Business, Economy Doing a Job on the U.S.A.
(washingtonpost.com)
Columnist Art Buchwald: "Written by a Chinese person, this column would cost only 50 cents. It scares the heck out of me."

(Now, that really puts this whole 'outsourcing' genie into a humorous yet morbid perspective, do you think? And according to this story at Newsforge, CNet's thinking about offshoring all of its article writing. Jeez-muhf**kin'-loo-weez! Why don't we just send everything over to India? America will just be a place where things get consumed, but not created. Hey, wait a minute: sneakers, shirts, cars, computers, coffee beans, TVs, and cellphones, just to name a few product categories, already are made offshore (of USA). It wasn't a problem when factory workers in Michigan or Ohio were losing their jobs. That was 'efficiency.' It is a problem when raw economic math suggests that even Buchwald's column can get written for half a dollar. (b/w gigaom))

« 1:00:48 PM »    

Weblogs, Internet TypeKey: The Patriot Act of Weblogging
(BurningBird blog)
And there is no positive way to say this -- TypeKey is a bad idea.

(The blogger at BurningBird, a well-respected technical writer, simultaneously laments the loss of innocence of a couple of the blogosphere's grassroots pioneers, and comes down hard on Six Apart's TypeKey technology, which, apparently is a centralized attempt to control the growing problem of comment spam. Comment spam is where unwelcomed guests leave comments on your weblog promoting get-rich-quick schemes and genital enhancement drugs.

I have a better solution for comment spam: turn off comments, and only use trackback technology, if you must gather feedback. While comments seem cool, and are perhaps even useful in a limited number of scenarios, I've rarely seen a situation where comments improve the content that's being discussed in the first place. Most comments on blogs, aside from the spammed ones, just add noise, not signal. If the desire is to create a conversation then do it on a message board, and not on a weblog.

But what do I know? I deactivated comments on this blog a long time ago, because I felt that they never really added to what I was thinking (or ranting) about. My blog. My thoughts. Your thoughts? Put them on your blog.) « 10:48:50 AM »    

Sports, Sports Stanford runs out of miracles
(FoxSports.com)

This time, there was no fantastic finish for the Cardinal.

(Hope slips away, again. It seems like every year at this time, and definitely since I began blogging back in 1999, that I'm in full condolence mode for my poor, beloved Stanford men's basketball squad. But after a 27-0 start, you really started to think that this was going to be our year. It was filled with record win streaks, improbable comebacks, and magical buzzer-beaters ... until last night. I don't know what to say, except, wait until next year. What else can a die-hard alum do? (And now I know how Red Sox fans must feel year after year after year ... hope springs eternal but it is never fulfilled.)

About 10 years ago, when Stanford was manhandled and bounced out of the NCAAs by a big, physical UMass team led by Marcus Camby, Stanford coach Mike Montgomery insured that the Cardinal would never again be pushed around when he started recruiting size. But quick, athletic teams caused problems. So with the addition of recruits like Brevin Knight, Stanford started to become more athletic. Well, this year's team was both big and athletic; you couldn't punch them in the mouth, and you couldn't run all around them. But the thing that seems to be lacking now is that fabled killer instinct. These kids may be too nice.

They had Alabama down 13 points with 8 minutes to go, and let them back in. Teams like Duke and Kentucky would have doubled that margin and completely demoralized the other guys. Crush, kill, destroy: not so cool in real life, but completely necessary in championship sports. Now, I know you can recruit size, and you can recruit speed. But can you recruit players who have the desire rip an opponent's heart out when they get the chance? And how much does the head coach's own mentality figure into that? Time will tell. I guess that East Coast media bias isn't really a bias at all; now that Stanford, Gonzaga, Arizona, and Washington are all out, it may be true: college basketball on the Left Coast isn't as good. Thanks for a great season, Cardinal. Better luck next year.

UPDATE (4:30pm): Well, I now feel only slightly better about things because overall Number 1 seed, Kentucky, went down in flames in Round Two as well; but losing this early still stinks.)

« 10:12:13 AM »