The Recycle Bin

Being a road warrior has been interesting this past week. I’ve been playing World of Warcraft and running my Out of the Park Baseball leagues courtesy of my Dell Latitude D810. I’m actually quite surprised that this is so easy to accomplish. I use a Logitech trackball mouse with my laptop. I find that I’m in spaces with my laptop that aren’t mouse friendly, and the trackball can do everything I need it to do and requires much less of a footprint to get it done.

My home computer has all of my Internet Explorer favorites, and my biggest headache this week was re-building some of those links on my laptop. I also forgot to bring the FTP password for one of the leagues I run, so my co-helper is going to run things while I’m away. Other than that, things are silky smooth using my wireless network connection.

World of Warcraft is quite playable at 1024 with medium graphics details. I tested the wireless connection to the WoW servers when I was at home, and both here in Florida and in Texas I could do everything on my laptop that I could on my main computer. Now, I am not going to give up my 20 inch Dell LCD and NVidia 6800 graphics when I get home, but the laptop is getting the job done.

It is nice to know that gaming life can exist on the road. I haven’t even found the time to check out some text games that I brought allong.

Many of you know that I am married, so the question that I’m sure that’s popping up is “How are you getting away with this on a family vacation?” Easy answer.

Shopping. And watching my youngest daughter.

My wife is, shall we say, eager to visit all of the wonderful Florida outlet centers and malls. I am not. Her mother is also eager. A match made in heaven. So I get up early, mess around with my leagues, and then (with a sigh for effect) I agree to take care of my daughter all day while she’s out shopping.

Then spend the evening doing family stuff. If the evening ends early, you’re back online and ready to go! Last night I went to see Harry Potter’s latest movie. My wife wanted to see it, so I went with her (again, points for me – seeing a movie I really could wait for the DVD).

Like football, marriage requires a balanced attack. And some shopping money.

I have to give Linksys kudos for their customer service. I arrived at my mother-in-law’s house to find that while she had a wireless router, she wanted me to set up the network. I followed the instructions, the internet connection kept failing through the router, so I called Linksys for help. Five minutes later (on a Sunday, by the way), they pointed me to a program I could download that would fix the problem. And if that didn’t work, I was given a priority phone number for follow-up if the program didn’t solve the problem.

I was, shall we say, very doubtful that a simple download would fix the connection problem, but I followed their instructions. Sure enough, I ran the program and let it run for about ten minutes. Low and behold, our wireless router was up and running.

Not often something computer related is so easy to fix.

I am going to be doing the Disney thing for the next few days. Hopefully when I get back we will be ready to move into my new house. Merry Christmas to all, and very safe travels (for those of you traveling).

I’ll be on vacation for two weeks, so my entries may be spotty. My oldest daughter is choosing a college over our break and we’ll be visiting every major university in Florida. We’re also going to Athens to visit the University of Georgia. As a former University of Florida employee, something about having a daughter as a bulldog just doesn’t seem right. But it’s her choice.

Diamond Mind Baseball is shipping its 2005 season disk and 2006 Bill James Handbook.

Grey Dog Software released version 1.02 of Bowl Bound College Football.

Jim Gindin lives! There is a sale going on for those that want to check out the aging Front Office Football 2004 and The College Years. There’s even a new entry on the Solecismic web site that claims, gasp, that a new sports product will be developed duirng 2006. Could be football, could be something else, but who knows?

There’s a new Football Manager 2006 article that discusses how to select your club.

Finally, .400 Software Studios is officially dead. Although most of them were re-born over at Grey Dog Software and they will offically pull the plug on January 1st, 2006.

Lots of text gaming activity today!

It may be hard to believe – actually it is rather shocking – but the Atlanta Falcons have never had back-to-back winning seasons. Rather sad and pathetic, but hopefully those days are coming to a close. Please God (I will not pray for my team if you do not pray for the Bears, Bucks, and Panthers).

If the Falcons can win one of the last three games then they will have back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history. That is not to say they are going to make the playoffs, but it would be nice to finally get this monkey off our backs. Making the playoffs would be prosperity at its finest, so I am sure I am asking way too much. Still, one can dream, and as long as one is dreaming, is it too much for one to ask for back-to-back winning seasons and a repeat trip to the playoffs?

