June 2010 – BeerSlugger.com

June 21, 2010

Broadband Internet to Unify Communication

internet_1 By: Billy BeerSlugger

Over the next 5 to 10 years you will see a fade out of a lot of different technologies we use today and them being folded into the umbrella of Broadband internet. You first saw it with phone lines; VOIP allowed you to make phone calls via the internet. Since Youtube and Hulu have come out you can see that streaming media could easily displace Cable TV for a number of reasons(including it’s cheaper). With the 4 major sports providing streaming access (in most cases HD) to games and most network TV and cable channels having an online presence there really isn’t a reason you couldn’t ditch cable altogether (except for local blackouts of some games).

So what you will see is all these technologies slowly be enveloped by the internet. I’m not saying Cable TV will go away, I’m not saying you won’t have to pay a phone bill but you will see these things be delivered by the internet ever increasingly. For that to happen though the country has to get way more wired. By some estimates the United States is the 15th most Wired nation in the World in terms of subscribers to broadband internet per 100 people. That has to increase substantially but it will. The government realizes all this and has put subsidies in place and stimulus money to work to get America’s rural areas broadband internet access. Obviously companies like Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and Verizon will have lobbying in place to delay as long as necessary the switch of their cash cows to the internet. In time though everyone will be on board once the big players have secured their business model and can guarantee the massive profits they are currently raking in.

If all these communication technologies are going the way of the internet you should be more mindful of what is going on and how open or closed access to the internet effects you. What kind of laws are being passed and the balance of control of the government and internet service providers.

June 18, 2010June 18, 2010

3D Porn Is Upon Us

By: Billy BeerSlugger

It was only a couple of months ago since I wrote an article about how the porn industry has helped shape and standardize technologies. In the article I mentioned that the first 3-D porno would probably come out within the year and that hypothesis was apparently right on track. Vivid Entertainment is coming out with a movie called “This Ain’t Avatar XXX”. Not sure if the film will feature lanky blue people with tails but I’m sure there will be some tail in it and worth a spank or two just for the novelty. How silly will you look jerkin your gherkin with 3-D glasses on? How much better can 3D Porn be than regular Porn?

June 17, 2010

Kenzinger

kensinger — Available in massive bottles and smaller kegs size.

By: Billy BeerSlugger

I haven’t posted a beer in awhile and I want to get back to that. I have had Kenzinger a bunch of times and it doesn’t really disappoint. It’s made by the Philadelphia Brewing Company and they do make some very tasty beers. I was drinking Kenzinger last night though so I’ll give it a shout out.

It’s a pilsner and I find it to be a little heavier than other people think it is. It is 4.5% alcohol by volume but I find myself pretty buzzed off of 4 or 5 of these bad bears. It is made with German malts and American hops to give it a very distinct taste.

My only problem with the Philadelphia Brewing co. is that their cases seem to be a little on the pricey side. Even though it’s made about a mile or two away from my house and there’s little transportation involved the cases still range upwards of $27 in most places. I don’t mind paying for quality but I would drink it a lot more if a case was on the low side of the 20’s.

Either way it’s a pretty easy drinking beer that happens to light me up fast. If you’re in the Philadelphia area their website has a Google map of beer distributors that carry their products. Cheers.

June 17, 2010June 17, 2010

Android Vs. iPhone

By: Billy BeerSlugger

With the iPhone 4 coming out later this month and 600,000 pre-sale orders already it’s safe to say that Apple’s new phone is already a hit. The millions of Apple fanboys aren’t going anywhere either. However, it is just completely inevitable that the Android OS will dominate market share on smart phones and eventually tablet PC’s like the iPad.

Why? It’s a simple numbers game and it’s a path that Apple already went down in losing the PC market share to Microsoft in the 90’s. Microsoft has dominated the OS scene because Windows can be installed on any PC. So multiple manufacturers of hardware could focus on the hardware and Microsoft could focus on the OS to run that hardware. Apple has always done both; making the hardware and the OS for it’s electronics and for the most part they do a very good job of it. They pretty much control every aspect of their products and that has lead to a lot of user satisfaction. Unfortunately, Apple being only one company competing with a multitude of hardware manufacturers allowed Windows to become the ubiquitous operating system hovering around 90% of the market.

