I once rented a Nissan Versa Hatch. It wasn't very responsive, didn't handle well, and isn't very pretty...but I had never owned a Hatch back before and what I liked immediately about the little Versa, was that, despite it's size, it was a very versatile vehicle. I took 4 adults (myself and 3 others) out to dinner in it and we were comfortable. Now all the people I know are fairly short...I'm sure 6+ footers would have had problems squeezing in, so if you're that size ignore the "comfortable" part. A few days later, I folded down the back seats and packed the little hatch up with car parts...including an exhaust system for an SRT-4. There would be no way I could have gotten all that into the car I was driving at the time (2000 Buick Regal GS) despite the fact that the Versa was almost twice as small.
That short stint with the Versa Hatch drew me towards owning a hatch when my GS was totaled. In my younger days, I was all about, "yea, but how fast is it." Now I'm a lot more "rounded" in my choice of vehicles (at least on my daily driver). The GS was a very comfortable car, especially on long trips, and had reasonably quick acceleration thanks to a few common mods to the Supercharged 3800 (smaller SC pulley, 3" downpipe, reprogramed ECU). Although still a "boat," it handled fairly well thanks to slightly wider tires, stiffer springs/struts, and larger sway bars.
When the GS was totaled by an accident, I stumbled upon an 2007 A3 Audi and test driving it, fell in love with the handling. Although my GS would have beat it in a drag race, the nimbleness and responsiveness of the A3 was light years better than the handling of the GS. Being a hatch, it was every bit as versatile as the Versa, but the driving experience was so much better. The interior of the A3 was every bit as comfortable as the Buick. It was a luxury small car....common in Europe, but rare here.
I loved driving the A3. Volkswagen's DSG is a beautiful thing...the best compromise between a manual shifting control and not having to use a clutch in traffic. We even took it on a 2000+mile trip into Canada and back...4 people and luggage. Just under 30 miles/gallon average for the trip (including a 90+ mph stint following a caravan of hi-end SUVs that took up almost an entire tank. One-by-one the SUVs had to leave the caravan for fuel). We all felt it was a pretty good trip car despite it's small size.
So why the title of this article?
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
It's March
And that means the big dance starts on Thursday (technically it starts on Tuesday with the play in games, but does anyone not involved in those schools care?). This weekend is when all the craziness happens and this year a lot of sportscasters are predicting the tourney to be crazier than most.
Recently, we've had three have been the craziest ever (in terms of lower seeds making the Final Four. 2011 when Uconn (3), Kentucky (4), Butler (8), and VCU (11) made the Final Four and 2006 when the Final Four was UCLA (2), Florida (3), LSU (4), and George Mason (11). If you add up the totals of the ranks of the 4 teams, 2011 (26) and 2006 (20) are the #1 and #3 highest (1980 had Louisville (2), Iowa (5), Purdue (6) and UCLA (8), a total of 21). The lowest ever? 2008, the one and only time all four #1s made the Final Four (Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, UCLA). If I had my old sports blog up I could have pointed you to the article where I predicted that Final Four...you're just going to have to take my word for it. I also took Kansas to win it all, but that was a homer pick...one that just happened to be right.
I like Kansas again this year. Yea, I know two weeks ago I was going crazy over how inconsistent the Jayhawks have been, but they've gone out and won the Big 12 tourney since then. They are also returning four seniors from a team that lost the championship game to Kentucky last year. The lone freshman, SG Ben McLemore leads the Jayhawks in scoring. The big loss from last season was PF Thomas Robinson, but his backup from last season, Kevin Young has stepped in nicely. Young and C Whithey aren't as adept as scoring one-on-one as Robinson was, but the two post players have a nice inside game between them. There were several pretty feeds from Young to Whithey in the Big 12 Finals game. In winning the Big 12 tourney they had to go through Kansas State and Iowa State, both teams making the big dance (4 and 10 in the West). I like K-state's chances of making the Sweet 16, but both teams are likely to fall to Ohio State.
While this has been one of the crazier seasons I can remember, after looking at things I still believe the cream will rise to the top. While I think the #1s may be vulnerable, the #2s have a great shot.
Recently, we've had three have been the craziest ever (in terms of lower seeds making the Final Four. 2011 when Uconn (3), Kentucky (4), Butler (8), and VCU (11) made the Final Four and 2006 when the Final Four was UCLA (2), Florida (3), LSU (4), and George Mason (11). If you add up the totals of the ranks of the 4 teams, 2011 (26) and 2006 (20) are the #1 and #3 highest (1980 had Louisville (2), Iowa (5), Purdue (6) and UCLA (8), a total of 21). The lowest ever? 2008, the one and only time all four #1s made the Final Four (Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, UCLA). If I had my old sports blog up I could have pointed you to the article where I predicted that Final Four...you're just going to have to take my word for it. I also took Kansas to win it all, but that was a homer pick...one that just happened to be right.
