Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 11686

First impressions: Lenovo Miix 630

Lenovo’s Miix 630, which was unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is a detachable 2-in-1 that promises up to 20 hours of usage (not standby hours, mind you) and weeks (not days) on standby mode.

That’s pretty much all you need to know if you think this is just another Microsoft Surface Pro 4 wannabe (although the resemblance is uncanny). What’s under the hood would prove that the Miix 630 can hold its own, and if you’d like to know more about this device and why it represents a new breed of mobile PCs that will be raved about this year, read on.

LOOK AND FEEL

The Miix 630 comes with a 12.3-inch Corning glass display that can be detached and be used as a tablet. One need not worry about the display easily falling off because it comes with a magnetic strip at the base, which helps keep it secure.

There’s a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer at the bottom right side of the display and a dual-SIM card slot (for Nano SIM or standard SIM) and a 3.5-mm audio jack at the bottom left. There’s a 5-megapixel camera at the rear and a front-facing IR-enabled camera on the other side, which allows for facial recognition required for Windows Hello login.

Powering up the device reveals a full HD (1,920 by 1,080) touch screen. It certainly looks great but we wished Lenovo went for thin bezels or an ‘infinity-edge’ screen for the Miix 630 instead of fat bezels surrounding it.

The textured, leather-like folio case that also ships with Miix 630 comes with an adjustable hinge that allows the case to convert into a kickstand. Attached to the case is the backlit keyboard with touchpad. The keyboard deck is firm and typing is convenient as the keys are spaced out evenly. On the right side of the case is a dedicated holder for the Lenovo Digital Pen, which is also included in the standard package.

With the keyboard, the Miix 630 is 15.6 mm thin and weighs just 1.33 kg, which is a bit heavier than the Surface Pro 4 (1.07 kg). Without the keyboard, however, it is 7.3-mm thin and is lighter than its Microsoft counterpart at only 770 grams (vs Surface Pro 4’s 785 grams).  

FEATURES

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC processor is responsible for the Miix 630’s key features. It is Lenovo’s first Windows 10 device running on Qualcomm’s enhanced chip designed for mobile PCs. What this means is that this ultraportable has features that we’ve come to expect on high end smartphones: all-day battery life and always-on connectivity.

Thanks to the Qualcomm mobile PC chip, which is designed to make devices power efficient, Lenovo claims the Miix 630 can last up to 20 hours on a single charge. That’s twice as long as what’s considered ‘excellent battery’ life, which is eight to 10 hours. As Qualcomm’s smallest chip to date (at 10 nanometer), the chip also allowed Lenovo to craft a thin and lightweight unibody for the Miix 630.

Having Qualcomm’s chipset inside also means the Miix 630 can have 4G LTE connectivity. The 2-in-1 has support for both a standard SIM card and eSIM (embedded SIM).

The Miix 630 ships with Windows 10 S, which is a faster and streamlined version of Windows 10. This configuration allows the Miix 630 to install applications that can be downloaded only from the Microsoft Windows Store. Those who wish to install apps from third-party sites can do so by upgrading to Windows 10, which is free if the user upgrades within 180 days after Windows activation.

Since Lenovo won’t ship the Miix 630 until the second quarter of this year (retailing for $799), we have yet to see whether or not this device will live up to the hype. For now, we can settle for what Lenovo claims this device can do and how it rates in terms of looks.  — MBG

The cost of reliving the past

It is easy enough to take for granted particularly every-day things. After all, anything common or ordinary tends to be forgotten quickly. We normally value only things that are important to us, or things that we believe may be exchanged for goods or services in the future. At times, the value can also be just “sentimental.”

Appreciation of “value” is not necessarily something that can be passed on. My son, for instance, is not likely to keep my books on a wide variety of subjects, including geography, music, and history. That is, unless he actually derives some form of value or enjoyment from them now, and opts to keep them in the future.

If not, I would encourage him to donate them to a library later on, rather than just throwing them out. Other people may still find them useful, or enjoyable. I also hope he realizes that every time we throw away a piece of popular literature, or popular art, simply because we consider them common or burdensome or junk, then we also lose a little of our own history and culture.

A couple of years ago, I chanced upon a book at a sale. It was published in 1987, about 30 years ago, but was still in good condition. It was nothing important, not valuable at all. But, it compiled reprints or copies of 18 Superman comic books that were published from 1940 to 1986 — a 50th anniversary commemoration of the popular comic art.

