Now it’s time for all the stuff that wasn’t really worthy of an entire post this week:
- I’ve decided to start keeping my own college football top 10, mostly because I have a Facebook app that requires me to do so. Well, maybe it beckons me to do so, rather than requires. Still, here it is, with Week 4 upon us: 1. LSU, 2. USC, 3. Oklahoma, 4. West Virginia, 5. Florida, 6. California, 7. Penn State, 8. Wisconsin, 9. Ohio State, 10. Texas. Let the mocking begin.
- I’m convinced that the Braves have set out to tease me. Last night, they won their fifth straight, matching their best streak of the year and bringing them to within 4.5 games (5 in the loss column) of the division lead. There are still two teams to pass and only nine games in which to do it, so I’m not holding my breath…yet. Cool Standings gives the Braves a 1.2% chance of winning the division and a 0.8% chance of winning the wild card, for a 2.0% chance of making the playoffs. It’s still a 1-in-50 proposition, which isn’t good.
- Jerry Crasnick wrote this week about the impact of various deadline deals this year, concluding that the Braves’ acquisition of Mark Teixeira was a huge letdown, despite his excellent performance. Crasnick properly reasons: “But he can’t pitch, and as a result, his impact has been negligible.” Well put.
- I didn’t think the 49ers would get to the top of the NFC West so soon. Realistically, the offense doesn’t look very good, although the defense appears to be vastly improved. The Steelers will be a big test this weekend. So, who’s taking bets that the 49ers and Lions aren’t the NFC’s top two seeds 15 weeks from now?
- Also on the Niners, via Yahoo 360, the SJ Mercury News is reporting that Vernon Davis isn’t happy with his role in the offense. As warranted as his claims may be (he does only have 7 targets in 2 games, tied for 20th among TEs), fans like me are probably hoping that he doesn’t turn out like the Cowboys’ WR who used to play in San Fran.
- It’s entirely possible for Brett Favre to break both the career TD record (Dan Marino – 420) and the interception record soon during the same game. He needs 4 TDs and 3 INTs to do it, so we’re about a week or two away from finding out. He has also passed Elway as the career win leader, which is probably as silly a number for quarterbacks as it is for starting pitchers.
- NBC recently dropped out of iTunes’ video store, reportedly because Apple wanted to cut the costs of individual episodes. The end result: shows like The Office are not going to be available there during the upcoming season. What they’re doing instead is allowing you to “download” an ad-supported video that “expires” 7 days after the original airing. They’re calling the service NBC direct. So, if you don’t have access to a TV, you can still keep up, but you can’t keep the file forever. Personally, I’ll be recording all of the episodes in case I want to watch them on my computer before the next season’s DVD comes out, but I guess this is a decent alternative to iTunes. Would I still pay $2 for an episode I missed (especially one with no ads)? Most definitely. I guess only time will tell if this strategy works. Ars Technica has the rest of the story.
- Ever wonder what the value of your hard drive data is? If you’ve lost files because your computer crashed and you didn’t have a backup, perhaps you’ve thought about this before. Personally, I lost almost a semester’s worth of material from my 11th grade year (luckily it was between semesters), and sometimes I still wonder if I back up important documents often enough. The person in this story lost seven years worth of correspondence, contacts, and business files because he bought a new computer, and the store he bought it from didn’t copy over his old files (and tossed the drive). We may find out the answer soon. I feel sympathy for the guy, but it’s hard for me to put a number on his loss.
- Lastly, in an effort to fight spam, I’m going to sift through the user accounts on this site and delete the ones that are not associated with any comments, unless I recognize them as being associated with people I know. So, if you’re a lurker, and I don’t know you, shoot me an e-mail (blog at jfwiii dot net) or comment on this post, and I’ll keep you on the list. Of course, you can always sign up for a new account again if I delete your old one.
That’s all I have for this week. I may try spreading this post out over Thursday/Friday if I keep having this much stuff to talk about. Perhaps a weekly football post is possible, I’m not sure.
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