Craiglist vs Ebay - Round 1...

Planning on moving to the west coast in June. Wanting to downsize and sell a bunch of our stuff. Trying Ebay and Craiglist. In 4 days the tally is Ebay = $55 and Craiglist = $300.

The Zen of Typing...

The #1 thing that I learned in high school which has helped me be a more productive worker and human being was TYPING. The ability to type close to 100 words per minute has helped my productivity a heck of alot more than knowing the difference between sine and cosine or the square root of 122,463.

But the most important life lesson from typing - The harder you try not to make errors, the more errors will be made and the slower you will type. Moral of the story - stop thinking and don't be afraid to fail, and you will succeed better-faster. That grasshopper, is The Zen of Typing.

5 Commandments for a New BCS...

1. THOU SHALL PLAY IN A CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP.
1a. Every major conference should have 12 teams and play a championship game.
1b. This would also make room for the little guys and ND as the Big East, Big 10 (?whatever), and Pac 10 would be adding 8 teams b/w them.
1c. Therefore 8 games of a 12 game season would be intra-conference.

12 teams would ensure more competition, and a championship game would effectively be the first round of a playoff as well as ensure that a BIG 10 or PAC 10 or BIG EAST Championship is of the same value as a SEC or BIG 12 or ACC Championship .


2. THOU SHALL PLAY AT LEAST 2 REAL NON CONFERENCE GAMES.
2a. All teams should play at least 2 non conference games against a major conference school. In fact It would be cool if...
2b. Conferences paired up for inter-conference games- PAC 10 vs SEC; BIG 12 vs BIG ?WHATEVER; and ACC vs BIG EAST.
2c. Subdivision could go further where an ACC SOUTH plays a BIG EAST SOUTH
2d. One game is a fixed opponent every year for cool rivalries (how about a Texas vs Ohio State EVERY YEAR!!!).
2e. One game rotates b/w the rest of sub conferences, ie in a 5 year period UFLA would have played every team in the PAC 10 SOUTH. Rotating home and away.
2e. 2 games of a 12 game schedule would be real matchups.

This would eliminate all the "my conference can beat up your conference" bullcorn. Plus It would also add 2 real (mini-playoff type) games to everyones schedule.

3. THOU CAN STILL BEAT UP ON THE SMALL SCHOOL.
3a. The school schedules remaining 2 games of a 12 game schedule where OHIO STATE is free to play it's annual 2 games against University of Ohio and Miami of Ohio.
3b. Or they could schedule other major non-conference outside of their inter-conference pairing, think LSU vs VA TECH.

This gives the big guys a good homecoming game and still gives the little guys a good payout and every once in a while Louisiana-Monroe will beat Alabama.

4. THOU SHALL RETURN TO TRADITION.
4a. Bowls will return to traditional matchups. ROSE is PAC10 Champ vs BIG ?WHATEVER Champ; SUGAR is SEC Champ vs BIG EAST (right?); ORANGE is BIG 12 vs ACC; FIESTA can be 2 HIGHEST RANKED TEAMS REMAINING (the hot teams).
4b. To ensure that there's no repeat of games from the regular season the pairings in Commandment#2 above should be different than bowl tradition, ie PAC 10 should play 2 games against any conference other than the BIG ?WHATEVER.
4c. All bowl games shall be played by Jan 2.
4d. On top of it all every "BCS" bowl game would have meaning other than for your uncle Larry's New Year's Day football pool.

This becomes your second round of playoffs. You'd have a much clearer 1 and 2 picture with conference champs playing each other as well as better non-conference play, and all the other guys can still have the Poulan Weedeater Bowls of the world.

5. THOU SHALL THEN HAVE A PLUS 1 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
5a. A true, almost indisputable 1 vs 2.
5b. Location doesn't have to be locked into a bowl game city. Anyone interested in January in Minneapolis?
5c. The championship game should be played within 2 weeks of the last bowl game - by Jan 16.


What do you think?

The Computer is Dead...

I was in a training class for Web 2.0 Basics when the instructor asked what was the definition of a computer. He said Microsoft sees a computer as anything with an operating system and Google sees the computer as something to that does searches. To extend that, Apple probably sees the computer as a media device; Nokia sees a computer as a mobile phone and maybe Cisco sees the computer as anything that connects to the internet.

Is the computer is dead? If not dead, than it definitely has a terminal disease (pun intended, get it?) Everything is a computer, but the only true thing that the normal Jane sees as a computer is her laptop or desktop. How soon before the laptop is obsolete? You already can do almost anything that you do on your laptop with your cell phone or your ipod or your tivo or your xbox.

My bold prediction - in 10 years we will no longer be using "computers"; we will be using other devices with other names that have an operating system, does searches, entertains us, is mobile and is connected to the internet. Heck, we already are.

Long Live the Computer...

According to wikipedia.org, A computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

Based upon that definition, if Bubba from "Forrest Gump" was a real person and had a passion for computers like he does shrimp, he's list of computers would be: "Desktop Computer, Laptop Computer, Handheld Computer, Cell Phone Computer, iPod Computer, Tivo Computer, Digital Camera Computer, DVD Player Computer, XBOX Computer..."

Those are the easy ones, but what about other stuff with Computers in them; everyday items. Bubba continues - "Car Computer, Telephone Computer, TV Computer, Refrigerator Computer, Toaster Computer (yes, my toaster has a computer chip in it), Coffee Maker Computer, Dishwasher Computer, Baby Doll Computer, Cieling Fan Computer, Underwear Computer (it's possible)..."

As computer chips get smaller and cheaper, everything can be computerized. Do you think of everything around you as a computer or only that that big ugly box under your desk? What's your definition of computer? Long Live the Computer...