Does your coach do this?

Jeromey Balderrama

Sometimes when you’re at the stadium you miss some great gems like this. 

We were in the South Stands, too focused on leaving and didn’t notice McDaniels going North this fired up.  Man is that cool.

I know some people may see this and say “Act like you’ve been there before coach”, but I for one am glad to see a coach react the same way that players and fans do after a big win like this.  Earned or not, McDaniels has endured a lot of crap from fans and the media since he arrived in Denver.  He’s done what was unthinkable back in July and defnitely deserved this moment.  Congrats coach, and best of luck being the tar out of the Chargers.

Digsby, doing more evil

Jeromey Balderrama

Digsby is one of my essential apps that I virtually have running all the time.  It’s really my window to the social world, through their Twitter & Facebook integration, as well as using it to manage my IM’s and emails.  I want to say it’s my favorite program, but with their latest actions I feel like I did a little inside every time I fire up this program.

Digsby has always had one of the most evil installers, which sneakily offers your crapware that you don’t want, making it pretty hard to escape unscathed .  Back in August they released a new version that stepped up the amount of crapware, but to make things worse they used your computer to “search the web” and do processing for other commercial companies.  As if that wasn’t unbelievable enough, it was originally opt-out.

Lifehacker did a great job of chronicling the ordeal and rightfully ripping Digsby for their misdeeds. It’s worth a read.  After enduring a PR firestorm, Digsby finally reneged on these restrictions, crying “mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” [see LifeHacker reaction].  In their blog post apologizing for (and defending) their actions Digsby proclaimed:

“We are still a young company that is trying to figure out our long term revenue models.  At the end of the day, we need to keep the lights on and pay salaries so we can keep making Digsby even better ..  The reason we decided to test these two revenue models is because they would allow us to accomplish this while keeping Digsby free and ad-free.” [Digsby Blog]

So I gave Digsby the benefit of the doubt, until I saw their Twitter post from last night:

Text DIGSBY to 41411 to be the first to know when there are updates and new releases!

So now they’re resorting to collecting cell phone numbers.  I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I think that a social media & communication tool – rather than using said social media & communication methods to send their updates – is now going into left field and sending them through cell phones.  How does this make sense?  It only makes sense if you’re looking to graft ads at the end of these messages or perhaps even build them up for more sinister purposes (like renting them to another company).

I’m surprised there hasn’t been a backlash about this, but maybe it’s building up somewhere.  I hope people see this as another one of their shady tactics and don’t buy into this crap.  If there is a backlash I’m sure Digsby will apologize on their blog, saying they need to keep the lights on and will go doing good until they get their next “Pinky & the Brain” evil scheme to take over the world.

This is a disturbing and recurring pattern that is being displayed in some of these cutting edge Web 2.0 companies.  Many deploy these slimy tactics and don’t see the problem with them until there is a backlash from their users.  What this tells me is that their ethical compass isn’t pointing north and there doesn’t seem to be a pressing need to correct it.

I hate this because I think Digsby is a great app and I want them to succeed.  I wish they simply would just go ad-supported and offer a modest price for a professional version.  This has become an essential app every day and would gladly pay the price. but not like this.

More Baseball Scheduling Thoughts

Jeromey Balderrama

Well the Rockies had a great run and blew everyone’s expectations – especially when you consider that back in the Spring Hurdle got fired because the team was so bad.  I’ll be honest: Now that the Rockies are out of the Playoffs, my level of interest in MLB has significantly decreased.  I did want to offer a thought, more-so an expansion of something I Twittered about last night before fatigue got the better of me.

The Rockies started playing at 8pm on a Sunday night, with the game ending well past midnight.  We’re talking Mountain Time, never mind that we were playing Philly, an Eastern Time Zone team.  Yet somehow baseball doesn’t see anything wrong with that.

Look, I’m not in so much denial about the Rockies’ stature that I believe the team warrants the major prime-time spot, and I am somewhat grateful that they re-scheduled the Rockies game to give Broncos fans the opportunity to watch..  but really an 8pm start time?!?  Baseball can’t get away with the same tricks that basketball and hockey pull – their games are under 3 hours – and an 8pm start time doesn’t work for playoff baseball.

