Could NBC not steal away better talent from ESPN for calling hockey games it chooses to nationally televise? Gary Thorne is apparently still locked in to a contract with ESPN/ABC, having spent last year calling college football games (and doing a damn fine job, if you ask me; Thorne just has a sports announcer’s voice through and through).
Big surprise that Bill Clement, formerly Thorne’s useless and biased color man, is now uselessly and biasedly anchoring NBC’s hockey network desk with Ray Ferraro. (Very manly of you guys to be out on the ice in Rockefeller Plaza, sticks in hand, while the peewee team pokes pucks around the rink behind you. This is what is known in the vernacular as a cliché. You’d think you Canadians would know a little French.)
So in DFW today we are, of course, getting the Stars-Blues game out of St. Louis. Chris Cuthbert and Peter McNab have zero chemistry. Most of the time, it sounds like McNab’s mouth is engaging before his brain. (Taking lessons from Clement, Peter?) Cuthbert sounds like he’s about to start hyperventilating any second during the game call. The only redeeming quality of this broadcast crew is Cammi Granato, stuck with the stupidly named “Inside the Glass” position. One improvement with this threesome would be to eliminate McNab and put Granato in his place. I’m not sure where Cuthbert came from, but he needs to go back to being the local team announcer there.
You might be wondering why I’m so snarky on this admittedly minor issue. First, when it comes to hockey announcers, we’re pretty spoiled here in Dallas. Ralph Strangis and Daryl Reaugh are one of the best broadcast teams in any sport. (Many of us are still hoping Daryl comes to his senses and gets a hair cut.)
Second, being a hockey fan, I want to see the sport win more fans, and one area this is going to happen in will be nationally televised games. (Few and far between those may have been these past few years. Great job with those television contracts, post-Fox Sports, Commissioner Bettman.) So if a nationally-televised game is part of your new fan-winning strategy, you better make sure the network you’ve given the goods to can deliver with top-notch broadcast crews. Those currently employed by NBC are barely living up to the term “mediocre”.
Like I’m sure many of you do when your home team is being nationally televised, I normally mute the television and flip on the radio, putting up with the satellite delay to hear my local announcers call the game. I tried to give the NBC crew an honest shot today, but they’re falling far short. Back to WBAP to hear Ralph and Razor call the last five minutes of the game.
Month: February 2006
Dell has discontinued its sale of hard drive-baesd MP3 players.
John Gruber:
Someone should make a list of all the pundits and tech columnists who, back in October 2003 when Dell first introduced the DJ, predicted that it was the beginning of the end for the iPod.
If you find yourself wishing you could have your very own online calendar to sync with iCal, but
1. Have not the resources available to you, or
2. Have not the desire to learn how to set up PHP iCalendar
then Tom can help you out with his new calendar hosting service. Just be sure to tell him the Retrophisch™ sent you.
Please note: You’re not allowed to call yourselves followers of a “religion of peace” if you riot and make death threats over a political cartoon.
[…]
A lot of people decry such statements, saying that this is the actions of some muslims, but not most of them. I’m still waiting for the major leaders of Islam to rise up and denounce such violence. Until that starts happening on a regular basis, I have a hard time believing those arguments.
[Via Jeff.]
The 17-inch iMac G5 has been removed from the online Apple Store, leaving only the 20-inch G5 version. If you’re looking for a G5 iMac instead of the new Intel Core Duo version, now would appear to be the time to buy.
[Via Al W. on the MacJournals-Talk list.]
Update: John notes what I missed: the remaining 20-inch iMac G5s have been marked down $200, to $1,499. Apple is definitely clearing out last year’s model.
Since MacHome doesn’t post all of its magazine’s monthly content to the web, I’m archiving for my own use this hint from Editor at Large Chris McVeigh, found in the Q&A section of the February 2006 issue.
You can however print an entire day’s schedule, complete with any notes you may have added to the event. Choose View > Go to Date and enter the date you want, or to see the current day’s events, choose View > Go to Today. Now choose View > Day View to see only that day. Finally, choose File > Print.
You’ll see a preview of the print job, which lists appointments along a timeline at the left and the details of these appointments in a separate column at the right. This is a bit awkward, though. In the Print window, choose View > List. You’ll see that the events are now listed one after another (there is no timeline) and include the event details. Click Continue and then click Print. In a few seconds you’ll have a printed copy of your appointments and notes.
William Blair was recently outed as the secret benefactor to a group of World War II Pacific Theater former POWs, who get together for a monthly breakfast at Bunny’s Restaurant in Suffolk, Virginia.
I’ve met a good number of WWII vets in my time, and a few of them were POWs. Mr. Blair is correct in his noting that the Pacific Theater POWs usually get little mention compared to their European Theater brethren. I had the privilege in college of meeting a group of former POWs, including a Bataan Death March survivor. Those men have borne heavy burdens, and still do to this day. Mr. Blair, we salute you for your generosity and patriotism.
The Free Market Foundation reminds Texans the deadline for voter registration in time for the March primaries is this Monday, February 6th. If you need to register:
1. Click here to download a PDF of the voter registration form you can print out.
2. Fill it out and mail it to your county voter registration
office. Click here for a list of registrars by county.
As with every election, the Free Market Foundation is providing non-partisan Voters’ Guides free of charge. Send them an e-mail with your mailing address and desired quantity. I’ve taken advantage of these guides in the past, and they are great at distilling voting issues in to clear language, offering pros and cons for ballot propositions, as well as candidate information.
The February issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.
Ellyn examines Google’s noncompliance of demands by the Justice Department, while Wes has the best of the Mac blogosphere’s reaction to last month’s Macworld Expo. Miraz Jordan, noting his enjoyment of podcasts, chimes in with this month’s Pod People. (We’re looking for readers to share their own iPod experiences. If you would like to write a Pod People column, please [e-mail the editors](mailto:editor@atpm.com?subject=Pod People).) Ted looks over two outliners new to the Macintosh sandbox. Speaking of sand, Angus Wong dives in to the waters of the Macintosh life and discovers on the sandy bottom the triumph of the Macintosh revolution.
This issue’s desktop pictures section features numerous reader submissions, ranging from flowers to Mount Baker, St. Louis to Thailand, New Hampshire to the Dominican Republic. Thanks to Torben, Bill, Jerry, Steven, and Grover for sharing!
In this month’s Cortland, Lisa makes peace with her maker, the other Steve steps in to foil plans of world dominance, Chad returns to the throne at Weiser Graphics, and Cortland decides the fringe benefits are worth going in-house again.
Ellyn fools around with Bubblomania, while Tom peers between the sheets of the Cult of iPod. Mark Tennent shares his experience with CyTV, and Chris tests the alliteratory Lapvantage Loft. Finally, Tom asks that if you’re going to delve deeply in to the guts of Mac OS X, you do so with a good manual at your side, kid.