Standing outside the Timberwolves' bus in shorts and practice shirt, guard Ricky Rubio had no idea what happened.
"They just told us to leave," Rubio said in Spanish.
Emphasis mine. That's really high-class journalism, Beau said in English.
The Internet was down here – and in ten other states "served" by Charter – for three hours overnight. Music post will be inbound as soon as I can get into the back end of the site.
Charter is horrible. It's cheaper than Verizon FiOS, but Verizon's service is so much better that we switched back to them especially once my intro price ran out at Charter and they wouldn't allow me to sign another contract for the same price. Yes, I'll pay more for lousy service. Not. Now that I'm back to working at home, I have to have Internet I can count on.
As I might have tweeted earlier this morning:
"When other adjectives fail to describe @CharterCom’s customer service & social media outreach, there’s always 'Comcastic.'"
Seriously, though, until we treat Internet connectivity the same way we treat our gas, electricity, water, and telephone infrastructures, our country will still be living in the 1990s.
We had Charter for telephone at one time years ago, but they tended to treat phone problems like cable problems -- we'll get to it eventually. Phone service is a little more important than TV, guys.
The trick is to make it so that your problem with their service is also one of their service guy's problems. My cat chewed through the cable in the living room this summer which knocked out service for everyone in my sector (or whatever they call it). The service guys showed up about 5 minutes after I even knew I had a problem and without me even calling because one of the guys lived in the area.
so, put a service guy's house in every neighborhood. Boom!
My cat chewed through the cable in the living room this summer which knocked out service for everyone in my sector (or whatever they call it).
I believe the proper description is Sector 7G, sir.
For about 12 months they had a CS staff on Twitter. I was able to get really good, quick pricing relief when that happened. It was bordering on good service!
They got rid of that Twitter presence in 2013.
Good God -- "Pinto" turns 60 today.
How old is Mr. Kincaid?
um...that is not Danny Bonaduce...
Because Animal House.
Oh, my bad. Pinto. Looks like DB.
I can see that happening, yeah
Pinto was a freshman in 1962. No wonder he looked young. He was only 9!
Rock me, Amadeus!
I always think of him as the prodigal son on Parenthood.
Lest you think I'm some sort of Apple fanboy, let me tell you that I've been not impressed with the iPhone battery life. I've had my phone for less than two years and this morning, it got to zero. No biggie. I put it on the car charger on the way to work. That usually gets charge enough for the phone to turn on in about 5 minutes. After a 25 minute drive to work, nothing. Plugged it in at work, another ten minutes before I got to 5% and it turned on. Not. Good.
yeah, my work phone is the plain 5 and after just 9 months it takes about 5-10 minutes to charge from zero to 5%, when it used to be about 90 seconds. Admittedly, though, the car charger puts out less amps than a wall outlet.
My iPhone is a little over two years old now. I'm waiting for the 6 to upgrade because I'm hoping for a bigger screen. In the last 4 or 5 months my battery life has taken a huge hit. I think iOS7 really killed it. However, in the last few months I've also been using it a lot more, so that along with natural battery decline makes it hard to judge how much iOS7 is the culprit. Luckily I sit in front of the computer all day so I can just leave it plugged in.
Ah, reply fail.
It turns out that once I got to the office, the phone started charging normally again, now at 88%. I guess that the car charger was the culprit? It was very cold last night (-13), but the thing was plugged in all night, too. Huh. The knew that it was plugged into the charger, but could it be that the charger couldn't provide sufficient power to charge the phone? That doesn't seem right, but maybe so.
bigger screens are batter killers. I went with the smaller Galaxy S3 over some other options because the Verizon dood warned me that one of the Droids they were pimping would not make it through a work day before needing to be plugged in. WTF?
I just got a phone with a 5" screen and so far the battery is holding up better than my previous phone, so there's that. I also installed a battery saving app and make sure the wifi/data connection turns off whenever the screen is off.
wifi is a big power hog
4G is a bigger hog. When I'm on wifi all day, my phone holds charge pretty well. Not so much when out and about.
's what I meant -- the passive roaming activity
if you are referring to the constant pinging to find a network, concur. I go to meetings occasionally in one building where cell signal is nada. If I don't remember to go airplane-mode there, my battery drains like a leaky toilet.
I also installed a battery saving app and make sure the wifi/data connection turns off whenever the screen is off.
That seems silly to me. I keep my phone's screen off most of the day, so the ability to fetch things for my later perusal is important.
The wife has found that some running appls are big drainers on the iPhone batteries. Would be nice to see them rated by that aspect.
I will never, ever understand why Apple made the battery not able to be replaced like that. It just makes no sense.
They can fit a larger battery.
Personally, I'd rather have a replaceable battery that held a smaller charge, but I don't know what the exact trade-off is. Of course, I rarely use my phone for actual phone calls, and I'm not a huge data user either. My iPhone 5 is about a year old at this point and I can usually use it for 2 full days without a recharge. Usually I wear it down the most using the GPS, which I could solve by charging it in the car while I use it as a GPS.
Hard to say since Apple's batteries are so good.
Another consideration I should have added above is that it's cheaper to not need a removable back. Apple loves its hermetically sealed boxes.
I worry about dust inside my devices--is that crazy? Are the sealed boxes better at keeping dust out in the first place?
Like the Lifeproof cases? Employees and customers both swear by them.
Just like its hermetically sealed software #anotherrant
Speaking of phones... mine died yesterday. The charger port fell out of the phone. So I need a new one. We've got Verizon, no complaints with them, will keep their service. I'd like to upgrade to a smart phone (my first), my wife wouldn't. We've got whatever their family share plan withtout data thing is - you know, the thing that was typical before smartphones. Anyone know about adding a smartphone to that plan/estimated cost, etc.? I mean, I could ask Verizon, but... meh. Also, the cheaper the phone/plan, the greater the likelihood it'll happen. Recommendations?
estimated cost
On Verizon, it's either an arm and leg, or firstborn child.
