xPad

Odd timing but xPad was yesterday's Mac freeware application of the day at FreeMacWare.com. At least it didn't show up on MacZot again. I'm not sure that such a small program has generated this level of news and commentary before. The developer, Garrett Murray, wrote a bad contract, the purchaser, Brian Ball, exploited it, and now everyone is talking about an application that had been dormant for 2 years. I don't think the developer had much interest in updating the software -- I read his own statement to that effect on his site not long after version 1.0 of xPad came along. So it seems to me he got an offer that was probably a little inflated and took it without thinking that the way he'd written the contract, he might not get what he was expecting. Brian Ball may or may not have ever intended to fulfill the contract, but the way it was written worked out perfectly for a speculative venture. He could find out whether or not he could sell it and bail out if he wanted to, limiting his risk. He did that, but the way he did it -- not answering emails, continuing to sell the application beyond the time he'd paid for it -- is the crux of why most people are not happy with him. In the end, it's the same story you see again and again. The initial problem wasn't huge, but the failure to communicate honestly about it blows things up into something much worse. It will be interesting to see if MacZot can attract other developers who are willing to sell their software at a discount after this. It's already pretty clear that many customers won't be going back to MacZot.

Raiders fire Art Shell, again

Art Shell only lasted one year with the Raiders this time. He's probably better off without all the headaches that go with trying to coach the Raiders. His big mistake was hiring that guy from the bed and breakfast to run the offense. Things have changed in 12 years and it didn't make sense to hire a guy who had been out of football that long.

Who wants this job anyway? Until Al Davis steps aside, whenever that might happen, the Raiders aren't going to come back. They've got too many malcontents on their roster and they keep adding more of them. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they went after Terrell Owens for next season.

LSU - Notre Dame blowout

JaMarcus Russell, the LSU quarterback, looked like a guy who belonged in a better league with larger players. I don't think I've ever seen someone throw the ball as easily as he does and have it go so far or so fast. He just flipped his wrist and the ball zoomed across the field 30 yards and when he was stationary, 40-50 yards was no problem. I believe the story that he can throw it 85 yards. I wonder if he won the Punt, Pass and Kick competition.

MacWorld Expo

I went to MacWorld Expo for 13 years in a row and then decided to stop going a couple of years ago when it had gotten pretty small. Things are going better now for Apple, but I'll be staying home again this year. One time I flew to Oakland, took BART to San Francisco, spent the day at MacWorld and then flew back home, but that is pretty exhausting -- about 7-8 hours of travel plus all the walking around. If the keynote is online, I'll probably watch that and look for some discounts from the vendors. Maybe I'll be able to go back next year.

Boise State wins

That Boise State game was incredible. It looked liked they were going to fall apart in the last few minutes and blow it, and when Oklahoma ran back the interception for a touchdown with a little bit more than a minute left, it seemed like the game was over. I almost turned it off at that point. The 4th down hook and ladder play for the tying touchdown was a great call, but when Oklahoma scored so easily in the first OT, again I figured it was over. Boise State didn't look good on their possession and had to scratch for a first down. Eventually they scored and the two point conversion was an amazing play. I hope Boise State breaks into the top 5 after that win. There really does need to be a playoff system because a team like Boise State doesn't have much of a chance the way things work now.

Bowl games

I remember when I was a kid, you had to watch all the major college bowl games on the same day, New Year's Day. There were other bowls that came before January 1, but the important ones were all on that day, starting in the morning and ending pretty late at night on the east coast. Now, they have all kinds of bowl games and the important ones seem to be played one per day. I guess there are three more games this week, starting at 5 PM on weekdays for the first two anyway. I think I'd rather see a playoff system so that you wouldn't have all these teams sitting around for 4-6 weeks waiting to play the bowl game.

Apple's phone

I was listening to The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte this morning when some guy called in with all kinds of details on the upcoming Apple phone. You never know how solid this kind of information is, but Leo seemed to find it credible. The guy said the phone will come in 4 GB and 8GB versions at $275 and $335 and will include Bluetooth 2 and some kind of accelerated data transfer technology. He also said it would be made out of zirconium. The caller said he had a friend who works at Apple -- don't all these guys with the rumors? There were more details but I am not much of a phone person so I didn't write anything down. I listen to Leo's show once in a while and I've never heard a call like that before, so maybe it had some real inside information. We should know in 9 days.