Gretzy skips first day of Yotes training camp

I don’t care what the circumstances are with the Coyotes bankruptcy, I don’t care how obvious it is that you’re going to be dropped regardless of who gets the team. I don’t care about the fact that the NHL’s bid specifically states they will not honor your contract.

Right now you’re the head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. This is an NHL franchise. You are being paid over $8.5 Million a year. Get off your butt and show up and do your job.
I respect Gretzky but this is pathetic. How can the head coach of a team not be there when training camp starts?
Unless your dying in a hospital somewhere there are no excuses. None.

Is it embarrassing for him?  Yeah.
But hey, you’re getting 8.5M. That’s well above any other coach in the NHL. And it’s not like there aren’t questions about your ability to do the job. Sure you’re a part of marketing the team and all. So there is a little extra. But however you cut it you’re getting huge money to coach that team.
And regardless of what happens in the future you are the coach.

If I’m a Yotes player I’m asking myself why should I show up and work my butt off if the coach won’t even bother?
Hard to have respect for any coach after that.
Gretzky has been a model citizen for the game. He’s done a ton for it. He’s worked hard, he’s given a lot of time and poured his heart into it. He’s legitimately been a superstar of the ice as well as he was on it.

But this is horrible. If he’s anyone else he should be fired 2 seconds from now. It won’t happen but there is absolutely no justification no matter who you are. There are far better coaches then he that should be dropped in a second if they pulled this.
Embarassing.
For hockey, the NHL, Gretzky, and the Coyotes.

Gretzky no-show article

Wasted money…government

Someone please tell me why LA is funding Jackson’s memorial service?
This is really a pressing need for funding?
His family cant do it?  None of them have a cent?  What?
Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t much see why any government should be any more interested in funding his memorial then they would be mine if I dropped dead.

Celebrate him all you want. But please, government funding should NOT be used for such ridiculous expenses. How about taking all those millions of dollars and giving them back to the tax payers. Makes more sense if they can’t find anything at all to use it on.

Google/Beta

So Gmail is finally out of Beta, as is Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Talk. Amazing. I wasn’t aware Google was capable of labeling anything as officially being launched and not merely a never ending perpetual beta.
Gmail has been in “beta” for a little over half a decade now.
Stupid, and silly.

I guess businesses ignoring Google Docs due to the perpetual beta status finally got Google to wake up and  remove the meaningless beta tag.
Naturally in classic Google fashion it’s quietly swept under the rug.

Getting Google to do anything without years of research into the tiniest minutie is an incredible accomplishment. Now all we need is for Google’s spending to be devoted more to their products then the billions of swimming pools and other such apparent necessities that their employees must have access to.
Nice company to work for I’m sure, but that whole “Do Good” mantra of their died long ago. For all the hype and love, their an awful lot like a mini Microsoft in actions and behavior.
Or at least old Microsoft. I don’t have much issue with current Microsoft, or rather I do but not about their behavior on any sort of a legal basis.
But Google’s more questionable actions are kinda well out of the way of anything related to the shocking news that…. they actually have something that’s not beta.

Caps acquire Kronwall off waivers

NO!
ARGH!

The Leafs are systematically taking away every one of my favourite players
I loved Kronwall, he was one of the very few players I’ve been cheering for since well before he hit the NHL to play for the Leafs.

The Marlies lose easily their best D-Man all season, and Toronto loses a guy who could step in and play well as a bottom pairing blueliner for the next half decade.

I wish him luck in Washington, he’s a legitimate NHL talent and can play now. He could have played several years ago as our 6th D-Man. I don’t usually make hard definitive comments on what a player will be, and it’s perhaps arrogance to suggest that of Kronwall a mid 20’s AHL’er… afterall, such players don’t typically have any real value at all. In this instance I’ll be arrogant however, because I have confidence in Kronwall.

May not be anything special but he’s solid, and cheap. We don’t exactly have an abundance of players fitting that description.

And yes, I realize no one except me cares. But I love Kronwall, perhaps as much because he’s the only player I’ve ever felt I saw and recognized his talent before NHL scouts did.  It’s easy to watch prospects and read about them and form an opinion after the scouting agencies start mentioning them a year or so in advance of the draft.
Not so easy to see an unknown European, that goes late in the draft and say you saw him as an NHL talent.
Fun.
Because I fully admit, my hit rate on prospects I like is pretty middling and definitely well below the Leafs actual success.
(I do a sort of mock draft every year, selecting whom I’d pick of those available at the time the Leafs pick. Predictably, I’ve faired extremely poorly relative to the actual Leafs scouts. Which is as it should be of course, their professionals, I’m a fan…. they have all the resources and time to see all the players. I have little of either.)

Regardless, while I recognize few think much of him he’s quality IMO. Some offensive ability, albeit not likely much at the NHL level. He was taking on the tough opposition down in the A and coming out ahead. He was on the ice for a ton more D-Zone draws then O-Zone draws, and the puck was moving the right direction when he came off. Routinely took the shift after a PP when the rested top talents on the other team typically stepped on. In short, he’s been getting results in some very unfavorable ice time for 2yrs now and was adequate in his NHL showings.  Yes, he’s an AHL vet but he can play IMO.

Hot 7-on-7 action

Microsoft REALLY should have come up with a new name for automated in-place upgrades between Win7 versions. That just sounds like a porn orgy.

Chrome no longer in beta

Hell has frozen over, Google has actually released something that isn’t in a perpetual beta. Officially releasing anything that isn’t in beta for it’s entire lifespan is a massive step forward for Google.

Download Chrome here

It’s not about to replace Opera for me, but it is noticeably better then it was.. fixed up the few huge issues it had previously. Playing around with it, it’s looking like a browser that I could use on an everyday basis now if I chose to.
Now yet certain if I prefer it over IE7, and it’s clearly inferior to Firefox and Opera IMHO.
Still, a capable browser. Well done Google.

Now if only they could figure out how to actually make 2 cents off any of their products besides the core search business.

Avery, and a comparison between the NHL/NFL

I just love the contrast between the NFL and the NHL at the moment. Everyone’s up in arms about Avery saying ”I’m really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada, I just wanted to comment on how it has become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don’t know what that’s about. But, enjoy the game tonight." in reference to Phaneuf dating his ex Cuthbert.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think for a second this is about his comments, their just an excuse to suspend him. The issue is… well, all of a thousand things he’s said and done.

Meanwhile in the NFL Plaxico Burress has been put on the injured list after he accidentally shot himself in the leg with an illegal weapon that he was storing in the waistband of his pants. His teammate allegedly disposed of the weapon in New Jersey, crossing state lines. Nobody really seems concerned by this. Admittedly, the NFL often seems like it pretty much is a league of criminals more or less. So maybe a player shooting himself instead of assaulting someone else is a breath of fresh air.

On a related note, I wonder if the NFL has such a massive disparity between rules for the stars and… lesser players as the NHL does?
I don’t follow it, so I have no idea. It’s a constant aggravation to me that a fringe NHL’er can get suspended a week for something someone like Pronger could do 3-4 times before getting suspended for one game. The keep the stars on the ice at all costs mantra is tiring.
I sincerely wonder sometimes what would happen if Crosby brought a knife onto the ice and stabbed someone, if it were the playoffs would the NHL dare suspend him?  I’m honestly not sure.

Murderers receiving more then law abiding citizens…

How to treat murderers better then law abiding citizens

Ah, the wonderful usage of American Tax Dollars… ensuring prisoners in maximum security prisons that are jailed for murder can live in luxury wearing designer clothing, playing new video game consoles, getting 3 nice personal meals a day while sitting back relaxing and watching TV and the warden encourages the guards to develop personal familial relations with the aforementioned murderer.

A lesson from the government: Want to live an easy assured life with no worries and all you could want? Go kill someone.

Sundin ad nauseum

To the Media:  (Yes I know none are reading this)

Another day, another question from the media as to whether he will waive his No-Trade Clause. Another response from Sundin that says “No”. I’ve been keeping track this month because it seemed over the past few months that he was getting asked that practically daily. I was wrong, he’s only been asked that by twenty different people in the past 23 days (at least that have been oublished), though obviously many have asked multiple times.

This is getting annoying. Seriously an example of todays article:

“Sundin spoke to the media at Saturday’s morning skate and admitted that interim GM Cliff Fletcher had asked him to waive his clause, allowing the club to pursue a trade.

‘The Leafs gave me a chance to think about it and all that but as I said my position hasn’t changed since the start of the year.

”I have to do what feels right in my heart. I just don’t think I can go to another team if I don’t want to play for another team. That wouldn’t be right to myself. That’s how I feel”

So he’s firm in that he will not waive his NTC. What does the author then say?

“Sundin has only a few days to contemplate his future. The belief is the Leafs were hoping for a response from him on Friday. Instead, it may take the rest of the weekend for Sundin to make his decision.”
It may take the weekend for him to make his decision?  He just finished telling you he MADE his decision. A YEAR ago!  So instead you just keep asking him and pretend you haven’t heard the same answer every day for months?

Seriously, quit this. It’s aggravating incessant and ridiculous. We know he has trade value, we know the Leafs stink and we know dealing him for futures would help a rebuilding process. We also KNOW he will not under any conditions play elsewhere. End of discussion. He’s been adamantly firm on that thousand times over.
He probably has himself on tape recorder just to replay his words, their the same every time. He must have the patience of a god to put up with this, because it’s driving me insane just reading about it.
Every day, multiple times a day a new article pops up telling us the exact same thing. Ask Sundin, Sundin replies in the negative. We ignore that and say “Sundin hasn’t made a decision”. Ask next day, he made his decision long ago. It’s a no. Ignore it and say he hasn’t made his decision.

PLEASE STOP!
This is Toronto. I know you need to write a billion stories about even the tiniest incidents that may be even vaguely related to anyone that has even the slightest connection to the Leafs but for the love of god FIND SOMETHING NEW!

I can answer every single question Sundin will ever be asked over the next few months right now:
I will not waive my NTC, I will not play for any other team besides the Toronto Maple Leafs. I will retire a Leaf. I will resign here in the off season. I would rather play here then have the opportunity at a cup elswhere. I do not feel comfortable doing as Ray Bourque did.

How do I know that’s the answer? Easy, it’s copied verbatim from about 200 articles.

Whether Sundin is a wonderful guy whose loyalty is paramount and cares more for Toronto then the Cup itself, or he’s a heartless *beep* that’s staying here so he won’t have to work hard elsewhere on a cup run I really don’t care what the media thinks. Both have been said a billion times over.
Sundin is a god if he does waive his NTC, and the devil if he does it. He’s a god if he refuses to do so, and a devil if he refuses to do so. He’ll be crucified and worshipped by an equal number of people either way.
Pretty much all Leafs fans have their own opinion, as I do. None of us care what you think of his refusal to play elswhere.

