OttoFocus

I'm Still Here

2011-03-08T23:15:00.004-05:00

I like the new templates Blogger has but I'm not sure what to write here right now. Also my time Is taken up with grad school.

Open Letter to Jim Caple

2009-07-29T01:19:00.004-04:00

I tried to "email" Jim Caple at ESPN.com but the submit "link" isn't a link at all but simply an image file. The letter below is the email I tried to send. It is in response to an asinine article Jim wrote on how Michael Vick should be allowed to play in the NFL because he "works" in the NFL and work can feel like, well, work. Obviously Jim is high as a kite and here is why:

Dear Jim Caple,
It is a privilege to work in the NFL. I am sorry Mr. Caple but you are wrong in your article about Vick being a working stiff. It is true that even if you do something that you love work still feels like work. You still feel stress from it and can affect your physically, emotionally and permanently in negative ways. But working for the NFL is a privilege and here is why.

First off Vick knew what he was getting himself into when he signed with the Falcons or whatever team drafted him. He knew that being a quarterback shoves the lime light into his face. He also knew the health risks NFL players face. At the same time he knew he would be compensated for that handsomely. The contract he signed was record breaking. Beyond that he got endorsement deals purely because he was a good player who worked in the NFL. I do not know about yourself but I have never received an endorsement deal purely because of where I work.

There are plenty of people in the world who work in much dangerous jobs for a lot less money. The first one that come to mind are fire fighters.

I severely doubt they get the seven figure income that Vick got to throw and ball and get hit. No they get paid a five figure income to put their life on the line and to save us, our stuff or our pets from a deadly situation. Football is not life or death.

The next people who I thought of off the top of my head and risk a lot more then Vick ever did are the coal miners in West Virginia. Do they want to travel two hours into the earth to dig out dirty rock that will eventually kill them? No. They do it because the money is good for them. But it is no where near the salary Vick got before he ruined himself and will get if he signs with an NFL team.

There are many more groups of people but I'll spare you the details. Lets just say Vick has it easy. Especially when he gets paid millions in the same amount of time people, risking a lot more, get paid thousands. That is why it is a privilege to work in the NFL and why Vick does not deserve to be brought back. I'm not saying he deserves to go to jail for longer he just doesn't deserve to practice his trade as you put it. He had his chance and blew it. Big time.

What do you think? Should Vick play again or should he waste away in the European equivalent to the NFL? Or should he be locked away and the key thrown away?

News Papers in the 21st Century

2009-04-11T09:07:00.002-04:00

Eric Schmidt of Google had this to say about news papers at a recent NAA conference:

These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more, right? Or, if you make them happy, you will grow them quickly. And so we try really hard to think that way.

Newspapers are trying so very hard to equate themselves with journalism. IE if the newspaper goes under we will not have a place to get our news from. That is simply a slight of hand trick that only fools the most gullible of people. In his day and age journalism has been a growing field since the blog was popularized. The newspapers died a long time ago. They are now asking for a hand out when the rest of the country has moved on.

I read the New York Times almost everyday but I have never touched a print edition of their work and wouldn't have if they didn't move online. People now a days get so much of their news from the online editions and beyond that they won't buy a physical paper anymore and combine that with the economic hard times and we get what many papers are calling the apocalypse. Their solution is to shut off access if they don't get paid for content. Nothing will quicken their irrelevance in the mind of americans. What they do not get is that many online only newspapers are filling the void faster the traditional media.

they say their online counterparts cannot produce investigative journalism at the same quality as print newspapers however they online only papers have already surpassed the quality long ago. People do not have to look far to find good online only journalism The Voice of San Diego broke a major news story all on their own that brought down a major person nit eh city government. It's only a matter of time before a online only breaks news about corruption in the Senate or Congress. The papers long ago gave up their investigative journalism for access and they are finally seeing the consequences. The people giving them access only gave them one sided stories and the traditional papers never questioned it. Now they are being trumped by online media and having to catch up.

What should the newspapers do in response? Is to get back their muckrakers and embrace the online digital medium. Their circulations would increase beyond their wildest dreams and lower the cost to publish all of their content. Here;s hoping some of the better ones like the WaPo, NYT and others pick up on it before its too late.

The Baaa-Studs

2009-04-07T14:03:00.000-04:00

In Time of War, Laws Fall Silent

2009-03-03T09:29:00.003-05:00

Today the Justice Department declassified some the legal opinions and theories penned by Bush's Justice Department specifically John Yoo. Now if you followed the FISA debate or any of the hearings in 2006 his name came up fairly often. He basically tried to justify the incredible expansion of power that occurred in executive branch under Bush.