In its pages, one sees the transition not just of comic art but also of storyline and language, which somewhat reflects or parallels history and culture of the time. As a medium, comic art can reflect the period it was published in, and can thus give a version of history as presented to a child. And, what I find heartening is that my young son has actually taken a liking to the book.

While technology has advanced so much in the last 40 years, I personally don’t believe this was all for the better. I still prefer books, for instance, and have never bought an e-book. In fact, some of these old technologies or designs appear to be enjoying a resurgence of sorts, for one reason or the other. A lot of “retro” has been going on, of late, and at a higher price tag.

An example is Japanese watch brand Seiko, which has been releasing ’70s-style mechanical and digital watches in limited edition since 2015. These include reissuing 1980s-era digital watches designed by Italian automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, who was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999, and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.

Over 30 years ago, Giugiaro designed a number of Seiko motoring watches, including a digital watch that was also used by the main protagonist in the then futuristic movie Aliens in 1986. That Aliens watch, as a recent reissue, sells for about $350 retail. When it first came out, the watch was probably priced below $100 — as it was nothing more than an ordinary, common, every day digital watch made in Japan.

To date, an original Aliens watch from 1983, when it first came out, and in mint condition, sells at e-Bay for about $2500. That’s right, had you kept that ordinary every day digital watch from when you were probably a teenager, then you can expect to make a good deal of money from it now. But, like most people, you probably took that ordinary thing for granted and chucked it when it croaked.

I own some watches — both mechanical and quartz — that date back 25-30 years. Even with little maintenance over the years, they still work well to date. Despite their age, their “technologies” are still in use. And, just in the middle of last year, I sought repairs on a manual-wind watch that was about 50 years old. It had been junked for about 35 years, but after a couple of months in the repair shop and sourcing of used parts, it was again ticking like new.

I have also been entrusted with a number of long-playing records that have been originally pressed in the early 1960s. Some are about 55 years old, and were not exactly kept in the best way possible. They were neglected and relegated to storage for maybe about 25 years. But, with some cleaning, these LPs have been recently resurrected and still sound very good even on a not-so-expensive audio set. Despite 55 years passing, these “old school” stuff still work well.

And to my recent surprise, a newly pressed LP can now cost anywhere from P2,000 for a single disc to about P4,500 for a double album. Vintage LPs retail in thrift shops from about P500 to P1,500. About 40 years ago, LPs cost less than P100. And, a good, brand-new turntable now runs from about P8,000 to hundreds of thousands of pesos, depending on the brand. I bought one of mine from a thrift shop many years back for about $10.

Records or LPs are just one of the few examples of things that have made a successful comeback in the last decade. They were lost for a while, and had become practically worthless and unwanted from the 1980s onwards, and we all moved on to newer things from there.

But now they are back, and along with them came the “high cost” of our reliving our past.

I still use a fountain pen to date, first bought about 20 years ago. I have watches that are 25-30 years old. I have a bartending book that dates back to 1974, and also own a car that’s more than 40 years old. The oldest movie in my hard drive dates back to 1927. I have a VHS tape about professional basketball that is at least 30 years old, and I listen to 50-year-old LPs when I have the time. While these are all old junk for many, I consider them my personal treasures.

And this is my point: “Old” technology still works, and in some instances, work better and last longer than “new.”

Apparently, we had a lot of good stuff from the past that we took for granted, and maybe as we move on, we should learn to be more appreciative of what we may now consider just ordinary, every-day things.

A lot of good things have come and gone, and many of them were actually worth keeping. If only we realized this at the time.

 

Marvin A. Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council.

matort@yahoo.com

Cebu City fire station lacks equipment, gear

LACK OF gears and defective equipment are among the reasons why the Cebu City Fire Station has “very minimal capability” in addressing fires in medium and high-rise buildings, City Fire Marshall Noel Nelson Ababon said during the executive session conducted by the city council on Jan. 16 to discuss the fire that hit the Metro Ayala shopping mall last Jan. 5. “We have very minimal capability,” he told the council. Mr. Ababon said the fire department needs additional equipment like fire hoses, water tanks, thermal imaging camera, and breathing apparatus. “We have to complete the inventory of all our equipment (so we can ask the Bureau of Fire central office for what is lacking and what we need). We will also provide a copy of the inventory to the city government,” he said. Mr. Ababon added that there is a need to improve coordination with volunteer fire-fighting groups in positioning the gears.