Frig.
"Aquinas, now your last name is going to be Verizon."
data plan is on the order of $40/month, I think.
What bS said- I just updated to a smartphone and data plan from Verizon a few months ago- almost exactly $40/month, though the first month had some extra charges and ended up being about double that.
This.
Did you just "This." someone "This."ing you?
He did. He really did.
Nah. I was "This"ing the "double that" part at the end.
I know. But it's more fun the other way.
This.
*note the aggressive punctuation*
The World Cup Draw is on in 30 minutes (11:30/10:30Central). I will be eagerly watching and hoping for a good draw.
is it on ESPN?
ESPN2, I think.
JeffA is correct, as well as WatchESPN.com if you have access
I will be offline until about 4pm so I'm trying to go into info silence!
In deference to the Dread Pirate's predicament (as well as anyone else who might be facing a similar one), here is a post for the draw. I tagged it "Forbidden Zone" so as to not have the comments appear in the sidebar
You may want to check that setting...comments are visible on the sidebar.
I disabled comment hiding. It doesn't seem to work well with certain categories.
Plus, we just need to get to 300 LTEs again to hide everything else.
Can we add the 50+ from FMD and 80+ from the World Cup Draw?
Have to hide the 80+ from the WCD, so that can't count. But FMD can. Or noting that birthday boyman ancient Jose Contreras is still going.
Since we're already talking about Apple and technology stuff, does anyone have any experience with a refurbished Apple laptop of any sort? My laptop is more than 5 years old and is getting to be slow as molasses. The mister has had zero problems with refurbished phones from them, so I'm thinking a refurbished laptop might be the way to go. I don't need newest or top of the line by any means.
I can get you close. My iPad is refurbished. It looks great and performs very well. However, I've only had it for less than a year.
I had enough problems to swear me off it. I bought a certified refurbished iMac from Apple in 2010 or so. The first one was DOA. The second has never had a fully working bluetooth function. Numerous attempts to recreate the problem at a local shop (under warranty) failed. The hard drive died a slow death making the computer perform quite poorly, which I guess is apropos of nothing other than my stupidity for not figuring it out (simple hardware test) prior to buying a new machine earlier this year. Oh, and I think the CD drive is dead as well. Not that you can get an iMac with a built-in CD drive anymore.
I'd lean toward new + 3-year Apple Care on a laptop.
Though likely you'd have no problem with refurbished. I'd still add the Apple Care if you get one.
It looks like the refurb MacBook Airs are ~$120 less than the new models at Best Buy. They have occasional sales which bring them within $20 of the refurb price. I bought a 2012 Air and I absolutely love it.
Cano to Mariners. Guessing they'll trade for Price next week or so.
This is a stupid contract to give out. That being said, I don't know. If I'm the Yankees I'd rather keep Cano than sign McCann & Ellsbury. I don't think any of the deals are going to end up great. The years are awful on the Cano deal, but the Yankees have so much money that $24 million 6 or 7 years from now is like a drop in the bucket. I guess I don't get it. Shrug. Theeeee-uhuhuhuh Yankees looooooooooose a top 10 player and the Mariners are more than one player away from contention so it works out okay for the rest of the AL.
These big contracts haven't worked out that well for teams lately, but I don't know that it's that crazy. (Also, I feel like the jury is still out on some of those long contracts.) My traditional media style analysis on this is that Cano's an MVP-caliber player and this is the sort of contract that it takes to sign an MVP-caliber player. In some ways, it seems similar to the reaction to the Hughes and Nolasco deals for the Twins--sure, if the team stops right here, the contracts don't make that much sense, but presumably they have more money in the bank and aren't done building their team yet.
I've also seen enough prospects-for-veterans trades blow up that I'd rather blow cash on a veteran than legitimate prospects.
I guess the M's figured it worked out so well for the Angels that they would try it.
Cano to Seattle for $240M/10yr. Looking at this list, best case scenario is George Brett (not the craziest comparison ever), worst case is Bobby Doerr. That's a big spread. More likely somewhere in between. I think a lot of whether or not this is a good contract depends on how much the Mariners wind up spending on other players. If they are keeping a $100M payroll for the next 10 years, the contract could be a lot more burdensome than if they eventually wind up in the $150-$200M/season range.
In some sense I look at it this way: Cano's in the Joe Mauer category. You can argue about which player is better, but it's a legitimate argument. Both are up-the-middle players who are good enough hitters to be decent players (or better-than-decent players) in a corner position. What I really don't understand is why the Yankees seemed to let him go without much of a fight. Is it a Girardi thing? That part of it kind of mystifies me.
It's probably not a Jay-Z thing, as he's a Yankee fan, but I thought I picked up on an unspoken mutual mistrust there.
That said, I thought they'd pay Cano to be a Yankee for life. The Mariners were not high on the list of teams I expected to sign him (or any free agent, for that matter...when was their last big splash? Ichiro?).
Apparently their upcoming TV deal will be worth $120 million per year, so I'm thinking payroll will be able to increase quite a bit.
Perhaps the Yankees are feeling a little apprehensive about 10 year contracts these days?
The Mariners have only $31.6 million committed to 2014. They have two first-year arbitration players and the rest are pre-arb. Plus they can opt-out of their TV deal after 2015. A lot of cheap players plus a ton of cash coming in soon makes this an affordable deal.
Yeah, I think you can probably justify it a lot of ways. I think these moves are always going to be met with apprehension because no one looks like a genius for paying MSRP, but you don't need to be a genius to just improve the team. I mean, the Mariners' biggest problem is frankly that they need their farm system to produce more for their major league team. That basically needs to improve for them to really be a WS contender, but making a big FA addition and spending prudently elsewhere can get you to respectability. Plus, I think there's something to be said for having an elite everyday player on the team making it a little easier to watch in down years.
Also, even though the length is longer and Cano is older, I don't think this contract is really riskier than the Felix extension the Mariners did last year.
