View Full Version : The dollar is sucking!
bradclark1
07-02-07, 09:03 AM
I was thinking about getting a chess database(Chessbase) for 50 pounds. I checked the conversion and today thats $100. Two or three years ago it was something like $1.35/45.:nope: Errr!
After enduring years of teasing from my American colleagues, our dollar is predicted by some to equal or exceed the USD by the end of the year :p
ReallyDedPoet
07-02-07, 09:16 AM
Going to the US next year to see a bunch of ball games, for a change I won't take a butt-kicking on the exchange.
RDP
Konovalov
07-02-07, 09:26 AM
Might have to catch a flight across the pond for a bit of Christmas shopping later this year. :)
Heibges
07-02-07, 11:20 AM
I guess being $11T in debt, and the fact it has doubled in the last 6 years, doesn't make for strong currency?:doh: :shifty: :D
The first time I went to Canada was summer 2002, and I have been back several times since then, most recently a few weeks ago, and the exchange rate for the US is now officially pittiful. Good for Canada, bad for us. The pound, the Euro and all sorts of currency are skyrocketing over the dollar, if anything that should get the United States interested in doing something about the debt.:roll:
The Munster
07-02-07, 02:34 PM
A Digimemo is still too expensive to buy in the States and have shipped over here though :nope:
If anyone knows where I can get one at a good price ..
Sailor Steve
07-02-07, 04:33 PM
When I was a kid one Pound was equal to about five Dollars.
Skybird
07-02-07, 05:08 PM
Didn't know you were in chess that seriously, Brad! :D What is your precise need?
waste gate
07-02-07, 05:26 PM
The exchange rate was worse in March. Since the 5th of March the rate of exchange has been closing in relation to the GBP. In fact today was the best day since 05 MAR.
The graph:
http://www.x-rates.com/d/GBP/USD/graph120.html
Heibges
07-02-07, 06:14 PM
I was wrong again. I guess this is the reason.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aVZyMst5_wKA&refer=news
bradclark1
07-02-07, 06:43 PM
Didn't know you were in chess that seriously, Brad! :D What is your precise need?
I just started teaching myself and am getting into it pretty much. I have MC10 and Fritz Deluxe is coming. If I'd have gotten the database it would have been an impulse buy because I suffer from "If I'm into it I must have everything that goes with it" whole hog disease. Drives my wife nuts. But $100 for a database put me into price shock.:)
The first time I went to Canada was summer 2002, and I have been back several times since then, most recently a few weeks ago, and the exchange rate for the US is now officially pittiful. Good for Canada, bad for us. The pound, the Euro and all sorts of currency are skyrocketing over the dollar, if anything that should get the United States interested in doing something about the debt.:roll: Well the reason it was so good for Americans for a while was because during the 90s the Federal Liberals under the economic leadership of then Finance Minister Paul Martin artificially depressed the Canadian dollar so as to facilitate much easier paying off of that disgusting Reaganesque debt accrued by that bastard Mulroney.
Now that the Liberals are out and that that debt (the last one anyway) is gone they can let the Loonie be its old self again. That the Loonie once exceeded the US Dollar at one point is something that seems to be forgotten.
SUBMAN1
07-02-07, 10:02 PM
After enduring years of teasing from my American colleagues, our dollar is predicted by some to equal or exceed the USD by the end of the year :p
Woo hoo! Excellent news for once! it is about time our US dollar dropped off the face of the planet! It might hurt me some in the short term (I have many digits in Canadian dollars, so don't think I will hurt that much), but it will jump start our economy!
This is the exact thing we have been complaining to China about - the low value of the Chinese currency! Now it is our turn to take this world back over with force!
-S :up: :up: :up:
PS.I guess being $11T in debt, and the fact it has doubled in the last 6 years, doesn't make for strong currency?:doh: :shifty: :D
Hahahahaha! you are so funny! Do you think for a second the US Gov will pay $1 per every $1 on that debt? It is on a 40 year cycle of $.05 on the dollar! That was set back in the 1940's! So expect the US Gov to actually pay out 600 billion or less.
bookworm_020
07-02-07, 10:18 PM
Our Pacific Peso (Australian Dollar) has reached record high's against the U.S. This is wonderful if you want to buy a car or whitegoods, but bad if you are an exporter.:cry: The only thing keeping Australia going deeper in debt is the boom in metals.
Hey maybe the low dollar will get some of our manufacturing jobs back.
Skybird
07-03-07, 01:46 AM
Didn't know you were in chess that seriously, Brad! :D What is your precise need?
I just started teaching myself and am getting into it pretty much. I have MC10 and Fritz Deluxe is coming. If I'd have gotten the database it would have been an impulse buy because I suffer from "If I'm into it I must have everything that goes with it" whole hog disease. Drives my wife nuts. But $100 for a database put me into price shock.:)
The chessprogram Fritz and others from Chessbase) include databases of usually 1- 1.5 million played matches. It should fit your needs, but at less then one third of the price for the chessbase database starter kit version 9. The interface (as I just have written in another chess-ralated thread) is superb.
Price for new Fritz 10 in Germany is 40-50 euro. You could as well buy some older version of it or another chessbase-engine, and eventually buy it for a price in the one-digit range (in Germany at last, availability of these softwares in the Us seems to be a bit limited, what surprises me).
http://cgi.ebay.com/FRITZ-10-CHESS-SOFTWARE-FRITZ-X-DATABASE-CHESSBASE-9_W0QQitemZ130130717749QQihZ003QQcategoryZ617QQssP ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.amazon.com/ChessCentral-Hiarcs-10/dp/B000FJ7BM6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8143384-9531915?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1183445128&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Junior-10-Chamoion-Software-ChessCentral/dp/B0002MQ9NS/ref=sr_1_5/104-8143384-9531915?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1183445128&sr=8-5
If I could be of help, let me know.
