Poor form design

Even Google gets things wrong sometimes. (I don't mean like Buzz. That's more like "Even Google completely nukes a section of the internets and then attempts to apologize later, as if words could somehow make up for the incredibly stupid decisions they made.")

Have you nominated your area to be a test market for Google's reported 1 Bbps fiber service? You should. I did, and when I submitted the form, Google politely told me that while they'd saved my information on the page (good), there was something I had to correct ...

One of the boxes could contain no more than 384 characters.

Why 384? Who knows. (Typically it's 255; you may get smaller numbers if they do something to the text going in or coming out, and I suppose this could be a natural-language field, but I digress.) The point is that they showed me a restriction after I submitted the form ... and not only that, they didn't even tell me how much I had to change.

This is very bad practice. First, you should do this checking prior to form submission so that you don't make the user waste a step. We don't like trying things that don't work. (Google is notorious for low-load pages ... but then they have AJAX to bring up search tips and such, so why would they not use JavaScript here?) Second, if there is a problem, tell the user exactly what it is, and if possible, make recommendations to fix it. Tell me how many characters I've typed. Don't make me copy the text into Word just to count it. Better yet, add code to the text box to show me exactly how much room I have.

Ah, Google. Just like the rest of us, aren't you?

Curling? Really?

Sure.

Pros:

Definitely a sport (scoring involved)
Lots of strategy
Casual people can actually play it
Slower pace allows explanation of strategy

Cons:

Unfamiliar to many Americans
Ruined by commercials

Wait, what? Ruined?

Yes. NBC is making the same mistake that networks made with soccer for 20-30 years in the US, repeatedly killing its televised popularity as participation in the sport soared. (This would be akin to buying a home above list price these days.) Just as ESPN tried to force soccer into their standard sporting template during the World Cup and got bashed repeatedly for ignoring live action, NBC cuts away from live play to show commercials in the middle of an end, usually not even bothering to show the shots you missed while they were away. The stranger part is that they'll come back from commercial after the 5th end (the halfway point), then cut to commercials again, then miss the first couple of rocks in the 6th.

If you want to increase the popularity of a sport on television, you have to show it in a manner that supports the sport. NBC, of course, is the network least capable of doing this on the planet, and thus we get the exact opposite.

Look, more people in the US are going to be watching the Olympics right now than would watch all of the individual sports combined during the years in between. Now is the chance to teach people about it ... show something like Canada vs. Great Britain, so you've got skilled teams with the crowd reacting to each shot, and show the whole thing. Talk about strategy, scoring, everything. Get people involved. And instead of burying your snout even deeper in the trough of advertising money, lift your piggy head, take a deep breath, and let the sport speak for itself. We've already seen the same commercials 20 times over anyway: the Olympics are just like all other televised sports in that you get the same commercials over and over again, except there are so many days that the commercial overkill happens after a day or two instead of weeks.

It makes me sad. There are people at NBC who are responsible for nothing other than sports coverage, and they're obviously so bad at their jobs that trained monkeys would be offended if asked to replicate the work. Yet they are still employed. Dear NBC, hire me at half what they're making, and I'll make your sports coverage ten times better.

Yes, this

NPR's Linda Holmes says it very well: NBC has no idea what it's doing.

If the IOC had any brains (and many would argue they've been missing said brains for a long time), they'd do whatever is necessary to yank the exclusive contract for US television rights and award it to a network that actually shows sports. In an era where people watch live sports on TVs, computers, phones, and who knows what else, NBC continues to show tape-delayed events. (Hey look, guys, isn't this cool? Who do you think will win ... how did you know? Was that on the World Wide Web somewhere? We've got to get that someday.)

I think we are rapidly approaching an era where broadcast networks are no longer equipped to show sports. (And a cheer goes up from the non-sports-fan contingent.) Don't laugh: I'm not the only one who thinks this. Notice what ABC and ESPN are doing? You've obviously seen that Monday Night Football is on "cable", and that didn't ruin the football universe. ABC is shifting more events to ESPN, including NASCAR events ... there are ABC affiliates in the South that are not happy with this, but I don't know that too many people care.

Unfortunately for the people who don't have cable and can't stream events, that's where things are heading. ESPN could cover the NCAA tournament 10 times better than CBS can, and CBS knows it: when they offered $1 billion for what I think was a seven-year contract to get the rights back after ESPN snagged the first-round games and did them superbly, they were doing it to protect valuable territory, just like NBC did with the Olympics, and just like the NCAAs have surpassed CBS' ability to cover them well, the Olympics have surpassed NBC's ability to cover them ... at all.

If some people are upset, you might be doing something right. If everybody's upset, you must be NBC.

NHL 10: Early December '09

AHL: ha ha, I got a crap interference penalty in a scrum along the boards, and sure enough, the announcers sided with me. Didn't matter though, we killed it off. Lost 2-1, I missed a hip check and the guy set up the winning goal. Had a nice shot in close, but I couldn't put it home. 3 hits, 3 blocked shots.

Four games this week, Sunday and Monday at the same team, then on the road again Friday and home on Saturday.

AHL: Third star, two assists in a 2-0 win. Almost had a shot at an empty net, but I passed by accident. (I didn't have a great shot, and it probably would have been icing if I'd missed.) A grade, 2 hits, drew 1 penalty, blocked 1 shot. +2.

AHL: Second game at Lake Erie. Miserable. 2 hits, -2. We still lead our division by 3 points with 3 games in hand, trail Hamilton by 6 with 1 game in hand for the conference lead.

AHL: One penalty for hitting a guy just a touch too late. A-, 2 hits, 1 blocked shot, 1 takeaway. 2 assists on one shift in the second period, +2 for the game.

AHL: 0 hits. 0 blocked shots. At least I had good shots. Of course, none went in. 1 assist, even. We climbed to within 2 points of Hamilton.

Woo hoo! Called up to Dallas! Third pair and included in special teams (which is kind of odd; I understand the game wants you to get more experience but it would be nice to make you earn one or both honors).

Three games this week: at Carolina, at Atlanta, and home against Detroit. That last one won't be awkward.

We made a trade with Florida, but fortunately it didn't affect pairings.

At Carolina: 21 seconds in, we score. That's a nice return to the NHL. Some rough shifts (including a minus where the goalie lunges out to stop a pass into the zone he doesn't have to play and turns it over), but I got a +1 and an assist late and we held on to win. Much more of a physical presence this time. Lots of good calls for passes (9). We're still way out of the playoff race, though, in 13th.

Stats: 0 G, 1 A, -1, 4 shots, 0 PIM, 6 hits, 2 blocked shots
Result: W 7-4 at Carolina
Grade: A (A+/A/B+)

At Atlanta: A tough defensive struggle, scoreless through two periods ... I have the puck at the point, skating backward, no one is open, I fire a shot at Pavelec ... and the red light goes on. Goal! My first NHL goal, and it gives us a 1-0 lead as well. Later in the period, I fire another one at the net, it's tipped down and in, and we're up 2-0. Unfortunately, my dumbass defensive partner turns the puck over in our end and it's promptly put in the net. 2-1, and I no longer have the game-winning goal, but get the first star nonetheless. (I got an E for scoring my first goal in my 30th game. Hey, I'm a defensive defenseman! Back off.)

Stats: 1 G, 1 A, +1, 3 shots, 0 PIM, 2 hits, 0 blocked shots
Result: W 2-1 at Atlanta
Grade: A (A+/A-/A)

vs. Detroit: ha ha, this one was a bit tough, not just because it was Detroit, but because I was playing against the Datsyuk/Zetterberg line. Halfway through the first, I was a -2. Fortunately, we ended up getting a couple of goals to even the score, and then our pair helped set up the game-winner in the second. Plus I got a hit on Zetterberg ... not sure how he stayed in one place long enough for me to hit him.

Stats: 0 G, 1 A, even, 5 shots, 0 PIM, 2 hits, 0 blocked shots
Result: W 3-2 vs. Detroit
Grade: A (A+/B+/A)

I'm getting much better at calling for passes well. I feel like I know what I'm supposed to do most of the time ... I just don't have the trailer role down. (When there's an odd-man rush and I should be attacking.)

We've pulled within 5 points of 8th-place Chicago.

More Madden 10 fail

I'm in an online franchise league in Madden 10 ... we just finished the Super Bowl (obviously I was not in it) and are ready to start the draft, and as a result, we've discovered how not ready for release online franchise mode is.

For one thing, you can look back to previous seasons and see ... the Super Bowl scores. That's it. No stats, no standings.

For another, when you roll to the next season, for every team with fewer than 7 open spots, it automatically cuts players to make room for drafted players, even though you have plenty of room on your training camp roster for these players (or should). And then when the draft is ready, you can't pick up the free agents it cut for you.

The draft is something else. Small time slots, no way to make them significantly big, and no way for the commissioner to undo a pick ... which is really inexcusable, because the default time slot is apparently 15 seconds. Yeah. And you can't set what they call a "draft profile" on the 360 because that would be helpful: you can actually see all the draftees' attributes there. You have to do it online, where you can't see more than one attribute at a time unless you click on the person, and you can't even sort accurately across groups. For example, if you sort by overall, but you're showing draftees by speed, all you get are the top overall scores for the draftees with highest speed. There's no way to remove that second filter.

I would say this was a half-assed effort by EA, but it would be an insult to actual half-assed efforts. Someone who had no idea of the work involved made the decision to rush this out with Madden 10 when in reality it should have been held back at least a year.

If you don't have a copy of Madden 10 yet, but you saw online mode and are swayed by it, don't be. Wait. It's not worth it yet. At all.

NHL 10: November '09

Still in the AHL.

AHL: another game against Chicago. 3-0 shutout, B+ grade, 2 hits, 2 blocked shots. +1.

The funny thing is that supposedly I get more experience doing defensive things than offensive things, but I've been pretty even overall (438 xp offense, 473 defense, 451 athletics) ... you get something like 20-40 per game in my role, depending on what you do. This is, of course, one of the things about being a good defender: what you do isn't in the scoresheet. That is, if you don't hit. (To reach the next level, Pro, I have to amass 300 hits, play 75 games, get a C or better in my last 5 games, and have a plus/minus of at least +5. Uh, 300? Two seasons, probably.)

