Those Crazy Referees, eh?

I love putting together a good list. The recent news about NBA referee Tim Donaghy has me thinking, "even if he wanted to, how much could an NBA referee influence the outcome of a game?" This lead me to come up with...

The Top 7 Sports Where Officials Have the MOST Influence

(1) Soccer - No other game has one person under such complete authoritarian tight-fisted control. Not even the score clock is immune from his ultimate control. There is only one chief referee. He (or she) controls the score clock, may overrule the assistant referees with a wave of the arm, and toss a player at any time for "ungentlemanly conduct". The referee can also award a penalty kick, which is virtually like awarding a goal. Given that many games end up scoreless, this means the referee could easily hand over a win to a team with just one call.

(2) Baseball - This is another game with one Uber-Boss: the Home Plate Umpire. This person's opinion determines the duration of your "at bat". He could call you out on three straight pitches, he could keep your at bat alive for more, increasing your chances for success. His personal strike zone could be large (favouring the pitcher), or scant (favouring the batter). Disagree with his opinion? By all means, express your displeasure, but be prepared to watch the rest of the game from the stands.

(3) Hockey - Finally a sport with two referees, both with equal power (although, technically, one is in charge). The NHL has adapted with the times, upping the number to two referees to compensate for an increasingly fast game. It's embraced technology: a ref may chat with a "video referee" for a second opinion. But either ref can still substantially influence a game if he dishes out power-plays willy-nilly. A disproportionate amount of power-plays gives a team a clear chance of winning. Blow a bunch of calls, you've effectively handcuffed the better team from winning.

(4) Football - Sometimes it seems there are more officials than players out there. So aren't the chances of officiating influence watered down? No way. The side judge can easily whip out his penalty hanky and confiscate a touchdown, even if undeserved. A team approaching the "red zone" can be pushed away with a few select "procedure" calls; a field goal try turns into a punt. But football teams do have a better chance at fighting through bad calls. You still do get multiple downs, and the video replay system is the best in pro sports.

(5) Basketball - Due to the sheer amount of referees, and the torrid pace of scoring, blowing one, or even five calls, is not likely to significantly give the edge to a woefully inferior team. Players can foul out, but coaches use bench management to work around this. Its possible, but not likely that a ref could hand victory to an unlikely team.

(6) Chuckwagon Racing - the barrel is either up, or it has been knocked down. The outrider is either inside the 150 foot line or outside. No referee could blow this call. Nuff said.

(7) Miss Hawaiian Tropics Swimsuit Pageant - who cares about the judging.

What was the title of famed NHL referee Red Storey's autobiography? "Black and White and Never Right".

Patience is a virtue.

"Good things come to those that wait."

These are my two mantras that I repeat to myself as I watch use my PowerBook G4 chug along. What used to be a screaming fast machine now doesn't meet the minimum requirements for some of the newer apps that have caught my fancy. So, I have come to a cross-roads: do I wait for the new iMac, or do I go to Memory Express and scoop up a fiery piece of machinery now. Yes, I realize that the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines have been regularly updated, but we've decided to go with a desktop as our main family PC.

So what's my plan? What I'm going to do is hold out until September. I will stay with Apple if these two conditions are met:

(1) The iMac is aggressively updated. Quad Core not necessary, but 256MB PCI-E graphics card standard, Superdrive standard, 500MB HD standard, and a wide screen display should also be standard. 4:3 is sooooo nineties.

(2) Price point is around $1500. This is the price of my dream machine at Memory Express.

(3) 802.11N is an absolute MUST.

Nice to have: toss in a "certificate" for a free upgrade to iLife 08, if it ever comes out. Apple, you really dropped the ball on this one, you should really throw us casual Mac users a bone.

Nice to have: wireless keyboard/mouse.

The only thing I would miss about leaving the Mac world is GarageBand. There really is no equivalent. My 8 year-old even whips up tunes, sometimes they're actually funny. I can't imagine him using "Reason", pretty sophisticated tool, that.

But, patience is a virtue. Let's see what Apple offers up this summer, if anything at all.

About Software Piracy

"According to the IDC, software piracy worldwide was nearly $40 billion in 2006. For every two dollars' worth of software purchased legitimately, 1 dollar's worth was obtained illegally." This is what TechTarget.com writes in advertising one of its offerings in its July set of white papers.

This is one of those polluted statistics that gets recklessly tossed around, but has no real basis. Yes, it is a problem. Yes, it should be reigned in. But lets put some integrity behind the measurement. Putting all forms of ill-gotten software in the same bucket is good for boosting numbers, but poor for getting a true picture on the problem.

All of the below is software piracy:

- A Mom buys a $15 "learn to spell" PC game for her 5 year-old, lets a friend borrow it and install it.