AYALA MALL REOPENS
Meanwhile, the fire chief reported to the council that Metro Ayala complied with the fire code. The shopping mall is reopening today, Jan. 18. In a tweet posted yesterday, Ayala Center Cebu said: “We are thankful to be able to welcome and celebrate with the community in time for the fiesta Señor,” referring to the Sinulog, Cebu’s biggest annual festival. — The Freeman

Chinese universities through a Filipino educator’s lens

Educational networking and study tours enhance liaison, cooperation, and possible partnerships among participating universities. I organized one such tour in Central China in November 2017 with four countries participating: Malaysia, Thailand, China, and the Philippines.

Wuhan is home to universities that showcase their educational leadership and expertise in science and technology, innovation, and business development as well as government support to institutions. China Universities of Geosciences (CUG), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), and Wuhan International Culture University hosted the participants. CUG has produced the most natural scientists and is home to the biggest geosciences museum of the country with its precious and semi-precious stones, fossils, and evidence of various life forms, human evolution, and development. The university adheres to international standards of management as evidenced by its accounting procedures and financial management.

HUST, which has produced the founder of WeChat, prioritizes robotics in its curricula. It gives its students the space, time, and resources to experiment on their projects for long hours each day. The campus is a vast playing field for testing and retesting their hypotheses until their toy race cars are running and their robots are following instructions.

The last university focuses on technical and vocational skills development.

At the campus entrance are replicas of St. Peter’s Square, the Louvre, and the Arc De Triomphe, among others. Students in this tech-voc school receive support for their training and development.

The students in these three universities use only Chinese-developed apps on their smart phones and other gadgets. WeChat is widely used not only for connectivity but also payment of everything, making Chinese society hugely cashless. Student organizations include a group that propagates the political agenda of the national government. Classes are teacher-centered, and students regard their teachers as experts in their fields of study. Faculty members are sent abroad to study while those who remain in China are continually updated by foreign experts whom the school administrators invite.

Each school has residences for both the faculty and students. One campus has 50 business incubation rooms, 13 canteens to serve the 45,000-strong population, a number of residential flats for faculty and their families, 10 basketball courts, 4 football fields, swimming pools, and other sports facilities. Exceptional students are given scholarships, but not all of them are accepted in universities.

Managing universities in communist China may seem easier than managing universities in democratic countries as the government provides for their fiscal needs. Decision making is centralized, and priority plans are handed down from the top for implementation.

In effect, the universities have to follow what has been laid out and articulated for them. Students cannot exercise their initiative, their basic rights, and the freedom of expression and participation. They are not able to ask questions on policies and governance. They have no opportunity to lead and govern their cohorts. They don’t even have siblings with whom to share their life experiences.

There is no perfect governance structure and there is no perfect ideology. This study tour made me value more our democratic ideals and practices despite the chaos and mess. I appreciate my students more as they freely ask questions and seek answers. I prefer listening to their differing opinions to seeing them nod quietly but unhappily. I accompany them to be technically competent, humane, ethical, and socially responsible in an environment where they can be the best versions of themselves. This is the essence of education. This is the reason why I teach.

As I was delivering a lecture on campus governance at one of the Chinese universities and answering the questions of the students, the translator was beaming while he was translating. According to my colleague, who speaks both English and Mandarin, the translator was nearly exact in his translation of my lecture.

At a dinner with university officials, the translator and I were opposite each other at a 20-seat round table.

When we were asked to say a few words to everyone, he stood and thanked the university for allowing him to join the dinner, and specially thanked me for the “inspiration and the information that in (the) Philippines, students have enjoyed their freedom and rights” that he envied so much and wished they could have experienced in their lifetime.

 

Dr. Maria Paquita D. Bonnet teaches Lasallian Business Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility, and Strategic Human Resource Management at De La Salle University. She also teaches at the Educational Leadership and Management Department of DLSU. She is the Director of the Institute of Student Affairs, Asia-Pacific Student Services Association with administrative office at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

maria.paquita.diongon-bonnet@dlsu.edu.ph

South Korea’s ‘kimchi deficit’ hits record high

SEOUL — South Korea’s trade deficit in kimchi, its proud traditional side dish of fermented cabbage, reached an all-time high last year as low-priced Chinese imports flooded the market, statistics showed Wednesday.

