Pimping Linux

Larry Ellison's keynote today was the highlight of the day, as usual..

He announced Oracle's offering of 'premiere, enterprise-level support' for Red Hat Linux.
He claims Oracle will be able to offer the same level of support that Red Hat currently offers at half the cost, as well as providing 'premiere level' support not offered by any Linux Vendor.
In addition, Oracle will indemnify clients on the Linux platform against Intellectual Property liability-- an uncertainty brought on in the market, he argued, by litigation brought by SCO.

Oracle's new program is aimed at promoting adoption of Linux in the enterprise business sector-- overcoming the uncertainty surrounding Linux in the market.

It occurs to me to wonder why he didn't just buy Red Hat. He's certainly not been shy about making acquisitions in the last 18 months.

Of course, this isn't a move aimed at Red Hat.
This is all about Microsoft.

One of the audience members asked him if he thought this meant the end of Red Hat-- and he indicated he felt confident that Red Hat would respond in some manner.

Asked by another questioner if this would mean the end of Windows, Larry replied to great applause "Oh, we should all be so lucky."

"Our company is cooler than your company"

Camera-phone pics from last night's Appreciation Event..

Elton John..


Joan Jett..Devo..

on the show floor

Okay.. so here's the deal about the exhibition hall here at the Oracle show... and it should come as no great surprise..

Macs and iPods are everywhere!

Vendors are giving them away.. people are carrying them around and using them for whatever they're doing.. it's stunning.

I talked to the girl at the FiveRuns.com booth (see the picture at left) for a few minutes. They're giving away a MacBook Pro at the show, and based on their display, the Mac OS would appear to be one of their core platforms. The company is a little over a year old-- selling system management tools... and based on the glimpse I got of their stuff, clearly the Mac UI look, feel, usability principles are taken to heart by these guys..

Dell and HP have big sponsor presences here-- and both CEOs have given keynotes so far-- but the underlying theme here, as I see it, is that the Mac laptops are making a big push into the corporate environment.

In fact, while Oracle's Development head was having one of his guys give a product demo, showing off some integrated Order management and tracking process (BPEL in the background), the item he 'ordered' for the demo was an iMac! This is minutes after the HP CEO had just left the stage..

I'm not surprised that so many vendors are giving away iPods... that's only natural.. but the more I see Apple hardware floating around here, the more I believe there is a trend here.

The Streets of San Francisco

I'm in San Francisco this week for Oracle's OpenWorld Conference.
Flew out yesterday afternoon.. or was it the evening. I don't know.. Stopped over in Denver on the way and I think that hour in the Mountain time-zone really messed me up on what time it was where I left, where I was going. Who knows?

Flew on Frontier Airlines, which I have to say-- I had never heard of before. They appear to be a burgeoning competitor to SouthWest for the low-rate fare market. Based in Denver, they have a pretty good service going, with flights reaching as far as New York.. but their specialty is obviously points in the West and Southwest.

The best part was the in-flight entertainment.
I had basically conceded that I'd have to watch highlights of the ND-UCLA game at the hotel when I got here last night. My plane left at 2:55-- so when we took off, according to my Blackberry, the game was just at the end of the first quarter-- the Irish up 7-0. Not bad. We'll see how it looks when I land in Denver in a few hours, I thought.

So I sit in my seat and notice a little flat-screen TV embedded in the back of the seat in front of me. And as the flight attendants are talking, I realize that they're delivering 24 channels of DirectTV to that little screen.. so then I start really hammering the channel button to see if one of those channels is NBC.. and sure enough...!
For $5 I was able to watch the game, while also flipping back and forth to ESPN and ESPNNews.
And that little surcharge for the TV is, I'm sure, one of the ways they're able to offer the cheaper flights.
I didn't pay for the TV on the second leg of the trip from Denver to SFO, and as a result, that felt like a much longer flight.
Then again, perhaps that had something to do with the nature of that game and how the Irish struggled and hung in there, but were never able to get an offensive rhythm, honestly until the very last drive of the game.

I am SO glad to see that this team can put together a 1 minute drill, though. No more of the ridiculous play-calling fiasco's of the past 10 years where the coaching staff couldn't get the play call into the QB in time. Before the end of this play, Charlie has already get the next play call in the queue. And Brady-- for all his flaws-- really does step up when time is of the essence.

Don't think, just throw, Meat.

So as the captain comes on over the PA to announce that we're making our final descent into Denver, the TV gets muted and I watch as Brady makes that pass to Samardzija.. the cabin is quiet, except for me, muttering under my breath "Go, go, go!" And when he hits the end-zone, I had to throw my arms up in the air and shout (well, not exactly shout) "YES!" Guy behind me was an Alabama fan, also watching the game, so he and I had a chuckle about that as we were filing off the plane.

I started to feel like I was a commercial for this little airline.. and I realize I'm sounding like a similar ad now. So before anyone (who actually reads this) accuses me of being a schill, I'll cut this short for now.

Conference starts this evening.. and based on what I've already seen, there's an interesting trend here among the vendors.. more later.

Someone must be listening..

Well, just to bring closure to this little intrigue around Torre and Piniella.. thank goodness, it appears that George SteinBrenner reads this blog and has come to understand what a terrible mistake it would have been to fire Joe Torre.

I have no idea what this means for A-Rod.. I can't think, nor have I heard anyone else who can, of a trade scenario that would send A-Rod to another team..

The Yanks need pitching. That's the bottom line. Some good, strong, and hopefully young arms. And hopefully Cashman and the Boss can figure out where to get some (please, without gutting the farm system all over again)...

A foregone conclusion...

Well, this morning, it would appear to be a Foregone conclusion-- based on the papers (see Mike Lupica's column in the Daily News)and ESPN.com-- that Torre is gone and that Lou Piniella will be the new guy...
From this morning's story on ESPN:

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, a special adviser to the Yankees who watched the
final two games in Detroit while sitting next to Cashman, told The New York
Times that while he was not surprised that Torre's job status was in question,
he didn't know what Torre could have realisitically done differently.
"It
seems like the great job he was doing all year, all that's forgotten," Jackson
told the newspaper.

The story goes on to cite players like Damon and others who think Torre's been too good for the majority of the season for his job to be at risk.

Obviously, these guys don't know who they're dealing with.

