I have to give it up for the Boilermakers! Yesterday's win against Michigan was long overdue, and it was a complete blowout! A pretty exciting game for fans who were cheering the team on for just its fifth victory of the season.

I wrote about our low expectations in an earlier post, so it feels great to get a win for Coach. I just hope it doesn't cost Tommy Amaker his job. He's a class act, something Michigan needs right now. Firing him would be a loss for both the school and the Big Ten conference.

Go Boilers!

It snowed something in excess of 4" yesterday. Here in the northern part of the country it's getting tough to remember what warm weather and sunshine are like. But a picture of my son from last summer cheers me up and lets me daydream of a time in the not-too-distant future when I can jump back into the pool on a hot summer day ...

My wife and I watched Troy this evening and I was very impressed. After reading many lukewarm reviews - and some worse, like Ebert's - I was expecting a really poor movie. Instead, I saw a film that, while not entirely faithful to the letter of The Iliad, was faithful to the spirit. I actually liked the 2 major changes in the plot - the placement and timing of Achilles' death and Agamemnon's satisfying demise. The story was well-told and well-acted, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Ebert suggests that we needed more gods to be faithful to Homer. I don't entirely disagree with that. But I've seen Clash of the Titans and it was a fine B- movie, but most of the god action plays like bad soap opera, and that's what most people would do with it. Troy didn't need it.

There were a number of fine performances, and I especially liked Peter O'Toole's King Priam of Troy. His part was small yet essential, and he made Priam more fragile and sensitive than my imagination had pictured him when reading the book. Very interesting!

Sean Bean was Odysseus in a crucial but thankless part, always second fiddle to others, but displaying the great leadership that the character had in both of the Homeric epics. Nice job!

But let's face it, Brendan Gleeson turned in the best performance as Menelaus. He was believable, whether playing a jovial host to his enemies, a loyal brother to a great man, a bitter husband to an unfaithful wife, or a fearless warrior in battle. He made Menelaus so real that, near the end of the scene in which his character fights Paris, I was so deep into the action that I actually cheered out loud when Hector killed him. This guy is great!

From the "things you find when looking for something else" file:

The Dark Secrets behind the Monopoly (R) board game uncovered!

This site uncovers the sordid history of the all-american staple, Monopoly. You'll learn how the evil corporation that spawned Monopoly used an stolen idea (from Quakers, no less!) to leverage over a billion dollars in extra profits at our expense. How the evil corporate owners have fought to keep others from capitalizing on the Monopoly franchise, and how one heroic economics professor stood up to the dark powers of the Monopolists - and lived to write a book about it!

You'll laugh, you'll cry! Or not.

I was reading the WSJ today and came across an interesting article by Walter Mossberg, the Journal's computer guru, concerning a new type of search engine. Answers.com gives detailed infomation from a variety of web sources concerning 1 million different topics. The site doesn't simply give you a list of links about your topic of choice, it provides text and pictures compiled to help you get the background you're looking for.

I thought I'd check it out by doing some searches. I started by checking out a couple related to the article I'd read (i.e. Wall Street Journal and Walter Mossberg). Both were in the database with brief but informative articles. One thing I noticed right away is that the site is very fast, a crucial factor for its future success.

After that, I tried a couple of searches related to recent posts I've written. For instance, I ran the senior senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, from my WT/ANC post. A little longer than the Mossberg piece, with lists of staff members and committees, brief bio, and links to his congressional websites. A good start.

Then I ran Steve Jobs and Apple Computer, two key players in my ThinkSecret post. That was a little more fruitful (couldn't resist). There is a lot of information about both parties from multiple sources, and a decent list of links and references that would make follow-up research very simple.

I thought it was interesting that when I hit the Answers.com home page, I found a prominent link to the Mossberg article online. It's understandable, since Mossberg was mostly complimentary toward the site. But he did point out that one of the possible weaknesses of Answers.com is its dependence on Wikipedia (the free-content encyclopedia) - at this point in time, at least. That may lead to a bias toward information related to information technology, and may explain the abundance of material on Jobs and Apple vs. some of the other topics.

My first impression is that Answers.com is something fresh, and I look forward to using it as one of the starting points for my online research tasks.

One of my colleagues sent me this picture from the Accuweather website last Friday, the day of the big snowstorm. Where we are, in northeastern Indiana, is covered by the blue band that says "Worst of Storm". Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view, the storm, when it did finally arrive late Friday night, only dropped about 6 inches on us and cancelled some Saturday activities. I was prepared and was kindof hoping for a day off work or something, but it was not to be.



