Just installed Google Web Accelerator

I just downloaded/installed Google WebAccelerator, which is available for Windows systems running IE 5.5+ and/or Firefox 1.0+ - installing the utility actually implements in both browsers, if resident on a PC. It appears to have addressed an earlier concern. To my surprise it's a browsing optimizer for broadband connections. As for how it works, there's a brief description upon installation (full profile here):

• Google Web Accelerator sends requests for web pages, except for secure web pages (HTTPS), to Google, which logs these requests. Some web pages may embed personal information in these page requests.
• Google receives and temporarily caches cookie data that your computer sends with webpage requests in order to improve performance.
• In order to speed up delivery of content, Google Web Accelerator may retrieve webpage content that you did not request, and store it in your Google Web Accelerator cache.
• To learn more, read our Google Web Accelerator Privacy Policy (http://webaccelerator.google.com/privacy).

I'm browsing now during my ISP's peak time, and visiting some fairly HTML and image-intensive sites, and it seems to handle images a bit better. Once cached, pages load at lightspeed. I still find Opera to be faster for raw pages right out of the gate, but this is nice.

Economies of scale let me enjoy new media more

An epiphany hit me just now, making me aware of why I enjoy new media apps so much more than traditional media. With blogs, podcasts, e-books, webcasts and whatnot most of the content is accessible anywhere and free, so skipping/skimming through content is no big thing. If something doesn't reach out and grab me, I pass it by and I feel no regret.

With paid magazine subscriptions, going out to the movies, rentals, etc. I feel guilted into consuming each bit of information all the way through - editor's notes, each column, watching the entire flick, to justify me investment to myself.

And the volume of new media I can consume in less time than traditional media means I get more out of it. Is it any wonder it's been ages since I've been to the newsstand?

28 Days Later: Sony knew of DRM rootkit snafu

I'm going to stop kissing Sony's ass for a minute and link to a BoingBoing post citing that Sony knew about the DRM rootkit problem nearly a month before it got out. Ouch.

FCC expected to OK a la carte pricing for TV channels

It's funny how cyclical life and business can get. CNN Money reports the FCC is expected to approve a la carte pricing for individual channels, instead of the bundled packages. This is making its way around the blogosphere will varied reactions...but I recall a time when this used to be the norm.

My mom took my sister and I in the early 80's to the cable company to sign up for The Disney Channel. Then in my teens, I got my dad HBO for Christmas. And Cinemax, Showtime and the like followed. These days you can get a ton of stuff on multiple derived tiers, like HBO, HBO2, HBO Family for a premium price. I've got all three and I never watch the latter two.

I'm in favor of the FCC's decision as it'll make enjoying exactly what I want and save me some money. But it's interesting how the more we apparently innovate, we revert to older processes.

Gale Sayers, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders...Dave Chappelle???

One of the beautifully tragic things of Dave Chappelle not returning for what would have been his third season of "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central was that he'll be forever immortialized for what he did without ever having gone downhill. The goofy kid from D.C. who I first saw in Mel Brooks' "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" created what was the funniest show on cable since "In Living Color".

Sure, we'll always wonder how much better his show could have become, but he never had a bad show or had to deal with ratings displaying diminishing returns over the years as the show spiraled downwards towards unprofitability. He went out - albeit unceremoniously - on his own terms.

And in so doing he shares a trait with some of the greatest pro sports running backs ever to grace the gridiron. Men like Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Gale Sayers and Barry Sanders - those who transcended the game and left at the height of their careers. We all wonder what could have been but smile at what was. It's not like music, where tragedy, disease, substance or unspeakable jealousy took from the world gifted artists, whose presence was beloved but absence in death made their talent legendary. People like John Lennon, Bob Marley, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. Dave's still around (sort of).

If he ever comes back in the near future, he'll be huge - a landmark media moment.

Mulling over a tag cloud app for KUAM.COM

I'm impressed with NewsCloud, the tag cloud mashup from Post Remix, a gallery of cool application hacks using The Washington Post's data. I'm thinking of doing something similar in ASP.NET 1.x - extracting keywords in my archives outside of a banned list (i.e., "the", "I", "is"), displaying them either graphically via GDI+ or warping their font size appearance with some clever array programming and HTML/CSS, displaying them in a Repeater or DataList.

It really would have no reliable purpose, other than to entertain people with random stories, or find stories they might not otherwise have gotten to be some kind of association. On second thought, this could be cool...

Could mobile Web browsers unseat IE's dominance?