AHL: gave up a goal on the opening shift. I even poked the puck loose and the guy just swept it back up. crap. Modano scored in the first minute of the second, though, and with another goal at the end of the shift, we evened it up. Two more goals in the second put it away, although we conceded a late goal after we scored an empty-netter. No hits. boo. 2 long shifts, 2 blocked shots.

Games on Wednesday and Friday this week.

AHL: 3 hits, 0 long shifts, 4 blocked shots. 1 assist, even for the game. A 2-1 win for the good guys. Playing a bit better, but I did make a mistake that led to their only goal.

AHL: same opponent as Wednesday's game. We scored two goals in the final minute to win 4-2: the first came as I took the puck up ice (for some reason they decided not to press me), created a 2-on-2, beat the guy on me, then set up the game-winner. (Not as good as the GWG myself, but I'll take an assist.) Empty-netter made it 4-2 and an extra plus for me. 2 hits, 5 long shifts, 1 blocked shot. 1 assist, +1 overall.

Games on Wednesday and Saturday this week. Texas is currently tied for 3rd in the Western Conference.

Finally made it up to C in hits (40 out of 245 needed), so it's obviously not a rate grade but rather an overall grade (a rate grade would be lower).

AHL: 2-1 win on a power-play goal with less than 2 seconds left. 4 hits, 5 long shifts, 0 blocked shots, 5 good shots. -1, though.

AHL: 4-3 OT win with me on the ice. Had a chance to score a goal with a delayed penalty, but couldn't gather up the puck; attacked in the OT on 4-on-4 play, but didn't get a good shot either. 2 hits, 11 long shifts (oops), 0 blocked shots, 1 penalty drawn, 9 good shots. 1 assist, +2.

Games on the 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 28th. (Thanksgiving, yeah.)

AHL: Milwaukee again. Jesus this was a bad game. 2 hits, 5 long shifts, 0 blocked shots. -5. Yeah. -5. On the ice for every goal against.

Somehow I get promoted to the top defensive pair after that game.

AHL: Promotion is totally justified. 3 assists, +4 for the game, second star as we crush Grand Rapids. A grade, 2 hits, 6 long shifts, 1 blocked shot, 9 good shots taken. Got my 50th hit (in 20 games, a D for that - I can't help if we keep the puck and I can't pop anyone). Got enough XP to move up to a 76 overall rating.

AHL: 6 hits, one minor penalty (totally my fault), 7 long shifts, 4 blocked shots, +2.

AHL: A grade, one silly retaliation penalty, 3 hits, 5 long shifts, 1 blocked shot, 8 good shots, 2 takeaways, 2 turnovers, 1 assist, +2.

One more game in November, Sunday at Manitoba again.

AHL: B+ grade, 1 hit, 3 long shifts, 2 blocked shots, 6 good shots.

Next game is December 5th ... hopefully by Christmas I will be back in Dallas with the big team.

NHL 10: weeks 3-4

AHL game: finally, a solid physical game. 7 hits, put one guy out of the game and out for a week or so, A+ grade, third star. 0 turnovers. Still in the minors, though.

AHL game: only 2 hits, 3 turnovers, 2 takeaways. 0 shots on goal. B+ grade.

Three weeks in, half the time in Austin, slight improvement but no sign of being called back up yet.

AHL game: same story, not much in the way of anything, but we win again. At least I'm on track for all of my goals except hits. One nice thing is that we are taking many fewer penalties and we're scoring more, so my +/- is going up.

AHL: second of a home-and-home with San Antonio. Another win, only 3 long shifts, +4, and one nice shot from the high slot. May have to change the curve of my stick to aim differently.

Woo hoo! Moved up to the second pair. More ice time (although in Be a Pro Mode, you're automatically on the first shift each period and on each specialty unit, as well as an extra attacker, which is funny when you consider I'm a defensive defenseman).

AHL: A grade, second star. 6 hits, finally at my average. 8 long shifts, oh well. Sometimes it's not my fault: I head to the bench but they aren't ready to change yet. One assist, +3 for the game.

AHL: ugh. 2 hits, -3, on the ice for all three goals against, including the game-loser with less than a minute to play. Poor defense by me. Got a couple of good power-play shots, though.

NHL 10: week 2

Third game in the road trip, at Vancouver. No offense. I did manage to pop one of the Sedins at the blue line to shake the puck loose, but that was about it. I got a minus from giving up an empty-net goal. whatever. 10 long shifts. 2 takeaways, 2 turnovers.

Stats: 0 G, 0 A, -1, 2 shots, 0 PIM, 1 hit, 3 blocked shots
Result: L 0-2 at Vancouver
Grade: B (A+/B/C-)

So I didn't get enough hits and they sent me down to the Texas Stars (how original). Now I'm playing with Modano, Zubov, Robidas ... yeah, I don't understand what they're doing in the AHL either. I thought I would be a dominant player at that level. Instead, I'm still a third-line D-man. whatever.

First AHL game: OMG they take penalties. All the time. Bonus: the AHL stats do count toward my season totals. I don't care, I'm not giving details for these games.

Second game, this time we win. I'm hitting more and forcing turnovers, plus not having as many long shifts.

NHL 10: first week

Decent opener: my defense partner gives up a goal off his shoulder for my first minus, but I got a pair of assists and finished +1. Only 2 hits, though, and I still stay on the ice too long. We came back to win, 4-2, in part thanks to me drawing a minor on Shea Weber in the final minute. (We scored on that power play.) 2 blocked shots, but 4 long shifts. 3 turnovers. bad.

Stats: 0 G, 2 A, +1, 1 shot, 0 PIM, 2 hits, 2 blocked shots
Result: W 4-2 vs Nashville
Grade: A- (A+/C+/A+)

Road opener: again we concede on the opening shift. Fell behind 2-0, but ended up scoring 2 third-period goals to pull out the win. I really wanted to shoot at the empty net, but not from my end. I hit Neal up the wing, but he didn't get a clean shot at it. 9 long shifts, uh oh (thus the C+ for team play). Both shots were well taken, 0 takeaways, 1 turnover.

Stats: 0 G, 0 A, even, 2 shots, 0 PIM, 1 hit, 2 blocked shots
Result: W 3-2 at Edmonton
Grade: B+ (A+/B+/C+)

Second game of the Alberta trip: no goals in the first period. I was on the ice for all three normal goals (we scored two empty-net goals). I got a couple of good chances in the slot, but couldn't put them home. I did bait Iginla into a cheap penalty in the third (not that it required much effort). 9 long shifts (again). 0 takeaways, 4 turnovers (whatever).

I achieved Rookie status with that game. (Got my 5th hit. Too bad they're expecting 5 per game.)

Stats: 0 G, 1 A, +1, 3 shots, 0 PIM, 2 hits, 1 blocked shot
Result: W 4-1 at Calgary
Grade: A (A+/B/A+)

NHL 10: prospect game

Another in the line of "virtual me" posts ... I broke open NHL 10 today and created a me. A little taller, a little heavier, much, much better at hockey.

Played in the prospects game ... A+/A-/A+ scorecard, 1 minor penalty, 2 assists, +3 in a 4-0 win. Got the third star.

Signed by the Stars. ugh. Three-year contract, standard, I guess. I think I was the number one pick, but EA doesn't let you see how the draft turns out.

Here are my goals:

• A plus/minus of +14 or better. That makes sense for a defensive D. (It's also low ... because Dallas sucks.)
• 245 hits. Ouch. (no pun intended) That's 3 per game plus 5 extra hits. I better hit some people.
• 140 shots would be nice ... not so bad. I typically only shoot from the point off a faceoff win.
• 24 points would be a bonus ... expect these to be assists, mostly. Hopefully I can manage that.

They're giving me four games to earn a spot on the roster, otherwise I go down to the AHL. Hmm. I suspect those games don't count toward my season goals. I suppose I better play well. I thought it was preseason, but apparently we don't play that.

Maybe I can do something well and earn a trade to a team I don't dislike. (It could have been worse: Calgary, Anaheim, Colorado ...)

The Romans would be proud

Roger Goodell wants to ban the three-point stance. Short version: doing so would possibly limit the number of powerful blows a lineman has to absorb, decreasing the possibility of debilitating brain damage later in life.

Spin: nice idea, but because Goodell isn't doing anything about other serious problems in football (serial cheap-shot players like Ryan Clark and Ray Lewis), it's possible this won't make much of a difference, and thus it's only a PR stunt.

I link to the Football Outsiders post to show the discussion ... sadly, there are several people who seem to believe that the players know what they're getting into, therefore, screw them, we want our violence. (You know, the NASCAR-wreck crowd.) This guy retires with 10 concussions and develops Alzheimer's at 40, but who cares? Look at this rookie? Wow, he's a really big hitter!

It is the internet, and thus e-pinions are likely to be stronger than you'd see in "real life", but still, it's discouraging to think that on a statistically-inclined football site, there are a number of people back in the Coliseum, still rooting for the lions. (Ha. Maybe that's Detroit's problem. There isn't a team of Christians.)

Advertiser fail

Did you know there aren't enough ads in sports games?

No, really.

Wow. I mean, I have done some contract work for an advertising agency, so I know a very little bit about the ideas that get tossed around on a smaller scale, but I still don't agree with most of it ... I think the advertising industry is stuck in the 20th-century paradigm of directing the user's experience, even when every single 21st-century gadget reinforces the idea of the user directing his or her own experience. Be part of that or begone.

Unfortunately, both EA and ESPN have shown that they do not understand this. I'm expecting ESPN to have annoying Snickers placement all over the place next year ... I'm sure it's much better to be working on that or on other unwanted "features" than on fixing bugs in the game (like playoff spots in online franchise mode being determined by alphabetical order).

WTF, Los Angeles edition

I have three thoughts about this.

1. Lane Kiffin is the absolute dumbest coach in the history of intercollegiate athletics.
2. Actually, that.
3. Yes.

Okay, so really, 2 is this:

Assistant: Yeah, so I'm not convinced that Barkley is good enough to be the guy next year. I mean, some of those passes, a 13-year-old could throw.
Kiffykins: Hold on, I'll get one. (darts out of room)
Assistant: Wait, it was a figure of speech ...
(Kiffykins returns.)
Kiffykins: I got one. Okay, next position.
(Assistant sighs.)

