i’m diving in and i can’t swim

anyway, i decided that the time had come to give up my netflix subscription.  and i did. 

then, the greatest thing ever to happen in the history of cross-platform technological integration– Netflix began streaming movies to XBox Live! This meant that my XBox that had gone unused since my obsession with Halo 2/college ended could now serve a real purpose.  In a matter of weeks, I caught up on the office, the first 2 seasons of 30 Rock, and 5-10 random movies that i never really thought i’d watch.  i was able to sign up for the cheapest netflix plan (@$8.99/month) and i can have one movie at a time on dvd and limitless movies on my xbox.  i also forgot to mention that, via ‘microsoft silverlight,’ i can now watch Netflix on my macbook.  so between my computer, and xbox 360, im pretty certain i’ll keep netflix for the rest of my life.

here’s the catch — Netflix has, and i’m not kidding, every movie ive ever looked for.  no matter how obscure, foreign, etc. i could find it.  i’d venture to say that only about 5% of the netflix library is available via the “watch now” feature.

…so this all brings me to my next point — which i know i read somewhere but can’t find the link– but this completely changes the business model of netflix.  the said article mentions that netflix streaming viewership is up some ridiculous percentage (i really wish i had the stats, but i can’t find it on google) while dvd viewership was down significantly.  they’re trying to decide if this is just a temporary influx of “early adopters” or if it’s a change in consumer behavior.  umm, i can just about guarantee this is a change in viewer behavior. 

last point — i give the physical video store (the actual brick and mortar locations of the world) T-minus 36 months until they no-longer exist.  between my apple tv that i’ve hacked with boxee and my xbox 360/netflix, i know i’ll never rent another movie at a video store (i haven’t even mentioned hulu.  and it’s only a matter of time until HDTVs come standard with the ability to stream videos via netflix.  i mean, the ROKU box already exists, and TiVo has jumped on board with netflix…the next logical step is to eliminate the extra step and include the capability in the TV itself.  it’s going to happen.

i gotta go, i’m about to find something to watch on my xbox.  later   

here’s what i have to say.  WHO CARES!?!? i’m not saying that i think taking steroids is a good thing to do, and i’m certainly not saying that i don’t think barry bonds took steroids.  i firmly believe that barry bonds took steroids, but here’s the thing — i have ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM with it.  none.  at all.

that being said — now that there is a rule in place, i believe that any player caught using steroids should have two levels of punishment, and that’s it.  today’s policy/tiered system is, in my opinion, too lenient.  here’s what i propose:

1st offense: 1 season suspension
2nd offense: lifetime ban from the sport

look at that — men can work out and put on size…but not like that.  barry bonds took something.  he took something illegal.  and if it wasn’t steroids, it was HGH.  but here’s why i have no problem with it, and it’s very simple:

1.  Barry Bonds took these ‘illegal performance enhancing drugs’ during a time period in the game of baseball where there was no rule in place that said taking steroids was against the rules.  there was no rule, there were no reprocussions, and he was almost certainly taking them under professional care.   
2.  Since a rule was put in place–and regardless of whether the rule should’ve existed or not–bonds has never tested positive for ANYTHING. 

here’s why that matters to me: the rule can not be made retroactive.  you cannot go back in time and punish players (or people in general, because this applies to law, not just sport) for doing something that was NOT AGAINST THE RULES when they played.  even though anabolic steroids are illegal under US law, there was no due process, no rule, no punishment, etc. in the game of baseball.

i can hear the thoughts of everyone who thinks im an idiot because i just admitted that i know that anabolic steroids are illegal and i have no problem with bonds taking them…but i say nay–

bottom line: if there was no rule in place, you cannot fault/punish the players for breaking a rule that didn’t exist. major league baseball had no rule in place restricting the use of steroids/PED when bonds played. period. end. of. story.

