Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

Got this phone about 6 weeks ago on the Three network and I’m still finding my way round it. I do know that it’s a fabulous piece of kit, but also seriously compromised, predominantly by the battery but there are other issues. It seems that the capacity for running processor intensive applications on a smart phone has leapt far ahead of the battery capacity required to support them if you are to be confident of retaining sufficient charge to be able to use the device for, what I assume remains, it’s primary function i.e. making a phone call or two. Let’s be clear what we are talking about here, despite having satellite navigation capability you won’t be wanting to head out on to the moors comfortable in this device’s ability to bail you out should things go a little pear shaped, not unless you consider the ‘moors’ to extend no further than a 10 minute walk from a two digit A road. Maybe I’m being a little harsh on Nokia, maybe it’s the Three chip design that makes unrealistic battery demands as I have had other manufacturers phones on their network and their batteries have not been spectacularly long lived and if this is the case then Nokia would not be able to do anything with the design just to accommodate Three. However, there are many reports about the battery issue with this phone and whilst it is already a little chunky in comparison to some of the competition I would certainly I have been prepared to see the form factor expanded by a few mm in all directions if it were to give even a 20% increase in battery life. Given the liability that the battery is, why does it remain an impossibility for Nokia to provide a battery meter that accurately reflects the state of the battery? Useful charge lasts about 24 hours and after anything up to 18 of those hours the meter will still claim to have between 80-100% of capacity as all five bars on the meter are lit, after the first blinks out it will then be another 3 hours or more before the next goes out. So if the phone became fully charged at midnight then at 9 o’clock that evening you might be entitled to think that you have more than 60% battery remaining. Good luck with that. You’ll find the next three bars disappear very quickly over the next 3 hours and if you didn’t charge it overnight then you would find it limping along in the morning on an all but useless one bar and if you had a bit of a lie in then it’s probably comatose. If charging time is anything to go by then the capacity of this battery is maybe as much as 50% more than my old E65 but the performance is worse. Nokia certainly don’t help themselves in this regard with the way certain applications work, or in the case of one of them for me don’t seem to work but keep loading themselves. If you use the music player and stop what you are playing and do something else it remains in memory using juice. I attempted to configure something called Mobile Mail, I guess I have done something wrong as it just sits there saying that it’s trying to create a connection but never acknowledges that it can’t, let alone tell me why it can’t and I can’t find a way into it to attempt to configure it again. That’s bad enough but if you go into the task manager and shut it down, it loads itself again about 15 seconds later. You find yourself forever checking the task manager to see what the device has loaded or you might have forgotten to shut down in an attempt to eek a little more out of the battery. Now that’s about it for what it doesn’t do well, just about everything you find on the phone, and the things I’ve added to it, Opera Mini. Yahoo Go 2.0 and Nokia’s push email client all do what’s expected with little fuss in either use or setup. It integrates very well with my PC and can be managed well enough through Windows Explorer as well as the Nokia PC Suite software which syncs well with Outlook 2007. The other Nokia software for managing music and video on the N95 can be a bit flakey but generally gets there without being too vexing and they also supply utilities to check that the phone software is up to date and that the installed PC software is also the latest version. The video playback seems to be better than the music, which was a little jerky. The satnav facility seems to hold a good fix and the maps look pretty comprehensive though I haven’t given it a good test yet as I seem to have lost my car charger and don’t want it sucking all the life out of the battery before the end of the drive. I’m a sucker for gadgets, bells and whistles and as well as offering the best clarity for phone calls that I’ve had, it is the best gadget as well. Just as an example of the sort of thing I like about this phone’s capabilities is the time I got locked out of the house with my previous phone, I could phone and see when someone was going to be back but didn’t get any answer and that was pretty much the end of the E65’s usefulness. With this one I could have slipped in my Bluetooth headset, hooked the phone up to my wireless network and used the Home Media application to listen to the music and podcasts that are stored on my PC , read my email or browsed the web without incurring Three’s network charges, so instead of fidgeting about for 15 minutes, not knowing how long I was going to be stuck out there, before someone came back I could have happily spent hours there fully entertained. I’m sure there’s something to be said here about attention spans and the need for constant stimulation, if not for society in general then at least for shallow old me, but there is no doubt that Nokia have crammed phenomenal capability into this phone but seem to have just used whatever space was left to fit in the battery without regard to the demands that it would be required to meet.

