Update Information: October 27, 2016 (Updates)

by Ron , Thursday, October 27, 2016, 22:01

Engine Updates

Andscacs 0.872.15 (UCI)
mp (32 cores max); multi-PV; Syzygy ebtb support; Win
- this is an unofficial release
- lots of new silent updates, version number unchanged
- added Syzygy ebtb support
- "is maybe 20-25 Elo stronger in self play, without counting Syzygy"
http://www.andscacs.com/
http://www.andscacs.com/andscacs087215.zip

Fianchetto(2) 0.1.4a (UCI)
new engine by Dylan Hunn
C source; Linux; horrible naming of engine: Fianchetto name is already taken
- not new, but new to me
- "very much a work in progress"
https://github.com/dylhunn/fianchetto

Giraffe 20161023 (XB)
Linux, Win; supports Gaviota egtbs
- "~200 Elo improvement in self-play through optimizing the training process. The only real difference is in eval."
https://bitbucket.org/waterreaction/giraffedownloads/downloads/ (older downloads)
https://bitbucket.org/waterreaction/giraffe/downloads/giraffe_20161023.zip (direct link)

Gull LazyGull Alpha 0.3 BF (UCI)
this is an unofficial Gull fork by Basil Falcinelli adding Syzygy support & other changes
https://github.com/basil00/Gull/releases

Horus (XB)
new source code only engine by Pranav Deshpande
C++ source
https://github.com/universecoder/Horus-Chess-Engine

Jacksprat 1.0 r2 (XB)
new engine by Joshua Scholar
C++ source; TSCP derivative; Linux64, Win64
https://differentprogramming.wordpress.com/ (empty blog page)
https://github.com/differentprogramming/jacksprat (code)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-PM8aD2-9I4ZHNJZkhOcEZUQmM (direct link)

Jumbo 0.3.8 (XB)
Win; requires external dlls (not included with package)
- Win64 binary for the first time
http://www.schuelebln.de/chess/jumbo

Little Lelouch 01 (UCI)
new engine by Ibrahim Abdelrhman
C++ source; Win
https://github.com/AbdelrhmanIbrahim/Little_Lelouch_01

Neurone XXV (XB)
multiPV; Win; requires .NET 2.0
http://www.g-sei.org/neurone/

newHC 2016.09.26 (UCI)
new engine by Ruturaj Zadbuke
Haskell source; Win
- not new, but new to me
https://github.com/zbkruturaj/haskell-chess-engine

Pedone 1.5 (UCI)
mp; multiPV; limit strength; Linux, Win; supports Syzygy egtbs & Polyglot opening books
- added multiPV mode
- "only about 20-30 Elo stronger than 1.4.1 but much more stable"
http://www.g-sei.org/pedone/ (G-Sei)
https://sites.google.com/site/pedonechess/ (homepage)

Pigeon 1.5.1 (UCI)
Linux, Win; requires external dlls (not included in package)
- Linux build is new
https://github.com/StuartRiffle/pigeon/releases

Rasher 0.1 Alpha (UCI)
new engine by Morten Lohne
Rust source
https://github.com/MortenLohne/rasher/releases

Seahorse 1.0 (UCI)
new source code only engine by Sam Cordes
C++ source
- I'm uncertain if this can successfully play chess or not, but the code looks complete
https://github.com/swcordes/chess-engine

Michael Byrne builds for Mac
Stockfish for Mac (UCI)
- Michael has updated the latest build
https://github.com/MichaelB7/Stockfish

Taltos rev 99 (XB)
new engine by Gábor Buella (Zochova)
C source; Linux64, Win64
https://github.com/GBuella/Taltos (source)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-PM8aD2-9I4aTJIYkhZZ2dfaDA (direct link)

Chess News

Frank's Chess Page
- Frank's rating list has been updated
http://www.amateurschach.de/main/_download.htm

Lucas Chess 10.06
"play chess against the computer with increasing levels of difficulty and with a limited number of hints that are given by a chess tutor"
Python source; Win32
- contains 36 engines
- also available as a portable build
http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com (homepage)

Natch 3.0.Beta2
Derives game history from given position (aka: proofing, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_game )
http://natch.free.fr/Natch.html

Scid vs. PC 4.17 Chess GUI (XB)
open source, cross-platform fork of Scid project enhanced for playing chess
http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/index.html (homepage)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scidvspc/files/ (downloads)

Selective Search Magazine
computer chess magazine
- all back issues (166 in total) are now available
- magazine has been defunct since 2013
http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/selective_search.html

Chess Programming Blogs

Nothing new today

Updated Wiki Pages

Nothing new today

Bonus Notifications (recent releases of free stuff)

Advisory:

- alpha releases have new features; crashes and bugs are to be expected
- beta releases have new features; they may contain bugs or crash
- release candidate software may contain minor bugs; crashes are rare

NOTE: I had an argument with Microsoft. I thought I owned my computer, they thought they did. Microsoft won the battle by cheating: they clobbered my sys admin settings. Microsoft lost the war. If I can't trust a company to do an update, how can I trust it at all? All future updates of Windows-only software will no longer be listed here.