the palm pre is amazing.  here’s my take on it:
        it’s like palm got together for a focus group and figured out everything people loved and hated about the iphone.  it’s like afterwards they took everything people loved about the iphone and put it into the pre.  then, they took all of the things people hated about the iphone and fixed them.  then, on top of that, they improved the OS – which is hard to do.  as slick as apple’s OS is, the palm pre’s ‘web os’ blows it away.

so here’s what they changed:
problem – people don’t like touchscreen keyboard (personally, i love it and think it’s better than a real keyboard could ever be)
solution – slide out qwerty keyboard

problem – apple’s battery in permanently enclosed in the iphone
solution – back of pre slides of, battery is replaceable

problem – no flash on iPhone camera
solution – LED flash for pre’s camera

problem – text message and calendar alerts interrupt application usage
solution – shrink application and show alerts/texts below

problem – only one application running at a time
solution – what palm calls “cards”

here’s what they improved:

-contacts pulled from variety of sources on the pre integrate IMs, texts, facebook gmail and outlook contacts, etc. into what palm has termed “synergy”

-palm will be releasing a “touchstone” that’s basically a stand for your phone with no plugs…you simply sit your phone on the “touchstone” and it charges.  is it necessary? absolutely not.  am i vain enough to want one? absolutely.

-an absolutely unbelievable (and intuitively simple) search feature was incorporated into the palm.

basically – if you love your iphone….or hate the iPhone for its flaws, you’ve got to check out the link above.  read the article and watch the video and you’ll be blown away.

if you’ve got the time, this video is much more in-depth and impressive.  it’s just long.  i recommend skipping to about 3 mintues in, and not watching the last 5.

so — what has apple done better than palm?  not much is what i say…they haven’t done many more things better than palm did with the pre, but what they’ve done better has been done much better and that’s this:

- the app store is amazing.  there are applications that, after having them, i’m not sure i could live without them.  seriously.  check out mint.com, mpg, pageonce, wootwatch, and showtimes, just to name a few.  they’re incredibly simple and useful.  if palm can’t match the functionality and simplicity of the app store, i’m not sure i’d even consider making the switch

- the iTunes integration.  face it, the way the iPhone is integrated into iTunes’ unbelievably user-friendly, clean, beautiful interface is amazing.  all palm’s offering with the pre is a mounted disk on the desktop that is the pre, and from here you drag and drop files.  yuck.  it’s ugly, it’s too archaic. my recommendation – integrate with songbird the same way the iPhone does with iTunes.  put in some quality time with mozilla and use songbird in the same way the iPhone uses iTunes.

it might sound like they’d be ripping off apple’s ideas, but the bottom line is that, if they could fix these two things, i’d trade in my iphone immediately.

after all, what about the pre hasn’t been stolen from the iPhone already…

that leaves me here.  i’m trying to figure out the best site on which to blog.  i’ve come across a few, and i know that i don’t want to use blogger.  i’m content with blog.com, but i’m not sure how much i have the ability to customize.  if i can’t customize, what can i say about myself? if i knew how, could i customize this page? maybe i’m just too [dumb] unfamiliar with the technology.  wordpress looks pretty cool.  is that the best that’s out there? what is delicious.

for someone who always thought of myself as so tech-forward, this is very eye-opening to me.  i know NOTHING beyond  facebook and linkedin.  i know myspace, but NO myspace.  i hate myspace. 

so what can i comprehend right now?  right now i’m learning twitter. or at least i’m trying to understand it — it seems like an incredibly powerful tool where information of any kind can grow exponentially and reach a virtually unlimited audience.  i’ve used it on linkedin to find out what people are saying about my company.  i’ve used search.twitter.com to find out what people are saying about a variety of things, from my friend’s small start up to barack obama. 

what does it all mean? i don’t know…but i’m dying to figure out.

from a business standpoint – the ability to track trends, to start trends, to respond, to act, to anticipate, to facilitate – twitter is unbelievable.  if you’ve got something worth reading, what you say can gain exposure to millions in a matter of hours.  it’s unbelievable the amount of information shared on the site — and quite a bit of it by people smarter, more creative, and better connected than i could ever hope to be.