Here are some highlights First it started with an argument that the FISA court could be a little more lax then what is required in a regular court of law and eventually devolved into an argument that the 4th amendment doesn't apply at all for our country in a time of heightened alertness (hence the terror code) and then lays the ground work that allows the army to shot first and ask questions later if at all. It's down right orwellian! I find it terrifying to see the things that ere in the back of my mind during the last eight years actually come to light and have been thought of/justified in the highest echelons of our government. I guess it's time to join up SOS because 2009 is 25 years is too late!

Thankfully by the time 2008-2009 rolled around the Justice Department woke up and flatly denied that these are even remotely usable opinions. According to Ars Technica the words"unconvincing," "not satisfactory," and "erroneous" were used quite frequently in the reports accompanying these documents. But it still is scary that from September 11th till the election. This is what the justice department used to justify its actions and would've used if it came down to it.

Don't Stop Mii Now

2009-02-20T09:48:00.001-05:00

This is in a word...awesome!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T08:50:00.005-05:00

From: xkcd

Mind Blowing

2009-02-13T00:26:00.007-05:00

In more ways then one...

I just hope Joaquin doesn't end up like his brother.

FOLLOW UP:
Sources close to the actor say its all a big gag an "art project for him" I cannot tell. However I do know he is an amazing actor. (Signs excluded from previous statement.)

By Design T-Shirts!

2009-02-12T15:08:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend my friends and I came up with some T-Shirt ideas. And I made them into a reality you can check out all the shirts right here:

There are all kinds of options so if you do not like the color blue for example you can change it to white or a complete differently style of shit! Check it out and please tell me what you think!

Remix Revisited

2009-01-23T08:24:00.005-05:00

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen's Remix Challenge

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

This is a follow up to the Larry Lessig RW Culture Talk from TED. I posted a while ago.

Lotto

2009-01-22T09:20:00.000-05:00

I've been running a Powerball (5 numbers plus the PowerBall) guessing program for most of the day and it has guessed 212550 times and in that amount of time it guessed 1 number correctly 21407 times. It guessed 2 numbers correctly 1035 times. It guessed 3 correctly 26 times. After that its all 0s so its nearly impossible for anyone to guess all the numbers correctly in one go. But it happens...

Change Has Come

2009-01-21T16:12:00.004-05:00

The Boston Globe's Big Picture has a stunning series of photographs. Many of which sent shivers down my spine but the one that struck me the most was number 23. Today is a brand new day and I could not be happier!

Yes!

2009-01-15T14:55:00.001-05:00

What Do We Tell Our Kids?

2009-01-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

Frank Rich's newest Op Ed piece in the NYT raises some very good points. Sure Madoff's Ponzi scheme was bad and a huge injustice but what about the previous injustices from the Bush Administration? What happens when people who are in their 20s and 30s now have kids and they are studying US History and get to the Bush years? What can we tell them? Do we say we just decided to move on and let time heal the wounds? Do we say we had bigger issues then seeking justice for the past eight years?

There is a lot of terrible information finally coming out about the Bush administration and it seems the public just cannot care. The sad part is we have to care we have to punish the Bush administration or it will set a dangerous precedent that will allow future leaders to exploit and take America further down this treacherous path. Becuase if Bush got away with it why can't I? Not only will history look badly upon G. W Bush but also look poorly upon the US citizens if we let him get away with it.

The Art of Silent Film Foley Artists

2009-01-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

When I first saw it I kind of thought it was real. Like a new take on old art. However as soon as they introduced and described Tibore I knew it was all a gag...

"The Noises Rest" from lonelysandwich on Vimeo.

BTW Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T12:31:00.002-05:00

Sita Sings the Blues

2009-01-07T12:25:00.003-05:00

This is pretty cool:

The only problem is that its in copyright jail because she cannot afford the rights to a Jazz singer that has been largely forgotten since the 1920's The price? $50,000. I hope she gets the money because I would love to see the full thing.

Merry Christmas 2008!

2008-12-26T00:15:00.002-05:00

Boom Goes the Dynamite

2008-12-17T09:24:00.002-05:00

The parsing and twisting of words is par for the course of the leaving administration. They took any itsy bitsy tiny loop hole and blew it wide open. But it appears that the legal reasoning behind The Domestic Spying Program takes this to an entirely new level. Here is what Alberto Gonzales has to say on the matter:

"I think it's fair to say that the statutes contemplate the transfer of this generic type of data much more on a case-by-case rather than a wholesale basis," he says, meaning that the statutes call for a court order only in cases when the government is making a targeted request for information. But, he adds, "I don't see anything in the statute that forbids such a wholesale turnover."

Julian Sanchez over at Ars Technica puts it best.