The spicy foodstuff is emblematic of Korean cuisine and accompanies almost every meal served in the country, whatever its culinary origins, with kimchi-making still an important annual ritual for many families.

But the commercial market has been deluged by Chinese producers in recent years, resulting in what has been dubbed the “kimchi deficit.”

South Korea imported more than 275,000 tons of kimchi last year, 99% of it from China, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) said, and exported just over 24,000 tons.

The deficit stood at $47.3 million by value, up 11% year on year and the largest since the KCS began tracking the data in 2000.

Price is a major factor in the trade, with imports costing just $0.50 per kilogram in 2016 according to Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp., while exports — primarily destined for Japan — averaged $3.36 per kilogram.

According to South Korea’s World Institute of Kimchi, 89.9% of the kimchi purchased by South Korean restaurants in 2016 was imported from China.

The kimchi trade first went into deficit in 2006, triggering soul-searching and a headline-grabbing scandal.

UNESCO inscribed South Korean kimchi on its intangible cultural heritage list in 2013, saying: “It forms an essential part of Korean meals, transcending class and regional differences.

Kimchi-making “reaffirms Korean identity and is an excellent opportunity for strengthening family cooperation,” it added, and a reminder that human communities need to live in harmony with nature.

There are regional differences in the product, UNESCO added, and the specific methods and ingredients are considered an important family heritage, typically transmitted from a mother-in-law to her newly married daughter-in-law. — AFP

Deal for new alcohol tax stamps due Q1

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and state-run firm APO Production Unit are set to sign a memorandum of agreement on the rollout of the new excise tax stamps for alcoholic beverages by the first quarter this year.

“I think they are still reviewing it, the BIR. But they target the signing in the first quarter, so I hope they are able to do it,” Finance Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko told reporters on Friday.

The memorandum would make APO responsible for the printing of alcohol excise tax stamps. It currently handles the printing of cigarette tax stamps.

The implementation of the Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (IRSIS) for alcohol products was initially targeted for January, but Ms. Tionko said that deploying the system is more complex compared to tobacco items.

“It’s not like the cigarettes where packs are all the same. We have various sizes of bottles,” she said. 

Ms. Tionko added that beverages also have varying levels of alcohol content.

The BIR launched new excise tax stamps for cigarettes this year.

The Department of Finance expects to collect P56.23 billion from alcohol excise taxes for 2018, up 9.91% from a year earlier.

For tobacco taxes, it targets P126.97 billion this year, up 13.78%. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

Best Endgame of 2017

The Chessbase Web site (www.chessbase.com) has announced the results of their poll on the 2017 Endgame of the Year. The Chessbase editors came up with a list of nominees and this was voted on by their members. Last Tuesday I wrote that Ding Liren’s victory over Bai Jinshi in the Chinese League ran away with the “Game of the Year” award. For “Endgame of the Year” though there were two games which were pretty close.

The Wesley So vs Baadur Jobava game from the World Cup finished 6th out of six nominees. I can’t figure it out — I thought it would be a strong contender.

At the end the “Frenchman with Two Names” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the award for his victory over World Champion Magnus Carlsen from the 2017 Sinquefield Cup. This will count as a double whammy, for the game enabled Vachier-Lagrave to win the tournament as well, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand.

Here is the close second-placer.

Nakamura, Hikaru (2785) — Giri, Anish (2771) [D80]
5th Norway Chess 2017 Stavanger (1), 06.06.2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 dxc4 7.e3 Be6 8.Qb1 b6 9.Nh3 Bh6 10.Bg5 Bxg5 11.Nxg5 Qd5 12.Nxe6 Qxe6 13.Qb4 Qd5 14.Qxc4 Qxc4 15.Bxc4

After this a quick handshake? No not yet. In fact Nakamura proves that White’s position is better — his bishop is superior to the knight and he has two available pawn levers: a2–a4–a5 and h2–h4–h5.