Regardless, his heart is in Toronto and he’s clear that wherever Toronto goes he will be on the team. Be that to last in the NHL or first. He’s here. No where else, and that NTC ensures that he has final say.
What anyone else offers Toronto for him doesn’t matter, nor does Fletcher’s desires. Sundin holds all the cards. And he refuses to play elsewhere.

I’ll respect him regardless. If he goes at a deadline rent a player deal then I’ll love the prospects/picks coming back. If he refuses to then I’ll love his devotion to a dead team. But either way Sundin made his impact on Toronto long ago, and he’s hard pressed to significantly alter it positively or negatively now.

Steen resigned

3.7M over 2 yrs, 1.85M per.

That seems like an awful lot to be paying Steen in the short term, he doesn’t appear likely to outperform the contract in the near term and there is no long term benefits with this deal.

Strange.

Without any strong counting stats to fall back on to boost his contract value, and no track record of being an outperformer against decent opposition he can’t be reasonably expected to justify it immediately. If he does ever justify it, he’ll be up for another contract by then.

Disappointing when Trent Hunter went for 2M per over 5yrs with the NYI today. Certainly a substantially better player right now, at only incrementally more. Also a pending UFA. Steen was a RFA whose still years away from UFA.

This really makes no sense to me. If Steen was pushing the Leafs that hard in contract negotiations that he demanded an overpayment then they would have been better off simply offering the 1yr qualifying offer with the minimum obligatory raise in order to retain his rights.
If their comitted to Steen long term, then a term of more then 2yrs would have been the path to take.

Hard to see any real benefit here to Toronto.
Stajan will presumably see a commensurate raise in his contract.

The Truth about Ridiculous Valuations

If Facebook is “worth” 15Billion (which it’s NOT), then MySpace would be worth 65Billion…. which it clearly isn’t.

In the NY Post’s business section one of their articles today makes a very important point: this Facebook valuation is insane, and .com bubble-ish. They quote an analyst who applied the $357 Microsoft awarded for each registered user to MySpace, and came up with a $65b valuation. Three words: Not. Freaking. Likely.

“At $65 billion,” the article states, “MySpace would be responsible for all but $3 billion of News Corp.’s entire market capitalization – which clearly isn’t the case – and would be larger than CBS and Viacom combined.”

It’s crazy, I know, but sometimes the sheer number of users isn’t the most important thing. Irresponsible valuations, like this one, lead to solid companies with solid products, but without a surfeit of eyeballs, being ignored or, relatively speaking, undervalued.

Which is good for no one.

$240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook makes no financial sense at all. To be fair to Facebook, for a 3.5yr old company to have a revenue stream of 150M is stellar.

Now I wish I could say I believed that 10yrs from now Facebook would be at the top of the social networking scene-I’m not however, such a belief is an entirely different topic however.

Reiterate: Women

Allow me to reiterate what I said a few weeks ago.

Women: You cannot live with them, you cannot live without them.
You get comfortable thinking everything is back to normal, and naturally a new personality randomly pops up.

Present Emotions: Frustration, Confusion, Aggravation.

Chicago boos Wirtz’s moment of silence

To the surprise of absolutely no one Wirtz moment of silence at the last Blackhawks game intended to pay respect to his memory didnt quite go off as planned.

The fans joined in one united long and continuous boo.
Really, what did anyone expect?

Holding a moment of silnce deserved or not for someone that’s universally despised and hated in Chicago obviously wasn’t going to go off well.

Pierre McGuire

Pierre McGuire has always been a little bizarre. His absolute love affair with Zach Parise and Dion Phaneuf is frightening in it’s intensity and his absolute conviction they they are respectively guaranteed to be racking up Art Ross/Norris Trophy’s.

Today he kindly furthered the perception of him as a nutcase.

He believes Cam Ward will win the Vezina Trophy. Why?

Cam Ward has now been married for a year and is used to it, and will thus stop more pucks. I only wish I were joking. Yes, everyone all you have to do is be married for a year and the Vezina is yours.

Condolences and congratulations: Bill Wirtz, 1929-2007

 Condolences to the family of the man who owned the Blackhawks and congratulations to the few remaining fans who will admit to still following the team.
The biggest member of the “old boys network” in the NHL, the man who singlehandedly destroyed one of the best hockey cities in North America is dead. A poor man’s Harold Ballard, all those dozens of high draft picks Chicago has had for the last 60 odd years will now begin to matter. Failure isn’t assured, Wirtz is gone.
Now we just have to hope his son sells off the team, though even if he keeps it he can’t help but being an infinitely better owner.

It’s harsh to poke fun at a man’s death. But the truth is, Wirtz death does more good for the NHL then Wayne Gretzky ever did.
“Dollar Bill” Wirtz is gone, Harold Ballard is long since gone. Their demise is worth more to the NHL then a major US national television contract. It sounds ridiculous that such an impact could be had by someone’s death with nothing actually positive occuring, but the truth is… I’d be shocked if anyone disagreed with the statement of how incredibly positive this is for the NHL, all of the NHL’s fan and most importantly everyone that’s every watched Chicago Blackhawk hockey.

The various Chicago papers all have the expected articles up expressing their joy. I’m sure that makes the Wirtz family sick, but frankly… they had to have expected it.

Sarcasm: In memory of their father, the Wirtz kids announced today that the funeral will be blacked out on local TV, and available only on “Hawks Vision” PPV.
I commend Wirtz for his business acumen and his philanthropy, but there’s no denying the Blackhawks suffered because of him.
Wirtz had a penchant for running out of Chicago his more outspoken Blackhawks stars.
The Blackhawks in the last ten years have only been to the playoffs once, and his unwillingness to televise his team’s games locally further contributed to the decimation of the Blackhawks’ fan base.
This team was in such sad shape that ESPN ranked it in 2004 as “the worst franchise in sports”.
And as Chairman of the NHL Board of Governors from 1974 to 1992, Wirtz along with former NHL President John Ziegler and former NHLPA director Alan Eagleson were responsible for keeping players salaries artificially low, thus setting the stage for contentious labour negotiations between the owners and players since the early 1990s.

The female gender

Emotional state: Annoyed, aggravated, frustrated confused.
The last few weeks are continued definitive proof the entire female gender is absolutely insane.
Period, end of discussion.

Women: You cannot live with them, you cannot live without them. Such is life. Such is why women live longer then men.

Every last one of them has about 5 billion different personalities all bottled up into one body, all spontaniously flickering randomly between each personality roughly once a minute to once a day depending on the individual in question.

Random theory: Drug addicts that are addicted to hallucinogens use them in an attempt to vaguely understand the billions of personalities embodied in women. They continue using drugs because drug addiction with a vague hope of occasionally undeeerstanding them or guessing which personality will be dominant at any given point in time is preferable to being sober, logical and unaddicted…. and entirely incapable of understanding any female.

If your female reading this, don’t take offence. Your all insane, men are simply *beep* (insert expletive of choice). Probably better insane then naturally and almost unavoidably *beep*. Afterall, there are typically some good personalities mixed in with your many other.

Marques “Grand Marques” Slocum

At first I thought this was a joke… mocking the intelligence of professional football players, then horrifically I realized it was real.
Apparently they weren’t kidding when they say elite pro football prospects get a… “easy” ride in college. I’m not sure whether to laugh or find this terrifying… a college educated top young NFL prospect evidently feels this an excellent introduction of his character for public consumption.

Behold Michigan’s Marques “Grand Marques” Slocum: (No, I haven’t the faintest idea who that is… just that he’s apparently some great young talent everyone’s drooling over)

(Begin edited interview. Questions in italics, answers in bold.)

What is your favorite song of all time?

Just another nigga- state property II

Do you own any pets, and if so what do you have?

i got a fuck lion now come fuck wit me

Who do you admire most?

My mom CARLA, dat bitch da shit, i love her i think she da realest bitch alive

Do you have any tattoos, and if so what and where?

fuckin real

When do you plan on getting married?

it dont matta cuz i hope my wife know ima be playa 4 life

Get the number or give the number?

i would have 2 say bof

Romance or Kinky Sex?

it dont matta however i can get it

How do you feel?

i feel like killin somebody so dont be dat person… lol….not really dont be dat person

What size shoe do you wear?

a big enouf size 2 boot chu da fuck up outta here

T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Cingular/AT&T, or Sprint/Nextel

sprint/nextel bitch! dey got da best phones

Would you rather be hot or cold?

fuckin warm fuck dat hot shit and dat cold shit Id rather it be in da middle

Would you rather lose an arm or a leg?

what da fuck! i needs bof of my muthafuckin body parts

Opera, Musical, Concert, Play, Performance, or Other?

opera- no, musical- no, concert- maybe. play- no, performance- fuuuuuuuuuuuck no, other- no

What is your favorite clothing brand?

state property, im on my philly shit im on my jawn… lol

Most Memorable Past?

shit i couldnt tell u cuz i dont know

If you had to pick one car, which would it be?

96 impala ss

Your favorite Disney Films?

fuck disney

Why did the chicken cross the road?

cuz he was all fiend out

Do you support Paris?

why should i

Where is Waldo?

i killed dat punk muthafucka he owed me money

Favorite element?

i would have 2 go with………….. water

What was your last thought?

why da fuck am i doin dis interview

Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, or other?

i dont give a fuck i just want 2 get on

Who are you going to vote for in 2008?

me

Juice and crackers or milk and cookies?

i want sum milk and cookies

Favorite fruit?

watermelon

Which is worse? A bad laugh or a bad cough?

dam mafucka u just fucked up da mood, i guess i aint sayin no more jokes

Are you a cat or a dog person?

im fuckin wit a rock or a pit just so it can cha cat

Would you rather be blind or deaf?

deaf btu dam neither

Define yourself in 3 words…

im da shit

Do you eat cold cereal at night?

what da fuck is cold cereal

What is your favorite TV show?

the wire

Kill the spider or let it out?

man! fuck dat spider

Do you shower every single day?

shit i at least get a bird bath but yea i shower everyday dis summer its 2 hot not 2

Walking past a beggar, spare change or ignore?

shit ima be askin him 4 sum change

Boat or bus?

bus bitch! i cant swim

Where do you want to travel next?

da future

What would you do if Michael Jackson asked you out

I be like yea and den ima rob em’, ima steal all his shit and im stealin bubbles and im sellin dat muthafucka

What is your favorite food?