Richard MacManus speculates on recent developments in the mobile browsing as possibly usurping Microsoft's leading position in the web browser space with IE. I had actually thought MS was doing alright with Pocket IE, which is a tremendous browser that does translation of desktop web content on microdevices really well. Palm's Blazer is also rock solid for accessing the web on a Treo, and Opera's got an app that enabled AJAX on wireless devices.

"Big Red One" blew me away

I rented Activision's "Call of Duty 2 - Big Red One" from Blockbuster over the weekend and was totally amazed. I saw the TV ad and thought the scenes used with either (1) mock-ups for TV that looked better than they actual render on the console, (2) an Xbox prototype, or (3) a cutaway from the cinematic vignettes. Not at all. The game's as good as advertised.

The game's action from the get-go in the first level, and I had to pause after twenty minutes to wipe the sweat from my brow out of fear the sniper position I'd taken with my squad would be found out.

This game is totally fun and stress-inducing. It's a must-get.

Legal issues aside, Irvin on tight ballot for Hall

Looking past the recent arrest of former Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin's got a tough road ahead of him into Canton. Just the semifinalists are an all-time team. The list of 25 modern-day candidates for the HOF includes:

• Troy Aikman
• Richard Dent
• Ray Guy
• Art Monk
• Warren Moon
• Andre Reed
• Ken Stabler
• Derrick Thomas
• Reggie White
• Thurman Thomas
  

Art Modell (who once said the NFL has no place in Baltimore) is also on the list, but I doubt he'll make it...tension from old school Colts fans lingers.

As for Irvin's qualifications, he spent all eleven years of his career with the Lone Star on his helmet. He's got three world championships, was a perrenial Pro Bowl starter and all-pro, was money in the playoffs, and for a span of about five or six years was the second- or third-best receiver in the NFL, after Jerry Rice and Cris Carter and possibly before Reed. His trifecta of rings alone puts him ahead of the cadre - Thurman Thomas, Reed, The Snake, Dent, Monk (who along with Al Toon has been screwed for years) and Moon (a legend in his own right).

So who gets in? I say Aikman's guaranteed. Reverend Reggie only won a single Super Bowl, but his Defensive MVP trophies in '87, '91, and '95 give him the nod. Moon's title legacy is more CFL than NFL, but he did put up monumental numbers in Houston. If I had to choose between giving my vote to Thurman Thomas or Reed, TT would get the nod for his 1991 league MVP. And Monk, who won a pair of titles but outside of D.C. never gets the respect he deserves, is sorely due to don the gold jacket. So there's five, not counting Irvin.

So consider one seat still open for debate and toss it up between Reed, Monk and Irvin. Michael's got the championships going for him, but time spent waiting favors Monk. Reed won more consistently. I'm drawing blanks, but I'd say Irvin wins out. Slightly.

Again, I'm not sure on how his arrest will impact sportswriter voting, but the rings count, plus the sympathetic vote for going in with Aikman. And say what you want about Irvin's broadcasting savvy, but that he's on people's boob tubes every week is also a minute advantage. This'll be an interesting balloting year.

And talk about being screwed...where the heck is Randall Cunningham in all this?

PSP firmware upgrade enables podcast support

I so have to get me a PSP this Christmas. The new v.2.6 firmware upgrade for Sony's PlayStation Portable includes RSS and WMA support, making it more and more of a Web 2.0 appliance (minus the embedded Flash and AJAX support in the web browser, that is). So let's see...now you can watch UMDs, enjoy copied DVR programming through TiVoToGo, watch local TV anywhere with LocationFree, copy media files, view PSP content on a TV...and oh yeah, play games, too.

Check out this link for sample data and info about RSS Channel.

Just now starting to get noticed

Since altering my blogging responsibilities almost three months ago, halting publication on my .TEXT blog and setting up my own domain with Blogger, I not surprisingly noticed that interactivity waned heavily. I was part of the .NET blogging community, so the large population of people actively using that site saw my stuff. When I went out on my own, I knew there would be a period of dormancy while the Web's WAIS services indexed my stuff and people updated their links for my URL and RSS feed.

I'm starting to get more rapid comments and e-mail from people now doing Technorati watchlists, Google searches, Memeorandum finds and permalinks to whom I've connected. I think I'm starting to get back up to speed of being recognized. Cool.