I just now figured out how to get this picture to show up here, so that's why I'm posting this so late.

Washington Technology is a computer trade publication that focuses on sales and service opportunities in the government sector. The magazine is full of news about the information technology appropriations process and various technology procurement programs, mostly at the federal level.

Two of the more irritating tendencies exhibited by bureaucrats (and regularly uncovered by WT) when purchasing technology are:

1. Chasing too few goods and services with too many dollars (gross inefficiency).
2. Finding ways to circumvent the myriad competitive bidding regulations imposed from outside intended to combat this inefficiency.

Partially to quell these tendencies, partially to foster competition for the big boys (the oligopolists), Congress regularly enacts provisions to set aside work for small businesses, minority/women owned businesses, and, more recently, native american businesses.

Alas, far too often the programs intended to help a broad group of businesses only enriches the very few who have leaders with connections. So a "small business" turns out to be a 1000-person division of a major government contractor, or a "minority/women owned business" turns out to be a front for a much larger organization that "subcontracts" from the MWOB prime contractor. And none of these things is considered fraud because somebody's lawyers always made sure that they met the letter of the law, and the final draft regulations are almost always written by the bureaucrats that they are supposed to regulate.

WT reports that another group has emerged in the past few years and appears to be up to these same tricks. Backed with legislation sponsored by the senior senator from Alaska, Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) and other "tribal organizations" receive special treatment when going after federal government business, even to the extent that they can be exempted from competitive bidding. So a senior bureaucrat can hire an ANC to run a project, have the ANC hire the bureaucrat's firm of choice as a subcontractor, and never be forced to have that firm bid for the work at all. As a result, ANCs now dominate the top spots in the annual IT vendor survey run by WT.

It's a sweet deal - for the few who have the inside track. The smell of fraud and corruption always seems to permeate the domain of big government, doesn't it?

My sister's website is called CanaryNoir. It focuses on DC Comics Birds of Prey family, more specifically on Black Canary with a smattering on Oracle, two of DC's feminine superheros. While I don't share her interest in comics/graphic novels, I've found a lot of other types of content there, as well as interesting links to other sites. Good place to stop once in awhile - check it out!

I was glad to read that Nick is getting some high-powered legal help in his fight against the rotten apple that's trying to job him and his website - see my post from a week ago. Sorry about that, it just slipped out.

More troubling to those who have loyally sold Apple computers to end users through thick-and-thin is the apparent change in attitude that the company now has toward them. VARBusiness, at trade publication I read regularly, reports that Apple is not only opening competing retail stores in prime locations throughout the country - some very close to existing Apple retailers - it now seems that the company is squeezing these resellers for profits and making it difficult for them to get product. The consensus seems to be that a large number of these retailers will simply go under and that Apple will lose a lot of enthusiastic expert salespeople just because of the company's control-freak attitude.

This is typical Steve Jobs. Remember when he returned to the company and killed the clone project just as it was gathering steam? At least two companies that had invested heavily to become Mac-clone builders went bust after Apple terminated their MacOS-licensing contracts. Jobs hasn't killed the company yet, and I don't expect the latest moves will either, but I wouldn't buy the stock for the long-term if I were you.

Gosh, I'm sick of the Patriots! Remember the mighty '85 Bears? I liked those contemporary Patriots better, especially when they rolled over and played dead in Super Bowl XX. Now the Patriots are almost as sickening as the 49ers used to be. And, once upon a time, I tended to root for Bill Belichick, too, back when he was losing AFC playoff games in Cleveland. Oh, well, those were the good old days!

I was pretty much right on the money on the NFC Championship game - except for the fact that it wasn't close. But I really blew it on the AFC Championship game. The Patriots made Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis both look much worse than they played, and they both played poorly. And Pittsburgh receivers caught the same disease Colts receivers had the week before, dropping balls or tipping them up for interceptions time after time. The Steelers caught a few breaks (unlike the Colts), but they never could really take advantage of them - they were always underwater after spotting the Patriots 10 early points. It was bad.

Now I'm 5 and 5 for the playoffs, and since the house always gets a piece of the action, it's a good thing I don't bet football. I won't make my prediction yet, but I'll state my preference loud and clear: Go Eagles!!

One note to Andy Reid and company, though: You need to find a way to score more than 27 points in the Super Bowl or you will lose to this Patriots team!

