Jump Pages

Ok, I'll admit it, this is a little random but hey it's what I want to talk about. If you have ever picked up a newspaper and read it you've come across the phenomenon known as jump pages. Basically the newspaper prints part of the story on the front page with a big bold headline to match and then near the back of the paper they print the rest of the story. This means if you want to finish the story you have to "jump" from the front of the paper to the back page (or jump page). To be honest I find the practice rather irritating, especially when they jump mid-sentence. Despite not liking it, however, I do understand why papers do it. It's all about space. What I don't understand is why email's need them. Let me give you a rather common example in my inbox.

I subscribe to several of Kim Komando's daily email offerings. Now please do not misunderstand me here. I'm not picking solely on Kim, there are plenty more just like her, she just happens to be the most common one in my inbox as it is a daily email. Every day I get three emails from Kim. One of them offers a site that might interest me, another is a tech news feed, and the third is her daily tip. By the way, you can sign up for all three at her website. In her daily tip Kim often responds to a letter from a subscriber. The email usually included the letter and about 3 paragraphs of response from Kim before it abruptly ends and there is a link that says something about reading the rest by clicking to go to the story on her webpage. Invariably I either don't care or don't want to take the time to click on the link to read the rest and the email gets filed away. I just want to know why the whole story can't be published in the email. It's not like there aren't any ads in the email or that the email costs so much more than the site. It just makes sense to me to include the whole answer to a question in a email. Like I said this happens a lot, I get it from several different sources some daily some weekly. All of them I wish would include the whole answer or story or whatever instead of making me jump to their website. I know it's not going to happen but I wish it would.

Thanks for reading.

Finally he quit talking about hockey...

Ok, so I know I've talked about hockey a lot (it's been on my mind with the season and all) but today is going to be different, I promise. I want to talk technology. Yesterday was not a fun day for me, I spent most of the day offline dealing with a computer that for some reason would not work. After re-booting it about 10 times (amongst other things) it started working again. It never came up with a real error except maybe on IRQ issue. That, of course makes me a little nervous, as I don't know if something is failing in my system or if it was just a little problem. Needless to say my day could have gone just a little better.
The whole ordeal got me thinking about buying a new computer and maybe possibly some new accessories. So I grabbed what I like to affectionately call "the little blue flyer" (aka the Best Buy ads although it's yellow instead of blue now) and started looking through it for what the newest products might be. I was pretty disappointed. Laptops with no more hard drive space than I already have, no improvement in graphics and less battery life than 2 years ago. Not exactly what I'm looking for. But that's not even the worst thing.

There are lots of people out there paying way to much for tech products. Let me give you an example. HDMI cables. If you have a newer TV, sound system, computer or DVD player you've no doubt heard of this new way of connecting devices to a TV and getting better picture and sound out of it. The question is do you know how much the cables cost? According to the Fred Meyer ad (Best Buy doesn't have one on sale this week) you can get a 4 ft. HDMI cable for $32. It's a 4 ft. cable!?!? What's it made out of GOLD?!?! Well, actually it is, the ends are gold plated to be corrosion resistant. You want to know how much I payed for the 2 HDMI cables I have in my home? About 17 dollars and that includes a $6 S&H fee. They work fine and bonus they're 6 ft. long instead of only 4. WOW! How can I get that deal you might ask? It's simple go to www.monoprice.com. Cheap cables, heck they have tons of cool tech stuff for cheap.

The second product that I want to talk about is batteries. Since the dawn of digital camera's batteries have been trying to keep up. First there were Nickel Cadmium rechargeable batteries. Not better than the Alkaline ones already on the market but at least you could re-use them. Then they came out with Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH). Those started out pretty weak but improved and eventually surpassed their Alkaline counterparts, but they have one major flaw. They don't last when left sitting. If you're like me you take pictures maybe a couple of times a month, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the events going on in your life. I got really tired of having my NiMH batteries never giving me enough power to take more than 20 or 30 pictures. So I started talking to people. My cousin and my uncle both found the best batteries I have ever used. Hybrid Rechargeables! They're an 80%/20% mix of NiMH and alkaline. They are guaranteed to hold their charge above 80% for 6 months. I never have a problem with them anymore. If you want those you can find them in the US at www.batteriesplus.com. In Canada I've been told they are a little easier to find, Wal-Mart and London Drugs are probably good places to check. These batteries use a standard NiMH charger and require a lot less maintenance to stay in good condition. There now didn't I just make you feel either a lot better or a lot worse about tech stuff. I really have to start making these posts shorter (I'll work on that). Thanks for reading.

An Outdated Concept? Really?!?

The headline reads "Bettman casts doubt on NHLers in future Olympics." Now, if you've read my last couple of posts about hockey you have an idea of how I feel about Commissioner Bettman. I think he's wrong, in it for the money, doesn't care about the fans and with this article (the link is also available by clicking the title of this post), he also doesn't care about the league as a whole. The article I mentioned was an interview conducted by the Canadian Press regarding a wide variety of issues. The biggest one for me is a comment Bettman made about the Olympics. He basically says he doesn't think that NHL hockey players should play in the Olympics after the 2010 Winter Games except maybe if the games are played in North America. The two week shut down of the league every 4 years in February is apparently more than the league can handle. Bettman said he doesn't see any point in having players play games around the world especially because no one in North America would be watching. The next are being held in Russia, roughly 13 or so hours ahead of the east coast, so games may not be played during prime time in North America. Bettman thinks the added exposure isn't enough to out way the loss of those two weeks.

Let's look at a couple of things, first off the "complaints." A) The Olympic break comes at a time when there isn't much other sports going on in North America and b) it comes right as the NHL is beginning it's playoff push. First my answer to part a. Relatively slow time in sports in North America in February??? Funny, the NBA season is in full swing and, living in a NBA market, it's all most people want to talk about. The Olympics are watched WORLDWIDE!!!!!!!!! Taking a week break every 4 years to show the world the best hockey players the NHL has to offer and possibly the best players in the world sounds like a pretty good trade off to me. It's not like hockey doesn't need more exposure in the United States, particularly in markets where people don't go to games like oh I don't know Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay. Olympic coverage makes more people aware of the sport. More people aware, means more who want to play, more people who want to play means more competition, more competition means...well you get the idea. Now for part b). The Olympic break only happens every 4 years. Just based on that alone I don't understand what the problem is. Every 4 years the playoff race is put on hold for two weeks and the whole world watches the Olympics instead of the NHL.

Mr. Bettman if you want to grow the NHL and make it better quit treating the fans like crap and demanding that everything be done your way. If you want to grow the league get exposure worldwide by allowing NHL players to continue to play in the Olympics. If you want to diminish the NHL and make it a place where fans and players alike don't feel accepted keep doing what your doing. You and you're management team are fast becoming the laughing stock of the major leagues in North America. Heck some people even say that MLS is doing better than the NHL. Really, soccer???? Change your ways Bettman or you will lose respect from even more fans and players and you might even completely destroy one of the oldest and greatest hockey leagues in the world (notice I said world not North America, yes, I know I'm being redundant but I'm trying to make a point here). Go Oilers! Go Hockey! Go Olympics! Vancouver 2010 130 days and counting.