Those who know me are probably stunned by the title of this entry. McNabb is not just my favorite player on the Philadelphia Eagles, he is my favorite player in the NFL.
But the time has come to trade him... and not for the reasons the Philadelphia media and fans want you to believe.
Since the day the Eagles drafted McNabb, the city of Philadelphia has had it in for Donovan. Recall that the highly touted Ricky Williams entered the draft that same year, and Eagles fans wanted the running back desperately. By drafting McNabb, Andy Reid sent the clear message that he did not care one iota what the fans thought was the best thing to do... and they booed loud and long at the grievous betrayal.
The fans, especially in Philadelphia, know best.
Since then all McNabb has done is become the greatest quarterback in the history of the franchise. There is absolutely no argument any sane person can make to the contrary.
But every Philadelphian was lying in wait... biding their time, determined to find a way to prove themselves correct.
Never mind that since then Ricky Williams became the NFL's best recognized holistic healer. Never mind that once McNabb threw 4 TD passes on a broken ankle. Never mind that McNabb took the Eagles to 4 straight NFC championship games and the 2nd Super Bowl in team history (one a lot closer than the first one). Never mind that McNabb handled the T.O. disaster during the season last year with as much quiet dignity as one can muster in such a situation.
Nope. None of that matters. He needs to be traded.
Why? Not because of the things he said in the now infamous interview earlier this week. Not because he threw out a couple of doozy one liners that, when read on paper, sound a lot worse than they really were when spoken out loud (after all, McNabb has always been a bit of a joker, and you can see him smiling when making some of those comments if anybody bothers to watch the video footage). Not because the Philadelphia fans say so and will stop at nothing to prove, even after all these years and all those victories, that they know best.
No, McNabb needs to be traded because I like him too much. I can't stand to see him getting buried like this. As much as it pains me to say it, I want him to play somewhere else. I want him to play in a city that will appreciate what he brings to a team. I want him to play in a city that will wish for his success rather than wait for failure.
I am losing my love for the city of Philadelphia and its idiotic fans, my friends. I am sick and tired of seeing the best players in Philly constantly run out of town. At this point, Eagles fans DESERVE TO LOSE.
There, I said it.
So please, trade McNabb and end this misery.
And while you're at it, please trade Allen Iverson and Bobby Abreu.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Punk Music and the Software Industry
I used to fancy myself something of a punk.
Back when I was 14 or 15, I tried desperately to get into the Denny's eating, green hair, 7-inch listening counter culture that was the punk scene for me. I went to shows headlined by relatively unknown bands, with names like "Plow United" and "The Orphans". I even went to some shows at the local VFW, impaling myself in the mosh pit on that one jerk who always thought it was a good idea to bash into people while wearing a leather jacket covered in metal spikes.
It never really took though, mostly because of the concept of the "sellout" that is so important to punk identity. I'll admit I'm no expert, but it seemed to me that all one needed to do to be labeled a "sellout" was to actually make enough money to be financially secure for more than the next 3 hours.
For this reason, sometimes great bands would become anathema to the "punk" scene the second they signed a record label and were able to eat more than once a day.
The whole "sellout" concept comes from the punk notion that you must be suspicious of all things corporate. Corporations, it is believed, will try to make a band's sound and message have more mainstream appeal, and once something has mainstream appeal, it effectively ceases to be punk. For this reason, "Green Day" is one of the most hated bands on earth for "real punks". Why? Because Green Day, like most bands, started out as a small time operation, releasing a couple of albums that not that many people purchased. Their popularity spread by word of mouth, the way the God of Punk intended.
And then came the album "Dookie", and it was officially all over. They had signed a big record deal, were on MTV and the radio, and were no longer "punk" in any meaningful way. Trust me: as soon as Rolling Stone magazine declares that you are "revolutionizing punk", you have officially lost all street cred you may have once had with the real punk scene.
What does this have to do with the software industry, you ask? For one, there are parallels between the "hacker" community and the punk community:
1) Distrust of government.
2) Distrust of the corporate universe.
3) Distrust of capitalism in general.
4) An idea of a "sellout" which, when identified, must be reviled and mocked.
Microsoft is like Green Day. People forget that Bill Gates was once a young, Harvard dropout, who got his first job by hacking a corporate computer system. But now, Bill has "sold out" almost completely. Microsoft is seen as the enemy of everything from the open source movement to the average user.
Already, whispers are starting to spread about how Google has started down the path of becoming the next Microsoft. There is even a website, called Google Watch, that monitors "Google's monopoly, algorithm, and privacy practices."
What has changed between then and now? As near as I can tell, Green Day pretty much sounds the same now as they did before (heck, they only average 2 or 3 notes per song anyway). As for Google, they still do some pretty cool stuff (like Gmail) and some stuff that seems a ripoff of already available products (like Google Talk).