Just finished Secret Window, a film based on Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King. The novella was published in a book called Four Past Midnight in 1990, so it took a while to make it to film, at least compared to other King projects over the last couple of decades.

I really enjoyed this movie. Johnny Depp was excellent as the tortured novelist whose recent break-up with his wife has turned his world upside down. The story is very well-told. As with any King story, this film is probably not for everyone as there is blood and gore, but this is as much a psychological thriller as anything else.

My mom made the newspaper again, this time with a picture. She and my dad are active in their local neighborhood association and other related groups. They are trying to increase the number of tenant-owned houses in the older neighborhoods around theirs so that houses are maintained and the neighborhoods stay strong and intact.

My five-year-old saw her grandmother in the paper and started crying, "I want my grandma!" I told her that we were in for the night with the expectation of a snow storm, so not tonight. That didn't go over too well.

Went 3 for 4 in my Division round picks, so I'm even for the NFL playoffs so far. Here are my picks for the Championship round:

Falcons @ Eagles - Falcons were unstoppable at home, but so were the Colts a week earlier. Now they have to face the Eagles outdoors in bad weather. And I was at least partially right about Vick - he did turn the ball over (with a fumble, not an interception). He's facing a much tougher defense this week, and you can expect more turnovers. Both teams have formidable running games and solid defenses. The Eagles have a better passing game and are better in the cold, so while I'll root for the Falcons, I have to pick against them. Eagles 24, Falcons 20.

Patriots @ Steelers - Steelers almost gave the game away last week with 2 devastating picks and a punt return for a touchdown. No one could reasonably argue that the Steelers deserved to win the game last week. It's also hard to argue that the Steelers will suffer the same meltdown 2 weeks in a row. The Patriots might be the best team in football right now, but they are running up against the proverbial immovable object. This should be a close game but the home team should prevail. Steelers 27, Patriots 24.

I finished watching Taking Lives a little while ago, and I must admit to some mild disappointment. As advertised, it's a story about an FBI agent (Angelina Jolie) investigating a series of related (serial) murders. Most of the action takes place in Quebec, so we get some "local color" and a few French subtitles. We also get a group of investigators who always seem to be several steps behind the killer, even when he baits them, even when they finally realize who he is. The ending is simple and satisfying, to some extent. The film is entertaining, but I wouldn't put it at the top of my list, and it's definitely not family fare.

I'm a big Purdue Boilermaker fan. So it's no surprise that the past few months have been a little disappointing for me and many of my brethren.

The football team finished their own season on the brink with a loss in the Sun Bowl. Expectations were pretty high early on, with Purdue ranked #5 and Kyle Orton being talked up weekly by the media as a Heisman Trophy candidate. And the women's basketball team continues to sink, rapidly fading from the top-25 and on track to finish in the middle of the Big Ten race (not at the top where they were expected to be).

But the biggest disappointment for me so far has to be the final season of the Gene Keady era. What a shame it is for this team to send Coach packing with what will end up being his worst season in 25 years. They are now 4-11 without a win in the Big 10, and there really aren't too many winnable games looming on the schedule.

Think Secret is a Mac-oriented website run by a Harvard University student named Nicholas Ciarelli. Since he was 13 Nick has acted as a conduit for Apple secrets to travel from insiders to devoted Mac users everywhere. With the advertising revenue he's earned from the site he is able to pay his way through college - a rather expensive one at that.

Now it's no secret that Apple likes to keep theirs. But instead of simply plugging their own leaks or bringing Nick into the fold, Apple filed a lawsuit on January 4th. And guess what? Apparently Nick can't afford a lawyer, at least not of the caliber Apple can afford to employ in their own back yard. Surprise, surprise!

Wall Street Journal says that it probably won't be easy for Apple to prove that Think Secret has violated trade secrets, since the site focuses on things like new product features and releases, not on design details and blueprints.

But it doesn't matter. It's really a nuisance suit. This is just another example of the little guy getting trampled by the idiot corporation. The lawsuit can't help but run his websites numbers through the roof, at least in the short run. And Apple should be thankful somebody out there actually cares about the Mac, which is edging ever closer to irrelevance all the time. Nick is helping the Apple brand, not hurting it - at least for now.

The mood was rather somber tonight as we digested the dismantling of the Colts by the Patriots. There were mitigating factors, of course. The field, the cold, the snow, the calls - all seemed to favor New England. But, as Tedy Bruschi said in effect after the game, the time for excuses is over.

