Steve Lyons and Insulting Latino baseball players

Gustavo Arellano has a great opinion piece in the LA Times today about the Steve Lyons things and how there has been a long history of insulting Latino ballplayers in different ways.

It seems no one can possibly gain anything from this mess. Not Lyons, who lost his network job (though not his part-time Dodgers gig). Not Piniella, whose lame Spanglish deserved mocking — Sweet Lou described an Oakland A's player as being en fuego (geez, Lou: I didn't know that cliche translated into español, también). Not Fox Sports, which now must answer to accusations of political correctness from its frothing news division. And not even the nation's alphabet soup of Latino advocacy groups — MALDEF, LULAC, NALEO, MEChA — can use the incident to thunder about the plight of their wards before a rapt, donation-ready audience, because the remarks were so mild.

...

Insulting Latinos — the nation's largest minority, with billions in spending power, blah, blah, blah — is a cherished tradition among baseball writers and analysts.

The best part of his essay is the last paragraph which recalls an incident from a couple of years ago that I had forgotten about:

Besides, Psycho got it all wrong. All real baseball fans know Latinos steal Derek Jeter's glove, not wallets. Just ask Ruben Rivera.

I think the whole thing was ridiculous, and as Arellano points out, not too much was made of Arnold Schwarzennegger's comments about Latinos recently which was way over the line. That issue came and went pretty fast, but this Lyons story was less important and is still around

Empty post

Something used to be here but is not here any longer. If you were looking for it, you got here a little too late. If you don't know what it was, you are better off not knowing. If you think this is a strange entry, you are right.

Convert to PDF

With Mac OS X, PDF became the default file format and there is a built in print to PDF function, so every application can generate PDFs. Great for saving things for distribution later. On Windows, you can do the same with Adobe Acrobat, but that costs some money. I was looking for a free alternative and came across PrimoPDF. It allows you to print to PDF from any application and it is totally free. Can't beat that.

SEO'Brien

If you are interested in online search, advertising and marketing, you should be reading Paul O'Brien's Search Engine optimization and online marketing tips and lessons at SEO'Brien. His blog covers all kinds of interesting things like How to get readers to your blog, where to get links, and shopping and searching online. Paul has experience with everything related to online advertising, so you are sure to pick up a few valuable tips by checking out his site. He keeps it updated frequently and many entries point to tools you can use right away. Part one of his ongoing ten part series on search engine optimization provides some practical ideas for web designers to make sure their sites are accessible to search engines -- things like organizing and optimizing your URLs, including a sitemap, and making sure the user experience is the best it can be.

Virtual Dashboard

Macupdate stole the whole idea of one piece of software on sale for a day only from MacZot, but a little competition means more choices. Today's deal is Virtual Dashboard, which lets you group widgets together in sets. At $5.99 it's 40% off today only. If that's not for you, they'll have something new on Monday -- they don't have any offers on the weekend, although MacZot does.

Color Schemer

MacZot is offering Color Schemer Studio today for $29, a $20 savings. It helps you match up colors. I guess it's mostly for web pages, but I wonder if you could use it to paint and decorate your house. I have to try it out before I decide if it's worth the $29 but it looks like it could be useful.

Bob Knight signs contract extension

Bob Knight, coach of Texas Tech men's basketball, is going to sign a contract extension through 2006. I think he's about 65 years old, so it's nice to see that the university has confidence that he will still be able to do the job past 70. I hope to get that old someday and still have the option to work. The strange thing about it is that his son Pat, signed a deal last year which makes him the head coach when his dad retires. I wonder if the idea of waiting another 6 years to take over is what he had in mind. I think Donn Nelson signed a deal like that with the Dallas Mavericks to take over from his dad, Don Nelson, and then never did.

Let's go Mets!

The Mets game starts in a few minutes. I'm going to miss the first few innings, but since this is game 7, I'm rooting for the Mets to win and get in the World Series for the first time in a long time. No Cleon Jones or Bud Harrelson this time, but I think this group can do it and win it all. If they get Orlando Hernandez back for a couple of games, they will be in good shape.

