Greg Nilsen

Johnny Spillane Celebrating His Silver Medal

I have to admit, I love the Olympics.  The raw competition of athletes around the world who truly appreciate the sports they play, and dedicate their lives to the one moment, or at best few moments, they are given to shine.  There’s just something great about seeing elite athletes in obscure sports step up to another level, and seeing unexpected athletes, like the cross-country skier from Brazil where they don’t really have winter, giving their all (and the crowd and fellow competitors cheering them for it).

There is an air of respect and honor around the Olympic games that still makes it special.  It always feels like the world puts aside their differences and turns their attention to friendly competition.

Probably the most amazing thing so far, and highly under-reported, has been the success of Johnny Spillane and the US men’s Nordic combined team.  Spillane not only won a silver medal in an event where the US had never medaled (leaving only biathalon where the US continues to struggle), but the team put 3 competitors in the top 6!  That’s quite an accomplishment in a sport where our country has struggled for so long.
So, only a few days in, I’m really enjoying it (except for the extensive figure skating coverage, which I could go without), though I am pacing myself.  After all, NBC likes to add in too many “human interest stories” and “other crap” (like the piece on polar bears who live on the other side of the country) that I just don’t care about.  Thankfully, there’s plenty of other coverage on their family of networks to keep me interested most of the (and if not, I can go online, or at least find an NCIS rerun).  Thankfully, they mix in a fair amount of Al Michaels trying to figure out why he’s at the Olympics after a 30+ year hiatus, which has a fairly high “unintentional humor” value.

And today’s when the real fun kicks off!  With curling and men’s hockey getting under way, it’s two of the bigger drawing sports that will carry excitement throughout the next few weeks!

Not that I won’t happily sit and watch hours of cross-country skiing anyway…they’re still amazing athletes who deserve the attention and recognition after their years of sacrifice.

So, Google Buzz has arrived, seemingly out of nowhere.  And I have to say, it’s OK….

And just OK at that.  While it’s not the potentially revolutionary step that Google Wave could have been, it is Google’s best effort at tackling the “Social Web” so far.

The problem is that it comes across as a hackneyed attempt to compete with Twitter and Facebook.  First, it’s essentially a Twitter clone, without the character limits and plus links to outside sites (like Twitter itself), so there’s nothing really new in place.  It’s really hard to justify “buying in” on Buzz when you’re already invested elsewhere, and until Buzz can differentiate itself, I’m sure many others will view it in the same light.

Second, it’s basically just slapped into the gmail interface.  Let’s not understress this point, because if you have a track record of launching new tools seperately with possible ties to one another, then why make your first legitimate foray into the “Social Web”, then why just slap it into something already existing?  With gmail, which I’m sure many people simply access via POP or IMAP like I do at home, there are millions who may not even see the new service if they are not logging in through the gmail web interface.

It’s like the Google team said “Well, Wave didn’t take off as we had hoped, but we need to do something to compete with Twitter and Facebook…like clone  them and mash them together!”

While I’ll be playing on Buzz for a little while to see if the Google team can take it to the next level that it so desperately needs (yes, just two days after launch), if they can’t take it there, it will just be gathering dust in the near future…

Back to the drawing boards, Google team!

Dear Idiot,

Nice job committing insurance fraud and completely lying to your insurance company about what happened.  I mean, I had started backing out, and saw you throw your car into reverse and start aiming at me, yes…but I stopped my car and honked THREE times at you to get your attention, which was clearly diverted elsewhere.

However, you tell your insurance company that you saw my car moving in order to cover your own butt (which, from the way you drive, I can only assume you’ve had to do before).  Of course, if you actually saw my car moving (which implies you were paying some modicum of attention), it begs the question, “WHY THE HECK DID YOU KEEP BACKING UP???”

The clear answer is that you were preoccupied with something else (talking up some girl on the phone or drowning out the world with music, I don’t know…).  However, it’s much easier to lie than to admit that you made a mistake, huh?

Except for at the scene, apparently, where you actually claimed responsibility for the accident.  You never said what distracted you, but you managed to vocalize that you were at fault.

At least until your insurance agent called.  Then you’re changing your story again to try and keep your growing premiums down.

So then I have to go through more than a month of dealing with your crappy, unresponsive insurance company and driving my crunched-up car while they twiddle their thumbs and finally offer to split the $3000+ in repairs 50/50.

Fortunately, I have real auto insurance with a reasonable deductible that allowed me to reject their offer and finally get the repairs done at a fair price (not as fair as the $0 I should have paid for you ramming your car into mine, but much better than $1500).

Next time you get in an accident, I sure hope the other party gets the police involved to get a clear report that you won’t be able to flip on.

-Greg Nilsen

You may have noticed that some of my postings have dwindled in the past year.  There have been several reasons for that, with the greatest being the additional time that fatherhood demands.

However, another big reason for the downturn has been my satisfaction with my previous blogging platform.  It was a ColdFusion-based solution (which I have a bias towards being a ColdFusion developer) which was very solid.  However, I had made a number of customizations to it to meet my needs, which make keeping up with new revisions nearly impossible.  So, I have not been able to take advantage of new fixes and functionality, and have not had the time to redo the adjustments I had put together for previous versions.

