Sunday, August 22, 2010

RIP BHCC 1999-2010



The Baldwin High Chess Club had a great run from 1999 to 2010! However, I am giving it up this year due to time constraints....  

We started out as an extension of my Computer Math class, believe it or not, just playing some games informally. Then we started meeting after school. Then we became an official club in 1999.  

We started out having Ladder Competitions every Monday doing Game/5 or 10 or 15 or 30.  The following year we all got USCF memberships and played rated QUADs and OCTOs against each other.  I even got certified as a USCF Coach and a USCF Local Tournament Director. We even made BHCC an official USCF affiliated club: 

USCF Scholastic Affiliate H6017160

The following year we added a traveling Chess Team when we joined the NCICL (Nassau County InterScholastic Chess League).  The second Thursday of each month we'd host a school that came from, say Freeport HS, by 4PM and each player had 90 minutes per game.  6 games were played similtaneously between the two 6 player teams.  The fourth Thursday each month we'd go on a bus to challenge another school ourselves! 

Our last such meet was at home and as luck would have it, my team was made up primarily of Freshmen and the opposing team Seniors. That, in and of itself, posed no difficulty. However, the opposing team was extremely late!  So, we started their clocks at 4PM and by the time they finally showed up, they each had only 15 min left of game time while my team still had the customary 90 min! Everyone played on with fine sportsmanship until, one of the Seniors lost on a technicality that my Freshman made rudely evident. So, said senior proceeded to through my tournament pieces all over the room and stormed out of the faculty cafeteria where I was hosting the event and nearly knocked over a Coke machine in the process. I was afraid my poor little Freshman was about to get flung out the window as well....

Recently we went back to USCF rated tournaments in house. Below you will find some screenshots from our old BHCC website.  Here's a record of all the games I hosted as a USCF Tournament Director (ignore CA listings) http://www.uschess.org/msa/TnmtLst.php?bhcc

MAIN PAGE (links may not work soon as old http://calcpage.tripod.com site is closing):

BHCC



Baldwin High Chess Club

Fillii Potentis Omnem




Baldwin High Ladder Board

Upcoming BHCC Tournaments

Upcoming Tournaments in NYS

All USCF Rated BHCC Tournaments

 

Sponsorship    Membership    Ladder Rules

USCF Beginners        US ChessLive!


960fboards.txt

Chess.java

EasyWriter.java

EasyReader.java





Mission Statement

The Mission of the Baldwin High Chess Club is to encourage all young people to fulfill their potential and strengthen their character by promoting the study and enjoyment of chess in a friendly, competitive atmosphere complementary to the learning experience atBaldwin High School!




USCF Scholastic Affiliate H6017160

http://calcpage.tripod.com/bhcc
calcpage@lycos.com





LADDER RULES PAGE:
Swiss Ladder Qualifier (SLQ)
            The first competition of the year will be a 1 section Swiss Pairing System Tournament to determine initial ranks on the club’s Ladder Board.  Initial placement will be according to ratings after the SLQ.  The ratings will be calculated based on games won, lost or drawn and the appended SLQ Ratings Table (see below).  All players are rated 1200 initially and re–rated at the conclusion of each round of the SLQ. 

The Tournament Director will announce when the SLQ will be held.  For example:

First Meeting Each September; Baldwin High CC Closed Quick Swiss Ladder Qualifier 6SS G/5
Room 429; Baldwin High School; 841 Ethel T. Kloberg Drive; Baldwin, NY 11510
EF: Free; G$$ Ladder Board Placement, Trophies to top 3 and Medals to rest at the end of the year
Registration 2:45 PM, Rounds: 3:00, 3:10, 3:20, 3:30, 3:40, 3:50
INFO: A. Jorge García via http://calcpage.tripod.com/bhcc
NS, NC

            The top 3 ranked players will receive trophies.  Also the highest rated, the most games played and the most ranks gained will receive plaques.  Awards will be distributed at our last meeting in June each year.  The top 10 ranked players will also receive a medal!