Injuries may force Dat Nguyen into retirement

I'd hate to see Dat Nguyen hang up his cleats. His bone-jarring hits and infectious enthusiasm have earned him the respect from fans nationwide. But the 30-year-old Nguyen, now in his seventh season out of Texas A&M, never a Pro Bowler but always a fan favorite and a Dallas defensive captain, may be forced to retire because of neck injuries from a stinger he suffered, plus nagging knee problems.

Unavailable on Monday, Dallas head coach Bill Parcells told the media Nguyen was considering retirement because he wouldn't be able to play up to his standards. Imagine that - in this day and age of contract holdouts, mind-blowing endorsement deals, shady agentry and inflated egos, the linebacker, the NFL's first player of Vietnamese descent, would rather quit playing the game and leave as a Cowboy than be traded, remain and underperform or ride the pine.

In the testosterone-laden NFL, Dat's shown the character of true man. He's effectively demonstrated his responsibility to his team and retained his pride.

Should he retire, he'll be missed.

Sports Illustrated drops the ball with lackluster RSS feeds

I mentioned previously how I prefer to read an entire article in Google Reader or LiteFeeds, my two primary RSS aggregator applications. Whether I'm at my desktop, on the move or on my phone, I don't want to be traversing the Web to read the content I so desperately seek. I just subscribed to Sports Illustrated's RSS feed and was really disappointed at the contents of each item description: "Read full story for latest details". Columnist contributions have a brief abstract, but news items implement the default message.

ESPN's feeds are a bit better, using a single sentence to describe the contained content. But it's still not enough. I need an snapshot or teaser, not a subtitle. SI's world-reknown for its stellar writing...the least they could do it give me a snippet or truncated portion of the piece.

Look, I realize that most enterprise-level, corporate publishing concerns are still of the Web 1.0 mentality that driving users to their public WWW property is the main concern, to retain ad exposures. Many have only adopted RSS in the last few months, so I'll give them a pass. But this is ridiculous. That's fine and a in all likelihood I'll do that anyway if the article's intriguing. IF. But don't force me to do so just to determine such attractiveness. Doing so largely defeats the purpose of having a syndicated feed in the first place.

SI, an institution I've respected for decades as a young writer and now as a professional journalist, totally let me down this time.

Calculating the ROI for getting an MBA

Business 2.0 put together this neato list of costs involved with obtaining an MBA from some of the nation's more prestigious business schools. Gauge for yourself if taking about two years out of your life and dropping around $80,000 is worth it.

I see my alma mater isn't listed on the list.

LocationFree is now on my wish list

On my station's CBS channel tonight that network ran a really good tech news package about changes in television - notably watching TV over cell phones and via Sony's LocationFree, which I loved this morning. Guam's bandwidth still blows goats at the moment, so I doubt the latter would be a worthwhile investment, leading to throttling and compromised quality.

I'm sure the requisite pipe demands needed to run one of these $1,499 LF-X11 babies for decent viewing quality is realistically at least 3.5 Mbps. And that's dedicated bandwidth, doing nothing else, at non-peaktime. I've currently got 3.2 Mbps that scales back at night.

I'd get a LocationFree for my home viewing, and a SlingBox to keep tabs on my local news while traveling. Right tool for the right job, ya know?

Being a Sony product, it also works with the PSP (versions 2.50 or later). That kicks ass. Just one more reason I've got to get a PSP over a video iPod. Chalk this up on my list of gadgetry I'd have to get when I move to the mainland. Shoot, at least this stuff would work out here.

$100 MIT laptops will run Redhat / LeapFrog rule

I've been hearing a lot about the $100 laptops proposed by MIT, to be distributed to all children, but only decided to peruse the links now. The PCs are going to run Redhat's implementation of Linux, in keeping with the open source theme of the project. Apple had piched free copies of OS X, but it was turned down.

On that note, LeapFrog is da bomb. Several of my co-workers, in their late-20's and early-30's buy their kids these things, especially around this time. Their "toys" (I can't even bring myself to call them that, they're so useful) are really engineered well, and really do the trick of teaching kids. Were I a parent, I'd own stock and be a frequent customer. Must be how my parents felt about me getting a Nintendo.

Google wants to talk to me about improving video experience

I was really stoked to get an e-mail today from a Google engineer working on Google Video, thanking me for my input and wanting to setup time with me to discuss how I think the service should be extended. I've blogged obsessively about how much I like the service and shared my thoughts on improving the experience of watching user-submitted clips streamed online, so it's nice to get this type of reciprocity.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity and I'm revving with ideas to throw at them.