- A curious avid bit torrent user downloads a $60,000 piece of specialized medical imaging software just to see what its like. He installs it, checks it out, deletes it. At the end, he says to himself, "Gee, neat!"

- A small welding shop has 3 workstations equipped with Windows XP and MS Office. The MS Office software is downloaded and unlicensed.

Let's state now that all of the above scenarios are not legal, and are clear cases of copyright infringement. Bad. However, one of the above is a business generating revenue from business equipment that has not been paid for. Recall the earlier $40 billion dollar figure. If this goes down to $30 billion, can we determine why? Are aloof bit torrent downloaders merely directing their attention elsewhere? Are software license crackdowns working? Are large-scale businesses remembering to license all of their software? If you lump 'em all together, you just don't know.

The IDC's loosey-goosey formula

Some loosey-goosey terms

Its a better litmus test on our driving if we show how many reckless driving charges there are in 2007, versus how many total vehicle citations were issued. Lumping the criminally negligent reckless driver in with the guy cited for going 15 over on the Freeway doesn't give me a clear picture of how people are driving. I hope this parallel isn't too far off to show my point.

I get the feeling that the guys coming up with these piracy figures has a vested interest in coming up with the highest possible number.

Be Kind to Your Kind

This is one of those ramblings where I’m dead sure that most would disagree strongly. But, who knows, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised and one or two people can join me in this movement.
During the Stampede, the animal rights people get a little higher profile. Their message is clearly making some ground; the Stampede Rodeo has changed “calf roping” to “tie-down roping”, along with a few other animal friendly rule changes. The result is that the animals are getting some better treatment.

The other day, I happened to drive past the City’s new animal shelter building, new, state-of-the-art, expensive building. The animals get first class treatment, plenty of food, clean kennels, veterinary treatment, and an adoption service.

What does not compute is that we’re pouring all this money, attention, and generosity towards ANIMALS. You may find this surprising, but animals are NOT people. Did we somehow forget that animals are not actual persons? With all the movies out there about talking cows (Barnyard), human-like wolves (Hoodwinked), or wise-cracking raccoons (Over the Hedge), did we lose sight of this?

I hereby propose we shut down the Animal Shelter effective immediately. We also should not fund the Humane Society, not for one second longer. Let’s take all this cash and aim it towards kids. Give every disadvantaged kid a modestly valued Christmas gift. Let every kid participate in a sport of his or her choosing by covering the cost, equipment included. Have every kid sleep inside. Make it so every kid eats. Is this too bizarre for everyone? The concept is kids = people, animals != people.

Generally speaking, I propose that we be “kind to our kind”. In 2005, the US spent more on pets, $34.4 billion, than they did on toys. We spent $14.7 billion spent on pet food while some dirty-faced kid plays with garbage as a toy.

But it’s a free country. We are free to seek companionship from an animal, give one a name, treat it like a child. All this is legal, and considered normal. Unfortunately, its also considered normal to have families sleep in a 1982 Chevette.

Flames Training Camp Cancelled

I have it here, the new lines for the 2007-08 Calgary Flames. So, there should be no need to hold training camp come September. Here is the depth chart for the upcomming season:

Forwards
Tanguay Langkow Iginla
Huselius Conroy Nolan
Nilson Lombardi Moss
Friesen Primeau Boyd

Defense
Phaneuf Regehr
Aucoin Sarich
Hale Warrener
Giordano Ri. Regehr

Goaltender
Kiprusoff
Krahn


.... you're welcome.

Fending For Myself, Will I Survive?

So, I bundled up the wife and kids and shipped them down to the Farm. They'll hang out there for a couple weeks while the oldest boy tackles swim camp. This means I get the house to myself for the next little while. But after I watched the car drive off, I turned around and was ... well ... lost. What the hell do I do now?

In the pre-kids era, I would have found absolutely no difficulty in finding something to get into, something to work on. Now, is absolutely mind boggling how much these two little monsters take over your life. The slogan used to be "looking out for number one", but now I'm easily a distant third. It takes one moment, like being alone in the house, to make this concept clear. This must be how those wacky salmon feel when they swim up the Fraser River to spawn. It's not in their best interest to do this, they will die. But, they do it anyway for the kids, kids they'll never see. At least they don't have to worry about report cards, terrible two's, and buying a mini-van. mmmmmm.... salmon (Homer voice).

Luckily, I do have a fair bit of shows that I zapped on the trusty ol' PVR, a huge backlog of CSI; and the honeymoon period on the HDTV has not subsided yet, which is surprising. I'll also try to recapture my previous mastery of the art of taking a nap. But, in the end, I'll probably end up doing something kid related, like assembling that wood play center for the backyard, or something like that.

But the first thing to do is figure out how that darn washing machine works...