I like 2 licky licky licky licky… lol

Do you read harry potter books?

who da fuck is dat!

If you could have one super human power what would you choose?

come on now i wanna fly i hate walkin dat shit overrated

Have you had a beer in the last week?

shit I downed a forty last night in 2min. and 37sec. yea, beerfest bitch! im ready 4 da boot!

Vitamin Water or Gatorade?

Bof of dem shits is nasty but i fuck wit gatorade

Favorite body part?

my whole fuckin body

Flip flops or sandles?

come on now! what type of question is dat?

What do you do on fridays?

whatever da fuck i feel like doin

Do you like bananas?

do u

Welcome to jail Michael, please have a long stay

Here’s Michael Vick’s idea of being kind to a dog. Michael Vick and 3 other men were served with a federal indictment for dog fighting, Vick unsurprisingly being the leader of the whole group and funding the operation and owning the property they used for their…. ‘entertainments’. Vick today finally accepted of plea bargain agreement admitting his guilt.

They were acquiring dogs and used them to gamble on dog fights. The dogs that lost/couldn’t be trained to kill/weren’t violent enough to suit them were tortured and executed for their enjoyment. The methods of execution included shooting the dogs with a pistol. Wetting them down and electrocuting them. Picking them up and slamming them into the ground until they were finally dead. Or using their custom built dog guillotine to chop off their head. The other method was simply hanging the dogs. Some of these dogs were perfectly healthy but because they couldn’t fight or make them money they killed them. They filmed the dog fights and executions to retain for ‘memories’.

Most people seem to be under the opinion Vick is getting a raw deal and should go free with a few thousand dollar fine. “Well, it’s not like it’s a crime against people so he should be OK”.

Apparently people feel it’s perfectly acceptable and reasonable to take an animal with feelings and love and subject them to torture?

To quote a politician:“One is left wondering: Who are the real animals? Who are the real animals, who are the real animals – the creatures inside the ring or the creatures outside the ring?”

The NFL seems only concerned about the gambling charges, happily content to ignore the whole torture, execution, and forcing dogs to fight for their lives. Yes… gambling is worth suspending someone, killing dogs?  Not a problem.

The last I heard he’s expected to see prison time of 6-18mnths. Some claim this will likely finish his NFL career… I neither follow nor care about the NFL, so I won’t comment there.  He’s apparently still owed over 100Million $ on his current contract, one would hope the team can recoup that and kill the contract. I’d have to assume there is some personal conduct guidelines in the contract that Vick’s broken which will allow them to get out of it.

Look at the picture. That’s an animal that’s been treated well and kindly by Vick and his friends. Other pictures make this image seem the most humane thing you’ll ever seen.

Sick and disgusting person.

Updated Aug 18/2009:
Apparently he’s now back in the NFL, soon to be a millionaire again… and all is forgotten and forgiven.
I tend to believe in second chances. But I’m also a dog lover, so I’m not exactly happy.
I doubt he’ll do it again, but I also think the only reason he wouldn’t is because he knows he’d get caught.

Dating and ‘Sudden’ Sundin

You know hockey obsession in Toronto is a touch excessive when front page news is Mats Sundin has hugged a girl in Sweden.

Yes, I know the shock and awe. He’s now one of the hundreds of millions of men across the world that probably hugged their wives/girlfriends the same day. Outside of destroying my long held suspicion that Sundin was gay (Yes I seriously believed it possible, no it’s not an insult to Sundin).

Welcome to the media Josephine Johansson, you will never again escape it, ask Mats ex-Tina Fagerstrom. She’s still news several years after they were a couple for the sole reason that she was once with Sundin.

Not even Mats semi-legendary ability to keep his private life-private can save you now. At least she had a few months peace before the media caught ahold of the news.

Apparently when your named Mats Sundin, the biggest news in Sweden or Toronto on Aug17 is when you hug your girlfriend. Unsurprisingly the newspapers have pledged to keep us updated on the couples exploits. Much as I love Sundin I cannot even begin to fathom why I should care whom he’s dating however.

Lessons in how to improve the game- by the NHL “brain”trust

“The League sat down and brainstormed about what would be the biggest improvement for the game and the uniform was first and foremost.”
– Keith Leach, director of NHL Uniforms for Reebok

The league figured the best way to improve the game was with a new jersey? Sad, but probably true.

I’d like to say I’m surprised, but honestly I’m not. This is why hockey has been in perennial decline since the early 90’s.

Weinrich still playing

Eric Weinrich faced a bit of uncertainty this summer about the future of his hockey career. He knew he would fit into the Portland Pirates’ plans somewhere, and in recent months he continued to train as if he was preparing for another season.Now he has answers: The 40-year-old defenseman will return to the Pirates as a player in the 2007-08 season.
— Kennebec Journal

Sure, it’s easy to mock guys like Weinrich who continue to play long after their skills have dramatically declined. I myself laugh at Roenick all the time for his outrage that he wasn’t on the last American Olympic team and his continued parade of arguments that this is the year he’ll prove to everyone he’s still a star player. His apparent shock that Anaheim doesn’t believe he’s good enough to replace Teemu Selanne and other such delusional comments. (God I love Roenick, few players are so quoteable. We need amusing characters like him… there aren’t many left. Aggravating yes, funny… absolutely)

Back onto topic however, I honestly have a lot of respect for veterans who opt to play in the AHL to finish their careers. Players who realize their not good enough for a regular role in the NHL but keep playing in lesser leagues without the perks they’ve become accustomed to out of sheer love for the game.
Over 1200 career NHL games, and he’s still not ready to retire. I have to respect that.

Not many players left that honestly look like their having fun out there.

One of the reasons I love Wade Belak… aside from his absolutely hilarious comedy skits on TSN. He genuinely loves hockey. He always looks like he’s having the time of his life out there. In interviews he looks thrilled just to be around. He’s always got a huge smile on his face when he’s stepping off the ice.
He’ll join in and assist the media in mocking his skills on ice.

Great guy, great teammate. Say what you will about him, but I like him. Not much of a player, and only a decent fighter. If it wasn’t for the fact that he can play any position outside of goal he wouldn’t stick around even as an enforcer. I sincerely doubt there is anyone on the Leafs roster whose reason for playing hockey is tilted as much towards love of the game as he however.

Mock delusional players like Roenick, but admire the Luke Richardson, Eric Weinrich guys that play for the love of the game even if their skills have declined.

Google kills paid Google Videos….. and steals your videos

 Google sent an email to users of Google’s Download to Rent/Own Service, at the bottom was this small note-

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.

That right there is the big hole is DRM, you can own content and legally have purchased it. But the second the seller decides they no longer want yopu to have it… it’s gone. You purchased it?  Too bad, you may “own” it but their fully within their rights to take it away any time they want. No refunds, nothing. It’s gone.

Digital Rights Management is an euphemism for copy-protection services that (mostly) treat consumers like criminals, and deprive them of their fair use of acquired content.
Assume your customers are criminals, and assume they intend to steal your content and assume they intend to give it to everyone they know. That’s the DRM they’ve worked so hard ensure.

Congratulations everyone, your a criminal. You’ve been annointed and will be treated as a criminal. Doesn’t matter what you ever have or ever will do.

Even content that you “purchase” (i.e. not rented content) isn’t actually owned by you and it can be taken away. That’s ludicrous, but that’s what the governments have all been so ardently supportive of the music/movie/tv industires in shoving down our throats.

Imagine if these were DVDs: one day, a man from Virgin Megastore shows up at your door and says, “We’re taking away all your videos. Sorry!
That’s DRM in a nutshell.

Quoteable words, the wonders of salary arbitration

Avery is a reasonably effective player as well as a detriment to the team… Avery is not a mature player. He plays, at times, like an individual rather than a member of a team. This is sometimes referred to as an inability to see the ice, and in Avery’s case this seems to fit with his overall approach to the game.” – The Ranger arbitration brief

“We are pleased to have Sean under contract and are looking forward to him returning with the same passion and enthusiasm he brought to our team last year. He is a terrific competitor, who we expect to play a significant role in a successful season.”– Glen Sather (Rangers GM) after the arbitration ruling

Amusing quote

“I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because, if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, which is why I would not live forever”—Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest

Amusing… probably not the Miss America pagents shining moment when they speak of how intelligent their competitiors are. (Note- I’m not posting this to imply the Miss America contestants are slow/stupid, merely amused by the quote above).

My R Rated Blog

Quite amusing, you can get a content rating for your blog. Here’s mine:

 

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
kill (3x)
dangerous (2x)
stab (1x)

Hmm… never would have thought of this blog as being “R” material, if your under 17 you require parental guidance to read my thoughts. 🙂
And here I was thinking this was a pretty tame family friendly blog.

(Click on the image if you want to get a rating for your own blog)

Bettman-NHL/Kansas City/Canada

Blogger Tom Benjamin is always controversial, sometimes I garee with him… often I don’t Either way he invariably causes a lot of interesting discussion.

Something he said the other day, bears repeating because it’s probably frighteningly accurate and quite disturbing.

 

 A post he made Thursday—-

…Canadians, pound for pound, are willing to spend more than Americans on hockey means that there’s no way Gary Bettman or the NHL could actually prefer a team in Kansas City over Hamilton or Mississauga or North York. Money talks! – Ian D.

As strange as it seems, most teams in the NHL do prefer Kansas City. Even better would be if Gary Bettman and local Nashville businessmen manage to prop up the Predators despite the pathetic $46 MM in revenues the team generates. The players are learning that sometimes money doesn’t talk very loudly in the NHL.

Why not? Three facts:

The NHL may be the NHLPA’s partner, but the NHL doesn’t generate spit in revenues. About 90% of league income is local.

Individual teams are individual businesses pursuing individual objectives. They care far less about league revenues than they care about team revenues, and in that regard, there are huge disparities, team to team.

In the Gary Bettman hockey league, player salaries are tied to league revenues. The players get nearly two thirds of the next $400 MM in league revenues.

Add it up. From the Wharnsby piece:

It has been suggested that having another high-revenue Canadian team might not be in the league’s best interests since it would push the salary cap higher without putting any money into the pockets of its 24 American-based teams. Those owners are already dealing with a salary cap that is much higher than they anticipated it would be, solely because of the strength of the Canadian dollar.

Higher league revenues are not in the interest of any (not just American) individual team unless those increases are driven by their own or pooled centralized revenues. (And in the case of pooled revenue, the benefits are reduced because a chunk of those revenues will go to save the rich teams revenue sharing money.) When the Leafs raise ticket prices, salaries go up for everyone. As pay per view expands in Vancouver, player costs are driven up in Washington.

