I think, by far, my favorite thing about the interwebs is the ability to randomly stumble across an incredible story you didn't even know you were interested in. Today, while just doing my normal web reading—hitting a handful of pages, RSS feeds, Twitter, etc.—I stumble across someone mentioning the John 3:16 guy.
You know, this guy:
He's the guy who any sports-loving kid who grew up in the early 80s knows as the random rainbow wig dude who showed up every major sporting event and managed to get on TV. I'm guessing, like me, pretty much everyone assumed he was a well-intentioned goofball, just trying to get on TV.
I think we all just assumed he was a precursor to the modern day Jumbotron morons who get wear stupid outfits, do stupid dances, or hold up stupid signs, all in the name of getting on the in-arena Jumbotron (not even getting on real TV).
Except, turns out, he was a grade-A certifiable nutjob. And that's the amazingness of the interwebs. You can start your day reading about technology, sports, the weather, whatever, and end up seeing the John 3:16 guy, finding him on Wikipedia, reading some of the articles about him, and then adding the documentary about him to your Netflix queue. Learning about how he went from wearing a rainbow wig to attempting to buy a gun to shoot then candidate Bill Clinton.
So yeah, he's not just a cuddly crazy guy, he's a legit crazy guy. It's worth the read. A guy who, in a different era, would have been likely exiled to the dustbin of history, only remembered in microfiche, has his story told in a documentary, written into Wikipedia, and available to everyone at the end of a hyperlink or search query.
"You can’t replace pants with shorts when your definition of shorts is: everyone buy pants and cut the legs off — pants will still be a viable business (the consumer is just altering the usage). Same too with Twitter, Facebook, et al, they are still relying on email for certain parts of their service (like adding new users or sending notifications) while wanting to replace email at the same time."
I hadn't really thought about the ubiquitousness of email from this angle before. Even the services that are trying to replace email as the primary communications channel require you to have an email address. Obviously, this is because a) today email is the way they are used to getting their communication of passwords, logins, etc., and b) you have to have a way to communicate to people before they start using your service.
But, it would be pretty ballsy for some new service to require either email or a phone number (or <insert your method of identity here>).
I said you need to strive to be better than everyone else. I didn’t say you needed to be better than everyone else. But you gotta try. That’s what character is. It’s in the trying. Coach Eric Taylor
The most recent episode of Friday Night Lights had a great scene between Coach Eric Taylor and his quarterback, Vince Howard. (I've embedded the clip below for you to see for yourself.) In it, Coach explains to Vince about what character is. It's not necessarily about being better than everyone else. It's about trying to be better than everyone else.
And, that, in a nutshell summarizes my complete and utter disappointment with the American people.
The news of Osama bin Laden's death on Sunday night was an amazing moment in American history (and possibly in world history). Here was this man who—without any doubt—is one of most evil people to have set foot on earth. He was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, and thousands more people around the world. He was a scourge on the Earth and I am glad he is dead.
His death was cathartic. It was closure for the wounds that were opened ten years ago.
And, for just a moment, it looked like we, as an American people, might be able to move on from this chapter in our history. President Obama's address that night was measured, and of the right tenor. It did not glorify this death. It was perfunctory. He was a danger to the US, he was a mass murderer, and we did what we needed to do.
Character. President Obama seems to have it.
The rest of the American people? The American media? Not so much.
The vision that we, as Americans, shared with the world upon this momentous occasion should have been one of relief, maybe satisfaction that a mass murderer had been brought to justice. And then we should have reflected on the events of ten years ago, and attempted to exude the same quiet dignity that the President exemplified.
It’s about the character. It’s about striving to be better than everybody else.
Are we safer as a country? Marginally, maybe. But not in a meaningful way.
Were they dramatically impacted by 9/11? Possibly, but probably not any more so than the rest of us (and since most of them were probably in middle school, many probably less so).
Was it an outburst of good old fashioned patriotism? Maybe.
Most likely, they're just enormous fucking douchebags who thought it was cool to go get on TV, throw huge riotous parties, and make the rest of us look bad.
You might be asking, why do you care? Well, I only care inasmuch that I think this reflects horrendously on all of us, as Americans. We claim moral superiority. As a country, we lost our shit when we saw the video of unnamed Middle Eastern citizens celebrating 9/11 or Mogadishu (even if the footage was out-of-context). How dare they celebrate the deaths of Americans like that?
America, it seems, is full of douchebags and hypocrites.
I'll reiterate: I am glad we killed Osama bin Laden.
