[SledgeHammer]

I opened up Chess the other day for the first time in a long time and was surprised to see that it looked totally different. I assume it was with Panther that it changed because when you change the pieces to "fur" you get spotted (jaguar) fur and black (panther) fur.

[alcimedes]

yeah, it changed in panther. i really liked the old one a lot better. the new one looks and feels cheap.

[DMBand0026]

Yeah, the change came in 10.3. And if you want my vote, the new one looks like dick.

[curiousuburb]

IIRC, the Panther version also offers improved 2d/3d board view (now rotatable)

[DMBand0026]

The board view might be improved, but it still looks horrible.

By the way. It took the computer all of 5 moves to get me into check-mate. I suck. But I don't really care. The voice activation thing is awesome!
However, the app still looks horrible.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by DMBand0026 The board view might be improved, but it still looks horrible. By the way. It took the computer all of 5 moves to get me into check-mate. I suck. But I don't really care. The voice activation thing is awesome! However, the app still looks horrible.

the Voice activation part was active as early as 10.0.1, IIRC,
and there was even limited support back in OS 9,
but it's never really been reliably stable in my experience.

getting better each version, though.

[BRussell]

Does anyone know if it's possible to switch sides during the game? When I'm losing, it's nice to give the computer the crappy position I left myself.

Also I'd love to be able to enter positions up to a certain point in a game, and play from there. Seems like pretty basic functionality, but I've never seen a way to do it.

[curiousuburb]

Network play would be cool, and ought to be relatively easy to pass data for.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by curiousuburb and there was even limited support back in OS 9,

Chess.app didn't exist for Mac OS 9. It was originally from NeXT.

Or are you talking about voice recognition? In the case of the latter, voice recognition has remained virtually untouched since Mac OS 8.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by Brad Chess.app didn't exist for Mac OS 9. It was originally from NeXT. Or are you talking about voice recognition? In the case of the latter, voice recognition has remained virtually untouched since Mac OS 8.

yes. even earlier than I thought.

voice recognition has always seemed to support "tell me a joke", "what time is it", and some limited functionality to perform certain scripted actions (I remember impressing my boss in 97 by saying "computer... scan" and it fired up the old microtek preview faster than he could pick his jaw up).

I seem to remember that it recognized Chess moves very early... maybe I'm remembering the first OSX version of Chess that seemed to default open the speech widget with every game.

[Crusader]

Wow, that was a nice reality check in how much I suck at chess. Time to reread Chess for Dummies.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Crusader Wow, that was a nice reality check in how much I suck at chess. Time to reread Chess for Dummies.

nah... chess.app is really... really good...

[SledgeHammer]

Yeah, I've never beaten it. Nor do I recall ever talking to anyone who has (although I don't often talk to people about that); I am sure there are people who can beat it, but I don't stand a snowball's chance, even on the easiest setting.

[stevegong]

Originally Posted by Brad Or are you talking about voice recognition? In the case of the latter, voice recognition has remained virtually untouched since Mac OS 8.

???? WTF are you talking about?


seriously, much has changed with panther. and I am really impressed with it, there's a lot more functionality now, to the point where you don't actually need the mouse to move around. especially the speak menu feature. AND, an apple guy I know that comes to our mug meetings said it's going to be big in next rev.

[Chinney]

I also prefer the old look. I think that this was the subject of a thread, way back when, in the other place.

[othello]

you need to get hold of big bang chess . network play, ichat etc . its the daddy...

[Luca]

Originally Posted by stevegong ???? WTF are you talking about? seriously, much has changed with panther. and I am really impressed with it, there's a lot more functionality now, to the point where you don't actually need the mouse to move around. especially the speak menu feature. AND, an apple guy I know that comes to our mug meetings said it's going to be big in next rev.

Nothing has really changed with Panther, as far as speech recognition. Yes, there are a lot more ways to use it (chess, launching programs, spoken user interface), but it's not really any more accurate than it was six or seven years ago. Same goes for text to speech. The computer voices are still very primitive and mechanical sounding, and remain almost unchanged from the old System 7 voices.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by othello you need to get hold of big bang chess . network play, ichat etc . its the daddy...

and despite it's "Recommended System = G3 800 w/16MB VRAM"
it does play on a G3 iBook500 w/8MB VRAM... if a bit slow

easy to beat on the easiest setting... 11 move mate first game.
nice animation of moon/sun rising or setting to reflect advantage

haven't tried the network/iChat games yet... but it's sweet so far

[Chinney]

Originally Posted by Luca Nothing has really changed with Panther, as far as speech recognition. Yes, there are a lot more ways to use it (chess, launching programs, spoken user interface), but it's not really any more accurate than it was six or seven years ago. Same goes for text to speech. The computer voices are still very primitive and mechanical sounding, and remain almost unchanged from the old System 7 voices.

I posted a thread about a year ago on .com regarding voice recognition in general, and asking whether it will ever really pan out as a good method of interacting with the machine. Voice recognition seemed to have a lot of promise about 5-10 years ago, but that promise has never been fulfilled. The general consensus seemed to be that it never would.

That disappoints me, in a way. I would like to think that something new and fundamentally improved could be achieved. Perhaps it can, but the other aspect that I raised was perhaps most people do not want to talk to their machine.

[SledgeHammer]

That depends. Will it sound like Majel Barrett Rodenberry when it responds?