Google took a page right out of Microsoft’s book and has taken on Apple’s iPhone OS with the open source operating system Android. So once again you have Apple in a situation where they will be competing with multiple hardware vendors and this time the operating system is free. I don’t think it takes Nostradamus to predict what happens here. You will see Android completely saturate smart phones with Apple in a similar position in terms of iPhone market share as the Mac has been for the last 20 years.

Don’t fret though, Apple isn’t going anywhere and will continue to invade other markets (my bet is an iTV) and innovate as they have done throughout the company history. You would think that they learned from their mistakes in the PC era though.

June 15, 2010

Gamefly

By: Billy BeerSlugger

Somewhere around 2005 I began using Netflix to rent movies online and it was a far better service than any major Movie Rental place like Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. You could rent video games at those places but the service was about as good as the movies and the late fees still applied.

Fast Forward to January of this year and I started using GameFly. GameFly operates pretty much the exact same way that Netflix does in that there are no late fees and you receive your games in the mail. Again I could not be happier about the results of this service. Instead of sinking $40+ dollars into a new game and then finding out it sucks you can rent it from GameFly. If you like it play it until beat the game and send it back when you’re done. If you really like it then you have the option to buy the game for less than you can in the store. If you don’t like the game you send it back immediately and get the next game in your queue.

There really isn’t a better service out there for renting and previewing video games. It carries all the major console games like PS2, PS3 and PSP, XBOX and XBOX:360, Wii, Nintendo DS and Gamecube. The best part is that it’s FREE TO TRY! Or you can start for only $8.95. Whether you are an avid gamer or just play occasionally games there isn’t a reason not to use this service.

June 14, 2010June 14, 2010

Izzo’No

Sports with Bob McFlurry

I’ve been watching the Cleveland Cavaliers courting of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo for the last week or two. It may be a surprise to you that I’m not most interested in whether he accepts the job and stays on to coach Lebron James. I am most interested in whether or not in the near future Michigan State is brought up on some sort of NCAA violations/sanctions. With high profile coaches like John Calipari and Pete Carroll leaving their programs for other jobs right before they were brought up (publicly) on NCAA sanctions it makes me wonder if Izzo might have some of the same motivation to relocate.

I do not have any proof of anything and I am not accusing Tom Izzo of any wrongdoing, however, it seems weird that after all this time at Michigan State that he might to opt for a pro coaching gig. Money I guess would be one factor, change of scenery may be another, but there are so many “don’t do it” reasons to stay put in the college ranks where you are (hopefully) comfortable and successful. NBA players aren’t always “coachable”, they don’t necessarily need to listen to the coach to stay on the team and you are stuck with these players until their contracts expire or are traded. In the NCAA I think Izzo more or less looks to reload talent every couple of years, things stay fresh and the kids are looking to win a championship, hustle and play well enough and desperate enough to get drafted. There is obviously a higher level of motivation for the average NCAA player to work hard than the average NBA player who already signed a multi-year contract.

I wish the best for Tom Izzo, if he wants to jump to the pro’s for a position he wants he’s allowed to do so. I just hope it’s not a decision resulting from a pending investigation into NCAA allegations. I don’t think it’s just coincidence that John Callipari and Pete Carroll walked away from their positions right before being sanctioned and because of that we can’t know if Izzo to the Cav’s is any different unless we don’t hear anything in the next year or so.

June 11, 2010June 17, 2010

Lane Kiffin the Salesman

Sports with Bob McFlurry

I don’t see what the big deal is with Lane Kiffin and why he’s a head football coach or was even considered for a head football coaching job. Yes he had some success as an assistant at USC in the mid 2000’s, more a product of the elite players the school collected than coaching in my mind. Yes Lane Kiffin took over recruiting for USC in 2005 but only after the program had restored itself as a national powerhouse. How hard is it to recruit players to a program that won a national championship the year before and finished in the top 2 or 3 in the years previous? It’s a sales job that I’m sure the Sham-Wow guy could do.

I’m not hating on Lane Kiffin as an assistant or a recruiter, I’m hating on Lane Kiffin as an arrogant son of a bitch. I’m hating on Lane Kiffin because he went 5-15 in the NFL and was miraculously given the head coaching job at Tennessee. I’m hating on Lane Kiffin because after he went 7-6 with a Bowl loss in 2009 he was magically given an even more high profile head coaching job back at USC after Pete Carroll left. So after a career head coaching record of 12 and 21 he somehow gets rewarded for not getting the job done. It’s the kind of promotions you’ll see in the government not in football.