I guess 3 would be that if you actually find a parent stupid enough to believe that anything Kiffykins says will be true in five years – five times longer than his stay at Tennessee – you might as well put one over on him. I can't wait for this poor kid to try to enroll at USC in 2015, only to find out any number of things have happened (USC has no scholarships to give, there are three five-star prospects already at QB, the coach after the coach who replaced Kiffin has no intention of honoring the offer, his arm fell off in 2013) ...

iPad?

iGuess.

Read this and this, and you'll get a pretty good idea of what I'm thinking. (Maybe it will be great for old people. You know, the ones that actually have a 401(k) left and will spend money from it on technology.)

Football Apocalypse

Al Davis was right. Lane Kiffin is a turd. (But hey, Tennessee fans, at least you got rid of him before he did any permanent damage!)

First, Pete Carroll leaves USC for the Seahawks. This wouldn't mean too much, except that Carroll already has a reputation as an average NFL coach. And the massive cheating scandal at USC is becoming too obvious for even the NCAA to ignore. The fact that the Seahawks don't have a president or GM (the guys to whom the coach typically report) doesn't matter. (Actually, the GM thing doesn't matter much if the franchise is run poorly. See Cleveland: bad owners hire backward. The GM should hire the coach.)

Second, Carroll went out of his way to deny that the move was related to the NCAA investigation. Right. As if he'd have admitted that was it exactly. Good cheaters don't wait to be punished, they move along and let the school take the blame.

Now, Lane Kiffin is leaving Tennessee for USC. After one season. A season in which he racked up quite a number of secondary violations.

Not the best candidate? Correct. Ill-suited for the position? What do you mean? It's not like he was the guy who made some of this happen in the first place. Oh wait, yes he was.

Brian Cook explains in more detail here. Basically, USC is raising a big armored middle finger to the NCAA. Yeah, we cheated our asses off. No, you're not going to do a damn thing about it, because everybody knows you only punish the little guys.

So one of two things should happen. Either USC gets the death penalty, or all hell breaks loose. Um, in a sense. (Because there's obviously a lot of cheating going on with respect to recruiting anyway.)

What will probably happen is that USC will have to forfeit some wins (yawn), they'll be on probation for X years, give up Y scholarships, and everyone involved will say they're very sorry, and they'll promptly start up again as soon as the probation is over.

What ought to happen is that both football and basketball should be suspended for a season; the head coaches and AD should be punished as well. That part's a little tricky, seeing as how they both ran for the door once they saw what was coming. Maybe a fine, one season's salary from each? Even if you banned them from coaching in the NCAA again for life, that might not be that effective. (Although the AD is still there. Suspending him would definitely have an impact ... but then again, if your AD got both your name programs killed for a year, you ought to be doing more than suspending him.)

NCAA, USC has called your bluff. It's time to turn over a full house.

Madden 10 blows

So I get a safety and force a free kick. I pause the game in the middle of the kick to check out what's on TV ... when I resume the game, the camera's locked on to the kicker. Never mind that I'm the receiving team. I'm lucky the game didn't make me fumble the kick so it could recover and return for a TD.

This kind of bug mystifies me. I cannot understand how a game that has been around for this long can be released with so many glaring errors in it. Somebody at EA needs to be fired for this.

NCAA 10: Season 3 summary

We started off at Kansas State and actually led 31-20 before the sim decided to take over, eventually winning by 10 (after we scored a meaningless TD). After beating WKU, Central Michigan raked the defense for 48. Not a good sign for non-conference play.

After a bye week, we rolled UAB 31-3 and FAU 28-10. Fell behind Arkansas State by 17, managed to rally to get back into it, but then had a problem on a punt, didn't get away from it in time and gave up a fumble return for a TD, losing by 3. Crushed MTSU and Troy, which put us in a three-way tie with Troy and North Texas heading into our game in Denton.

It started off poorly: on one two-play sequence, we fumbled the ball and it stood, they fumbled it and it was overturned. Crazy finish: they kick a 50-yard FG to go up 27-24, we return the kickoff 91 yards to lead 31-27. They score in 1:18 to lead 34-31. We score at 2:08 to lead 38-34. UNT drives the length of the field, converting three fourth downs, including one that gave them the ball at the 1, first down. We call time out to get a better defense. They throw an interception ... but as we try to kneel down, the sim strips the ball. Fortunately we recover and advance it, run the time off and win. North Texas, thanks in part to sacks, had -39 yards rushing. Yeah, it was the #1 classic, almost 2000 points.

We ran through the rest of the Sun Belt with just the one loss, clinching another New Orleans Bowl spot. Against Louisiana Tech in the finale, for the first time I can ever remember, I pulled a sim on a punt: nice, high punt, no one blocking, I hit the returner just after he caught it to force a fumble, then held him down while a teammate recovered. (Of course he magically stepped out of bounds right after recovering it, so it wasn't just like the sim: the sim always scores on those. We did force a fumble on a regular play later, and we returned that one for a TD. And we had a fumble that I successfully challenged ...)

My running back won the Doak Walker Award. Pretty impressive for a sophomore, but in the past, award winners who return never live up to their previous seasons. Even if you have a good season, you don't get votes. Last season's winner, my now-senior TE, caught 82 passes for 835 yards and was omitted from the top 12. A sophomore corner (Robinson) finished 7th in Thorpe balloting.

South Florida in the New Orleans Bowl. Wow. We score with 20 seconds left in the first half to lead 21-20. They return the kickoff with 9 seconds left to lead 27-21. We return the kickoff at the end of the half to lead 28-27. South Florida leads next, 37-28. Then 37-35. Then 44-35. Then 47-35. I thought we were done: we had four interceptions at that point.

Great drive to cut the lead to 5, 47-42. We force a punt. Drive to score with 26 seconds left, converting the 2 to lead 50-47. They drive to midfield, heave a Hail Mary ... and we intercept it in the end zone. Crazy game. We had 480 yards total offense, 9-14 on third downs, 3-4 on fourth downs (which means we converted 12 of 14 times we had a third down). If it hadn't been for the picks – one of which was returned for a TD – we'd probably have won easily. We actually broke into the top 25 after that win, #21 ... the only time we've been ranked to date.

In-season recruiting went very well. We signed 3 four-star players (the #4 and #6 athletes and the #26 CB) and 4 three-star players (#31 WR, #21 athlete, #38 OLB, and #18 DT), 23rd-best class overall.

My top TE is leaving, as are two of my three best QBs, but the WR and HB are returning. I lose a good LT, but other than that, the seniors are passable but not irreplaceable.

This time, Michigan and Texas are interested in hiring me. (RR didn't get it fixed in Ann Arbor, I guess.)

Unfortunately, the WR who transferred from FSU is ready for the NFL, so my 92-rated WR is gone. Now I really need to sign a good one. The nice thing is we're getting an 86-rated LE transferring in from Georgia. Of course he's not eligible for a season, but I can use that depth. Right now my single LE is a 65.

I signed four more four-star recruits (#5 athlete, #7 athlete, #7 WR, and #6 OLB) and five more three-star recruits (#26 DE, #40 TE, #13 QB, #53 G, and one I couldn't find) to finish 24th overall.

We're C+ on offense (B- at HB, C- at FB), B- on defense (B+ at DE thanks to the transfer, no C-), B- on special teams and B- overall. Up to 47th in the preseason polls and of course favored to win our third straight Sun Belt crown.

Non-conference schedule includes Miami-Florida at Miami, USC in Lafayette (how did we do that?), and Tulsa at Tulsa ... of course we're playing at Louisiana Tech for the fourth game. Strangely, replacing a I-AA team with the Bulldogs kept my SOS at C-.

Now they want me to finish in the top 25 (I think I can) and play in a January bowl game. Um ... we don't get invited to those. And I doubt I'll run the table with this schedule and this team. Oh well ... here we go ...

NCAA 10: Season 2 summary

(Warning: gamer post.)

2010 started off poorly with losses at rival Louisiana Tech (who wasn't automatically scheduled, I had to add them) and home to UAB. The next game was the conference opener against doormat Western Kentucky.

As is so often the case, WKU did everything perfectly, resulting in my first ragequit in I don't know how long. They were up 42-21 in the second quarter ... you'd think I was playing LSU instead of a team that had been in I-A just two seasons. Of course, the second time I played the game, I won easily, 45-17. (In case it bothers you, I would have won the conference anyway. Unless I ended up throwing the disc into the street.)

We ran off six wins in a row, counting that game, including a double-overtime win over Middle Tennessee State. Next was a triple-overtime loss to Florida Atlantic, 71-63. (Yeah, my defense is still terrible, even considering the boost that the sim gets on offense.) We beat Monroe to clinch the Sun Belt, upset Mississippi in Oxford, and then got destroyed at 2-10 Minnesota: no ragequit, but I did go to super sim with about half the fourth quarter left when it was clear there was no point in finishing the game; the next-to-last play was a 94-yard TD or something like that for them. Remember, the Big Ten is a tougher conference.

We lucked out (or would have, in real life) by drawing the New Orleans Bowl as Sun Belt champs, right next door in New Orleans. We led UTEP 17-0 before the sim figured out what was going on and ran off 24 unanswered points. Unfortunately for them, we scored the last 14 of the game, held them on fourth and two from the 3, and that was that.

Recruiting went better this time: 1 4-star recruit (#13 CB, a juco but badly needed anyway) and 3 3-star recruits (#24 MLB, #27 SS, #39 FS – see a pattern?) during the season. I've got soft commits from a 3-star OT (#37) and a 2-star K (#30, needed because my current kicker hit the crossbar on a 43-yard attempt in the Superdome). Leading on 4 more players, second on 2 more, including the #1 punter.

My TE won the Mackey Award, which was nice to see: he was a monster in the passing game. 111 receptions, 1273 yards, 8 TDs. I hope he doesn't go pro. (Bonus! He didn't.)

We met two of our three goals, beating ULM and getting a bowl bid. As expected, no 5- or 6-star teams on the schedule, so I didn't get a chance at that one. I got a 5-year extension offer and accepted it. BYU and Penn State came calling (JoePa got forced out, I guess), but no thanks, this is for SEC promotion.