Free Halloween sounds

I like to hook up my iPod to a speaker on my front porch on Halloween and play creepy sounds. It can be hard to find the right kind of sound to scare people away, but Adam Pash at About.com has done that for everyone this year. He's got several links to scary Halloween sounds. Best thing -- all are free! Check it out and get ready for Halloween.

Peer to peer lending at Utopialoans.com

Utopialoans -- www.utopialoans.com -- is a unique source of funding -- a peer to peer loan service which works a little bit like eBay. Borrowers and lenders list and bid on loans in an auction style system. The site has been operating for four months and has set up more than 150 loans for almost a million dollars so far. There is also a public element to the site where your late payments are available for lenders and others to see on a kind of outcasts page. They call the site Utopia because their aim is to help everyone get what they need without discrimination. If you are a borrower or a lender, UtopiaLoans is  worth checking out.

Mets win, looking good for game 7

I think you have to like the Mets' chances tomorrow night after their win tonight. They've got the home field advantage, a little bit of momentum, and much more offense than the Cardinals. As always, it will come down to pitching and both teams are a little shaky with the starters. St. Louis may have the edge with Jeff Suppan, but the Cardinals have not done well against left handed pitchers and the Mets are starting a lefty, Oliver Perez.

Give a VoiceQuilt to preserve some memories

About ten years ago I bought a talking photo in Las Vegas. My wife and I recorded our voices and it was stored in a little metal thing which was embedded in the frame around the photo. A novelty, but nothing great. VoiceQuilt takes that idea to a whole new level.

You and your friends can call in over the phone to record a greeting a story, whatever you like. You choose a keepsake to deliver the sounds and the recipient gets that along with a playlist. You can also choose electronic delivery. I can think of many ways this could be used, but since my new boss of 1 week is retiring next week, something like this would be nice to record some memories for a retirement gift. Some of his co-workers could record favorite stories about him and he would have that to remember his years at the job. Pretty unique.

Mets need to do something different

I thought the Mets had the advantage last night with Tom Glavine going against Jeff Weaver. Weaver does not have a good record under pressure and although Glavine also has a less impressive postseason record than his regular season work, I figured he would do well against the Cardinals. It was a close game, but again the Cardinals won. Jayson Stark seems to think it's a huge upset if the Cardinals win, but the remaining games are in New York and I think the Mets still have a pretty good chance to win it. However, I don't think either team will beat the Tigers who will be well rested and have a much better pitching staff than either the Mets or the Cardinals.

Get MS Project training face to face in the UK

I work for an organization which does much of its business providing IT training to all kinds of people. Almost all of it is done face to face and live, which seems to be much more effective for most people and would be my personal preference in most cases, assuming the instructor is engaging and knows her stuff. Online training has some significant benefits, but it works better for people who have the motivation to keep going on their own. Often, that is not everyone. Face to face training allows you to interact with an instructor on the spot to resolve any problems or confusion you have, and it seems to take less time to learn this way. If you need to learn Microsoft Project and you are in the UK, Best Training offers management microsoft project training in London and elsewhere. MS Project training will help you get going with a fairly complex piece of software, but one which is widely used to manage people and projects. Courses are offered frequently and can even be customized to meet your organization's needs. You can even sign up online. If you need to learn MS Project and you want to maximize your time, check out Best Training's courses in the UK.

University of Phoenix stadium

Although it is the largest private university in the United States, I don't think the University of Phoenix has any sports teams. It's not that kind of university -- the students are primarily working adults and many of the courses are online. So it seemed strange during the Arizona Cardinals game tonight when the announcer kept saying "University of Phoenix" stadium. It turns out that the U. of Phoenix bought the naming rights last month to the stadium for 20 years, just like Fedex Orange Bowl and PacBell/AT&T Park.

Bidwill said, "When you look at University of Phoenix, that's what they're really about: They're about technology and improving people's lives. It's a very good, wholesome product, and we're proud to be associated with it."