How to put Google Video clips on Blogger blog

Here's a great post about incorporating clips from Google Video clips on Blogger-based blogs:

1. Copy the URL of the video page you want to link to.
2. Save one of the screenshots from the video page.
3. Create a post in Blogger and use the image tool to upload the screenshot you saved in the previous step.
4. Edit the html of the image link in the post. Select the destination of the image link and paste in the Google video page URL as a replacement.

Photos of new TiVo data services

ZatsNotFunny's got some great screenshots (actually, digital shots of a TV screen) of the forthcoming applications from Yahoo!, Live365 and podcasting. These beta shots are really drool-inducing stuff.

Reading RSS in .NET DataSet not as easy you might think

I ran into a problem today when trying to use the .NET DataSet.ReadXml(string pathToXML) method to read-in the contents of an RSS feed. The relational nature of the DataTable objects within DataSets doesn't digest the replicated tags within RSS. This results in the offensive "The same table (xxxx) cannot be the child table in two nested relations" error being thrown.

I found a workaround that uses XSLT to get the data in an appropriate structure.

NBC mulling legal action against TiVoToGo

I find NBC's beef against TiVo for letting people transfer digitally-recorded programming to the PSP and iPod comical. There's a healthy dose of DRM to prevent file-sharing, which should be the main issue, not the copying of content. And when programs are copied into portable devices, the ads within remain intact, barring the user forwarding past them, What does NBC look to gain - a gag order preventing DVR capturing of its content?

Methinks the network doth complain too much. This is likely more a concern over rendering NBC's future plans in the VOD space obsolete than a genuine concern for intellectual property.

Firefox 1.5 launching with marketing blitz

Here's a novel concept: launch a web browser with a major mass media campaign. Firefox is gearing up to do just that, with v.1.5 eminent this week. Might this signal a shift in open source embracing mainstream media?

Sony LocationFree gives you local TV anywhere

I caught off Robin Good's blog that Sony LocationFree's going head-to-head with the SlingBox, in wirelessly streaming local TV programming to anywhere you have a broadband Internet connection. This is a market I've felt is going to be huge, once WiMax gets a little solid footing nationally so we won't have to worry about range issues for hotspots, and in convergence with other platforms like PC-based DVR-style recording.

Imagine that...you'll be able to bring your laptop to a buddy's house who doesn't have cable and watch the game. If you run the inputs into a projection device, you've got yourself a little makeshift theater.

Keep an eye on this...it's going to be big.

Memeorandum needs to follow sports blogs, too

I really enjoy Memeorandum, that's no secret (some even prefer it over getting RSS feeds through aggregators). But the one deficiency I find in it at the moment is the fact that it only tracks the politics and technology beats. I use Blogniscient to keep tabs on sports blogging activity, which is almost as health in terms of that corner of the blogosphere's size and frequency of posting.

Blogniscient even tracks the entertainment and business circuits. If Mighty Mem did the same, this would be sweet.

Forging partnerships with hardware vendors

One of the things we're going to be doing a lot more proactively in 2006 (and relying on other companies doing anyway) are promotions with established distributors across industry who can give away digital devices. KUAM is in the content generation/distribution business, so we don't largely get into buying 2,500 iPods to be given away. Certain local companies out there have and are doing this, so it helps increase accessibility to our multiplatform stuff.

We largely don't get into this business, but it's necessary. We need to rely on companies either giving away and/or bundling devices like the PSP, iPod, HDTV, broadband Internet access and more, empowering our audience by putting the devices in their hands and homes. It's the same dichotomy that the other side enjoys - if people are aware that they can download, store and playback our newscasts and specials on their portable MP3 players, they'll flock to an insurance company, supermarket or gas station who gives them away. It's a very healthy symbiosis.

Earlier this year I hard numerous stories about how one of our competitors was very enthusiastically giving away iPod Shuffles as part of a promotion. People told the representatives they were really happy to get the gadgets...so they could get our content. This drove them nuts.

Why do PDA phones have such sucky ringtones?

I used to host a weekly TV segment on technology, which is making a triumphant return this coming spring (please try and contain your enthusiasm). I've been given a ton of gadgets and gizmos to play with, evnluate and objectively review. One conclusion I've made after years of such testing is that for some inexplicable reason, all PDA phones have really lousy ringtones.

Go ahead and check yourself - Audiovox's Thera, some of the newer product lines running Windows Mobile 2003, even the almightly Treo's available ringtones just don't do it. Most use the obligatory cultural themes (samba, rhumba, polka), the expected classical pieces (Canon in D, Ode To Joy), and then various sound effects (old style phone ringing, a manufacturer's unique theme).