One thing I do understand about the allure of Lane Kiffin is that he comes with his father Monte to run the defense. Monte Kiffin who is essentially the architect of the Tampa-2 defense that had the Buccaneers as one of the most dominant defenses in the NFL for 10 years or so. I guess that really figures into the hiring process when you have your legend of a father in there with you at the interview.

He was lucky to get the Tennessee job, a job he kept for a year before moving to USC and inciting a riot on campus Knoxville. Now he’s being brought back to USC where he coached the player that got the University suspended from post-season play for the next two years. Not that it really matters. Judging by his coaching record I don’t think USC had a chance at a BCS game so the only thing USC loses out on is cash from the “INSERT SPONSOR HERE” Bowl. One thing is for sure though, Lane Kiffin is a hell of a salesman. Somehow he got 3 teams to buy his bullshit as a head coach.

June 3, 2010

Why I’m not on Facebook

faceb By: Billy BeerSlugger

It always amuses me to see the shock and amazement when I tell someone that I’m not on Facebook. Then I give them the reasoning that the first thing Skynet does when it becomes self aware is to grab all the Facebook data as an easy means to find and kill you. Not everyone gets the Terminator reference but the ones that do suddenly have a troubled look on their face.

Maybe the Skynet scenario is a little extreme but don’t think that the government isn’t tapping into this info to form a better bio of tens if not hundreds of millions of U.S. Facebook users. Couple that Facebook info with data that Google collects including entire search histories and geo-location data, enabling whomever has access to the data to potentially find out information about you that your mom or best friend doesn’t even know.

Besides a personal want to live off the grid as much as possible (for fear of Skynet/Big Brother) , I just don’t see the allure of Facebook beyond its initial novelty, reconnecting with people. I personally don’t want to talk to anyone from High School past the people I already do. I either have a phone number or email address of most of my friends and acquaintances in college. I’m on at least two personal email chains that get daily attention from multiple people. I rock Google Chat from Gmail and my phone. That’s all I can really handle on a day to day basis. I don’t need to know that Jimmy A. is going to the gym or that Jenny B. is now in a relationship. I really just don’t care enough to read about my friends let alone people I barely know. I also don’t care enough to post my own info for people to look at.

There’s also something inherently contrarian about me, if everyone is on Facebook, I’m anti-facebook. If the general American public loves American Idol, Lebron James, and The Black Eyed Peas then I am almost automatically against those things. This likely stems from the thought pattern that likens most of the general public to sheep being herded and prodded in directions which best benefits the powers that be.

The last reason I will give that I’m not on Facebook is that my Mom is on Facebook. Yes the same woman who can barely retrieve voicemails off of her mobile phone is a blossoming member of the social media club that 500 million other people are on. I don’t need her looking at pictures of how wasted I got last weekend or trivializing over what my last post meant. I also don’t need her leaving me notes like the ones she used to pack in my lunches during grade school. Wouldn’t jibe with my uber cool BeerSlugger persona.

June 3, 2010

Toddlers, Tiaras & To Catch a Predator

By: Billy BeerSlugger

I may be behind the times a little bit because last night was the first time I had witnessed the Soft Core porn for child molesters that is Toddlers and Tiaras on TLC. It is a show in which young girls under the age of ten get all glam’ed up with makeup, fake hair, spray tans, fancy dresses and prance around a stage while a bunch of house moms live vicariously through their children.

While I’m not one to tell people what to do with their children or in favor of making laws banning child beauty pageants, this is certainly a show that the world in general could probably do without. In a time where the European Union is considering saving all web searches in an effort to combat child porn (or just be big brother) and Dateline: To Catch a Predator is popular for catching Child Sexual Abusers TLC should probably think twice about the programming they are putting on TV for weirdo’s to consume.

The parents of the kids on this show should also be reasoned with. Aside from my reasoning that no child should be subjected to being on a reality TV show, I don’t think that the sexing up 3 – 10 year old girls is a good thing for America and I think really puts those kids into danger. It kind of gives child sex abusers an excuse, “I wouldn’t have kidnapped and abused the little girl on Toddlers & Tiaras if she wasn’t so damn sexy on the show.”.

Maybe your girlfriend watches this show, maybe your Mom or sister, it doesn’t matter; if you find pleasure in watching this show you are a weirdo. If you are a male and watch the show you obviously have some problems. If no one watches the show it gets cancelled and maybe you save some little girl from getting sexually abused. Think about that next time you turn on your TV.