I normally pay scant attention to sports but we were invited by a friend to watch the World Cup finals (in HD thank you very much) and drink some adult beverages.  We were happily chatting away, my interest having wained a bit after 120+ minutes of non-scoring ‘action’ when I noticed a quick jump cut and an Italian player flying through the air.

A quick flick of the Tivo remote and the amazing details of the event were reveiled.  Apparently unprovoked, premeditated (he obvioulsy check to be sure the ref. wasn’t watching) and a bit surreal.  This behaviour would not be tolerated in an NHL game, could it possible be acceptable during an event as prestigious as World Cup?  Happily, a line official did witness it and he was tossed.

Zidane must have had one too many balls to head.  He decided, during the final game of a World Cup, as captain of his national team, during his last game with that team, that it was a good idea to head butt an opposing team member.  Despite his illustrious career, whatever other accomplishments he has acchieved, he’ll be remember for this event.  Not exactly the legacy one would strive to leave behind.

Sadly, it seems that the players at the highest levels of professional sports are guilty of violently anti-social behaviour, both on and off the field.  How are these people still employed?  If anyone in the ‘normal world’ head-butted a co-worker on the job they would very likely be immediatly terminated and charged with a crime.  What were the consequences of this holligans actions?  tossed from the game (and some may argue the end of France’s chances to win the Cup).

If this is an example of World Cup play then I’m glad I missed it.

SI.com – 2006 World Cup – Zidane sent off for headbutt in farewell match – Sunday July 9, 2006 7:18PM

So it seems that this idea goes back to the likes of Carnegie (Yes, the guy that built all those libraries) and Roosevelt (Teddy, not Frankin). Whilist these two certainly have a few neurons twitching between their ears the idea of altering the spelling of the English language because ‘it’s too hard to learn’ is clearly targeted at those who smoked way too much weed.

What’s next? Changing our systems of weights and measures so that they are based on a simple base 10 system? Wait… Oh… right.

BTW, get a load of the the woman’s name in the caption in the upper left. Seems like she should start her crusade a bit closer to home.

Push for simpler spelling persists – Boston.com

I love my phone. Ok, so love may be a bit strong but I really, really like my phone. One of the many trécool features is a 0.3M pixel camera. Yes, I know, the 0.3M pixel is pretty pathetic in today’s world of 5-10M pixel cameras but there is no beating this little gem for portability and spontaneity.

I’ve combined this with the mondo-popular Flickr photo sharing service and the new Shozu camphone publishing service. Shozu provides a downloadable application for my (and other) phones that will automatically post my camphone shots to Flickr. It does require an Internet data plan for your phone and since you will love this service to death, an unlimited data plan is recommended. 😉

In addition to uploading pics directly from your phone, it will also download any comments posted on your Flickr pics back to your phone and display them in the album. Sweet.

This is a long introduction to a new feature of my blog, a view of my Flickr photostream on the left sidebar. You can click on any of the images to be transported to my Flickr site and an enlarged version of the pic. The sidebar will display the 3 most recent camphone shots I’ve uploaded with the most recent at the top.

Ain’t technology grand?

Oh well, so much for the public getting any relief from the monopolistic greedlust of the CableCos.  “It’s ComCastic!”… my plump hairy rump.

MediaPost Publications ~LoggedOut~ – Senate Committee Rejects McCain’s A La Carte Cable Provision – 06/29/2006

When are these pompous air-heads (pun intended) over at the cable co’s going to get it?  All I want from them, and all I will EVER pay for, is the delivery of bits.  I will NOT pay more for DVR, or an up-charge for HD content, or a ‘box rental’,  They are a common carrier, remember those? 

Oh, and I refuse to pay more for ‘digital quality’ when it is, at least in my area, inferior to the analog signals and certainly far inferior to OTA HD signals.  That, and I refuse to pay more for something that I know costs them less, per channel, to deliver to me than analog.  And don’t even get me started on ATM fees… 

Until I can have ala carte billing, and pay only for those channels that I actually care about (ESPN Classic?  Please…) my CableCo will get nothing from me but ire.  That is, unless they open the cable plant to competition… Yeah, I thought so.

Techdirt: Cable Guy Says Portals Are Toast

Ok, so I may not have typed it out loud here but I am a huge fan of open standards.  This applies double to any technology that involves communications. 

If a market, any market, is to expand there must be a frictionless way for customers to gain value/enjoyment from the product.  For communications products and services this includes the ability to communicate with the largest number of others with a minimum of fuss.  Silos of technology do not succeed.  Imagine if your Motorola cell phone could only call other Motorola phones; that your TV could only display signals sent by broadcasters using equipment from the same manufacturer; that your Toyota would only burn gas sold by Toyota; you get the picture.

There is an obvious counter-example to this statement; Microsoft.  They have what amounts to a monopoly on the desktop. But even here, the ‘monoculture‘ that has developed brings with it it’s own warts.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is one of those disruptive technologies with tremendous potential.  It is another tenticle of the convergance octopus that is dragging all the entertainment/communications devices in your home into your PC.  I am a user, both personally and professionally.  One of the great promises of VoIP is the ability to extend advanced communications capabilites to your PC,or any device with a network connection for that matter.  But this potential can only be realized if one can actually communicate with others.

Remember way back, two paragraphs ago, when I asked you to imagine what it would be like if you could only call other Motorola cell phone owners?  Well… that’s exactly the type of system that AOL (AIM Phoneline) and Skype have built.

Granted, both of them allow you to answer and make calls to the ‘old phone system’, but neither allow you directly contact users of the other’s service, or any standards based VoIP client.  There are plenty of great examples of VoIP software that leverage the well established standards for VoIP (SIP, IAX, others); ranging from phones (hard and soft) all the way up to complete enterprise-sized phone systems (Asterisk).  Using the legacy phone system as the only common-demoninator is rather like using a word-processor to compose a letter and then writing it out by hand.

Well, this post got a bit out of hand.  I initially wanted only to point you to this review, but it turned into a rant on open standards.  I appologize in perpetuity for my nonlinear thinking. 😉

PCWorld.com – First Look: AIM Phoneline and Skype 2.5