The only thing that has really changed for Green Day is the size of their fan base and their wallets. The same is true for Google.
Back when I was 14 or 15, I tried desperately to get into the Denny's eating, green hair, 7-inch listening counter culture that was the punk scene for me. I went to shows headlined by relatively unknown bands, with names like "Plow United" and "The Orphans". I even went to some shows at the local VFW, impaling myself in the mosh pit on that one jerk who always thought it was a good idea to bash into people while wearing a leather jacket covered in metal spikes.
It never really took though, mostly because of the concept of the "sellout" that is so important to punk identity. I'll admit I'm no expert, but it seemed to me that all one needed to do to be labeled a "sellout" was to actually make enough money to be financially secure for more than the next 3 hours.
For this reason, sometimes great bands would become anathema to the "punk" scene the second they signed a record label and were able to eat more than once a day.
The whole "sellout" concept comes from the punk notion that you must be suspicious of all things corporate. Corporations, it is believed, will try to make a band's sound and message have more mainstream appeal, and once something has mainstream appeal, it effectively ceases to be punk. For this reason, "Green Day" is one of the most hated bands on earth for "real punks". Why? Because Green Day, like most bands, started out as a small time operation, releasing a couple of albums that not that many people purchased. Their popularity spread by word of mouth, the way the God of Punk intended.
And then came the album "Dookie", and it was officially all over. They had signed a big record deal, were on MTV and the radio, and were no longer "punk" in any meaningful way. Trust me: as soon as Rolling Stone magazine declares that you are "revolutionizing punk", you have officially lost all street cred you may have once had with the real punk scene.
What does this have to do with the software industry, you ask? For one, there are parallels between the "hacker" community and the punk community:
1) Distrust of government.
2) Distrust of the corporate universe.
3) Distrust of capitalism in general.
4) An idea of a "sellout" which, when identified, must be reviled and mocked.
Microsoft is like Green Day. People forget that Bill Gates was once a young, Harvard dropout, who got his first job by hacking a corporate computer system. But now, Bill has "sold out" almost completely. Microsoft is seen as the enemy of everything from the open source movement to the average user.
Already, whispers are starting to spread about how Google has started down the path of becoming the next Microsoft. There is even a website, called Google Watch, that monitors "Google's monopoly, algorithm, and privacy practices."
What has changed between then and now? As near as I can tell, Green Day pretty much sounds the same now as they did before (heck, they only average 2 or 3 notes per song anyway). As for Google, they still do some pretty cool stuff (like Gmail) and some stuff that seems a ripoff of already available products (like Google Talk).
The only thing that has really changed for Green Day is the size of their fan base and their wallets. The same is true for Google.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
New Kids
Disclaimer: This is not about the New Kids on the Block.
Congratulations are in order for Dan (author of Cross Thoughts) and his wife, who had their first child.
Congratulations are also in order for my long time friend Gary, who had welcomed his second child last week.
I've blogged before about kids, sometimes a little critically and sometimes reflectively. My stance on kids for my personal life has not changed one iota... they are about as far off my radar as they could possibly be.
But it is very cool to hear about the new lives coming into the world, and the hope they represent. During the last couple months of 2005, a few of my friends suffered personal losses, many of them losing a parent or another close family member.
So it is nice, at the beginning of 2006, to celebrate birth.
Congratulations are in order for Dan (author of Cross Thoughts) and his wife, who had their first child.
Congratulations are also in order for my long time friend Gary, who had welcomed his second child last week.
I've blogged before about kids, sometimes a little critically and sometimes reflectively. My stance on kids for my personal life has not changed one iota... they are about as far off my radar as they could possibly be.
But it is very cool to hear about the new lives coming into the world, and the hope they represent. During the last couple months of 2005, a few of my friends suffered personal losses, many of them losing a parent or another close family member.
So it is nice, at the beginning of 2006, to celebrate birth.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Wasting Money
With bonus time coming up at work, a lot of talk has revolved around just what toys we'll be wasting our money on.
Since I don't plan on making any "major purchases" (like a new car or something of that magnitude) with my bonus money, I've basically narrowed it down to three things that I don't need, but would be cool to have. I list them now in order of desire:
3) Alienware PC - Absurdly overpriced and overrated, but I've wanted one of these for years. These computers are more than just gaming machines tweaked with largely pointless features and hardware with a huge markup... they are status symbols. I want one of these for the same reason people who like motorcycles want a Harley. You could do quite well buying something else for the amount of money you'll pay, but it won't be the same.
