So, I know that I have not been keeping the blog up to date.  I was on vacation (from work and school) and was trying to be as unproductive as possible.  I think that I even slept 15 hours in one day.  This rivals records that I held back in my college days.  But, I am back now and extremely tired after watching the Alamo Bowl go into overtime last night.  And that brings me to what this post is really about—the Alamo Bowl.

The Alamo Bowl last night was a battle between two teams with completely opposite motivations.  One team was completely excited to be playing and looking for their first bowl win in many years and the other team was there for the bowl swag.  This was completely apparent when watching  the play on the field.  Northwestern was running around and making plays while Mizzou seemed content to continue the same laissez-faire play that landed them in the Alamo bowl in the first place.  If the world was fair, Northwestern would have won that game.  But it is not.  Mizzou has Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman.  And, their ability to make plays was the difference in the game.

For Mizzou fans, the game was painful to watch.  Chase Daniel looked awful for most of the game.  He had 3 interceptions and for most of the second half looked like he was throwing to his family in the stands.  The most telling drive was the last one for Mizzou.  With the game tied, Pinkel was content to lay on the ball and settle for a 44 yard field goal rather than put the ball in the hands of Chase.  This led to a missed field goal and overtime.  In the end, Chase showed glimpses of his former brilliance and led the team to a win.

So, where does this leave the Mizzou program?  After last year, the entire state was excited about the future of the program. Daniel, Coffman, and Maclin deserve a lot of credit for bringing this program to another level.  Before their tenure, we would have been content with an Alamo Bowl win.  To their credit, our expectations for success have changed.  But, I think that after what we saw over the last month, we realize just how far we have to go.  Beating Nebraska a few years back was just a first step.  But, the real challenge ahead of Mizzou is whether we can beat a team from Oklahoma or Texas (and I am not talking about Baylor or Texas A&M).

For the last month, I have been subscribing to the Zune pass.  This is the buffet-style music subscription service that allows you to download any song you want to for a flat fee of $14.99.  So far, I have been really into it.  It is a good way to listen to a bunch of new music without having to shell out $.99 (or stealing it).  The main problem that I am having, is now that I have all of this freedom to listen to anything I want, where do I find new music to download?  This is where I have gone so far.

1. Zune 3.0 Software—The new Zune software has a number of music discovery features.  The first is mixview.  This allows you to click on any artist and see their influences.  The next discovery feature in the Zune 3.0 software is channels.  Channels are a cross between podcasts and radio stations.  Like a podcast, channels automatically download music to your device every time you sync it.  Some of the channels are sponsored by popular radio stations like KEXP in Seattle.

2. Traditional Radio Stations—Radio stations are one of the better ways to find music for your Zune pass.  Almost all of them publish their playlists and most recently played songs on their website.  This really is a great way to create new playlists.  Just search Google for your favorite genre, find the playlist, and download the music.  Don’t feel too bad about using the station’s website for this purpose.  Most of these sites serve up tons of ads.

3. Top Songs Lists—Being that it is close to the end of the year, there are a lot of Best Songs of 2008 playlists.  These are perfect for discovering new music with your Zune pass.  A quick search on Google brought up lists from poplicks, Amazon, Time, and a number of other independent bloggers.  Trust me, as we get closer to New Years, there will be a lot more.

So, those are the three ways that I have been finding new music to use with my Zune pass.  Anyone have any other good ideas?

There has been a lot of talk lately about Microsoft introducing a Zune phone at CES in January.  The speculation falls into one of two camps: (1) a new phone sporting the Zune brand and (2) an addition to Windows Mobile that will allow all WinMo phones to access the Zune marketplace.  It is starting to look like option number 2 is more likely as more light is shed on project pink.  Some pundits seem to think that this a bad move for the company and would like to see a more ambitious project similar to what Apple undertook with the iPhone.  But, personally I would be ecstatic to see just the Zune software added to Windows mobile.