I like Kansas again this year. Yea, I know two weeks ago I was going crazy over how inconsistent the Jayhawks have been, but they've gone out and won the Big 12 tourney since then. They are also returning four seniors from a team that lost the championship game to Kentucky last year. The lone freshman, SG Ben McLemore leads the Jayhawks in scoring. The big loss from last season was PF Thomas Robinson, but his backup from last season, Kevin Young has stepped in nicely. Young and C Whithey aren't as adept as scoring one-on-one as Robinson was, but the two post players have a nice inside game between them. There were several pretty feeds from Young to Whithey in the Big 12 Finals game. In winning the Big 12 tourney they had to go through Kansas State and Iowa State, both teams making the big dance (4 and 10 in the West). I like K-state's chances of making the Sweet 16, but both teams are likely to fall to Ohio State.
While this has been one of the crazier seasons I can remember, after looking at things I still believe the cream will rise to the top. While I think the #1s may be vulnerable, the #2s have a great shot.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Google Street View Cars
In this article from Time, Did Google Get Off Easy With $7 Million "Wi-Spy" Settlement? the author, Sam Gustin, highlighted privacy concerns over Google's street view cars. Some states have even sued Google for the data these cars collected, calling it "Wi-Spy."
If you didn't know, Google's street view cars...the ones with the 360 degree camera on top that gives you those "Like I'm standing right there" pictures in Google Maps...also collects Wi-Fi data. According to the article, Google collected browser activity, email traffic, and shockingly, medical and financial records.
What I don't understand is why Google is getting hit with a law suite for this...and in my opinion they are being very generous for willing to give up $7 million, because I don't think they did anything wrong. Google didn't hack into any networks or steal anyone's accounts...the info they gathered was via open Wi-Fi networks. That means, either 1) people were connecting to financial and medical websites from open Wi-Fi at places like Star Bucks. 2) People were connecting to financial/medical websites over an unencrypted home network. 3) Businesses were conducting their daily activities over an unencrypted website, which is alarming.
I don't see how any of those scenarios are Google's fault. If there's a lawsuit to be made it would be against any company that's doing business over an open Wi-Fi network. I don't know if there was any data collected via #3 above....I'm betting it was primarily 1 & 2...in which case those people were being either ignorant or ignoring the risks.
In the article, Connecticut Attorney General, George Jepsen, said, “Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers.” The key word there is "reasonable." In my book, if you expect your data to remain private while using an open Wi-Fi network, that's not reasonable.
Google wasn't trying to do anything sneaky and to do what Google did doesn't require any special skills or equipment. You could do it by just driving around in your car with your wireless laptop running any of several freeware programs that will allow you to see any unencrypted wireless traffic....I know I've done it in the past. Heck, at times I've just sat on my deck and picked up a few unsecured networks.
In the settlement, Google is supposed to ... sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information''... I honestly don't know why that should be Google's responsibility.
I admit that Google has done some questionable behavior in the past, I just don't see this as one of them.
If you didn't know, Google's street view cars...the ones with the 360 degree camera on top that gives you those "Like I'm standing right there" pictures in Google Maps...also collects Wi-Fi data. According to the article, Google collected browser activity, email traffic, and shockingly, medical and financial records.
What I don't understand is why Google is getting hit with a law suite for this...and in my opinion they are being very generous for willing to give up $7 million, because I don't think they did anything wrong. Google didn't hack into any networks or steal anyone's accounts...the info they gathered was via open Wi-Fi networks. That means, either 1) people were connecting to financial and medical websites from open Wi-Fi at places like Star Bucks. 2) People were connecting to financial/medical websites over an unencrypted home network. 3) Businesses were conducting their daily activities over an unencrypted website, which is alarming.
I don't see how any of those scenarios are Google's fault. If there's a lawsuit to be made it would be against any company that's doing business over an open Wi-Fi network. I don't know if there was any data collected via #3 above....I'm betting it was primarily 1 & 2...in which case those people were being either ignorant or ignoring the risks.
In the article, Connecticut Attorney General, George Jepsen, said, “Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers.” The key word there is "reasonable." In my book, if you expect your data to remain private while using an open Wi-Fi network, that's not reasonable.
Google wasn't trying to do anything sneaky and to do what Google did doesn't require any special skills or equipment. You could do it by just driving around in your car with your wireless laptop running any of several freeware programs that will allow you to see any unencrypted wireless traffic....I know I've done it in the past. Heck, at times I've just sat on my deck and picked up a few unsecured networks.
In the settlement, Google is supposed to ... sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information''... I honestly don't know why that should be Google's responsibility.