2) Playstation 2 and a host of old games - I made a massive blunder when I purchased an XBox. There's nothing particularly WRONG with the XBox. For the most part I've enjoyed the games I bought. But PS2 would have been an infinitely superior choice for me because of the kinds of games I like to play: RPGs. XBox, even now, has an absolutely anemic RPG library. I've missed out on a bunch of great games in the past several years because I chose to buy an XBox, and now I could snatch them all up for a couple hundred bucks.
1) Mac - For months now I've been saying that the next computer I buy is going to be a Mac. However, I'm not 100% sure I want to pull the trigger on this until the new Intel Macs come out. And then if I'm going to wait that long, maybe I want to wait until the 2nd generation of Intel Macs, when they're sure to have the kinks out... and then if I'm going to wait THAT long, I should just get something else on the list.
Admittedly, trying to make this decision is a nice "problem" to have. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know.
Since I don't plan on making any "major purchases" (like a new car or something of that magnitude) with my bonus money, I've basically narrowed it down to three things that I don't need, but would be cool to have. I list them now in order of desire:
3) Alienware PC - Absurdly overpriced and overrated, but I've wanted one of these for years. These computers are more than just gaming machines tweaked with largely pointless features and hardware with a huge markup... they are status symbols. I want one of these for the same reason people who like motorcycles want a Harley. You could do quite well buying something else for the amount of money you'll pay, but it won't be the same.
2) Playstation 2 and a host of old games - I made a massive blunder when I purchased an XBox. There's nothing particularly WRONG with the XBox. For the most part I've enjoyed the games I bought. But PS2 would have been an infinitely superior choice for me because of the kinds of games I like to play: RPGs. XBox, even now, has an absolutely anemic RPG library. I've missed out on a bunch of great games in the past several years because I chose to buy an XBox, and now I could snatch them all up for a couple hundred bucks.
1) Mac - For months now I've been saying that the next computer I buy is going to be a Mac. However, I'm not 100% sure I want to pull the trigger on this until the new Intel Macs come out. And then if I'm going to wait that long, maybe I want to wait until the 2nd generation of Intel Macs, when they're sure to have the kinks out... and then if I'm going to wait THAT long, I should just get something else on the list.
Admittedly, trying to make this decision is a nice "problem" to have. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Kerfuffle Man of the Year '05
In the proud American tradition of pointless award giving, I present to you the very first Soul Kerfuffle Man of the Year...
Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com.
You're probably passingly familiar with Overstock.com (aka "The Big O"), which is basically an Amazon.com clone with only moderately competitive prices and a reputation for horrible customer service. Their commercials typically involve a blonde woman utilizing some of the many items she has found on "The Big O" in lamely suggestive ways.
You're probably less familiar with the wild antics of Patrick Byrne, however. In the past year, "The Big CEO" has pulled the following stunts:
- Claimed he was both gay and a coke addict to financial analysts
- Claimed that the mob was out to get him and would probably plant drugs and dead bodies in his car
- Appeared on Bloomberg TV to declare to a bewildered investment world that holiday sales were "a tad disappointing" (typically, bad sales are announced via a tightly worded press release)
- Accused a number of people, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, of a conspiracy to short his stock
- Referred to a "Sith Lord" as the leader of said conspiracy
What truly distinguished Dr. Byrne this year was a conference call he held on August 12, wherein he was supposed to be explaining a lawsuit that had been filed in California court on Overstock.com's behalf.
What we got a rambling mental meltdown the likes of which I don't think I've personally ever seen at the CEO level in corporate America. Included were such gems as:
- "On the coke head thing, and by the way, I’ve never, with one exception, I’ve never even seen cocaine in my life so in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not a coke head."
- "Channel B I put information down that I was a coke head. Now my apologies to my gay friends, both within and without, outside the company, I don’t mean to equate the two. I don’t care. I’m a libertarian and I don’t care at all."
- "I acknowledge that he sounded like he lined his hat with tinfoil."
- "So, here's a box I'm going to put some hedge fund folks. I've got to put all the miscreants in the box marked 'miscreant hedge funds'."
And finally...
"As this went on I started realizing that there was actually some more orchestration here being provided, by what I'm calling here is the Sith Lord or the mastermind. Now, can I tell you who that designated bottom feeder was who was supposed to end up with our company? Can I tell you? I can. But I'm not going to today."
It's even better on audio, which you can get here.
Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com.
You're probably passingly familiar with Overstock.com (aka "The Big O"), which is basically an Amazon.com clone with only moderately competitive prices and a reputation for horrible customer service. Their commercials typically involve a blonde woman utilizing some of the many items she has found on "The Big O" in lamely suggestive ways.