The school's founder, John Sperling, is considered a pioneer in for-profit education and online education, although the school does have its share of critics, especially among traditional educators. Apollo also has had its share of challenges the past two years, the most recent of which is an investigation into its stock-option grants.

The naming rights cost $7.7 million a year for each of the 20 years of the deal.

Painkillers can be addictive

Painkillers are sometimes really important for people to recover from surgery or other health issues, but in many cases, they generate a new problem. I've known several people who ran into problems with painkillers, including one who broke into a neighbor's house to steal his pain medicine when he was out of work for back problems. Not a pretty situation.

If you know someone who has become addicted to painkillers, you know it can be an expensive habit to break. Rehab can be costly and it takes a month. A new option is the Meditox Method which uses 1 on 1 work with the client plus drug detox using a new medicine called Suboxone. This method allows you to deal with the problem at home, which can be preferable for many people. Check out some of their success stories. They have centers in Palm Beach, Florida, Dallas, and Beverly Hills. The Meditox Method may be just the way to help someone get rid of their addiction to painkillers.

Peter King

I watched the Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals and it was a very strange game with a bizarre ending. Peter King of Sports Illustrated calls it one of the biggest choke jobs in sports history. I think Peter King is an excellent writer and I enjoy his column, but he may be jumping the gun a little bit with this one. The Cardinals are not a particularly good team, and the Bears were 5-0 entering the game, so even though it was a huge collapse, I'm not sure it's up there with the Yankees letting the Red Sox come back from a 3-0 deficit, or Mike Tyson losing to Buster Douglas, or the U. of Virginia men's basketball team losing to Chaminade. Those were real choke jobs. Yes, the Bears had six turnovers and no offensive touchdowns and won the game, but I think Peter may have had a little too much coffee before he wrote that column.

Mystery

The former post has recently been removed to eliminate any confusion which might exist regarding what it was about and who it was intended for and why I wrote it and actually if I even wrote it and whether or not I might have written it twice, using almost the same words, but in a slightly different order to mask the fact that I hadn't written it twice but only once and borrowed from it the second time despite the fact that it had been suggested that it would be in my best interest not to employ any of the same words the second time and to just drop the whole thing after the first incident so that I would not be harmed in the process. That's all.

Center for Citizen Media

Dan Gillmor at the Center for Citizen Media had an entry about PayPerPost last week called PayPerPost: A Cancer on the Blogosphere, or Merely Semi-Sleazy? What comes up in just about every one of these kinds of articles/blog entries is the idea that some people feel that other people being paid to write about products on their weblogs is okay as long as they explicitly disclose that fact. In many of these cases, the people complaining the loudest about PayPerPost don't follow their own advice and let everyone know that when they are writing about a particular product that they may have been given it for free or may have some connection to the company they are writing about. To me, some of this seems like endorsements of products made by radio hosts. For example, Leo Laporte "endorses" a variety of products on his KFI radio show each weekend. (By the way, why do radio stations have some of the ugliest websites around, with all kinds of stuff flashing and huge graphics and too many items on their home page?) He may or may not use these products or even believe they are good, but an advertiser is paying him to say some nice things about the product. He doesn't say that he really uses all the products (he does say that he uses some of them), but it's clear that the advertisers are paying for his voice to be associated with their product whether or not he actually uses it. This seems to be very close to what PayPerPost does. If I write about something, the 2 or 3 people who read my weblog can see by the tags that it's a PayPerPost entry, so they should be clear that it's something like an advertisement. I'm obviously not Leo Laporte, so it's still not clear to me whether there is a real benefit from my endorsement, but that's the way the system works.

Pushchair guide

A pushchair is British for stroller and the Pushchair Guide is a website which will tell you all you need to know about all kinds of pushchairs. The site has a great, child-friendly color scheme, although most children in pushchairs won't be reading it. Their parents, however, will find all the info they need - models, brands, and user reviews. A good stroller makes a big difference when you are setting up and putting it away several times a day, so it's an important purchase when you need to move your young children around in comfort. Much better than carrying them on your back! Check out the strollers and buggies at Pushchair Guide.