15…e6 16.Be2 Nd7 17.a4 Ke7 18.a5 c6 19.Kd2 b5 20.Rab1 Rab8 21.Rb2 f5 22.Rhb1 Kd6 23.f3 e5 24.c4 exd4 25.cxb5 cxb5 26.Bxb5 dxe3+ 27.Kxe3 Nf6 28.Bc4 Rxb2 29.Rxb2 Re8+ 30.Kd4 Re7 31.Rb8 Rd7 32.Rc8! Rb7 33.a6! Rb4 34.Kc3 Ra4 35.Kb3 Nd7 36.Bb5

[36.Kxa4? Nb6+ 37.Kb5 Nxc8 38.Bg8 h6 39.Bf7 (39.Bh7? Ne7 the bishop is stuck) 39…g5 40.g3 Ne7 Black holds]

36…Ra5 37.Kb4 Ra1 38.Rd8 Rb1+ 39.Ka5 Ra1+ 40.Kb4 Rb1+ 41.Ka4 Ra1+ 42.Kb3 Rb1+ 43.Kc4 Rc1+ 44.Kd3 Rc7 45.Kd4 Ke7 46.Ra8 Kd6 47.h4! Ke7?

The knight should have been moved to either b6 or g6 — the rook endgame is lost.

48.Bxd7! Rxd7+ 49.Ke5 Kf7 50.Rb8 Re7+ 51.Kd5 Kf6 52.Rb7 Re5+ 53.Kd4 Ra5 54.Rxa7 f4 55.Kc4 Ra2 56.Kc5 h5 57.Ra8 Rc2+ 58.Kb6 Rb2+ 59.Kc5 Rc2+ 60.Kb6 Rb2+ 61.Ka7 Rxg2 62.Rb8 Rf2 63.Rb6+ Kg7 64.Kb7 Rxf3 65.a7 Ra3 66.Ra6 Rb3+ 67.Kc6 1–0

You know what Magnus Carlsen’s style reminds me of? Perhaps many of you will disagree, but I always thought that the world champion closest to his style is Tigran Petrosian. What? You would say, but Petrosian is a drawing master, a champion of prophylaxis and dull games whereas Magnus is not! That may be true, but one does not become world champion without winning a lot of games. Did you know that Petrosian represented the USSR in the Chess Olympiad 10 times with an overall result of 78 wins, 50 draws and only one loss? A winning percentage of almost 80%!

Have you ever really studied the games of Petrosian to see how he wins games? He does not go for an opening advantage — a playable middlegame will do. Then, when he gets there, he just sits on the position and starts maneuvering, playing cat-and-mouse — threatening this and then threatening that until his opponent makes a mistake. After that he transposes to the endgame and pursues the win with perfect technique.

That is also the way Magnus Carlsen plays. The game that will follow is a perfect example of that, with one big difference — Magnus manages to create a big advantage out of nothing, but then errs. Now it is the Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave’s time to exhibit his deep tactical style — he always has a “drop of poison” in hand and Magnus falls into it. After that MVL shows his fantastic endgame technique and turns the game around. Best Endgame of 2017.

Carlsen, Magnus (2822) — Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (2789) [A34]
5th Sinquefield Cup 2017 Saint Louis USA (4.1), 05.08.2017

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e3 Nxc3 6.dxc3

White’s main choice is 6.bxc3 and now 6…g6 7.d4 Bg7 8.Bb5+ with a full game ahead of us. The drawback of 6.dxc3 of course is that queens are exchanged and we usually get a dry game. A dry game of course is not automatically a draw! Probably Magnus, knowing that his opponent is a tactical monster, just wanted to fight on a turf which might be unpleasant for his opponent.

6…Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 Bf5

Preventing a quick e4.

8.Nd2 Nc6 9.e4

White got in e4 anyway, but now his knight is on d2, blocking one of his bishops, so he has to spend a few moves to untangle.

9…Bg6 10.Bb5 Rc8 11.h4 h5 12.Re1 e6 13.a4 Be7 14.g3 0–0 15.a5 Rfd8 16.a6 b6 17.Kc2 Ne5 18.f4 Ng4 19.Kb3 f6

GM Robert Hess suggests here that, given the lack of scope of his two bishops, Black should vacate the c5–square for his dark-squared bishop with 19…c4+! followed by 20…Bc5.

20.Nc4 Nf2 21.e5 Ne4 22.Be3 Bf5

[22…Nxg3? 23.Rg1]

23.Rg1 Rd5 24.Rae1 Kf7 25.Bc1 Bh7 26.Re3

It is not clear how either side can make progress. This is the sort of situation for Petrosian/Carlsen to shine!