New members (anyone not playing at least one round of the SLQ) can join anytime during the year.  These students will also start with a provisional 1200 club rating, but the rank will be at the bottom of the ladder board.  Please note that all tournaments except the first (SLQ) and the last (Annual BHCC Championship) are OPEN to all USCF members as well as students, faculty and staff at Baldwin High School as most of our members are now rated USCF members.  See our Tournament Life Announcement at http://www.uschess.org in Chess Life magazine (a publication of USCF).

Your SLQ Responsibilities
            You will be informed by the Tournament Director as to whom you are playing, whether you are white or black and the time control. 
Its is the responsibility of the Black player is to set–up the chess board, pieces and clock. 
Upon conclusion of the game, it will be the responsibility of the White player to report the result of the game to the Tournament Director.

Subsequent Tournaments
            Every meeting will consist of a tournament.  In SS or RR tournaments, we will follow SLQ rules.  We will alternate between QUAD and OCTO meetings (G/10 = 3 rounds in one meeting, G/30 = 3 rounds in 3 meetings).  Every game affects your standing on the Ladder Board.

Change of Club Ratings
Ratings will be adjusted after each Tournament based on games won, lost or drawn using one of the attached ratings charts.  Ratings do not influence ranks except in the initial SLQ (at the beginning of each year).

Change of Rankings
            There will be no penalty when losing or drawing a match for the higher ranked player.
            There will be no award when winning a match for the higher ranked player.
            If the lower ranked player, the challenger, wins the match, this player will be awarded a new rank half–way between the current rank and that of the opponent.
            If the challenger draws the match, this player will be awarded a new rank one-quarter–way between the current rank and that of the opponent.
            If the challenger losses the match, this player will not be awarded a new rank.

            EXCEPTION1:        If the challenger is on the same rung of the ladder as the opponent, then winning the game causes the two players to swap ranks.  Further, drawing the game will cause the challenger to assume the rank directly below the opponent!

            EXCEPTION2:        If the challenger is ranked directly below the opponent, then winning the game causes the two players to swap ranks.  Further, drawing the game will not cause a rank adjustment!!

            EXCEPTION3:        If you do not defend your position on the ladder board at least once a month, your rank will be reduced by the number of months that you have not defended your rank!!!  Anyone losing 10 or more ranks in any given meeting due to repeated absence may be removed from the ladder board.

Ladder Board Set–up
            Every player will have an index card on the Ladder Board with their name, club rating, rung, rank, date of last defense, number of games played and ranks earned recorded.  These cards will be arranged with the higher ranked players on the top on a bulletin board in Room 429 as follows.  This website will also report the ladder board.

Rungs            Ranks
A:                    1
B:                    2                      3
C:                    4                      5                      6
D:                    7                      8                      9                      10
E:                    11                    12                    13                    14                    15
F:                    16                    17                    18                    19                    20…





G/5 Ratings Table
Ratings Difference
If High Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If Low Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If a Draw, Add to Low, Deduct from High
0
25
25
0
1–50
20
30
5
51–100
15
35
10
101–150
10
40
15
151–200
5
45
20
201 or more
0
50
25
G/10 Ratings Table
Ratings Difference
If High Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If Low Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If a Draw, Add to Low, Deduct from High
0
50
50
0
1–50
40
60
10
51–100
30
70
20
101–150
20
80
30
151–200
10
90
40
201 or more
0
100
50
G/15 Ratings Table
Ratings Difference
If High Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If Low Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If a Draw, Add to Low, Deduct from High
0
75
75
0
1–50
60
90
15
51–100
45
105
30
101–150
30
120
45
151–200
15
135
60
201 or more
0
150
75
G/30 and SLQ Ratings Table
Ratings Difference
If High Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If Low Wins, Add to Winner, Deduct from Loser
If a Draw, Add to Low, Deduct from High
0
100
100
0
1–50
80
120
20
51–100
60
140
40
101–150
40
160
60
151–200
20
180
80
201 or more
0
200
100





SAMPLE EVENTS PAGE:
Baldwin High Chess Club
Every Monday Lessons, 2:45 PM – 3:00 PM, Room 429
Every Monday Tournaments, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Room 122

BHCC Weekly Challenge

6thAnnual BHCC Championship
05/03/2007      05/10/2007      05/17/2007      05/24/2007
4SS G30