Go by your local mall sometime. There's always at least ten goofballs in the food court who irritatingly decides to listen to all of his ringtones sequentially, disrupting your meal.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason for the ringer impotence is a combination of unattractive tones themselves, packaged as outdated MIDIs, coupled with the fact that most PDA phones don't project their audio that loudly. So not only are the tones themselves unappealing, you largely have a hard time hearing them.

I'm not saying you have to ship units with AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" (currently my ringtone on my Motorola V710), just something more appealing. I guess this is what gives the booming ringtone market its traction. If anyone out there knows of any PDA phones with decent tones, drop me a line.

It's about time we had some.

LG and Microsoft Launch Stand-Alone DVR

Look out, TiVo - Microsoft and LG hooked to develop the 160GB LRM-590 Digital Media Recorder that can burn recorded programming to DVDs, and can playback audio and display images. The article didn;t say anything about the ability to copy content onto PSPs or iPods, so I'm wary at this point. And with the underlying OS being Microsoft Windows, I'm skeptical.

Will drug arrest cost Irvin a place in Canton?

I was shocked to learn of the arrest of Michael Irvin for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia (keep in mind the charges are not for usage, and Irvin claims the device, now identified as a crack pipe, wasn't his). This was supposed to be The Playmaker's year.

The bittersweet result of the former Cowboys wideout not making it into the NFL Hall of Fame last year on the first ballot with former nemesis quarterback Steve Young was that he could then be inducted this year alongside HIS quarterback, Troy Aikman. Both are currently semifinalists in a very competitive group.

My problem with the fallout that's going to ensue is that many of the sportswriters who comprise the Hall's selection committee are going to cop a moral elitist attitude and unfairly base Irvin's consideration solely on this recent arrest, compounded by bringing his forgettable drug past back from the dead. Induction to the Hall, at least for players, is supposed to be based upon performance on the field, not off it. Irvin deserves to wear the gold jacket, no doubt. Put it into perspective: O.J. Simpson's place in Canton after being brought up on charges of killing his wife was questioned, but not revoked. And that was for murder.

Now, you can argue a decent case that all indicted into the NFL Hall of Fame should not only be the most outstanding players, owners and officials, but also be men of high moral values, law-abiding, God-fearing citizens. Good point, but I'd unjustifiably guess most people that are already in haven't exactly been angelic in their behavior.

While I don't condone drug involvement of any kind, I would hope Irvin still receives his due enshrinement to the Hall. Whatever happens, the accomplishment's going to be tarnished by his legal troubles so that's a cross he'll always have to bear. If he fails to get in by unsympathetic journalists, it'll be his downfall. If he does get the nod, it'll be forever suspect. He's shamed either way, although Irvin did perform his normal pre-game analyst duties on the Monday Night Countdown leading up to the Steelers/Colts matchup.

My prayers go out to the man and his family. Details are sketchy and the charge is minor, but I hope he gets it straightened out nonetheless. And I hope sportswriters consider how the case plays out before passing judgment on him.

Note: I realize many will not agree with me...I defend my reasoning with the same passion that I truly believe validates Pete Rose's overdue induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Charlie Hustle should never be allowed to manage again, but he's carved out a spot for himself in Cooperstown. But that's another conversation entirely.

Audit a Harvard class via podcast

This is unbelievably cool. Harvard University is making a computer science class, "Understanding Computers and the Internet" accessible to anyone via a feed you can plug into a podcatcher client (althought it's iTunes friendly). The content's mixed, including MP4s, MP3s and QuickTime movies.

Wow...I'm "enrolled" in the Ivy League. Mom's gonna be so proud.

Freeware puts text RSS feeds on iPods

FINALLY. It took someone long enough to figure out that maybe all the oodles of space on all brands of iPod could be used for something other than music, contacts and Doom. I was stoked to learn that iFeedPod transfers subscribed feeds onto Apple's iPod, storing them in Notes. Unfortunately, it's only for Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, but it's still a cool way to get more out of your iPod.

Full-text feeds for all?

Scoble notes the eternal argument over syndicated online publishing: releasing an article's full-text or just an abstract in an RSS feed? Microsoft's chief blogger indicated he's cleaning out his subscription list, getting rid of feeds that don't use full-text, preferring to read entire articles. I agree...I'll stay within a single service and confine myself to working within my aggregator if I can help it and not be jumping all over the Web. But not everyone feels this way, following the thoughts of John Roberts.