If you were a fan before the arrival of Vick, then you must feel my pain. You will feel my pain. Suffering follows…

1971 (7-6-1), 1972 (7-7), and 1973 (9-5) were nice runs, but the .500 season in 1972 mess up their first realistic shot at back-to-back winning seasons. I was a baby back then so it is not as if I was around to earn the right to bitch and moan. Lucky for me I can bitch as much as I want on these humble pages.

1977 (7-7) and 1978 (9-7) were close to back-to-back winning seasons, but that .500 thing got in the way again. At was at this point that I have my first memories of being crushed. That lost to Dallas really sucked. The disappointing 1979 (6-10) season spelled the end for another chance at glory.

1980 (12-4) was another great year, but f’ing Dallas made me cry again. How great would it have been to have the Dawgs win the National Championship and the Falcons win the Super Bowl? [Sigh …]

Then the long dry spell started. Some bastard decided to fire Leeman Bennett after the 1982 (5-4) season. Scabs suck, but come on; sacking Bennett sent the Falcons into a nasty spiral of eight sucky seasons in a row; all under .500 and all equally dismal.

Along comes 1991 (10-6); we made it out of our nasty funk, but who is kidding who? The run-and-shoot was never going to take us to the promise land. Of course the Falcons followed up with yet another loosing season – 1992 (6-10). Prosperity? Nope, we can have none of that stuff.

1995 (9-7) was a decent year, but it was too much to ask the Falcons to build on a decent year; 1996 (3-13). Feeling my pain yet?

Some how, some way (thanks to Jam) the 1998 (14-2) Falcons made it to the Super Bowl, only to be trampled upon by Elway and company. My kingdom for a prostitute! Thanks a lot Eugene f’ing Robinson. Notice a trend? 1999 (5-11). Disappointment as usual.

2002 (9-6-1) saw the complete pimping of an exciting Vick, including a nice little win at Green Bay in the NFL Wildcard Game. Of course you know what happened next, right? We are talking about the Falcons doing everything they can do to avoid prosperity. You guessed it, 2003 (5-11) was a bitter disappointment and cost Dan Reeves his job as head coach.

2004 (11-5) was a very nice run under first year head coach Jim Mora, Jr. So here we are, once again facing prosperity square in the eye. Can the 2005 Falcons improve on their current 8-5 record to manage back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 39-year history? Will futility come to an end? Will the Falcons finally put to rest years and years of fan frustration? Probably too much to ask.

Sports Interactive and Markus Heinsohn are giving away Out of the Park Baseball 5 as a free download. The ratings system is different than OOTP 6.5, but it does give you a good idea about the OOTP world. If you haven’t checked out this game before, there’s no excuse not to download it now.

It looks like the 360 is off to a slow start. I wonder if this is due to Japanese gamers being completely entrenched with Sony (and Nintendo), or if Japanese gamers really just do not like the games that are available for the 360. Or maybe they really do want to wait for the jiggle goodness of DOA4.

Should be interesting to watch. [Source Xbox 360 Gets a Soft Start in Japan and Microsoft Xbox 360 Japan sales slow:study]

What’s wrong with this picture (from the Falcons 36-17 win over the Saints last night)?

On third-and-goal from the 2, Vick scrambled to his left and appeared to be pushed out of bounds near the 1. The officials spotted the ball at the 1, but Mora called for the review.

“Because Mike Vick told me to,” Mora said. “He said ‘Challenge it, we’ll win it.’ You listen to what No. 7 says.”

The officials ruled the run was a touchdown after replays showed Vick kept his leg in bounds as he flew over the pylon with the ball in his hands. [Source: Yahoo! Sports/AP]

I love Vick as much as the next guy – I own the official shirt, I run around with Vick like ants in my pants in Madden Football, and I even believe all the “Vick is a different sort of quarterback” philosophy mumbo-jumbo crap. No, really, it is all true.

See, what had happened was …

Vick is a special athlete, but I do not think it is wise to say he is a special quarterback. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, but not today. I love how Vick can be a dangerous weapon on the ground as well as in the air when he hurls bullets for passes as he rolls out dodging defender after defender, but that is part of the problem. Until Vick learns how to put some touch on his passes, and until Vick improves him completion percentage, Vick will continue to impress us as a special athlete, but not necessarily as an elite quarterback.

