Blah. I switched back to Opera; but I did update to the latest version. It turns out that it passes the Acid3 test with perfect accuracy. (although, I kind of question the methodology of that test, as it uses really obscure standards)

I kind of like the new interface, but the memory footprint is insane. I'm pushing 100 MB just browsing Omnimaga.

You know, I think it's interesting how people often question why men or women aren't generally interested in certain things, aren't skillful with certain types of tasks, etc., but they won't acknowledge neurological gender differences because of how taboo it is to form generalizations. Despite the values of gender equality some of us are instilled with, men and women really aren't that alike. Men and women have different affinities and methods of thinking and problem-solving: The female brain is more geared toward emotional input / output, intuition, creativity, and more abstract thinking; the male brain is more geared toward logic and analytical thinking. That's not a *bad* thing - scientific truths are independent of the value judgments we attach to them. I don't personally feel these differences make either gender better than the other. Each has its own advantages.

What's interesting is that sexual orientation also plays a role in brain development. Gay men were found to have similar brain patterns as heterosexual women, and lesbians were found to have similar brain patterns as heterosexual men. This could mean either of these people are a versatile mash-up of emotional and analytical thinking, having shared patterns due to both gender and orientation. I've especially noticed this correlation within working fields. For instance: Gay men often fill medical nursing positions, psychiatry, or other fields that combine analytical detail with nuturing. Many historic philiosophers were also either gay, or suspected of as much.

Before I digress too much from the original subject - I just don't think you see women taking an active interest in these kinds of fields because of innate affinities they have with more emotional interests. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean you won't find *any* women involved in a particular field of interest.

This rule means that the king must first position himself next to the burg, as opposed to moving directly into it in a single turn - that is, as he is moving toward the burg, he must stop immediately next to it and end his turn. On white's next turn, he can move into it and end the game.

This rule tries to balance the strategy between attackers and defenders, as it's fairly simple for the king to find a safe, unobstructed route of escape.

As for the movement you detailed above - the king's movement is like that of any other piece: He can move any number of spaces in any straight direction. He does not need to leave the board in any specific number of moves. (that is, he doesn't have to shoot straight for the boundary of the board, and then a burg) The king can, in fact, be chased all around the board and back while he's attempting to escape.

By the way - if you want to get in touch with me about any specific rules or details, you can always hit me up for a PM conversation. I'm also on AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and IRC.

EDIT: Upon further research, I would give more consideration to the "unarmed king" rule, as well. Apparently, there are a sizable number of sources that know about this rule. It even appears in some computerized versions of the game.

Are the keys currently hosted on WikiLeaks?

I think the Presto engine is pretty accurate, but Opera is far too prone to random crashes. I believe this may actually be because Opera adheres to accurate standards so stringently that it encounters problems when it attempts to display sites or elements that do not adhere to accurate standards. I mostly kept using it because of its extensive customization. You could do practically everything with the interface.

Arora is actually pretty nice so far. You really can't extend or customize it, but it does cover the essential features: It has Ad-Block built right in, has an option to block all flash elements, (until you click a button to display the element) and you can define your own cookie policies.

I'm back from reformatting. Things didn't go as expected. Although Windows 7 installed without any issues, (and the performance was fine) I had to get pretty creative with my drivers. I originally thought I had found a way to install my graphics card driver, but that was a deception. 7 kept separating it from the default display adapter instead of replacing it. The new driver was also denied access to any resources.

I ended up switching back to XP. Oh, well. I guess I'm not too disappointed. XP is like an old lover that I seem to keep coming back to.

On the other hand, I thought I would take the opportunity to try a new browser: Arora. It's based on WebKit, so I figured it would be more accurate than the version of Opera I had been using. Turns out it passes the Acid test fairly well.

I originally included dots along the board grid to help the player discern each tile, but AP left them out for some reason. I assume there was probably a reason for that. Not really sure. Either way, I do like that you added them back in. (ableit, in a slightly different fashion than what I originally produced)

I can't say I'm too fond of the new king design, though. In games where the pieces weren't represented as actual figurines, I've noticed the king's piece usually had a cross to differentiate him from the other pieces. I tried to follow in that method, but it's difficult to produce something very detailed with such a small resolution. On the other hand, your version does seem easier to discern than mine.

I attached some of the working ideas I had for an A.I. script, if this could help in any way. I was thinking one way to handle the A.I. is to give it a list of various moves. It would cycle through this list, from priority of first entry to last, until it came across a move that could be executed; then it would execute it. If it couldn't execute any of the moves on the list, then it would select a "random" piece and move it to a "random" location. (within the confines of the game's rules, of course) The moves list I created details what I think would be the most essential moves a player could make in order to win the game. It would create a very deterministic A.I., and the A.I. would make a few dumb moves or set itself up for a capture. It would be *some* form of A.I., though.