FREE Entry for Baldwin Students
USCF Rated 3RR G/30 Every Monday (3 meetings)
USCF Rated Prize OCTO 3SS G/10 Every Monday (1 meeting)
USCF Membership Required for Rated Prize OCTO:
Students $25/yr, Seniors $36/yr, Adults $49/yr
Entry per USCF Member: $5
Prizes per OCTO:  $20-$10

September: Ladder Qualifier CYCLONE 6SS G/5
June: BHCC Championship TORNADO 4SS G/15
Last Meeting:
Medals: Top 10 Ladder Positions
Plaques: Most Ranks, Most Games, Highest Rated
Trophies: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Places in Championship Tournament

Play a Tournament each Monday, Win Prizes
Join our Ladder Board, Earn Annual Awards

Open to Students, Faculty and Staff

New Members are always Welcome!

Mr. A. Jorge García
USCF Certified Chess Coach
USCF Certified Local Tournament Director
http://calcpage.tripod.com/bhcc
ftp://ftp.baldwinschools.net
calcpage@lycos.com





MEMBERSHIP PAGE:
Name: ____________________          Grade:_____          Age: _____

Home Phone:____________________          Birthdate:__________

Mailing Address:
________________________________________

________________________________________

E–Mail Address:____________________

Web Address:____________________

Have you ever been a member of a chess club before?:____________________

Are you a member of the USCF?:____________________

Do you have a National Chess Rating?:____________________

If you are not rated, please circle your estimate of your skill level:

          Beginner
          You do NOT know how to move the pieces yet.

          Advanced Beginner
          You do know how to move the pieces, capture an
opponent’s piece and have played a few games.

          Intermediate
          You’ve played more than just a few games and have
an understanding of the en passant and castling
moves.

          Advanced
          You’ve played regularly at a club or at several
tournaments.

SAMPLE SPONSORSHIP PAGE:

Become a BHCC Booster!  Have your business advertised here!!

We’ll even link to your website!!!

Join at the Pawn Level ($25) and you support 1 of our Student’s Membership in the USCF so they can play in Nationally Rated Tournaments.

Join at the Knight Level ($50) and you support 2 of our Students’ Memberships in the USCF so they can play in Nationally Rated Tournaments.

Join at the Bishop Level ($100) and you support the purchase of 1 Tournament Board, 1 Set, 1 Clock and 2 Score Pads for 2 students to use at our club.

Join at the Rook Level ($150) and you support 2 of our Student’s Memberships in the USCF and the purchase of 1 Tournament Board, 1 Set, 1 Clock and 2 Score Pads for them to use at our club.

Join at the Cardinal Level ($200) and you support 4 of our Student’s Entry Fees in our 10 monthly Nationally Rated QUAD Tournaments.

Join at the Queen Level ($300) and you support 4 of our Student’s Memberships in the USCF and the purchase of 2 Tournament Boards, 2 Sets, 2 Clocks and 4 Score Pads for them to play QUAD Tournaments at our club.

Join at the Marshal Level ($400) and you support 8 of our Student’s Entry Fees in our 10 monthly Nationally Rated OCTO Tournaments.

Join at the Monarch Level ($500) and you support 4 of our Student’s Entry Fees in our 10 monthly QUAD Tournaments and you support 4 of our Student’s Memberships in the USCF and the purchase of 2 Tournament Boards, 2 Sets, 2 Clocks and 4 Score Pads for them to play QUAD Tournaments at our club.

Join at the King Level ($600) and you support 8 of our Student’s Memberships in the USCF and the purchase of 4 Tournament Boards, 4 Sets, 4 Clocks and 8 Score Pads for them to play OCTO Tournaments at our club.

Join at the Emperor Level ($1000) and you support 8 of our Student’s Entry Fees in our 10 monthly OCTO Tournaments and you support 8 of our Student’s Memberships in the USCF and the purchase of 4 Tournament Boards, 4 Sets, 4 Clocks and 8 Score Pads for them to play OCTO Tournaments at our club.

Please send donations to calcpage@lycos.com via www.paypal.com.


Generally speaking,

Saturday, June 19, 2010

So many Linux distros, so little time!Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, oh my!


