Yeah. Stating the obvious. In relation to chess, I’m surprised how fast Fritz 11 (pirated) came out right after the original was released. Only in a space of a few weeks and it’s already here in our pasar malam and some shopping complexes that still allow pirated cds to be sold. Of course, the usual Low Yat Plaza / Sungei Wang Plaza / Imbi Plaza is no longer a haven for pirated software. Must have been some strict crackdown from the authorities.
Anyway, software such as Fritz and Rybka are first class engines to help any chess player analyse their games. Good alternatives such as freeware engines like Crafty are almost as strong but the interface they come in is a little less friendly to use.
I mention this because I have to thank piracy for my computer programming foundation. Of course I do not condone piracy and use 99% licensed and original software on my notebook today. However back when I was studying computer programming, compilers such as COBOL, Turbo C, Turbo Pascal etc were all very expensive. If it weren’t for piracy, I would never had a chance to learn to use them.
Fast forward 20 years and I use original commercial software tools at the companies I work for. Tools such as DB2, Oracle, Delphi, Borland C++ etc are still just as expensive but they are all paid for by the company. I am grateful for having had the experience of using so many of the programming tools when I was a student. It certainly helped me become a better programmer I am today 
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Malaysian : 26 June 2008 at 10:12 am
Arising from comments in shoutbox, I propose Andrew Ooi takes over the task to maintain the national rating list and come up with an automated national rating system. Andrew is a computer programmer and is easily approachable by all at his blog. His talent is just what MCF needs to enhance the popularity of chess in the new computer era.
Malaysian : 26 June 2008 at 10:26 am
Maintaining the national rating list is a thankless task which is currently undertaken by Mr. Lim Tse Pin who is also on the MCF council.He has recently married and no doubt will have less time to devote to the tedious work which I hear is done with spreadsheets,and therefor semi-manual. Therein lies the bottle-neck.
Andrew, being a very competent programmer and interested tournament participant can, no doubt, come up with a state of the art computerised rating program to churn out the most updated ratings and have this information available to all interested parties. Some juniors have complained that the current list comes out late and they lose interest when they don’t see their tournament efforts graded quickly enough.
OPINIONS ARE INVITED
Guest : 26 June 2008 at 5:26 pm
i totally agree with you , malaysian. juniors are starting to lose interest in playing the so called “RATED” events. since it will not be updated until after a very long period of time. therefore their tournament efforts are not graded quickly enough.
guest : 26 June 2008 at 5:29 pm
yes i totally agree with you malaysian. juniors start to lose interest in the so called “rated” events as their tournament efforts are not graded soon enough. if each tournament is rated immidietly . then players will be hungry to strive for more victories as they are looking forward to an immidiate rating boost. that’s my opinion and i’m sure many others agree too