Cardinals Are Only Team That Should Pay Pujols

B-Bo on Albert Pujols:

It also makes perfect sense for the Cardinals NOT to match the offer that the Marlins supposedly threw out there. Pujols is 31 years old now, which means his deal ends in 2020, which would be Pujols’ 20th major league season in his (supposed) 40th year on Earth. I think the Cardinals got the majority of Albert’s prime and would be investing in a slightly above average player about 4-5 years into the deal, with declining stats from there.

I disagree. I think the Cardinals are the only team that should pay Pujols his full quote. Even though they will technically be paying him for the next 10 seasons, they made so much money off of him over the first 10 seasons that they will break even. It’s every other team that will be overpaying and not getting their money.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

Brett Terpstra’s Impressions of the Nest Thermostat

Brett Terpstra on the Nest Thermostat:

Once you’ve told it your preferred temperatures, maximum and minimum ranges, it immediately starts taking things into its own hands. This is an intrinsic energy saver, as even if you usually remember to turn the thermostat down when you’re leaving and program a sleep pattern, this offers more precise control and deals with times you may forget.

The Nest uses a motion detector to tell when you are gone and adjust the temperature when no one is home. The problem, which I have stated in the past, is that your thermostat has to be in a high traffic area for the motion sensor to be effective.

Regardless, Terpstra loves the Nest so far. This seems like the kind of technology that you really have to have deep pockets for, but it’s still cool.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

Evernote Clones Readability

Evernote clones Readability:

Click on Clearly whenever you visit a blog post or article. Clearly slides in, showing an alternate view of the page without navigation, ads, or links to other content. When you’re done reading, click on the return arrow and Clearly slides out of the way, so you can continue browsing the site.

I used to use Readability to create stripped down versions of articles I wanted to save. This Chrome plugin makes it even easier to do with Evernote. We just need a Safari version to complete the ensemble.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

White Sox Trying To Trade Matt Thornton

Buster Olney:

White Sox have been trying to move reliever Matt Thornton (owed two years,$12 m.) since July, sources say, and are still trying to move him.

I don’t even know what to say. I understand that Thornton signed an extension in March with the intention of him being their closer, and after he floundered in that role they gave it to Sergio Santos, but Thornton went back to being one of the best setup men around.

He is owed $11M over the next two seasons, which is steep for a setup man on a non-contending team, but he is the only truly dependable bullpen arm the Sox have. But I suppose an argument could be made that the Sox are already paying Santos, Jason Frasor and Jesse Crain and someone has to go.

(via MLB Trade Rumors)

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

How A Hard Drive Works

Really great video explaining how a hard drive works. Explained in not too complicated terms, but it’s really amazing how precise, and at such high speeds, these devices work. The explanation of how smooth the platters are also blew my mind.

(via Engadget)

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

How to Fold a Fitted Sheet Into a Nice Flat Rectangle

I tried this method for folding a fitted sheet. It worked really well and is pretty simple.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

What If MLB Adds A Fifth Playoff Team

Christina Kahrl of ESPN.com on adding a 5th wild card team:

Say the Red Sox and Yankees go toe-to-toe for the AL East crown next season, all the way until their final series against one another. Say the two are tied with 99 wins on October 3, the Yankees lose, having used CC Sabathia to gun for the wild-card “round” bye, so they get squared off against … an 85-win White Sox team that was cruising comfortably with the fifth-best record in the league, and with their rotation queued up to toss their best starter in this must-win game. The Yankees get punished for trying to win, while the White Sox just need one game to advance after six months of mediocrity. How does that scenario make sense?

I already think a 5-game series isn’t sufficient enough to prove who the “better” team is. Shortening that to 1-game is downright insane. Consider the fact that both the NBA and NHL play half as many regular season games as MLB, and yet they both have 7-game series in the first round.

I don’t understand the point of 162-game season if a team could be eliminated from the playoffs after one game. If this is the plan, they might as well shorten the season to 82 games.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

Navigon 2.0 For iOS Allows Maps To Be Downloaded By State

Mel Martin of TUAW on the updated iOS Navigon app:

Navigon 2.0 is a complete rethink of the app, with new GUI elements, and the ability to selectively download just the states you want maps for. Never get to the West coast? Save space by not putting those maps on your iPhone at all. Users of the North America and USA versions in particular will benefit, so map storage can be measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes.

Really excellent move by Navigon. The space saving is significant and the truth if that most people don’t need more than three states or so most of the time. Prior to this update, the Navigon app was easily the the most space-consuming app on my iPhone.

One thing to take note of, upon updating the application the maps must be downloaded and this takes a lot of bandwidth. So after updating the app be sure to launch it right away and download the states you need while still on Wi-Fi.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

iOS IM Client Verbs Still Lacking

Lex Friedman of Macworld on iOS IM client Verbs:

The other big missing feature in Verbs is push notifications. The app can tell you about IMs you receive when it’s not running—but only for ten minutes, only through local notifications. If you want true push notifications about received messages outside that ten-minute window, you’ll need to pony up $5 for an in-app purchase called Verbs Pro.

Verbs is very nice looking, and when it first came out I was about to pull the trigger, when I read the fine print and found that it didn’t come with push notifications. The developers defended the move by citing the high cost of maintaing a notification server, which is understandable, but to me an IM application must have push notifications to be useful.

They eventually added it for additional cost via an in-app purchase, but I remain annoyed that this isn’t packaged with the app, even if it cost more up front. At some point I may invest in Verbs, but at the moment I will stick with Beejive.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink

Google’s Ridiculous Opt-Out For Wi-Fi Location Database

Daniel Ionescu of Macworld on Google’s Wi-Fi location database:

Google says it has explored different approaches for opting-out access points from its Location Server and thinks it has found a method that has “the right balance of simplicity as well as protection against abuse.” The method involves modifying your wireless network name so that it ends with “nomap”. So for example, if your SSID is “My Network”, you will need to change it to “My Networknomap.”

For those of you that don’t know, Google collects Wi-Fi access points that show up when driving around their Streetview cars. They use these to help improve Google maps and presumably help people to locate themselves faster.

The above procedure talks about how to opt out. It’s ridiculous to me that you must opt out. These kinds of things should be opt in!. On top of it, the only way to opt out is to add something to your SSID. This is terrible solution.

How about you allow a user to enter in their zip code and SSID and have it not included in the database? Something that doesn’t force me to modify my system to opt out.

(Click to view source article)

± Permalink