Sleepdeprived

A solution to the NFLs new media limitation policy

2007-08-04T13:10:02Z

My father-in-law, who one day will be blogging on his own, sent me this article, which really got under my skin.

"In a high-stakes struggle for control of NFL news in cyberspace, the league has prohibited news organizations from airing more than a total of 45 seconds per day of online audio or video of team personnel from its stadiums. The action could foreshadow other major sports leagues imposing similar restrictions."

But I have a way to solve this issue, or at least poke a stick in the eye of teams that enforce this.

What if some slick city council person in, say, Dallas introduced a bill that required teams that received TAX PAYER dollars to build the stadiums they play in, were required to renegotiate a deal with local media outlets for longer windows of time to show audio and video clips.

Sadly, I think I know what would happen.

The same spin a team uses to convince a blindly ignorant city that a new stadium would create thousands of new jobs would be used to convince the city that they really have their best interests at heart.

Still, if I'm D.C. Councilmember David A. Catania -- who opposed the new stadium for the Washington Nationals -- and I heard that Major League Baseball was considering such a policy, putting such a bill into the mix might be a little "screw you" pick me up to get me through my legislative week.

Hipsters look homeless when picking up loose change in bars

2007-07-02T12:24:09Z

UPDATE: The girls were not these two

My friend just got back from a cruise, so I filled him in on what he missed. I told him a friend and I went to Game On in Boston to watch the Sox game. Our IM conversation follows:

MY FRIEND: i was sailing through the atlantic
ME: yea but you didn't hear the best beginning of a conversation in a bar ever / there were these two girls at the bar, and there was a nickel on the floor / my friend was intrigued by this nickel, while wearing a suit, and picked it up / the girl said "it would have to be at least a quarter before i went down" / and thus begun our evening at Game on
MY FRIEND: hahaha
ME: I think you have to wear a suit to actually be able to converse with a girl after picking up a nickel
MY FRIEND: hahahaha
ME: hipsters look homeless when picking up loose change in bars
MY FRIEND: yeah

LinkedIn question

2007-06-28T19:19:53Z

ME: What's the best email address to send you a linkedIn invite to?

MY (SOBER?) FRIEND: This one is the best email. I am usually sober at work. Usually.

Fun with search results

2007-05-15T20:07:24Z

Everyone knows the Internet provides millions of ways to waste time. And while YouTube and other video sites are all the rage, there is still a lot of fun to be had with search.

One of my old favorites is to search job sites for the word "fun." It's really amazing how many crappy jobs people try to pawn off as being "in a fun atmosphere/environment"

Well, I found another fun search today on Jupiter Images: "racial issues"

Gliese 581c needs a new name

2007-05-02T15:15:41Z

So last week astronomers got a big jolt of excitement when an Earth-like planet was discovered.

If NASA and others are apparently about to develop a "new generation of space telescopes capable of picking up 'signatures' such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane" as Wired reports, I think the rest of us should do our part as well.

The planet's name, Gliese 581c, just isn't doing it for me. It sounds like a food additive, or a model of car from a company that won't be around much longer.

We can do better. Send me your suggestions!

Does Red Sox Nation even want Roger Clemens?

2007-05-01T20:17:22Z

I pinged my wife with this little story on MLB.com

Me: "If Roger Clemens decides he does indeed want to pitch in 2007 and if he had to pick a team today, based on the requirements he has placed on the interested parties, he'd go to the Red Sox."
MrsSleepdeprived: we don't even have room for him!
MrsSleepdeprived: we seriously don't need him
Me: i'm thinking RSN doesn't want him
MrsSleepdeprived: i don't want to pay for him
MrsSleepdeprived: no
MrsSleepdeprived: since we don't need him
MrsSleepdeprived: plus that hat
MrsSleepdeprived: wtf

Juiced for Joost

2007-05-01T17:53:06Z

I had a little discussion with a friend over how you pronounce Joost, the soon-to-be-launched online TV service. Thanks to the AP for clarifying in a story about the service's distribution deal to carry CNN.

"Joost - pronounced 'juiced' ..."

