What do the Sharks loss to the Wings and the victory against the Canucks have in common?
Pop Quiz: what do the sharks loss to the wings, and last night’s victory against the Canucks have in common?
The losing team in both cases had back to back games with travel involved.
Does the fact that the Canucks came out with dead legs and were blown out of the building in the first five minutes mean anything in the long run?
Not really. And really, the same can be said about the Wings game. the media turned it into a big “benchmark” game, because, well, they have to have things to talk about, but in reality, the series between detroit and san jose is 1-1, both losing teams having played back to back with travel the night before. Doesn’t really prove much yet, other than there’s a good chance they’ll meet each other deep in the playoffs, and advantage to the team with home ice advantage (maybe).
Ditto the Canucks last night. The game started with the Sharks grabbing the puck and basically putting on about a four minute cycle exposition where the Canucks were lucky to get the puck out of the zone, much less get it to center ice and change (they really didn’t get it into the Sharks zone, much less control the puck). It ended as it seemed inevitable with a Sharks goal at 4:22.
It was clear from the start the Canucks simply didn’t have skating legs. they looked tired. They tried — and couldn’t. Schneider could have been better, but he got no help.
After the Sharks went up 3-0, they went into lock down mode and backed off, playing that grey area between embarassing a team by scoring a zillion goals and embarassing a team by not pretending to play. Sometimes, the Sharks get in trouble doing this and let teams back in the game, and Vancouver kinda sorta tried, but San Jose was too dominating. The shot count was really misleading — San Jose went into “find the perfect shot” mode early and worried more about killing clock than running the score.
A perfect case in point was one time when the sharks were on penalty kill and the puck turned over. Patrick Marleau pursued, and he clearly shut it down in center ice and timed his arrival to get to the puck right after the Canuck did. With Marleau’s speed, he would have easily gotten to the puck first and created at least havoc and probably a shorthanded chance with a clean show at Sanford — and chose not to, but did it in a way that wouldn’t “show up” the team or be easily noticed unless you’re in arena and watching closely. Rather class act, IMHO.
What you need to know about how unbalanced the game was: Jody Shelley getting power play time, because McLellan started rolling four lines.
How do you coach a game like this? I have this vision of McLellan behind the bench saying “boys, if you cost Nabby this shutout, we’re bag skating tomorrow”. Which sounds silly, but if you’re trying to teach a team not to let up when they’re dominating, that’s the kind of mentality you need. And last night, they did.
Last night’s game was about 10 minutes of Sharks domination, followed by 50 minutes of Vancouver “when does the plane take off?”
Not something you can use to make broad pronouncements about the Canucks or their season. And that says something about the Wings game, also, I think.
Reboot needed
I used to make fun of Microsoft for their updates to non-essential software that, after installation, required a reboot. Apple has now trumped them. The recent update to Digital Camera Raw Compatibility “extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras” and “also addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability”. And it requires a reboot.
Note to Apple: this suggests that someone has messed up badly on determining which components of the operating system are critical to its operation
Not really. More that the release notes were worded badly.
Those updates actually update frameworks within the core of Apple OS, and they aren’t JUST for Aperture or iPhoto, but any application that uses the frameworks. You’ll see it in use in the preview function of the “open file” dialogs, for instance, so these updates actually live pretty deep in the OS.
It might be nice if you could update things that deep in the OS and not worry about it until a later reboot activates them, but that gets complicated.
So the problem here isn’t that Apple requires a reboot, it’s that it did a lousy job of explaining what it was doing and why. But then, we’ve been complaining about how they document updates for a while, and it’s only marginally improved from “fixes stuff”.
What does the Sharks blowout by the Wings really mean?
To me, the answer is simple:
“We’re not done yet”.
For all the Sharks have been rolling this season, Detroit is still the Cup Champions, and the Sharks are “simply” a team with a great start. They haven’t taken the mantle away from Detroit, and Detroit was clearly not going to hand it over that easily.
you can throw a lot of things in the mix: 2nd game in back to backs on the road, injured players (effectively skating a full line that a month ago was in Worcester), etc, etc. Bottom line: Sharks didn’t play well early, Nabokov gave up a couple of soft goals early, and the team let tired legs take control of the game after that. Oh, and the Wings wanted to make a statement, and did.
All of which says the Sharks have more work to do if they want to get what they’re shooting for this season.
The good news is — losses like this are good, because they keep a team from getting lazy or starting to think it’s going to be easy. It gives them something to get motivated around to improve their game further, and this is the kind of team that will. I’m actually pretty happy that Detroit spanked the team — a close loss or a couple of bad bounces could be explained away, that loss requires some deep thinking and commitment to improve.
Detroit was clearly a much better team. Fortunately, it’s December, when a loss like this is a learning experience and not the end of a season. And once you get past that, you just move on. Both teams have won, at home, on the 2nd game of back to backs for the losing team. There’s a lot of hockey left to play before we really know which team is going to go further in the playoffs.
One of the teams the Sharks have played recently that really impressed me was Columbus. In the first game, which the Sharks stole, I was finding myself wondering how a team playing that well was 14th in the conference (as of tonight, they’re 11th; that’s part of the answer; they’re now playing well and moving up). but when you look at the standings, four wins separates the 15th team (St. Louis) from the 8th playoff spot. Unlike the easy, where you can presume that six or seven of the teams have already settled into the playoffs and you have four teams playing for that eighth spot, in the West, there are maybe four teams that are “safe” for the playoffs, and you have eleven teams playing for the other four spots. The hockey is that good, and the race is still that close — two or three wins or losses can shuffle the standings around in a major way.
Steve Mason has impressed the hell out of me, and as of now, is on my short list for rookie of the year. But the Bluejackets are really playing good, confident hockey right now, and they’re going to make some teams crazy along the way. Right now, they look to be one of the teams making the final eight, and more power to them.
The ever-evolving Macworld Expo
The ever-evolving Macworld Expo | Editors’ Notes | Macworld:
Apple certainly has a point when it says that it has more ways of reaching out to consumers than ever before, and if you’ve paid attention to Steve Jobs’ keynote addresses over the years, Apple’s decision probably didn’t come as a huge shock. He’s mentioned repeatedly how many multiples of Macworld Expo attendees the Apple retail stores welcome.
But it’s a world of difference to give mall shoppers a cursory, superficial introduction to the Macintosh platform, the iPhone and the iPod, and showing them a handful of accessories and software applications, compared to the Macworld Expo experience. To that end, Macworld Expo won’t be easily replaced or duplicated by a trip to the Apple Store, no matter what Apple says.
You know, I was just thinking… (always dangerous)
The one thing I haven’t heard is how the Mac community, publications, bloggers and enthusiasts can replace the lost exposure third parties are going to have following Apple’s ending of their work with Macworld. With a cooperative effort, modern internet technologies, some careful thought and some sweat equity, doesn’t it seem we can create something that’ll help replace this? And maybe make it better by making it permanent, not a one week death march that soon turns into a blur?
Seems to me there’s a cat to bell here.
Will there be slient protest at Apple’s keynote in Jan?
Will there be slient protest at Apple’s keynote in Jan? – mediabistro.com: MobileDevicesToday:
My name is Lesa Snider King and I’m mad at Apple.
Lesa Snider King, your 15 minutes has officially started.
Oh, good grief. Michael was being too kind:
2009 Wall Calendar
Well, barely in time for christmas, I got this put together….
In 2008, I did a calendar using my photography for the first time and gave copies to friends. It got very strong and positive feedback, not just from my friends, but from people who saw it and kept asking if they could get copies.
This year, I decided instead of doing a single limited run, I’d set it up so I could order more copies later if I wanted, and allow all of you to buy copies if you want to. After doing some research, I decided to use CafePress.
So I now have available my first buyable piece of photography, my 2009 Wall Calendar, now available from the new Chuqui Store, powered by CafePress. If nothing else, it’s an interesting experiment to help me get a feel for some things I have planned in 2009. Price of a calendar (buy one for mom! buy dozens for your friends! If you hurry, you can still get them by christmas!!!!!!) is $16.99, and I will donate $1 of every sale to Santa Clara Valley Audubon as a way to help support that organization.
The images I chose for the calendar represent a selection of representative work I did since the last calendar, including my winter trip to Yosemite, our fall trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons and some nice pieces from the Morro Bay and Carrizo Plains area, plus, of course, birds. The images I chose are available to view on flickr.
A couple of my absolute favorites from the last year include this landscape from Yellowstone
This image of a great egret fishing in Sweet Springs reserve, Los Osos, CA
and it wouldn’t be the same without a look at Half Dome, in this case, during a winter storm:
With any luck, I’ll be able to buy Bob Power a coffee with the proceeds! This is just the first of a number of things i plan to do starting in 2009 — and I’ll talk about that in more detail after the holidays. Until then, don’t forget to visit the Chuqui Store and do your part for fixing the economy!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all
I went birding! No, really!
The sun came out, the temperatures moderated, and I just needed to get out of the office for a bit, so I ran down to Redwood Shores for lunch and a birding run. I hit three spots, the front lagoon where a long-tailed duck has been reported hanging out with the scaups, and then on to the Davit lane lagoon, and the radio road ponds.
It took me about 30 minutes, but I found the long-tailed duck, which at first glance, looks somewhat like a young scaup, somewhat like a young scoter, somewhat like a — oh, hell, I don’t know what I find more challenging, young and female ducks, sandpipers, sparrows, or juvenile gulls. Choose one, they all drive
you crazy. (probably sandpipers….)
Of course, once I saw it, it was painfully obvious what it was, A younger bird without the long tail feathers, but with more white on the sides of the head and a different bill than the other birds. Of course, after 30 minutes of scoping the lagoon, I noticed it about 15′ out on the water, preening. Other birds in the area: pied-billed grebes and one western grebe, scaups, buffleheads, common goldeneye, and a few of the other random usual suspects like cormorants, gulls, etc. Nothing too unusual for the time of year.
Davit road was about normal; the redhead that’s been there for years was out with the mallards, hanging. One Barlowe’s Goldeneye in with the Commons, a brown pelican hanging out with the cormorants on the cormorant dock, and the pied-billed grebes were pairing off and vocalizing to each other.
Then on to radio road. Hit it during a rising tide, so lots of shorebirds coming in and hanging out. In the flooded areas behind the dog park, lots of stilts, marbled godwits, willets, and a nice flock of whimbrels. Out on the southern pond, I checked out the long island and saw nothing unusual. Scoping the water and the other islands I found a pair of black turnstones hanging out in a group of willets; not unheard of at this location, but not common. Then a smaller sandpiper scooted through, wandering in and around the sleeping willets and looking really skittish. At first thought I was thinking lesser yellowlegs, but it was smaller than that, more like the size of a spotted sandpiper. There are spotted sandpipers in the area, if not at that location.
Then I noticed the greenish legs. It gave me good, long, clear looks in the scope, and I did a comparison check with the guide. After I was sure I’d seen what I thought I saw, I headed back to work and pulled up flickr to do some more research. After doing that, I was convinced I was right, and I’d happened to run into a solitary sandpiper. Also not unprecedented there, but rather notable. I sent along the report to ebird and pen-birds; with a bit of luck, it’ll stick around and be confirmed. Even if not, for once I’m comfortable with the ID of a bird this unusual.
*****
Update: Ron Thorn thinks this was a red knot. He’s probably right, I need to do some research to make sure I understand how I got the call wrong. Back later.
*****
The long-tailed duck and solitary sandpipers are lifers for me, and (a bit to my surprise) black turnstone is a year bird. That’s a nice, pleasant surprise for a couple of reasons. The two lifers take my life list to 218, and my year list to 197.
When I started 2008, I set myself a couple of goals. First, to hit 200 species on the life list, which I actually hit early in the year, and adjusted it to 225 to keep it a challenge, and to try for 200 species for the year. With everything that’s gone on this year, birding turned into an escape more than an initiative and I really didn’t push on the goals, and missed large parts of both spring and fall migration completely. Last weekend, watching the rain come down, I’d come to terms with not hitting the 225/200 goals this year. Now, suddenly at 197 for the year, there’s a chance I might be able to hit that number again. Just maybe.
The other goal I’ve had for a while was to actually discover (and have confirmed) a notable species. It’s one thing (and I’m not being negative here) having someone find the long-tailed duck and chase it down and say “yup, that’s a long-tailed duck!” — that can, in fact, be a significant challenge (just try it with, say, Northern Waterthrush, like the one in Mountain view that sometimes cooperates and sometimes doesn’t). But to be able to find a rare species, to really add to the knowledge of the local birder community — that’s something I’ve wanted to do (plus, it’s a nice indication of how my ability to ID birds is progressing. In the last year, I’ve progressed to “only kinda suck at it”).
The solitary sandpiper qualifies as that bird, at least it will if someone else confirms the ID. I’ve come close a couple of times before, last spring when we had what we believe was an Orchard Oriole up here in the San Mateo hills during spring migration, but we never refound the bird for confirmation.
So maybe I’ll hit these goals this year, magically. Be nice. If not, there’s always next year…
Hmm. where can I find three more species for the year list? there’s that damn waterthrush, maybe, and…
—
Location: Redwood Shores
Observation date: 12/17/08
Number of species: 36
Canada Goose 6
Gadwall X
Eurasian Wigeon 1
American Wigeon X
Mallard X
Cinnamon Teal 12
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail X
Green-winged Teal 6
Canvasback X
Redhead 1
Lesser Scaup X
Long-tailed Duck 1 re-found near sofitel hotel among the scaups, continuing bird.
Common Goldeneye X
Barrow’s Goldeneye 1 found on davit road lagoon
Ruddy Duck X
Pied-billed Grebe X
Western Grebe 1
Brown Pelican 1
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 12
Turkey Vulture X
Red-tailed Hawk X
American Coot X
Black-necked Stilt X
American Avocet X
Solitary Sandpiper 1 Found on the radio road ponds about 12:30 among a flock of willets sleeping on the first round island in the southern pond; greenish legs, smaller than a lesser yellowlegs, greyish coloration. Same rough size as a spotted sandpiper, very skittish and active, darting in and around the sleeping birds. very similar to this bird:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenblumin/2094073420/
Willet X
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Whimbrel 10
Black Turnstone 2
Ring-billed Gull X
Black Phoebe 6
Common Raven 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
No Steve. No Macworld. No problem.
Apple drops the bombshell yesterday. Some have questioned the timing, but I think they were at a point where they had to commit to floor space in Macworld 2010, and better they announce it and control the spin than have it leak from IDG and turn into a PR firefight.
I think it’s a good thing, and been coming over the horizon for a while. Trade shows are brutally expensive for a company like Apple, and the push to make a major push in product announcements just AFTER Apple’s core sales period ends is increasingly silly. Apple’s not just (primarily) a computer company any more, but a consumer product company. It’s definitely not a “Mac” company any more, it’s much more, so from a business standpoint, Apple benefits least of pretty much anyone involved @ Macworld. It doesn’t need the keynote to generate press, it can create a keynote on demand with the press now.
The folks that benefit most? All those Apple people who never got christmas week off because they were crunching for MacWorld.
Folks who benefit the least? well, IDG is screwed. But I don’t have huge sympathy there. But the small developers and smaller mac companies where Macworld was a chance to network and get some visibiliity are going to have to figure out something else. WWDC might be an option for some as an alternative, but this leaves a gap for them, especially for the “walk around and figure out who you need to get to know” aspect.
On the other hand, if Apple’s cost outlay for a Macworld is $2-3 million dollars (and when you factor in payroll costs and etc, bet on it), it gets increasingly hard to justify trade shows, even Macworld. So I’m not surprised.
There’s lots of coverage of this “event”, as you might expect. A lot of it boils down to “things are changing, I don’t like change!” which is weird in a way, given Apple’s success is primarily driven by being willing to drive innovation and make changes and not be tied too heavily to the status quo.
A lot of coverage is being aimed at Steve’s health. Without diving into that too deeply myself or trying to say “no, it’s not” as a blanket statement, I seriously doubt it. Steve may well want to back off and reduce his workload, but if the keynotes made sense for Apple, Steve would do them. Take this more as an indication of the belief his time is better spent elsewhere, which leads back to believing that trade shows are expensive, time consuming and increasingly limited in their impact in return. Steve’s situation is a trailing indicator, not a leading edge of the decision here.
Business Week’s Arik Hesseldahl has one of the more thoughtful (read: I agree) views of this beast:
Bailing On Macworld Is A Good Thing – BusinessWeek:
The first thing that’s coming to so many minds in the wake of today’s announcement from Apple that CEO Steve Jobs won’t be making his customary keynote address at the Macworld Expo on Jan. 6, is the condition of Jobs’ health.
I don’t think his health has anything to do with it. Though I think the speculation that has come to surround his appearance in recent years is a minor factor in the decision.
I also really thought Jason had some good thoughts on this at Macworld:
Apple at Expo: What went wrong? | Mac Word | Macworld:
Tuesday’s news that Apple had announced that Steve Jobs wouldn’t be appearing at Macworld Expo and that the company would stop exhibiting at the show after 2009 came as a shock. I’m stunned that Apple has taken a 25-year-old event that has been the single best meeting place for the entire community of users and vendors of Apple-related products and treated it like a piece of garbage stuck to the bottom of its shoe. But I’m not really surprised: Apple has been leading up to this moment for a long time now.
Also worth reading:
Rob Griffiths @ Macworld:
The end of an era for Macworld Expo | Editors’ Notes | Macworld:
For several years, trade shows—technology trade shows in particular—have been in serious decline. From Comdex to E3, large trade shows have been dying out or drastically changing their focus. Even Macworld Expo hasn’t been immune, as the east coast show was canceled after the 2005 event. (The Expo was moved from New York in 2004, and Apple declined to participate in the Boston show that year; the show lasted only one more year before being canceled.) The annual San Francisco Macworld Expo, however, seemed safe from the troubles. For nearly 20 years, the January event has been the one place to see and be seen in the world of all things Apple.
Michael Gartenberg (as usual):
Macworld’s demise is of little consequence to Apple – mediabistro.com: MobileDevicesToday:
It’s been floating around all day as a rumor but it seems that not only is Steve Jobs not keynoting Macworld, but this will be Apple’s last year at the show. Given that, it’s hard to see how the conference continues. It’s clearly the passing of an era but I don’t think this is that major in terms of news for Apple. Over the last several years, Apple has downplayed the importance of Macworld as an event (and stopped attending the east coast show some years ago before that event ceased to exist). Apple, unlike many other companies has the ability to draw audience of press and analysts as needed. In addition, the Apple retail experience is a good showcase for consumers who want to see Apple products up close.
As for Steve Jobs as a no-show? I’d expect this to be a pretty tame Macworld in terms of news. If you’re expecting a major announcement in January, you’re going to be disappointed.
although I’m guessing if this really is the start of a transition from “Apple as Steve-center-of-the-universe” there’s no better way to do that than not have steve give the keynote AND come out with something kicker. It seems that there’s this presumption that because Apple chose now to make this change ti doesn’t have much to talk about. Maybe, but I think they chose this time to make this decision for other reasons, and perhaps having a strong product announcement is actually part of the plan here. We’ll see.
My bottom line — everyone’s hypered up about this, because, well, that’s what we do about Apple stuff. but ultimately, this is a big non-issue, and once past it and looking back on it with some time, we’ll wonder why we made such a fuss. Well, no, we won’t. we’ll be too busy making a big fuss about the next major apple non-event event…
Update:
John Siracusa at Ars nails it:
Fearless: Apple’s Macworld Expo exit is part of its DNA:
There are many words that characterize Apple under the second reign of Steve Jobs: resurgent, exciting, innovative, successful. I’d add one more to that list: fearless.
Most large corporations are afraid of change. Successful product lines, business plans, and especially brands are milked for every penny. And when there’s nothing left, when the thing’s been beaten into the ground until not a single ounce of value remains, only then will corporations reluctantly move on. But wait! Sometimes they quickly moved back, either because they lost their nerve at the last minute, or because the new direction proved even worse than the exhausted husk of the old winner.
Piper believes leadership shift at Apple is underway
AppleInsider | Piper believes leadership shift at Apple is underway:
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, one of the most outspoken and trusted experts on all things Apple,
One out of two’s not bad, I guess.
What I do for a living… (well, what I did)
With today’s announcements about the end of the SteveNote and the probably end of Macworld Expo after this year (more on that later), I thought it couldn’t hurt to throw a pointer back at something I wrote a couple of years ago, since I guess this is really the beginning of the end of the infamous Reality Distortion Field.
Have fun.
Chuqui 3.0: What I do for a living…:
I’ve been talking to my business team about this, on and off, and whether this hardcore secrecy is still really necessary or relevant now that the project is maturing. We’ve all finally come to an agreement, with some appropriate restrictions, to open up the kimono a bit, since there’s some really interesting technology involved. I’m hoping to work on a paper for an upcoming comference, hopefully next year’s Etech by O’Reilly.
Until then, this will have to do.
You see — I run the Reality Distortion Field.
Yes, that one.
It’s probably all my fault that this is happening, since I’m not there to maintain the RDF any longer…
and any purchases you made will be treated as referrals by us.