I admit that Google has done some questionable behavior in the past, I just don't see this as one of them.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Jayhawks, Anquan Boldin, and Denny Hamlin
OK, I admit this is probably the three most unrelated sports things I could be putting into one post, but it's the three things that caught my attention over the past week.
''I don't want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our generation five cars. This is more like what the generation five was at the beginning. The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you.”
As far as I can tell NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is getting fined $25k for saying the above quote...are you kidding me? That is what NASCAR feels are "disparaging remarks" or "denigrating the racing?" This is like the fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. Everyone can see the truth, but none of the drivers can say anything about it for fear of being punished.
Continuing with the "what are you thinking" theme...what were the Ravens thinking trading Anquan Boldin to the 49ers for a 6th round pick! All Boldin did was lead the Ravens in receiving for the last 3 seasons. In the Super Bowl, he caught 6 passes for 104 yards, 1 TD and made, what I felt, was one of the biggest plays to save the win...the 3rd and 1 catch when Flacco audibled where Bolden out worked 49er DB Carlos Rogers for a 15 yard "jump ball." While it was just a first down and only led to a FG, it keep the drive alive...a drive that took the clock down from 9:47 to 4:19, giving the 49ers only one chance to win the game.
Compare that to the Percy Harvin deal that sent Harvin to Seattle for the Seahawks' #1, #7 in 2013 and a mid-round pick in 2014. Now Percy's a good WR, so I'm not trying to put him down...most out there feel it was a win-win trade for both clubs, but my point is how was Boldin only worth a #6? How does that make Ravens' management look in the wake of Flacco's $120 million deal?
The other thing that boggles my mind is that no other team made the Ravens a better offer. I can't believe that no one was willing to give up a 4th or 5th round pick to get Boldin.
Unless they pick up someone in the off season, the Ravens top two WRs are Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones. Meanwhile, the 49ers will lineup Michael Crabtree and Anquan Boldin...I gotta think the Super Bowl out come would have been different if those were the WRs for their respective clubs.
It you follow this blog long enough you'll find out that my favorite College basketball team is the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks have left me scratching my head. I wasn't sure how this years Jayhawks would fair, but after losing the 2nd game of the season to then #21 Michigan State, I thought, "OK, we're looking at a down year for KU." Then the Jayhawks reel off 18 straight wins, including then #7 Ohio State and #11 Kansas State. Now I'm thinking, "Maybe they can do some damage in March." Then three straight loses, one coming to TCU who has an RPI of 226!!! Thoughts of the Jayhawks going down in flames and leaving the dance early are going through my head. Then six straight wins including then #10 Kansas State and #14 Oklahoma State. But before I could change my mind again, they get blown out this weekend by Baylor. Who are these guys?
''I don't want to be the pessimist, but it did not race as good as our generation five cars. This is more like what the generation five was at the beginning. The teams hadn't figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single-file and you cannot get around the guy in front of you.”
As far as I can tell NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is getting fined $25k for saying the above quote...are you kidding me? That is what NASCAR feels are "disparaging remarks" or "denigrating the racing?" This is like the fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. Everyone can see the truth, but none of the drivers can say anything about it for fear of being punished.
Continuing with the "what are you thinking" theme...what were the Ravens thinking trading Anquan Boldin to the 49ers for a 6th round pick! All Boldin did was lead the Ravens in receiving for the last 3 seasons. In the Super Bowl, he caught 6 passes for 104 yards, 1 TD and made, what I felt, was one of the biggest plays to save the win...the 3rd and 1 catch when Flacco audibled where Bolden out worked 49er DB Carlos Rogers for a 15 yard "jump ball." While it was just a first down and only led to a FG, it keep the drive alive...a drive that took the clock down from 9:47 to 4:19, giving the 49ers only one chance to win the game.
Compare that to the Percy Harvin deal that sent Harvin to Seattle for the Seahawks' #1, #7 in 2013 and a mid-round pick in 2014. Now Percy's a good WR, so I'm not trying to put him down...most out there feel it was a win-win trade for both clubs, but my point is how was Boldin only worth a #6? How does that make Ravens' management look in the wake of Flacco's $120 million deal?
The other thing that boggles my mind is that no other team made the Ravens a better offer. I can't believe that no one was willing to give up a 4th or 5th round pick to get Boldin.
Unless they pick up someone in the off season, the Ravens top two WRs are Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones. Meanwhile, the 49ers will lineup Michael Crabtree and Anquan Boldin...I gotta think the Super Bowl out come would have been different if those were the WRs for their respective clubs.