I feel vindicated. Looking forward to this release!

Welcome to Boston, Randy Moss

2007-04-30T02:31:31Z

Hi Randy,

I'm 94.3 percent sure you aren't going to read this, but I thought I'd welcome you to my new home town anyway. I moved here about two years ago and I wanted to tell you it's great. The people here are wonderful and they LOVE their sports. Especially the ladies. I mean, I've never seen a town with so many informed about their favorite teams.

Anyway, there are also a lot of things that can drive high-priced athletes nuts in this town. But good news for you here, you've already taken a pay cut! Well played.

]]> I've been telling my wife (and anyone else who might listen) that I think you're the next Corey Dillon. A talented guy who came from a flawed organization who is willing to do whatever it takes to win a championship. I'm already in the tank for you, after I read the SI feature on you a couple years ago. I've always felt like you might have suffered more at the hands of Terrell Owens than even Jeff Garcia or Donovan McNabb.

Why? Because people seem to enjoy linking you two together as tightly as Zan and Jana were on the SuperFriends. It's not fair. I know you've had your moments, but I think it's only fair to give you a chance to show you're committed now in your new town. And if you read this column make sure you check out this blog before you get too worked up.

It's looking like it's going to be a long summer waiting for football season to start around here. O.K. that might be just me as the rest of this town is pretty much certifiable for the Sox, but I'm looking forward to seeing the Patriots with the new additions of you and your new teammate Adalius Thomas. ... Damn Google is good -- I just totally botched the spelling of his name and that little search engine that could knew what I was looking for.

Hopefully for you Randy, after some misteps, this new season spells out success for you and you get what you've been looking for.

Chad

Don. Jerry. Pizza. Fenway.

2007-04-17T10:42:52Z

For the record, I'm a Nationals fan (and Terps, obviously). But my favorite announcers that are working today are, hands down, Don Orsello and Jerry Remy. I really can't imagine Vin Scully doing an episode like this justice.

Enjoy.

]]>

Red Sox video from Magnify.net

2007-04-17T02:30:27Z

Don't mind me, I'm just playing widgets from with my friend Steve Rosenbaum's site, Magnify.net. (It always helps to turn off "convert line breaks" when posting object code into a blog post ...)

Butte of a joke? Only if you can't maximize your ad revenue

2007-04-17T01:25:24Z

So BillingsGazette.com posted this AP story with the headline Butte blast blamed on leaking gas. I just hope for their sake the Gazette has the ability to target which ads appear on that page and is working off some kind of auction model so it can maximize its revenue when this page got "farqued."

]]>
Of course, I'm throwing a stone from my glass house as I don't currently have any ads on my site. But I still felt compelled to comment on this after having a conversation with a friend who's an editor at a small newspaper who is exploring what his company's web options are moving forward.

A former influence from my Media Center days, Rob Curley, likes to tell a story about the main character from the movie "Radio." After taking his daughter to see the movie and wanting to know more about the character, he naturally went to independentmail.com to learn more ... but couldn't find anything. The point is, Curley would say, is that you have to know what is of interest to the world in your own backyard, and take appropriate actions to bring that information to them.

(One followup ... since Curley told that story a few years ago, it appears you can find more information about James Robert Kennedy.)

As newspapers keep trying to compete with seemingly infinte social networks and social networking tools that are bringing more and more people together while crowding the landscape of information providers, they need to be cognizant of what advantages they have in the marketplace -- and use them.

My newest wallpaper

2007-04-14T18:05:17Z

So a friend forwarded me a bunch of images that (apparently) were real answers to test questions by students. One made me laugh more than the others and has stayed with me for some time. I posted it above. I think what makes it stand out to me is that in this age of algorythms and databases and metrics, we can still have a hard time seeing what's right in front of our eyes.

]]> To take this notion down a ridiculous path, I started thinking about this student as compared with a classmate who got the "right" answer and another student, who tried to get the right answer, but miscalculated. Of the three, who would I want to hire for a job in the current climate of constant change and innovation?

I think I'm hiring the smart-ass and hoping he hires enough of his former classmates who got the "right" answer to help him execute his vision.