Why?  First, I think that Windows Mobile phones already are some of the best looking (from and industrial design perspective) on the market.  There is no reason for Microsoft to get into the design arena when companies such as HTC and Palm have already got this figured out.  Second, I like choices in form factors.  If Microsoft went with a single branded device (ala the Zune) than we most likely would be limited to that single form factor.  To me, this would be a huge limiting factor.  And finally, I think that a phone is more than a music player, and a phone OS should be more than a music player OS.  Apple did not release an iPod phone.  The company released an OSX phone with iTunes software.  Similarly, I think it makes sense for Microsoft to release Windows Mobile with Zune software.

So, for those reasons, I think that it would be a better decision to release the Zune marketplace on Windows Mobile.  I would definitely be excited about the possibility and would add a few Windows Mobile phones (especially the HTC Touch Diamond) and the HTC Touch Pro) to my short list.  Lets just hope that with this addition Microsoft also provides a UI update to the OS, because I am definitely not digging WinMO 6.

Judging by the weather outside, it looks like it is getting close to that magical time of the year.  No, not Christmas or New Year’s Eve.  You guessed it…it is getting close to the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  CES is one of the major conferences where the big consumer electronic manufacturers (well, except for Apple) start showing off their new products.  This year features over 2700 exhibitors in 30 product categories.  While, I will not be attending myself, I will be following the news closely at Engadget.

Next year, I will be in the market for a new cellphone.  I might even go crazy and get one of those new fangled ’smart phones’.  So, there are a number of questions that I am looking to be answered during CES:

1. Will Microsoft ever update Windows Mobile?

2. Will we ever see the Zune or Xbox ecosystem on a phone?

3. When will Sony and HTC roll out some new Android phones?  I know they are coming soon.

4. Does Blackberry have anything up their sleeves?

5. Will we see 4G in 2009?

6. Will we see the Nokia N97 (pictured above) state-side any time soon?

Anyways, I am pretty excited.  What are you all looking forward to?

I am finally breaking the silence after two full weeks of not writing.  Last week was essentially my finals week.  I had an exam and a team project due that took up most of my free time.  This week I have been working hard to get ahead of a bunch of work coming down the pipe at my job.  So, I have not had too much time to write.  I missed a lot, so lets get started.

KC Trip—Last weekend I was in KC for the Mizzou/Oklahoma Big 12 championship.  The weekend itself was a lot of fun.  KC is really a great little city.  It is clean and has a lot of cool areas to go to.  Our trip included lights on the Plaza, bowling in the Power and Light District, and eating KC barbecue at Jack Stack’s in downtown.  Overall, I think it was a pretty representative KC experience.  The game itself was miserable.  Mizzou got clobbered and we left at the half.  It looks like the next big hurdle for the program (beating one of the big boys from the south) will have to wait another year or so.

BCS—I do think that the BCS got it right this year having Oklahoma play Florida for the National Championship.  With how good the SEC and the Big 12 was this year, it would have been a joke to have a team from another conference play for the championship.  With that said, this year also shows the inherent weakness of the current system.  If Oklahoma wins and Texas wins, can we really declare a champion?  My opinion is that it would have to be shared.

True Blood—I finally finished watching the first season of True Blood.  Overall, I thought it was pretty good.  I like how the show has interwoven the different mythologies.  It also has the required HBO-edge that makes it just a little better than network TV.  Unlike John from Cincinatti, it seems to answer a number of questions while leaving a few more out there to be discussed.  The major outstanding questions are:  what is going on with Tara and Lafayette?  And, who (or what) is that strange lady that took Tara under her wings?  My theory is that she is a shape-shifter that has somehow mastered turning into humans.