It you follow this blog long enough you'll find out that my favorite College basketball team is the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks have left me scratching my head. I wasn't sure how this years Jayhawks would fair, but after losing the 2nd game of the season to then #21 Michigan State, I thought, "OK, we're looking at a down year for KU." Then the Jayhawks reel off 18 straight wins, including then #7 Ohio State and #11 Kansas State. Now I'm thinking, "Maybe they can do some damage in March." Then three straight loses, one coming to TCU who has an RPI of 226!!! Thoughts of the Jayhawks going down in flames and leaving the dance early are going through my head. Then six straight wins including then #10 Kansas State and #14 Oklahoma State. But before I could change my mind again, they get blown out this weekend by Baylor. Who are these guys?
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Tracking the Trackers
I've been using a plugin called Ghostery for the last several weeks. It's available for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari...so unless you're using some obscure web browser, there's a Ghostery Plug In that you can use. It's also freeware.
When you go to a website Ghostery pops up a small purple window on the upper right of your browser that instantly lists all the tracking software running on that page. That list will disappear after a few seconds.
Clicking on the Blue Ghost icon will display a drop down menu that will allow you to learn more about the tracker software or even let you block it by moving a simple slider or unchecking a box (depending on the browser). Simple no?
If you're the curious sort, Ghostery also provides you with a more info link on each tracker it finds. Clicking the link takes you to the Ghostery Knowledge Page. There you get a quick description from the company that built the tracker and a link to their website.
If you're also running a script blocker, like I do. Ghostery is perfect for letting you know if any scripts are getting through...after all, if you're blocking all scripts than no tracker software should be detected by Ghostery. Ghostery also helps me figure out what scripts are needed for a site to operate properly (as opposed to the tracking software that Ghostery detects).
So if you just want to know who's doing the tracking and/or want to keep those companies from tracking you, take a look at Ghostery.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Tony Parker, Mike Trout, and Joe Flacco
I'm going to continue with the "three things" theme from last week. This week it's three players from the big three sports...Parker from my favorite NBA team the Spurs, Trout from my favorite MLB team the Angels, and Flacco who just became the highest paid player in NFL history.
Is Joe Flacco worth the contract he got? I would say no, but it's hard to fault the Raven's organization for being willing to pay 120.6 million for 6 years to the QB that just led you to a Super Bowl win.
In an article titled, I'm Worth What I'm Worth, on the Los Angeles Times website, Flacco said "Listen, winning the Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl MVP doesn't make me as valueable as I am." I'm disagreeing with Flacco on that point. If he doesn't win the Super Bowl and the MVP, Flacco doesn't get this contract...I'm positive on that.
Flacco does have a few accomplishments to back him up. He tied Joe Montana for the best TD/INT performance in a playoffs with 11 TDs and 0 INTs. No QB has won a playoff game in his first 5 seasons...except Flacco. No QB has won more road games in the playoffs (6). He is tied with Brady with 9 playoff wins in his first five seasons. He hasn't missed a start and 63 regular season wins is the highest total for any QB over the last 5 years.
On the other hand, Flacco has "only" a 60.2 career completion percentage, never passed for over 4000 yards, and never thrown for more than 25 TDs in a season. In the current passing era, that doesn't put you in the status of top QBs in the league. His TD-to-INT numbers are 102/56. The most surprising thing I saw was that Flacco has never been voted to the Pro Bowl.
Does those last two paragraphs add up to the highest paid NFL player ever? Not in my book. I like the guy, but he's now going to have to face the pressure of living up to that contract.
Is Joe Flacco worth the contract he got? I would say no, but it's hard to fault the Raven's organization for being willing to pay 120.6 million for 6 years to the QB that just led you to a Super Bowl win.
In an article titled, I'm Worth What I'm Worth, on the Los Angeles Times website, Flacco said "Listen, winning the Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl MVP doesn't make me as valueable as I am." I'm disagreeing with Flacco on that point. If he doesn't win the Super Bowl and the MVP, Flacco doesn't get this contract...I'm positive on that.
Flacco does have a few accomplishments to back him up. He tied Joe Montana for the best TD/INT performance in a playoffs with 11 TDs and 0 INTs. No QB has won a playoff game in his first 5 seasons...except Flacco. No QB has won more road games in the playoffs (6). He is tied with Brady with 9 playoff wins in his first five seasons. He hasn't missed a start and 63 regular season wins is the highest total for any QB over the last 5 years.
On the other hand, Flacco has "only" a 60.2 career completion percentage, never passed for over 4000 yards, and never thrown for more than 25 TDs in a season. In the current passing era, that doesn't put you in the status of top QBs in the league. His TD-to-INT numbers are 102/56. The most surprising thing I saw was that Flacco has never been voted to the Pro Bowl.
Does those last two paragraphs add up to the highest paid NFL player ever? Not in my book. I like the guy, but he's now going to have to face the pressure of living up to that contract.
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