26…Rcd8 27.Bc6 Nf2 28.Re2

In such a closed position the rook is not better than a minor piece. After 28.Bxd5 exd5 29.Na3 Nd3 Despite being down the exchange Black’s piece activity in conjunction with his solid pawns give him the advantage.

28…Nd3 29.exf6 gxf6 30.Bb5 Rg8 31.Bd2 Rgd8 32.Be3 Be4 33.Rd2 Rg8 34.Ka4 Rgd8 35.Kb3 Rg8 36.Ka2 f5

Fortifying his bishop’s position on e4 but at the same time creating a hole on e5.

37.Rh2 Rc8 38.Rd2 Rg8 39.Re2

A move which doesn’t threaten anything but it leaves open the possibility of Black taking the pawn on h4. Should he or shouldn’t he? Take note that this is the 39th move and on the 40th move both players get extra time, so people don’t usually like to make a committal move before then as his opponent will have more than enough time to consider the consequences.

39…Bf3?!

Let’s see if Black should have taken the pawn on h4: 39…Bxh4 40.Rh2 Bxg3 41.Rxh5 Rg7 42.Rh8 Bxf4 43.Ra8 is unclear.

40.Rh2

Oops. It turns out that there is a hidden point behind 39.Re2. Now that the d2 square is free for the knight Black can’t retreat with the bishop back to e4: 40…Be4 41.Bc6 Rdd8 42.Bxe4 fxe4 43.Nd2 wins the e4 pawn.

40…Bf6 41.Nd2

Now the Black bishop has to go to g4 where it is out of play.

41…Bg4 42.Rf1 Rgd8 43.Nc4 e5 44.fxe5 Bxe5 45.Bg5 Bxg3 46.Rg2?

A mistake, throwing away the fruits of his labor. 46.Rd2! wins material as the d8–rook is threatened and there is no easy way to disengage. For example 46…Ke6 (46…Rc8 47.Nxb6! axb6 48.Bc4 ouch) 47.Ka1! (getting out of the checking range of black’s knight) 47…f4 48.Bxd8 Rxd8 49.Na3 winning the knight.

46…Bh3 47.Rxg3 Bxf1 48.Rf3?

Having thrown away the win now he throws away the draw. 48.Bxd8 Rxd8 49.Rf3 Be2 50.Rxf5+ the position is equal once again.

48…Be2

Now White realizes that his intended 49.Re3 is met by 49…f4! 50.Rxe2 Nc1+ and his rook falls.

49.Bxd8 Bxf3 50.Bxb6 axb6 51.Bc6 Be4!

MVL had to calculate this move very accurately as there is a real danger that the a6–pawn could queen.

52.a7 Rd8 53.Nd6+ Rxd6 54.Bxe4

White can queen his pawn by 54.a8Q but then 54…Rxc6 Black has more than enough for the queen.

54…Rd8 55.a8Q Rxa8+ 56.Bxa8 Ne5 <D>

POSITION AFTER 56…NE5

This is where the endgame begins. It requires very precise calculation and MVL is up to the task.

57.Kb3 f4 58.Kc2 Kg7!

Not 58…Ng6 59.Bf3.

59.Kd2 Ng6 60.Kd3 Nxh4 61.Ke4 f3 62.Ke3 Kf6 63.b4 c4!

This is why he gets the “Endgame of the Year” award. This is the only move to win. 63…cxb4 64.cxb4 Kf5 65.Kf2 Kg4 66.Bc6 Kf4 67.Bb7 Black’s knight cannot move without losing the f3 pawn.

64.Bd5 Kf5 65.Bxc4

White has to take time to capture the pawn, otherwise 65.Bc6 Kg4 66.Kf2 Kf4 67.Bd5 Nf5 68.Bxf3 h4 69.Bd5 Nd6 Black will use the h-pawn as a decoy and penetrate with his king to capture White’s queenside pawns.

65…Kg4 66.Kf2 Ng6 67.Be6+ Kf4 68.Bf7 Ne5 69.Bxh5 Nd3+ 70.Kf1 Kg3 71.Bf7 Nf2 0–1

After 71…Nf2 72.Be6 Nd1 to be followed by …f3–f3 and Ne3+.

What a titanic struggle! This is the sort of hard-fought victory after which you don’t want to go out to the city to celebrate. You would rather go up to your room, lie down in your bed and review the variations over and over in your head. And then you fall asleep with a big smile on your face. As the famous Tarrasch quote goes, chess like love, like music, has the power to make men happy!