So, I made the pretty radical decision to completely change platforms for my blog, to a more widely used application that I allows me to make customizations, but still keep up with version changes going forward.

However, the one big drawback to this is that I lost all comments on my posts (my new platform did not support importing them from my old platform), which is kind of a downer.  I do still have them all in backups, but have no easy way to tie them into the new setup.

Yet, I think the transition will be worth it.  I’ll have the time to focus more on writing and less on trying to maintain my old hack-and-slash solution, which is what I’d like to do anyway.

Hilarious!

So, you're a non-BCS school that busts it's ass all year to prove you belong, and what happens when you do get an invite?  That's right, they pit you against the other party crasher so you can't have the chance to prove that you can compete and beat the big boys!

In what can only be labeled as cowardice, no matter how they spin it, the BCS has rejected these teams with their brand of “acceptance”.  In a year where any two of the five remaining undefeated teams have a legitimate claim to the game (Texas and Alabama only get the nods here because they won in conferences which were two of the best the last few years, something that cannot be definitively said of the Big 12 and SEC this year as both had down years in terms of overall performance), that these two were simply shrugged off is ludicrous.

However, with the possibility of there being three legitimate undefeated teams come the end of the season (we're guaranteed two right now), calling any of them a definitive champion is impossible in the current system.  Proving once again that the BCS is crap, and that a playoff is necessary if NCAA football is to remain credible.  Sure, they may get by with their big contracts and major bowls for now, but as questionable scenarios (like this year's and last's) continue and traditional bowl games are devalued, they will eventually come to their senses and handle things just like every other NCAA team sport and division has done it for decades.

As a software developer, desktop space is at a premium.  I strongly prefer dual monitor setups because I can usually code in one screen and test in the other.  For this reason, I've often shied away from doing any serious development on a laptop (at least one that isn't docked) because of the single-monitor constraint.

That is, until I saw the gScreen Spacebook:

Now that's the stuff of software developers dreams (even if it is in the neighborhood of $3000)!

So, Michael Vick is officially back in the NFL after signing with the Eagles today, but the question is whether or not it means anything?  The former starter now will likely start at #3 on the Eagles depth chart behind the always-primed-to-be-impeached starter McNabb and AJ Feeley.  He could be used to bring the “wildcat” element to Philly, but that really doesn't feel like their style.  And let's face it, the guy isn't the greatest passer anyway, having peaked in the NFL at a 56.4 completion percentage (with the majority of those to Alge Crumpler anyway).  He's most dangerous on the ground, but does he have the same acceleration and speed after being out of the league for two years?

And even all those questions are secondary to the question that is most central to his signing: Are the fans ready to forgive Vick?  After all, what he did was unconscionable to most Americans.  However, he served his 23-month term.  Then again, how many felons can leave prison and walk into a $1.6 million job?

In addition, we are also in the wake of Donte Stallworth's 24-day sentence for manslaughter following his hitting and killing a 59-year-old man in Florida while driving drunk.  So, many people are comparing the two and wondering if justice really has been been served in the two cases.  Regardless, I'm sure that Vick is glad to not have the full glow of the limelight on him.

So, Vick is back, and who knows if he'll even see the field this year, but I'm sure he's glad to be moving on with his life…

That's right…if you haven't read it anywhere else, you can read here how Trina Thompson is suing Monroe College because their office of career advancement hasn't helped her more to get a job.  Of course, she's a prime candidate with her 2.7 GPA and “solid attendance record”.

According to Thompson, they can't even take the time to call up and say “I got this student, her attendance is good, her GPA is all right — can you interview this person?”

The nerve!

Clearly, Monroe College made a mistake in allowing this individual to fall through the cracks and actually receive a degree.  Too many bonus points for that “solid attendance record”, I guess.

Just when you thought they couldn't mess it up again, let alone so soon, the NFL has announced that next year's draft will start on Thursday night in “prime time”, with the remainder to follow over the next two days.  This after pushing this past year's draft back to not start until Saturday evening, only covering two rounds on day one, and then rushing through the rest on Sunday.

While I realize that all sports are targeting the “prime time” slots (yes, more for the advertising dollars than viewership), they're also alienating their fans at the same time.  Sure, there are plenty of over-the-top die-hards that will still be watching, but I don't think I'll waste my time on a weeknight when there's a good chance my team trades out of the first round all together (like the Patriots did this past draft).

Yes, I'm getting older, spending more time working on the house and spending time with my family and less on football, but shouldn't the league be making it easier to follow these things, not more difficult.  The Saturday at noon draft start time that I always remember were always great because you could spend a lazy afternoon just watching the draft coverage.  And then you'd know the key draftees before going out to dinner, a movie or whatever that evening.  Now they want to dominate my Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday?  No thanks!  I'll just find something better to do and then check it on the internet before I go to bed…assuming it's over by then!

Sorry you had to make this decision, NFL.  The logic behind it is nearly as flawed as the BCS.