I was wrong. I thought the Colts would finally put together a tough-minded game plan and force themselves over the hump. Instead, they called the game conservatively and played scared, a bad combination against the Patriots.

The Patriots were simply better than the Colts on Sunday, just as they have been nearly every time they've played in the past several years. When the Colts were shuffled out of the AFC East a few years ago it was a relief to be out from under the Patriots' long shadow. Too bad the Colts keep running into them in the playoffs.

Welcome to my world. The local morning paper had an extra-special grouping of letters to the editor yesterday. Four of six refer in some way to Christianity, most in a negative way (the other two hint at it while exchanging blows). Not that the writers aren't Christians, mind you, but they have something to say about how others express their Christianity.

I especially liked the short but bitter letter castigating the President for his lack of Christian charity for personally giving only $10K to the tsunami relief efforts while Sandra Bullock pledged $1M. The letter writer - an ordained minister - quoted scripture to point out just how small the President's heart is and to let us know just how God feels about this. Thanks, Rev!

I borrowed The Majestic from the library for the second time in about a year, and finally got around to watching it tonight. This is a very entertaining movie with solid performances from everyone, especially Martin Landau and Jim Carrey.

There is a joy that permeates the film throughout. No scene exemplifies it more than the one in which Carrey's character, unsure that he knows anything about the piano, discovers that he can play Boogie Woogie with the best of them; with the swing dance band backing him, he plays the night away.

This is a feel-good movie through and through, and I think it's very worthwhile viewing.

I just finished watching The Village on DVD and I was pleasantly surprised. It has a very compelling story and a great cast. It's a taut, compelling drama, and doesn't qualify as a horror story in my book. I gave it an 8 on the IMBD website.

Ouch!? Didn't do too well last week on my NFL Wild Card round playoff picks, did I? Well, at least I don't bet football. Here are my picks for the Divisional round:

Jets @ Steelers - Steelers are really tough at home and the Jets have been Jekyll & Hyde all season. Jets turnovers will betray them in this game. Steelers 24, Jets 17.

Rams @ Falcons - Falcons defense is good enough to slow the Rams down, and Michael Vick is good enough to confuse the Rams defense. Vick will throw an interception (or two), but special teams and turnovers will still favor the home team. Falcons 37, Rams 28.

Vikings @ Eagles - Vikings are hot after the weekend and ready to take on anyone. But I don't think that the rested Eagles are going to turn the ball over like the Packers did, and they should be especially well-prepared for Randy Moss. Eagles 30, Vikings 21.

Colts @ Patriots - Toughest call of the playoffs so far. Colts are rolling just like they were last year when they headed into Gillette Stadium. Unfortunately for them, the weather might be a little worse than last year and the Patriots defense is well-rested. This is probably not a high-scoring game, which should favor the Patriots, but I'll go with my heart on this one and say that the Colts won't beat themselves like they did the last two times in New England. Colts 28, Patriots 24.

I read this story in the newspaper tonight. It's about a local guy who rejoined the National Guard and is now working somewhere overseas, we presume. What's special is that he's a middle-aged man with a good career and a solid family, yet he felt called to serve his country. Very humbling. I appreciate people like this, old and young, who work to make this nation a safer place to live. Thank-you!

Watched 13 Going on 30 last night. Great movie! Fun and memorable. A scene that really stuck with me is the one where the main character gets a roomful of sophisticated New Yorkers line dancing to Thriller, no matter that the song is some 17 years past its prime.

The film is reminiscent of Big, but there is a major difference in the types of lessons each movie focuses on. In Big, Josh (played by Tom Hanks) learns that he really doesn't want adulthood to come too soon - he still wants to be a kid for awhile. In 13 Going on 30, Jenna (played by Jennifer Garner) learns to value the people around her that truly care for her, and to be careful not to compromise her values just to get ahead in life.

I can highly recommend it as enjoyable for the whole family.

Well, when you're wrong, you're wrong. I thought that choosing to play the same team twice might backfire on the Colts. What happened was entirely different. The Colts killed the Broncos and outplayed them in every way. Denver was lucky to break 10 points to be honest, but the Colt defense was feeling pretty good with a 32-point lead at halftime, I guess.

The Colts might not beat the Patriots on Sunday, but they are - right now - the best team in football without any question. Too bad they squandered home field advantage earlier in the season. But imagine this: A team that goes on the road to beat the defending Super Bowl champions and the 2004 season champions in back-to-back weeks, then wins the Super Bowl themselves might get the term "all-time great" thrown around a little, right? I guess I'm a believer now!