 

Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.

bobby@cpamd.net

Tacloban airport closed for runway repairs

THE CIVIL Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) announced yesterday afternoon the temporary closure of the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City for emergency repairs due to the “degradation of runway surface caused by continuous rain in the past weeks.” CAAP issued a Notice to Airmen on the airport’s closure starting 5:30 p.m on Jan. 17, to 9 p.m. today. Cebu Pacific, in a separate statement, said six flights, including those of Cebgo, to and from the Tacloban airport were cancelled and those scheduled today are also expected to be affected.

Ex-US Navy officers face negligent homicide charges over ship collisions

WASHINGTON — The commanding officers of two US Navy destroyers involved in deadly collisions last year in the Pacific Ocean face courts-martial and military criminal charges including negligent homicide, the US Navy said in a statement on Tuesday.

Filing charges against the officers marks the Navy’s latest effort to address the problems that led to collisions involving its warships in Asia, in which 17 sailors were killed. The Navy has already dismissed several senior officers, including the commander of the Seventh Fleet, as a result of the collisions.

Evidence supporting the charges against the commanders and several lower-ranking officers who served on the ships will be reviewed soon in investigative hearings, according to the Navy’s statement. “The announcement of an Article 32 hearing and referral to a court-martial is not intended to and does not reflect a determination of guilt or innocence related to any offenses,” the statement added.

The commanding officer of the USS John S. McCain guided missile destroyer, which collided with a merchant ship near Singapore in August, faces charges of dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide, the statement said.

The commanding officer and three other officers on the USS Fitzgerald guided missile destroyer, which collided with a Philippine container ship in June, face charges including dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide, the Navy said.

Results from Navy investigations released in November found that both accidents were the result of human error by sailors aboard the ships, but determined that no single person could be blamed for the accidents. Beyond the courts-martial, the Navy is conducting additional administrative actions for members of both crews, including non-judicial punishment for four crew members of each vessel, according to the Navy statement. — Reuters

Why Facebook’s new move is not going to last

By Shira Ovide

It’s easy to imagine that powerful technology companies are all-knowing geniuses. Often, though, technology superpowers are merely a collection of mortals making best guesses in response to external threats or backlash. And when that doesn’t work, they try something else.

That’s a useful framing to understand the shake-up Facebook, Inc. disclosed last week. The company is trying to change behavior so people engage in less aimless scrolling through their streams of posts and more meaningful interaction. Only time will tell whether Facebook’s changes will achieve the company’s goals and whether its goals are worth pursuing.

But it’s already clear that Facebook is rebooting itself because those who run the company are deeply worried. Yes, they’re worried about damaging people who are wallowing in a Facebook cesspool. But they’re also worried about potentially lasting damaging to the franchise after more than a year of headlines about Facebook’s use as a tool for uncivil conduct or worse, attempted voter manipulation and entrenching despots.

This all hews to Facebook’s pattern of changing its priorities — and taking its users and partners along for the ride — when it’s under pressure. And then it dumps those priorities when the heat fades, when the changes do more harm than good or when other external threats become more dominant.

If you don’t believe me, take a trip into Facebook history. The company started out as a digital meeting place for friends, family and acquaintances, but that began to change a few years ago in response to the threat from Twitter, Inc. I know, that seems hard to imagine.

But Twitter was scary because everything there could be seen by the world in real time. That helped it become the place where politicians posted videos announcing their candidacy, where fans trash-talked a football team live during the Super Bowl and where people got an up close look at world events such as the Arab Spring protests.

So a few years ago, Facebook rewrote its own rule book to amp up the volume of these in-the-moment activities and other “public content” — posts and video from politicians, celebrities, news organizations and other groups. It encouraged public figures to use Facebook, especially for Web videos, and the company’s computer systems prioritized their messages above those of friends and family. Facebook allowed social network posts to be inserted into other Web sites to encourage messages to spread more widely.

Facebook changed into a mix of baby photos, news, gossip and viral videos. Facebook celebrated when the Ice Bucket Challenge, a stunt for charity, spread like wildfire in the summer of 2014. It was a sign that Facebook was no longer completely ceding real-time and public conversation to Twitter.

And then came the backlash. It turned out the Ice Bucket Challenge was inescapable on Facebook, and big news happening at the same time — notably the civil rights protests in Ferguson, Missouri — was far less visible. What did Facebook do? It corrected its priorities.