Adblock Plus 1.12.4
free, open source browser plugin that blocks most web advertisements
- for Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari
- not related to AdBlocck
http://adblockplus.org/en/

Adobe Flash Player 23.0.0.205
free cross-platform flash video player for browsers
- Flash is in undisputed first-place as the most common avenue of infection
- Adobe bundles unwanted 3rd party crapware, beware!
- this release fixes a dangerous zero-day vulnerability
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Alpine 3.4.5
independent Linux distro; XFCE desktop; #43 in popularity
http://www.alpinelinux.org/

Antergos 2016.10.23
Arch-based Linux distro; GNOME, Cinnamon, Razor-qt & Xfce desktops; #15 in popularity
- this is a monthly snapshot of a rolling-release distro
http://www.antergos.com/

Blender 2.78a
free, open source, cross-platform 2D/3D video creation suite
model - shade - animate - render - composite - interactive 3D
http://www.blender.org/

Clonezilla Live 2.4.9-17 Stable
open source system image backup/restore (Live) or multicast new system images (SE)
http://clonezilla.org/

Docker 1.12.3
open platform for distributing software application in containers
- it features operating system-level virtualization for process and full resource isolation
- Docker Engine is the application and environment packaging tool
- Docker Hub is a cloud service for sharing prepackaged containers
https://www.docker.com/

Jenkins 2.27
cross-platform, open source, continuous integration server for developers
- automates the building/testing process
http://jenkins-ci.org/

KDE Neon 20161027
Ubuntu(LTS)-based Linux distro; KDE desktop; #33 in popularity
https://neon.kde.org/

KNOPPIX 7.7.1
Debian-based Linux distro; desktops: LXDE (default), GNOME, KDE, Openbox; #63 in popularity
http://www.knoppix.org/

LibreOffice 5.1.6
cross platform open source fork of OpenOffice project; word processing, chart, spreadsheet, database, etc.
- new udate for an older version
http://www.documentfoundation.org/ (homepage)

Netrunner 16.09
Linux distro based on Debian, Kubuntu, Arch, Manjaro; customized KDE desktop; #47 in popularity
- this is the Kubuntu-based LTS version
- also available is the Arch-based rolling release version
http://www.netrunner-os.com/

Nim Programming Language 0.15.2
cross-platform, statically typed, imperative/object-oriented, natively compiled programming language
with overloaded functions/operators, iterators, exceptions, generics, closures, templates, macros
GC support for multi-core programming
- language was formerly known as Nimrod
- syntax resembles Python or Ruby
- runtime efficiency of C
- single inheritance only
- can use type inference to deduce types
http://nim-lang.org/news/e028_version_0_15_2.html (release notes)
http://nim-lang.org/index.html

Opera 41
somwhat popular web browser
http://www.opera.com/ (homepage)
http://www.opera.com/browser/download/ (download)

PostgreSQL 9.6.1
open source SQL database for high performance and high availability applications
- new feature: Parallel Query
- synchronouse replication has added option
- more features, optimizations & bug fixes
- "PostgreSQL version 9.1 is now End-of-Life (EOL)"
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1712/ (release notes)
http://www.postgresql.org/ (homepage)

Puppy Linux -- Quirky 8.1
Puppy is a popular (#21) and easy-to-learn, easy-to-use Linux distribution
Open source, boots from a CD (your Windows installation is unchanged) w/ simple instruction manual
old, slow computers run very well using Puppy's all-in-memory Linux kernel
There are many versions of Puppy available, each with a specific purpose
You don't necessarily use the latest release, you use the version with the software you want
You will need to know how to burn a disk from an ISO image
- Fatdog64 is a 64-bit Puppy distro; it is larger and more complete than most other Puppys
- Precise Puppy is binary-compatible with Ubuntu LTS
- Wary Puppy is intended to run on older hardware
- Racy Puppy is a mod of Wary Puppy, supporting the newest machines
- Slacko Puppy can use Puppy, Slackware, Salix, or Slacky software repositories; Slacko seems to be the flagship version
- Tahrpup is built from Ubuntu Trusty Tahr
- Quirky is built from Ubuntu and is intended for full installs
- Puppy is based on Slackware; available in 32- and 64-bit
http://puppylinuxnews.org/ (news)
http://puppylinux.org/ (PuppyLinux homepage)
http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00441 (announcement)

Redis 3.2.5 Stable
free, popular, open source database; uses key-value store model
- new distributed implementation (clustering) w/ data sharding & fault tolerance
- experimental support for Windows64
- full support for Linux
http://redis.io/download

Samba 4.5.1
standard Windows interoperability suite of programs for Linux and Unix
https://www.samba.org/

TightVNC 2.8.5
cross-platform (Java-based) open source remote control software package;
you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard
http://www.tightvnc.com/

Meaning of Colors

Red = New or Warning
Green = Updated
Gray = Info Only

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NOTE: If you want me to track a website for you, please email me and I will add it.
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