Beach Cruisers

Just about anyone likes to ride a bicycle, and nothing is easier to ride than one of those Beach cruisers. You do see them at the beach, but they are easy to ride and can go anywhere. Maybe not ideal for going up a steep hill, but they are great for around town and casual bike riding.

XYZ bikes sells beach cruisers at good prices. They've also got a weblog with news about bikes and related things.

Digital Storytelling in 10 steps

J.D. Lasica of OurMedia has a 10 step program for digital storytellers at TechSoup. It looks good and it starts with the story, not the media...

Comparison shopping for Healthcare

Don't you wish there was something like Froogle for healthcare? Doctors and hospital stays can get pretty expensive and if you don't have good health insurance, it can be a choice between your mortgage and your healthcare sometimes. Vimo will help you find the best deals on healthcare -- surgery, dentists and doctors, and even health savings accounts. Vimo was started by some of the people behind WebMD and I think it really fills a need. Even if you've got health care, there can be huge differences in pricing between hospitals and other service providers. Check out Vimo and you may be able to save some big money on your healthcare.

Temecula weather has gotten colder

It is much colder now in the evenings here and we will soon need to turn on the heat. It's funny how quickly it can change from extremely hot to much cooler, but just about every year, there will be some strange hot period in the fall, so it may not be cold for too long. It's also dark so early that soccer practice has to end by 6:30 now unless there are lights on the field.

Testing with MarsEdit

Checking to see if I can post with MarsEdit to a Blogger site.

A's dump Ken Macha

You never know what's going on behind the scenes and considering that the A's got to the American League championship series this year, it seemed like things were going well. However, this SFGate story paints a troubling picture of A's manager Ken Macha. He comes across as a guy who doesn't get too close to his players and doesn't have much empathy for anyone.

Get more done with templates

Creating a nice looking website is a lot of work, especially if you do everything from scratch. Knowing how to manipulate HTML, DHTML, CSS and how to use a web editor like DreamWeaver takes a lot of time and if you don't do it frequently, it's tough to keep your skills current. I like to use templates for my web sites because they allow me to get my work done much faster than if I started over every time and designed a site from the ground up. The templates can easily be modified for particular needs and they save you lots of work. Just add your own logo, photos, graphics and other content, and you have your own unique site in a fraction of the time it would take to do from scratch. Here's a solution for your web site design needs -- The osCommerce cafe is a subscription based web template site for web designers. You can join for three months, six months or a year and during that time you can download as many osCommerce templates as you like (there are currently 70 available, with more being added all the time). The templates are organized by category -- Pets and Animals, Art and Photography, Flowers, Sports and more, and they are visually appealing and complete, so you will be up and running very quickly. Tutorials will help you use the site, so it's easy to get going right away. They've also got an online button generator to help you customize your site easily. The FAQ will tell you everything you need to know about how the site and the membership works. You can even modify and re-sell the templates if you want to start your own customization site, but if you are in need of some web designs and you don't want to do all of the work yourself, starting with a template from the osCommerce cafe is a great way to start.

Tags: PayPerPost

Dell 20 inch monitor

The new Dell 20 inch monitor looks like a bargain. It might be time to start keeping an eye open for those famous Dell coupons which cut the price down.

Analyze your firewall with AlgoSec

A firewall is like the security system in your home. Without it, you could be at risk for intruders. Keeping your doors locked is one thing, but knowing that you are safe is a valuable thing. The same is true for your network. Without a good firewall, there are all kinds of unscrupulous characters out there who will try to attack your computers and your network. You need to know that your sites are secure before something bad happens.

