Our out of control technological age

Today I received a forwarded article from a friend discussing the topic of downloading songs onto cell phones. To be honest, I'm usually a proponent of new technology. I like how technology has helped us to enhance communications with one another, and get us information at a faster rate. But as usual society continues to take things as far as they can go, even if it borders on the stupid. Having a cell phone is a nice luxury. Some would say that it our current day, it is a necessity. No way. Unless you have a job that requires you to travel often, you'r not going to suffer without one. I mean, think back 20 years ago (if you can). We weren't using mobile phones. People were happy, things were getting done. It all worked. So now the cell phone comes along and enhances communication and adds to our luxurious lifestyle as Americans. So now what? Let's add video games, streaming tv shows, music downloads, and e-mail and Instant Messenger to the phone because God-forbid that we would actually use it to CALL somebody. Who has the kind of life where they need a phone to watch the next batman movie trailer? Seriously. The fat, spoiled american thinks, "Man, it would be so great if I could cram every sort of entertainment media onto my cell phone so that I can go anywhere in the world and block out any sort of human interaction. Where's the line?

Lancaster Baseball

I finally got the opportunity to go to a Lancaster Barnstormers Baseball game last night. What was interesting was the comparison to a major league game. Surprisingly, things are run very similar to Major League games in terms of the typical fan activities and interaction of the music, organ, etc. It seemed like there was a fan contest every half-inning, which got old after a while. The game pace seemed to go by a lot quicker. There was not much time in between batters, or pitches. The pitchers threw between 77 - 90mph, which is still pretty darn fast. Another thing that clearly stuck out was how the small the players were. There was one guy for the Barnstormers who was a former Major League player for the Orioles. He was HUGE compared with his teamates and even guys on the other team. It kind of reminds me of a comment I once heard about when the Yankees played the Pirates, and how the Yankees looked like giants next to the Pirate players. Overall, I'd say the Barnstormer's game was a neat experience. Baseball is so much more interesting to watch when you're there, as opposed to watching it on tv and falling asleep to the drone of tv announcers.

NBA Finals Game 7

Surprisingly, the Spurs pulled it off. I actually stayed up until 12am to watch the whole thing. To my satisfaction, it was a very good game between the two of them. You really didn't have any idea who was going to win the match until the final 20 seconds of the match. The game was so close. I would have to say that I would have given Manu the MVP for such an awesome performance. But then again, MVP doesn't have anything to do with awesome performances, but your value to the team. Certainly, Tim Duncan was that.

Browser Fairness and the NBA Finals.

This article just goes to show you exactly why you can't trust any windows product these days for total security. But what really gets me is this quote: "Firefox security is an ongoing process."

Now we know that if Microsoft said something to the effect of "Internet Explorer security is an ongoing process", they would easily get butchered by their critics. I all fairness, we need to approach security in any windows application as an "ongoing process". Right now, everything is a target and browsers have proven to be one of the more lucrative ways for thieves to take advantage of users.

In other news, it seems Detroit has pulled up even against the Spurs again in the series. With what I've seen of the lackluster performance of Tim Duncan, and the terrible shooting from the field for the whole team (They took 28 3-pointers last night and made only 8), I don't see any reason why they deserve to win game 7. Detroit has seemed to play with more consistency over the whole series, and they look much more like a team to hold the credibility of another NBA Championship. Sorry, San Antionio, but unless you guys start playing up to your potential, there's no chance you're gonna win this one Thursday night.

With Just a HINT of jealousy

This article makes me laugh. I've used Opera before with very paltry results. I wasn't impressed at all. The interface is overkill, and the ads are annoying to say the least. And they actually want you to pay for the browser to get rid of the ads? Sorry, but I'd rather have IE and pay for a 3rd party browser security software. Then I get the security I want as well as the compatibility. Or wait, better yet, I'll use Firefox, get no ads, get no spyware, and pay nothing at all! Sounds like a better deal to me. :-)

The NBA Finals (Game 5)

I got home late, and thought: "Bummer, I'm missing Game 5". But then something in my brain said, "Remember the last couple of games? They were crap. Just go to bed." and so I did. Then I woke up this morning and got the highlights, just to find out that the game went great with overtime play and a win by 1 point. Of course, at first I thought: "Darn, I missed a good game." But then I realized something: I will probably miss any of the games that are good. They all go way later than I am willing to stay up, so I'll probably never see the end of any of them. Thank whoever planned the schedule on that one. Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm sure life won't be any different if I see the games or not. So let this be my last entry on the NBA for the season, unless I somehow mistakenly catch a game this week.