Here we are, a week out from the closing ceremony, and I’m still enjoying the games, bits of the huge quantity of sport I absorbed during the previous two weeks keep coming back to me, not the spectacular stuff necessarily but bits from the handball or the volleyball, a bit of boxing or fencing, not always that coherent. Four years is going to be a long time to wait for another such offering. But even then it won’t be the same, it will all be here, at civilised times, no staying up through the night and if the toe curling start to London being the official Olympic city, thanks to the tosspot toff Johnson, then it’s going to be a very different experience, altogether. ‘A very different experience!’, sorry, old Airplane gag. I haven’t been going out of my way looking for articles or reports but I’ve heard nothing negative about the organisation, transport or administration of the Beijing games, nor have I heard about much in the way of protests, and just briefly on this topic, people may want to look into the feudal nature of Tibetan society pre-Chinese take over before getting too teary eyed. This was, essentially an all new build games which should have ensured as smooth a run operation as can be achieved, and may be the last such Games for a long time with 2012 becoming the template which will show that the Games have a bright future at a cost far more achievable to many more countries than those who looked at Beijing and concluded that bringing the Games to their country was unattainable. But, and it’s a big but, there will be complaints about transport, admin and organisation, the nature of London ensures that there will need to be arrangement, contingency and re-arrangement and a lot of it on the fly and not all of it will go smoothly, it will only be the matter of degree that will dictate if 2012 will be the template. von Molke said ‘no battle plan survives contact with the enemy’, the motto of London 2012 might well be, ‘no logistics plan survives contact with the general public and antiquated urban infrastructure’. The athletes need to understand that there will be a level of uncertainty and flexibility to be tolerated to ensure the Games go well and that is what is needed to ensure countries, other than the handful of super-rich countries, believe they can host the Games.

And now to the knotty problem of how we can build on the success of Team GB. I have to say that I am concerned that the possibility of finishing fourth in 2012 is now less likely than it was three weeks ago or we will have to spend significantly more money to stand still. The likes of Dave Brailsford and Jurgen Groebler, and significant numbers of their coaching staff, must be targets for many other teams who could come along with offers that were unimaginable a few months or even weeks ago. I’m not suggesting for one moment that either is mercenary in their approach yet unimaginable is just that, as must be their reaction to receiving such on offer. Do we continue to fund success? This seems to be the strategy. Realistically, how much more success can be achieved in cycling or rowing? Were Adlington’s victories in the pool enough to attract more funding into swimming or will it be cut? There is the added debate as to whether this level of achievement was despite or because of the work of the departed Bill Sweetman? How about boxing? The return in the ring, one gold and two bronze, would appear to be a very decent outcome, but what of the issues outside the ring? One boxer couldn’t make the weight and another apparently acted like a twat and this was announced to the world just prior to the medal bouts. Surely there are management and coaching issues here. I don’t have any ideas or convictions about how these matters need to be addressed but I see a hugely convoluted path to be followed to reach the target that’s been set and immense pressure on athletes, coaches, administrators and funding bodies to steer this course. In the final analysis, should we end up 6th or 7th in the medal table in 2012, with about 40 medals or so, about 85% of the return from Beijing, then I will feel that a decent job has been done all around and anything above this would be exceptional.

So what’s Terry got on Capello, recordings of discussions on tax evasion, video of him spanking Max Mosley, there has to be something because this decision cannot be the product of mature reflection. Is Terry even worth a place in the team? I wouldn’t let him captain a rowing boat with only him in it, I’d rather leave it to one of the barnacles on the hull. The guy is a plodding, whining, pedestrian, work-a-day centre half with negligible distribution skills, slightly better than average tackling and aerial skills and ordinary situational awareness; not a very prepossessing bill of goods.
If Capello imagines he’s getting a Stuart Pearce or Terry Butcher then he’s sadly mistaken.

