State of the Sharks… going into the all-star break

Two for Elbowing: State of the Sharks… going into the all-star break:

A bit behind on complaining about writing about the Sharks, so here’s some catch-up moving into the All Star Weekend.

Detroit game: In case anyone was wondering, Detroit is clearly is clearly a better team than the Sharks. I actually think the talent is fairly close (and I think sharks goaltending is much better) — but Detroit has the committment and discipline to implement and follow the system more than the Sharks do.

I haven’t mentioned this for a while, so…. If you’re reading this blog and wondering why I never talk about hockey (or sports in general) any more, it’s because you’re probably not reading our other blog, Two for Elbowing, which is all about hockey, the Sharks, and whatever else I decide belongs over there involving sports.. feel free to stop on by and try to cross-check me into a corner…

Doing my (jury) duty…

Back among the living, or at least the online. did my civic duty, and spent the last couple of days in court being considered for a jury of peers to sit in judgement in a case of law.

As it turned out, they decided I wasn’t what they wanted on the jury, so I was released this afternoon. In court, of course, they strongly discourage you to turn off your cell phones, much less look for open wifi (and the bailiffs with tasers tried their hardest to look serious when telling you so), so I spent a couple of days unplugged and awaay from things. Pretty much caught up with the first round of reading and email, and working away at stuff now. Fortunately, I won’t be spending the next three weeks empaneled, although unlike some folks, I understand the process and support it, so if I’d been called, I wouldn’t have bitched (and I’d have ended up working evenings and weekends to keep up at work…). But honestly, it’s even better to do your service by trying to do your service…

Let’s cut down the goalie gear already!

Dallas Stars Blog:: SLIM-N-FAST:

As of Monday, NHL goaltenders had combined to make 35,033 saves. Yes that’s a lot of rubber hitting human, but this next number seems to suggest that they aren’t that hard done by.

16,289 shots have been blocked by the brave and scantily equipped individuals that play in front of them. You know, the ones with no Kevlar masks, no thick shock absorbing pads, no full body armor.

That means that in the first half of this season, for every two saves the goalies have made one save has been made by a forward or defenseman.

So if over 16,000 pucks can be stopped with body contoured gear and bravery, then trimming a few inches off the goalie union’s inflated bulk shouldn’t create a run on medical supplies.

Razor cuts to the chase here — I’d been mulling over the same general idea, but he got the data and the details. the entire league has morphed into Craig Ludwig, and if the defensemen can do it, the goalies need to stop whining about feeling the puck once in a while and get ready to use smaller pads, glove and blocker.

What the Birds in the Park Think of Us

Francesco Explains It All: What the Birds in the Park Think of Us:

What the Birds in the Park Think of Us

Francesco is Francesco Marciuliano, author of Sally Forth. And just trust me, trying to explain this won’t help. Just go read it.

I think I’m out of patience.

I think if I were Doug Wilson, I’d be out of patience.

Last night’s game against Dallas was disappointing. The ice wasn’t great, but the Sharks should understand how to play that ice by now, and it seems to bother them a lot more than the other teams. Dallas deserves credit for playing hard and skating hard, and the Sharks just didn’t step up the game to match.

I don’t know why Ron Wilson insists on playing Marleau on the point on the power play. Well, yes, I do, none of our defensemen can really QB the power play, but Marleau’s not really doing much better. And five on five? Marleau keeps really disappointing me. -1 last night, -3 against Phoenix, -1 against Anaheim, even against Toronto, -1 against Vancouver. For those counting, that’s -6 with 1 goal and 3 assists in the last five games, averaging 15-16 minutes a night and first power play.

It doesn’t get any better with Marleau — his last plus game was LA on 12/26, and that’s almost a month ago. In the last 15 games, he was plus ONCE, even three times, and minus 11 times. In those 15 games, he had one multi-point game, and has 2 goals and 5 assists. 7 points and a combined -14 in ten games?

(sounds of hair being torn off my head. both of them)

I’m not sure why Ron Wilson is unwilling to SIT HIS FREAKING BUTT in the pressbox. Bring up Kaspar if you must. Move Mitchell to the 2nd line and sit Marleau on the 4th line if you want. Do something. Send a message here, Ron.

(it’s funny, but the guys on the XM morning show were on the "I don’t know why they aren’t playing marleau on the top line…" thing again. You know, I have a similar question. I don’t know why the Sharks are bothering with him on the second line at this point — putting him on the first line? Please… I want SOME chance of winning)

If I’m Doug Wilson, I’m listening to suggestions. Unfortunately, I also know I’ve waited long enough that those suggestions are going to be insulting, but it’s time to consider moving Patty. See what you can get. Start with a defenseman with some offensive ability on the PP.

Ozolinsh — god, I love the kid (Laurie and I helped him buy his first mac, god knows how many years ago) — but at the end of the day, he’s Sandis. Crazy in the offensive zone, dangerous in the defensive zone. he tries, but he just isn’t the best defensive defenseman out there. He makes a nice 7th D, but no more now.

Semenov is trying, but he’s too slow; took three pylon penalties last night and watched the first 18 minutes of the third — I knew when Wilson put him out with 1:30 to play that Wilson was sending the team a message, and that message was "I don’t believe you can pull this sucker out, and I want you to know that…"

You can look at the losses in the last 15 games, and in almost ever case, you can say that it Marleau’s minuses were even zeros — many of those games would have been victories. it seems Marleau’s line is minute no matter who is playing on that line; there’s only one common factor here.

And last night he fell asleep at center ice and got undressed for a breakaway. gah.

I’ve been patient with Marleau. I’ve been supportive of Marleau. I’ve been a fan of Marleau.

And now, as virtual GM of the Sharks, I’m trading Marleau for a bag of pucks if I have to. At this point, I see it as addition by subtraction. I don’t know what’s going on with marleau; it doesn’t seem to be an injury, unless it’s a permanent braincramp — but it’s time for the Sharks to solve it, since Marleau seems unable or unwilling to fix himself. A few games in the pressbox (hell, I’d rather see Davison in the roster right now than marleau playing forward. Put HIM on the point; it can’t be any worse) would be a start, but I think it’s time for Marleau to try on a new uniform.

I considered suggesting removing the C (and giving it to Grier), but Marleau just seems to be the kind of person who would go in the wrong direction there. not motivation, but further into the shell. you can’t turn it into a "focus on your hockey" moment, which is too bad.

But it’s painfully obvious this team is improving — in fits and starts — but needs some changes to talent and chemistry. And you look at who’s not getting the job done, and night after night, game after game, there’s only one name in common.

Time to do something, Doug and Ron.

(a quick followup on) Thoughts on Apple’s “Brain Drain”

Chuqui 3.0: Thoughts on Apple’s “Brain Drain”:

So, Apple loses another long-term senior employee. Actually, more than one, since Red Sweater notes that Peter Bierman left, too. These are significant losses for Apple — Guys like Jens and Pete were not only significant contributors to Apple’s products, but historical glue that tied Apple together and helped bring the young, new talent up to speed and innoculated them with “the Apple way”.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not. Jen’s piece (go read all of it) could have been written by me.

Interesting and unexpected response about this piece, especially from inside the six-color curtain. Nobody wrote to dispute it — but I heard from a number of Apple people thanking me for writing it.

No reason to listen to me about this, Apple, but maybe you’ll listen to THEM. but I doubt it…

sharks get eaten by coyotes..

ugh. out-worked, out-hustled. Lost 2/3 of the faceoffs. outhit 2:1. sloppy coverage, bad passing, lots (too many) odd man rushes. All in all, give credit to the Coyotes for hard work, but the Sharks played a sloppy, lackluster game tonight. Deserved to lose. Hopefully, it’s one game and not a trend.

looking at the keynote….

I gave today’s keynote an A-. No, it didn’t have the “oh my god it’s even better than we imagined” aspect of the iPhone last year, but damn, that just can’t happen too often, or we’d all die of strokes. Anyone disappointed by the keynote for that reason, reset your expectations back to something close to reality.

How’d I do as amateur pundit?

The Guardian seems satisfied…

Apple offers you MacBook Air, Time Capsule, but not movies (here) | Technology | Guardian Unlimited:

So if memory serves this suggests to me that Chuq von Rospach was pretty much on the money with his predictions for what was coming up in last week’s article. And how did you all do?

My guesses:

10.5.2 — nope. but not important enough. Steve’s very careful these days to keep it short and keep it focussed. Lots of stuff “doesn’t make the cut” any more like it did back in the “we’re not going to die” days of Apple. Hence last week’s Mac Pro refresh, and we should see 10.5.2 soon. but not today. And for all I know, they just didn’t want to stress the network pipes any more than they already have today.

Laptop refreshes — nope. But Macbook Air makes us forget that. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see these sneak out in the next few weeks, perhaps at PMA or maybe just a press release.

Dockable macs — nope (but not really expected); and perhaps not the direction Apple’s going in. more later. Mini — nothing, which doesn’t prove it’s done, but nothing to prove it’s not. No mini tower; still don’t expect to see one. Dead market segment.

“One new piece of software coming out nobody knows about yet”. The ability to (Mac AND PC) use a device on another computer over the network as a virtual device seems to qualify, and was more or less an “oh, yeah, by the way…”. Stop and think about what it means and the technology/software behind it… Nice deal.

Itunes — yes, pretty much spot on.

time capsule — not in that exact format, but pretty darn close. and I like it.

not bad.

So, my thoughts on today’s announcements:

Time Capsule: A very nice, aggressively packaged and priced network backup solution. Like so many Apple things, it doesn’t do every damn thing every damn geek wants, but it does what people need done without a lot of complexity. One of these WILL end up in my mother’s house sometime this year, it’s exactly what she and my dad need, in spades. Love it for what it is.

Now, what’s NOT there is the ability to add disks to my airport extreme and back up to them. Conspiracy theorists are bitching about apple gutting that feature to force people to buy this product. Nope — it was pulled for one reason: it was too buggy to use, and they couldn’t fix it before shipping (I know that from three different sources, including a non-Apple person doing detailed work with Time Machine data sets, who warned me early on to avoid any hack that enabled that feature, because it would, guaranteed, corrupt my data). I’m hoping that feature appears in 10.5.2; if not, it’ll show up at some point. given the choice of shipping Leopard on time or waiting for the fix, Apple chose to ship. Right choice.

iPhone update and iPod Touch updates: nice. Doesn’t afffect me directly (yet), since I don’t own either — I am the last person in the universe without an iPhone, I think, but I’m happy with what I have and have one more year on my contract. After that, watch out. I am now lusting for an iPod touch, not that I need one, but having something like that with wifi and internet access in my pocket would be — useful. yeah, useful. that’s the word.

What people are bitching about: the $20 fee for existing users. Basically, that’s becaues of how the feds force companies to account for revenues on these beasts. And yes, the Apple TV update is free — but that is, I think, because Apple feels it’s necessary to keep the early adopters happy here, and they’re eating the fee (update: I was reminded that Apple is booking revenue for the Apple TV over 2 years, so there’s no tax implication for free updates. They book revenue for iPods immediately, so there would be). The Apple TV upgrade is a mandatory one, the iPod Touch tools are new features (and optional), so I think they made the right call both places.

iTunes, movie rentals, Apple TV, etc; for how completely people thought this had leaked, there were still surprises — having all of the studios on board, and the HD aspect, and the pricing. The “24 hour watch it” limit isn’t as bad as I worried, since you have more than enough time to start the clock — but 24 hours isn’t enough. I want this at 72 hours, but it needs to be at least 36, so you have the ability to start something one evening and finish it the next.

You can bet — buy the person who proves me wrong a beverage — that this is a restriction imposed by the studios, not Apple. (ditto the HD only on the Apple TV, which seems to be the studios trying to wall in the HD data from piracy. it won’t work). Expect this to be relaxed sometime, once the studios hear all of the complaining and Steve goes and twists arms. (hint: I’ve already expressed my opinion to people who might listen).

Apple TV “take 2″ is pretty much what the device needs and deserves to be. I’ll admit to being one of those people who saw the intro of Apple TV, started drooling uncontrollably, and then didn’t buy it. Now I PROBABLY will, but to me, the determining factor is going to be whether i can replace Netflix with iTunes and Apple TV. That boils down to how deep the library is, because Laurie and I use NetFlix at least as much for older (and sometimes brutally obscure things) as we do current hits. Fact is, if we get to a “new release” in six months, it’s amazing, but that’s just us. If we can get most of what we want from iTunes, it’ll be cheaper to rent from iTunes than pay the monthly to Netflix. It’ll probably take a few months for us to figure this out for a final decision.

I also want to be able to retire the DVD, and play a DVD by stuffing it in a computer and streaming it over — without geeking or hacks. we’ll see. (see: the software that allows you to use a device remotely, above. An obvious use of this, if not day 1).

Not only satisfied with the whole iTunes ecosphere today, I’m rather pleased, and was somewhat surprised (happily) despite all of the leaking.

Finally, the Macbook air. I’m not sure it’s the MacBook for *me*, but I love the thing. It’s an awesome piece of engineering. Listening to some of the bloggers and commenters, it seems what they really wanted was a 1 pound (preferably weightless) unit that measured about 4″ x 6″ with a 22 inch monitor, 18 hour battery and a full-sized keyboard. Those of us who live in the real world realize this unit is all Apple, and all about understanding a market segment (“road warrior”) and solving that need without making compromises that hurt the model within that segment.

Just like Apple realized most phone geeks don’t carry 2 or 3 batteries, most road warriors don’t, either. they use the battery and then plug in at every opportunity. Expect third party external battery things to pop up, similar to the phone market, allowing you to plug in a recharging battery or an add-on for the hard-core here, but that’s a niche aspect of this market — most users don’t care.

Screen size? For every road warrior whining about the screen being too large, there are dozens of us going “thank god…” — because we’ll actually be able to see and use the screen. Screen size is one key productivity determiner, and while some folks can live on a tiny screen (most likely because they only do email and read web stuff), as soon as you start onto any kind of serious gui-app — Final Cut, Photoshop, Excel, Word, etc — that small screen impacts productivity, either by limiting your ability to see everything in context, or by causing such severe eyestrain you give up… So the screen is as small as I think you can reasonably still get the kind of work people need to do in a remote office, as opposed to people who live and browse in a cafe or airport.

For the amount of new technology going into it, it’s reasonably priced. And it’s not “these things are on the MacBook Pro but not on this, so why isn’t it cheaper?” — it’s “it’s a different set of tradeoffs and engineering to make it all work”. Taking out the superdrive doesn’t make it cheaper, it makes a bunch of things more complicated, like remote installs…

The unit is clearly designed around “what is the functionality I need on the road?” — which is why the superdirve is a plug-in option. To keep weight down, anyhting you don’t need on the road, you leave home. Since wifi is increasingly endemic, ethernet is now optional. More on that in a bit.

this box seems to be almost a dream box for photographers — trivial to wedge into a camera bag to travel with. I’m just not sure the screen has enough real estate to use Aperture well; we’ll have to see. Maybe the next Aperture will be less rigid about this stuff.

Me? The Macbook Air isn’t something I’ll run out to own — but it may be my next unit.

A few last thoughts

Before I go, a few more general thoughts that have popped up since the keynote that I haven’t seen talked about much.

First, a biggie: Apple has declared the end to wires. It’ll take a while to get there, but the macbook air is a WIFI *assuming* device, rather than WIFI *capable*. Firewire is gone, hello, USB 2.0 uber alles. USB is down to one connector — because Apple is now starting to assume that when you dock you’ll “connect” to your backups via Time Capsule, to your disks via an Airport or server, to your keyboard and mouse via bluetooth — and USB for random things like card readers and your iPod. At least until a bluetooth iPod arrives… Nobody seems to be noticing this paradigm shift. And that’s why above I asked whether the “imac dock” is going to happen; it now seems Apple’s future isn’t about docking, but about wireless connectivity — software/virtual docks. All we’re missing, really, is a wireless monitor connector. Not bluetooth, not fast enough, but… There were wireless video standards (WiHD) at CES. Maybe next Macworld?

Also, if you shift to the external superdrive, it’s easy to add to the product line with an external Blu-Ray, notably missing from this entire discussion so far. And once you have an external Blu-Ray, wouldn’t it make sense to have one that also connects to your Apple TV as an add-on? Hmm. Just pondering here.

One accessory that would — hands down — convince me to buy an MacBook Air is a good, large, portable LCD screen. Think about this: it’s now possible to take two LCD screens the size of a MacBook, hinge it in the middle so they fold together, and when unfolded, you could have a screen about 22 x 17. Yes, with a seam in the middle (and I don’t care if it’s one screen or two side by side screens to the OS! honest). Fold it up, and it can fit in a sleeve with a MacBook and only be an inch thick. If you’re someone who works in remote offices or in hotel rooms a lot, something like that would be killer, especially for grpahics artists and photographers. (add in a way to attach for movement a keyboard of some sort for bonus points). So in a package roughly twice the thickness of my current laptop, I could have a laptop — AND a 17″ monitor and keyboard I can carry around easily and use in remote office situations. monitor technology now makes that possible. And you could do all of that in under 10 pounds, and can leave 7 of that in your hotel room…

Hey, one can dream no?

This keynote’s going to cost me some shekels. One, posssibly two Time Capsules, an iPhone sometime around christmas when my contract is ready to expire, I’ll bet I get an iPod touch before then — and who knows? Maybe a Macbook AIR, although the current box is probably still good for a while, and I don’t get on many airplanes these days, so I’ll trade off the weight for the larger 15″ screen. But still, more reasons to spend money at the iTunes store. How terrible.

oh, hey, one more thing…

Some folks are kvetching that Steve didn’t play the “one more thing” card today. Haven’t you folks figured out that those things only continue until they become mundane. Now that everyone expects it, it’s nothing special. Steve updates himself as often as Apple updates its product line. when surprise and novelty shift into cliche, that’s when Steve does something else. And so he did. To expect Steve to stay in the same place is to not understand Steve.

Cujo to Flames? Really? REALLY?

Curtis Joseph signing with the Flames?

My initial reaction: What, the job at the car wash didn’t come through?

okay, somewhat more seriously… It’s not a bad deal for either. And if ever you wanted evidence that hockey is big business, that these two could put the past behind them and even say hello to each other proves it. And now they’re working together again. And congratulations (and good luck) to both of them.

So, what do we complain about now?

Sharks fans — and worse, sharks pundits — seem to have a problem. What is there to complain about now?

After last night’s win over Toronto in the tank, we see the San Jose Sharks with the 3rd best record in the NHL after Detroit and the Senators. The team has 3 wins and 7 points in the last four home games, including the last two being very strong (almost workmanlike) efforts — they finally are hitting their stride at home.

You have to go back to December 22nd for their last regulation loss, that’s 7 wins and an OTL. Last ten games is a terrible 7 wins, 1 loss, one OTL. heck, even at home, their last ten games is a respectable 5 wins, 3 losses, 2 OTL for 12 points in ten games.

Lack of production from the defense and power play? Last night, two goals from the defensive position (Marleau was playing D when he scored on the PP), Rivet has 5 points and three goals in four games, along with points from Carle and McLaren. Secondary scoring is showing up, especially from guys like Rissmiller and Bernier. Thornton continues to motor away and get his points, too.

The team has crossed the .500 mark (9-9-4 for 22 points in 22 games) at home.

Heck, even Patrick Marleau looks better, and the last couple of games, Jonathan Cheechoo seems to me to be starting to look like Cheechoo again, motoring around a bit like Jeff Odgers with soft hands. Oh, yeah, and Jeremy Roenick is looking like the JR in Chicago — Don’t know what Doug Wilson knew, but there’s some definite magic here. Even my early season whipping boy, Curtis Brown, has hauled himself off the cart I stuffed him on and is playing well in his role.

This creates a real problem for Sharks fans who like to bitch… What is there to bitch about? The team struggled at home early, it didn’t always play as well as we wanted — but unlike some other teams, it never dug itself a hole, it simply hung around as 5th or 6th best team in the league. And now the missing pieces seem to be showing up, and the team’s headed off into elite placement as we expected. As I love to point out, it’s a lot better to end the season playing well than start that way and fade, and that seems to be where this team’s headed. We have to remember we’re doing this without Ryan Clowe, too, a non-trivial injury loss.

I was wondering what team would show up last night. Indications were encouraging, but the important part is sustaining it. One or two games didn’t matter, did the Doug Wilson tongue lashing take hold? Last night, I think we got the answer — early in the season, this team would have shut down after the early goal, but last night, it just kept pushing away until it found a chance and capitalized on it. Game didn’t start all that well — the Sharks looked tight and nervous, and Toronto came out early and out-skated them and out-worked them. Even at that, the Sharks didn’t look bad to me, just that Toronto looked better. The Leafs caught a mistake and buried it for 1-0, but even so, I felt the Sharks were in good position.

In between periods, some of my section-mates were bitching about the Sharks, and my view was that it wasn’t the Sharks fault, but credit to the Leafs. With the Sharks being on HNIC for the first time in a while, a bunch of the players were clearly showing the “my entire town is watching” nerves early on. I said at the time I felt the Leafs couldn’t do that for 60 minutes and that the Sharks would take this one, to skeptical reactions…

Start of the second made me worry a bit. The Sharks looked flat, Toronto kept pushing. Terror hit the stands when Nabokov went down and stayed down (replays showed it to knee to the helmet, fortunately not serious); Nabby gave up a bad goal shortly after that clearly seemed to show he was still slow from the hit, but then he settled down and was fine. After that, you could start to feel the momentum shifting. There were three shifts in a row about the 10 minute mark of the 2nd — the Roenick line, the Grier line, and the Roenick line again (smart move by Wilson) that simply pinned the Leafs in their zone cycling and pounding, and after that, the Sharks started rolling. The shot counts for the 2nd and 3rd tell the story, and the Sharks fight back to win 3-2 going away. Once the first goal was scored, you could see the Leafs deflate and start playing “not to lose” hockey, and the only question was whether the sharks would have the time to score the goals. They did.

All in all, that seems to be the character of the Sharks now: steady, patient, “not how you start, how you finish” — they could be more physical, but honestly, their focus is on taking hits when they make sense, but playing the position and the play and not play for the hit. This is most noticeable in the change in game (quality and results) in Doug Murray (at +17, but it’s looking like Big Joe will catch him soon).

So some folks are going to be miserable here — there’s very little to complain about. Me? I’m going to sit back and enjoy the show. If the Sharks can keep this going, the only thing they really have to worry about is Detroit (and maybe Anaheim… they still worry me, especially if Teemu comes back). But even so, you’re starting to see some separation in the logjams that are the stanndings — Detroit at 70, Ottawa at 62, then San Jose at 56 and New Jersey and Dallas at 55, then you have a few points until you hit Pittsburgh at 53 and Montreal and a bunch of teams in the west at 52. Four points between San Jose and four teams isn’t a huge lead — but it’s a bigger lead than has existed for anyone but detroit this season….

The West continues to show how tough it’s going to be: Anaheim is currently 7th seed with 52 points, and the Blues (way to go, J.D.!) in 9th at 49. 49 points in 42 games trends towards needing 95 points to make the playoffs in the West (in the East, it’s trending towards 89) — there’s no wiggle room. The Sharks have to remember they’re literally a four game losing streak from being out of the playoffs.

And so tonight, at 5PM, the Ducks in anaheim. Should be a fun game. I’m looking forward to sitting down with some popcorn and a beverage and enjoying the show….

Thoughts on Apple’s “Brain Drain”

Gone Indie — Thought Palace:

Here’s a career update, for those of you who care: I’ve left Apple, and I’m now working on my own, from home, as an indie software developer. I have plans for at least two kick-ass Mac apps, I’ll probably contribute to a few open source projects, and I may dabble in some web stuff.

(At least, that’s the plan for now! Everything is subject to change without prior notice. This document contains forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ.)

This is kind of a big change for me. I’ve been continuously employed for 19 years, 16 of those at Apple. I clearly like being part of a team, part of a company, and specifically part of Apple. But there comes a time when a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

So, Apple loses another long-term senior employee. Actually, more than one, since Red Sweater notes that Peter Bierman left, too. These are significant losses for Apple — Guys like Jens and Pete were not only significant contributors to Apple’s products, but historical glue that tied Apple together and helped bring the young, new talent up to speed and innoculated them with “the Apple way”.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not. Jen’s piece (go read all of it) could have been written by me.

After I gave notice, I was a walking corpse for almost two months — everyone knew I was leaving, but it was a long, slow goodbye. One of the things that surprised me, though, was once my departure was made public, how many other Apple people caught up with me not just to say goodbye, but to talk about what I was doing and how they were either wishing they could, or planning to. The amount of pent-up “if things don’t change, I’m outta here”, especially among some of the key senior people I talked to, actually scared me a bit.

I ended up bringing this up with various senior management, trying to get them to see the red flag. Most of the people I talked to about it were some combination of sympathetic, worried and understanding (and in a couple of cases, planning, too!), but the word I kept getting back from people who broached this at the exec level was “look at our turnover rate. There’s no problem!” — which at the point was true, but was ignoring the real point. By the time the turnover rate starts ticking, IT’S TOO LATE. And it’s looking to me like Apple missed the boat here. Beyond sheer numbers, it doesn’t matter how low the rate is if you’re losing key people.

Problem is, Apple seems to not worry about that too much. After I left StrongMail, I spent some time chatting with folks at Apple about options on coming back. Basically, got nothing. One senior manager over in Engineering put it best to me: “all we’re hiring now are kids right out of college and people who’ve already done the job for a while”. For what I wanted to do — not an option, which is fine. But the whole “we’ll hire kids who are dying to work for Apple, work their asses off for three years, and when they burn out, hire another college kid” is a philosophy that only works for a while, and only while you maintain a core of senior folks who can oversee and direct the young studs who love sleeping under their desk.

Just doing a quick glance at my LinkedIn connections, I can count four OTHER ten-year-plus Apple folks who’ve moved on either about the time I left, or since, on top of Peter and Jens. And about half a dozen 5-year-plus, too. Now, my LinkedIn is littered with dozens of people in those categories STILL at Apple, but that’s a braintrust Apple really ought to be encouraging to stay.

But it doesn’t. When I decided it was time to move on from my last project, I made it clear I wanted to stay at Apple, but move into a new role and new challenge. The response, from pretty much everyone in the universe was “hey, keep an eye on the job board, if you see something you like….”

That’s pretty much what Jens ran into, too. I know some of what Jens did at Apple, and someone should have been tripping over people finding a place to let him go and do stuff FOR APPLE. In my case, my last project was lauded by my VP on a number of occasions as having the best ROI to ever come out of Apple IT — it impacted revenues and margins noticably, and it laid foundations for a number of things that allowed Apple to rethink parts of its business and do new things.

Without going into many details, I will say that one SMALL side project we did allowed Apple to save about a few million dollars a year on printing costs involving the retail stores. I also got involved in the Fedex recycling program when they needed some work done that other groups were quoting months to implement — I did it in about 10 days.

My last real project before I left was the code that allowed Apple to implement the ticket code access for the Red Hot Chili Peppers album; the revenue from that one promo probably paid my salary that year… I remember sitting in a conference room with about 15 people from all over Apple talking this over with a “this is what Steve wants done”, and group after group going “my folks don’t know how….”, and suddenly I realize everyone’s stopped talking and are looking at me. So I mapped out how I thought we could do it, went back to my office and wrote about 200 lines of Perl to glue the various pieces together, and there we were. And after the followup meeting where we demonstrated the working solution, a couple of folks came up to me and asked how they’d get these things done after I left. My answer: “not my problem, someone should have thought about that” — a lot of what I did the last year around running my main project were these special hacks that needed to be done on Steve-timeframe; that was, in some ways, my group’s specialty. We were set up to move quickly and change gears on short notice, not things IT is necessarily good at.

It made other folks in IT nuts at times, too, and just as happy that the crazy guy who wouldn’t keep his mouth shut was gone… So, having nurtured a project that impacted the company by tens of millions of dollars a year and working insane hours (happily) in doing so said I was ready for a new challenge at Apple, the response was, well “hey, thanks for everything. good luck”.

Yeah, I was bitter for a while. but in reality, that’s the way Apple is, and I knew it. And to be blunt about it, it sure doesn’t look like Apple’s missed me since I left (which is good, and which means those eight weeks we spent in my long goodbye worked — stuff transitioned with minimal hitches and moved forward in really good ways, as I wanted. The new teams are doing some really great stuff with the project….)

But now, the brain drain I was worried about is happening. It was happening at some level before I left, but it seems to be accelerating. It’s something Apple could have avoided — and I think it puts them at risk down the road. Not because the kids they’re hiring aren’t good (they are!), but because they don’t have the depth of experience to design the kind of products Apple users demand out of Apple. The senior people are the ones who understand how to take a great idea into a good product, or to a great product – and for every Jonathan Ives who we all know about, there are a couple of dozen guys like Jens handling the details and sweating the problems. And when they go? It worries me.

Now that I’ve been out a while, while part of me misses the buzz that working there gives you, I’m really happy to be out. I’m doing fun stuff, good people, interesting product, and I can still have a life, or at least part of one.

So all I can really say is “welcome, Jens, to the real world. There is a life out here”. And I can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve. It’s going to be great — and it’s too bad it won’t be part of Apple.

update here:

Caps owner Leonsis says 13-year deal was originally only a six-year pact

The Hockey News: Headlines: Caps owner Leonsis says 13-year deal was originally only a six-year pact:

“So the question was, would you sign Alex Ovechkin for seven years for $10 million a year six years from now? And the answer is yes,” explained Leonsis. “So that’s how we came to six years at $9 million and seven years at $10 million. That was the thought process.”

Essentially, it’s two contracts wrapped up into one.

When Ovechkin and his parents walked into the Capitals’ offices Thursday, they fully expected to polish off a six-year deal. Then the Caps unveiled the second part of the deal and found a willing partner. Add up six years at $9 million per season and seven years at $10 million per season and you get $124 million.

“How I looked at it is, we have him until he’s 35 years old, we’ll have him through his best statistical years and his statistics are pretty good right now,” said Leonsis. “And who else would you want as the face of your franchise?”

What we see here is the league inventing a new class of contract. This isn’t the “best player on the team” contract, or the “franchise player” contract — it’s the “face of the franchise” contract. it’s not just for someone who’s a good (okay, great) hockey player, it’s the person you define your franchise with. In some ways, this is a way to counteract the fan complaint that more liberal (and younger) free agency means players move around too much.

Now, teams are taking the option — spawned by the improved financial setup of the salary cap — to take one player and guarantee they’ll be around for a long time. Injury isn’t really a problem; the contracts will be insured. The only risk is you guess wrong, because this isn’t JUST about being a good player, it’s about being a good player AND willing to partner with the team to market and promote it AND be the kind of player you can trust to stay committed to playing and training.

The one assumption made with these contracts is that the financial basis of the game doesn’t shrink radically; in practice, it doesn’t even have to grow much, and if the game does grow, then these players become bargains in later years. If the league falls into financial disaster — these contracts will be a minor part of a bigger crisis, so the actual risk is low.

The reality is, there’s only one of these contracts per franchise — and not all franchises will have a player they want to (or should give) this kind of deal. You can bet some players are going to want it, but teams are going to have to be careful choosing who they sign up. But I think this deal is a good deal for the Caps, just like the DiPietro deal was for the Islanders. And you can bet, franchises are going to screw this up and make the Caps signing of Jagr look like a bargain, and the CBA, as currently structured, makes it hard to get away from something like this. But when those teams do screw up, it shouldn’t be taken as a reason to see all of these deals as bad. Bad deals are bad deals in any form…

I like it. Gutsy. And as long as Ovechkin doesn’t turn into Sergei Samsonov, Leonsis is going to be seen as a genius down the road….

The NFL tried this kind of gambit with their franchise player tag — to keep that key player out of free agency (teams are allowed to declare one player a franchise player, and sign them to a one year deal at least the average of the top five players in the league at that position). In practice, it’s used to grab whatever player is hardest to sign and hogtie them, and so it hasn’t really created that “face of the team” aspect as much as it has allowed teams to finesse plan B free agency somewhat. So this may well seem to be a place where the NHL is innovating in a better way than then NFL legislated in THEIR CBA.

james mirtle: Cullen and the C-word – A hockey journalist’s blog

james mirtle: Cullen and the C-word – A hockey journalist’s blog:

The measures that the NHL has taken to prevent concussed players from returning too early are not effective if the injuries are being misrepresented, played down or ignored entirely.

If it’s the result of a hit, it’s a concussion — not an illness. That’s just not acceptable, and someone involved with the league or the PA needs to intervene.

The processes installed by the league work, until the player complicitly agrees to help circumvent them. This is not really different than the Blackhawks of a few years ago, where players who came to the team all magically decided they didn’t want to wear visors any more. Nope. No team pressure, not us. Nope. Just my idea. really.

Add to that teams where the team doctors aren’t as independent of the influence of the hockey operations management as they could be, and you have a recipe for disaster. Ultimately, though, if a player doesn’t want to take the neurological tests and claim it’s something else, it’s difficult for any but the most progressive medical/team management to make it happen.

This is a place where PA education and the PA and league agreeing on parameters of a hit that would make testing mandatory are going to be necessary here. Players are very competitive, very willing to play through and hide injuries. Injuries to the head are something that can’t be left to the discretion of the player, they do need to be protected from themselves at times, and this is one of them.

Holmgren critical of Downie punch

james mirtle: Holmgren critical of Downie punch – A hockey journalist’s blog:

He’s part of a team now and needs to think in those terms and not selfishly. I’m upset. It was Jason Blake. Jason is not a fighter. You get a player in that position and I don’t [think] Jason had his gloves off. I’m not happy about either. The fact that Steve put his team down is a different issue. That’s a selfish thing. He’ll get better.”

No suspension by the league was the right move here, Campbell talking to Downie and reading him a bit of riot act was sufficient — there’s too much willingness among the fans of the league to punish the player for systemic problems of their team, and if you move Downie and his issues this season away from being part of the hot button that is Flyer’s hockey, this is appropriate.

More encouraging, to me, is how Holmgren is responding, because ultimately, this is a team culture that is at the base of this, and it’s the leadership of the team that has to change that culture. And Holmgren seems honestly committed to it. Downie is proving himself a marginal player who has to do “whatever it takes” to earn a roster spot and ice time; under some circumstances that’s useful to a team, as long as that player knows where the lines are drawn. Downie doesn’t — and either he learns fast, or his career is short. And it’s his team, not the league, that needs to send that message and teach him what’s acceptable and what isn’t.

Fortunately, it seems to be. A bit late, perhaps, but the Flyers seem honestly trying.

RAZOR AT THE HALF

Dallas Stars Blog:: RAZOR AT THE HALF:

My thoughts on what the NHL should adopt:

* Go to two 30 minute halves. (I learned during All-star weekend last year, that it is a natural internal debate whether to wait 18 minutes and stay for that 3rd period or just skip out at the 2nd intermission, beat the traffic, and be fresher tomorrow.)
* Dry-scrape 15 minutes into the game and 15 minutes after the half (That way the ice gets “resurfaced” three times per game instead of only twice) Two zambonis should be able to get that done in five minutes. Hire Ricky Bobby if need be.
* Cut the intermission on-ice games and shenanigans to the bare minimum, or better still eliminate them altogether. (Use the multi-million dollar multi-media screens to their full potential instead)
* Make “halftime” 15 minutes long. (That’s enough time to wet-zamboni the ice)
* I know this is only 11 minutes shorter than today’s combined breaks but its also only 8 minutes longer than the NFLs resets.
* Another fine by-product would be the ability to update viewers with video packages and interviews three times a game instead of just twice.

11 minutes doesn’t seem like much but put that back into game action, adopt only one major intermission, and stop hurrying up the re-joins from commercial breaks and you would have a more interesting, time-smart, and visually compelling 2 ½ hour infomercial for the team, the sport, and the league.

you know, he almost sounds like he’s making sense… I could live with it.

Sharks come home…. Lose…..

But you know what? It was okay. they clearly out-competed Calgary. I was impressed with everyone’s game except Marleau’s, and they were the better team, and deserved to win.

Kiprusoff stole it. It happens. the ending was frustrating — and the Sharks shouldn’t have even been forced into overtime — but once it happened, you know anything can happen, and the Flames took advantage of an opportunity. Sharks get one point instead of 2, flames get 2 instead of zero — but what I was happy about was that they brought their road game home and played it. It didn’t generate a win, but it was a good thing to see.

Will they sustain this? time will tell. But it’s encouraging starting point.