The San Antionio Bricklayers (NBA Finals Part 4)

I have to agree with what I heard today: This is a good series, but bad games. Let's hope it keeps up. I can't believe what I saw last night though. San Antonio got schlacked by Detroit. It didn't even look like they were a pro team against Detroit. They shot 37%, and from what it appeared, they had no idea how to defend against Detroit whatsoever. It was sad. I'm kind of rooting for San Antonio, just because I like their humble approach to the game. However, if they continue to play this terribly they certainly don't deserve to win. Detroit clearly dominated last night from what I saw. Larry Brown said that it was the best any of his teams have ever played in his 33 years of coaching. I think San Antonio helped out with that one. I also found out that when they say the game starts at 8:30pm, it really means that it starts about 9:15pm.

Do we really need another one?

This article kind of annoyed me. Do we really need another web browser? I mean, what's wrong with what we have? Unless Yahoo or Google can come up with some nifty browsing features not yet discovered or invented, I'm doubting they will go very far. Of course, its pretty likely that they would build in their own website features into the browser to make it more appealing. The only interesting thing that might draw my attention is that I do use a lot of Yahoo's current content for e-mailing, etc. Still, my message to both Google and Yahoo and in quoting one of my favorite movies, "Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here."

In other news, all that I can say about this article:
Mac-Intel Aftermath is WOW! If this prediction turns out to be true, then this guy is a genius and we should elect him president.

NBA Finals (part 3)

Now that curiosity has the best of me, I think I might be watching a little of every game. Not because I like the NBA, but because I want Detroit to go down in flames. Last night I caught the the first half of game 3 and to my dismay, it seems Detroit has finally showed up to play basketball. Even Ben Wallace proved that he plays on the the team last night with some impressive first-half stats. San Antionio looked a little stunned by this defense that didn't seem to exist in the first two games. Their shooting was also off in the first half. I'm thinking that Manu Ginobili's thigh injury really slowed him down because he did NOT look like the player he was in the first two games. That being said, I think that he has to be my favorite player thus far of these two teams. What I hated about last night's game were the awful passes and turnovers that San Antonio gave up. They did not seem to be in any rhythm in the first two quarters.

Besides the game, I would have to add to my recent blog commentator's complaint:


If you feel the need to complain; Complain about the start time. 9pm tip-off?!?!? Come on Mr. Stern, some of us have to get to bed at a decent hour.

That's a very good point. But even further is the fact that is seems that there must be some sort of unwritten rule about not having an NBA finals game on a Friday or Saturday. Excuse me? If you are going to have these games this late for the East Coast, at least have the decency to move the game to decent time and day for us to watch. Now I understand that Stern is trying to hit the prime-time hour for the Central Time Zone, since most of the watchers are going to be from those two cities, but come on. Put the game on a day when most people don't have any competing shows to watch. So far the first two NBA finals games have lost in the tv ratings to CBS shows. I seriously doubt that there would be as much programming competition on a Friday or Saturday night, and people could have parties and stuff and watch the whole game. If this keeps up, I'm just gonna bag the whole thing and start watching my professional wrestling pay-per-views I taped. * (jk)


*Disclaimer: Unlike basketball, Albert does not acknowledge pro wrestling as a legitimate sport (at least as it is currently broadcasted on tv) nor does he believe that any form of this professional wrestling is anything more than acting and shock-value entertainment, and thereby does not encourage or endorse its viewing. However, if you have a fascination with watching Jerry Springer shows or drinking moonshine out on the porch of your double-wide, then perhaps professional wrestling is just the right form of entertainment to keep your motor running.