The owner of the Atlanta Thrashers would be very happy to see Nashville stay put. If Hamilton generated $50 MM more than Nashville, the Thrashers don’t see a penny of that money and player costs across the league go up by about $1 MM a team. Why does Atlanta want Nashville to move? Why would a Toronto? The Leafs might like the idea if it reduced revenue sharing costs but it won’t because those are tied to revenues, too. If Nashville doesn’t get the money, another poor team will get more.

The stupidity works in expansion thinking, too. If the league can find chumps willing to pony up big bucks for teams in new markets, it’s a double win. First, the teams get expansion fees which don’t have to be shared with players. Second, by adding a couple of low revenue teams they hold down their own salary costs.

Remember when small market whiners couldn’t stop telling us the league was being ruined by salaries inflated by big market spending? In the Gary Bettman Hockey League, the big market teams don’t even have to spend to drive up salaries. Now salaries can be inflated by big market revenues whether the big boys spend or not. Most teams don’t want to see league revenues grow.

It’s just another absurd consequence of an absurd system.

Paris Hilton

Everyone knows her, everyone hates her. The reasons are obvious no need to get into that.
Interestingly her stupidity in reality seems to live up to the hype:

Witness:
She states that she played hockey in high school (True, at least for the few months she was at the school before being kicked out for reasons anyone can guess ie. summoning limos to take her to clubs rather then going to classes). Says she was “very good”
Asked her position?  “Oh, I played all over the ice”.  Unusual, but okay. What position did she prefer to play?   She asked what the positions were. Her former teammates mention she didn’t know how to skate.

Impressive, she’s very good at hockey…. yet can’t skate and doesn’t know any of the positions.

She states that she’s devoutely religious and has read the bible multiple times. Asked her favourite part: She couldn’t name one. Asked to mame a part she liked:  She couldn’t name one.

She’s so devoutely religious… she can’t name anything she liked at all in the bible.

Asked if she votes:  She anwered yes.
Asked when was the last election she voted in: Last year.
Asked what election that was: Presidential election.
Asked how often she vote in the presidential election: She votes every year, she’s voted for Bush 5 times.

Intriguing. I presume the presidential election last year was a secret one held only for her, because there certainly wasn’t a regular one. Nor is there a presidential election every single year, nor can anyone have voted for Bush as president 5 times…

Asked what she thought of Bush’s predecessor and his… dalliances with Lewinsky: She asked who it was.
Fascinating. She voted in the election (as she somehow does every year) but managed to be oblivious as to whom the president actually was at the time.

I’m amazed. The sheer stupidity here is overwhelming, the jokes about her actually pay her a compliment. She’s far less intelligent then even the harshest jokes might portray.

Maurice on Blake and other thoughts

Quote of the Week: Paul Maurice (Leafs Head Coach) on the Jason Blake: “What I like about Jason is that I really didn’t like him.”

No Maurice, that’s Tucker. You hate Tucker, everyone hates Tucker.  That’s why Leafs fans love Tucker, and that’s why Tucker is so valuable. When your an agitator hatred is the epitome of success.
Blake is Tucker, just less physical not as good of an agitator. Slightly more offence, and much more defence. I like Blake, but you’ve got someone already that deserves that statement much moreso then Blake.

On another note- I wish people would stop calling Blake a 40G scorer. He’s broken 30 once in his career, at age 33. What are the odds Blake became a dramatically better player at age 33?   Pretty small.
What are the odds he had a career year? Awfully good.

Note #2: Blake takes Tucker’s place on the PP. Tucker’s goal totals drop. I’m betting low 20’s. 18-23, without Blake I’d have said 26-31. And even without Blake, no way in hell does Tucker score at a 35+ goal pace over a full season next season, last year was definitely a high water mark for him.

Note #3 : Blake’s never put up huge numbers ES. Don’t expect that to change.

Note #4: Everyone get’s overpaid in UFA, you never get a bargain. The question is how much you overpay, and for how long. If you go into UFA and say you won’t sign player X unless you get him at a fair price…. then you better realize you’ll sign one player every 5yrs or so.
Blake at 4M/yr is pretty nice under those conditions. Blake for 5yrs isn’t so nice. He’s hear for his age 34-38 seasons. A semi-young 34, since he made his NHL debut at 26, but he definitely isn’t going to be worth 4M long term.

Note 4: Ryan Smyth was the best player available in UFA.

Note 5: Either Colombus made the second good move in team history in signing Jan Hejda for 1M/yr for 2yrs, and made by far the best signing in UFA. Or I massively over rate him, he’s not a 4th D-Man and is in reality ECHL fodder. Odds are I overrate him. I loved, absolutey loved Gilbert Brule. He hasn’t exactly done anything at all yet. He was drafted by Colombus. I had Brassard ahead of Kessel in 06′ Colombus drafted Brassard, Brassard may have had an excellent season last year but he will fail to live up to my expectations. As will Hejda. They hired Ken Hitchcock, that exhausted their quota of logical and intelligent moves for the next 25yrs.

Note 6: Very glad we got a top 6 LW.

Note 7: Bell is a poor man’s Jeff O’Neill. We didn’t want O’Neill at 1.5M, we now have Bell at 2M/yr for 2yrs. San Jose is laughing that they actually got value in return for him. Toskala has always played the easy oppisition in San Jose, Nabokov the tough opposition.
Toskala’s Shot Quality Neutral SV%?  Never quite as inspiring as his unadjusted SV%.
Take the two together? Toskala in Toronto = .900 SV%.
To add to the stupidity JFJ signs his latest unproven starter to a 4M/yr deal. Why the urgency? He’s under contract for next season, you can wait a few months into the season to see if he deserves it… instead of signing him ASAP and hoping he justifies this deal.
For this JFJ took Bell’s dead weight, and gave up a 13th overall pick a 2nd rounder and a 4th rounder.
Florida gave up two 2nd rounders and a 1st rounder for a borderline elite (not quite there) starter in Vokoun.
Slightly more then JFJ gave for Toskala, and didn’t even have to take dead weight salary like JFJ did.
Vokoun is a far better goalie then Toskala is even in a best case scenario.
Thanks JFJ for overpaying for mediocrity again, it’s not like the Leafs as a team without a lot of youth and litte immediate hope of going anywhere in the player could USE those draft picks your so desperate to give up.

Sorta like Raycroft last year. Gave up an elite goaltending prospect in Rask for Andrew Raycroft…. our overpaid backup that no one wants to take off our hands. Hated it then, hate it now.
Wonder what mediocre to bad goalie JFJ will give good value for next season?
Could have had a legitimate starter in Legace for a cheaper price then Raycroft last season without paying anything. Could have had Vokoun this season for marginally more then he gave up for Toskala.

We desperately need to add an addendum to JFJ contract that prohibits him from touching a goalie, else he agrees to be shot by a firing squad.

Meanwhile Peddie continues to search for an advisor for JFJ. Since he doesn’t have faith that JFJ can be a good GM on his own he doesn’t bother firing him. No replacing crap with something better would be too logical.
Instead he hopes people like Poile and Burke will accept a demotion to come to Toronto and advise JFJ. To no one’s surprise they declined. Much like Scotty Bowman did.
Now he’s after Muckler. Why? Probably because it’s stupid.
Muckler’s great why? He stuck around the legendary 80’s oilers but was in no way respondisble for their success. As the neverending parade of “friends of Gretzky” in Phoenix have proven being around Gretzky when he was playing doesn’t make you absorb hockey genius by osmosis. His tenure in Buffalo was pretty decent albeit unremarkable.
His time in Ottawa? Well, he took on a very young and very cheap elite team and…. they got much more expensive, and older… and marginally better which was expected with development of their youth anyway. Now his replacement is trying to dump Muckler’s costly mistakes in qualifying Saprykin and overpaying Corvo and Gerber.
For this we apparently want Muckler to advise JFJ.

Ah, they eternal torture of being a Leafs fan. Fun isn’t it?
Welcome to Leafs Nation, leave your common sense at the door.

Chris Benoit

I’m sorry to hear about the passing of Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit, I don’t follow wrestling but I understand he was highly regarded. Apparently it was a double murder suicide, strangled his wife and 7yr old son over the weekend then killed himself  the following Monday. I can’t even guess at what was going through his head. Maybe steroids screwed up his brain, I haven’t a clue.

Regardless I understand the WWE had to cancel their live show. What I don’t understand is replacing it with a tribute show to him. Maybe that sounds harsh…. but is this really a guy you want to do a tribute to?
I mean the guy just killed his family, a little difficult to call him a wonderful family man and a great example of how one should live their life.
Is this really a good character example that we should be speaking of what a wonderful individual he was?

Whatever the apparently positive perception of him was in life… it wasn’t accurate.

Update:  July 17/07
So we now know Benoit was indeed on steroids at the time of his death, but apparently none of them were the type to induce ‘roid rage’.
Apparently he was also on anti-anxiety drugs and pain killers, neither of which is particularly surprising given his career.
His wife was also, for whatever that’s worth.
We have more evidence that he’d been injecting his son with steroids for several years prior to this incident.

Beyond that, not a whole lot new. His personal physician had been procuring the steroids for him, and said physician had also apparently been doing the same fo two other individuals whether those two were wrestlers or not is apparently unknown.

In short-not a whole lot new, or surprising mostly confirmation of what I imagine most had already assumed.

Gretzky comments on Nashville

Wayne Gretzky has a few comments on the Nashville-Balsille situation over at the Globe and Mail site. Worth a read on his rather hypocritical (IMHO) take on the situation.

He essentially said it’s simply business and the team will do better in Canada then it would in Nashville and that’s fine and he supports anything that puts teams in the best markets. That in and of iotself is fine, many people share that opinion including myself to some extent.

However given his own position in a relatively weak hockey market in the outhern US I’d have thought he’d be much more supportive of Nashville’s current situation. Phoenix’s own presence in the NHL 12-20yrs from now is hardly assured.
It’s still growing and trying to cultivate a strong NHL fanbase. Not all that dissimilar from what Nashville has attempted to do.

Phoenix and Nashville are in awfully similar situations with respect to their ability to be a profitable franchise in the NHL with a decent fanbase.

Somehow I sincerely doubt Gretzky’s comments would be the same if someone asked him if he felt Phoenix should move to Canada.

Microsoft can’t afford to wait for Sony

WindowsNow by Robert McLaws has posited the opinion that Microsoft should wait for Sony to cut prices before following- to quote

“ Everyone knows that Sony is going to have to eat more money on the PS3 and sell it for less before it gains traction.