Fantasy Football Playoffs—It turns out that I am the regular season champion of both my leagues this year. So, congrats to smith.taculo.us and the smithfactory.  Now, it is time to enter the playoffs.  I really do think the idea of playoffs is flawed in fantasy sports because it happens at the end of the year when a lot of teams are resting players and a lot of teams have nothing to play for.  I would much rather decide the champion on record at the end of the season than on a few arbitrary matchups at the end.  But, given that I have spent only the better part of an hour on the season, I don’t have room to complain too much.

I am a little late this week with the weekend wrap-up.  No excuses, just been busy.  So here it is.

Reality Football—I got so use to playing fantasy football that I forgot how tough it was to actually play football.  On Saturday, Eric arranged a game of football.  Being that we are all in our late twenties, we played touch to help cut down on the injuries.  We had about 16 people and played for 4 hours.  It was a good day.  If we were keeping stats, it would have been a pretty good fantasy day for Matthew Smith.  I had a couple touchdown catches and even threw for a touchdown late in the game.  I did not get any interceptions, but that was because I really wasn’t covering anyone.  Some may call it lazy, I call it a match-up zone.  The end result of the day was that I have been pretty sore for 2 days straight.  Eric called me out on this, but I think if he would have actually caught a few passes, he would have been sore too.  Just kidding, of course.

Fantasy Football—It was another dominating week in fantasy football for me.  Although, I have not seen the final score yet, it looks like I will have win my games in both my work and my friend leagues.  This would put me second and first in these leagues respectively.  Given that I have not yet watched an entire NFL game the whole year (short attention span), I think this a pretty good showing through twelve weeks.

TV—Given my limited mobility over the last couple days, I have gotten to watch a fair amount of TV.  On Sunday, I watched the first three episodes of “True Blood”.  So far, so good.  It looks like I am going to commit my long Thanksgiving weekend to catching up on that show.

Last week of school—Well, maybe I will not commit the whole Thanksgiving weekend to TV.  Next week is my last week of school.  I have a test on Monday and a project due on Thursday and I am rushing to get both of those done.  After next week, I will just have a single class left until I complete my MBA.

I know I am missing a few things here and there.  I got to see Mike’s new pad and checked out a bar in Lafayette Square.  But, hey, I got some trash talking in, so I am calling this post complete.

In St. Louis, there is an ongoing debate about whether dish or cable is better.  You see it on billboards, tv commercials, and on company bulletin boards.  I have now been on both sides of the fence.  I have had Charter and I have recently switched to Dish Network.  And, I can tell you that the grass is definitely greener on the other side of the fence.  Here is a quick rundown of my experience.

HD Programming—When I switched from Charter to Dish, the amount of HD channels was the first thing I noticed.  At Charter, I had a maximum of 20 HD channels.  At Dish, I over over 40 channels.  This includes CBS and multiple HBO channels.  And, more importantly the quality is the same between the two providers.  HD was one of my top reasons for switching and I am completely satisfied.

DVR—At Charter, I had the now dead Moxi DVR.  The Moxi DVR was probably the best experience I have ever had with a set top box.  It was intuitive and the interface was amazing.  But at times, it was like playing with fire, literally.  The box ran really hot and I had one overheat leaving my house smelling like burnt coffee. Does the Dish DVR live up to the Moxi Box?  Yes and No.  The experience is equivalent but it is not amazing.  If I could choose between the two, I would go with Moxi.  But, that is really no longer an option unless you already have the Moxi box at Charter.  And, I hear the new box is really not that good.  So overall, the Dish DVR is serviceable and I don’t really fear it catching my house on fire (knock on wood).

On-demand—I did enjoy the on-demand features at Charter.  And, honestly that is one thing that I miss.  Apparently, Dish offers 1080p on-demand through broadband but I have yet to hook it up because my receiver is no where near my broadband router.  And my VIP box does not have wireless built in.  Honestly though, I have had no time to work on networking, so I will leave this as an unresolved point.  Charter on-demand works out-of-the-box, so if this is a big feature for you, Dish might not be a good solution.  I will follow up once I work on getting on-demand working on Dish.