Conference USA came calling again, and once again UAB would be shown the door. (Ha. Good thing it wasn't based on in-season results.) No thanks. I'm holding out.

No incoming transfers. (But hey, no one wanted out either.)

Ended up with 7 3-star recruits, but no punter. (Hope one of my kickers can punt.) Again, we did much better than the rest of the conference. Also, I lucked out and landed a 76 punter as a walk-on. ha ha.

This time, we do get Louisiana Tech (on the road? I think not). Non-conference games are at Kansas State, vs. Central Michigan, and vs. UAB. (What's up with that?) No strength of schedule, but whatever, I'm not ready to compete yet. Better to build my roster depth before I make a run for the SEC.

We're also picked to repeat as Sun Belt champs. C+ offense, C defense, C+ special teams, C overall. Individually, we're best at WR (B-) and worst at OLB (D+). I'll guess 2012 before we can make a run at the SEC.

Dumb and dumber

So now you can't touch your stuff for the last hour of your flight.

Why? Because once someone tried to do something bad on a plane in the last hour of its flight. (Now, I'll bet that's happened before and it's simply slipped the TSA's minds. Then again, a lot of things have slipped their minds.)

Now, is this going to stop a terrorist? No, because most terrorists can tell time, just like about one-tenth of airline employees responsible for working out scheduling. They'll simply start their stuff 90 minutes before their flights land.

What it's going to stop is people like you and you from flying. (Not you and me. I gave up on the airlines a W ago.)

You'd think that people like Secretary Napolitano would realize this. You'd think they'd realize that instead of consistently staying a step behind most terrorists (notice that the last couple of guys trying this stuff were stopped in the act anyway?), they'd see that they need to be a step ahead.

But no. You can't bring liquids on a plane because someone might have had liquid explosive once. You have to show your shoes because someone had explosive shoes once. Now you can't get up because a terrorist got up once. (I can't wait for the lawsuit that'll follow someone with medical concerns being unable to get to the bathroom in the last hour of a flight.)

All this security theater doesn't prevent people from bringing explosives on a plane. Would it really be that hard to make the security at airports more reasonable (by hiring more competent people to work the lines, for one thing)? Would it really be that hard to put security people on planes to stop this stuff, because we're already relying on passengers to do this?

Look. The security theater isn't working. This latest jackass brought explosives onto the plane. And the entire show depends on catching people before they get on the plane.

I hate to say this, but Obama is failing in this area as badly as W did. The TSA isn't the answer. "Tighter" security isn't the answer. Better, smarter security is.

Then again, in a couple of years, it probably won't need to be better or smarter. There will be few enough passengers that the TSA can probably question each one in detail.

Update: Great minds think alike.

XBLA review: Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers (1/10)

I was going to rant about how stupid this is and link to my earlier review when I realized I didn't post one yet.

So, in short:

a) This is not the ultra-cool version for the PC. This is an incredibly retarded version.
b) It's done so badly that there are threads about how to get around the broken control system. You can't even tap your own lands for mana.

Don't bother. This is a waste of money. You're better off finding the PC version, digging around to get the patches for it, and playing that. The PC version is 100 times better than this.

Microsoft + Verizon: tons of money, massive stupidity

So this Bing, I suppose someone out there is using it. (I saw one of the commercials once. Apparently Bing is for people who don't want to find too much online.) And it's Microsoft, the company that has been fined millions and millions on multiple continents and still doesn't learn.

Anyway, Consumerist says that the Register and the New York Times reported that searching via an app (do people really do that?) can now be done with either Bing or ... Bing.

Verizon gets $500 million. You get the least useful application on the internet.

Merry Christmas, everyone, from Ivan Seidenberg to you.

Scrooge's links

Jump to conclusions.
Yes, that's right, before too long only Grandpa will be talking about old-school controllers. Project Natal will be the death of the control pad. In fact, I think it just happened.

Please. How many games on the Wii suck because they aren't suited to motion controllers? How many times do you catch yourself playing something on the 360 or the PS3 and thinking man, this would be so much easier if I could just wiggle or point?

Look, people still play PC games with keyboards, okay? Fifteen years ago, they were selling game peripherals for PCs like they were going to take over console gaming. Yes, you can still buy them. No, they aren't always necessary. They still make games that are playable entirely with the keyboard, and other games that work best with keyboard and mouse. Why? Because that's what the game requires. Want to play WoW with motion controllers? Hahahahahahaha.

Health care reform passes the Senate.
Despite the efforts of certain wealthy Republicans who already have excellent health insurance through Congress. Sure, let's let health care costs spiral out of control, watch normal people choose between bankruptcy and painful death, see people turn away from careers in health care because of the challenges they face fighting the current system, because we don't want to spend money to fix the problem. (How much did we spend trying to seize oil fields in Iraq? Oh, right, that wasn't part of the budget.)

Fortunately, the wealthy Democrats in Congress (plus a socialist and a grandstanding jerk) won a small victory, but I think it's fair to wait to celebrate. First, it's not even a bill yet, and second, even if it were and if Obama signed it today, those provisions wouldn't take effect overnight.

Still, it's a huge step.

Old media still doesn't get it.
They never have. Even new media outlets don't get it ... ever read ESPN The Magazine? (Even by its title, you should know it's dumb.) It's just print versions of online articles, sent to you whether you want it or not. Why? Who knows? Probably because some executive decided they needed to challenge SI.

Why bother with it? Look, news today is the same as 100 years ago: facts and opinions. The problem for old media is that now, everyone with an ... um ... opinion can share it in the same space they use, and plenty of places are sharing facts for free. If you aren't adding value, you're not going to make money, and if you're trying to make money, you're living on borrowed time.

You want me to pay for a magazine I can only read on the iPod/iPhone? What? It's a terrible reading device in the first place (small, small, and small), and now you want me to pay to read your crap? No way. I'm not even sure I want to pay to read books on a Kindle (although I do like the idea of owning a lot of books that don't take up space).

I get SI for the same reason I always have, because my grandmother extends my subscription for Christmas. It's all right, I guess, but most of its news is 3-7 days old, and most of the opinions are already available online; not only that, but some of the opinions are less informed than blogs I read. (ESPN? Don't get me started.)

Of course when old media thinks change, it thinks TALK RADIO change. (Case in point: the crusade by the Free Press to demonize Rich Rodriguez. Does it attract readers? I guess. Does it poison others against them? You bet it does, and there are all kinds of places to get Detroit sports news that have nothing to do with the Free Press.) That's not going to work. Hell, eventually ESPN will realize that Around the Horn is the worst show in sports history.

I'm rambling, but at least I'm having fun. Merry holiday season.

and get off my lawn!

Sports links

Missouri is definitely not uninterested in the Big 10.
Well, to be more precise, they're tired of being screwed in the Big Texas Conference. (Profit-sharing in the Big 12 is 50% to everyone and 50% based on TV appearances, which means Texas gets more money and likes it that way. The Big 10 splits everything evenly.) Texas, naturally, doesn't want anything to change, and with a supermajority required to make changes (9 of 12 schools), Missouri and similar schools must sit by and watch as the Big 10 and SEC steam ahead. (Nice interview with Missouri's AD in this link: he is asked several direct questions and does not flat-out deny anything.)

Mark Shapiro is one of the dumbest men in television sports history.
No, not the Cleveland Indians GM. The guy that ESPN hired in the early 2000s, the one who decided to turn the network into MTV Sports. He failed miserably, leaving in 2005 to pal around with Dan Snyder. (The jokes write themselves sometimes.) 10 of the 11 shows on this list are ESPN-family shows (11 because the two "reality" shows on ESPN are combined), and Shapiro was involved in all but one. This was the problem with Disney's involvement: more people who have no clue about sports. (See Ducks, Anaheim.)

Fortunately most of the damage has been repaired, although for some reason Around the Horn is still on the air. If you can explain to me how this survived and Stump the Schwab didn't ...

By the way, the one show that wasn't a Shapiro failure? McEnroe, on CNBC. One week, the only show it beat was "How to Boil Water". No, really. (At least that's what the link says.)

Even gamers know that playoffs are better.
And not just because we remember the version of Bill Walsh College Football that let you choose between bowls and playoffs. (As soon as the NCAA name appeared, the playoffs disappeared.) Anyway, Kotaku gives you its take on a playoff for the 2009 season. Hint: Alabama doesn't win.

5th isn't bad.
Purdue's holding steady at 4th in the polls and 5th in Sagarin's ratings after knocking off Ball State on Saturday. SIU-Edwardsville and Iowa are next; the Boilers should be 12-0 when they host undefeated West Virginia in the Game of the Year a week from Friday. (That's a joke, sort of: a week from Friday is New Year's Day, so at that point, yeah, it'll be the game of the year.)

When is a win not necessarily a win?
Wow. So I guess they can't even correct it properly ... sorry, there weren't actually 1.8 seconds left when you scored. You should be watching the clock at all times because the clock may be wrong.

Oops, sorry. Background: Butler ball, down by 1, shot clock off. Xavier knocks the ball free, goes into backcourt, Butler recovers as clock stops briefly and restarts. Bulldogs lose ball twice, recover, put up a shot, score with 1.2 seconds left. Officials review sequence interminably (15-20 minutes, never mind that 10-15 they claim in the article) and decide that because of the stoppage, there would actually be no time left, so game over, Xavier loses.

Of course, the fair things to do would be a) give Xavier the ball with 1.2 seconds left because that's what the clock said or b) give Butler the ball in the backcourt with 14.7 seconds left and play from there. Wiping out time because the clock was run improperly is crap; in fact, at least in the NBA, you can go back to a point in time and replay if the clock is not run properly, at least if it's the shot clock. (1988 NBA Finals, Game 6, I think. John Salley has a breakaway dunk called back because a Lakers shot was ruled not to have touched the rim; the shot clock should not have reset, so the steal did not count. Lakers get the ball with 3 seconds left on the shot clock, I think, score, win the game, win the series. But don't worry, the NBA isn't fixed.)