But at the same time, there is a stigma around cutting prices on any product, let alone consoles. It usually angers the early adopters, and devalues the existing consoles on the market. But the PS3 will have to cut the price to survive; it has no choice but to face these consequences. But the consoles that follow suit to stay competitive don’t usually suffer the same stigma.

So it’s no wonder that the Xbox 360 hasn’t seen a price cut yet. Why cut the price first and be the “bad guy” to early adopters, when they can wait until after the overpriced PS3 corrects course, and then use the reasoning “we had to stay competitive” as justification? If I were in charge, that’s what I would do.”

My point of view-

It looks to me like Microsoft needs a price cut themselves, while not quite in the desperate situation Sony is the XBox360 definitely isn’t looking like a marketleader. The sales are pretty steady the last few months, whereas the PS3’s sales have been slowly dropping on a weekly basis since launch. But holding steady isn’t good enough… it’s not going to get them the installed base they’ve been touting and their still seeing sales that are slightly less that what the Wii’s been getting for awhile now.
Without a price drop I can’t see the situation improving, especially since the Wii is selling like crazy with almost no 3rd party developer support… and less then stellar reviews for most of the software available. What happens when 3rd parties adopt the Wii in mass as they surely will if it continues to sell at it’s current pace… which shows not the faintest signs of slowing.

Beating Sony isn’t good enough if it still eaves them a clear cut second fiddle far behind the leader. If I’m Microsoft I cut prices ahead of Sony, make Sony look like the follower that’s desperately cutting prices to maintain what little semblance of competition they currently offer.
Further push the perception that Sony is a follower and Microsoft a marketleader that defines the path that market follows.
I’m taking the initiative now.
Looking like the “bad guy” to early adopters isn’t exactly what I’d perceive as a huge penalty. The early adopters know price will drop over time, and they knew they were paying a premium to get the latest and greatest at launch. They can do precious little to strike back at Microsoft… stop buying 360 games? That’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The hard core gamers that are the early adopters are well aware a price cut would ultimately become a reality, and they knew they’d pay the price premium to play the XBox360 games ahead of those that waited.

Microsoft needs to take the initiative and take control of the situation now. Sitting back and gollowing Sony yields them nothing. The status quo isn’t good enough if all it gains them is watching the Xbox360 yield to the Will and become games second choice.

They had that with the XBox trailing the PS2. Microsoft has bet tons of money with little in the way of profits in return on the console market. Beating Sony won’t see them getting the profits they want. Becoming the market leader will do that.
Sony isn’t much of a threat right now, the PS3’s quite possibly too far behind already to win this generation. Microsoft isn’t.
Nintendo is the company eating up the profits, and it’s Nintendo they need to beat if they want to make the XBox360 a profitable venture and recoup all the expenses put into it and it’s predecessor.

Casually sitting back and following Sony’s lead only allows Nintendo greater momentum. Nintendo’s spent a long time being irrelevant as far as the major competition is concerned. I don’t think Microsoft is so foolish to ignore the present market realities however and forget Nintendo.

Expansion

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports on the topic of expansion:

 

In the wake of a Stanley Cup playoffs that broke records for irrelevance and low ratings, with empty seats in both new and established markets, coming off the infamous “Preakness Game” that highlighted the worst TV package in sports, the worst commissioner in sports and the lingering hangover from two suicidal lockouts, what does the NHL think is the answer?

Expansion…

The NHL has forced so many of those fans to voice their anger by staying away, not buying, not watching, not caring. Unfortunately, rather than get this league to change course it’s emboldened them to bleed the sport dry.

Fans are disillusioned, disappointed and disenfranchised. And what else would they be at this point? The game is great. The league stinks. We want our old NHL back; fewer teams not more, owners that want to win, not bilk taxpayers, real television coverage, not something that’s on before bull riding.

 

Funny, how everyone on earth can see this except Bettman and his delusional owners all wrapped up in the mythical belief the NHL is incredibly popular in he Southern US, the TV rights deals are wonderful and better then anything they could ever hope for.

Yes, let’s add more teams in areas that don’t care about hockey. Meanwhile we should continue to ignore those areas that do.
The NHL is worse off now then it was when Bettman was first hired, the US cares less about hockey now then ever before. At some point the owners have to realize his tenure has been an unmitigated disaster in every respect.

Fold a few teams, fire Bettman, and move a few to the Canadian and possibly Northern US cities that actually care about and can support hockey.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life – a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

ESPN: Canada is not North America

It would appear ESPN has kindly decided to revise world Geography…. Canada is no longer part of North America. It’s somehow recently been displaced to another continent. Where exactly I’m unsure, though I’d very much be curious to know. Given that I was born in Canada I’d always been of the
perspective that I’d been born in North America.

http://myespn.go.com/conversation/story?id=2849092

(Random story on the best international players in the NBA specifically points out Steve Nash (Canadian) as an example of a
player representing another continent entirely.  )

A poem, a thought, a feeling, a desire…. a dream.

Vanessa, it may be from a different perspective as you hold (male/female)…. but the meaning is the same. Have faith, even when it seems impossible. That’s all you can do.
No matter what it seems, there truly is someone out there for everyone.

“Somewhere”

I know you’re out there, somewhere…
Somewhere.

I know that somewhere your heart beats
With every beat of mine.
Somewhere, I know you take a breath
For every breath of mine.
Perhaps, sometimes, your tears fall
For every tear of mine,
And, just perhaps, your eyes shine
With a shine not unlike mine.

Last night I gazed upon the stars,
As I often do,
And wondered if the same starlight
Was shining down on you.

I wondered if your heart needs mine
As much as mine needs you.
I wondered if you dream of me,
Just like I dream of you.

I know not how I’ll find you,
But one thing I know is true,
In this life or in another,
Somehow I’ll come to you.

With love forever…
My unknown dream girl.

The MPAA: Promoting the Oscars by denying it’s existance

The Motion Picture Academy (MPAA) announced a slightly…. unusual decision to have YouTube yank all the uploaded videos from the Oscars. Some companies have logic behind such requests, the Motion Picture Academy’s reasoning is a tad lacking in logic.

Their explanation courtesy of Exxecutive Producer Ric Robertson: “It’s got nothing to do with money, it’s really not about (protecting that) business opportunity.” Even though the Oscars have their own website with clips, Robertson says he plans to even remove their own clips and any articles eferencing the winners. Apparently, this is being done to “whet people’s appetite for next year’s show.”

My only conclusion here is that the MPAA has concluded that the best method of increasing interest in next year’s Oscars is to remove any all evidence of this year’s Oscars.

Anaheim GM Brian Burke logs entries

USA Today has a penned article by Anaheim GM Brian Burke emulating a diary of his trade deadline wheeling and dealings… (or attempted dealings as little happened for Anaheim). Very entertaining, and mildly informative glimpse at a seldom seen example of the behind the scenes discussions.

My favoruite part:
“I talk to Florida assistant GM Randy Sexton about Todd Bertuzzi, and he tells me “the guy we like is Perry.” I offer him profanity.”

Sony… again

And the latest in Sony’s weekly effors to aggravate and infuriate any and every customer they have ever had or may ever have in the future….

Sony has admitted that the European version of its PlayStation 3 console will not play as many old PlayStation 2 games as the versions already launched in the US and Japan.
Sony has stated that the European systems will utilize “a new hardware specification,” and Sony won’t “concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility.” Rather, they are “increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”

In other words Sony is looking to decrease the production cost of the Playstation 3, and they have opted to replace dedicated hardware with software that will replace its functionality. The hardware had been providing full backwards compatibility of PS2 games, but Sony makes it clear that the new configuration will not offer the same level of support. “Certain PlayStation 2 format software titles may not perform properly on this system,” the statement reads.

Naturally Sony won’t be passing on the decreased cost of manufacture to the European purchasers who will still pay the same price as North America and Asian buyers. In what’s become typical Sony fashion their parroting this as a terrific example of how much they love the European market and that this was in high demand from customers. Bizarre, but hey, Sony claimed for months that European’s were very pleased that Sony had delayed the launch of the console in Europe. Amusing, and quite par for the course from them.

AMD will keep making Intel chipsets

In an interview with DigiTimes, Jochen Polster ( AMD’s Worldwide Infrastructure Partnerships sales and marketing VP) stated “AMD will not abandon or limit any opportunity to cooperate with others and the company will still continue developing chipsets for Intel platforms. Our goal is not to amass a huge market share, but to obtain a reasonable share.” in rely to a query as to whether AMD would continue manufacturing chipsets for Intel as ATi did before AMD acquired them.

How much market success there will be I’m dubious, even in the event that AMD’s makes a terrific chipset for Intel’s processors you can be certain Intel will be putting all of their weight on manufacturers not to touch said chipset.
This isn’t the late 90’s wherein Intel’s weight is such that even powerful companies like Asus have to secretly manufatcture motherboards and disavow all support and publically deny they made them as was the case in the early days of the early K7, nor as hostile an environment. No one is terrified of losing Intel’s business and their mighty discounts anymore. Intel can no longer afford to do such things as easily as before, and AMD is now a legitimate alternative in the market for companies to go to.
With many alternative options out there for Intel chipsets however it’ll be easy to accede to Intel’s wishes. Even typically ATi friendly companies like DFI dropped their ATi based Intel motherboards almost immediately after their acquisition by Intel, and naturally Intel dropped all mention of the exiestance of such products from their site.

It doesn’t appear Intel has much options to revoke ATi’s bus license so in the short term such chipsets should remain in existance, but once Intel’s long awaited CSI appears you can be certain Intel won’t be selling a license to utilize the bus to ATi at any cost.

DST changes worse then Y2k

had people panicing about a mythical collapse of the worlds entire technological structure, tons of Y2k testing software of store shelves. DST…. system admins, and coders talk about it and that’s it. The average person probably isn’t aware it’s remotely an issue.

Ironic, as the reality is the DST changed are a far greater concern for most. With Y2k everyone knew long long in advance about the issues, and were prepared. The workarounds were easy, and the media hype ensured it got more then sufficient attention. Every business had it as a major focus, even if it needn’t have been a concern for them simply due to the public paranoia over it. DST changes on the other hand came with little forewarning,, and reuired a sharp and largely unprecedented alterations that would effect a great number of softwar.
Come March 12 Admins have a huge headache on their hands and software developers have been awfully busy.

Lets sue everyone that says product “X” is bad!