But, as Americans, we should strive to be better. We should strive to be the world leader that we are. We can be happy that bin Laden was killed, but we shouldn't rejoice in it. It does not "fix" terrorism. It very likely makes us, in the short-term, less secure. It is a cathartic and fitting end to a murderer.
But we should not relish or celebrate a death. As Coach Taylor eloquently pointed out, we should have character. We should strive to be better than everybody else. We don't have to be better, but we have to try.
And, sadly, it just doesn't feel like people care to try.
On Friday, a bunch of sites mentioned that EA was having an Easter weekend iTunes Store. An assortment of EA games were at reasonable prices (then again, a bunch of EA's games are shite, and they should pay me to play them).
But, 99 cents for NBA Jam?
It didn't really matter how bad it might have been, because that's a price I couldn't possibly pass up.
And, oh, how it is awesome.
To be fair, let's start with the bad.
As with almost any iOS action game, the controls are an on-screen joystick and buttons. It doesn't matter how well they're implemented, it's still a shitty control scheme and probably the weakest part of iOS as a gaming platform.
If you're not wearing headphones, your hand is going to cover the speakers and you won't hear the sound.
That's pretty much it.
What's awesome? Everything. The rosters are pretty up-to-date and full of awesome unlockable and hidden players (Bird and McHale, Spud Webb and 'Nique, Stockton and Malone). The gameplay is simple enough that the touchscreen controls, as cumbersome as they might be, work well enough. The graphics are fun and solid. The sound is good, and has brought back the announcer (or at least a sound-alike) from old-school NBA Jam.
Basically, it's the same old NBA Jam with prettier graphics, modern players, and it's on a device that fits in your pocket.
Oh yeah, and it's 99 cents.
If you enjoyed NBA Jam at all when it was in the arcades or on the home systems in the 90s, you'll like it now. There's a difficulty that works for everyone, you can pause a game at any point and pick it back up again. There's a campaign mode that let's you work through all the teams, unlocking players and special attributes as you go.
NBA Jam for the iPhone will be your favorite time killer for at least a couple of weeks.
A good number of folks have been pimping Instacast lately, as a replacement to iOS' built-in podcast management.
Why would you need to replace iOS' built-in podcast management? There's only one reason, really: if I want to get new podcasts on my device, I have to physically sync it (or go through a ridiculous process of finding that podcast in the iTunes store and downloading it or syncing it). That's annoying.
So, what does Instacaster having going for it?
It's got the basic functionality you need (stream, download, play, pause, double-speed)
It's got OPML support (as of version 1.2) to let you easily (not quickly, but easily) add your podcast subscriptions
It let's you pseudo-automatically download new podcasts right on your phone, without having to sync it
That last bullet is pretty much the big one. You can refresh your list of podcasts (on 3G or wifi) and pull down any new episodes, reasonably quickly. So, if you're away from your computer and need something new to listen to, there's always something available, and it's easier than the iTunes phone interface.
What's not so hot?
The interface isn't the most straightforward thing ever. Expect a good bit of "oh, that's what that button does" and "wait, why isn't this thing cached on my phone" until you figure it out. It'll only take you a few tries.
It's hindered by a fundamental limitation: the iOS APIs won't let you add songs into the device's music library. That means that I have to listen to these tracks inside of the application. That's fine, but it makes it much harder to listen to stuff through my car's iPhone interface. I have to keep track of where I was at for when I get to work and switch to using my computer and headphones (whereas podcasts in the iPod player simply sync their location and you're good to go.)
The app is $2, so regardless of the limitations, it's worth it to me to have the convenience, but if you're on the fence, wait until you see iOS 5. It wouldn't shock me to see the podcast interface overhauled, rendering the app obsolete.
Weather app uses notifications to display info on home screen: "We are all familar with the red iOS badge that displays the number of missed calls or unread emails on your home screen. The Fahrenheit – Weather and Temperature on your Home Screen app takes advantage of this notification system to display the temperature on your home screen. It's a clever use of Apple's built-in system that does not run afoul of the App Store guidelines."
Ha, this is very, very clever. It's a workaround that shouldn't have to exist (and, I'm guessing, won't have to exist after iOS 5 is released). But it's still super clever.
I'm actually not sure how many Simmons/Klosterman podcasts there have actually been, but Bill Simmons may want to think twice about having another one. Each time he has a podcast with Klosterman, he comes off like your local sports bar yokel, spouting off random ridiculous theories, and having the calm, knowledgeable friend talk him back down off the ledge.
