Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
This month, I’m doing things slightly differently. As I don’t have a topic lined up for a typical length article, I am instead covering two smaller articles, which would otherwise not be covered here (due to them being too short). Razer Deathadder Elite Towards the end of 2016, my old mouse was starting to look really worn. As such, I decided to replace it with a Razer Deathadder Elite. As is the case with almost all Razer devices, it offers a lot of lighting options. Unfortunately, at the time of purchase, it wasn’t supported by any Linux tools for configuring Razer devices. Recently, that has changed. As such, I’ll be covering what worked for me to configure the effects of my mouse. Software I used polychromatic-controller and razer-drivers. Installation instructions are listed here: https://github.com/lah7/polychromatic and https://github.com/terrycain/razer-drivers#installation Setup I had to run razer-service to get the daemon to run correctly, and set it to autostart in my i3 configuration. Depending on what DE/WM you use, you’ll probably need to do the same.
Configuration Once set up, I opened polychromatic-controller, and set up the effects, brightness, colors, and could even adjust the DPI settings. Oddly, the breath animation wasn’t available for the logo, which should be a bug (as far as I know, breath is supported on both LEDs). In any case, the software offered more options than alternatives (such as razercommander) for this particular device. The Future Recently, Razer announced that they wanted to improve their support of Linux on their systems, as it is one of the most requested changes made by customers. To this effect, they’ve now also opened an official Linux Corner area on their forum (link below in Further Reading). No concrete promises yet about their Synapse software or other changes, but it’s a step in the right direction. Hopefully this short article will be useful for anyone who owns Razer products and wants to have more control over the various effects and colors. Macro keys are also partially supported. If you have any questions, suggestions, or recommendations for articles, feel free to contact me at lswest34+fcm@gmail.com.
Further Reading https://insider.razerzone.com/index.php?forums/linux/ - Razer Insider Linux Corner Go For anyone who thinks that I mean the programming language, I’m sorry to say I’m actually referring to the board game. If you’re looking for places to start with the programming language, I would recommend the official tour. Back to the topic on hand! What is Go? Go is a board game played with white and black stones played on a 19×19 grid board, that has been around for, quite literally, thousands of years. It’s focused around creating territories of stones, and capturing the stones of your enemy. It is a highly strategic game, and more complex than typical chess or even Shogi (at least when you consider the number of possible moves). It got recent widespread coverage when AlphaGo (an AI created by DeepMind) played (and beat) Lee Sedol (a professional Go player, and one of the top in the world). Since then, AlphaGo has also played online under the alias of “Master”.
Can I play it on Linux? While there are a few apps that allow you to review SGF (Smart Go Format) files or play against bots such as gnugo, none of them have ever particularly overwhelmed me. Instead, my preferred approach is to play on https://online-go.com. The website offers the ability to play live against other people, play correspondance games (that is to say, games played over long periods of time), the computer, and to review games. How do I get started? There are plenty of ways to get started playing Go. The initial rules aren’t terribly complicated, but gaining a proficiency in actually playing the game can take a while. There are some books, websites, and even some YouTube videos that can explain the rules to you. Once you know how pieces are played and the basic definitions of territory, alive, and dead, you can probably manage a good teaching game against a stronger player, or else do some life or death (Tsume) problems on websites such as https://online-go.com.
Anything else I can do? If you’re not completely new to Go, it can usually be quite interesting to study other people’s games. These are frequently posted on the web as SGF files, or conducted on Twitch/YouTube. Recently, AGA (the American Go Association) has begun posting videos of reviews done by Michael Redmond and Chris Garlock. These SGF files can also be imported into online-go’s SGF Library (publically or privately) to study using their system (which I find much better than desktop tools I’ve tried). They are typically annotated, and offer alternative moves. Otherwise, you can simply play other people. Go supports handicaps, and as such, you should be able to balance the scales even against much stronger opponents. Even a loss can teach you something, especially if the game is reviewed later (either via forums, or directly after completion). There are also a bunch of associations worldwide that have various communities and followings. Depending on where you live, there may even be one near you.
What are these ranking systems? Go players are split into two groups - Kyu, and Dan. Kyu ranks are typically amateur or student rankings, and Dan ranks are masters/professionals. The Kyu ranks decrease the better you are, and the Dan ranks increase. The typical rankings are 30-21Kyu (for beginners), 20-11Kyu (for casual players), 10-1 Kyu (for players who are good, but have either opted to not advance to Dan, or who aren’t yet capable of advancing). And the Dan ranks are 1-9. I’ve seen Dan ranks listed as 1-7d, which seem to be used for amateur players who are at Dan strength, and 1-9p, which are the professional levels and rankings. There are some special titles, but for most people, this is all you need to know. Personally, I’d say I’m still well within the 30-21 Kyu mark. I hope this has given a starting point to anyone interested in Go. If you have questions, or want to play a game against me, you can find me as lswest on online-go (22 Kyu). If you have recommendations, or suggestions, for C&C, feel free to email me at lswest34+fcm@gmail.com.
Further Reading http://senseis.xmp.net/ - Sensei’s Library https://www.youtube.com/user/USGOWeb - American go Association’s YouTube page. The Book of Go by William S. Cobb - A beginner’s book to Go, includes a small portable set of pieces and a cardboard board (9×9 and 13×13 size). Games of Go by Neil Moffat - A set of fully commented games of Go that have been played online. Not necessarily for a complete beginner, but it’s a nice set of explanations. http://81dojo.com/ - Not a website for Go, but for Shogi. In case anyone is interested in Japanese chess, this website is one of the best I’ve found.