Epstein No Guarantee But Step In The Right Direction

David Schoenfield of ESPN.com on Theo Epstein’s success:

Those were all good, smart moves that paid off. But those kinds of moves have been few and far between since. Just like Billy Beane’s genius — in part — was having a rotation with Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, part of Epstein’s genius was … well, getting a little bit lucky. It’s not easy to find guys who suddenly hit 40 points above their career average or strike it big in exactly the right season.

I am not a Cubs fan. I mock many of the moves they make and enjoy the schadenfreude associated with their epic failure. And while I don’t think any one move is enough to win a championship (see Lee, Cliff x2), I don’t think it’s time for Cub fans to make October plans yet. But of every move the Cubs have made in the last 15 years, this is the best one so far.

(Click to view source article)

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PlugBug Charger

Twelve South, makers of the BookArc have a new product, the PlugBug Charger. The idea here is that you connect this adapter to your MacBook Pro/MacBook Air power brick in place of the little piece that plugs into the wall. What you end up with is a slightly larger power brick that also has a USB charger connected.

I admit the concept is very cool, and it looks really nice, but I still prefer my Belkin Mini Surge Protector Dual USB Charger instead, which provides three plugs and two USB ports all in one package and for just $12. The only downside to this is that you need a three-pronged outlet wherever you plan to use it.

(via Patrick Rhone)

(Click to view source article)

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Do NOT Throw Home Run Balls Back

Jim Caple of ESPN.com on throwing back home runs, specifically Pujols’s third:

It’s ridiculous. As ESPN analyst and former outfielder Chris Singleton says, from the moment the gates open, fans beg the players to give them a baseball. Many fight for batting practice balls in the stands. They push and shove and crowd and scrap and claw and bite and generally embarrass themselves for a mere foul ball from the likes of Nick Punto. And then someone like Pujols hits a home run and they throw it back? That’s insane.

I hate when fans throw the balls back. It’s a stupid tradition, not just when the ball is historic like Pujols’ third of the night, but even one hit my Nick Punto. You can make some kid’s day by giving it to him/her. Claiming that throwing a ball on the field, and potentially hitting your own team is idiotic.

It’s also worth pointing out that teams don’t like this either. If you throw a ball back at US Cellular Field, where the White Sox play, you will be kicked out. Guaranteed.

(Click to view source article)

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TUAW Reviews Steve Jobs Biography

Chris Rawson of TUAW on the Steve Jobs biography:

It is quite possibly the truest biography I’ve ever read. In the process of telling the unvarnished truth about Steve Jobs, it dispels much of the myth and magic surrounding the man and his legacy. It does not depict Steve Jobs as the information age’s equivalent of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with an iPad in each hand.

The weird part about Rawson’s review is that up until the last couple of sentences I assumed that he was not recommending it. So I don’t know what I am going to do yet. I guess as an Apple Fanboy, and nerd I owe it to myself to read it, but I worry about being letdown.

(Click to view source article)

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Hotel WiFi Woes

Joe Sharkey of the NY Times on hotel WiFi:

Largely because of the broad use of iPads and other mobile tablets, which are heavy users of video streaming, the guest room Wi-Fi networks that most hotels thought they had brought up to standard just a few years ago are now often groaning under user demands.

This amplifies the problems that exist when non-tech businesses try to do tech-related things. The problem is that in technology “bringing up to standard” doesn’t mean making it acceptable now. Technology moves too fast. You have to think five steps ahead, not zero.

I get aggravated when I stay at a hotel, especially a nice one in a big city that doesn’t even offer paid WiFi in their rooms. I don’t care if it’s free or paid, but have something. And if it’s paid, it better be fast and reliable. I am not counting on it though.

(via Ben Brooks)

(Click to view source article)

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Battlefield 3 Graphic Comparison: With And Without Texture Packs

Great video showing the difference in Battlefield 3 with and without the texture packs installed. The difference is definitely noticeable and I am actually surprised how bad it looks without them installed.

For those of you not familiar with this. In order to get the best looking, most detailed graphics in Battlefield 3, you need enough hard drive space to install texture packs.

(via Wiki Game Guides thru Joystiq)

(Click to view source article)

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Tony La Russa Retires In Rare Company

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com writing about Tony La Russa’s retirement:

This man has won three World Series. Eight other managers in history have won three or more — but only one of those eight (Joe Torre) ever faced the challenge of winning a World Series in an era in which that required winning THREE postseason series.

