Drew Magary on the potential of The Red Zone Channel
In the latest edition of his always-profanely-fantastic Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo column for Deadspin, “Big Daddy Drew” starts off by unleashing something deservedly fierce on DirecTV. But eventually he settles into some serious worship of The Red Zone Channel (which does, in fact, rule). Not only that, he calls for its expansion:
I want a Red Zone Channel that works for ALL of TV. Last Saturday night, there was a baseball playoff game on AND three solid college football games on (PSU-WIS, OSU-MIZ, FLA-LSU). Shouldn’t there be a Red Zone Channel for THAT? I have a LAST button on my remote, but that only toggles between two channels. That’s not enough. I want the television to intercut for me between 375 different channels. I want a man in a production truck outside my house watching 300 monitors at once and determining what, at that instant, will give me optimum viewing pleasure. I want to be able to watch the following all within a ten-minute span:
-A home run
-A touchdown
-The only sex scene from a movie showing on HBO
-Bear Grylls eating something he shouldn’t be eating
-Skirt shot of Campbell Brown
-The part on “House” where House has his epiphany (“Flu! Of course!”)
-The parts of “The Daily Show” where Stewart isn’t interviewing some boring asshole
-Any time on “South Park” when Cartman says something
-The part on “Project Runway” where Heidi emerges from behind the scrim in a skirt the size of a wristband
I don’t see why this should be so hard.
Nor do I.
Sarah Palin roots for the home team. All of them.
In Florida last week, referring to the Tampa Bay Rays beating the Chicago White Sox:
“You know what that tells me? It tells me that the people in this area know a little something about turning an underdog into a victor.”
In New Hampshire yesterday, referring to the Boston Red Sox and the 3-1 hole they’re in to those same Tampa Bay Rays:
“Red Sox fans know how to turn an underdog into a victor.”
Any predictions on what she might say in to fans of the World Series-bound Phillies during her scheduled visit to Pennsylvania later this week?
[Both quotes via NY Times political blog The Caucus]
BJ Upton’s laziness makes him a great role model for black kids
ESPN is the unquestionable champion of terrible sports coverage, and Scoop Jackson is its unanimous MVP.
Powers of a Ten
The magical goodness and mystical prowess behind Angelina Jolie (and her lips), revealed.
Twitter CEO Re-Shuffling: Dorsey out, Williams in
Ev Williams is replacing Jack Dorsey as Twitter’s CEO, according to a blog post by Williams on the official Twitter Blog. Williams will take control of day-to-day operations, while Dorsey will remain with the company as chairman and board member.
Dorsey originally created Twitter under Williams’ think thank blanket company Obvious Corp. (previously Odeo), and it was later spun off as Twitter Inc. with Dorsey in the CEO seat.
Android Market to offer app refunds
One of the biggest advantages Google has by jumping into all this phone jazz after Apple is thechance to flat-out copy some of Apple’s successful innovations, but maybe even bigger is their opportunity to improve on some of the iPhone’s shortcomings.
+1 to Google for recognizing one of the biggest App Store flaws: The inability to return apps that don’t live up to expectations. From Computer World:
The Android Market business and program policies also include an item that says users can return any application for a full refund within 24 hours of the time of purchase. In the absence of a trial version of applications, this offer will let users return an application that might not deliver exactly what they expected.
24 hours is a pretty damn satisfactory cushion, considering I usually realize I’ve made a crappy app purchase within about 90 seconds. There’s a huge downside to a cushion that big: 24 hours would provide enough time to not just return the apps that suck, but also the really good apps you realize you just won’t use all that much. Good for the consumer, but terrible for developers, considering the cell phone app stores are proving to be the greatest enabler of regrettable impulse buys since the supermarket gum rack.
Anyway, here’s to hoping Apple takes notice and offers something similar. [via Daring Fireball]
iGoogle goes widescreen
(First, a lengthy aside/mini-rant: It baffles me that any VC would pump money into a “startpage” company like NetVibes when Google has such a ridiculous advantage in this space. Forget the unbelievable human resources Google has at their disposal: By simply promoting iGoogle on their homepage, they’re guaranteed a gigantic cut of marketshare. I like to think most people who could use a startpage like this have already figured out how to set one up, and those that haven’t… guess where they’ll go to “search” for answers when they finally realize the void they need filled? Even with an inferior product, which iGoogle is, Google will still manage to meet the needs of casual users just entering this space.
I’m not saying it would be impossible for someone like NetVibes to be acquired by a company that wants to make a splash in this space — although big players like Microsoft and Yahoo have already set themselves up in this area — I’m just saying it seems like a pretty tough nut to crack, and there’s probably better bets out there. Like finding companies to solve the unsolved.)
Anyway, the new design (along with a few quality feature additions that will keep people entrenched in Google-ville a little longer) is a nice step forward for iGoogle. Tempting to make the switch, but I’ve got too many feeds to tackle in Google Reader to have it as anything but my startpage.
The Eyeballing Game
The Eyeballing Game works by showing you a series of geometries that need to be adjusted a little bit to make them right. The better you adjust them (using your mouse/trackpad and the naked eye), the higher your score. There’s also a nice leaderboard showing the top scores from the past 500 players, for the sake of comparison. [via Kottke]
Yahoo plans to celebrate most devastating downsizing in company history
According to a Valleywag tipster, Yahoo plans to lay off 3,500 employees on December 10. Just four days after a planned multi-million dollar Christmas party, which they still plan on carrying out. Prioritization, apparently, is nowhere near the top of their priority list.
rrperry.com 