Indiana is in the midst of a raging debate concerning Daylight Savings Time. Most of the state stays on Eastern Standard Time the entire year, so in the winter we match up with Michigan, Ohio and eastern Kentucky, while in the summer we match up with Illinois and western Kentucky.

Our new Governor wants to make DST one of his key legislative victories this year. But leave it to an engineer to come up with a novel solution. How about Local Standard Time using GPS to determine the exact displacement from GMT? Travel 100 miles east and lose five minutes, or 100 miles west and gain five minutes. It's tongue-in-cheek and pretty funny.

When reviewing my TV-B-Gone post, I ran across White Dot, which bills itself as "the international campaign against television". This site is written and maintained by conspiracy theorists, but they seem more rational than most. Read through some of the info concerning interactive TV (Spy TV) - it's entertaining. But the testimonials from the many people who do not watch TV or have given it up lately are thought provoking.

One of the resolutions I developed prior to the end of 2004 was that I need to significantly reduce the amount of television I watch in order to make room for other things I'd like to do. For instance, I used to read a lot, but I haven't touched a novel in months, and I rarely look at non-fiction for anything but reference. So this site and some of their goals resonate with me.

I watched 28 Days Later on DVD for the second time tonight. I really like this film. It's dark and scary, and deals with some of the basic issues of survival during the complete deterioration of society. But mostly it's a lot of fun!

I'm attracted to the movie's apocalyptic vision, similar in many ways to films like The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth. I used to love reading speculative fiction like The Stand by Stephen King that offers a dark yet hopeful vision of the future. One of my new year goals is to get back to reading as a hobby, and brooding stories of future disaster are high on my list of desirable material.

A new short film named Not Quite Paradise is being made by a UK firm called Twisted Films. Its has an interesting plot centered on the last survivor of a global nuclear war. Cool.

I got The Matrix Revolutions on DVD for Christmas and finally had a chance to watch it last night. Wow! Loved this movie! It was a lot of fun and it closed the circle on the Matrix trilogy nicely. I 'm very impressed by both the vision and the tenacity of the Wachowski brothers. The series is very creative and had to be difficult to get on film. There's a lot of hard work and effort here, and it paid off. Loved the ending! I gave it an 8 on IMDB.

Some predictions for the first round of the NFL playoffs:

Rams @ Seahawks - Seahawks have been disappointing all season, but should win this home playoff game against a weak Rams defense. Seahawks 24, Rams 21.

Jets @ Chargers - Chargers are hot and at home, Jets haven't shown much lately, shouldn't be close. Chargers 35, Jets 21.

Broncos @ Colts - I still believe in the Colts, but I wouldn't be surprised by a close game after letting the Broncos see the defense last weekend. Colts 28, Broncos 24.

Vikings @ Packers - Neither team is very good, Favre is prone to turning the ball over when pushed, but Packers are at home. Packers 21, Vikings 17.

Cameron Stracher, publisher of the New York Law School Review, wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal on New Years Eve telling of his adventures using a new device called the TV-B-Gone. What is the TV-B-Gone, you ask? It's a kind of universal remote control device intended for one purpose - to shut off televisions. Stracher used it in a crowded bar to shut off a couple of TVs repeatedly (and covertly) until the bar staff simply stopped turning them back on.

Stracher's small victory was aimed at reducing the interpersonal isolation he witnesses on a daily basis at bars and restaurants he frequents. He observed people connecting and communicating after the TVs were turned off, behaviors he believes are thwarted by the ubiquitous nature of all sorts of distractions, including cell phones and computers.

He's probably right about our loneliness and isolation, but does that make it OK to cause a lot of people - including the bar servers - severe annoyance on a Saturday night? Well, he is a liberal Harvard-trained New York lawyer who thinks he knows what's best for all of us, right? Enough said.

Tony Dungy made an interesting choice today. He decided he'd rather play Denver 2 games in a row than take a chance on playing Jacksonville again - the only team that beat the Colts at home this year. Denver won and will play at Indy next week. Does anybody but me wonder if this might just backfire on the coach? Hope not.

Things were getting too heavy for me last year, so I decided to change it up. The old stuff will be recycled as needed, but the longer pieces will probably be expanded and put somewhere else on the site.

No more ponderous tomes, no more serious analysis. Just opinions, and (hopefully) some fun.

Here's to keeping it shallow!