If Simmons wasn't so influential, it'd almost be funny.
As it was, this most recent podcast was incredibly sad. At times, it bordered on unlistenable due to how intellectually obstinate Simmons was, and how Chuck Klosterman had to keep backing off basically calling him an idiot.
A few of the stellar moments:
Simmons insisting that Maya Moore 2.0 could play in the NBA, as a 15th man, to draw fans. Klosterman comparing that to Eddie Gaedel (which is actually a pretty apt comparison), and Simmons simply either not getting it or, quite frankly, just being obstinate.
Simmons trying to come up with a way to keep college kids from jumping to the NBA, with Klosterman simply derailing each one with a single sentence.
Simmons challenging Klosterman to describe how he would turn around a downtrodden NBA team, to which Klosterman replies (paraphrasing) "I would build a competitive team, since that's all that matters in the long run", leading Simmons to reply that he wouldn't hire him, that he would bottom out and build a team the way Sam Presti did (i.e. exactly what Klosterman was saying), but while doing it, he would do something for the fans. Apparently, like hiring a token woman to ride the end of the bench.
Don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoy reading Bill Simmons (for the most part). But, over the past few months, he has obviously been spread way too thin, and that has lead to some pretty poor columns (when he bothers to write them), some poor podcasts (though the quality of guests he gets makes them still required listening), and a seeming erosion of his talent.
Hopefully, his new sports site will allow him to do a little bit less of the heavy lifting for his brand, letting him be a curator of good stuff (something he is truly good at), and maybe letting him get his head back into his writing.
(As an aside, it took everything I had to not end that last sentence "get his head back into his writing and out of his own ass," because he seems to have bought into his own hype a bit. I really enjoyed parts of his last book, The Big Book of Basketball, especially when you pulled out all of the complete douchebaggery about "the secret," and his constant namedropping. But, I guess now I've written it here, so I probably just should have ended my sentence with it.)
Holy awesomesauce. Build (or clone from github) a bunch of Rails or Rack apps on your local machine, run them with a tiny server using real hostnames based off of symlinks.
This is just one of those tiny "why didn't I think of that" things that makes 37signals so good.
My AL-only fantasy baseball auction is tomorrow. I'm, sadly, incredibly excited. Auction leagues are so much more fun than straight drafts because you can go in with very different strategies than the normal "pick the best player at a position I need" strategy.
Strategies include:
"Suggest the hometown players early so people over pay"
"Suggest young, intriguing players early so people over pay"
"Bid up the last good shortstop/second baseman/catcher so that someone wastes a bunch of money on Ian Kinsler/Derek Jeter/Jason Varitek"
"Save all your money to the end of the draft and clean up on the guys everyone forgot about"
Basically, it's open season to be a dick. For my "keepers," I'm keeping 5 guys from last year who I got cheaply and save me money versus what they would cost me this season (Jered Weaver and Clay Buchholz are probably 2 of the top 10 or 12 pitchers available and I've got them for a combined $20 auction dollars).
Giddy up. Baseball season is here (just in time for the Celtics to go into their normal end of season hibernation).
Hacking NetFlix: "Reuters reports that the new Netflix deal with Showtime withdraws current Showtime originals like Dexter and Californication from streaming, but leaves older shows like Tudors and Sleeper Cell.
The change, part of a new arrangement, means no 'Dexter' or 'Californication' episodes from previous seasons will be available on Netflix, as had been the case under the current arrangement which covered the first two seasons of the shows. Episodes of current originals will be on Showtime's authenticated broadband service, Showtime Anytime.
Instead of introducing the 20+ million Netflix subscribers to past seasons of hit shows to drive interest in subscribing to Showtime, it looks like Showtime joins HBO in realizing that Netflix just might be a competitor."
Someday, television networks will get it, right? Why would you not want to expose as many people to your show as possible, to get them to then signup for your network (or, for the broadcast networks, to record/watch your network) to stay up-to-date with the latest episodes.
The biggest obstacle to picking up a new television show is fearing you will not understand what is going on. With shows like Lost, Friday Night Lights, etc., the ability to catch up on everything before a new season airs is a godsend. That's how the girlfriend got caught up on Lost and was able to watch the last couple of season with me, live as they happened. Any TV network that wouldn't want to take advantage of the opportunity to mint new viewers is destined to end up picking up the scraps left behind by Netflix, Amazon, and Apple.
Or, to paraphrase Sports Night:
Anybody who can't make money off of television on Netflix should get out of the money-making business