Well, I think you have to say so far, so good for Team GB and for the entertainment value it’s offered. I have never watched so much sport, day to day, and fully expected to be wearing down but I’m still going strong and looking forward to another week. There is no denying that the success of Team GB has driven things along and the success levels seen this week will probably not continue and I’m not too sure what will be on offer apart from track and field. Another couple of days of cycling and boxing to go, the basketball continues but the stuff that you only see once in a blue moon, outside of the Olympics, are seemingly getting scarcer. I think the badminton and table tennis are about done and I haven’t seen any archery or shooting for the last few days, but that could be down to the BBC scheduling.
The cycling has been exceptional, have we ever sent a better squad, in any event, to an Olympics? Wasn’t sure whether to be excited or alarmed to see Clive Woodward hanging around the velodrome? Clearly there are lessons that can be learned from what has been achieved by them already, how they are funded, how they are coached, how they are managed and how they attract talent to the sport. Is the Clive Woodward who was there the one who kicked England Rugby into the modern world or the one who micro managed The Lions into the ground a few years back and did little more than take up office space at Southampton? Maybe he has already been involved with the cycling leading up to the games, but if not then I hope he’s there to do no more than learn from the people who have created the success and look at a framework that can be used to encourage other squads towards the excellence we’ve seen in the cycling. And there do look to be a few candidates, maybe just a tweak, maybe a radical overhaul, swimming; take out the success of Adlington and it’s been pretty barren, boxing; despite a great deal of expectation and increased funding since Athens, there’s not going to be much of a return and, finally, hockey; both men’s and women’s teams have had notable achievements in the, not too distant, past and it seems that we have failed to build on either.
On the down side there were a couple of glaring examples of why some sports only attract limited exposure outside of the Olympics. Let’s start with hockey, I admit I have a few personal issues with hockey; long ago I played a few games at college for an ad hoc men’s team against the women who played in a league, it was fucking brutal, these women were animals and when it became clear that they were going to lose, became rabid animals. We had a secret weapon, a guy called Chris Shadbolt, he was a student but played a good standard of league hockey for Rotherham, he went up front, scored three goals, he went into defence and shut them out. The games mistress who ran the squad was apoplectic seeing her little darlings rolled over like that But my problems with the game started before the match got going, I asked where all the left handed sticks were? That caused a bit of a laugh. I’m predominantly right handed but play cricket and golf left hand, having been taught by my comprehensively left handed father. So that was not the most auspicious start, disadvantaging at best and discriminating at worst against a significant proportion of the population, why cannot left handers use sticks differentiated by colour so that the officials can still see the back of the stick isn’t being used? And talking of officials, just where do they get the industrial strength peas to go in their whistles? They are at it all the bloody time, there is no flow to the game. Here’s my solution, shorten the game, at least 2 fewer players on the pitch per team, bigger squads available during the game and rolling substitutions. Sorted.
Not sure what you can do with boxing in the Olympics though. It’s an absolute travesty that competitors who put so much into their sport are screwed over by the most consistently incompetent scoring and officiating on the face of the planet. Here’s what you mustn’t be; technically proficient, no point in jabbing, no point in working the body, no reward for punching correctly as your opponents slaps will be scored just as frequently, don’t bother throwing combinations, you’ll only ever get one point no matter how many times you connect within a sustained attack and don’t trouble yourself to listen to a word the referee says as he’ll do nothing about it when you completely ignore him. The referees cannot wait to say ‘break’ and then fail to ensure a clean break is made and cheap shots are thrown, boxers are told not to hold time and time again and, until one occasion I saw today, nothing at all is done about it, warnings are given in the ring about incorrect punching yet at the scoring table points continue to accrue for the most obvious slaps. You only have to watch a few bouts and listen to the commentary; in just about every one you watch you will hear as much comment on the scoring and refereeing as you do about the boxing. The boxers deserve so much better than the tawdry rabble who officiate at Olympic boxing but I really can’t see change on the horizon.