You're probably less familiar with the wild antics of Patrick Byrne, however. In the past year, "The Big CEO" has pulled the following stunts:
- Claimed he was both gay and a coke addict to financial analysts
- Claimed that the mob was out to get him and would probably plant drugs and dead bodies in his car
- Appeared on Bloomberg TV to declare to a bewildered investment world that holiday sales were "a tad disappointing" (typically, bad sales are announced via a tightly worded press release)
- Accused a number of people, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, of a conspiracy to short his stock
- Referred to a "Sith Lord" as the leader of said conspiracy
What truly distinguished Dr. Byrne this year was a conference call he held on August 12, wherein he was supposed to be explaining a lawsuit that had been filed in California court on Overstock.com's behalf.
What we got a rambling mental meltdown the likes of which I don't think I've personally ever seen at the CEO level in corporate America. Included were such gems as:
- "On the coke head thing, and by the way, I’ve never, with one exception, I’ve never even seen cocaine in my life so in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not a coke head."
- "Channel B I put information down that I was a coke head. Now my apologies to my gay friends, both within and without, outside the company, I don’t mean to equate the two. I don’t care. I’m a libertarian and I don’t care at all."
- "I acknowledge that he sounded like he lined his hat with tinfoil."
- "So, here's a box I'm going to put some hedge fund folks. I've got to put all the miscreants in the box marked 'miscreant hedge funds'."
And finally...
"As this went on I started realizing that there was actually some more orchestration here being provided, by what I'm calling here is the Sith Lord or the mastermind. Now, can I tell you who that designated bottom feeder was who was supposed to end up with our company? Can I tell you? I can. But I'm not going to today."
It's even better on audio, which you can get here.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The Proverbial Jetpack
Way back in the earlier parts of the last century, Isaac Asimov predicted that just about everybody would have jetpacks.
Some of his predictions came true, but a great many did not. One that did not was the jetpack. At the end of the last millennium, I wondered many times, "Where the heck are the jetpacks? Where are the flying cars? THIS is the 21st century???" Could it be that some of the films of the 70s and 80s with their bold visions of what the early 21st century would look like were dead wrong? That we would not be so advanced? Heck, James Bond had a jetpack as early as 1965 in Thunderball!!!!
Well, jetpacks aren't here yet, but something even cooler is close to fruition: commercial space travel. Virgin Galactic recently reached an agreement with New Mexico to build their first spaceport there.
Although this may not be the first time you've heard of Virgin Galactic and its offer to send folks into space for $200,000 a ticket, this agreement means that they could be flying out of New Mexico as early as 2009.
THAT'S the kind of stuff I want to see in the 21st century. Although I can't afford a ticket on that first flight, the thought that I might be able to tour space in my lifetime is just about as cool as it gets.
Some of his predictions came true, but a great many did not. One that did not was the jetpack. At the end of the last millennium, I wondered many times, "Where the heck are the jetpacks? Where are the flying cars? THIS is the 21st century???" Could it be that some of the films of the 70s and 80s with their bold visions of what the early 21st century would look like were dead wrong? That we would not be so advanced? Heck, James Bond had a jetpack as early as 1965 in Thunderball!!!!
Well, jetpacks aren't here yet, but something even cooler is close to fruition: commercial space travel. Virgin Galactic recently reached an agreement with New Mexico to build their first spaceport there.
Although this may not be the first time you've heard of Virgin Galactic and its offer to send folks into space for $200,000 a ticket, this agreement means that they could be flying out of New Mexico as early as 2009.
THAT'S the kind of stuff I want to see in the 21st century. Although I can't afford a ticket on that first flight, the thought that I might be able to tour space in my lifetime is just about as cool as it gets.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Think You're Having a Bad Day?
How'd you like to be the guy responsible for costing his company their entire profits for the fiscal year?
In a story reported today, Japanese firm Mizuho Securities lost 27 billion yen due to a typing error by one of its traders. That's about 224 million US dollars.
It actually could have been a lot worse, but market laws preventing extremely volatile price fluctuations saved the company from losing even more money due to the blunder.
Obviously this raises questions about the trading system, which almost certainly should have thrown up red flags all over the place when the trader attempted to offer 610,000 shares, valued at $3.1 billion, for 1 yen apiece (1 yen is about .0083 US dollars). But how would you like to be the guy who pushed "Submit" on that one?
In a story reported today, Japanese firm Mizuho Securities lost 27 billion yen due to a typing error by one of its traders. That's about 224 million US dollars.
It actually could have been a lot worse, but market laws preventing extremely volatile price fluctuations saved the company from losing even more money due to the blunder.
Obviously this raises questions about the trading system, which almost certainly should have thrown up red flags all over the place when the trader attempted to offer 610,000 shares, valued at $3.1 billion, for 1 yen apiece (1 yen is about .0083 US dollars). But how would you like to be the guy who pushed "Submit" on that one?
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