• Privacy Concerns Continued

    So you may have seen the last post I made, where I talked about my concerns about what some have called “privacy capitalism” or “surveillance capitalism“, in which our personal data is viewed as valuable by a range of entities, most of whom do not have our best interests at heart. And as happens in an economy, if something is valuable, people figure out ways to get it, usually as cheaply as possible. While this is perfectly normal, even desirable, when we’re talking about wheat or entertainment or medicine, when it come to personal data, there’s another element – the desires for the data inherently conflict with desires of us…

  • Spreading the Love Update

    Hey all! A while back I talked about wanting to spread my good fortune from having this business, while balancing my need to, you know, eat and such. Complicating factors are my obvious desire for some privacy especially online (post about that coming soon), but also wanting to be transparent and accountable – we’ve all seen companies claim to want to help, but shroud the process in such obscurity that who knows. So, while accepting that this is an imperfect system, this is how I’m going to move forward with this. While this policy might change in the future, this is how I see it going for now. Basically, I’m…

  • 2021 Australian Digital/Australian Open Tournament

    Hey all! This year, due to reasons I cannot possibly guess at (taxes? No, I think something happened at a zoo… or was it a dentist? That’s right, I think a dentist didn’t pay his taxes or something) we’re not allowed to travel without doing six months community service painting park benches. So, because apparently not everyone enjoys that kind of painting like I do, the 2021 Australian Open Tournament, the premier national tournament, is being merged with the Australian Digital tournament, the premier international online Pacific-region tournament. In an attempt to spread the love of bench-painting, we are very happy to sponsor this tournament, so entry is entirely free!…

  • Vacation

    Hey everyone! Just a quick note that I will be out of town for a week or so from the 29th of July. So orders will still come in, they’ll just need to wait until I get back to be processed. My apologies for the delay!

  • Announcing the PacifiGo Perennial

    Hey everyone! Some of you may be aware that I’m closely tied to the Queensland Go Society and the Brisbane Go Club – in fact, trying to sort out equipment for them is what led to PacifiGo in the first place. The QGS and BGC generally try to have a tournament roughly every 2 months or so. Doesn’t always work out, especially lately, but that’s the goal. In 2019 the Mainland Chinese Society of Queensland (MCSQ) sponsored a tournament. We ran it, everyone had fun, we had an unexpected tie for 3rd place in the Open Division despite having 3 layers of tie-breakers, good times. However, while I can’t confirm…

  • Black Bowls?

    So, I was contacting one of the suppliers, looking to restock some stones and bowls, and they mentioned that in addition to the usual brown jujube bowls, they also some some lovely black ones! What to stock is always a bit of guesswork for me. If something sells a lot, I obviously try to keep it in stock, but with new things? Always a bit of a gamble. So I’m asking you! What do you think? Would you buy these, or would you prefer the dark brown ones?

  • 2020 Australian Go Census Data

    So the 2020 Australian Go Census has come to an end. The anonymised data can be found here. Honestly, I’m not thrilled with this dataset. I was trying to streamline the process, but looking at it I think I lost more than I gained. The Limesurvey system is fine, but the way it handles data exporting and managing is awkward at best. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by Qualtrics, I don’t know. But more precisely what bothers me about this dataset comes down to the size. In usual, when you run a survey like this, you get a number of completed responses, and maybe double that number in partial responses –…

  • Spreading the Love

    TL;DR: I’d like to donate a portion of the gross income of PacifiGo to organisations that will do good in the world. Details still to be worked out. Asking for thoughts. So, as it says on the “My Story” part of the page, a large part of the reason I started PacifiGo in the first place is because I honestly, sincerely believe that the sheer cost of buying go sets that aren’t awful puts a lot of people, who would have otherwise really enjoyed the game, off getting more into it. Maybe they can’t afford it, maybe they figure dropping $400 on a set for a game that they like…