(I'd fully recommend Safari's built-in RSS reader to that crowd. Although it's only for the Mac at the moment and forces you to read content on a site-by-site basis, if people want more granular control over the length of a feed's description, you can do this.)

Implementing an article's content verbatim was something I adopted early on when releasing Guam's first RSS feed (our news stories) in August 2004. I had been noticing the the truncated content thing didn't really work. I realize that displaying an article in its entirety sacrifices the chance that a user might click on a link, visit your site and be exposed to an ad, but for me, it's a worthwhile risk. We have other means of generating online revenue, so the subsidy is justified.

This liberal attitude might have something to do with the fact that my site's RSS traffic now exceeds its web traffic, but that's OK with me. People are still getting my content at the end of the day.

It's official: my RSS traffic now exceeds my web traffic

I've been noting the emergence of my company's RSS feeds (articles, podcasts, VODcasts, photostreams, police blotter, etc.), particularly the growth factor and the rate of increase. It's quite impressive, and today the number of requests for XML-based information exceeds that which is accessed by more traditional browsing means.

This is of particular importance to us here at KUAM, seeing as how all of our news articles can be accessed and virally circulated in multi-platform fashion (web, mobile, printable, e-mail), so each article should be, in theory, exponentially more popular than a feed. But the sheer number of aggregator applications banging on my XML feeds day in and day out apparently is starting to outweigh this. I'm projecting that my RSS traffic will begin to carry my site as the dominant mechanism in another six months maybe. Wow - that's fast.

I've been thinking of monetization strategies and ad insertion tecniques that won't be too intrusive, as ad hoc research indicates that one of the reasons people who access my stuff enjoy our RSS data is because of the lack of formal UI.

My concerns with Michael Vick

On my sportstalk show this week one of the topics I debated with Brant was what's missing from Michael Vick's game to get him to win a Super Bowl. Simple: a receiver.

Atlanta's got a great defense, a solid running game, impressive special teams play and a beast in Alge Crumpler. The absent yang to Vick's yin is a first-rate wideout. And not just a guy with soft hands who runs like the wind and can leap DBs in a single bound - a top-notch wideout, an upper echelon guy, a first class player to compliment (and to some degree refine) #7's huge talent.

This goes beyond just a Pro Bowler - an all-pro. Think T.O. Think Randy Moss. Think Chad Johnson.

The Falcons' current receiving corps is decent, but won't get it done. Brian Finneran is good, so is Dez White. Michael Jenkins is coming along. But none of them have what it takes to lead Atlanta to its first NFL championship. Look at Peerless Price. He was outstanding as second-fiddle to Eric Moulds in his years in Buffalo, and went down south to be the next great set of hands for the NFL's Most Electrifying Player. Didn't pan out.

So while the main issue seems to be personnel-rooted, my larger interest with Michael Vick the player at this point is more mental than mechanical. The concern I've got for Vick now in his fifth season is the same I had for Kobe Bryant in his second: both live for the big, dramatic, seemingly athletically impossible feat. They revel in the chance to make the highlight and leave jaws on the floor, and usually don't fail to impress. But when it comes down to the routine, bread and butter play, they overexert themselves and often are counterproductive and difficult to play with. While he's got more running scores than most tailbacks, he's never thrown for more than a pair of touchdowns in the same game his entire pro career.

This erratic combination of has negatively impacted Vick's quarterback rating (a metric I don't give much credence to anyway). Such measurements of effectiveness are fleeting, and when the Falcons were winning earlier this season and were 5-2 and Vick's rating was among the league cellar dwellars the media was all over him. And since his passing game picked up the press backed off, but the Falcons have gone 2-2. Forget such scrutinization - this isn't the consistency I'd like to see. I'd hate to see Vick likened to Dan Marino, Ty Cobb, Charles Barkley or Patrick Ewing - suffering from the gross irony of being one of his sport's greatest competitors who never won it all.

Kobe learned and got better and became a champion. I think Vick, who I had winning the Heisman Trophy in 1999, will do the same. But he won't do it easily without a quality receiver.

Better online publishing with RSS

Matt McAlister has some good ideas on using the evolving ideas for the future of RSS publishing. Of interest is the fact that matt's ideas stem more in editorial process control over more aggresive publishing, involving social media and inviting mashups from your data.

Good work, Matt. You've earned yourself one new subscriber.