We’ve seen people use bogus DMCA claims to shut up comments they don’t like, or are alternative to something their promoting. Now, it turns out that if you demonstrate security vulnerabilities in a product, you have to deal with the threat of patent lawsuits as well. IOActive, built a hand-held device capable of reading and cloning the sercurity ID cards used for access in almost any big company. They demo’d the device at the RSA Conference and were going to give a presentation at Black Hat in DC. HID Global, manufacturer of said cards sent them a letter claiming that the cloning device infringes on HID patents. IOActive pulled out of the presentation. Jennifer Granick, over at Wired News, does a good job highlighting the ridiculous consequences of an action like this: “Imagine if, in the 1970s, the tobacco companies had patented devices to measure the health effects of smoking, then threatened lawsuits against anyone who researched their products. The use of patent law to prevent vulnerability discovery and discussion is bitter irony, because a fundamental purpose of patent law is disclosure.” Yet another example of the patent system doing exactly the reverse of what it’s supposed to do.

How dare you decide what to put on your own website?!

Apparently some people view serach engines as some kind of body that must grant certain fundamental rights to people. Lawsuits when their search rankings aren’t high enough to suit them is silly.

My god!, someone searched the word “tech” in google and my blog isn’t in the top 10 listings.
Clearly I should sue Google! *sarcasm*

Unfortunately that isn’t nearly as stupid as the latest instance. Someone bought gripe ads on Google, Yahoo and MSN, only to have them rejected. He then sued all three companies arguing that the search engines should be required to post his ads. The judge in the case appears to have made quick work of it, dismissing almost all of the claims and pointing out in no uncertain terms that many were specious and frivolous.
I’m sure this person had some vague semblance of logic in coming to the conclusion that MSN/Google/Yahoo are not allowed to have any choice in what appears on their own website, and that his preference is paramount. I just cannot begin to fathom what exactly the logic therein is, perhaps I’m merely dense.
This about this for a moment… would it make any sense at all if someone came along and said I had to have pornography on myy website because they want to view it here? Clearly not. It’s my website, I should be the one deciding the content (Within the boundries of the allowable content at WordPress which owns their server space outright). If someone dislikes the content they can go elsewhere to look for something more to their preference (in this example-pornographic material)
If I were to buy an add at Google that said “Google sucks, and is the worst search engine known to human kind” should Google be obligated to put it on their wesbite? Of course not, the mere that is absolutely ludicrous.

"Not Again"

Not sure about the title but….

 

 

“Not Again”

This time I won’t be your prey
My heart can’t handle it when you throw me away

When you reach for my hand
It takes all my strength to pull away
But some how you always manage to get your way

I’m there when you need me
And pushed aside when you don’t

I’m sick of your excuses
They always seem lame
So why do I believe them and let you play me again?

I want you to hold me
And love it when you do
But how you can be the same way with someone else?

I’m sorry that you hurt me
I wish it could be another way
But it’s not me who does this

You just happen to win your twisted game.

Microsoft extends Xbox 360 warranty to one year

Microsoft has extended the warranty on Xbox 360 consoles from 90 days to a full year .

It’s parroted by PR as major news and a wonderful deal for everyone, and it seems most people look upon it similarly. Maybe I’m just dense but I don’t see why… it’s always struck me as ludicrous and an absolute rip off that a console system (any console) could only come with a 90 day warranty. Frankly even 1 year seems awfully stingy to me.

Given how notoriously unreliable consoles have been at release for the past several years I’m betting an awfully massive number of people have been screwed over my the horrible support policies that seem to be the norm in the console industry, be it Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft.

Ovechkin, No Suspension

Alexander Ovechkin apparently will not be suspended for his hit from behind on Briere.

One wonders if Ovechkin’s name was Claude Lemieux how long would the suspension be? I’d guess he’d get three games and twice that if Briere had been hurt.
I love Ovechkin, his raw enthusiasm and skilled physical two-way game is infectious. He’s one of the most quiteable players in the NHL. As a made for TV player he makes Crosby look like a shy immature little child. (And I mean no offence to Crosby skilk-wise, he just isn’t nearly the caharcter Ovechkin is)… but I still don’t see how you defend this hit, and not suspend him.

Far lesser incidents have seen instant suspensions, the NHL apparently doesn’t believe this warrants even a mention. I think it says something that even Washington fans were largely shocked he didn’t recieve a suspension for at least a couple games.

You can see the YouTube video of the hit here on YouTube or download a clearer video here. (19.29MB)

Briere has dumped the puck well before the hit, his head was up and he was slowing down approaching the bench about to step in off the ice for a line-change. Ovechkin is skating full throttle at him from behind and slows slightly as he gets ready for the hit and slams Briere into the boards face first. Apparently in NHL-land this is a perfectly legal hit warranting only a 5 minute major and a game misconduct.

I’m sorry, I like Ovechkin too.. but this was clear. He had more then enough time to move off and chase the puck down the ice, instead he chose to hit Briere from behind into the boards as he was abou to step onto the bench. Since when has this ever been permissable? If Ovechkin wasn’t one of the big faces of the “New NHL, and a very marketing friendly image” he’d have been suspended without question and no one would dispute it.

It’s not nearly the “Worse then Bertuzzi!!” it’s being made out to be by so many fans, but it’s awfully bad, and could easily have caused serious injury. Ovechkin was well aware of what he was doing, made no attempt to avoid it and fully intended exactly what the results were. This wasn’t part of the hockey game, this wasn’t knocking Briere out of the play or attempting to get the puck. Ovechkin actively ignored the direction of the play, and went for Briere. I honestly can’t see this as anything but blatant favourtism by the NHL.

We all know why the NHL turned a blind eye to the thoughtless and dangerous play. It turned the same blind eye when Pavel Bure did things that were thoughtless and dangerous. The league doesn’t suspend players who put fannies in the seats. Nobody wants to see Ovechkin suspended so I suppose everyone’s interests are best served if disciplinary standards don’t apply to a certain class of player. The owners don’t want Ovechkin punished, the media doesn’t want it, the fans don’t want it and the players don’t want it (even though it probably does grate on some who have been suspended for less.) Nobody wants it. Still, failing to suspend a big star does send the wrong message, it does offend one’s sense of justice, and it does damage the credibility of the league disciplinary system.

Sony scaling issue and games without sound

And the leatest in Sony’s contuing efforts to make the PS3 the butt of everyone’s jokes… I’ve taken a break from watching their comedic attempts to market the PS3 just because their screwups were starting to come on an almost daily basis.

May as well throw out another one though….

We’ve known for the pastweek or so that Sony conveinetly forgot to actually do much testing on HDTV’s and the PS3 has some pretty severe issues when it comes to scaling movies and games. For those that aren’t already well aware basically if you don’t have a television that can do both 720p AND 1080p, you’re going to lose picture quality in either games or Blu-ray movies. So the problem pretty much effects…. everyone, well unless your one of the dozen or so people that have a 1080P capable television.

Apparently Sony exists in a mythical land wherein 1080P content actually exists, and more then .00000000001% of HDTV owners own a set capable of more then 720P and/or 1080i. Iniitially Sony claimed it would be a simple firmware fix for owners but they’ve now backed off on that. The official line is now that they are “looking into the issue and haven’t stated any actions that will be taken regarding it.”

In plain english I’ll take it that means nobody will be seeing any solutions anytime in the near future and current PS3 owners are likely to remain screwed. The whole “we’re beta testing Sony’s hardware” crowd is about to get even more to complain about. Of course since Sony is falling well short of their already miniscule and continually decreasing number of PS3’s they plan to ship this year that may not matter all that much.

Who knew upscaling video was such an exotic technology?  🙂

On the plus side… one of Sony’s other recent issues is at least partially resolved. Consumers were understandably perturbed when they found out Sony’s vaunted backwards compatibility with PS1/2 didn’t include actually having sound on those games. The latest frimware update for the PS3 apparently remedies that for most games though there are still a 100 or so games that will remain silent when played on the PS3.

How one writes

I don’t know… but I think I write differently than others. I’m not sure I ever really realized this before, or if I did I gave it no conscious thought or consideration but today I was reading poetry online from would-be amateur poets much like myself. Their comments made me realize…
When I write a poem, I never just decide “hey I’m going to write a poem” and do so, I don’t think about what I’m writing. I don’t choose a topic, and write a line… then sit and think about what to put next. I never go back and change or alter anything.
Reading what others have said it seems like they consciously decided to start writing poetry and when they do it’s something they actively desire and want to do.
They’ll sit down to write a poem, decide the topic and then decide what to say. Working slowly and carefully coming up with each line or word one by one to craft the best poem they can.

I honestly can think of only a handful of occasions since high school in which I did that. (High School was an exception-there you were told when to write, and often the topic to write on. You had no choice.) Every time I’ve done that the results have been… dismal, frankly only one of those poems was even passable. None of them I was particularly fond of, none evoked any real emotion. They’re not memorable in any way to me, and I’ve never felt any desire to go back and look at them.
Essentially they were little more than words on a page, that I feel nothing for. Little more interesting than a random note of no import at all.

Does that make me a bad poet? Maybe… it’s hard to say, I’m not sure. It’s certainly a defensible theory however.

I don’t think I ever decided one day to write poetry. I just did it. I think as far as I can remember even before I started writing poetry I’d always write down random little snippets of thought.
Today.. when I write a poem, I don’t decide to write a poem.
How it works for me is… well, a poem just comes to mind fully formed and I write it down. I make no conscious decision to write a poem, I’m not actively thinking about poetry.
I could be doing anything… often completely unrelated in any way to poetry or literature or art in general. A poem will just pop into my head. And I write it down.
That’s all. Then I go back to doing what I was before. In some ways I’m not actually a poet, just the instrument through poetry comes out.

My best poems are when I’m feeling any intense emotion. Be it a positive or negative one. Love, sadness, depression, loss, anticipation…
Intense feelings evoke poetic thought. Conscious decisions to write do not.
I learned long ago to simply write what comes to mind. Trying to alter that/change it/improve upon it, or taking my time to perfect it… invariably yields results that are worse then what I started from.
Maybe I’m simply naturally gifted to write thoughts in poetic form, and so I’ve no need to put conscious thought to it.
Or maybe it’s due to a lack of talent? Maybe I just lack the experience necessary. Perhaps my mind is just not suited to such flights of fancy as poetry requires.
All of that makes logical sense.