"...if this was the theory on which the administration relied? One could charitably say it might pass for clever in a high school debate round. It would be deeply unsettling if it had passed for anything more in the halls of power."

Of course the government is trying to block the release of the legal reasoning it came up with to justify the program so we do not know this is what they think for sure. But it certainly provides a pretty clear picture. Especially knowing how this administration operated previously; the President cannot commit illegal acts, the people working for the president serve at the honor of the president and thus cannot commit crimes (a la Scooter Libby). Now we can add: "since the law doesn't specifically say we cannot cast a driftnet of data it means we can."

Congratulations Bush Administration you've successfully torn the Constitution to shreds without ever touching it! It's really quite impressive. I think history is going to look upon these as very dark times especially once the details get out. I'm hoping its sooner rather than later.

Enter Your Own Blackberry Storm Pun Here

2008-12-05T14:34:00.005-05:00

I've been paying some attention to the Blackberry Storm reviews since it is the first Blackberry that is easy to compare to the iPhone. And lets face it the Storm seems to have been rushed and pushed RIM to a place out of their comfort zone. But the brutality in the reviews are not what strikes me about the coverage. Instead it's the fact that Apple has done everything else so well with the iPhone that the only thing reviewers give to RIM is that the keyboards on their products are amazing.

Now this could be because the Storm's is so awful, but if you look at the reviews for the Bold it's similar. To paraphrase one review I read; Yeah everything is nice the screen is pretty and music player is decent, but the keyboard is GREAT! Thats all RIM is known for providing an excellent keyboard and a good mail experience. Isn't that pretty easy to compete with? I think he next major release of OS X and Mobile OS X are going straight for RIM's jugular.

Best Response Yet to Prop 8!

2008-12-04T09:22:00.001-05:00

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Why the Big Three Should Go Bankrupt

2008-12-01T16:03:00.006-05:00

The international car makers aren't cheering for Detroit's collapse. Their own production would be hit if such large suppliers as the automotive interior maker Lear were to go down with a GM or Chrysler. They fear, as well, a protectionist backlash. But by the same token, a government lifeline for Detroit punishes these other companies and their American employees for making better business decisions.

The root of this other industry's success is no secret. In fact, Detroit has already adopted some of its efficiency and employment strategies, though not yet enough. To put it concisely, the transplants operate under conditions imposed by the free market. Detroit lives on Fantasy Island.

-Wall Street Journal

I find it ridiculous that because 223,000 americans work for the big three as opposed to the 113,000 that work for the "international" or transplant automakers we need to bail them out. The big Three american automakers are not too big to fail they made poor business decisions and suffer the consequences. Why are we punishing the transplants when GM Ford and Chrysler all made HUGE mistakes? Shouldn't it be the other way round?

This is the Sound of Your Data Being Ruined

2008-11-15T16:29:00.004-05:00

Remember the old drugs commercial of this is your brain this is your brain on drugs with the egg frying and it not making any sense? Well the folks at Data Solutions have something similar. The sound of a broken hard drive destroying all your data. And I cannot help laugh and be alarmed at the nasty sounds they collected here. My favorite is either the Maxtor Cell Phone or the Seagate Momentus drilling sound.

First Black President

2008-11-06T12:57:00.010-05:00

Electing Barack Obama President of the United States truly a milestone in race relations here in the US and the world. Many people and I among them are standing up today and saying how great is this country? We have elected a black president. More than a black president; a president from a multiracial couple, and has pan Asian roots. He is an embodiment of the melting pot metaphor. We do deserve our pats on the back and should be proud and realize that we've come a long way from slavery to now.

However we must also look to Prop 8 in California and be disheartened. We have clearly made a great stride but I cannot help but feel upset by the passing of Prop 8. When I was in school and we were taught not to be prejudice. We were taught all men are created equal. We were not taught all men but homosexuals are created equal we were not taught that judging people on race is bad but judging people on who you are attracted to is okay.

We were taught that prejudice is bad. That is it. There are no exceptions! And what is the worst is seeing a few reports here and there that the majority of black population of California voted Yes on prop 8. Yes on a right their own ancestors had to fight hard to receive. That to me is a terrible sign. Yes the 2008 election shows as Americans we moved on but how far have we actually gone?

GOP Crumbling

2008-11-06T12:48:00.003-05:00

The 2008 election was clearly historic and I will cover that. I'm still letting it sink in and waiting on the results of a few Senate Races to truely see how this all turns out. However the GOP has already started playing the blame and game and you know who is right there on the scene reporting that? Fox News! Apparently they knew a lot of this stuff previously but it was "off the record" until after the election was over. In other words they sat on the story until McCain Palin lost.