So, Miami was without Wade and the Birdman last night; they got their doors blown off by a Rose-less Bulls club. I like that Bulls club a lot (I love Joakim Noah). Luckily for the Heat, though, they'll have those two fellas back on Saturday, when they play, you guessed it, the Wolves.
I didn't see that game last night, but I did see a fair amount of the Heat/Pistons game. Miami is vulnerable and right now I'd take the field on a who wins the NBA title bet. I'd also take no on will LBJ and Wade be teammates next year.
Some background on the Google diatribe yesterday: I was contemplating springing for a Chromebook laptop and migrating from a desktop to the Google model for home (basically a brick to which you can add peripherals). The whole Chromecast debacle has left me with cold feet. Thoughts? I really only use a home computer for a few tasks -- I'm not needing MS Office -- I can find that elsewhere. What I really want is a cheap Internet machine. Would I be stupid to dive in?
You have an Ipad, right? What is the point of a laptop (rather than a cheap desktop/tower) at home for "real" computer activities, in that case?
My semi-informed (i.e., mostly ignorant) perception is that Chromebooks are basically netbooks. Isn't an Ipad superior for browsing? Netbooks have tiny screens and tiny keyboards and little storage or horsepower. If you are gonna do any home bookkeeping, text editing, whatever, a desktop machine seems a better choice. Particularly if you already have an Ipad for all of the mobile-within-the-home-network stuff.
Isn't an Ipad superior for browsing?
Except it has no keyboard. Most Chromebooks would have a superior browsing experience. They are around 11 inches, which is enough for full keyboard; and the CPUs of now beat the pants off the CPUs used in netbooks of old. They still have little storage, but that's the point.
Yea but you can get a bluetooth keyboard for relatively cheap for the few times you really need one for the I-pad. I'm with bS, if you not writing 20 page reports, an I-pad may be the way to go. Also you can sync it with your i-phone.
I have a keyboard and it is pretty easy to use. I do have some applications that I prefer not to do on iPad, though. Plus, I was going to use it to control a Chromecast when in ND. Heh.
Have you considered a Mac mini? If you already have a desktop monitor and a bluetooth keyboard, you're practically cooking with gas for $600.
The UofM Women's Hockey team says, hold on, old-timer.
Reusse asserts that the U's volleyball team is the most successful Gopher athletic program.
There is a different level of competition between womens hockey (basically the Gophers and then there is everyone else) and volleyball (the B1G conference is pretty darned strong, especially with the addition of Nebraska) is what separates the two.
Women's Hockey program has 4 national titles including the last two. Women's volleyball program has won the B1G once and not in 12 seasons. I'm sticking with the Hockey program.
Wrestling has 3 national titles and five conference titles since 2001. Or are we just talking about wimmen's programs?
Ooh, good call. I'd put women's volleyball is third on the list. They've been consistently very good for a long time, but without the national titles the other programs sport, the assertion the volleyball team is the "most" successful rings hollow.
although having read the article (at least up to the jump), it's really not all that egregious. 17th trip to the NCAA tournament in the last 18 years, in a sport with nearly 300 D-I programs (compared to only 35 in women's hockey, 59 in men's hockey, and 79 in wrestling -- these are reasonably valid points). That is sustaining a program at a high level.
My point is there's a big difference between sustaining at a high level relative to your individual sport versus being considered the most successful program from a group of very disparate programs.
Reusse makes a very good case for the first, but I think he's reaching on the second.
Yeah, I saw that headline and thought, "Really?" I guess you gotta bring in page views somehow.
And as one team insider confided to me last week, "You think the guy doesn't run out ground balls now, wait until he has a guaranteed 10-year contract."
In fairness, I think the ground ball thing is overplayed -- Cano rarely misses a game, takes early extra batting nearly every day, and led the team in just about every offensive category, so who cares if he Cadillacs it on sure outs? -- but the point is a valid one.
I'll take a second baseman with a .900 OPS who doesn't sprint down to first base on a routine grounder but hey that's just me.
As I recall, hustle from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz was key to the Red Sox '04/'07 WS titles. Gotta run hard on those sure outs.
Also, the Mariners are probably counting on Willie Bloomquist's Hustle and Grit to rub off on the rest of the team.
I thought Jason Varitek's heart & grit were the key to those Red Sox teams.
Just imagine how good Barry Lamar Bonds would have been had he run out those sure outs.
After chatting with a friend about the article, here's how I sum it up.
That was terrible. At the end, there was even a counting mistake!
To paraphrase Jay Z, who is said to have masterminded Cano's deal with the Mariners, the Yankees may have had 99 problems, but now Cano ain't one of them.
Now they can attend to the 98 that remain.
If you're going to use that reference at all (and you shouldn't) it's "I've got 99 problems and Cano ain't one"--which means they still have 99 problems.
It's possible that the master plan is to prioritize defense in lieu of a weak pitching staff. It wouldn't be the worst plan in the world. But I can't say I know much about how well Cano, Ellsbury, and Granderson each rate in the field.
FWIW, Cano has won a couple fielding Grammys in the last four years.
I haven't seen much baseball the last 2-3 years. (Maybe more like the last 4-5 years.) And I haven't really even been following that closely overall. So maybe someone can help out and explain why is it that everyone seems to be talking about Pujols as though he'll never be any good again? I'll grant you that no one would sign him to a 10-year deal today, and he hasn't been great with the Angels, but I wouldn't completely bet against him yet.
The foot injury and knee surgery don't bode well. Assuming his 1.5 rWAR last year represented the season perfectly, he's projected for 3.6 rWAR next year. A four win season puts next season at only a mild overpay.
Sure it doesn't bode well, but I guess I just look at someone like David Ortiz, who had a significant wrist injury back in 2008, had 0 fWAR in 2009, and has averaged 3-4 fWAR since then. I know the contract looks a lot worse now, but I feel like in addition to evaluating the contract, people seem to just be writing Pujols off as a player entirely.
The hunt for new gift ideas for my brother and his GF is on. I was making them stained glass things - an air force logo for him and medic blue star thing for her. "Was" being the keyword. I ended up smashing the glass in a fit of rage.
Did you yell "Hulk Smash!!" just before the smash? Sounds like it was a stressful project or that glass is fragile. Maybe both.
It's frustrating as shit to not have things cooperate with me even though I was doing everything right. The scores on the glass were deep enough, but the breaks would just veer off and leave the piece short and mis-shapen. On top of that, I have very little money to get them anything (money in general has been a big point of stress for about 2 years now), so I was trying to do something handcrafted (read: cheap, yet the appearance that I give a shit). Every bad break just wasted glass and threw money down the drain and it was starting to get to me. So I slammed the big 12"x12" sheet into the work table and left.
I went back to try to salvage the glass, and found enough pieces big enough and in the right shape I could still make it work if everything went well. About two more pieces into it, sure enough, piece broke off about 1/2" short of where I needed it to. So I took all the fragments and slammed them into the trash one at a time.
That sucks. I often get impatient with stuff like that, too.
You may know that Maryland and Rutgers are joining in 2014, but another school will also be joining the conference as an "affiliate member" in 2014. Can you name it?
The B1G stated with seven schools, Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Chicago dropped out in 1946. One of other six also dropped out but returned later. Can you name it?
There's a Grey Goose commercial on Hulu that claims it's made with only two ingredients and fails to specify what those two are. I assume they mean wheat and water, but that won't get you vodka. Neither will just water and yeast, nor wheat and yeast. There are at least 3 ingredients to any liquor.
Depends on how high your moisture is in your starting fermentable material, Mags. Grapes and yeast do a pretty good job with just the two ingredients.
But yeah, that commercial is just wrong. They obviously have wheat, yeast and water. I'd guess they're also adding enzymes of some sort (wikipedia says yes), but they wouldn't have to if they had enough fermentation time. Probably also some anti-bacterial ingredients, but again, maybe not.
I guess I mentally draw a distinction between distilling liquor and fermenting wine, probably because I know next to nothing about making wine. I had no idea you could do it without extra water, though it does make sense now that you mention it. Thanks for the little tidbit.
Can we all just call a moratorium on commercials that hype vodka as an elite lifestyle choice? I mean, c'mon. The stuff is just everclear. Who cares what it is distilled from (as long as its ethyl, not methyl) when it is "distilled four times" or whatever. The two ingredients are Everclear and water.
Why drink vodka when the world has whiskey and gin?
Vodka represents a solution of 40 percent pure ethanol and 60 percent pure water, so that all brands should theoretically have the same faint or undetectable taste. But the popularity of premium vodka brands in recent years may suggest otherwise.
The puzzle compelled chemistry sleuths at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio to team up with Moscow State University in Russia and try to pinpoint the source of vodka's appeal.
That's cool - I retract 94 "This's". I still prefer whiskey & gin to vodka, but may have to spring for a decent bottle. I'm sure the local bottle shop has some Phillips on hand. 😉
more of a general point from me, but there is A LOT of liquor advertisements on tv. And at like 8 in the morning. Im probably treading towards forbidden zone area, but I find it a bit disturbing.
*headdesk*
Man, I can't just let this sit. It irks that someone so well attuned to nuance would be so dismissive of a product with nuance at its core. Doc, if you ever come through Madison, you have a standing invitation to come to my place for a horizontal vodka tasting. We'll see if we can't get you to appreciate the difference between corn, wheat, potato, and grape sourced vodkas, or the regional variations that characterize Scandinavian from Polish, Russian from American, etc.
Someday, CH. But note that I was mostly GOMLing about the bullshit marketing campaigns.
Still, I am...suspicious. even highly trained "experts" have a hard time saying anything credible about wines when blind tasted in opaque cups. And wine has a lot more going on than vodka.
I don't doubt that one can distinguish between crap vodka and non-crap. But subtler distinctions? I would need to be convinced. Tell me where to start!
Whilst in Ireland a year back, we went to Bushmills for a tour. They've been making it the same way for 400 years. 3 ingredients - guess.
The main difference from Scotch is that it is triple distilled, and they don't add have the added smokiness process.
As a rule, do not mix with anything else, but you have a separate glass of water alongside your Irish whisky.
I thought Irish whiskey was designed to be used in hot toddys and coffee?
The smokiness in Scotch comes from the kilns in which they dry the grain to stop the germination process. Scotch malt is dried in an open kiln, which allows the peat to smoke up, where as the closed kiln of Irish malt keeps the smoke from forming.
Don't get too excited AMR, it's just a rumor.
Told the #MNTwins are in on FA catcher John Buck. @NYPost_Mets first reported said interest.
Ooh, he's long been one of Sheenie's favorites. When he was in AAA in the Astros system, we were at a New Orleans game sitting above the visitor's dugout. I mentioned to Sheenie that as a woman in her early 20's, she could easily get a baseball if she just paid attention to had one at the end of the inning and asked for it. Sure enough, Buck tossed her the ball after an inning ending strikeout a few minutes later.
And we'll find out tomorrow night! (Wrong Buck?)
Hope it becomes fact!
That'd be even better than Anthony!
/Checks BR.com
Let's hope it happens and that his NL years were just an abberation resulting from playing for the Marlins, Mets, and Pirates.
Yankees sign Beltran. 3 years, $45 million. Ellsbury, Beltran, Gardner, ICHIRO!, Wells, Soriano. Who's going to play infield besides Captain Dreamboat?
Move Soriano back to 2nd
The question is, with Cap'n Dreamboat at short and Soriano at second, would both win fielding Grammys?
Trade them Dozier for... never mind, I looked at their prospects. They ain't giving up Sanchez, and he's the only one I really want.
They did sign Brendan Ryan. Maybe Soriano will move back to second.
I really wanted to like PSLCB, but that went out the window.
Eff. I liked Beltran. I hate it when guys I like become Yankmes.
On the bright side, it won't be as hard to cheer for Granderson again.
Once a Yankee...
gonna be a long three years for Hughes.
Was for Pavano, wasn't it?
This is one of the many bright sides to Cano leaving, too.
From the Associated Press:
Emphasis mine. That's really high-class journalism, Beau said in English.
The Internet was down here – and in ten other states "served" by Charter – for three hours overnight. Music post will be inbound as soon as I can get into the back end of the site.
Charter is horrible. It's cheaper than Verizon FiOS, but Verizon's service is so much better that we switched back to them especially once my intro price ran out at Charter and they wouldn't allow me to sign another contract for the same price. Yes, I'll pay more for lousy service. Not. Now that I'm back to working at home, I have to have Internet I can count on.
As I might have tweeted earlier this morning:
"When other adjectives fail to describe @CharterCom’s customer service & social media outreach, there’s always 'Comcastic.'"
Seriously, though, until we treat Internet connectivity the same way we treat our gas, electricity, water, and telephone infrastructures, our country will still be living in the 1990s.
We had Charter for telephone at one time years ago, but they tended to treat phone problems like cable problems -- we'll get to it eventually. Phone service is a little more important than TV, guys.
The trick is to make it so that your problem with their service is also one of their service guy's problems. My cat chewed through the cable in the living room this summer which knocked out service for everyone in my sector (or whatever they call it). The service guys showed up about 5 minutes after I even knew I had a problem and without me even calling because one of the guys lived in the area.
so, put a service guy's house in every neighborhood. Boom!
I believe the proper description is Sector 7G, sir.
For about 12 months they had a CS staff on Twitter. I was able to get really good, quick pricing relief when that happened. It was bordering on good service!
They got rid of that Twitter presence in 2013.
Good God -- "Pinto" turns 60 today.
How old is Mr. Kincaid?
um...that is not Danny Bonaduce...
Because Animal House.
Oh, my bad. Pinto. Looks like DB.
I can see that happening, yeah
Pinto was a freshman in 1962. No wonder he looked young. He was only 9!
Rock me, Amadeus!
I always think of him as the prodigal son on Parenthood.
Lest you think I'm some sort of Apple fanboy, let me tell you that I've been not impressed with the iPhone battery life. I've had my phone for less than two years and this morning, it got to zero. No biggie. I put it on the car charger on the way to work. That usually gets charge enough for the phone to turn on in about 5 minutes. After a 25 minute drive to work, nothing. Plugged it in at work, another ten minutes before I got to 5% and it turned on. Not. Good.
yeah, my work phone is the plain 5 and after just 9 months it takes about 5-10 minutes to charge from zero to 5%, when it used to be about 90 seconds. Admittedly, though, the car charger puts out less amps than a wall outlet.
My iPhone is a little over two years old now. I'm waiting for the 6 to upgrade because I'm hoping for a bigger screen. In the last 4 or 5 months my battery life has taken a huge hit. I think iOS7 really killed it. However, in the last few months I've also been using it a lot more, so that along with natural battery decline makes it hard to judge how much iOS7 is the culprit. Luckily I sit in front of the computer all day so I can just leave it plugged in.
Ah, reply fail.
It turns out that once I got to the office, the phone started charging normally again, now at 88%. I guess that the car charger was the culprit? It was very cold last night (-13), but the thing was plugged in all night, too. Huh. The knew that it was plugged into the charger, but could it be that the charger couldn't provide sufficient power to charge the phone? That doesn't seem right, but maybe so.
bigger screens are batter killers. I went with the smaller Galaxy S3 over some other options because the Verizon dood warned me that one of the Droids they were pimping would not make it through a work day before needing to be plugged in. WTF?
I just got a phone with a 5" screen and so far the battery is holding up better than my previous phone, so there's that. I also installed a battery saving app and make sure the wifi/data connection turns off whenever the screen is off.
wifi is a big power hog
4G is a bigger hog. When I'm on wifi all day, my phone holds charge pretty well. Not so much when out and about.
's what I meant -- the passive roaming activity
if you are referring to the constant pinging to find a network, concur. I go to meetings occasionally in one building where cell signal is nada. If I don't remember to go airplane-mode there, my battery drains like a leaky toilet.
I also installed a battery saving app and make sure the wifi/data connection turns off whenever the screen is off.
That seems silly to me. I keep my phone's screen off most of the day, so the ability to fetch things for my later perusal is important.
The wife has found that some running appls are big drainers on the iPhone batteries. Would be nice to see them rated by that aspect.
I will never, ever understand why Apple made the battery not able to be replaced like that. It just makes no sense.
They can fit a larger battery.
Personally, I'd rather have a replaceable battery that held a smaller charge, but I don't know what the exact trade-off is. Of course, I rarely use my phone for actual phone calls, and I'm not a huge data user either. My iPhone 5 is about a year old at this point and I can usually use it for 2 full days without a recharge. Usually I wear it down the most using the GPS, which I could solve by charging it in the car while I use it as a GPS.
Hard to say since Apple's batteries are so good.
Another consideration I should have added above is that it's cheaper to not need a removable back. Apple loves its hermetically sealed boxes.
I worry about dust inside my devices--is that crazy? Are the sealed boxes better at keeping dust out in the first place?
Like the Lifeproof cases? Employees and customers both swear by them.
Just like its hermetically sealed software #anotherrant
Speaking of phones... mine died yesterday. The charger port fell out of the phone. So I need a new one. We've got Verizon, no complaints with them, will keep their service. I'd like to upgrade to a smart phone (my first), my wife wouldn't. We've got whatever their family share plan withtout data thing is - you know, the thing that was typical before smartphones. Anyone know about adding a smartphone to that plan/estimated cost, etc.? I mean, I could ask Verizon, but... meh. Also, the cheaper the phone/plan, the greater the likelihood it'll happen. Recommendations?
estimated cost
On Verizon, it's either an arm and leg, or firstborn child.
Frig.
"Aquinas, now your last name is going to be Verizon."
data plan is on the order of $40/month, I think.
What bS said- I just updated to a smartphone and data plan from Verizon a few months ago- almost exactly $40/month, though the first month had some extra charges and ended up being about double that.
This.
Did you just "This." someone "This."ing you?
He did. He really did.
Nah. I was "This"ing the "double that" part at the end.
I know. But it's more fun the other way.
This.
*note the aggressive punctuation*
The World Cup Draw is on in 30 minutes (11:30/10:30Central). I will be eagerly watching and hoping for a good draw.
is it on ESPN?
ESPN2, I think.
JeffA is correct, as well as WatchESPN.com if you have access
I will be offline until about 4pm so I'm trying to go into info silence!
In deference to the Dread Pirate's predicament (as well as anyone else who might be facing a similar one), here is a post for the draw. I tagged it "Forbidden Zone" so as to not have the comments appear in the sidebar
You may want to check that setting...comments are visible on the sidebar.
I disabled comment hiding. It doesn't seem to work well with certain categories.
Plus, we just need to get to 300 LTEs again to hide everything else.
Can we add the 50+ from FMD and 80+ from the World Cup Draw?
Have to hide the 80+ from the WCD, so that can't count. But FMD can. Or noting that birthday
boymanancient Jose Contreras is still going.Since we're already talking about Apple and technology stuff, does anyone have any experience with a refurbished Apple laptop of any sort? My laptop is more than 5 years old and is getting to be slow as molasses. The mister has had zero problems with refurbished phones from them, so I'm thinking a refurbished laptop might be the way to go. I don't need newest or top of the line by any means.
I can get you close. My iPad is refurbished. It looks great and performs very well. However, I've only had it for less than a year.
I had enough problems to swear me off it. I bought a certified refurbished iMac from Apple in 2010 or so. The first one was DOA. The second has never had a fully working bluetooth function. Numerous attempts to recreate the problem at a local shop (under warranty) failed. The hard drive died a slow death making the computer perform quite poorly, which I guess is apropos of nothing other than my stupidity for not figuring it out (simple hardware test) prior to buying a new machine earlier this year. Oh, and I think the CD drive is dead as well. Not that you can get an iMac with a built-in CD drive anymore.
I'd lean toward new + 3-year Apple Care on a laptop.
Though likely you'd have no problem with refurbished. I'd still add the Apple Care if you get one.
It looks like the refurb MacBook Airs are ~$120 less than the new models at Best Buy. They have occasional sales which bring them within $20 of the refurb price. I bought a 2012 Air and I absolutely love it.
Cano to Mariners. Guessing they'll trade for Price next week or so.
This is a stupid contract to give out. That being said, I don't know. If I'm the Yankees I'd rather keep Cano than sign McCann & Ellsbury. I don't think any of the deals are going to end up great. The years are awful on the Cano deal, but the Yankees have so much money that $24 million 6 or 7 years from now is like a drop in the bucket. I guess I don't get it. Shrug. Theeeee-uhuhuhuh Yankees looooooooooose a top 10 player and the Mariners are more than one player away from contention so it works out okay for the rest of the AL.
These big contracts haven't worked out that well for teams lately, but I don't know that it's that crazy. (Also, I feel like the jury is still out on some of those long contracts.) My traditional media style analysis on this is that Cano's an MVP-caliber player and this is the sort of contract that it takes to sign an MVP-caliber player. In some ways, it seems similar to the reaction to the Hughes and Nolasco deals for the Twins--sure, if the team stops right here, the contracts don't make that much sense, but presumably they have more money in the bank and aren't done building their team yet.
I've also seen enough prospects-for-veterans trades blow up that I'd rather blow cash on a veteran than legitimate prospects.
I guess the M's figured it worked out so well for the Angels that they would try it.
Cano to Seattle for $240M/10yr. Looking at this list, best case scenario is George Brett (not the craziest comparison ever), worst case is Bobby Doerr. That's a big spread. More likely somewhere in between. I think a lot of whether or not this is a good contract depends on how much the Mariners wind up spending on other players. If they are keeping a $100M payroll for the next 10 years, the contract could be a lot more burdensome than if they eventually wind up in the $150-$200M/season range.
In some sense I look at it this way: Cano's in the Joe Mauer category. You can argue about which player is better, but it's a legitimate argument. Both are up-the-middle players who are good enough hitters to be decent players (or better-than-decent players) in a corner position. What I really don't understand is why the Yankees seemed to let him go without much of a fight. Is it a Girardi thing? That part of it kind of mystifies me.
It's probably not a Jay-Z thing, as he's a Yankee fan, but I thought I picked up on an unspoken mutual mistrust there.
That said, I thought they'd pay Cano to be a Yankee for life. The Mariners were not high on the list of teams I expected to sign him (or any free agent, for that matter...when was their last big splash? Ichiro?).
Apparently their upcoming TV deal will be worth $120 million per year, so I'm thinking payroll will be able to increase quite a bit.
Perhaps the Yankees are feeling a little apprehensive about 10 year contracts these days?
The Mariners have only $31.6 million committed to 2014. They have two first-year arbitration players and the rest are pre-arb. Plus they can opt-out of their TV deal after 2015. A lot of cheap players plus a ton of cash coming in soon makes this an affordable deal.
Yeah, I think you can probably justify it a lot of ways. I think these moves are always going to be met with apprehension because no one looks like a genius for paying MSRP, but you don't need to be a genius to just improve the team. I mean, the Mariners' biggest problem is frankly that they need their farm system to produce more for their major league team. That basically needs to improve for them to really be a WS contender, but making a big FA addition and spending prudently elsewhere can get you to respectability. Plus, I think there's something to be said for having an elite everyday player on the team making it a little easier to watch in down years.
Also, even though the length is longer and Cano is older, I don't think this contract is really riskier than the Felix extension the Mariners did last year.
So, Miami was without Wade and the Birdman last night; they got their doors blown off by a Rose-less Bulls club. I like that Bulls club a lot (I love Joakim Noah). Luckily for the Heat, though, they'll have those two fellas back on Saturday, when they play, you guessed it, the Wolves.
I didn't see that game last night, but I did see a fair amount of the Heat/Pistons game. Miami is vulnerable and right now I'd take the field on a who wins the NBA title bet. I'd also take no on will LBJ and Wade be teammates next year.
Some background on the Google diatribe yesterday: I was contemplating springing for a Chromebook laptop and migrating from a desktop to the Google model for home (basically a brick to which you can add peripherals). The whole Chromecast debacle has left me with cold feet. Thoughts? I really only use a home computer for a few tasks -- I'm not needing MS Office -- I can find that elsewhere. What I really want is a cheap Internet machine. Would I be stupid to dive in?
You have an Ipad, right? What is the point of a laptop (rather than a cheap desktop/tower) at home for "real" computer activities, in that case?
My semi-informed (i.e., mostly ignorant) perception is that Chromebooks are basically netbooks. Isn't an Ipad superior for browsing? Netbooks have tiny screens and tiny keyboards and little storage or horsepower. If you are gonna do any home bookkeeping, text editing, whatever, a desktop machine seems a better choice. Particularly if you already have an Ipad for all of the mobile-within-the-home-network stuff.
Isn't an Ipad superior for browsing?
Except it has no keyboard. Most Chromebooks would have a superior browsing experience. They are around 11 inches, which is enough for full keyboard; and the CPUs of now beat the pants off the CPUs used in netbooks of old. They still have little storage, but that's the point.
Yea but you can get a bluetooth keyboard for relatively cheap for the few times you really need one for the I-pad. I'm with bS, if you not writing 20 page reports, an I-pad may be the way to go. Also you can sync it with your i-phone.
I have a keyboard and it is pretty easy to use. I do have some applications that I prefer not to do on iPad, though. Plus, I was going to use it to control a Chromecast when in ND. Heh.
Have you considered a Mac mini? If you already have a desktop monitor and a bluetooth keyboard, you're practically cooking with gas for $600.
The UofM Women's Hockey team says, hold on, old-timer.
There is a different level of competition between womens hockey (basically the Gophers and then there is everyone else) and volleyball (the B1G conference is pretty darned strong, especially with the addition of Nebraska) is what separates the two.
Women's Hockey program has 4 national titles including the last two. Women's volleyball program has won the B1G once and not in 12 seasons. I'm sticking with the Hockey program.
Wrestling has 3 national titles and five conference titles since 2001. Or are we just talking about wimmen's programs?
Ooh, good call. I'd put women's volleyball is third on the list. They've been consistently very good for a long time, but without the national titles the other programs sport, the assertion the volleyball team is the "most" successful rings hollow.
although having read the article (at least up to the jump), it's really not all that egregious. 17th trip to the NCAA tournament in the last 18 years, in a sport with nearly 300 D-I programs (compared to only 35 in women's hockey, 59 in men's hockey, and 79 in wrestling -- these are reasonably valid points). That is sustaining a program at a high level.
My point is there's a big difference between sustaining at a high level relative to your individual sport versus being considered the most successful program from a group of very disparate programs.
Reusse makes a very good case for the first, but I think he's reaching on the second.
Yeah, I saw that headline and thought, "Really?" I guess you gotta bring in page views somehow.
Granderson to the Mets. $60 million over four years.
Man...I was hoping he'd leave Zoo York.
You know you want to spend some time this afternoon watching Kevin Harlan highlights
Just enjoy this:
I'll take a second baseman with a .900 OPS who doesn't sprint down to first base on a routine grounder but hey that's just me.
As I recall, hustle from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz was key to the Red Sox '04/'07 WS titles. Gotta run hard on those sure outs.
Also, the Mariners are probably counting on Willie Bloomquist's Hustle and Grit to rub off on the rest of the team.
I thought Jason Varitek's heart & grit were the key to those Red Sox teams.
Just imagine how good Barry Lamar Bonds would have been had he run out those sure outs.
After chatting with a friend about the article, here's how I sum it up.
That was terrible. At the end, there was even a counting mistake!
If you're going to use that reference at all (and you shouldn't) it's "I've got 99 problems and Cano ain't one"--which means they still have 99 problems.
It's possible that the master plan is to prioritize defense in lieu of a weak pitching staff. It wouldn't be the worst plan in the world. But I can't say I know much about how well Cano, Ellsbury, and Granderson each rate in the field.
FWIW, Cano has won a couple fielding Grammys in the last four years.
I haven't seen much baseball the last 2-3 years. (Maybe more like the last 4-5 years.) And I haven't really even been following that closely overall. So maybe someone can help out and explain why is it that everyone seems to be talking about Pujols as though he'll never be any good again? I'll grant you that no one would sign him to a 10-year deal today, and he hasn't been great with the Angels, but I wouldn't completely bet against him yet.
The foot injury and knee surgery don't bode well. Assuming his 1.5 rWAR last year represented the season perfectly, he's projected for 3.6 rWAR next year. A four win season puts next season at only a mild overpay.
Sure it doesn't bode well, but I guess I just look at someone like David Ortiz, who had a significant wrist injury back in 2008, had 0 fWAR in 2009, and has averaged 3-4 fWAR since then. I know the contract looks a lot worse now, but I feel like in addition to evaluating the contract, people seem to just be writing Pujols off as a player entirely.
The hunt for new gift ideas for my brother and his GF is on. I was making them stained glass things - an air force logo for him and medic blue star thing for her. "Was" being the keyword. I ended up smashing the glass in a fit of rage.
Did you yell "Hulk Smash!!" just before the smash? Sounds like it was a stressful project or that glass is fragile. Maybe both.
It's frustrating as shit to not have things cooperate with me even though I was doing everything right. The scores on the glass were deep enough, but the breaks would just veer off and leave the piece short and mis-shapen. On top of that, I have very little money to get them anything (money in general has been a big point of stress for about 2 years now), so I was trying to do something handcrafted (read: cheap, yet the appearance that I give a shit). Every bad break just wasted glass and threw money down the drain and it was starting to get to me. So I slammed the big 12"x12" sheet into the work table and left.
I went back to try to salvage the glass, and found enough pieces big enough and in the right shape I could still make it work if everything went well. About two more pieces into it, sure enough, piece broke off about 1/2" short of where I needed it to. So I took all the fragments and slammed them into the trash one at a time.
That sucks. I often get impatient with stuff like that, too.
Still that upset about Ghana?
Impossible Germany, Unlikely Ghana.
K-Love to miss Heat game this weekend due to the death of his grandmother.
B1G trivia:
You may know that Maryland and Rutgers are joining in 2014, but another school will also be joining the conference as an "affiliate member" in 2014. Can you name it?
Two schools have higher listed enrollments than the cities in which they are located. Can you name them?
Michigan was won the most B1G tiltes with 366. Which school is second?
The B1G stated with seven schools, Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin. Chicago dropped out in 1946. One of other six also dropped out but returned later. Can you name it?
Not counting football, which B1G school has won the most National Championships?
There's a Grey Goose commercial on Hulu that claims it's made with only two ingredients and fails to specify what those two are. I assume they mean wheat and water, but that won't get you vodka. Neither will just water and yeast, nor wheat and yeast. There are at least 3 ingredients to any liquor.
Depends on how high your moisture is in your starting fermentable material, Mags. Grapes and yeast do a pretty good job with just the two ingredients.
But yeah, that commercial is just wrong. They obviously have wheat, yeast and water. I'd guess they're also adding enzymes of some sort (wikipedia says yes), but they wouldn't have to if they had enough fermentation time. Probably also some anti-bacterial ingredients, but again, maybe not.
I guess I mentally draw a distinction between distilling liquor and fermenting wine, probably because I know next to nothing about making wine. I had no idea you could do it without extra water, though it does make sense now that you mention it. Thanks for the little tidbit.
Can we all just call a moratorium on commercials that hype vodka as an elite lifestyle choice? I mean, c'mon. The stuff is just everclear. Who cares what it is distilled from (as long as its ethyl, not methyl) when it is "distilled four times" or whatever. The two ingredients are Everclear and water.
Why drink vodka when the world has whiskey and gin?
This.
THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.THIS.This.
Somebody hasn't had really good vodka.
Apparently I haven't, either. Even the Goose just sort of left me with 'eh'.
What am I doing wrong?
apparently, there's science and stuff.
That's cool - I retract 94 "This's". I still prefer whiskey & gin to vodka, but may have to spring for a decent bottle. I'm sure the local bottle shop has some Phillips on hand. 😉
more of a general point from me, but there is A LOT of liquor advertisements on tv. And at like 8 in the morning. Im probably treading towards forbidden zone area, but I find it a bit disturbing.
*headdesk*
Man, I can't just let this sit. It irks that someone so well attuned to nuance would be so dismissive of a product with nuance at its core. Doc, if you ever come through Madison, you have a standing invitation to come to my place for a horizontal vodka tasting. We'll see if we can't get you to appreciate the difference between corn, wheat, potato, and grape sourced vodkas, or the regional variations that characterize Scandinavian from Polish, Russian from American, etc.
Someday, CH. But note that I was mostly GOMLing about the bullshit marketing campaigns.
Still, I am...suspicious. even highly trained "experts" have a hard time saying anything credible about wines when blind tasted in opaque cups. And wine has a lot more going on than vodka.
I don't doubt that one can distinguish between crap vodka and non-crap. But subtler distinctions? I would need to be convinced. Tell me where to start!
Whilst in Ireland a year back, we went to Bushmills for a tour. They've been making it the same way for 400 years. 3 ingredients - guess.
The main difference from Scotch is that it is triple distilled, and they don't add have the added smokiness process.
As a rule, do not mix with anything else, but you have a separate glass of water alongside your Irish whisky.
I thought Irish whiskey was designed to be used in hot toddys and coffee?
The smokiness in Scotch comes from the kilns in which they dry the grain to stop the germination process. Scotch malt is dried in an open kiln, which allows the peat to smoke up, where as the closed kiln of Irish malt keeps the smoke from forming.
Don't get too excited AMR, it's just a rumor.
Ooh, he's long been one of Sheenie's favorites. When he was in AAA in the Astros system, we were at a New Orleans game sitting above the visitor's dugout. I mentioned to Sheenie that as a woman in her early 20's, she could easily get a baseball if she just paid attention to had one at the end of the inning and asked for it. Sure enough, Buck tossed her the ball after an inning ending strikeout a few minutes later.
And we'll find out tomorrow night! (Wrong Buck?)
Hope it becomes fact!
That'd be even better than Anthony!
/Checks BR.com
Let's hope it happens and that his NL years were just an abberation resulting from playing for the Marlins, Mets, and Pirates.
Yankees sign Beltran. 3 years, $45 million. Ellsbury, Beltran, Gardner, ICHIRO!, Wells, Soriano. Who's going to play infield besides Captain Dreamboat?
Move Soriano back to 2nd
The question is, with Cap'n Dreamboat at short and Soriano at second, would both win fielding Grammys?
Trade them Dozier for... never mind, I looked at their prospects. They ain't giving up Sanchez, and he's the only one I really want.
They did sign Brendan Ryan. Maybe Soriano will move back to second.
I really wanted to like PSLCB, but that went out the window.
Eff. I liked Beltran. I hate it when guys I like become Yankmes.
On the bright side, it won't be as hard to cheer for Granderson again.
Once a Yankee...
gonna be a long three years for Hughes.
Was for Pavano, wasn't it?
This is one of the many bright sides to Cano leaving, too.
Me too.
Think we made it to about 300 LTE on the day.
Wait, that was just me catching up on yesterday.