Don't get me wrong. I'm far from a Xavier fan, but this is just wrong, and given that the NCAA director of officials is quoted in the article as saying there's nothing else they can do, then it needs to be addressed in the offseason.

A collection of links and minor thoughts

xkcd: Dreaming about school.
no kidding. Except these are my most common semi-lucid dreams. It's much easier to realize you're dreaming when a) you haven't been in a classroom in nearly 20 years and b) class wasn't that big of a deal when you were there in the first place. (I also dream about working in the cafeteria.)

Coding Horror: Even serious developers forget to back up their important stuff.
When Jeff Atwood fails, people listen. (It's okay if none of you know who he is. Just back up your stuff. Now.)

law: The FTC is after Intel again.
Intel doesn't learn ... or doesn't care to. Probably the latter. For the record, this is how the "free market" tends to solve things.

Yes, it's been a slow week at work. Not my fault. I have only one project with this client. If I were full-time, I'd be doing more with them.

stuff: Why most of what you see in movies is crap.
Of course you knew that already. Yeah, I'm the guy who points out stuff during movies like "um, things don't explode in space".

more stuff: Rocket Science.
No, really. What things ought to do, rather than going boom. I spent a lot of time here. Warning: interest in accurate sci-fi and/or knowledge of physics required.

NCAA 10: Season 1 summary

Well, we started off giving up 22 points to a I-AA school (of course they're all generic in NCAA 10, so let's say it's Nicholls State, for no reason other than that I keep assuming they're in Texas and realizing they're in Louisiana) which wasn't a good omen. Next came thrashings by Kansas State and LSU ... at that point I was wondering whether or not we'd be able to compete in I-A at all, never mind the Sun Belt.

But we went into Lincoln and stunned Nebraska (apparently without their All-American DT - yes, the same guy in New York right now hopefully awaiting the Heisman), and suddenly things didn't look so bad.

Conference play next: lost our opener to North Texas, ran off five straight wins, and suddenly we're bowl-eligible. (Funny, I thought it was six wins because I-AA wins counted. I guess I know more than EA.) Sadly, that was the end of the line. Lost to Louisiana-Monroe, lost to Troy, finished fourth in the conference and were left out of the bowl picture. (One of the Florida schools won, FIU or Florida Atlantic. Naturally, we'd beaten both of them. ULM and Troy were 7th and 9th, respectively.)

Turned down an offer to join Conference USA (replacing UAB). No thanks, I'm in this for the achievement. (Not that I'll be able to win the SEC, but I guess you never know until you try.)

Signed a couple of three-star recruits during the season, then landed a four-star and a couple more three-star guys in the offseason. Added a pipeline state, too (but of course I can't figure out what it is because EA sucks). UPDATE: it's Georgia. You can't find out until the season starts. So now my pipeline includes Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. You might think it's odd that Mississippi and Alabama aren't included, but it's a numbers game: the most populous states around me. With Texas and Florida, I probably don't need to try to get California or New York.

It's hard to recruit when everything other than location is C+ or worse, but easy when you know basically anyone two-star or better can come right in and play. I did redshirt a lot of players, including three wide receivers: we're already six deep at the position and have an 85 transfer from Florida State who'll play his senior season next year.

Our recruiting class was much better than the rest of the conference, so that's a good sign. There are three teams picked to finish above us, but they're all pretty much the same. We're C- overall (up from D), C on offense, C- on defense, B- on special teams (was D+/D/C-, I think).

I added rival Louisiana Tech to our schedule, which is a C- in strength again. I got one of two goals last year (finish .500 and get a bowl bid). This year it's beat ULM, get a bowl, and beat a 5- or 6-star team. The last one won't happen unless we meet one in a bowl: 4-star Mississippi is the team with the biggest rep on our schedule.

The only tough games should be the ones at Mississippi and Minnesota; we should be able to play with anyone on the schedule, but then again that should have been true in-conference last year and we went 5-3. We'll see.

srsly?

If you were responsible for a U.S. post office branch, and if you wanted to run a daily maintenance process on the self-service postage machines, would you run it

a) on each machine separately, or
b) on both machines at the same time?

Would you run these processes

a) late, late at night, say between 1:30 and 3:30 AM, or
b) in late evening, say around 10:30 PM?

If you guessed b) for both questions, you'd better be guessing, because if you're the incompetent fool who actually made these decisions, you're an idiot.

Because what's less effective than a "24-hour" self-service kiosk that is down for "daily maintenance" at the same time as the other one in the branch?

Besides Congress, that is.

Weigh-in: Week 36 through Week 40, +0.6 pounds

So I fell behind a little bit, as I tend to do on long-term projects, and rather than making up five weeks of paragraphs, here we are:

Week 36: +1.2 pounds
Week 37: +2.2 pounds
Week 38: -1.4 pounds (actually this was on Thursday, I forgot to weigh myself Wednesday)
Week 39: +0.2 pounds
Week 40: -1.6 pounds

Basically, in early November I fell into a trap of eating potato chips and stuff like that with lunch. Caught that, turned it around, and then later in the month as work slowed down, my weight began to stabilize. It was neutral the first week in December and has been dropping since then; as you can see, yesterday's weight was almost where I was back in late October.

With the slowdown in contract work, I may not be ready to purchase my reward if I do earn it; then again, I'm also eating more carefully in part because I'm at home, so there are good parts and bad parts to it.

I feel like I'm focused again, so we'll see how the next couple of weeks go.

I don't think that word means what you think it means

NCAA 10. New dynasty with Louisiana-Lafayette, aiming to take them to the SEC and win in the first year (for an achievement). This year they're terrible.

Playing Kansas State, K-State is up 30-0 in the third quarter ... and throwing. A lot. Naturally if I had the lead like that, I'd be penalized "sportsmanship points" every pass, but of course it's different for the computer. (There are also points for kicking on 4th down, also a joke: the computer goes for it all the time, which I support in principle, but it makes the standards they hold you to ridiculous.)

I'm down 37-0 now and have a 4th and 17. We can't hit any long passes, so I kick a field goal ... and get 10 points for sportsmanship for kicking on 4th down.

EA meant well, but as usual, made a hash of it. Did they set up kick return formations or allow you to tell whether or not your opponent is trying an onside kick? Oh no, they don't fix problems, they just add "features".

Of course, that's going to change as they put out fewer games with more quality. I'll believe that two years after I've seen it.

Playoffs

No, not the NFL kind. There's time enough for that ... what I mean are nonexistent playoffs, the I-A kind that we would have if idiots weren't running the show.

How it wouldn't work

Any form of four-team system: plus-one, whatever. First, that's not a playoff. That's old boys disappearing into the back room and declaring a champion. Second, really? Interest in the non-champion BCS bowls has been steadily dropping because people realize what they are now: consolation prizes. Besides, there are six BCS conferences. Tell me how that's going to work. Uh-huh, that's what I thought.

An eight-team playoff. Case in point: 2009. Six BCS conference champions – that's a given, as mentioned above. So that leaves two spots, and which team are you going to exclude?

a) Unbeaten TCU;
b) Unbeaten Boise State;
c) One-loss Florida. (Bonus: they're the only one-loss team in I-A football. Look it up.)

Exactly. Two at-large berths aren't nearly enough. Yes, I know, not every season will see five unbeaten teams heading into the bowls, but every season's going to have a number of qualified candidates from outside the power six, and remember, the old BCS was expanded under threat of legal action. They can't very well shrink the field back down now.

How it would work

Sixteen teams. First-round games at campus sites, quarterfinals at three permanent sites, say Tampa, Jacksonville, and San Antonio, with the fourth spot to one of the existing BCS bowls in rotation, then semis and final at the other three bowls in rotation.

I picked Tampa (Outback), Jacksonville (Gator), and San Antonio (Alamo) for a combination of longevity and geography. Ideally, you'd have a western site, a southwest site, a southern site, and a southeast site, but I don't know that there are enough bowls for that.

Anyway, the teams: 11 conference champions and 5 at-large teams. Oh yes, all 11. It's an NCAA championship, so that's how it works, and anyway if you think you're excluding any of the other conferences, you would be wrong.

What it would look like

Version 1: how the computers might see it
(16) Troy at (1) Alabama
(15) East Carolina at (2) Florida*
(14) Central Michigan at (3) Texas
(13) Penn State* at (4) TCU
(12) USC* at (5) Cincinnati
(11) Pittsburgh* at (6) Oregon
(10) Georgia Tech at (7) Boise State
(9) Ohio State at (8) Virginia Tech*

At-large teams marked like so*. Assumptions: no more than one at-large bid from a conference, and teams from the same conference may not meet in the first round. To avoid this, teams may be moved a spot from their original seeds. (In fact, at first I had a Pitt-UC rematch, a USC-Oregon rematch, and a GT-VT rematch originally.)

Troy-Alabama? Coincidence, plus the Sun Belt sucks. Florida as #2? That's how the computers see it, and we're thinking an RPI-style system, not the crap that currently puts human guesses above carefully-research systems.

I just don't think you can justify three teams from one conference when there are five at-large bids for everyone. With a 24-team playoff like I-AA has, I think you could allow four; with a limit of three, you might drop pretty far down to pick up other teams. LSU is 10th in both Sagarin and Massey and Arkansas averages 14th. Miami is 11th in both and Clemson averages 19th. If you draw the line at 4, that shuts out Mississippi ... but I think you kind of have to, no one wants to see a second-division power-conference team in the playoff. (Hear that, NCAA men's selection committee?)

Version 2: how the BCS might see it
?? at (1) Alabama
?? at (2) Texas
?? at (3) Cincinnati
(13) West Virginia* at (4) TCU
(12) BYU* at (5) Florida*
(11) Virginia Tech* at (6) Boise State
(10) Iowa* at (7) Oregon
(9) Georgia Tech at (8) Ohio State

Same notes for at-large teams, multi-bid conferences, and first-round meetings. So the first problem is that the BCS stops listing teams at 25, so we have no idea where Central Michigan, East Carolina, and Troy would fall. (A cynic would list them in order by wins because he'd say the BCS would understand anything more.)

