Fire Glen Mason…Now
Biggest Comeback in NCAA Division One Bowl History
Glen Mason’s Biggest Hits (in no particular order):
Purdue at Minnesota in 2001.
Gophers punt the ball to the Boilermakers and Purdue gets the ball deep in its own territory with 19 seconds left. The Boilermakers complete two passes and kick a tying field goal with one second left in regulation. Gophers lose in overtime.
MicronPC.com Bowl in 2000
Minnesota led N.C. State 24-8 at the half, but allowed the Wolfpack to comeback and win the game. The Gophers couldn’t capitalize on a 246-yard rushing game by its running back.
Michigan at Minnesota in 2003.
Gophers were leading 28-7 at the start of the fourth quarter. The team was routing one of the top-ranked teams in the nation. The Wolverines, however, didn’t quit. The Gophers collapse and lose the game despite outrushing Michigan 424 to 92.
Wisconsin at Minnesota in 2005.
Minnesota led the game 34-24, but 1:17 later, the team was only leading by three. A big personal foul penalty led to a Badger touchdown. The Gophers then botched the onside kick, yet the Gophers still recovered the ball at its own 11-yard line (don’t ask). The Gophers couldn’t get a first down. The snap to the punter was bad, yet instead of booting the ball through the endzone to give Wisconsin a safety, the punter tries to save it. The punt is blocked, Badgers recover in the end zone to take the lead. It doesn’t end there. The Gophers fumble the ensuing kickoff, Wisconsin recovers and runs the clock out for the win.
Insight Bowl in 2006.
No team in Division I history has lost in a bowl game after leading by 31 points. Gophers were leading 38-7 at halftime, yet lose the game in overtime.
HD-DVD is dead
It looks like HD-DVD vs Blue Ray battle is pretty much over. A crack has been released that can decrypt HD-DVD movies. As long as Blue-Ray stays secure for a few more months HD-DVD will go the way of the Dreamcast. Once a format is “insecure” studios will see fit to put all their eggs in the other basket, and HD-DVD should die like beta-max. The only thing that could fix this problem is finding a flaw in Blue-Ray. I wonder how much money Sony and Microsoft have invested in a strategy to break the security of the opposing format. If they haven’t, they are fools, being the secure format is a sure fire way to win the latest format battle. Apparently the crack isn’t complete, it lacks the code to extract the keys from memory, so I guess we will have to wait until January 2nd to find out the rest of the story, will HD-DVD movies be posted to the internet, and whether a Play Station 3 is a good investment…
When did you discover that Santa Claus wasn’t real?
A friend of mine, who is a new mother, has decided not to lie to her daughter about the existence of a certain red fur with white trim-wearing fictional character. I often wonder about how new parents, shaping the minds of their tiny children, decide what lies are worth passing on to the next generation. It is amazing the size and veracity of this particular conspiracy, and amazing how much money and energy have been spent on keeping this lie, more than any other “secular” lie. [I say secular because it seems to me the origins of Christmas are more pagan and commercial then Christian] I remember my discovery that it was all bull shit. It was a late night weather report of Christmas eve, you know the one, where they show a cartoon Santa flying around the world on his reindeer driven sleigh. I think it was the candor of the weather reporter that tipped me off, I am not sure, but I remember that cementing the fact that this was all a lie. Why do we do this to ourselves and what would the world look like if we stopped trying to sell our kids secular ideas like this, and even more dangerous ideas with a truly religious basis… Should we tell our children Jesus was real? Probably, should we let them buy into religious thinking at a very young age before they are ready for critical thought? I don’t think so. When did you learn it was all a lie and how did it make you feel… What would the world be like without all these lies? Imagine listening to a little John Lennon later tonight, and not thinking it is so crazy to live in a world of honesty and critical thought even for the youngest members of our society.
Catch the Last Few Monthes of “The Show”
Lately I’ve been looking forward to “The Show” with Ze Frank everyday.
I first became aware of this guy when he was the opening Speaker at a Conference I attended in 2004… He talked at length about the direction he felt the web and culture in general might be headed. He didn’t even have “The Show” at that point, but I’d come across it a while ago and wasn’t real impressed. I remain a bit skeptical about vlogs (Video Blogs/Podcasts), because there is still a considerable amount of effort/talent needed to pull together decent Video and interesting subject matter everyday, especially as a one man operation. I was never a fan of RocketBoom.com, but I think I’m becoming a fan of “The Show”.
Sadly, Ze has said that he only plans to keep it up for a year. He’ll stop on St. Patrick’s Day 2007. I’m sure there’s plenty of goodness I missed over the past year, but if you want to get in on getting Ze’s take on the latest news stories, now is the time.
Spametry
I received the following poem (spam) a couple of days ago. Does being spam preclude it from being art? Did a human make this? If not can an algorithm be an artist? Are humans anything but complex algorithms? And if they are cannot they too send thousands of people words strung together in a pleasing manner such that they be considered poetry? What if the purpose of said poetry was to sell Viagra?
The poem that evaded the filter follows:
It was not grief, this feeling, although she was nearly overwhelmed with grief — this was a strange, thundery feeling that she couldn’t ever remember having before.
Is it all cut up in that trunk his wife won’t let out of her sight?
Yes, he supposed he had been his own Scheherazade, just as he was his own dream-woman when he grabbed hold of himself and jacked off to the feverish beat of his fantasies.
I think we are all guilty of spam if not in action then at least in thought which in turn moves our hearts. Why, oh why cannot our filters stop what our algorithms create? Perhaps our filters, like Google’s, are less than perfect. Please Google take gmail out of beta and with it improve our souls, our poetry, our hearts… and the strength and duration of our erections.
NRA Graphic Novel
This is a bit bizarre. Go here and download Freedom In Peril, the NRA’s graphic novel on protecting the 2nd Amendment in the United States.
The Pirate Looks at Sixty
Singer/Songwriter Jimmy Buffett celebrates his 60th birthday on December 25th. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jimmy! Like everyone, Buffett will ring in the New Year just six days later. 2006 was a good year for the Margaritaville empire.
Buffett’s 2006 successes include his summer “Party at the End of the World Tour 2006â€, settling a lawsuit against an on-line retailer selling bootlegs and other Buffett themed merchandise, taking a stand over a seal hunting issue, releasing a new album, releasing a Wrigley Field DVD set, and he had a heckuva summer vacation as he again took a month off from touring in July. Hail to the king, baby.
But he is apparently parting ways with Corona sponsorship of his concerts. How can the Head Parrot do this? Apparently he has formed a partnership with Anheuser-Busch to sell Land Shark Lager. It would seem that the exclusivity enjoyed by Corona brewing over all of these years will now be enjoyed by Margaritaville Brewing Co. This will be the name on the label, but the jungle drums are beating and the speculation is that the actual brewing will be out of St. Louis and that the price of Land Shark Lager will be lower than that of Bu and Bud Lite and that it will taste very similar to Corona beer.
An Island girl also told me that Buffet’s 2007 Summer Tour will likely be sponsored by Land Shark Lager.
Keep your ear to the Coconut Telepgraph – this information is subject to change at any time! There was a story posted that you could reach on a Google News search, but it seems that the pirates that be have had Talahassee.com yank the story due to unknown reasons.
Argh! Where’s me grog!
Hack your Verizon RAZR!
Thanks to junkgui, my RAZR is now fully unlocked and I can use Motorola Phone Tools to send MP3s back and forth! junkgui directed me to Hack the RAZR.com to perform SEEM edits to enable the features I so desperately desired. Thanks a million! My ringer is now the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song (With All Your Power)” by The Flaming Lips. Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone!
Flash Developer’s first impressions of Wii’s “Internet Channel”
My Slot was glowing this morning(SFW), and I realized what it was right away. I rolled out of bed and immediately hit the power button on one of my Wiimotes.
I hit the Wii Shop and made my first “purchase” although it’s free for now.
(I have a feeling that the rumors about other free purchases, on Christmas morning are True, because that’s how great Nintendo is)
The download was suprisingly quick, and even before I loaded the Internet Channel up, I had my first location in mind. I went straight to Youtube, and hit Video, to get to the Most Viewed Videos of the Day. Now it wasn’t real easy to read the 10 or 11 point Text without zooming in, but I knew where the link for “Most Viewed Videos of the Week” was, and was able to hit it on my first try. So pointing is accurate and it’s easy to navigate the web with this browser. Within a Minute of opening the Web browser, I was reviewing valuable information about how to give my dick in a box for christmas.
So the next step was to see how site’s I’ve built run on the Wii. This is where I realized something I wasn’t real happy about: The Wii only has Flash Player 7 on it.
I’m sure no body really understands what that means. Basically, the Wii is a little behind the times as far as Flash is concerned, but not much. This version of the Flash Player was released in 2004 and since then we’ve gotten to Flash Player 9 on all normal computer systems, including Mac and Linux.
To be honest, there hasn’t been a lot of new features in the newer versions of flash that most people care about, aside from the one that basically made Youtube possible. Flash 8 has much more robust Video Capabilities that are pushing Real Player and even Windows Media Player into relative obscurity.
Now you are asking: “Wait but you said Youtube Works” and you are right, Flash 7 will play youtube videos, but they don’t look as good or stream as well as when you look at them in Flash 8 or higher on your PC. The Dick in a Box video looked pretty decent on my normal 32 inch TV, but it did get real jaggy when I zoomed in. I’m eager to hook my Wii up to my parent’s HD TV later and see what videos and small text look like on there.
Overall, I’m really excited about the Internet Channel and I’d bet I’ll be using it on a somewhat regular basis, if only as a novelty act. It did load webpages as fast as an average PC, it was easy to use and is fun to look at the internet on your TV.
Lastly, after seeing the Wii Browser (I still think they should have named it “Web Bowser”) I realized that I could create a simple yet fun game in Flash Player 7 for the Wii, and I’ll give it and 8n5 theme.
Can Someone tell me/give me the font you used in the Logo?