Hey maybe the low dollar will get some of our manufacturing jobs back.
I don't think its gonna get that low. I mean... think Rhode Island will ever be able to challenge the one dollar a day wage?;)
bradclark1
07-03-07, 08:34 AM
Price for new Fritz 10 in Germany is 40-50 euro. You could as well buy some older version of it or another chessbase-engine, and eventually buy it for a price in the one-digit range (in Germany at last, availability of these softwares in the Us seems to be a bit limited, what surprises me).
http://cgi.ebay.com/FRITZ-10-CHESS-SOFTWARE-FRITZ-X-DATABASE-CHESSBASE-9_W0QQitemZ130130717749QQihZ003QQcategoryZ617QQssP ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.amazon.com/ChessCentral-Hiarcs-10/dp/B000FJ7BM6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8143384-9531915?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1183445128&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Junior-10-Chamoion-Software-ChessCentral/dp/B0002MQ9NS/ref=sr_1_5/104-8143384-9531915?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1183445128&sr=8-5
If I could be of help, let me know.
I got the Fritz 10. Thanks for the link. Don't really know why, but it was a good deal. I'd like to get Junior 10 at some time.
Skybird
07-03-07, 08:55 AM
I'd like to get Junior 10 at some time.
Why?
If you wish to collect the top titles, I would recommend Rybka (download), and Hiarcs 11 (since version 11 also only downloadable).
If you want to do engine matches, get Hiarcs. Fritz and hiarcs are nicely contrasting in playing styels.
If you think about playing strength, forget it, you do not need more than one of these top engines to suit your needs in personally playing the CPU. They all will kill oyu if you let them loose without artifical brakes or handicaps in your favour.
Look here:
Ah, it's currently down, but remember this link:
http://web.telia.com/~u85924109/ssdf/list.htm
It's the Swedish SSDF computer engine ranking list. They have a DOS list as well on that site, listing all board computers and programs since the mid-80s.
Hiarcs homepage:
http://www.hiarcs.com/
Rybka:
http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php
I personally use Hiarcs 10 engine with Fritz 9 GUI and stopped collecting engines.
You said you are currently learning chess. You probably already found the link yourself, but to be safe:
http://chessbaseusa.sectorlink.org/DesktopDefault.aspx
Check their training software.
The Avon Lady
07-03-07, 08:57 AM
Just came back from England yesterday.
You mean those weren't prices in dollars on all those tags?
:doh:
:damn:
SUBMAN1
07-03-07, 09:28 AM
Hey maybe the low dollar will get some of our manufacturing jobs back.
That is exactly what will happen. It will also prevent any further jobs from leaving. THe dollar is way upset against almost every other currency too.
bradclark1
07-03-07, 09:33 AM
I'd like to get Junior 10 at some time.
Why?
I heard it's training is very good.
Hey maybe the low dollar will get some of our manufacturing jobs back. I don't think its gonna get that low. I mean... think Rhode Island will ever be able to challenge the one dollar a day wage?;)
Maybe not, but then again who says that the workers in those dollar a day countries will put up with slave wages forever?
Skybird
07-03-07, 09:49 AM
I'd like to get Junior 10 at some time.
Why?
I heard it's training is very good.
As far as I know, Junior still runs under the Fritz GUI. and it is not the engine, but the GUI that offers the user any helping tools, training possebilities, etc. As I said, my hiracs 10 engine runs under Fritz 9 GUI, your Friotz 10 engine runs with the GUI one version higher. I would be surpsied to learnt hat junior offers you any functionality that you do not already have with Fritz 10.
P.S. I just checked it and I am sure: Junior is still distributed by Chessbase, and 10 is the latest version. You do not get anything more in functionality than what you already have with Fritz 10. As a matter of fact, Junior 10 comes with either the Fritz 9 or Fritz 10 GUI. - Save your money!
geetrue
07-03-07, 12:46 PM
I thought the British pound's value was based on silver ... I know USA's was and now it's not, but the pound has always been like between $2, $2.25, $2.50 to me.
Speaking of things going up, have you seen the price of groceries lately? The sale price is now what the regular price use to be and that's just this year.
SUBMAN1
07-03-07, 01:06 PM
I thought the British pound's value was based on silver ... I know USA's was and now it's not, but the pound has always been like between $2, $2.25, $2.50 to me.
Speaking of things going up, have you seen the price of groceries lately? The sale price is now what the regular price use to be and that's just this year.
I have too! Groceries are through the roof! Crazy.
Heibges
07-03-07, 01:58 PM
And you can bet your bottom dollar it's not the farmers making the money either.
bradclark1
07-03-07, 02:20 PM
Fuel costs isn't it. Corn products also because of Bio-Fuel. I have heard that because of the low numbers of brown cow's being born that chocolate milk is going to skyrocket.
SUBMAN1
07-03-07, 10:31 PM
Fuel costs isn't it. Corn products also because of Bio-Fuel. I have heard that because of the low numbers of brown cow's being born that chocolate milk is going to skyrocket.
Not Chocolate Milk! Noooooooooooooooooooo! :D
waste gate
07-03-07, 10:36 PM
Time to join the Chocklam religion. :D
Torpedo Fodder
07-03-07, 11:09 PM
I thought the British pound's value was based on silver ... I know USA's was and now it's not, but the pound has always been like between $2, $2.25, $2.50 to me.
Not anymore. The British Pound, just like every other currency on the planet is today a fiat currency. The name "Pound Sterling" is nothing more than an anachronism, and was long before it became a fiat currency (In 1816, it was moved from silver to the gold standard, and finally became a fiat currency after World War I)
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