Truth be told, it doesn’t matter how I do it. One way is probably not any better than another just different. I don’t understand the difference, and I’m curious how many others write in a similar fashion as I do. I’ve no idea how to go about finding out however, I don’t exactly know many people (anyone at all?) that writes poetry. Only handful that even care about it at all.
It’s quite plausible someone I know writes poetry and I’m simply not aware of it however, after all the vast majority of people I know probably haven’t a clue that I do.

It brings other questions to mind… how frequently and consistently do other people write?
Do they study various forms of poetry?
Do they pattern themselves after any notable poet?
Do they even read poetry beyond their own?

The answers to those questions probably vary from person to person.

To answer my own queries on the off chance anyone cares:
Myself, I write very inconsistently. There have been several times over the years that I’ve written 7-8 poems in a few hours time. That’s a rarity however, and a very distinct anomaly. Still it has happened perhaps 5-6 times that I can recall.
Other times I’ve written nothing at all for several months.
About a yr ago I wrote maybe 40 poems in two months time. An extremely rapid pace for me.
In all the time since then I’ve written perhaps 5. Now I’ve written 5 in the last week.
It’s possible albeit very unlikely I’ll write nothing for the next year. It’s also possible although a tad less likely still that I’ll write 400 poems in that year.

I’ve studied a number of forms of poetry, mostly when I was ~17. Perhaps 18mnths ago I spent a few weeks reading on various forms of poetry and studying some lessons on how one writes poetry. I haven’t really done anything since, and I’m dubious I gained anything from it beyond a better working knowledge of various forms.
I tend to write almost exclusively freeform, usually thought not always there will be a consistent stanza pattern but that’s it.
Rarely I’ve written a haiku, a little more often a sonnet/cinquain/tanka. Nothing special, and no real art to most of my poems.

I don’t think I ever patterned myself after any poets. It’s hard to say, if I have it wasn’t an active choice. I’ve likely been influenced by many writers… and even more likely been strongly influenced by modern society outside of literature in my usage of language and general style of writing, along with the topics I’ve written on. My own style has changed somewhat over the years, and even now there is some deviation outside of my norm. As an example a handful of times I’ve written using early modern English (ala shakespearian English) a few other times I’ve written epic poetry… neither is something I’ve done more than a few times however.

I read other poets… but I wouldn’t consider myself well read. I have my comfort zone of knows poets and generally stick to them. Occasionally I’ll go looking for poetry on a specific topic if I’m in a mood of any intense emotion… if I see something a I really love I’ll look for more by that writer. Most of them time I’ll just read what other amateur poets have written.
I don’t think there’s any consistency in what I like.

“You wonder”

“You wonder”
A poem of how doubts consume your thoughts… How trust can be abused.

You wonder if she’s telling you the truth
You wonder if the plan is real
You wonder if it could work out in the end
You wonder if this is how you should feel
You wonder if what they said was true
You wonder if you were simply played
You wonder if she ever really loved you
You wonder if she just wanted to get laid
You wonder what she’s thinking
You wonder if it will even happen
You wonder why you can’t let go
You wonder why you’re already plannin’
You wonder why this is everything you want
You wonder why you can’t just move on
You wonder if it will be the same this time
You wonder if this love is gone
You wonder why you trust everything she says.
You wonder how you could feel any fonder,
You wonder why you don’t always trust her,
You wonder why you will always wonder.

Horrible?
Almost certainly…*shugs*

Sony: Xbox 360 costs $698

Item #5000 on Sony’s list of bizarre comments about the PS and their competitors has now been entered. Not content simply to inform everyone that European customers are “thruled and pleased” that Sony delayed the consoles release over there, and that the PS3 is ridiculously underpriced…. apparently they’ve also decided to inform us that the XBox 350 now costs $700.

Their twisted logic:
They claims the $299 Xbox 360 Core System “requires users to buy” a $100 20GB hard drive, a $199 HD DVD drive, a $50 wireless controller, and a $50 Xbox Live subscription in order to play games, obviously none of this is true… but accuracy isn’t a big thing over there.

Naturally, Sony conveniently ignores the fact that the $399 Xbox 360 “Premium” system includes the hard drive, wireless controller, and Xbox Live subscription. If users wish to add the entirely-optional HD DVD drive, the bundle’s price rises to $598—still $100 below Sony’s quoted figure.
They also neglect to mention any of the extras that come with the XBox 360 that the PS3 lacks. Apparently only Sony’s extras count.

I love Sony…. their becoming as hilariously inventive as Apple is in their marketing efforts.
Now all we need is for Jerry Sanders to come out of etirement and become AMD’s CEO again and we’ll have a lovely threesome. Sanders isn’t as bizarre in marketing…. but he was definitely always a colorful, “Hollywood’esque” guy and ever quoteable.
I’ve always been particularly fond of the “Real men have FABs.” quotation.

Toronto forward lines 06-07

My thoughts:

I’m leaning towards Antropov and Ponikarovsky on Sundin’s wing. Poni and Antro work very well together, and Sundin seems to raise Antro’s game moreso then he does anyone else.
O’Neill is a secondary option if he plays well.

I’d like to see Kilger get an opportunity with decent offensive linemates. He DID lead Toronto last season at even strength goals, and despite his woeful inconsistency he’s well suited to the “NEW NHL” as we saw last season so I’d like to see if he can more given the opportunity, he did manage to post 17 goals despite only playing about 9Min a night even strength and no PP at all.

If Suglobov makes the roster perhaps he could be paired with Kilger. Kilger was pretty good defensively last year, so he can partially cover for Suglobov’s defensive inadequacies. Both of them are excellent skaters, so it could potentially make for a very swift line as well. Suglobov is more of a playmaker then a scorer despite his excellent shot so Kilger would give him someone to pass to.

Perhaps Pohl centering them? I’m not sure if it would work out defensively, but it’s worth a try and would give us a depth line without significant offensive potential if it worked.

Steen and Wellwood are capable offensively, and worked well together for a brief time last season. Tucker would add significant physical presence to the line, and a decent amount of scoring himself.
Whether the line would be quick enough/physical enough/adequate defensively I’m not sure however as all 3 play very very different styles of games…

Stajan and peca are two of our premier defensive guys. Peca doesn’t give Stajan much to work with offensively though, but I don’t see a lot of room above him unless we drop Tucker back, but Tucker’s a bigger goal scoring threat right now not nearly as good defensively. O’Neill’s rather out of place there admittedly, but perhaps he and Stajan can get something going together.

Antropov-Sundin-Ponikarovsky
Steen-Wellwood-Tucker
Stajan-Peca-O’Neill
Kilger-Pohl-Suglobov

I’m unsure about the 2nd and 3rd lines to be honest, and nothing will adequately make best use of everyone’s talents. No mater what we do, we’ll be making some sacrifices and potentially holding someone aback for the betterment of the team as a whole.

I do think the 1st line is worth going with however, no one else has their game raised as much by Sundin as Antropov and he and Poni work well together so with the absence of any truly excellent wingers for him I’d like to see them paired.

The 4th line is well worth a shot I think… it may not work, but there is enough talent there that it could provide excellent depth scoring whilst still be adequate defensively, and few 4th line trios could skate with them.

Belak as the usual enforcer/energy guy/versatile injury fill in.

These lines of course are only assuming everyone is fully healthy, which oftentimes will not be the case. During those times we’ll have to shake them up quite a bit, and can probably move O’Neill towards a line better suited to his sniping talents, and hopefully give Stajan someone more talented to work with then Peca.
Ideally we would also double-shift Sundin at times, and try to limit Peca’s 5on5 ice time as he’s a dead weight offensively for nullifies much of his defensive qualities so we should focus him on the PK, and shutting down individual stars on the opposite team as much as possible.

Williams, and Ondrus would be the first call-ups in case of injury. Williams for scoring, Ondrus if we need a checker or if the teams seems to be lacking enthusiasm… as that’s one thing he’s adept at providing.

I’ll cover my preferred defensive lines tomorrow, along with how we could manage our goaltending and special teams (PP/PK situation).

Sony PS3-More bad news

The news just gets worse and worse for Sony…. after their disasterous showing at E3 2006 they’ve since:
Revealed the $500 PS3 will not feature an HDMI port, and so will not be able to utilize the Blu-Rasy drive to watch movies in HD.
Lowered specifications on the CPU
Lowered specifications on the GPU
Revealed yields for functional Cell processors with 6 or more cores functional are at appx 10%
Removed HDMI cables from the package, so users cannot play movies or games in HD out of the box.
Cut initial availablity from 4Million consoles worldwide at alunch to 2Million.
Delayed European launch from November 06 to March 07.
Further cut initial availability of consoles from 2Million to 500,000 at launch. (100,000 in Japan, 400,000 in North America).

The PS3 has just been a complete and unmitigated disaster area with problem after problem ever since E3 when it was bad enough after consumer reaction to the console was extremely poor relative to their chief competitor Microsoft (and to a lesser extent Nintendo).

Then they just have to irritate their entire core fanbase with such stupid comments like the PS3 would be a bargain and extremely underpriced at $1500… will set you up for revolutionary gaming for the next decade etc.

Right now I really think Sony just needs to shut up, hide and get the console out ASAP in as large a volume as possible.
When even their dedicated fan base have begun cracking jokes about them you know it’s getting desperate.

Vista Pre-RC1 Build 5536

Quick comments….
Install time is MUCH quicker, 23 minutes from initial power on to sitting at a fully functional working desktop.
Install is very quick and easy, a little too basic from my perception though. The number of options are extremely limited.
Basically you choose fresh install on an existing partition, or upgrade an already installed OS.
No creating/changing partitions, no formatting, no deleting partitions, no choosing file systems.

At the end you choose country, and first user name, along with password if you choose. You choose user icon from a small seclection, as well as few selections of desktop backgrounds.
That’s it.
Very very simple. Great for people that don’t know much about computers (But how many of those are installing OS’s?), not very pleasing for advanced users.

Still, it really is quite an easy and quick install. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a few minutes could be cut off that by final release either as the final release won’t have to deal with the various debugging in the Beta’s, and other minor things like
checking the internet for latest beta drivers etc etc.

Boot time after install is about 5-6 seconds faster then a stock WinXP install… but still a 3-4 seconds slower then a tweaked WinXP bootup. Startup from hibernation is quicker then WinXP however, and given then I basically hibernate 99.9% of the time rather then doing a regular shutdown I’m satisfied.

After install…. much faster, and finally genuinely usable. The generally slow and laggy feel is gone. It’s not ideal, or as fluid as my WinXP install (Granted Vista hasn’t been tweaked/customized though) but definitely usable over the long term.
The Vista Aero interface also worked in full on my GF 6600GT, which wasn’t the case in any prior beta’s. It defaulted to the Aero Basic however.