Change for change's sake shouldn't mean anything... it doesn't make sense to fire Torre over the inability of this lineup (largely constructed at the behest of Steinbrenner, himself) to score runs.
Torre can't hit for them.

But it would appear that, unless Brian Cashman or someone (Reggie!) can talk some sense into the Boss, that Torre's time in pinstripes is at an end..

And I, for one, am sorry more than I can say, to see it come to this.

Stunned Silence

From the cover of this morning's Daily News.

Okay.. I have been a TERRIBLE baseball blogger.
So consumed with college football, I haven't spent a single word on the Yankees' late season surge.

And now this morning (and last night), following the Irish domination of Stanford (I couldn't get enough.. I wanted to see more touchdowns; drop 50 on those smug Palo Alto jerks)...

But by yesterday, after watching the way the Yanks got shut out by the Tigers in Game Three.. I didn't have much hope. And this much bally-hoo'ed lineup looked simply impotent.

That said, in the wake of yesterday's embarassing end to the 2006 season, I still don't feel like the rumblings of big changes are headed in the right direction.

See stories here:
The Daily News,
The New York Times
The Post
NewsDay

But the most outrageous report-- the one that, when I heard the headline read over the radio, made me audibly gasp "Oh no!".. so much that my boys, both from their car-seats, were left asking "What? What is it, Daddy?".. is this story, also from the Post, that indicates that Torre will be fired and that Big George wants to re-hire... are you ready for this?.. Lou Piniella...

Let me just say.. if George does this, I'm seriously going ot have to reconsider my support for this team until Steinbrenner is (back) out of the picture..

The "L" is for Looney-Tunes!

Forgive me for the Springer-esque overtones here.. this is like a train wreck.. I just can't look away..

Does anyone have to wonder why the Spartans took the loss this week to lowly Illinois?
What with their coach still wrapped up in the meaningless controversy of last week's mini-brawl with the Irish and Coach Weis' contention that he got slapped somewhere in the mele...

If your coach is still thinking about LAST week, how much hope can you really have?
The man has clearly lost it.. but then again, he's 'lost it' before, hasn't he? (witness: last year's outburts during his half-time trot to the locker room during the MSU-OSU game-- "the coaches are ruining it!")

What's the over/under on John L remaining in East Lansing?

Boiled!

I really don't have much to say about this win over Purdue...

After some of the drubbings we took a few years back at the hands of Joe Tiller, I just can't get enough of watching the Irish beat the Boilers over and over again.

Like Weis, though, I'm pissed about the defensive breakdown at the end of the first half that led to the 80+ yard passing TD-- and meant we could only go into half-time with a two-touchdown lead.

42-14 just had such a ring to it..

But alas, I'll have to settle for 35-21... it's just not as impressive in the paper the next morning.

Well.. now my wife's a fan

ND 40
Michigan State 37

Please, guys.. let's not have many more like this one.
By the third quarter there were signs of life-- though I freely admit, I'm not able to recall anything more specific than that rough impression as the game wore on. For a while there, I was having to contemplate how I'd be spending the rest of the Fall weekends, since the Irish were sure to fall out of the Top 25 with this loss and there would be little hope of salvaging the season from this point on.

But ND managed to score just enough to keep it within two touchdowns.. and unlike Michigan last week, MSU didn't ever seem to have their hand on the 'Shut down' switch... and gradually, gradually, as the Irish went more and more with the No-Huddle (Weis to Brady-- "Hey Meat, Don't think, just throw!")-- belief started to creep in.

I can confirm this only because it was at about this time, with the Irish down by a couple of scores, that I went to my wife, who was sitting at the computer in the next room, and I apologized in advance for my behavior upcoming. I knew. Something momentous was going to happen. I could just feel it.

This isn't to say that my behavior throughout the previous three quarters had been exemplary. I was generally slouching and moping around the house during commercials, pacing the living room floor and muttering at Brady as he overthrew wide open receivers. Even Samarzidja could be seen shaking his head and smiling wryly as he looked at the bench-- "You expect me to catch this shit?"

But then, right when we needed them, came the turnovers.
First Ndukwe's beautiful rip-n-strip.
ND scores and now we're within a touchdown of taking the lead. With 5 minutes or so on the clock, there's still a world of time.
Hope is alive and well and by now my wife has entered the living room and is standing in front of the TV with me..
And then Terrail Lambert's shoe-string interception.. takes it to the house.. and now I'm on the floor, pounding the carpet with my fist-- and my wife is having to run upstairs because I think I just woke the kids.

She said: "This is why I hate sports."
I said: "This is why I love sports!"

Weis' Bowl of Cherries

Perhaps the hardest thing to think about while the game was falling to pieces yesterday was the affect that game could have on recruiting.. Who knows how the next batch of 17 year-olds could react to watching this prospective team go down in flames like that.. You can hardly imagine any way that even a master coach like Charlie Weis could turn a 47-21 drubbing into any kind of a positive sales pitch...

But this afternoon, I noticed this comment from Weis in his press conference... and I can almost believe that he could pull it off-- letting the boys see how you handle adversity, how you face it.

Q. You talked about how you have to think about what you're going to say to the team going into the locker room after the game. With a large number of recruits here, do you have to talk differently to them?

COACH WEIS: No, we don't let the recruits in the locker room until after we're done with our talk. We have a private locker room. There's very few people in this locker room now other than the team. The only three people other than the team are that allowed in there are the president, the AD and the associate AD, deputy AD, who football under his jurisdiction. Other than that, we have no one in there. There's no other people in that locker room.

When I talk to the team, I'm just talking to the team, okay? When I talk to the recruits, we had a bunch of recruits that we had a big dinner for last night, that was really a bowl of cherries having to do (laughter). I had to talk to them. I had to talk to all of them last night. I talked to them very matter?of?factly just like I'm talking to you. You can't hide the fact of what just happened. To be honest with you, having gone through appointments with a lot of these guys today, I was very encouraged at the positive response. They like the fact when you don't sugar coat it. You just be brutally honest with them.

On to next week..

A little tidbit from the Weis Press conference that makes me think Coach is planning to take out some frustration and get some back from Michigan State for their flag-planting at ND Stadium last year:

Q. You mentioned State a little bit. Do you use the struggles your team had the past few years with them or is this game all the motivation you need?

COACH WEIS: There's one incident in particular that I'll use as motivation.

47-21

As I mentioned, I was fearful going into that game.. but I had no idea just how fearful I should be.
We did manage to cover Breaston-- but apparently we couldn't cover Manningham, as well.

Samardzija was invisible behind double and triple-teams...
But as I feared, Brady had trouble hitting the open guys as well..
Had McKnight open on a go-route and over threw him.

I'm exhausted this morning.
I hate losing to Michigan!
I literally had to take a shower after that game, trying to wash it off of me..

At the Post-game press conference, Weis gave due credit to Carr and the Wolverines:
"it's really only right to give just due to your opponent who just kicked your butt."

And I don't think I'd want to be a member of that team right now. Asked if he's concerned about the secondary, Weis replied:
"I got concerns with everything right now... We have a lot of work ahead of us here in the next 48 hours."

The next 48 hours.
No taking the night off.. no rest or reflection..
Just get back to work..

Get ready to sweat, kids.

It's a landslide!

No question which is the real game of the week, despite ESPN's best attempts to promote the Auburn-LSU game.

Week 3: the Wolverines come to South Bend

The media has been all over this one this week. They're calling this 'Separation Saturday' over at ESPN. The Irish are back to #2, Michigan #11 in the AP. And Michigan hasn't won in South Bend since 1994... hasn't won a road-opener since 1999... and, as every pundit has been saying all week-- the Irish "just have too many weapons on offense."

Going into this game, I am primarily fearful of two things for the Irish:

1) Mike Hart. I think our DBs can cover Breaston. But I'm not so sure that our Linebackers can keep up with Hart.

2) Michigan's D, and Brady and the Amazing Floating Ball. Last week, especially in the first half, we still saw Brady throwing passes that just seemed to float on him.. over throwing open receivers (or not seeing them at all) and missing guys streaking across the back of the end-zone. Samardzija and McKnight can often go get the ball wherever it is (and now we've seen Carlson has some good hands as well).. but depending on what Michigan brings on Defense, I don't want to see Brady get rattled. He needs to settle in early and get confident, get his touch on the ball, whatever..

Go Irish!

For the Record: After Week 2

Real quick, the Irish rankings after the week 2 win over Penn State:

AP: #2 (up from #4) behind Ohio State
Coaches: #3 (up from #5) behind Ohio State and Southern Cal.

My 'As if Anyone's even reading this' Top 5:

1. Ohio State
2. Notre Dame
3. Auburn
4. USC
5. Alabama/Rutgers (tie)

Man, it's hard to find 5 teams that have played two decent opponents!

ND 41 PSU 17

Went to dinner with friends about midway through the third quarter with the score 34-3. Well in hand, so I don't feel so bad about heading for some dinner..

But from the bar TV in the restaurant, I spotted the final score: 41-17... and all I could think was "17?" I've got to hit the Tivo to see how those two Penn State touchdowns happened...

Quinn to Shark.. a little something for the ladies..

Another post from the Extra Point.. he's getting clips posted in-game...
This one of the Quinn to Samardzija touchdown at the back of the end-zone..

ND Alumni: Get ticket, will travel.

And they wonder why ND gets those invites to Bowl games..
the ExtraPoint (a swell little blog I just discovered this afternoon) makes a great point-- as highlighted by ESPN/ABC this morning..

It's simple-- ND/PSU tickets are going for more than #1OSU vs. #2Texas (both HUGE enrollment State schools) on the online-marketplaces..

ND/PSU: Notes from the first half

Okay.. like I said last year... I'm not a football expert.. I'm not going to try to be some kind of scout/pundit here.. but just a couple of notes and observations from my couch on the first half..

1. Nice new NBC intro.. FINALLY NBC incorporates some actual elements of the campus experience-- shots of campus, the band, etc. And they actually use the fight song! ND Nation has complained for years that NBC steadfastly refused to let you hear the band play the fight song as part of either the intro our outro of the game.

2. Brady still worries me with the way he's overthrowing some of these open receivers.

3. Got D? We do! You better look out!

Less than an hour to go...

JoePa

Okay, suspend the killer instinct for a second and read this.
The guys over at BlueGraySky got a really wonderful essay about Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions from one of the Penn State bloggers. JoePa has always been one of the 'good guys' in college football-- humble and with a simple approach: go to class, get good grades, play good football. But this essay really puts the impression that he makes on that campus into perspective. Money paragraph:

Penn State University has played 1153 football games in its 120 year history. Joe Paterno has been an assistant coach or the head coach in 611 of them. That’s over half. Paterno owns 355 of the school’s 772 all time wins. Joe Paterno is the face of Penn State football and Penn State football is a reflection of Joe Paterno. Achieving longevity like that takes more than just winning games. It’s more than x’s and o’s. It’s about being part of the community. It’s about standing for principles and values that go beyond football. It’s about doing things the right way.

Remember the "Snow Bowl"

For the Record: After week 1

Since I usually have a hard time remembering how these things progressed after the season is over, I'm going to track ND's ranking (here's hoping they remain ranked all season!) week to week..

Going into Week 1, the Irish looked like this:

AP: #2
USA Today/Coaches: #3 (tied with Southern Cal)

with Ohio State the consensus #1.

Now, heading out of week 1, the Irish have, not unexpectedly, dropped:

AP: #4
Coaches: #5

A win followed by a drop in the polls is usually followed, itself, by a loud uproar from the fans of the descending team-- how can you drop a winning team, they howl.

No such uproar has been heard from the reputedly 'whiney', 'spoiled', 'unrealistic' (if you believe Mark May and others of his ilk on the sports page) Notre Dame Nation... I think we're all reasonably confident that, should ND win out the rest of the season, there will be no question where we should be placed in the polls.

So for now, we remain respectfully silent... and hopeful for next week's game against Penn State.

Enough of this nonsense..

The media is abuzz with chatter about the helmet-to-helmet call in the second half lastnight.

Ivan Maisel over at ESPN mentions "Even Charlie Weis thought it was a clean hit," and quotes Wheeler, the ferocious middle linebacker who put the lick on Quinn:

"I think the referee said it was an illegal hit but I didn't lead with my head," Wheeler said. "I do not think it should have been a penalty."

And in the Atlanta Constitution this morning, Yellow Jackets Head Coach Chan Gailey whined about sending a tape of the play to the conference office.. well, if this had been an ACC crew, that is:

The Jackets might have held Notre Dame to a single touchdown if not for a controversial personal-foul call against Wheeler for helmet-to-helmet contact. Gailey objected to the call during and after the game and stood by those objections on Sunday. If it were an ACC game, he could send a video of the play to coordinator of football officials Tommy Hunt, but it was a Big Ten crew so Gailey decided not to make any formal complaint.

"Because you know what's going to happen," he said. "It's going in the trash."

Chan Gailey, I have just three words for you: Send the tape!

Good flag.
Look, fellas.. this Big Ten officiating crew was hardly out to give the game to ND-- I'm still looking for this holding by Rhema McKnight that stalled ND's opening drive. And whether Wheeler meant to hit Quinn with his head or not, it was flagrant-- he put his helmet right on Brady's ear hole.. no doubt about it.

"It was a clean hit," Georgia Tech cornerback Kenny Scott said. "But that comes with the territory. These were Big 10 officials and we're playing Notre Dame."

Note to Kenny Scott: Notre Dame isn't in the Big Ten. In fact, the Big Ten kind of hates us.

So hey GT, go play your next game against, who? Samford? Then who is it? Troy State?
Best of luck with that Murderer's Row.

On to Penn State.
Go Irish!

Season 2, Game 1: Georgia Tech

Can't fully process what I saw last night, except to say that I'll be vacuuming up all the bitten fingernails off the floor today.

Quinn had Happy Feet the whole first half.. seemed to settle down in the second. He needs to be a lot more consistent throwing the ball if they're going to beat Penn State next week.
The Defense kept the Irish in the game-- how ironic considering all the negative publicity the Defense had been getting all off-season.
In the second half, the Offense finally seemed to get it's rhythm back, thanks entirely to Darius Walker.

Oh, and the hit of the night-- no it doesn't go to Zibby-- gotta give it to Ndukwe for this Td-saving (maybe game saving) hit on the very impressive Calvin Johnson in the first half:

Sure, Bo, sure...

Bo Schembechler says "ND needs Michigan more than Michigan needs ND."
And that's why he's been saying the Wolverines should stop playing the Irish.
Wouldnt' have anything to do with what we've done to the UM national championship hopes the last several years would it?

Weis prepared for Georgia Tech - Sports

Okay, look, I know it's early. I know they haven't played a down yet this season. And I know I may eat these words later...
but all I can say is I love everything I hear about Charlie Weis and his preparation.

Weis prepared for Georgia Tech

This article feeds the perception-- the man has a photographic memory, I believe. He can watch tape, catalog it, and recall it later. He's been filling his head with all the data, the nuance, the tendencies of his opponent. And I find myself thinking I'll be sorely surprised if I catch a glimpse of unease or uncertainty on Weis' face during the game. Even when things go badly for the Irish, I find that I trust Weis wholly to be in control and know what to do, how to adjust, to handle whatever contingency arises.

Thinking in these terms reminds me of the Michigan State game last year. I remember watching Weis on the side-line and wondering what was going through his head as the Irish fell behind 38-17 in the 3rd quarter. Even then, he seemed to be in control. He got the Irish into a position to win, got them back into the game.. only to lose it on a defensive breakdown in overtime.

Likewise the famous end to last year's USC game..
Weis leaves little to chance.. but chance still is a factor.

Nevertheless... I trust him to keep us in the game.

Weis: We're not deferring.

In his news conference today, Charlie was asked if he had the men ready to handle the coin toss on Saturday. In reply, he said "If we win the toss, there's no question what we'll be doing. We won't be deferring."

So what did you ever do after college, Joe?

The boys at BGS reminded me of this commercial from a few years back featuring Joe Montana and Father Riehle , shortly after ND signed on with Adidas.

Shark Attack

Rack him!

Hey Romey,

just wanted to give you this little blast from the past-- a piece of transcript from your ESPN show back in January 6, 2005.

Regardless of the spin coming out of South Bend, there is no way they would have broken off Ty Willingham if they knew they were going to have to settle for Charlie Weis. They fired Willingham because they thought they had Urban Meyer. And if youre going to whack a solid guy like Willingham you better end up with Meyer or Steve Mariucci or Jeff Ted ford. You dont fire Willingham to hire a guy with no head coaching experience. Notre Dame is not the place to go to learn on the job. You cant hire a guy just because he went to school there. What, Rudy Reuttiger didnt want the job?

Still, I guess that didn't stop you from pimping him on your show a few weeks ago.

War Irish.
Beat SoCal and the Wonder Poodle.
I'm out.

Hey Ramblin' Wreck.. you're on Notice!

Found this graphic on Classic Ground, a blog about "Art, Cultural Literacy, and Notre Dame Football."

The Hype Machine

Oh yes, the Hype Machine is in full Swing!

And while it does my heart good to see the Irish featured in all this national media, I can't help but worry about it... the SI cover jinx or whatever, I'm not sure.
I just think I liked it better when the Irish were under everyone's radar.
The Irish have big targets on their backs this year.... and that may not be a good thing.
Then again, I trust that Coach Weis will have them prepared and ready to handle everything that comes with the spotlight.

@#$%&*!!

Give me Quicktime or give me death!!
NDNation.com today has a link titled "Changes to Irish All-Access".

A few weeks ago, ND made their pay 'All Access' online video service totally free. From the looks of it, they run the Coach's weekly show, interviews with players, and other general fluffy reports on comings and goings around (primarily) the football team.

The other day, I went over there to try out the newly-gratis service and found that the videos streaming playback was choppy at best and most often just cut-out after 30 seconds or so..

So when I read that there were changes released, I thought surely this meant that they had addressed some of this bugginess in the playback or beefed up the bandwidth or something..

But instead, all I get is a message saying the following:
I run Firefox on a Mac. I'm about as Microsoft independent (without being a zealot) as you're likely to find..
But this is really starting to piss me off!
So there's a link at the bottom of the message that says 'Click here if you're a Mac user.'
So I clicked it... I mean, hey, maybe they have some kind of support for non-IE, non-Windows users..


But instead, I got this:
and that's when I really got pissed.
CSTV.com, a CBS company, supposedly #1 in College sports is telling me that if I'm not running Windows with IE 6, I'm SOL.

So I'm wondering-- from a product delivery standpoint... how are these changes for the better? I am a patron of this site who previously could watch these videos-- granted they did appear to be stop-motion animation at times, but nonetheless, it was a start.

Now CSTV, which has apparently gotten UND.com to sign a partnership agreement, has decided that the non-Windows community can take a walk.

I suspect there'll be some kind of mass feedback sent to the University on this.. I won't be surprised if this changes in the next few weeks..

But then, there's that voice in my head that says Here goes Microsoft again.. using that market leverage to force inferior products on us all once again. If you want to see this ND content, you've got to be a user of our crappy software..

Worse yet, they basically say "Hey, don't worry-- with the next release of OS X, Apple is going to bundle BootCamp which will allow you to install the ENTIRE WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM on your Macintosh, all just so you can watch some of our cheesey videos.

No, I mean it.. they really say that:

Once you have installed Boot Camp and Windows XP, Service Pack 2 you will be able to view All Access content on a Macintosh if you are booted up using the Windows XP platform.

What on earth would I want to do that for??

Have these people not heard of Quicktime?

So now, all I'm looking for is an email address to which I can vent my anger over this stupidity..

Wonder Poodle

Run over to publicity-shy USC's website real quick and behold the wonder that is Pete Carroll jumping around like a jack-ass in a Wonderbread jumpsuit...

Apparently, Carroll brought in Will Ferrell for an inspirational break with the team-- they went to see Talladega Nights as a team.

Just makes me appreciate Charlie Weis all the more for bringing in guys like Joe Montana and Jerome Bettis (you know, alumni, football players-- see the pattern?) to visit camp.

Get out your Chainsaws, Sox Fans..

Oh what a weekend it'll be for baseball!
The Yanks and Red Sox play five games between now and Monday, kicking off with a double-header today. The Yanks took the first game of the set this afternoon in a 12-4 Wang-gem..
but the nightcap was looking grim. Top of the 7th and the Yanks were down 10-7. Giambi walks and Bernie gets a single, so we've got two men on.. so the get a little something going with one out.. Posada singles to load 'em up, and that's when the bottom fell out.

I can hear them now in Boston-- get out your chainsaws, Sox fans, because there can be no retribution severe enough for what Mike Timlin did tonight. May as well call him the new Bob Stanley.

So as I said, Posada singles to load the bases.. and in comes Timlin, for Mmm-Bop Hansen. Melkey Cabrera steps up and works 8 pitches, taking a couple of strikes, fouling a few away, really working the at bat..
And then he hits the most beautiful little single to right, scoring Giambi.
Bases still loaded-- Damon flies out-- but Jeter smacks a double to deep right, clearing the bases, scoring Williams, Posada, and Cabrera all the way from first..

Open up the flood-gates, the Yankee bats seem to come in streaks, like everything else in baseball.. but it's those little moments like those first several pitches that Cabrera worked through to find the pitch he wanted... that was the opening they needed...

Now, of course, as I write this, it's 14-10 Yanks, still in the bottom of the 7th..

Charlie being Loud and Proud on Fox..

As noted by the guys over at Blue-Gray Sky, Fox Sports is running an interview with Charlie Weis. Here's a quick taste :

Chris Myers: I think it was a few months into the job, you got this ten-year contract. I ask this because no matter what the contract says, you'll hear rumors that this [NFL] team might be looking at him, or that team might be looking at him.

Charlie Weis: Well, that's what we were trying to do. We were trying to end that...because by doing it the way we did it, it showed a commitment by both parties. It showed a commitment from ND to Charlie Weis, but it also showed a commitment from the Weis family to ND, saying, "We're not looking to jump ship the first time a better offer comes along."

Myers: There won't be that burning desire after all those years in the NFL, with the Giants, and--

Weis: I'm at Notre Dame...the head coach at Notre Dame. I mean, why would you have a burning desire to go anywhere else?

Myers: Well, there's the college versus the pro grame--

Weis: (sounding it out) No-tre-Dame...the University of No-tre-Dame...

Myers: (laughing) I feel like I'm being recruited here. Where do I sign, coach?

Weis: Well, I mean...it is something different.

I just love that we have a coach who's proud of the University again, and who's not afraid to give that pride voice. No-tre Dame. It is something different.

Here come the Irish..

.. is it September 2 yet?

New Rule

From Pat Forde's column this morning:

New Rule: Yes, Notre Dame is different. Get over it. If your school were important enough to get its own NBC contract and thumb its nose at conference affiliation, do you really think it would decline?

Oh, now that's gonna leave a mark..

Well, as if the Titans didn't have enough problems.... now it'll look to the rest of the league like they're enlisting their mascot to do the dirty work outside the sidelines..

At the start of the third quarter of tonight's pre-season game agains the Saints, the Titans mascot actually hit the Saints' QB with a golf cart.

I'm just shaking my head.

Taking me back

Took the boys to get haircuts this morning and have spent most of the rest of this Saturday afternoon watching the new (well, it's new to me) Pink Floyd DVD, "Pulse".
And it's just beautiful..

Oh, and Aidan likes it-- not sure if that's the seal of approval that David Gilmore was looking for, but...

Also catching up on my buddy Manundso's podcast.. and if he's reading this-- not that I have any idea why he would be-- I just gotta say, I'm actually liking the post-T-Diddy direction he's going. It's got a surreal, Samuel Beckett kind of feel to it with the layered voice tracks.. and the Bono Interview is just outstanding. I need to barge back in and make a contribution, if I can muster one... but if nothing else, I just wanted to give my vote of confidence to the guy at Happy for Apathy.

Hezbollah's Crude Propaganda machine

I've been hard on CNN's Anderson Cooper before, here and elsewhere, for his on-camera 'righteous indignation' persona... but I've got to give it to him for his take on Hezbollah and it's overt manipulation of the western media..

12:50 p.m.: Anderson is doing a few more stand-ups about our story that's quickly become less about Hezbollah and more about their crude propaganda machine when the "family" emerges from the bunker behind us and joins their friends in the street. They're laughing, talking loudly, and gesturing with their hands, mocking anger. I really should learn Arabic. Anderson does another stand-up about the group now standing behind us.

For a little partisan commentary comparing this piece from Cooper with Nic Robertson's earlier, and less candid profiles on Hezbollah, go here.

Landis looks to be done

Reading Mark Kreidler's article on ESPN.com just now-- this morning, Floyd Landis' "B" sample came back positive for inflated testosterone levels, so it looks like our latest American hero is about to get stripped of his Tour title.

That's interesting and sad in a way, but not nearly as interesting as something Kriedler reminds us of as he argues that Americans have been getting all too accustomed to the excuses athletes come up with when they test positive. In the article, he recalls us to the incident at the 2000 Sydney Olympics when World Champion shot-putter (and Mr. Marion Jones) C. J. Hunter tested positive for steroids-- four times-- and he cried on camera at his press conference, saying he couldn't explain how this stuff had gotten into his system.. he just had no earthly idea.

Hunter's nutritionist was at the press conference and he had some ideas, however. He argued that.. well, let me just refer you to the original article back in 2000:

Hunter's nutritionist flatly denied that he took the anabolic steroid nandrolone, which showed up in massive amounts in urine samples taken four separate times, and suggested the positive tests were caused by iron supplements Hunter used.

The nutritionist, Victor Conte, said Jamaican runner Merlene Ottey and retired British runner Linford Christie, who both tested positive, took the same supplement.

Who was that again? Victor Conte.. That's right.. Conte, Balco, oh my.

Barry Bonds can get indignant with the fans, the media, whomever he wants... the picture is just becoming all too clear now.. and history will not look kindly on Barry, or virtually any of the big hitters from this era in baseball.. to say nothing of the shot-putters, sprinters, or Tour de France Champions.

Haden

Also.. listening to the announcers on this clip reminds me, all over again, of just how much Pat Haden irritates me..

That is all.

The last ND-USC game I attended..

Memories of the last USC-ND game I attended.. the 1995 game when SC, with Keyshawn Johnson, came into the cold and rain of South Bend ranked #5 in the country, and got handed a 38-10 whooping..

This hit by Kinnon Tatum was decisive..
He literally flies over the fullback and delivers such a blow to the running back... amazing..
Not that we could see much of it in person from our little seats back in the student section on the other end of the stadium...



Oh, November 25 is going to be some fun this year.. I hope.

"A fastball, a change, and a pretty lousy curveball."

Pretty good article in the NY Times on Jeff Samardzija's summer "vacation" pitching in the bus leagues...

The Irish have arrived..

When the video game commercials feature your team, you know you've arrived... or something..

Goodnight, Olivia

Well, after days and days of slinging boxes and bags full of stuff we probably ought to have thrown out weeks ago, I think we've finally done it. The last touches were put on cleaning the old house out, scrubbing it down and getting it ready for the buyers to take over after closing tomorrow.

We're trying not to be too sad about it. But it's the house we brought both our boys home to, it's where we started this little family of ours-- it's where Grandma Irene stood in the backyard, holding a hatchet high above her head preparing to take another whack at a tenacious shrub we had spent most of the afternoon trying to removed from the yard (what eventually became the round flowerbed)-- and we've spent a lot of good years there. We'll always have those to look back on, the pictures and memories of the times we spent there.

The boys, of course, are not so sentimental. Mama took the boys by there this afternoon during the cleaning process. They each ran from room to room and exclaimed about how clean and nice everything looked. Then, as they drove away, Aidan and Bryce both waved and said "Bye bye, House." And now they've moved on, thoroughly.

For us, though-- and maybe we're just being sappy-- we're spending a little time reflecting on the last 8 years and the family, the life we started building within the sheltering embrace of that house.

G'night, Olivia.

Should we be surprised?

From the headlines at espn.com :

Miami safety Cooper shot, teammate returns fire

After Cooper was shot, teammate and roommate Brandon Meriweather pulled a pistol from his pants pocket and fired three times at the person, who jumped a fence and fled with another person in a car, police said. It was unclear if the assailant was hit.

Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up..

Just FYI..

The Results are in!

Notre Dame ticket lottery results are available online here
And we'll be California dreaming in late November!
Lost out on the tickets to the Penn State game, but we will be able to go out to SoCal and watch the Irish take on the Trojans in the last game of the season.... hopefully the crowning end to a successful season... regardless, it's sure to be a good game.

Secret Italian Training video

Hey Manundso.. this is for you..
In honor of the Italians winning the World Cup, we present this from Youtube.

It's on!

I've got my pointy geek ears back on this afternoon!
Season two of the new Doctor Who wraps up tonight.. just aired in the UK..
I'm, ahem, retrieving it now and hope to be watching it tonight..
and from what I'm reading, it's going to be great!

Geek out!

Don't put the ice in the Arena!

Um, yeah..

Happy 4th of July

Can't get enough..

... of watching this..
the closing seconds of the 1988 'Catholics vs the Convicts'.



And thank you, Jimmy Johnson, for giving us the prototypical 'Face of the Sore Loser'.

in the Clutch

Okay...I've been saying for a year or more that A-Rod just isn't clutch.
Nice stat sheet. Good numbers at the end of the year. But even I had to wonder if he could really be called MVP last year.

That position has only been amplified in recent weeks as Big Papi in Boston looks to be getting the game-winning walk-off hit in every game the Sox play..

So mark it down: tonight, A-Rod hit in the clutch. A two-run walk-off dinger in the bottom of the 12th inning to beat the lowly Atlanta Braves 4-3.

So for today, at least, A-Rod is clutch.

There, I said it.
Let's see about tomorrow.

The Whole Tommy Z Fight

Done in 49 seconds

Well, I'm surely no boxing fan. And I'll be even less of one if, after last night, Tommy Zbikowski decides to leave football behind. But it's still nice to see him do so well in his pro debut, dispatching Robert Bell-- a guy who adopted Ohio State colors for the fight, apparently thinking that flashing buckeye colors in the ring would intimidate Zibby..

I don't know about you-- and maybe this is just the sleep deprivation talking-- but I can't imagine a worse tactical error. Poor guy had no idea what was coming. That much is clear.

Okay, so is it football season yet??

You are a Social Liberal (61% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (66% permissive) You are best described as a: Libertarian Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Working tonight.
You know how they say to never talk about work in your blog.
Well, I won't either.

But suffice it to say, I'll be here a while-- til about 2am tonight-- then back again in the morning.

Spending a little time reading manundso's blog here

Downtown Nashville is pretty at night.. but looking out my window, there are some strange (and scary) characters roaming around down there.

Mark May..

Oh, and I've got to shake Nevin O'Donnell's hand for the way he goes back and finds all these snide, ridiculous things that Mark May said about ND over the course of last season...

Can't wait for the Irish!

My friends down here in Tennessee will hate to see this, but, much like all these other little highlight films Nevin O'Donnell has put together, this one still just plain give me chills.

Just another 32 Foot Glass Cube on 5th Ave!

Steve Jobs interviewed on CNBC:

The buying experience and ownership experience of owning a Mac are about the best of any product I know.

Snogging

"I'm the Doctor. And I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!"

Geeking out again on Doctor Who.. second season, with David Tennant, this time.. and he is just having too much fun .. good show!

Samardzija!

Must see this..

I've been watching this over and over..

The View from the Chopper

In case you're wondering, from looking at this picture, if we just bought an empty lot.. you can rest easy, friends.. obviously this satellite image was taken before the new house was even built. The sellers built the place in April 2004, so it's truly just a couple of years old...
And despite my best intentions, as you can see I am, in fact, buying another house with a drainage ditch running across the back of the property.. but this one is much more scenic than our current one.

House news!

We've got some big news this morning..

We put an offer on a new house yesterday evening and this morning, it was accepted! So, if all goes well, we'll be moving into the new house in mid-July (the seller's are building a new house, hence the lenthy wait before closing-- but that's fine with us.. gives us plenty of time to work on selling our current house.

Pros-- about 700 more square feet, a great floor-plan, and an awesome yard just a short walk away from the neighborhood pool-- and best of all-- neighbors with TONS of kids Aidan's and Bryce's ages!

Cons-- Aidan had his heart set on a house with "two garages" (i.e. two garage doors).. this house has a garage built for two, but alas only one door. This afternoon, when we were showing him pictures of the house, he saw the door and said "But I told you that I wanted two garages!"

"Take the Train, Rock!"

75 years ago today...

More Firefly

For the bookmark file: pretty good run-down of a few themes in the Firefly series..

YouTube

Discovered YouTube a while back.. but didn't really give much thought to the idea that we could post and share our own little home videos..
Haven't had much time to clip any recent video together, but this is a little montage I put together early last year...

Bettis & the Sugar Bowl

Just watched (again, thanks to ESPN Classic and TIVO) the 92 Sugar Bowl.. Mirer, Brooks, Culver, and of course, Bettis.. love to see them "Gator Chomp" all over Florida (and a much younger-- and more goofily dressed-- Steve Spurrier)... just right to get me back in the mood for next football season.. oh, it's going to be a long summer...

TV Geek

When did we all become such pop culture nerds?
It all started when DVDs started rolling out season after season of all the great TV shows.. Star Trek, The Sopranos, the X-Files. Now it's Knight Rider, The A-Team, Millenium, and Battlestar Galactica (the original 1979 edition)...
I wasn't into buying those boxed sets, but I did think it was a pretty great thing that any time I wanted, I could run out to Best Buy and pick up a copy of Season 2 of the Dukes of Hazzard, whenever the impulse struck.
Then BitTorrent and TIVO entered my life.. and lately, it seems like my entire social and intellectual existence revolves around which TV series I'm thoroughly immersing myself in.. well, immersion is always a relative notion with me. It can sometimes be several days or more than a week between times when I can sit down and really watch something.

So what have I been watching lately?
Well, I downloaded the whole first season of Doctor Who a few months ago.. the new edition with Christopher Eccleston. It aired in England last summer.. I downloaded it this winter.. and now Sci-Fi Channel is re-airing the first season here in America. David Tenet takes over the role this spring... and they're off to a pretty good re-start.. although I do have to take issue with a few moments throughout the show where you can hear the editorial voice of the BBC speaking through the characters voices (making one or another off-handed quip about the American President... and when did the Doctor become such a big environmentalist?)

Also watching 24 and Battlestar Galactica week to week...
Battlestar had a few down weeks this past season, but otherwise, it remains, I think, the best show on television right now.

Went out and got the Firefly series on DVD a month or two ago and spent about three weeks working my way through that.. what a great show! How did I miss it when it was originally airing?

Now I'm on into the first Season of Arrested Development-- a brilliantly written comedy.. and another show that I'm discovering only after it's been killed...

And I downloaded the first season of The Shield the other night.. thanks to TIVO, I've been sucked into a couple of the recent episodes.. and since it's like the 6th or 7th season, I figure I ought to go back and get a little of the back story...

TIVO.. what a marvelous invention... and perfect for those late-night bouts of sleeplessness when I'm up with one of the boys.. or just for those scraps of 30 or 40 minutes in the in-between times when the kids aren't in high-need mode..

CSPAN Combine

Watching the NFL Combine on the NFL network this afternoon and something occured to me...
this is like C-Span..
More commentary, perhaps.. but basically , what I realized is that, like C-Span, watching the Combine has that same kind of empty, lonely feeling.. the feeling where you realize that you're watching this with only a handful of other people in the country watching with me...

"Ah, here comes the 'Off-Tackle Reaction' drill. This is a fun one."

Fascinating stuff.

H4A!

Did another stint on the HappyforApathy.com Podcast with my good friend, Manundso.
It's such a good time getting to hang out with those guys.. a nice break from the every-day grind... it was a low-key evening for me, so I don't feel like I really added that much this time around, but it was a great time anyway... and a good drink. Thanks, Manundso! See you next time.

Anderson Cooper, my hero

All I've got to say is: I'm looking at CNN.com and stumble across Anderson Cooper's so-called 'Blog'... emblazoned with his narrow, earnest ("I'm so J. Peterman") mug and these sage words across the masthead:

"Be honest about what you see, get out of the way and let the story reveal
itself." Anderson Cooper

He's so humble, that Anderson. He even quotes himself.

More Battlestar Commentary

Again... more from my ongoing email conversation about Battlestar Galactica with a buddy from grad school..

Finally watched the latest Battlestar on TIVO last night... "The Captain's Hand"...
And egads! Are we rushing Lee's character along at this point, or what??

I HATED that opening scene with Dualla.. with all it's "while you were away" exposition thrown in there..
I realized during that scene that my problem here is that I have NO idea what the trajectories of these characters are...
I feel like they did a pretty good job milking some of Starbucks development earlier in the season... but now it feels like we're just rushing the characters along. Starbuck is drinking herself to death infront of projector screens full of young pilots getting waxed (remember a few eps ago) while Lee sleeps with (quite literally) every woman he encounters (except the president and the terrorist leader) and jumps from CAG to Pegasus Commander in a matter of weeks...