my prediction – this in only the beginning.  it’s the beginning of a change in thinking.  sure it’s been going on, but it’s just now building steam.  business models will change.  advertising will change.  the disconnect that everyone was so afraid of with technology will lead to the exact opposite.  the world will come full circle, and the impersonality of technology will make the world a more personal place than ever — without the face to face interaction.  and quite honestly, that’s completely fine with me.  everything i do, if done right, can be seen by everyone – interpreted by everyone – monitored by everyone. 

my world, where i thought being tech-savvy included having an iPhone, reading engadget, knowing how to image computers and work linux…just had the light switched on.

i’m not sure what to think about all of this, but you can bet that i’m going to do everything i can to understand as much as possible about all of this social … everything.

i’m behind.  i’m a year behind — and with the way things move today, a year is a lifetime. 

i’d like to start by saying that, and this is just my opinion, the BCS will NEVER (really, NEVER) give way to a playoff.  Here’s why — because controversy sparks interest.  yeah, the money has something to do with it, and university administrators that sit on the BCS board want money for the large schools, major conferences, traditional powerhouses, etc. but the real reason is ‘interest’ 

let’s face it, the system does what it’s supposed to do–it crowns a national champion.  in addition to crowning a champ, it sparks controversy, controversy fuels sports television and radio shows, sparks ratings, sparks bar conversations between friends, sparks blogs like this, sparks everything.  controversy is GOOD for the sport.  it’s like jerry jones says (about his cowboys) as long as they’re talking about [the cowboys], we like it.  the more people talk, the more they care, the more they care, the more they tune in, the more they tune in the higher the ratings, and the higher the ratings, the more money the networks make.

now here’s where my beef is with the system: i HATE the human voters.  yep — i love the computers.  the problem with human voters is that they have biases.  everyone has a bias.  about everything.  it’s human nature.  so i won’t even mention the fact that the coaches vote without seeing the games…how could they watch every game?  so coaches vote based on 2 things: what the analysts say, and what the university’s reputation is. even the most neutral, objective sports writer has a bias — who wouldn’t vote florida over utah, florida’s got a better PROGRAM.  my response– who cares.

here’s what i think, and the computers will help me make my point -

the national champion shouldn’t necessarily be the ‘best team’ at the end of the season, it shoudl be the team that had the best SEASON.  the body of work should be the issue, not who looks best on the final day.  i won’t disagree that, when january rolled around, florida was the best team in the country — i dont think anyone will — but everyone seems to just give the gators a free pass for the loss at HOME to UNRANKED ol’ miss. not USC, not TEXAS, not OKLAHOMA, and not TEXAS TECH lost AT HOME.  hell, UTAH never lost at all! but for some reason (cough::bias) it doesn’t matter that florida lost to an unranked team at home.

so here’s how the computer polls compare to the final BCS rankings…remember, the only difference between the two is the human component.  and, call me crazy, but i think the computers got it right and then the ‘experts’ screwed it up:
**Remember, these are the final BCS standings, PRIOR TO THE BOWLS, so imagine what the bowl matchups would have been**

Computer top 10:                                Final BCS top 10:
10. TCU                                                10.    Ohio State
  9. Penn State                                         9.    Boise State
  8. Boise State                                        8.    Penn State
  7. USC                                                  7.    Texas Tech
  6. Alabama                                            6.    Utah
  5. Utah                                                   5.    USC
  4. Texas Tech                                         4.    Alabama
  3. Florida                                                3.    Texas
  2. Texas                                                  2.    Florida
  1. Oklahoma                                           1.    Oxlahoma