The company reordered the stream of posts to emphasize “timeliness” — news over more evergreen ice buckets, for example. It started a feature to show “trending news” handpicked by humans rather than computers to ensure that people found important information on Facebook. You can predict what happened next. Backlash again. Facebook took heat in 2016 for reportedly excluding right-leaning news sources from its approved news categories. Facebook was chagrined, and trending news was gutted.

ARE YOU DETECTING A PATTERN?
This short history shows Facebook’s fixes to problems sometimes need fixes of their own. And note that the changes Facebook is making now to double down on “meaningful interactions” are the opposite of the changes it made to counter Twitter’s rising influence. Back then Facebook fixed itself by doubling down on public content. Now the fix is less public content.

I’m not saying Facebook shifts gears repeatedly to be malicious, or even that its continual tinkering is bad. Companies should change priorities quickly when business and social needs dictate. I believe CEO Mark Zuckerberg when he says, as he did last week, that he wants Facebook to be a force for good. Whether he is capable of doing that, or taking the right steps to do so, are a different matter.

Facebook always has high-minded principles behind the changes it makes, but it’s important to see the full context. Like any organism, Facebook responds to external stimulus and then responds again — perhaps back in the original direction — to the next external stimulus. And it doesn’t necessarily know what it’s doing.

This is what all humans and human-run organizations do, of course. But it’s useful to remember that nothing at Facebook is permanent, not even its principles. That means Zuckerberg’s current clear-eyed worldview and his shake-up of Facebook’s strategy may not stick. — Bloomberg

 

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Davao City council approves tax incentives for parking space investors

LAND OWNERS and property developers who will invest in parking facilities in Davao City will now be able to avail of tax incentives after the city council approved the ordinance that seeks to address the traffic congestion in the city. “We want to encourage property owners in the city to develop parking facilities that will help decongest traffic and address the increasing number of vehicles in the city,” said Vice-Mayor Bernard E. Al-ag, who chairs the council. Mr. Al-ag said the ordinance is aligned with the proposed resolution that will prohibit car parking along certain streets. He also noted that there are still numerous properties at the city’s commercial district that have remained unused, which could be developed into car parks. Under the ordinance, the city will provide a two-year exemption from the payment of real property tax for all the lands qualified as a preferred area for the car park investment. The construction of a parking building or facility on the qualified land will also have a five-year tax exemption for the structure and business taxes. The ordinance, however, excludes from the incentives parking spaces required under the National Building Code of the Philippines. — Carmencita A. Carillo

PLDT to appeal DoLE order to regularize workers

PLDT, Inc. on Wednesday said it will appeal anew the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE) order for the telecommunications giant to provide regular employment to around 7,000 contractual workers.

In a statement, PLDT said it has received its copy of the Jan. 10 Resolution issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, which rejected the company’s appeal of a July 3, 2017 order to regularize employees and settle their unpaid benefits.

PLDT said it will file a motion for reconsideration within the 10-day prescribed period.

“The Resolution reduces (a) the number of workers ordered to be regularized by PLDT to 7,416 (from 8,720 previously); and (b) the monetary liability of PLDT and its contractors to P66.3 million (from P78.2 million),” the company said.

However, PLDT noted the resolution failed to address the  “fundamental jurisdictional and due process issues raised by PLDT and 41 of its contractors in their Appeals to the Office of the Secretary.”

In its July 2017 order, the DoLE ordered PLDT regularize employees of 17 companies found to be engaged in labor-only contracting. These companies included SPi CRM, Inc., Activeone Health, Inc., Archon Consulting and System Services, Inc., and Hibizcom Corp.

The DoLE order also asserted that PLDT and 48 of its contractors did not fully pay monetary benefits to some workers totaling around P78.6 million, and noted PLDT violated DoLE Order no. 18-A on contracting-out, which means the telco giant should issue regular employment positions to around 8,720 contractual workers.

In its appeal, PLDT questioned what it says was an absence of evidence and the use of “template findings” by the DoLE for these conclusions; DoLE’s disregard of PLDT’s and its contractors’ evidence; and “erroneous computation” of the P78.6-million monetary award; and DoLE’s “violation of PLDT’s and its contractors’ due process rights.”

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

1...11,68511,68611,687...12,763Page 11,686 of 12,763
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube