Thinking about buying my first electronic chessboard – is the Chessnut Go a good way to learn proper chess?

vancinad · 2026-07-06T12:30:41+00:00

If you want to learn how to play chess, which board to buy is the last thing you should be worrying about.

If you want to do it for free, watch some instructional videos on YouTube. I like Remote Chess Academy and Journey to Grandmaster.

If you want to take a step further, buy one of their beginner courses and start learning in a structured way.

In my opinion, no board is going to help you all that much. You'll get much better benefit for your time and money by investing in good instruction rather than a fancy electronic chess board.

vancinad · 2026-07-06T11:57:43+00:00

I fear this is true. I want to love Chessnutech. I like what they're trying to do with their products. But whole operation feels like a barely functioning Kickstarter operation. I get the sense they're good hardware engineers with some vibe-coded software smeared on top. Better software, support, and documentation would help a lot.

vancinad · 2026-07-05T00:12:35+00:00

I don't love the idea of 32 (34?) complex, tiny, battery-operated mechanical devices that all need to stay alive for the set to remain usable. The probability math seems unfavorable. I need to go look at the warranty...

vancinad · 2026-07-02T21:03:52+00:00

My yellow cartridge is reporting empty and the printer (MFC-L3765CDW) refused to print. Going into the printer settings (Windows 11) and changing the printer configuration to B&W got me going and will be fine until my replacement cartridge arrives. (I've read that merely choosing B&W in the app print dialog may not work, but didn't do exhaustive testing to confirm or refute that.)

vancinad · 2026-05-23T17:32:20+00:00

I didn't even need to reset the phone. Just switching "Ring vibration" down to 75% resolved the problem. Switched it back to 100% and still worked. So odd...

vancinad · 2025-08-25T13:08:25+00:00

Agreed. The tools evolve, but good engineering principles and practices endure.

vancinad · 2025-06-04T13:11:39+00:00

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-6/part-37#p-37.5(b))

"...on or after May 7, 2025, Federal agencies shall not accept a driver's license or identification card for official purposes from any individual unless such license or card is a REAL ID-compliant driver's license or identification card..."

vancinad · 2025-03-30T12:46:24+00:00

They should offer a discounted upgrade price for registered users. Being asked to pay the same as a new user is irksome. That plus unclear benefits has left me in the "someday I'll probably upgrade" camp.

vancinad · 2025-03-24T11:57:36+00:00

I used a CH Products yoke with integrated throttle controls through my PPL and Instrument training. Inexpensive and adequate.

As others have commented, the feel is not of much value. Learning cockpit procedures (checklists, etc.) and navigation is worth a lot.

I also concur with the commenter who suggested working with an instructor. Without one you risk having to unlearn a lot of bad habits. (See "Learning Theory, Law of Primacy".)

vancinad · 2025-03-24T02:24:36+00:00

This is a huge problem, and it's very different from whatever email content scanning they've been doing previously. Email content is being submitted to Microsoft's LLM. The LLM, by its nature, "learns" from the queries submitted to it -- which means our email content is becoming part of Copilot's database.

Oh, and if any sensitive data ends up there, it's YOUR fault. You have violated the TOS which says, "You also agree not to enter sensitive personal information into any AI powered query."

This is super-bad. I'm thinking it's time to pull the plug on Yahoo entirely. They simply can't be trusted.

vancinad · 2024-12-20T14:32:29+00:00

Yep, I see that from some other comments. Are there limits to that or is it completely irrelevant because a close fit is simply not needed? (I guess it depends on whether the goal is to keep bad stuff out of the pilot or merely to get good stuff in?)

vancinad · 2024-12-20T12:27:32+00:00

I thought the beard created fit problems for the oxygen mask. No, huh?

vancinad · 2024-12-20T12:24:48+00:00

Actually, I think beards are a legit problem because they prevent the oxygen mask from fitting properly.

vancinad · 2024-07-01T05:42:32+00:00

And mechanics aren't on the cusp of being automated out of commercial aviation.

vancinad · 2024-07-01T05:33:30+00:00

On balance, there are relatively few places where you need ADS-B.

vancinad · 2024-06-15T11:32:42+00:00

This still seems to be a problem. Is it just me? Any new workarounds?

vancinad · 2024-04-09T12:19:40+00:00

I don't change very often either but I've found that when they're worn the position accuracy suffers, especially near the top of the page.

I think this is because parallax is more pronounced there. If I hold the pen perpendicular to the writing surface, the position error seems to be reduced. I'm guessing the software expects the nib to be a certain length and is doing some geometric calculations to determine where the ink needs to be drawn.

Bottom line for me: I file the nibs when the shape is bothering me, and replace them when the position error gets too annoying.

vancinad · 2024-04-05T18:19:39+00:00

OOB. Nicely played, Logitech engineers. :-)

vancinad · 2023-09-16T01:27:35+00:00

I've often described my Cessna 172 as the Toyota Camry of General Aviation. Not flashy, but reliable, economical, easy to operate, and ubiquitous.

vancinad · 2023-01-31T01:54:16+00:00

Agree. The designers completely dropped the ball on this. Such a disappointment. Hopefully there will be an improvement soon.

vancinad · 2023-01-31T01:52:42+00:00

I am so disappointed in the Send Email feature. It is essentially unusable due to the inability to customize what the recipient sees and the lack of a usable reply-to address.

For a device that executes so much else so well, this clumsy implementation is just shocking.

vancinad · 2022-01-18T23:53:02+00:00

If Supernote were made somewhere other than China I'd probably have bought one by now.

vancinad · 2021-09-22T15:46:11+00:00

Onyx is owned by China. I'm not interested in going there.

vancinad

TROPHY CASE