No teams needed to be shifted. Iowa gets the Big Ten's second spot instead of Penn State (margin of victory being important in a real ranking system, but in the neutered version, PSU gets virtually nothing for whipping bad northeastern teams). West Virginia sneaks in ahead of Pitt (which has to hurt considering the Big East "championship" – makes you wonder if people even watched that game, but I think we all know the voters don't actually watch games).

BYU slips in ahead of USC, and to be honest I'm fine with that. In fact, in an RPI system, I doubt USC would get in, because they were tied for what, fifth in the Pac-10? They finished their season terribly. Maybe the conference was tough as a whole, but cry me a river. If you're taking a team from the Pac-10, it's Oregon State, right?

Of course in an actual BCS-based playoff, BYU wouldn't have a chance in hell (pardon the phrase), because they're not in a BCS conference, and the power conferences would always get the at-large bids.

Anyway, you see where this is going. TCU-Boise State is a nice matchup, as is Alabama-Texas and Florida-Cincinnati, but that will still leave at least two unbeaten teams, and if you think that doesn't matter, well, you were probably happy with the poll-determined champions.

The BCS is a limited system put in place by greedy fools who had no clue and updated by fools who still have no clue. It will be replaced by greedy people who have a clue. (Make no mistake, a playoff will be introduced for money, not because it's a fair way to determine a champion or because every single sport at every level of NCAA competition has a tournament except I-A football.)

Looking forward to that Troy-Alabama matchup? Too bad. Waiting to see if Cincinnati could make it to the semis or if the TCU-Alabama winner would trip them up? Keep waiting.

In the meantime, we'll have the Orange Bowl. Iowa-Georgia Tech. Mmm-kay.

Totally not screwed

The World Cup draw was held today. Normally, in these things, the USA is screwed, mostly because FIFA is really only concerned with distributing competition in geographic terms. (This is probably because of the heavy concentration of talent in Europe. Think of it as soccer's equivalent of the BCS: the current system strongly benefits Europe, and Europe has significant influence in FIFA, so it's not likely to change any time soon.)

What happens is that if you aren't the host country or a top team, you're grouped essentially by region, so you can't play anyone else in your region. Unfortunately, we end up grouped with other CONCACAF countries and usually the weaker Asian teams, so instead of being able to draw them, we draw a couple of European teams. In theory, this wouldn't matter for a top side: obviously to win the World Cup you have to beat a number of quality teams. In practice, we're not that good yet, so we could use a balanced draw rather than a geographic draw.

Well, this is what we got:
Pot 1) England. Well, it wasn't Brazil or Spain. Of course, given how we played Brazil and Spain in the Confederations Cup, maybe those would have been better draws. South Africa would have been the dream draw here. Instead, we get a difficult opponent.
Pot 2) USA. This is just to show where we came into play.
Pot 3) Algeria. Jackpot. Arguably the weakest team in Pot 3. They've not played in the World Cup in 24 years and were not a particularly strong qualifier from Africa. They do have some home-continent advantage, but I don't think it will be enough to threaten.
Pot 4) Slovenia. Another great draw, considering that France and Portugal were in this pot. Slovakia would have been a better draw, but Slovenia and Algeria should be enough to guarantee advancement for the US.

Will the US be strong and healthy enough to advance beyond the round of 16? There's no way to tell right now, but it should certainly be a consideration. This is a team that was a match from early elimination in South Africa this year, yet found itself at halftime of the championship match ahead 2-0 against Brazil.

On the flip side, we're strong enough that the Confederations Cup should be a disappointment rather than an accomplishment. In past World Cups, struggling with a draw like this would be unfortunate. Now, it would be a disaster.

The minimum expectation should be six points and a second-place finish. A reasonable expectation would be seven points and a tiebreaker for group finish (drawing with England, goal differential deciding the group winner). Winning the group? That would be good ... but not incredible. Incredible would be advancing to the semifinals.

I think we'll make the quarterfinals. In six months, we'll find out.

Virtual me (NCAA 10)

If you don't like reading posts about playing video games, skip ahead to the next post.

In my junior year at Georgia Tech as a MLB, we started off the season 0-2, and to make matters worse, both games were conference games (UNC and Virginia Tech). So after starting the season #3, we were down to #21. Amazingly, we won our next 10 games, finished in a tie for the division with Miami (whom we'd beaten), and got a spot in the ACC title game again. We'd also managed to work our way back to #2/#4 in the polls and #3 in the BCS standings, in part because we played something like 8 top-25 teams. Clemson was actually ahead of us at #3 when we were #4 in the BCS, but they lost to South Carolina ... I figured even if they didn't, we'd pass them anyway by winning the ACC while they were idle. Texas was #1 and ND was #2, so it seemed like a safe bet for us.

Well, Alabama beat Florida, who was ranked higher than BC (our opponent in the ACC Championship), and they vaulted over us to #2, dropping Notre Dame to #3 and us to #4. Instead of playing for the title, we're playing #14 Boise State. woo. Not as fun as shutting out overrated Notre Dame last year (oh yes we did), but it'll do.

Just a reminder that the BCS is crap. Sure, we screwed ourselves by losing two games, but you can't tell me that it's a good feeling to win your last game prior to the bowls and end up moving down. In this season, it was really Texas and everyone else; there simply weren't two teams that were clearly better than the rest, and that was the only reason the BCS came into play.

Guess I'll return for my senior season.

Rock Band 2 song difficulties

I admit it, I've been slacking on this. Of course they don't make it easy on you, what with DLC coming out every week and all. Now that there are more than 1000 songs available, well, it's a bit of a challenge.

Anyway, I've created a new Google Doc with most of the songs and Rock Band 2 difficulty levels. (Remember, RB and RB 2 have different systems for difficulty. Also, IMHO the RB 2 difficulties are less accurate. Take that for what it's worth.)

There are a number of songs with no difficulties yet because I entered only the song info, knowing I'd have to come back to them. This is still a work in progress. I'm down to the Rs with just the new Nirvana and Night Ranger songs to go back and fill in.

Finally, there are some songs in the game itself that I haven't marked, and then there are the songs from the first game that you can import. (I deleted some of those, so I may not have ratings for everything.)

Enjoy!

Oh, one more thing: a few songs only use three instruments (one song with no drums, three songs with no vocals). For those songs, I removed the averages from any column with the part that is missing, so they'll be at the bottom of the list (because the full band can't play them).

I don't think they get it

The BCS just launched a website that basically says "nuh-uh".

Yeah, this is how they're fighting a playoff system, by walking around through the innernets and shouting "I am SO wearing clothes!"

Sorry, emperor. You'll find out soon enough.

NHL and joke suspensions, continued

Flyers forward Daniel Briere suspended two games for hitting Colorado's Scott Hannan after Hannan scored on Philadelphia.

Should have been: 15 games: 10 for the hit and 5 for the thug team. Philadelphia has a long, recent history of cheap shots. Until their players are penalized sufficiently, the Flyers will continue to goon the rest of the league.

Canadiens fighter Georges Laraque suspended five games for a knee-to-knee hit that knocked Detroit's Niklas Kronwall out 4-8 weeks.

Should have been: 40 games: 20 for the hit and 20 for the resulting injury. Laraque isn't necessarily a Bryan Marchment – yet – but this certainly doesn't help. Kronwall is known for hard hits, borderline hits, and occasional cheap shots of his own, but that doesn't excuse the hit on him. Idiotic frontier justice is one-third of what has made the NHL a minor league. (The lockout is one third and the NHL's unwillingness to deal with any problems is the other third.)

Once again, until you penalize cheap players for cheap shots to the point that they actually refrain from committing them, this kind of stuff will happen. Wait until Laraque slew-foots Alex Ovechkin or a Flyer cross-checks Sidney Crosby into the boards after a goal.

If some idiot fan tells you the current system works fine, ask him about Ace Bailey. That was more than 75 years ago and the NHL still hasn't learned.

No, it wasn't

It really wasn't.

Look, the average person realizes a lot about the game. The problem is that the average person also forgets a lot about the game from time to time. I mean, it doesn't take very long to figure out that it's good to have the ball and bad not to have it ... but then in certain situations, suddenly that no longer applies?

It wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for the fact that most coaches usually make the decision that will assign them the least blame. Why is that? Well, most GMs seem to be like most fans: they may know what's best, but they don't always act that way, especially not when things start to go wrong.

So coaches tend to coach not to lose so that they don't get fired ... unless they are pretty secure, either in their job or in the knowledge that their GM knows what they're doing. I think the latter is increasing – there are more and more instances of coaches going for it in situations where others wouldn't have in the past – but this was definitely a combination of the two.

Belichick, more so than almost any other coach in the NFL, doesn't have to worry about decisions. He isn't going to get fired any time soon. In fact, he can probably write his own contract. So the decision to go for it shouldn't have been surprising.

After all, if you had to choose between your QB with the ball to win, or their QB with the ball to win, who would you take? (Especially with Randy Moss on the field. And Kevin Faulk, the guy whom Tony Dungy referred to as the guy who caused them the biggest headaches in those games, probably because of matchup problems. You know you're going to put two, maybe three guys on Moss the whole game, but who covers Faulk? A linebacker? A safety? A corner?)

Belichick was coaching to win. It didn't work out. But there was a lesson to learn here: the value of timeouts. First and 10 at the IND 47 ... I think the Patriots, along with the Colts and Saints, have the kind of offense that can recover from a first and 15 better than just about anyone else in the league. I think it's better to take a penalty there rather than use a timeout ...

Update: See for yourself. Cold, Hard Football Facts shows some mainstream media responses followed by blog responses to Belichick's decision. Guess which ones are rational and which ones cry out "STOOPID SUX0R!!!!!" No, guess again. (Thanks to mgoblog for directing me there.)

360 review: NCAA Football 10 (3/10)

So the "new" version of NCAA Football is out. I bought it because I'm a fool. As is typical of older EA franchises, there are about three new features in the game, a bunch of small new crap that nobody seems, and hundreds of bugs, most of which have been in the game for years and years.

New features? Well, one interesting one is an online/offline hybrid called Season Showdown. You register with the online site, pick a school, and then each week, you help your school win its matchup with its real-life opponent.

Each team's representatives compete in five categories: offline play against CPU, online play in general, online play against the current opponent, rivals voting, and trivia (a 10-question online trivia game, high score for each player counts toward the team total). One point per category you win, winner of most categories gets the win. For the voting, you can vote for up to five schools per day, including your own if you desire.