NBA Finals (part 2)

Okay, I broke down and watched game 2. What I saw was nothing like game 1. It was fast-paced with exciting shots, passes, steals, fast-breaks and more. Very entertaining. With that being said, it appears that my negative comments on game 1 got some attention:

"For years, sports radio people said the NBA had no defense. Now you'™ve got the two best defensive teams in the NBA battling to the championship. They said the same thing about fundamentals; no fundamentals, just big dunks from big athletes. The current teams stars are some of the most fundamentally sound players in the world. They represent huge amounts of practice, patience and hard work."

While I am inclined to agree with most of the what the comments said, I have to say this: Who cares? I am not a loyal NBA fan. I am the causal sports fan. I watch sports to be entertained like most people. If I had some sort of long-standing experience playing "fundamentally sound" basketball, then perhaps I would like it. Let's face it. I tune in to be entertained. Low-scoring basketball games are anything but entertaining. This is why not many people like watching golf. Unless you have a true appreciation for the "fundamentals" of the sport, you aren't going to watch. Why do people watch sports? They want to see stars, they want to see exciting offensive plays and big blocks and swats, they want to live on the edge of excitement. Fundamentals are overrated. Most people don't put their butts in seats, buy season tickets, or tune in to watch "fundamentally sound" players. They want to be entertained. We all do.

That being said, there will always be fans of the fundamentals. Just like there are fans of the exciting dunks, etc. But when you break it down, the NBA is not making money and getting tv ratings because of fundamentally sound basketball. How else can you justify fireworks, famous singers doing national anthems, cheerleaders and contests between all the time-outs? David Stern knows he has to sell more than the fundamentals to keep people watching the NBA.

The NBA Finals (Yawn)

I have not watched even 1 minute of one NBA game all season. I don't really care much for NBA basketball. I DO however listen to sports talk radio all day long at my job, which means that I keep up with just about every sport thats in season and worth mention in the sports media. Because of this, I happen to know more stats, and game times, and other sports info than I usually would. So last night I decided to check out the first game of the NBA Finals: The San Antionio Spurs vs. last year's NBA Finals winners, the Detroit Pistons. Needless to say I was extremely dissapointed. The game was so boring. I watched the entire first half and was "wowed" by maybe one or two made shots. I also saw what people meant about the NBA having very few talented mid-range shooters. It just stunk. The most interesting part of the whole thing was the mini-biography on Manu Ginoboli during halftime.

Apple Purism and the MacIntel debate

So it now has been revealed what people were waiting for for a long time: Mac budges into the direction that many Mac purists hoped that he would never go: Towards Intel. I'm actually kind of happy for this change. Not that I know enough about Macs to evaluate the situation on an equal level of both a Mac and a PC fan, but at least I can see that this will open up plenty more possibilities for the future of Apple. I don't own a Mac, nor do I intend to in the near future, but I like the idea of Mac moving onto a platform that makes it able to compete closer with other x86 pc makers. What I find most interesting is how Steve Jobs had this planned out for a while by enabling the OSX operating system to ALREADY be compatible with x86 architecture. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that Mac should change its hardware platform entirely. The world always needs an alternative to the Microsoft-dominated PC. But the possibility of producing a Mac that is competitive on a price level with a similar pc would be nice as well. Perhaps Intel can help Mac with this.

P.S.

By the way, why in the world do people chase after "ancient" methods, tricks and recipes? I mean, think about it. People in ancient times didn't live very long, so what makes the methods or herbs they used any better than what modern medicine offers today? Does "All natural" really matter? Were people living longer 1000 years ago? I doubt it. If mankind has increased his life expectancy over the years, why in the world would some ancient buddhist method do anything for anybody?

I'm a Browsin' Flip-Flopper

I have to admit: When it comes to internet browsers, I am the most undecided guy I know. I guess that I find limitations in everything, and so no one thing can completely satisfy me. For instance, I once went on an anti-Mozilla campaign after Firefox failed to work properly while I was doing my taxes online. For about two or three months, I used only Internet Explorer, figuring that everything works well with it. Well, unfortunately every does, including pop-up windows, flash ads, and other annoying stuff. Even the new security measures are annoying with the XP2 Service pack.

So I have jumped ships again, and now use the Firefox browser with its many featured plug-ins to eliminate annoying ads, and streamline my web experience. I still use IE for sites where I want no compromise of functionality, but most of the time, I use the great features available in Firefox. I guess it really IS the best browser out there, because I just can't seem to stay away for long.