King Kong vs. Godzilla now showing @ NetFlix

Wow. This takes me back - NetFlix's New Releases RSS feed let me know that "King Kong vs. Godzilla", the original Japanese Freddy vs. Jason super matchup, is now available for rent on DVD. I may have to give it a spin after all. This 1963 classic is a epic monster movie pitting dinosaur against giant ape.

IIRC, Godzilla got his ass whipped, but came away victorious at the end. It was basically a big tie. This used to show one per year when I was a kid on KTLA, the Los Angeles affiliate we got syndicated out here (on July 4, I think).

Writely stopped supporting Safari?

I was bummed to use Safari on a Mac OS X machine and launch Writely, which I've used in combination a bunch of times, only to learn that the web-based word processor apparently stopped supporting Safari. Now that I think about it, I do recall a couple of occasions where I ran into issues with text formatting, modifications not being saved and/or persisted across sessions, or the web service totally locking up on me. Maybe this was it.

To its credit, you can append a query string value to force the issue, so maybe there's hope.

Volleyball players have the best porno names

As a volleyball player I've always taken guilty pleasure in laughing at how much like the porn stars we're not supposed to talk about the names of the players grew up I idolizing are. The sport just oozes sexuality, being cross-gender and displaying generous amounts of flesh in all its forms - indoor, beach and grass. The participants in either form are visually spectacular; any man that doesn't think Liane Sato, Lori Endicott or Liz Masakayan aren't among the most beautiful women alive is a damn fool.

I mean, consider some of the great real names of the world's best competitors: Bryan Ivie? Steve Timmons? Doug Partie? Scott Fortune? Come on now - that's the stuff straight out of a San Fernando Valley script (with apologies to Jeff Nygaard, Tom Sorenson, the gone too soon Uvaldo Acosta and the great players to come out of Hawaii, most volleyball players hail from SoCal anyway, another coincidence with their blue counterparts).

How about capitalizing on the popular trend of exploting a name's alliterative qualities, that which brought fame and fortune to Jenna Jameson, Silvia Saint and Briana Banks? We've got Pat Powers, Troy Tanner, Sinjin Smith, Allen Allen, Steve Salmons, Dusty Dvorak, Misty May and Karch Kiraly.

How about the tendency for x-rated actors to take a stage persona that's actually got a first name for a last name, a la Ron Jeremy or Tera Patrick? Again we've got The A Bomb. Hell, the same can be said for racing's Danica Patrick. And what of those whose names are so derivative they'd just have to be made up? Tera Heart and Erik Everhard, meet '88 Olympian Jon Root.

There are also names that are obliquely androgynous, like former Stanford star and current national team member Logan Tom (a sexpot in her own right). And the Brazilian and Chinese national teams, who go by their last names only, make use of a time-tested gimmick formerly exhibited by performers like Serenity, Dasha, Felicity and the late Savannah.

Shoot, if the console game "Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball" can fully take advantage of the titillation factor that's an important part of my beloved sport, I'd say an analysis is warranted. And in either profession, when one's knees, back and arm start to give out, it might be a wise career change to leverage the weight a name carries in another industry.

Disagreeing with my colleagues

I respect Robert Scoble and Jeff Jarvis a lot. They're both brilliant, entertaining guys, who's blogs I read consistently. But on this day, I'll respectfully disagree with assertions both have made about the web subculture. Both being cool cats, I don't think they'd mind me playing the role of contrarian a little.

Scoble says companies without RSS feeds should fire their webmasters, because it limits the visibility such concerns will have. True. In a utopian world every data source would have a feed to which we could subscribe for future aggregation/notification/access, but not everyone needs one at the moment. Startups have to prove their well enough grounded in their core competency before they tell the world how great they are. I'd rather force people to visit my site repeatedly for awhile while I legitimized my service, than have them subscribe to a feed that rarely gets updated.

Jeff's beef is with online aggregator services like My Yahoo! and Google Reader, who he says are holding his RSS statistics hostage by failing to report subscriber numbers for cached feeds. His argument has not surprisingly drawn a growing list of supporters, and I'm largely with him, except on one point: the business end. Hey, I'm concerned about the viewership and size of audience for my blogs and podcasts, too, but I won't start biting the hand that feeds me and talk smack about free services. If you want hard numbers, get ready to put up cash to get them.

Just my $0.02.

Return of "Digital Pontification" podcast coming soon...

For those of you who subscribed to my audio podcast (now that we've go to discren between audio and video) "Jason Salas' Digital Pontification", you'll be happy to know that I've got a show planned for this week. After a two-month hiatus, I'll be making my temporary triumphant return to the mic to lay down some quality time-shifted digital audio content for your downloading amusement.