here’s why the computers are right:
1. texas and oklahoma had the best seasons.  oklahoma only lost to texas (ranked opponent) on the road and texas only lost to texas tech (ranked opponent) on the road
2. florida had a really good season, but not a great season.  they may have been the best team, but that doesn’t matter — if they’d just take care of business and win when they’re supposed to win (at HOME against ol’ miss (UNRANKED opponent)
3. same goes for USC, they had a good season, but they lost a game to an unranked opponent (oregon state).  but at least they lost on the road in prime time.  so usc, like florida, didn’t take care of their business — so it doesn’t matter how good they were (USC and FLORIDA very well could’ve been the 2 best teams in college football) because their seasons had glaring flaws
4. texas tech got blown out.  it’s inexcusable. but at least they lost a conference game, on the ROAD, in PRIME time, to a fantastic football team.
5. utah went undefeated, plain and simple — and for all the doubters (though this is in hindsight), they went on to beat alabama BY A LARGER MARGIN than florida did. 
6. alabama — great football team, and they didn’t lose a home game all year.  they beat everyone they were supposed to beat, and lost a conference championship to a better florida gator team.
7. how in the name of god did ohio state get into a bowl game over boise state — yes, that’s a rhetorical question — the answer is, because ohio state brings more money to the bcs than boise state ever could. who cares if they had an abysmal season.  who cares that they got blown out before half against SC and couldnt beat an OVER RATED penn state team at home on a thursday night.  who cares? right? ….i mean, right?!

my last complaint about college football is that the BCS ranks the teams, but rather than putting the top 2 in the national championship and then the next 8 into BCS bowls (3v4, 5v6, 7v8, 9v10) they give automatic bids to conferences.  when this happens, teams like virginia tech and pitt get into bowl games over teams like boise state and tcu. but i won’t even go into that…at least ohio state got in…right?!

ben is a tough quarterback.  he is.  he works hard in the game, he puts the team before his own personal well-being, and takes hits to ‘make plays’ all season long.  here’s the thing that’s evident though…the guy’s not the smartest quarterback in the league.  for the majority of the time in each and every game, ben roethlisberger is mediocre, at best.  he’s just as likely to throw an interception as a touchdown at any time during the game…he holds on to the ball too long, takes too many hits, and costs his team too much field position.  and here’s what i hear ALL THE TIME – “he does exactly what a steelers qb is asked to do — hand the ball off, manage the game, make a play here or there, etc. etc. etc.”  and what really gets to me is the steeler fan here or there that actually believes this.  see- the steelers are a great team, but if i were to pick a ‘weakness’ on the team, i’d definitely be staring ben roethlisberger right in the face.  the d-line, linebacking core, defensive backs, wide receivers, running backs, and the o-line all do more to help that team win games than QB1 does.  my comment to many steelers fans has been — yeah, you win with ben…but it’s not pretty, it’s not by his arm, and he certainly puts pittsburgh in some tough spots.  so i’ve asked some fans, wouldn’t they rather have someone like tom brady, peyton manning, phillip rivers, jay cutler, even steeler back-up byron leftwich playing quarterback than ben?  the answer i get from reasonable fans is yes — but from far too many people i get a resounding “NO.”  I’ve been called stupid, ignorant, and biased…and all i can say is that it sounds more like these folks are describing themselves than describing me. 

what i think is that the steelers play a ton of close games, defense wins their games, and every once in a while one of two things will happen:
    1. Ben will make a play and the steelers will win
    2. every once in a while, they’ll lose

now some fans say, that’s just steeler football, and ben fits that system–

what i say is, that’s steeler football, and it’s football that they’re forced to play because they don’t have a top 5 NFL QB that can go out, every sunday, and put pittsburgh in position to win comfortably.

he holds the ball too long, he throws intereceptions, takes sacks….and i HATE when people say that the most important stat for a QB is “Wins”

No way I buy that, I’d take a quarterback like Dan Marino over a Trent Dilfer or Ben Roethlisberger.  The only reason a defense ever “wins championships” is because the offense can’t.

That’s all I have to say for now.