…there is someone with a bit of a profile in baseball journalism who has come out and said it. And it goes something like this, ‘just when is Beane going to deliver on his, so called, genius label?’ Peter Pascarelli does a daily podcast, works ESPN Radio baseball and sometimes appears on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and he has asked the question in substantially these terms. At the other end of the spectrum is Max Kellerman of ESPN New York who does believe in the genius of Beane. Kellerman prides himself in going by the numbers in his analysis of baseball, and part of the reason I enjoy his commentary is precisely because of this but I think in this instance he is missing the biggest numbers – World Series Championships during Beane's tenure;0, World Series Championship appearences;0, American League Titles;0, American League Championship appearences;0, 2nd round playoff appearences;1. If you took out the 2nd round playoff appearance I could put the rest of those numbers on my resume. From my limited knowledge of baseball finances, and the categorisation of Beane’s tenure has to be informed by financial considerations, he has been a little better than average or a lot worse but I can see nothing that elevates him to the ‘genius’ GM class.
Oakland are defined as a ‘small market team’, I don’t know if there is an official designation of this condition for revenue sharing purposes but it means we’re not in the same salary bracket as the Yankees, Tigers Mets or Red Sox and A’s fans do not have the same expectations nor is Beane being judged against the performance of Minaya, Cashman or Epstein. It’s even more difficult making an objective assessment of GM performance when he is part of the ownership group, he materially benefits from salary cost savings as do the other members of the group and there is little evidence that the ownership group as a whole has the commitment to success that’s demonstrated by John Henry, the Steinbrenners or Wilpons. And I am talking about the commitment, not the success in it’s self. Where does ownership end and the GM function begin for Beane? I certainly can’t answer that and maybe he can’t either and that could be part of the problem. I’ve tried to set this conundrum aside as far as possible and still believe that Beane’s performance is lacking and maybe the most obvious pointer to this is the Draft. In financial terms the drafting of players cost very little, multi-million dollar signing bonuses are not a feature in the MLB draft as they are in the NFL and NBA so as an ‘owner’ Beane has no reason to feel constrained by financial considerations yet the farm system has produced few players that were drafted by the A’s, Kurt Suzuki I believe is the most recent. Yet the A’s need, if we are looking to be successful in terms of long runs into the post-season has been clear for many years, hitting and in particular power bats. The draft is not sexy, if any kudos at all is to be obtained then it is short lived, pulling strings and strokes in deals is what has built Beane’s reputation and he seems unable or unwilling to move outside this comfort zone to draft to needs or take advantage of unexpected opportunities, such as that which presented itself earlier this season. As late as mid-June a run for the Wild Card was not unrealistic, the farm system was already fat with talent, rental bats were going to become available, a playoff rotation of Hardin, Duchscherer, Blanton and either Eveland or Smith backed up by a bullpen that included Street, Gaudin, Embree with the likes of Casilla, Gonzalez and Ziegler not far away in the Minors, a window was there to pursue a degree of success now. Instead Beane went back to his usual shtick of stuffing an already well stocked farm system, with the prospects from the trades of Hardin, Gaudin and Blanton, to the point of excess and the season disappeared down the pan from that point on and in the last few weeks the A’s have been all but unwatchable. There was never any certainty of a post-season place, but there never is, even $200m payrolls don’t purchase certainty in baseball, every now and again you have to go outside the numbers, ‘think’ with your heart and balls and just go for it and even a committed failure would have made the fans more inclined to watch the Oakland Triple A’s that are likely to be trotted out over the next couple of seasons.
Beane is not a genius, he manages to a level of expectation that does not seem to extend to anything more than infrequent and brief appearances in the post-season and there’s not a GM in the league that can’t do that, outside of Kansas City at least.

Well that’s the overblown, overwrought opening ceremony out of the way and now we can get down to the business of the sport, if that’s not too much of an impediment to the nationalistic jerking off that’s epitomised by such ceremonies?
I’m looking forward to these games more than any others I can remember, not because the competition will be any keener or cleaner or because the nebulous ‘Olympic Spirit’ will burn any brighter in the competitors but purely due to the advances in the media. The BBC, bless their little cotton socks, always tried hard to make time for coverage of some of the minor sports on show at previous Olympics but, during the first week whenever someone was thrashing up and down the pool or, during the second week, monotonously pounding around the track, that was it, coverage had to go to the swimming or the athletics and the supposedly lesser sports, no matter what the state of the contest, were ditched and, if you were lucky, you could seek out the conclusion of the event by sitting through an hour or more of the highlights package. This should no longer be the case with the Beeb offering 6 channels via the red button on satellite, hopefully something on the HD channel also, Eurosport with a couple of channels plus HD and various webfeeds finally offering the sort of exposure that the Olympics deserve.
I’ll watch a little of the track and field and the swimming but I’m really looking forward to the coverage of the badminton, table tennis, boxing, shooting, archery, rowing, weightlifting, basketball and, of course, baseball. And some others I haven’t even thought of.
And I’m on holiday for the next two weeks.

Bit of an odd week this week, not gone anywhere in the standings, points are much the same as they were at the end of the week before last. Tried to address a couple of things, which may have moved me up a little in the standings, by trades looking to get a couple of players from different owners. Offered players in an attempt to Willie Taveras, to make a move in STEALS, and Joe Nathan, to make a move in SAVES, the players I offered were not my best offer but I made it clear that I was looking to start a dialogue. That was Saturday morning and I haven’t heard a thing, no counter offer, no acceptance, no rejection, not a thing. One of the teams I’m trying to trade with is in the basement and he/she may well not be paying attention, it would seem that even though the other team is only just below me, he/she may well not be paying too much attention either as he/she has a DL player on the active roster and in the line up, maybe they are on holiday? But between them they have only made 5 roster moves all season?? Where’s the fun in that?