In typical Stark fashion there are more great factoids as well. I think La Russa is immensely underrated as a manager, especially considering the era he managed in. But it’s easy to overlook the fact that La Russa managed for 33 years and 5097 games, which leaves him comfortably in 2nd place for the latter. To put that into perspective, only one other active manager has surpassed 3000 games, and that’s Jim Leyland. Leyland would have to manage for almost 12 more seasons to catch him.

(Click to view source article)

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Pygmy Reviews #7: iPhone Apps

Posted on November 1, 2011

If you are new to Pygmy Reviews, they are short quick reviews of several things of the same type. The name comes from the pygmy hippopotamus

The price is at the time of publication, not necessarily the price I paid. And the version was the version reviewed.

League of Evil ($1.99, v1.40)

One Line Description: 2D platforming game with semi-retro graphics.

I have never been all that into platforming games and this is no exception. It adopts the concept of wall jumping too, where basically you jump on a wall and then can jump again if timed right. I find these kinds of games frustrating because I don’t like playing the same parts over and over again. I like the graphics though and if platformers were more my speed I would be into this.

QuickCal Mobile ($0.99, v1.5)

One Line Description: An iOS calendar app with the unique feature of “natural language” even entering.

Like the wonderful Fantastical for the Mac, the key feature to QuickCal is the ability to enter things quickly as a sentence instead of filling out individual fields. In other words, I can type “Lunch with Bob tomorrow 3p-4p at Wendys” and it can parse that and add it to my calendar. This is an invaluable feature to someone who enters a lot of appointments on their iPhone. To be honest I don’t use this other than that feature, since I prefer Calvetica, but still, the natural language feature is totally worth the cost.

Find My Friends (Free, v1.0)

One Line Description: Shows the physical location of you and your friends that have enabled the service.

Apple released this as a standalone along iOS 5. You add friends, via e-mail address, and when the service is enabled it shows you where that person is at any given time. Essentially a GPS tracker that a person has enabled on them self. Although it seems creepy and weird I have come up with a couple of use cases. The most obvious being if you have kids and want to know where they are all the time, you can force them to use this. The second being a situation where you are meeting someone somewhere. For example, you are picking your friend up from the airport or meeting them for dinner someplace. Rather than constantly having to provide updates while driving they could track you on this app and see exactly where you are at. From a day-to-day use perspective though, I can’t see the value.

Posted ($1.99, v1.38)

One Line Description: An application for tracking package shipments.

Posted is one of many applications that exists for tracking packages. It is by no means the prettiest or most popular, in both cases I would guess Delivery Status Touch wins out. But Posted is cheap (I actually picked it up for $0.99 when I got it) compared to others, and thus far has been reliable. It does have Push Notifications that seem timely. Even at $1.99 it seems like a cheap solution to tracking packages.

Capture ($0.99)

One Line Description: A video camera application that starts recording on launch.

As iPhones get faster and faster, the benefits of this application become less and less. The idea essentially is that as soon as this application opens it starts recording. Which potentially saves the user a couple of seconds vs. opening the built-in Camera app, potentially switching to video mode and hitting record. On my 3GS, the time it took the Camera app to launch alone was several seconds, so the time saved then was huge. Now, it’s not as beneficial. But if you find yourself constantly just missing important moments by 1-2 seconds, this app could probably help.

The Nest Thermostat

Dana Wollman of Engadget on the latest talk of the town, the Nest thermostate:

According to Nest, the thermostat takes about a week to start picking up on your routine, at which point it adjusts the temperature accordingly. It knows, for instance, that the whole family’s out of the house by 9am, and that people start trickling back in around four in the afternoon. That’s all thanks to a collection of six sensors, which keep tabs on metrics like temperature, ambient light, humidity and motion — whether it’s fingers about to touch the display or people passing in and out of the room.

A very clever idea to be certain. We are definitely on our way to smarter and more efficient houses. There are a couple of downsides though. First off, it’s $250, which is mighty steep for a thermostat. Second, the sensors are in the thermostat itself, so it has to be in a high traffic area to be effective.

My grandma had her thermostat in her living room where no one ever went except when company was over. It would have been useless to detect ambient light and motion. I think the target audience for this will end up being people in small condos/apartments with money to burn.

(Click to view source article)

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What to Do If You’ve Forgotten Your iPhone’s Passcode

Good tip from Adam Dachis of Lifehacker on how to unlock your iPhone if you forget your passcode. It’s nice to know that this is possible, but at the same time I hope most people can remember a four digit number.

(Click to view source article)

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