This has been a crazy couple of years!  We've been looking for a good 64bit Linux distribution that would fit the needs of the Computer Science and Mathematics classrooms as well as the needs of our cluster.

My Computing Independent Study (cistheta) students would like to put together a high performance cluster (HPC) to do some number crunching, fractals, openGL, ray tracing and animation. We've had good experience in the past using PVM, MPI and openMOSIX with C++ and povray. We've even used clusterKNOPPIX, parallelKNOPPIX, BCCD, QUANTIAN and pelicanHPC. But, that was in the world of 32bit....

Welcome to the 64bit universe! We fell heir to 25 dual-core AMD Athlons plus 2 quad-core Intel Xeons and have been banging our heads against the wall trying to figure out what do do with all this. Two years ago, we tried to scatter and gather jobs using bash scripts to run povray and C++ jobs to good effect. This year we tried parallelJava and openMPI over Fedora and CentOS but didn't get anywhere. We even tried Rocks.

We finally have 64bit Ubuntu 10.04 installed on all nodes and like how rock solid it is and how easy it is to maintain. We are wondering what kind of clustering environment we could install over this. Would OSCAR be a good fit?

We still have a dual boot system, but the default partition is the Linux one.  We are starting a new curriculum in Computer Math (intro to programming and discrete math) and Calculus Research Lab based on SAGE.  So, I set up the lab to be as user friendly as possible for our new kids and teachers next year.  The "Ubuntu Way" is not to have a super user or root account.  The only way to have root access is with the sudo command line and the "root" password is the same as the user password!  So, I setup each PC to boot the Linux partition, then login to the desktop without any user interaction (ie no password needed, so the students don't need to know it).  In addition to all this, Firefox is now one of the startup apps and I set the default homepage to https://clemix.clemson.edu:34567  Not only are we running Ubuntu Linux all day, every day, we also have a SAGE lab running 24x7!


I also got the Teacher Station to run my "Youtube Recording Studio" in Linux and in Windows using the exact same hardware and apps.  I cheated a bit in that Smart Notebook for Linux only comes in a 32bit version.  So, the Teacher Station was installed with the 32bit Ubuntu 10.04 CD.  BTW, the Ubuntu users mailing list is full of lots of helpful peeps!  My abundant thanx go to them, I would never have figured all this stuff out in the short amount of time I had without them!  FYI, the only reason I have time to do this at all is because its Finals Week at good ol' Baldwin High!

Teacher Station with Windows XP
(1) Smart AirLiner Tablet or Wacom Graphire BlueTooth 6x8 Tablet
(2) Smart Notebook pen app
(3) Radio Shack 75Mhz Lapel Mic
(4) SAGE or VTI math app
(5) http://screencast-o-matic.com *.mp4 recorder

Teacher Station with Ubuntu 10.04
(1) Smart AirLiner Tablet or Wacom Graphire BlueTooth 6x8 Tablet
(2) Xournal pen app
(3) Radio Shack 75Mhz Lapel Mic
(4) SAGE or VTI math app (note to self: forgot to install WINE)
(5) http://screencast-o-matic.com *.mp4 recorder

Laptop with Windows Vista (on the road at conferences)
(1) Smart AirLiner Tablet or Wacon Graphire BlueTooth 6x8 Tablet
(2) Smart Notebook pen app
(3) internal Mic
(4) SAGE or VTI math app (note to self: forgot to install WINE)
(5) http://screencast-o-matic.com *.mp4 recorder
(6) PC Podium with audio, video and Ethernet drops or wireless

Now, I installed the 64bit Ubuntu 10.04 CD the same way on every PC:
Step 1)
prepare partitions with qtparted from the KNOPPIX CD first
    /dev/sda1    fat32    42GB    (resize, but no other changes, leave wimpdoze partition alone)
    /dev/sda2    swap    256MB (change to swap)
    /dev/sda3    ext3     41GB    (change to ext3 + format + / partition)