Only two devices did not have drivers after initial install add-on 10/100 Ethernet card (Integrated ethernet did have drivers), and my sound card.
WinXP drivers worked for the 10/100 ethernet, and Creative’s Vista drivers worked…. vaguely. Vaguely as in very basic sound functionality was enabled, but that’s it. And it didn’t sound pleasant. I disabled the Creative card and used the integrated sound card on the mobo and it worked fine in Vista.

Still aggravated by how incredibly sloooooooooow the mouse is even after ramping up mouse speed as far as possible. Definitely still need to install Logitech software to get a reasonably comfortable mouse speed.

No stability issues yet, though I’ve not tested extensively. Most apps install and work properly immediately, though there are certainly a number that are still not functional. A surprisingly large number of applications that won’t natively install, Vista is able to diagnose the installation error and apply the needed backwards compatibility settings specific to that application and offer to attempt installation again which generally works.

A mild curiosity:
WinSAT performance ratings for my system-
Processor- 5.3  (I’m surprised a A64 3200+ albeit heavily overclocked to 2.6GHz was rated 5.3 as that’s Vista’s highest rating right now.)
Memory- 3.7 (Hmm… unusually low. I’d definitely have expected ~4.3 given the amount/bancwidth/latency.
Graphics-5.3 (Mildly surprising)
Gaming Graphics-4.7 (A GF 6600GT at stock clockspeed is just short of Vista’s highest rating? unusual.)
Primary HDD-5.3 (Unexpected… I’d have thought 3.7-4.3 for a Western Digital WD1200JB)

WinSat’s definitely not finalized though, so I imagine those results will change by final release.  Definitely MUCH different then the early Beta 1’s which had my system hovering around 2.0-3.3 across the board. But the initial WinSAt implementation was… dubious to say the least. Not that I’m particularly pleased with it’s current implementation either with it’s cookie cutter one size fits all lowest common denominator approach to the overall rating.

All considered it’s quite a bit better then previous beta’s performance wise. All the things I dislike are still there, but I already know none of those will change.

The Evgeni Malkin Saga

Well, the Malkin saga is slowly drawing to a close. He’s safely ensconced in the US, likely soon to be signed with pittsburgh and resigned from his Russian club team.
Pittsburgh is happy, Malkin is happy, the NHL is mostly happy… his Russian GM is screaming bloody murder.

Now that it’s all slowly leaking out I have even less respect for Vilichkin (Mettalurg Magnitogorsk GM) then I did previously.

Malkin claimed he was under “great psychological pressure” and was concerned for his family throughout the recent drama concerning his departure from Mettalurg Magnitogorsk.
Malkin confirmed Mettalurg kept pressuring him to remain in Russia. “I was pressured very hard. I kept asking them, ‘Why aren’t you keeping your promise to let me play in America?’ They did not want to listen. They just kept on with their arguments”.
Over the past few days, we’ve heard tales of a 3 a.m. contract signing and immense pressure from the team on Malkin to keep him in Russia. Yesterday, we learned the team had even put a lockdown on his passport in a bid to keep him immobile.

We’ve also heard from the media how times have changed in Russia, and that the talk of a ‘cloak-and-dagger’ escape from the country by hockey players was a thing of a past. Given the way things went down, however, with Malkin’s agent parachuting into Finland and staying with him in a hideout, it’s easy to see the parallels with the defections of yesteryear.

It’s hard to disbelieve Malkin when his Russian compatriots in North America seem completely unsurprised by the litany of complaints. And Malkin’s former coach for Magnitogorsk has largely confirmed everything he’s said.

A good example came in Kamloops during the World Juniors, where the Russians were scheduled to play Latvia on the Thursday night but were supposed to arrive in the city and practice in the morning. Looking to write a small feature on Malkin,  James Mirtle (Hockey Journalist) managed to get a copy of the team’s entire itinerary — when and where they would eat, when practice was, etc. — for the few days they were in Kamloops.
The thing was, the Russians were never where they were supposed to be.
Practices were cancelled, media availability was denied and the team’s demeanor just had a very peculiar air to it.
After games the team was quickly herded onto the bus while the coach and one player answered a few brief questions through a translator in the media room. Malkin nowhere to be found.

The Malkin story does little to dispel the oft held opinion that Russian hockey at the professional level is little more than a shadow front for mobsters who will stop at nothing to get what they want whether it’s money or hockey players — mostly money. My sympathies are with Malkin, because Mettalurg promised him his release to play in the NHL and then reneged in hopes of squeezing the Penguins for millions. I suspect they’ll get nothing if this goes to litigation, which is why I think Vilichkin is so furious. He doesn’t care about his “national treasure”, only the millions he thinks Malkin is worth. His comments that Malkin was forced to leave border on the ludicrous, and that he thinks Malkin’s written reignation is a forgery… simply laughable. I understand the Russians position that they feel they should receive better compensation for their players who depart for the NHL, but the clumsy way they’re going about it won’t win them any sympathy or land them a better transfer deal.

Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock

I’m not normally one to talk about celebrities much…. but this is irresistable, so excuse the slight diversion.

Pamerla Andeson apparently got married to Kid Rock today…. for the 3rd time. I have to believe this is just a game to them, as why when you’ve been married and divorced twice in 3yrs already, what could possibly convince someone it would work this time?

Besides, who gets married in a pair of torn off jeans, a dirty white t-shirt, flip flops, and a cigarette sticking out of his mouth?
Kid Rock apparently did. Does this sound like he’s taking this whole thing seriously?
Given that his “Wife” was apparently wearing a transparent minidress and… nothing else, he probably took it about as seriously as she evidently did though.

It’s genuinely a pity that there couldn’t be a law against such blatantly frivolous marriages.
On another note… I’m not wholly sure how I feel about marriage and gays, I’m not completely against it but I’d prefer it be called something else such as the obvious “Civil Union” rather then “Marriage” as homophobic as that may sound. One thing I am certain about however is that Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock should be named the gay rights association (Does it have a name besides Gay Rights Association?  I presume it does) newest spokesmen however.

If straight people like them can make marriage into little more then a joking game and no one much cares, then why should gays not be allowed to enter into marriage?
The most homophobic person on the earth couldn’t call Kid Rock + Pamela Anderson a more legitimate marriage then two girls/guys.

Anyone got two dogs that are in love?   One wonders if they could get a marriage license.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft has released a beta version of a very nice blogging editor Windows Live Writer, I wouldn’t normally bother mentioning software like this but it’s free and even in Beta it’s vastly superior to the multitiude of other blogging editors available including those costing upwards of $30+.

If you use Windows, and your a blogger it’s very much worth the download.

It currently supports…
– Windows Live Spaces
– Blogger
– LiveJournal
– TypePad
– WordPress
– All blogs that support RSD (Really Simple Discoverability)
– Metaweblog API
– Moveable Type API

But their apparently working on supporting more bloggers in the future. Pretty much all of the major ones are already supported.

Malkin Bolts from team while in Finland…AWOL

http://sport.gazeta.ru/sport/lenta/i…?734368#734368

A quick translation:
“Evgeni Malkin has gone AWOL from Metallurg. As a source at the club told a gazeta.ru reporter, the forward, who came to Finland with his team to hold a training camp has left the team on Saturday with his personal belongings and travel documents. His whereabouts are unknown.”

Has yet to be confirmed but still noteworthy.

I always hate it when a player has to resort to sneaking out of their country/away from their team under the cover of night just to get to the NHL.

It’s occasionally been necessary especially in the old communist Russia but the results for the player is unfortunate. If true he probably won’t be welcomed onto any Russian International teams in the future, and it may not be altogether… “healthy” for him to travel to Russia anytime in the remote future which pretty much ensures he’s cut off from family/friends.

Google Sends Aspirin To Blogger

Google Sends Aspirin To Blogger

So some blogger dude, frustrated with Google, wrote “Dear Google, you are giving me a headache” on his blog. Soon afterwards, he receives a packet of aspirin from Google and a handwritten note.

“Google continues to amaze me. Even though they are a huge company, they obviously found my article on Marketing Pilgrim, got some acetaminophen, wrote a letter, and mailed it to me.”

Damn, I knew I should have wrote that “Dear Google, I wish I was a millionaire” editorial.

The theory of friends

Thoughts on something I read in the newspaper today:

You know, I read in the newspaper today about something a murderer stated in court. It struck me as rather depressing.
It essence he excused his killing as an act of mercy, apparently the couple he killed were friends of his.
He stated that he viewed his having friends as a weakness, and so he had to kill them as he was afraid that caring for anyone but himself would hold him back in life.

It’s a sick and twisted point of view. One would imagine having friends would benefit him in life, not hold him back. It would seem rather lonely to give up caring about anyone, and in turn anyone caring about you.

I would imagine most people would find the thought of losing a friend as upsetting, he found the thought of having a friend as somehow loathsome. Quite the contradiction from the norm.

Personally I much prefer my stance that having people that care for you, and are willing to be there for you when needed… ie. friends, as being a good thing… not something to be afraid of.
I guess that’s obvious.. I merely felt like commenting as the thought of someone viewing friends as a concept to avoided as truly depressing.

It’s fitting enough for the newspaper though. The news in by it’s very nature depressing. It’s the nasty stuff that makes the headlines, I doubt people would want to read the news if it was filled with nice sweet articles about people helping little old ladies across the street. 🙂

Anyway, I’m curious what anyone else has to say on the article I mentioned above?

Windows Vista delays explained

A blog post on Microsoft’s developer network reveals some interesting insight into the delays that have plagued Windows Vista over the past few years. With irreverent prose and a liberal use of bold tags, Microsoft Tablet PC developer Philip Su explains how serious management problems and an overly complicated code base have made Vista development slow and difficult to control.

To illustrate the slowness of Vista development, Su points to Vista’s estimated gain of 10 million lines of code over Windows XP. Divide up 10 million lines across the five-year development time and 2,000-strong developer team, and the average Vista developer is only estimated to be producing around 1,000 lines of code every year—significantly below the average for software developers in the United States, which Su says is 6,200 lines a year.

What’s more, the Windows team retains “the whiff of a bygone culture of belittlement and aggression,” according to Su. Developers are frightened to communicate delays to project managers, and project managers aware of delays are unable to get a proper response from higher-ups. “Figure out how to make it work” is quoted as a typical response from one of the Vice Presidents overseeing Vista’s development.

Dave Baumann joins ATi

I suppose Beyond3D will live on without him, but his loss hit’s the online tech community hard. There’s no one else out theere with his knowledge to adequately fill in.