkers, any reasonably advantage is usually gained because of Zugzwang.

Captain's Log

A while ago, I went over to Kirill’s house and he showed me Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 (MSF2004). He spent half an hour preparing the flight (choosing terminal, landing strip, calculating atmospheric conditions, filling up the gas tank, turning on the steam, can’t remember - what else did he do?) and then he took off. You figure that this is where the game begins, where you greedily grab the joystick and cruise… Not so! Kirill promptly turned the plane on autopilot and switched to MSN. He was also supposed to show me the landing too, but he crashed. Not in a wall, no - the program crashed. Well, its Microsoft, what can you say!?

Ice Breaker (2nd edition)

Well, it has been a long time since I broke one of my bests… this isn’t a historic day or anything - they say, play enough, and you’ll do it eventually. But the thing is: the higher your best is, the harder it is to break it. Playing enough games won’t get you a 4000 rating (billions of games were played, but no one did it - human or machine in any category).

This time; however, the game isn’t just chess or kriegspiel… its crazyhouse! Most of you know the bughouse game (doubles chess) where you pass the captured pieces to your partner… well this is just doubles but on one board (whatever you capture is yours). While the two games are similar, the tactics can be very different, caution you! While good bughouse tend to be good crazyhouse players and vica versa, the correlation isn’t incredibly high.

Like kriegspiel, it is much more comfortable to play on a computer (hard inverting piece colours “by hand”, besides it requires 2 almost-full sets). I am also approaching 1000 tourney wins (not quite there yet). As they say, Progress must progress.

Update: Not approaching 1000 tourneys anymore. Been there and moved on, :). This also happened to coincide with my 900 tourney forfeit: did good work early, and had points to spare.

Update 2: When your rating is at your best, it is easy to break again. Thats exactly what happened. Now the best is 2151 instead of 2134.

Things I say - Part II

Well, its next week, I’ve compiled some more of my favourite expressions (yeah I stole a few, but who doesn’t these days)… I still have more, maybe next week?

And failed miserably.
We’re doomed.
Where, where!
Okay, fine, die.
Nothing to see here. Boring!
Soda’s on me.
Good question…
Other than that…
Without a cause.
What’s ‘sappening?
I want cake.
Luck is a skill.