During NCAA 10 games, you get points for plays you make yourself (catches, big plays, tackles, etc.), and you get bonus points for underdog wins, classic games, and even strategy (see below) and sportsmanship (punting on 4th down). "Poor" sportsmanship can cost you points, although it's kind of silly in some cases: for example, passing at all with a big lead costs you points. whatever.

Strategy is another new aspect. Now, when you execute certain plays, you're setting up others, similar to how it happens in real life. These plays are indicated in your playbook with a percentage of setup; if you succeed enough with the right plays, you'll get another play completely set up and it will glow. Call that play and you get bonus Season Showdown points. I don't know if it's also easier to run or what. The "instruction" guide suggests that it is more likely to work, but it should be anyway, right?

What else? Well, video clips of Erin Andrews talking about your Road to Glory athlete. Nice, but there's a limited collection of them (obvious because they're actual video and not digitized). And, um, that's it. Well, you get to "look around your room" in RtG mode, which is pretty dumb considering that left-to-right also is supposed to be used for menu navigation, but like with a lot of other things, EA screwed that up.

Bugs/design flaws from last year and before? Where to begin ... how about Road to Glory mode?

• The coaching AI is terrible: running the option inside your own 5 or on back-to-back plays when it was stopped, calling three- and four-deep zone defenses when down 21 or more late in the fourth, etc. etc.
• The point system is not only skewed toward defense, but you frequently get points in practice for things you don't do.
• The depth chart is based solely on overall rating, but preseason all-conference and all-American teams aren't. One season, I was first-string All-American in preseason and wasn't even a starter on my own team.
• You get rating boosts for good practice sessions, but only until you're a starter. After that, no. Why? Who knows? So you develop faster if you're not a first-team player.
• Intercepting a pitch in practice gets you no points at all: not for an interception, not for a fumble forced or recovered, not for a tackle, nothing.
• You only get tackle points if you are the last one in on the tackle, so you can end up with something ridiculous like 7 credited tackles but 13 tackles in the box score. This sucks in practice.
• Pass deflections don't count toward your career stats, which is kind of awkward if you're a defensive back.
• The camera angles used are frequently terrible. For example, on any kind of kick play, the camera is a high sideline camera. Good luck figuring out how to block a kick or block on a fake. What's worse is that the camera in live action will spin around as the ball goes past you, which would make sense except that it's a third-person camera and so there's no reason to have it be so disorienting ... especially considering that at times, when the computer pretends to snap the ball, the camera will twist toward the sideline. Basically, this means you'll never catch someone who runs right past you. Sometimes, when you're in pass coverage or in a pattern, you'll actually be off the screen. I wonder if they even let the testers play RtG mode.
• Your high school isn't referred to properly. If you enter your high school name, that's the only thing they use. This works for about one high school in 50. They should use the whole thing.
• Of course, this could be avoided if they used real high schools, which, of course, they could. All they have to do is round up high school standings from the year before. Not hard. I mean, WIS has every high school in America in their database. EA could figure out how to get the ones that play football. If they cared.

Next: the game as a whole. Again, these are returning bugs/flaws.

• Tackling a player so he goes out of bounds gets you nothing. No credit for a tackle, nothing.
• There's nothing that tracks your best practice efforts, which I suppose is just as well given the flaws with practice.
• There are no I-AA teams in the game, which means that a whole bunch of teams play these made-up logos: Cobras, Rhinos, etc. What is this, Baseball Stars? Take Erin out and put in real teams.
• AI players chain moves together like crazy. If you try the same thing, you get tackled every time.
• AI defensive players jump the snap all the time and are never offside.
• In certain defensive formations/against certain plays, the AI covers the wrong man, which means that not only do you have to recognize this, you have to figure out who the jerk was supposed to cover and run like hell to get to him before the QB figures it out.
• Kick and punt return teams only block for the AI, but will happily stand around and watch while you get crushed, fumble, and lose the ball.
• The play selection screen forces you into Corso Mode on fourth down, which is particularly a problem when you are in hurry-up mode late in the game.
• Offensive linemen still carry large electromagnets in their arms which activate when the ball is snapped. Even if you're going the other direction, if they get close enough to you, you're locked into position and can't break away. Naturally, this does not apply if you're blocking them.
• The AI insists on moving you forward at the snap, even if you've taken control of your player by moving him a bit. Combine this with the magnetic lock-on blockers and you have real problems on defense.
• Pre-snap movement borders on absurdity. It's simply an excuse to move your player out of position before the ball is snapped. Again, this doesn't happen when they're on defense.
• When you're on defense and the other team is in hurry-up mode, you can't sprint to the line because you are crouching down. Why? Because you're focused on the ball that isn't set yet. Nice.
• There are barely any penalties in the game, and I mean that two ways: penalties are rarely called and there are very few of them that can be called, which is a good thing, because I doubt they'd be programmed properly.

Okay, now the new bugs.

• Sometimes Erin and Kirk Herbstreit will talk about you as Player of the Game even when you aren't.
• One year, the Heisman was awarded to the player who finished second in the balloting. No, that player wasn't from Notre Dame.
• Postseason practice is messed up: when you finish one session, it doesn't advance to the next day or to the bowl games that day. The only way to do it is to advance to the next practice, and that's not available on Friday, even if your week of practice didn't start Monday.
• Defensive players have had their speeds boosted because ... because ... I don't know. Because EA sucks.

Overall, the lack of improvement the programmers were allowed to put into this game is shocking. It's not like they don't know about this stuff: there's actually a thread on their forums where you're asked to report bugs. So the only thing I figure is that of the time the team spends on this game (and remember, they've probably been programming for 52 weeks straight across all games: EA is notorious for overworking its programmers), about 20% is allocated toward fixing bugs, and that includes bugs from the new features that are forced into the game. Playtesting? Whatever the testers report is probably thrown out the window by management. I mean, who the hell could possibly sit through some of this stuff and allow it to go out the door, other than a clueless manager?

Screw release dates. Next year, take the time to get it right. Better yet, stop adding crap we don't need (like other "pressure" crap; give me a break, shaking my controller just runs down the batteries, it doesn't replicate the feeling of playing in Michigan Stadium or Neyland Stadium or wherever in front of 100,000 hostile fans) and spend one year just fixing bugs.

If you've never bought or played an NCAA game before, yeah, I guess you can pick this one up. Otherwise, rent it from GameFly or just stay away. Next year's game won't be much different.

zlionsfan's rating: a disappointing three first downs out of ten.

More bugs/design flaws I've uncovered:
If a penalty is called on the defense on an extra point (perhaps only on personal fouls), the point counts and the offense gets the ball again. In this case, it was a 15-yard penalty, so the offense got the ball at the 17. This bug has been around for years, and frankly it's a deal-breaker. When it happens, I restart the game.

Reviews are rarely initiated by the booth (have these people ever seen a real NCAA game?) and always result in a reversal. Granted, the plays they do review generally seem to warrant a reversal, but a) it isn't the "realism" they appear to be shooting for and b) it's always a tipoff that you'll lose the ball. (It seems the majority of the reviews come when you've forced what you think is a turnover.)

Extra points are called "field goals". Incorrect. They are both place kicks ... if you must use a generic name, then the formation is "place kick", but honestly you should be using specific names. After a TD, it's the Extra Point formation. Other than that, it's the Field Goal formation.

Play suggestion on fourth downs is abysmal. It's not uncommon for Corso to suggest a fake punt on 4th and 15 or more inside your own 30 ... even running out of a fake punt formation.

The field announcer sounds almost happy to announce touchdowns for the other team; presumably this is because he's trying to remain neutral, but then that's the exact opposite of what you'd expect. If my announcer called a touchdown for our rival on our home field like that, I'd fire him on the spot.

Dear fans of other teams,

Please stop using hyperbole to try to make a point. Please stop exaggerating your teams' weaknesses and minimizing their strengths.

It is painful to listen to someone try to tell me how their defense is bad, or their offense is struggling, or blah blah blah whatever.

Look. You don't know squat. This is what my team did yesterday. It took what should have been a 24-0 or even 28-0 lead and made it 17-0; they failed on third-and-one, then missed a field goal on fourth-and-one, and settled for a field goal on another drive that started in Seattle territory. Of course, they only scored 3 points the rest of the way and lost yet again.

That's 1-24 over their last 25 games ... for reference, 2-24 in their last 26. The '76-77 Buccaneers went 0-26 over their first 26 games, won the next two, and played in the NFC Championship game two years later. The Lions will be lucky to make the playoffs in two years.

The offense is bad. There are about three good players on that side of the ball, and two of them have been hurt this season. The defense is bad. I don't know what to say about that. Even special teams, long an area of expertise for the Lions (which is extremely unusual; typically ST success is not sustainable), has been a problem.

Surprisingly, the Lions have one game left that is possibly winnable, at home against Cleveland. The rest of their schedule is against teams with .500 records or better: at Minnesota, at home vs. Green Bay, at Cincinnati, at Baltimore, vs. Arizona, at San Francisco, and at home vs. Chicago. Yes, Bears fans will say the last game is winnable. I say shut up.

My team is bad. They haven't had a winning season in 9 years, a playoff appearance in 10, or a playoff win in 18. (And that was the lone playoff win in the last 52 years.) They're coming off the only 0-16 season in NFL history. They will likely set a record for most losses in consecutive seasons; five teams lost 28 games over two seasons, and that shouldn't be a problem for Detroit to match.

And what's worse, they have plenty of company. Even with the 0-16 season, they didn't have the worst record in the last two seasons: St. Louis was 5-27 and Kansas City was 6-26. If the Lions hadn't lost to the Rams, St. Louis might well have exceeded Detroit's 19-game losing streak.

Cleveland isn't much better and may be getting worse. Tampa Bay has been struggling quite a bit. Neither Oakland nor Washington seems like a 2-win team.

Look, I understand the concept of not meeting expectations. Once upon a time, Detroit could actually be good enough to consider a playoff appearance, so I know what that's like. But don't confuse that with actually being bad.

And if your team is 8-0, don't complain at all. You'll sound like a Patriots fan.