Not that it matters. Lucky for us Falcons fans that Mora has it all figured out � if Vick tells you to do something, you damn well better. Seriously, we all know that outrageous signing bonuses and 100 million dollar contracts are reasons enough to “listen to what No. 7 says.”

But I do love me some Vick. Honest.

Markus Heinsohn posted a new blog entry on the Out of the Park Baseball Manager site. The big news is that a pitch-by-pitch mode has been added to the game! Other game engine issues are discussed in the artcle. Spring 2006 can’t come soon enough.

Turns out my mother-in-law already has a wireless network set up in her house. Who knew? She sounded a bit insulted when I said I was bringing my wireless router.

Although the score was much closer than the game, the Jaguars at least made it entertaining on Sunday. The Seattle game is looming very large. The Seahawks look very, very good right now.

The Houston Texans are the worst local team I�ve ever been forced to watch on television. I had the Texans/Titans game on CBS. I actually did work instead of watching that �football� game.

The more I think about the �No Fly� list, the angrier I get. My wife asked me if they took me to some back room and interrogated me when they informed me of my exalted watch-list status. They didn�t. In fact, the only reason I knew I was on the list was that they told me. Otherwise, things were the same except I couldn�t use computer check-in.

What makes me angry is that while the airlines can apparently clear me to board a plane, this information has no impact on my status on the watch-list. My non-threat status isn�t communicated back to TSA. TSA is the only unit that can clear me. So it ends up being a big hassled for people trying to get off of the watch-list in order to satisfy some government demands about ID certification. But that has no impact on my ability to fly. So why not just let the airlines clear me?

My years of service in the US Marines were not enough. I now must serve my country on the watch-list!

There is some discussion in the Grey Dog Software forums about the price of Bowl Bound College Football being very steep at $35. I’m inclined to agree. For a first issue product that still has some tweaking issues, $35 does seem a bit much. I’ll probably wait until a few patches are released, but if BBCF was released at the $29 price point it would have been easier to justify the speculative purchase. Yea, it’s only a $6 difference, yet for some reason I don’t have a problem wasting less than $30 on a game. I’m just odd that way.

Speaking of odd, what’s next at The “Blog” for the Sports Gamer? Pop-up ads?

The Jaguars/Colts game should be interesting today. I think expectations are low because Leftwich is out. For some reason the Jaguars always play the Colts close. I will be surprised if this trend doesn’t continue today.

I am going to Florida over the holidays for a couple of weeks. Nothing scares an online gamer more then hearing your wife say “We’re going to Florida for two weeks.” Why? Because we’re not staying in fancy hotels. We’re staying with family. I’m taking along my wireless router so that I can be a road warrior with my laptop. Hopefully my in-laws won’t be insulted when I start upgrading their networking. I’ll even be updating the World of Warcraft install on my laptop so that I can play it when I’m gone. WoW at 800×600 is better than no WoW at all.

Such is life.

There are three new Out of the Park Baseball Manager pics on the web site. I broke down and pre-ordered the game today. It should be good, even if we don’t know enough about the online portion yet.

Grey Dog Software released a number of updates, including the retail version of their new Bowl Bound College Football. I’ll probably check out the updated demo before I take the plunge, but I’m looking forward to leading the Midshipmen to the BCS Championship game!

I wasn’t around to write for the site because I had to fly to Tampa for a meeting on Friday. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I was on the “No Fly” list! It seems that evey Christopher Johnson in the United States was on the government watch list. This is not a trivial number of people. So, all of the thousands of us who aren’t terrorists have to fill out some forms and give three notarized (at our expense) copies of identification to TSA. And all of this apparently only makes us able to check in quicker – no more electronic check in for us, no more using the computer check in at the airport. For all of the Christopher Johnsons in the United States.

I’m all for increased security, but when you’re making lives miserable for a huge percentage of the named population, it seems a little silly to me and a pointless system. But I will bear my burden knowing that my inconvienance in airports is making everyone else safer to travel!

The good folks at Sports Interactive posted 10 new Out of the Park Baseball Manager 2006 screenshots. There’s a baseball league in Germany? Who knew?