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Welcome to my personal home page. There are many pages on this site concerning various topics of an entertaining, yet somewhat technical, nature that many visitors should find fascinating.

News:

Several updates have recently been made to the section on Chess, among them:

The page on the immortal Andersen-Kieseritzky game has undergone major updates (and has now been moved as well) - and a page on the 50th game between MacDonnell and de la Bourdonnais has been added!

A page has been added with descriptions of a few of the well-known Chess openings.

Another page describes a number of the systems for recording the moves of a Chess game, including several quite obscure ones.

The description of Korean Chess has been corrected and extended.

The points schedule for Dynamic Scoring has been revised in consequence of what I have learned about Korean Chess. (And the page has been split up into four pages, to allow for a clear step-by-step explanation of the rationale behind this suggestion.)

And yet another Chess variant, Prequel Chess, has also been added to the section; a page with several ordinary Chess variants has been split up into several smaller pages.




Cryptography Entry Page
Index Page

Pencil and Paper SystemsElectrical and Mechanical Cipher MachinesTelecipher MachinesThe Computer EraPublic-Key CryptographyMiscellaneous Topics

Map Projections Entry/Index Page

Cylindrical ProjectionsAzimuthal ProjectionsConic ProjectionsPseudocylindrical and Pseudoconic ProjectionsPolyconic ProjectionsConventional ProjectionsOther Conformal ProjectionsOther Equal-Area ProjectionsMiscellaneous Projections

A brief page with a few annotations about the Girl Genius web comic, for which a link banner appears to the right, is now on this site.



Miscellaneous:

Featured Images

Signal Flag Systems
The Vocalization of Hebrew
Introduction to HTML
Color Charts
Building Blocks and the Pythagorean Triangle
Efficient and Flexible Text Encoding
Design for a Tall Building

Movie and TV Aspect Ratios
A Limitation of Color Photography
Color Filter Array Designs

Don't Touch That Dial!
Color Television Madness
Four Speakers from Two Channels?
A Problem in Applied Geometry

A Phonemic Alphabet
Two Schemes For Elections
Patterns in Nature and Myth

A Note on Large Numbers
A Unified Architecture for Telephone Numbers
On Philosophy and Ethics

Computers

How Does A Computer Work?What Computers Are Made FromComputer ArithmeticThe General Layout of a ComputerThe Old Days: Computing Without RAMThe Old Days: Decimal ComputersThe Perfect Computer?Not Quite RISCA Historical View of FORTRANRemembering APLComputer Architectural PreferencesComputer Front PanelsThe Punched CardPrint Train TriviaPrinting Terminals and Proportional SpacingDigital Magnetic Tape RecordingReforming ASCII and Unicode

Keyboards Entry/Index Page

Large KeyboardsKeyboards for Genuinely Large Character SetsComments on the Keyboard of the IBM PCKeyboard ArrangementsThe Keyboard Overlay ProblemMaking Keyboards More CompactAn Attempt at a Popular KeyboardScan Codes Demystified

Mathematics

The Slide RuleInfinityArchimedean SolidsThe Fourth DimensionRotations of a DodecahedronExamples of GroupsTwo Famous EquationsEuler's ConstantSphere PackingsGödel's Theorem and the Halting ProblemMagic SquaresThe Mandelbrot FunctionDiophantus at the Printer's Shop

Tilings Entry/Index Page

The 17 Wallpaper GroupsPentagonal TilingsOctagonal TilingsDodecagonal TilingsHeptagonal Tilings

Chess Entry/Index Page

A Few OpeningsComments on the RulesThe Immortal Game (Anderssen-Kieseritzky)The Immortal 50th Game (La Bourdonnais-MacDonnell)

The Crisis in Chess (and a possible solution: Dynamic Scoring)

A Proposed Rating SystemTournament TiebreakingChess Notation

Leaping Bat ChessRandom Variant ChessChess 2016Three-Dimensional ChessEngagement ChessFive-Player ChessFour-Player ChessAn Unusual Board for Three-Player ChessSpectral Realm ChessHalf-Shogi ChessTemporary Marsellais ChessAntimatter Universe ChessAn Ordinary VariantAntimatter Universe Flag ChessYet Another Ordinary VariantRotating Spaceship ChessA Problem CorrectedPrequel Chess

Well-Known Forms of ChessTraditional Enlarged Forms of ChessWarring States ChessThe Game of the Three KingdomsJetan, Barsoom's Game of ChessThe Game of BattleChess-DraughtsHexagonal ChessHexagonal Chess, Part 2S. Waider's Chess for Three PlayersEnlarged and Improved Chess

Checkers Entry/Index Page

Two-Move and Three-Move RestrictionsThe Perfect Game [of checkers]?Other Forms of CheckersHasami Shogi, Seega, and Other Related GamesLudus LatrunculorumEnglish Gothic Double Checkers

Board Games

Board Games Other Than ChessA Few Board Games of InterestComments on Wei Ch'i (or Go, or Baduk)Other Uses for a Go BoardThe Greatest Modern Board Game of SkillBackgammonThe Jungle GameRithmomachyThe Perfect [board] Game?Making Wargames More ComplicatedMaking Full Use of Three Ordinary DiceThe World is RoundMaking Board Games More ComplicatedSpace Battles in Three DimensionsThe Real Game of BridgeSiberian Semi-Contract Whist (or Bridge)Bridge for Six: Trivial WhistCounting Tricks Before They're HatchedThe Semi-Tarock Deck

Science Entry/Index Page

A Few Words About StarsA Space Habitat DesignTravel to MarsLining up the PlanetsThe Equation of TimeThe Inconstant MoonThe Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experimentsThe Fine-Structure ConstantPunctuated Equilibria

Telescopes Entry/Index Page

How a Telescope WorksKinds of TelescopesTelescope MountingsEyepiecesIntroduction to Geometrical Optics

Calendars Entry/Index Page

Perpetual CalendarsA Luni-Solar CalendarA Simplified Calendar ProposalJulian Day NumbersA Martian CalendarA Modest Proposal for the Abolition of the Leap SecondHappy Easter!Happy Hanukkah!The Mayan Calendar

Unit Conversions Unit Conversions

Printer's UnitsTemperature ScalesFrom Gold Coins to Cadmium LightGauge is Not ScaleThe Size of the Piano KeyboardSome Unusual Units of LengthOld Feet and Old Pounds

Music

The Musical ScaleMore Complicated TemperamentsA Bit About Musical NotationSome Interesting KeyboardsA Bit About Chords

A Computer Architecture
A Computer Architecture
Entry/Index Page

Memory-Reference InstructionsAdditional InstructionsBasic ArchitectureTagged Operation ModesRestricted FunctionalityOff-Chip Processing

A Computer Language
A Computer Language
Preview Page

Basic InformationWriting an EXALT ProgramArithmetic StatementsControl StructuresType DeclarationStorage ClassesSubprogramsParallel ProcessingUser-Defined TypesProgram Source ModificationExpression EvaluationInput/OutputDatabase ManagementException HandlingAdvanced FeaturesAppendix II: Implementation Notes

Contact Information and Notes


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Copyright (c) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 John J. G. Savard