In my UpdateCast I'll be talking about what I've been up to since hanging up the Plantronics headset mic - technology, Web 2.0, VOD, DVRs, sports, music, remembering the 80's and the general state of the world through my eyes. Plus, you get to help me test out something I'm excited about - I add a new dimension of interactivity to the show by unveiling collaborative show notes!

Keep your bandwidth primed and stay subscribed to my blog's Atom feed or Google Reader subscription...I'll be talking at you soon!

Who gets the other two Heisman nominations?

Everyone in America seems to agree that the strongest three candidates for this year's Heisman Trophy are USC's Reggie Bush, Texas' Vince Young and USC's Matt Leinart (in that order). What they've neglected to recall is that there have to be five finalists to sit and wait. And this year's givens are so strong that the other two nominees are perfunctory at best. But the nod does a lot for a school, and it's always an honor.

I say give the other free trips to NYC to Notre Dame's Brady Quinn and Washington State's Jerome Harrison. Quinn has reset all sorts of QB records in storied South Bend and Harrison leads the nation in rushing with 301 yards/game for the 4-7 Cougars. Neither will win, but they've both had outstanding years and have earned a place in the balloting race.

I've still got Bush winning it all, as he's proven to be a standout among standouts.

Remember, the general public gets a vote for the Heisman, so cast yours now!

Breaking down Mobile ESPN

CNN Money's got a good analysis of the impacts of Mobile ESPN, and what it means for the future of broadcasting sports. Good read.

Quoted from source:

"If history is any guide, there seems to be an insatiable appetite for sports content in an immediate format," said Neal Pilson, a sports broadcasting consultant. "While people may not watch an entire event, people will know they can catch the end of the game just after 11 o'clock, or the start on Monday Night Football on their way home from work."

In fact, one of the things ESPN sewed up when it won the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football starting next season was the wireless rights to the Monday night games.

It walked away from showing National Hockey League games on television this year, but it won the wireless rights there as well. And it's won the rights to Major League Baseball highlights and is reportedly in negotiations with the National Basketball Association.

But it doesn't have all the mobile rights it would like. It lacks Super Bowl wireless rights, for example, even though this year's game will be broadcast on sister company ABC, which like ESPN is owned by Walt Disney Co.

Going forward with Google Video

I really love Google Video. While the Web has improved my literacy, it's also nice to sit back and enjoy a nice short-attention span show or captively take notes during a formal presentation. I check it out multiple times per day with almost religious devotion, and think it's got great potential. Here are some suggestions for improvement, now that the library of clips has built a bit:

• Diversify the search content - why is it that no matter what I search, I always wind up getting the Google Factory Tour or clips from the Archive of American Television interviews?
  
• Start categorizing clips - I understand the necessity to integrate search, but a taxonomy system (which goes away from the Web 2.0 principles, I know) to organize clips in directory-like fashion would really help me find stuff I'm interested in.
  
• Support playlists - I'd like the ability to create my favorite clips, store them all centrally in a playlist, come back to them later and share them with friends. Comedy Central's Motherload broadband streaming service does this really well. Since the service could be tied in to the Gmail-based membership profiles used by Google Reader, and the personalized Google portal startpage, this shouldn't be too hard.
  
• Support tagging - I'd like for content creators to be able to tag their submitted video, to supplement the more formal taxonomy process of categorization. Such could be secondary information, from which RSS feeds could be based (think Flickr). Most people who create video don't painstakingly embed metadata within their clips, so a more generic association is needed.
  
• Support watchlists - with the tagging structure and associted feeds in place, I'd like the ability to be able to setup del.icio.us-style notification services so that I can geta heads-up when stuff that interests me is posted.
• Let me add metadata to clips I upload - most people (myself included) don't have the time to painstakingly type in description information in our DVcams or webcams when capturing video, so it would be nice to be able to embed metadata with the more familiar QWERTY keyboard from our desktops/laptops in the GoogleVideoUploader utility to transfer clips. Or, give me an admin control panel and manage my clip once its submitted. This would make some of the suggestions (tagging, categorizing) easier.
• Setup an RSS feed when new clips are added - I'm not talking about the Google Video Blog, which is a "best of, I mean let me see when new clips are added if I'm that hardcore.
• We need more recurring shows - the occasional short-attention span clip is good, but Google could really revolutionize the TV industry by supporting recurring shows. Google Current is great, so build on this with partners who will consistently put out well-produced stuff. That kind of thing build brand loyalty.