Step 2)
boot Ubuntu CD, click install, answer onscreen questions, run install

Step 3)
when the install process is done, you reboot and remove the CD
once the PC reboots and you get to the desktop, right click the vertical arrow icon on the top right
and edit the Ethernet interfaces
    eth0 set to auto DHCP
    eth1: ip = 10.5.129.x
            mask = 255.255.0.0
            gw = 10.5.0.254
            dns = 10.1.1.19
test internet connections with Firefox to https://clemix.clemson.edu:34567 and set as default homepage
test intranet connections with nautilus/ftp to 10.5.254.245

Step 4)
system/preferences/monitors set to highest resolution allowe for your desktop (except for teacher pc)
system/preferences/screensaver set to 1 hour
system/preferences/startup add Firefox (except for teacher pc)
system/preferences/mouse set mouse to slowest accel (only teacher pc)
right click desktop and select /change background to set your background and click visual effects for compiz
system/administration/login set to no password (except for teacher pc and server)
system/administration/printers set network printer HP Laser Jet 4250 at 10.10.254.212

Step 5)
install jre1.6.0_20 as a Firefox plugin for 3D graphics in SAGE
system/preferences/networkproxy set to 10.0.0.125 system wide and:
sudo aptitude update (or system/adminitration/softwaresources, adding canonical first)
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade (optional)
sudo aptitude install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-fonts install sun-java6-plugin
(all one line in that order, could use sudo su)
dissable proxy and test firefox with about:plugins as the url to see that the jre was plugged in!

alternate Step 5 - if no proxy available)
install jre1.6.0_20 as a Firefox plugin for 3D graphics in SAGE
download jre-6u20-linux-x64.bin or jre-6u20-linux-i386.bin 
to /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins
open a terminal and 
    cd /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins
    sudo chmod 755 *.bin
    sudo ./*.bin
then
    cd ~/.mozilla
    mkdir plugins
    cd plugins
    ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/jre1.6.0_20/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so
or
    ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/jre1.6.0_20/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so
if libnpjp2.so is not there, then
    locate libnpjp2.so
test firefox with about:plugins as the url to see that the jre was plugged in!


another alternate Step 5 - if no proxy available)
download the *.deb files from my ftp site ftp://centauri.baldwinschools.net and follow instructions there.

Step 6)
install optional software like VLC, handbrake, xournal via aptitude+proxy or Smart Notebook from http://www.smarttech.com or games from http://packages.ubuntu.com  Actually, I don't recommend Smart Notebook as its very complicated to install and maintain.  That's why I installed xournal....

Servers need: vsftp and openssh-server
Teacher Station needs: jre, flash, wine, VLC, handbrake and xournal
Student Stations need just jre

HTH, good luck with your Linux boxes!


Saturday, June 5, 2010

A bit of R&R!


Finally, AP Review is over! Finally, AP Exams are over! Finally, a little bit of R&R! In school, I'm showing my students how to use SAGE, except for Fridays. On Fridays we have LAN Party Friday! We've been playing bzflag for a while, I'm trying to set up Tremulous for next week. The last few days of class, I think we'll top off the Star Trek Trilogy (II, III, IV) with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.



The weekends have been a lot more relaxed lately with all the Mock AP Exams over and all the grading that goes along with it! So, I've been taking my kids to the city. Last weekend, we spent the whole day just walking through Central Park. What a nice day. We walked all along The Pond on the south end. Then we walked all around the Central Park Zoo. The weather was great for Spring. The park was full of musicians and artists. Right next to the golden chariot monument for the USS Maine, there were a dozen guys from some college trying to earn their fares back whole singing barber shop quartet style. One homeless guy set up a whole percussion section near the zoo made up of anything he could find in the street to make noise with and he was good! We saw all the horse and carriages on Central Park South. There was a Statue of Liberty mime trying to take pictures with us.... Then we had a snack at the Columbus Circle Mall. There's a cool Samsung demo store where we saw all the latest 55" HD 3D LCD TVs...wow!


This past weekend we went to the Tenement Museum, http://www.tenement.org.  We went on a guided tour to a refurbished apartment that was once home to a family of Sephardic Jews fresh off the boat from Greece via Ellis Island circa 1916. The tour included an actress in the apartment pretending to be a daughter of this family by the name of Victoria Confino.  We were told to act the part of newly arrived immigrants ourselves looking for an apartment there too. This was great fun and very educational for my kids! I am going back!




Generally speaking,