AlgoSec will do the dirty work for you -- checking your firewall and analyzing it to point out potential problems you didn't even know about, before something bad happens. You could pay a high priced consultant to do this work for you, or you could run the Algo Sec Firewall Analyzer which will audit your system for you, in five areas:

1. Change Management
2. Risk Management
3. Automated Audits
4. Advanced Management
5. Policy Optimization

If you are interested in protecting your firewall, check with AlgoSec for a price quote. It runs on a Windows PC or Linux machine. Also, check out some of the customer testimonials to see how other organizations are keeping their firewalls doing what they need to do using AlgoSec's software. AlgoSec guarantees your satisfaction and offers a 30 day money back guarantee.

Tracking Shot

There seem to be lots of these online video and image editing sites cropping up lately. Tracking shot lets you combine photos and music with zooming and panning and some montage elements to create a nice slide show in Flash. Looks pretty good. http://trackingshot.com

Putting Wikipedia on your iPod

Matt Swann has a Perl script which lets  you put all or part of Wikipedia on an iPod, without the graphics. I think I'd like it better if I could pick specific articles, but I need to give it a try.

HDTV info

Tags: PayPerPostOne thing I'd like to purchase with my PayPerPost money is a new television. One of those flat screen HDTV models would be nice, but it's very confusing figuring out what to buy. LCD, Plasma and Rear Projection are the types of televisions I see in stores and online, but I'm still not clear on the advantages of each one. I've looked at Consumer Reports, BestBuy and Circuit City for information and on other sites for customer comments. The TVNinja site has some good information about HDTV televisions and related products like remote controls, projectors and mobile devices. It's a weblog, so it's easy to read and each entry is illustrated witha  photo. I don't think I'll be able to afford the 60 inch Pioneer Plasma TV they mention, but there are some other items which look to be within my budget.

Support problems

I went with Vizaweb because Leo Laporte used and recommended it. When Vizaweb had all kinds of problems about 2 months ago, I noticed that Leo was no longer using them and of course he wasn't endorsing them. They probably got too big too fast because of Leo's recommendation.

I see that Leo's site, TWiT.tv had problems on Friday. He described the poor support he got from his current provider, The Planet and has already switched over to Softlayer. I'm still using Vizaweb, but I think I'm going to have to switch. They haven't responded to either of the problems I sent them yesterday. Even though the problems seem to have been resolved, it would be nice to know that they actually cared about them enough to acknowledge them.

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A's lose -- season over

No fun watching the A's get swept by the Tigers. I figured the A's pitching was as good as Detroit's but the A's were dominated. Not much offense other than Milton Bradley. I don't think Frank Thomas got one hit in the series. The A's suffered from some missing players, but that wouldn't have made up the difference. Detroit managed to come back from their end of the season nosedive and they have really played well. I think they have to be the favorite in the World Series considering the very poor pitching staffs of the Mets and Cardinals.

Steve Lyons fired by Fox

Steve Lyons was fired by Fox for remarks he made during Friday's playoff game. I was wondering what happened to him yesterday.

In the second inning, broadcast partner Lou Piniella was talking about Oakland's Marco Scutaro and the success the usually light-hitting shortstop had at the plate during the previous series against Minnesota.

Piniella compared it to finding a "wallet on Friday" and hoping it happened next week.

Piniella also said the A's needed Frank Thomas to get "en fuego" — Spanish for on fire — and that he was currently "frio" — cold.

Play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman said, "The bilingual Lou Piniella."

Lyons then said, "Lou is habla- ing some Español there, and I'm still looking for my wallet. I don't understand him, and I don't want to sit close to him now."

The three announcers laughed.

But after the game, Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports, informed Lyons he was being suspended for a game. Lyons flew home Saturday, and after arriving at LAX he called his girlfriend, who told him there were reports he had been fired.

I met Steve Lyons once, near the men's room at a Macy's in San Diego. I like him as a commentator and I think Fox overreacted here. I hope Steve doesn't lose his job with the Dodgers. I think Lou Pinella has some trouble with the English language, so trying to speak Spanish was a little bit of a reach. I'm not sure how what Steve said was offensive, but who knows.