That said, it felt like this episode kind of found itself somewhere about 2/3's of the way through... around the time when I was REALLY ready to give up (as I was thinking to myself "is there even one single competent officer ANYWHERE on Pegasus?")... as what's-his-name Pegasus idiot took himself down to the engine room and the battle ensued with the Cylons, it's like they were able to capture some of the original tension and pacing of the early episodes.

And just when I was ready to feel better about the show.. then Baltar announces himself for President...
And I realized that so much of what's been missing these last few episodes has been Baltar. He really has been terribly underused recently.
But to use him this way, was really more like abuse than anything. I didn't care for it... this all just feels really very ham-handed.
Did I come to expect too much from the first season and the first half of this second? What the hell is going on here?

All the same, this ep does give me a small glimmer of hope.
They are going to have to figure out how to write a subtle Pegasus character, though... and having Lee running the ship over there gives them some opportunity to do that, I suppose...

Preview makes it look like the next episode will be another character-sketch... this time on the Cylon side... could be interesting.. but I just feel like these previous character-excursion episodes they sent us on somehow caused them to lose the thread on the larger story... so I'm concerned about how or if they'll ever get back on track...

Sacrifice

A little Battlestar Galactica commentary after watching this week's episode:
Okay... after watching the latest BG over the weekend.. I'm honestly now starting to feel like I'm watching these episodes out of sequence.

What's the deal with Billy? you know, an episode or two ago, I remember wondering where he'd gotten off to.. even thought he might have been killed and I'd just not noticed it... and is it just me or did this little romance between Apollo and Dualla just spring up virtually out of nowhere? I do recall them setting it up a bit a few weeks ago, but even then I was wondering: What the hell happened to Billy? And my but isn't Apollo having a go of it lately-- that hooker on Cloud 9 he was keeping under wraps, a near tussle with Starbuck, and now Dualla.... geez-louise!

Makes it hard to believe Rosalyn when she's getting all weepy over Billy-- I mean, I'm talking to the TV: Geez, lady, you haven't seen the kid in like 2 months.. comes back on the scene, he's about 2 inches taller, got a new haircut, and he's clearly been working out at the gym... anyone care to wonder where he's been. Did his re-appearance not have "I'm back for one day's worth of shooting so they can kill my character and I can move on and work on my new pilot" written all over it??

Other questions: where's the good Doctor and Ms Tricia Helfer? Are they on vacation??
Has anyone seen the Chief since he and Helo were released?? (They were released, right? See, I can't even remember)..

All this adding to the ongoing drama of "What the hell happened to Pegasus?" I know, I know, they've made a couple of mentions of the ship, but who's at the helm of the freaking boat??

This ep was generally better than the last one, I thought, and loads better than 'Black Market'. More tension, a few good lines (Adama: "Cut the line."). But I'm starting to feel like Moore and the gang are either a) starting to feel a little too bullet-proof with their writing; or b) these were just filler episodes they figured they could shoot in any sequence and drop into the lineup when they needed some time to work on some larger story-arcs. I wonder.. from the preview, it looks like we're finally getting back to the Pegasus...

Let's hope so. After the last three or four episodes, this show is gradually starting to lose its grip...

Congratulations, Jerome!

Steelers win Super Bowl 40 tonight, 21-10.... and Jerome Bettis gets his first (and only) Ring.
Well done. Well deserved.
He announced, in the post-game, "the bus has made its last stop in Detroit!"

Happy Retirement, Jerome!

The best coach...

Tom Brady says Charlie Weis i the best coach he's ever been around:

On Sirius radio, Brady acknowledged this was a trying season, especially after losing offensive coordinator Charlie Weis to Notre Dame and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel to Cleveland.
“From the start of the year, the word coach (Bill) Belichick used was truth,” Brady said. “He was going to tell us the truth where we were at every single week as a team. We weren’t looking at the past. We had quite a bit of changes. We lost Charlie, who’s the best coach I’ve ever been around. We lost our defensive coordinator, who’s a head coach in the NFL. We lost some key players, had some tough injuries, and even through all that, were very competitive at the end of the year and had a shot to host the AFC Championship.”

Scar! and Serenity

Clip from an email I sent a friend regarding BattleStar and Firefly:

Just watched this week's BSG on TIVo--
Scar"-- and I've got to say.. I think it may be the most uneven episode I've seen (in a while at least)...
Since when did Cat become such a hot-shot? Maybe I haven't been paying proper attention...
Also seems like they introduced a lot of new pilot characters.. or at least the camera gave them special emphasis we haven't seen before..

This plus the overwhelming emphasis on Starbuck's drinking... and I've also lost track of who's CAG on which boat.... is Starbuck no longer attached to Pegasus..

Just weird.
I still loved the episode, but I just found myself scratching my head when it was over....

Also finished watching Firefly and Serenity this week.. and I'm totally IN LOVE!
Read a rumor somewhere along the line that the DVD sales of the show and movie are good enough that Joss may try to make the case for a return to TV for the show... that would, I think, be best... as good as the film was, I just think the pace of the writing and the style of the show lends itself best to the weekly TV format...

Random things you notice when you're kids are watching Toy Story non-stop for a week-- Joss Whedon got top writing credit for the first Toy Story screenplay.. not sure I realized he worked at Disney or Pixar... wild.

The view from my office

Just wish I weren't in my office quite so early in the morning..
but the view is pretty.. (not sure how well it comes through in these pictures..)

Blackberry'd

So they gave me a Blackberry at work this week..
I never figured I'd be one of those guys with the multiple devices clipped to his belt (well, I'm still not, for the record)... I mean, who really needs constant access to their email anyway?

But I must say, now that I've got this little thing in my hands, I'm totally geeking out.. I can't put the damn thing down.. it's ridiculous!

Embarrassing...

Well, that may be too strong a way to describe my feelings in the aftermath of ND's loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
Do I feel like the Irish deserved to be there? No question.
At the same time, I do feel a bit that the Irish were being ranked as much for their potential as for their accomplishments.
And, as a friend pointed out, I think Ohio State could, at this moment, give Texas or USC a run for their money if a playoff were part of the deal.

So all in all, I don't feel too badly. Disappointed..
But in years past, as in the Fiesta loss to Oregon State, or the Gator (?) Bowl loss to NC State-- I felt a sense of the lost opportunity, as though another season like this might not come along for a long time to come..

But this year, it seems terribly easy to say "Yeah, well wait til next year."
Here come the Irish.