I’ve heard the detractors of my views (and debated with them on Twitter), that I am being selfish and am unwilling to sacrifice a little to support my home team.  Perhaps they’re right, but consider this: Baseball has been in an arguable decline in popularity over the last few decades.  Their die-hard fans aren’t getting any younger, and the only way to build your stature is by getting your product in front of as many potential fans – especially kids – as possible.  It’s pretty hard to that when they’re all in bed.

I’ve stated previously that the NBA is pretty obnoxious about their playoff scheduling, but in the beginning they’re trying to fit in 8 games.  Yet somehow baseball only has to manage 4 games and still finds a way to screw that scheduling up.  Baseball is in a tough spot, but they need to start somewhere and accept a few things.  For one, accept that you can’t avoid football and may just need to compete with it.  If you’re going to play on a Sunday in the fall, you can’t avoid all of their games.  Secondly, you need to make sure you’re on in the afternoons on weekends, the fact that you didn’t have a game scheduled on Saturday afternoon is nothing but a missed opportunity.  Thirdly, if it’s too hard for you to take 2 games each night and alternate nights, then you maybe should accept the fact that the games will need to run on alternate channels.  I know each sports feels their playoffs should run exclusively, but if you can’t manage the 4+ hours your game run then you need to do something.

Today’s Miles High Experience

Jeromey Balderrama

Today was a long day, a fun day, but a long one.  We played a great show at Signature’s Night Club last night which I’ll have to get into a bit more, but a long drive home didn’t get me back into Fort Collins until after 2am.  I woke up this morning at 8:30 and started to make my way back to the Mile High City to see the Broncos take on the Patriots. Unfortunately I gave Bethany the illness that I had last week, so she wasn’t able to go.  Luckily my buddy Matt was able to drop things and head down to the game with me.

It was definitely a cold one.  I dressed in a decent amount of layers: a turtleneck, sweatshirt jacket, and of course my jersey.  The sun finally broke out in the 2nd half and made it warm enough to take off the knit hat and gloves.

If you saw the game (and thus the uniforms), you could see that the Broncos were going back to the 60’s, and the stadium crew was trying to go for the same thing as well.  Some of the things they did were pretty clever: the Cheerleaders with the 60’s outfits and huge pom-poms, a pep band playing (what I presume is) the Broncos fight song when touchdowns were scored, 60’s music during timeouts. 

However there were a few things that completely missed the mark: The big screens (people call them jumbo-trons, Mile High calls it “Thundervision”) showed everything in black & white, and to drive home the point they put it in this obnoxious old TV border.   The idea was cute, but there were a few problems: 1) Both jerseys came across as being white on the screen, making it difficult to identify players; 2) Even though they were going with a black & white effect to make things look old, it was still in HD. 3) The typical graphics/ads/screens were pretty much unreadable.  It was just one of those things that probably took things too far.

We were treated to half-time show by the CSU Marching Band – more appropriately: the home stands were treated to the show, as that was the only section that could actually hear the band.  I didn’t realize just how bad the acoustics in the stadium were until after I heard the band.  It seemed that all of the sound got absorbed by those plastic seats, with nothing left to bounce around the stadium.

Old-school experiences aside, it was great to walk out of the stadium with a win – especially one that practically no one outside of Denver was expecting.

Pre-gaming for a show

Jeromey Balderrama

It looks like the roads from Fort Collins to Denver are clearing up, and the weather is clearing up for our Greenfoot show at Signatures Night Club.  Aside from my regular drum gear, there are a few other things to gather for myself and the band.  Some of the things I’m packing in my gear box:

  • Print-Outs of the Set List in big, bold type that can be seen on a dark stage
  • Duct tape for the setlists and any other cords/gear that needs to be taped down
  • Print-Outs of our mailing list signup form (along with pens that I’m not afraid to lose)
  • CD’s to hand out
  • Business Cards with our contact information
  • T-Shirts to sell
  • My Nalgene water bottle
  • Gum (so I don’t look like an idiot when I play)

What are other things that musicians should bring with them (aside from their gear)?  What one of the things I’m on the search for is a clock that: 1) Can be seen in the dark (either with a back-lit, or front-lit digits); 2) Displays in this mode by default (doesn’t need to be touched); 3) Is (or can be) battery powered.  So far no such luck.   Would anyone have any suggestions – either for a clock or for gear musicians need to bring).