Billing—This was a big reason I left Charter.  Every year, my promotional package would expire and they would raise my rates between 30 and 40%.  I was then forced to call and renegotiate my rates every year.  This was extremely annoying.  I am a busy man and I really don’t want to spend 45 minutes on the phone just to keep business as usual.  With Dish, billing seems to be pretty straight forward.  And, their rates are clearly listed on their site, so I really have no worries.  Have fun trying to find that on Charter’s site.  And when you do, I bet you will see something like this under the price “Promotion term 6 months”.

Overall, Dish has better HD programming, a comparable DVR, and much better billing policies.  I still have not figured on-demand out, so I think Charter as an advantage here.  But, overall for my money, the experience has been much better on Dish Network.

What has been your experience?

This is kind of my equivalent of Eric’s Thoughts of the Day.  So, here you go.

Zune—The Zune Marketplace today announced that with their $15/month plan you can now keep 10 songs of your choice (presumably DRM-free).  I have been listening to a lot more music lately (must be the cold), so this announcement might be enough to get me to sign back up to the service.  We will see.  If it was $10, I would be onboard immediately.

Xbox—I am really looking forward to going home and firing up the Xbox 360 to get the dashboard update.  Even though I do not get the Netflix service, I think a change will be welcomed.  I was a big fan of the blades, so we will see if this is better.  Now, I think Xbox needs to focus on tighter integration with the Zune Marketplace and maybe opening this thing up to third-party apps.

Blackberry Storm—Engadget gave the new Storm a less than glowing review today.  But, I think I am going to reserve judgement until I see this thing in person.  I think that the new Blackberry interface (on both the Storm and the Bold) looks awesome.  I am a big fan of their new home screen.  The white icons against a transparent gray background give the device a simple and modern appeal.  It is a pretty big departure from the iPhone’s color explosion.  But, it personally suits my tastes much better.  I am still leaning toward the Bold as my future smartphone of choice, but I think the technology in the Storm (and the fact that is not on AT&T) make it an interesting second choice.

7800—It looks like the Dow might hit 7800 today.  When it broke below 10,000, one my teacher’s said that a finance professor told him that the bottom was 7800 (confusing, right?).  So, it looks like his prediction will hold true for at least today.  For some interesting reading on what is going on, check out Greg Mankiw’s Blog.  He has been posting some must-reads on the auto industry bailout.

Update: 7550. Wow.

This weekend was pretty laid back.  I did some home improvements, played some NASCAR, and watched some football.

Home Improvements—This weekend I decided to stay in and get some home improvement stuff out of the way.  So, most of the weekend was spent building a built-in desk for my upstairs office (and spare bedroom).  I am going to dedicate a whole post to the construction a little later in the week, so I will just move on.

NASCAR 09—I probably spent about 3 hours playing the NASCAR 09 game that I bought on Friday.  My verdict is still out on whether I like the game or not.  The visuals are great, but I am not sure 10 laps is a good representation of a race.  And, I am not sure that I could race more than 10 laps without getting tired of making left turns.  Also, I feel like the game is either easy or extremely difficult depending on which setting you pick.  I do not think I want to invest the next 6 months trying to perfect NASCAR racing, so, honestly, the game might not be for me.  I will play it a few more times in the coming weeks to get a better feeling for the game.

College Football—This weekend I only caught the Mizzou game and the Alabama game.  And, both of these games were pretty boring.  The next couple weeks in college football are going to be pretty good, so I am going to let this weekend slide.

That was about it.  It was a lazy, but constructive weekend.

It looks like I will be doing some left turnin’ and burnin’ rubber this weekend, because I picked up Nascar 09 during lunch.  Sure, the kids will tell you to pick up COD5 or Gears 2.  But, the g-to-the-o, o-to-the-d, t-to-the-i, m-to-the-e (that spells good time) will be had playing Nascar 09.  Expect a full review soon.