As the phrase goes, “Hockey’s back.” I watched the first TSN broadcast of the new season tonight. My technical knowledge of hockey is so limited it’s not worth discussing. But, I did enjoy the play I watched, and the new rules appeared to work very well. The two line passes, in particular, were really exciting.
The Toronto and Ottawa game was settled with the first official NHL shootout. I enjoyed watching it, but I think its real benefit was displayed in the preceding overtime. The extra period had a lot of energy which I think was influenced by the fact that there will always be a winner (instead of evenly split points for a tie as in the past). Of course, it may have been due it being a Toronto-Ottawa game as well.
And, one comment not relevent to the actual game play: Gretzky’s suit was quite plain looking; I was kind of disappointed. Pat Quinn, however, was looking quite sharp even with the bruise on his face.
21 September 2005 – 10:40 pm
Why does branding attract so much taken-too-seriously foolishness? I just read that Ask Jeeves is firing their mascot. As soon as I saw the headline (before reading any of the article) I thought to myself, “that’s dumb”.
Clicking through and reading the article only strengthed my opinion of the change. I’ve always thought that having Jeeves as the symbol of a search service was a cool idea. And, I’ve not yet found any reasons to think otherwise. Certainly, none of the reasons mentioned in the article made any sense to me. In fact, Ask Jeeves CEO Barry Diller was quoted as describing Ask Jeeves, sorry Ask.com, as “potentially the glue for almost all of our services” which sounds a lot like what an Internet butler would do. Putting that aside, it seems to me that the mindshare Ask Jeeves does have is strongly connected with that name (and therefore the famous character himself).
At the end of the article the following appears:
Only last month, Ask Jeeves CEO Steve Berkowitz said at a conference in San Jose, Calif., that the butler was “safe for the moment,” CNet reported. At the time, Berkowitz noted that Jeeves was looking leaner than he had in some years.
But physical fitness aside, Diller said Wednesday that the butler has outlived his usefulness. “I don’t see many tears on the floor,” he joked.
Would this be an appropriate time for me to raise my hand? There might not be tears on the floor, but I am sad to see the butler go. Farewell Jeeves.
Link via tech.memeorandum.
17 September 2005 – 9:12 pm
The term new trigonometry is not something I ever expected to see. Maybe I’m simply out of my knowledge league, but the idea particularly odd and a bit wacky. Of course, it would be fantastically cool if it works as advertised. I may just have to read the book.
Link via tech.memeorandum.
Alternative Fuels Projects
There’s no doubt that alternative fuels projects are popular in Manitoba right now. First an expansion was announced for the Husky ethanol plant and now I read that there’s a planned biodiesel plant in Shoal Lake. Ethanol obviously has an established market along with guaranteed growth courtesy of the provincial regulations requiring its use, but I’ll be interested to see how biodiesel fits into that overall picture.