Dan Burton voted against health care for me

But it passed anyway.

Sorry, Dan. If this passes the Senate, you'll have to share. None of this keeping the best health care for yourself and spreading lies about what's available for the rest of us.

Liveblog: but why?

For some reason, I'm blogging while I watch the horror that is Purdue-Michigan.

12:05 - I show up in time to watch Purdue drive 80 yards in 4 plays. So it's the bad Michigan defense that showed up? We'll wait and see.

12:11 - Purdue intercepts a deep Forcier pass. Except no, it's actually caught. (Shared reception.) Purdue challenges and loses. There goes that one.

12:14 - After the not-interception, Michigan moves right down and scores a TD of their own. You'd think these teams have absolutely no defense.

12:23 - Dropped passes resurface, Michigan gets a little pass rush, and Purdue settles for a field goal. 10-7 Purdue.

12:28 - Special teams mistake 1: Michigan gets a huge kickoff return. However, Purdue's pass rush pressures Forcier, but Olesnavage drills a long FG. Tied at 10.

12:37 - First turnover of the game. Of course it's Elliott throwing an interception. sigh.

12:41 - End of the first quarter, tied at 10.

12:45 - Brandon Minor off to the races. Michigan 17-10.

12:53 - Purdue's offense stalls again. Punt back to Michigan ... not looking good.

12:59 - Bad coverage, missed tackle, 24-10 Michigan. here we go.

So then I miss some things, like another interception and stuff. But it's still 24-10 Michigan. sigh.

1:18 - Halftime, 24-10 Michigan. Yep, that's about what I expected.

1:43 - Michigan's first turnover, an option play gone awry. (Reminds me of about 20 plays in NCAA 10.) Next play, Bolden runs it in thanks in part to poor tackling. 24-17 Michigan.

1:50 - Michigan comes right back down and scores a TD, although it looked like Forcier got banged up on the score. 31-17 Michigan, but look for a Shoelace appearance on the next drive. I mean, 30-17. Guess they missed the extra point.

2:04 - Purdue answers back, a nice sustained drive. 30-24. Michigan fans are probably pretty nervous, especially if Forcier is injured. Uh, it's still the same not-defense out there for Purdue ...

2:08 - Oh, hello surprise onside kick. And first-play long pass. Touchdown, Purdue. 31-30 Purdue.

2:13 - Three-and-out on Michigan's next possession.

2:17 - Three-and-out on Purdue's possession. Guess these teams really are evenly matched.

2:19 - End of the third quarter. Much closer than I thought it would be at this point.

2:30 - Michigan misses a field goal, and on a third down, Purdue gets a really long completion. Too bad it was a TE, or he might have scored.

2:34 - Despite my attempt to jinx them by going to the bathroom before the end of the drive, Purdue scores to extend the lead, 38-30. Elliott looks pretty sharp now.

2:37 - Three-and-out, and on top of that, Michigan seemed to be caught in between going for a fourth-and-one and punting, so they didn't get the punt off in time. Fourth and 6. Of course the announcers said "good move" not to go for it. Um, no. Possession is always worth more than punting. Fourth-and-one is very makeable; the next one might be fourth-and-10, down 15, for all RR knows. Oh well.

2:43 - Purdue punts back to Michigan, the punt is muffed, Purdue recovers, but there's a flag on the field. Kick catch interference, 15 yards, Michigan retains possession.

2:46 - Nearly a touchdown to make it close, but a holding penalty calls it back.

2:50 - Reviewing a play on the field. Michigan RB is tackled, but the Purdue defender is underneath ... so he laterals to an OL who gets the first down. Except the Purdue guy is lying on the sideline. But the Michigan guy isn't out of bounds, right? The refs on the field say first down, but it's being reviewed. I have to admit, it was a pretty heads-up play.

2:54 - The review says illegal forward pass. No first down. Purdue ball.

3:00 - Purdue can't get out of their own end and has to punt. Long return, and all of a sudden Michigan is right back in the game.

3:03 - Minor scores his third TD of the game. 38-36. Here comes the two-point conversion attempt. Any bet it'll be a QB option?

3:04 - It wasn't. Shotgun, sack, conversion failed. (I've seen that in NCAA 10 as well. Should have run out of the I.) 38-36 Purdue.

3:06 - Onside kick, expected, Purdue recovers. Now to keep the ball and let the clock run out?

3:12 - Purdue punts to Michigan. 0:29 to play, probably 70 yards to get in FG range. Just don't screw this up.

3:14 - Last gasp for Michigan. Forcier scrambles, can't find anyone. Game over. Purdue pulls it out, 38-36. Wow.

Amazon funny

So I ordered a couple of things off Amazon, surprise, but I did it Thursday night. (Hey, I did need one of them for my consulting stuff.) So I couldn't do one-day delivery for sure and get them on Friday, because you have to do it earlier in the day, and for some reason I didn't get the two-day Saturday option (which is relatively new, meaning Amazon apparently is also using USPS or someone else who delivers on Saturday).

So I tracked my order tonight, and I got this funny:

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US	11/06/2009	6:23 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	11/06/2009	1:51 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
US	11/06/2009	7:47 A.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

so ha ha. It's going to take four days, in a sense, to get something from Indianapolis to Fishers. It would have taken me about 90 minutes, max, to get it myself from wherever it is here.

Oh well. It costs me the same amount to get something shipped here from Las Vegas in two days through Amazon ...

Death by blackout

On ESPN.com, Greg Garber has a very interesting article about the viability of the NFL in Jacksonville. When a team flirting with .500 draws worse than the Lions and Raiders, you know there's a problem ...

and what makes it worse is blackouts. The blackout rule is a relic from the '50s, from a time where it really was the difference between watching on TV and driving down to the stadium for a game. Now, the only people who can afford to make that kind of decision could afford suite tickets if they really wanted to go: the general public is priced out of the impulse-buy market.

But professional leagues are very slow to adapt to the times: the NHL is stuck on a fourth-tier channel (thanks to its idiot commissioner) and still shows a significant number of games in SD, MLB as recently as last year was showing multiple playoff games at the same time, etc. Are they likely to realize that they're starving the golden goose? (I doubt the blackout rule is actually killing it, but it sure doesn't help.) Do they know what it means to Jacksonville that the Jaguars haven't been on TV at all this season?

With the spread of Sunday Ticket (a DirecTV exclusive because the NFL is stupid), fans are more free than ever to follow their favorite team no matter where they live, or to pick a new team if they can't watch their current team. A wise commissioner would work with the networks (who'd be more than happy to show all the games) and the owners (who need to realize what's happening) to rescind the blackout rule. Will Goodell figure this out?

Wayne Weaver, the Jaguars' owner, goes on to say that given time, they could be like Pittsburgh or Green Bay (smaller markets with avid fan support). But there's a big problem with that analogy: do you really think Green Bay would even get a team, much less support one, if they didn't have one now and were trying to land an expansion team? Hell no. The only reason Green Bay has a team is that they had one before the NFL was around. And yes, that's how old the Packers are.

How old are they? Check this out. It's the 1921 APFA standings. The APFA is the "league" that was the predecessor of the NFL. Items of note:

• The Chicago Staleys, who moved from Decatur for the 1921 season. Those are now the Bears.
• The Chicago Cardinals, who are now in Arizona.
• And yes, the Green Bay Packers, who are now in ... Green Bay, approaching their 90th season there.

Also note the number of "baseball" teams ... football owners were not very original. The Giants kept the name of the baseball team long after it left for San Francisco (NY enters the league in 1925). The Boston Braves joined in 1932, changing their name to the Redskins in '33 and moving to Washington shortly thereafter, where the Lions have still never beaten them. (The baseball team moved to Milwaukee and then Atlanta.) And in '33, the Pittsburgh Pirates joined the league, becoming the Steelers in '41.

So yeah, Wayne, you can be like those teams. Just wait 60 years. Oh wait, you don't have 60 years.

Look, Florida is a great football state, but as any NASL owner will tell you, passion does not always translate to money spent on professional events. Jacksonville simply can't support an NFL team and everyone knows it.

Weigh-in: Week 35, -2.4 pounds

Back on track. One week of behaving myself and I've undone the October damage. Now I just need to stay focused and get down to where I need to be. 160 is definitely possible by the end of the year.

I'm resetting my goal. 160 by December 31. Obviously August is well past. If at first you don't succeed, try again. Granted, 5.4 pounds in roughly 8 weeks should be easy enough, but the pounds at the end aren't always as easy as the pounds at the beginning.

Weigh-in: Week 34, +1 pound

This week was less acceptable. I should have done better. A gain of 2.4 pounds for the month ... take out the Virginia trip and it's a loss of 0.6 pounds, but if I did things correctly this week, I'd have balanced that out.

Time to refocus.

Weigh-in: Week 33, +3 pounds

Falling behind, so I'll make these quick. This week was understandable, somewhat: it was my four-day Virginia visit. Granted, two days were spent on the road, but still, I could have eaten quite a bit less. (Far too much sugar, quite a bit too much meat, not much in the way of vegetables.)

It's acceptable for a once or twice a year thing, but even with that, it's work I have to redo. However, it can still be done if you're careful the rest of the year. I'm not there yet.

Sounds about right

Here's what's on my DVR right now:

Surviving Disaster
Rams @ Lions
Lions @ Packers
Steelers @ Lions
Lions @ Bears

Sounds about right.

Some men you just can't reach

So the New York Times had an article about a poll they conducted recently about texting and driving. They found that 97% of the people surveyed believed that it should be against the law.

However, this line drew some attention on Gizmodo:
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Oct. 5-8 with 829 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Apparently some people saw the 829 figure and were confuzzed. "Number too small. All numberz bad. Survey bad."

I attempted to address the issue with a brief description of sampling, but it didn't do much good, and of course because this is teh innernets, stamping out ignorance is like putting out a grease fire with water: if you don't bring an incredible amount of water, you'll be overwhelmed by the fire, but either way, there won't be much left when you're done.

So I had my say, and now I'm moving on.

Not quite sure why the Times said 3 percentage points, though. I got 1.5 from this online calculator, but then I wonder if there is somehow a one-tailed vs. two-tailed issue here. Just curious ...