The perils of watching time-shifted tennis

The perils of watching time-shifted tennis

First world problem.

I record a lot of tennis on TiVo partly because it’s usually inconvenient to watch it live (time zone differences) and if I time-shift it, I can zap the commercials or skim matches I don’t have time to watch all of.

It’s gotten increasingly difficult to not have the outcomes of matches I’ve queued up be spoiled before I’ve gotten a chance to see them. I almost need to cut myself off from the outside world during a tournament I’m watching. Here are the various ways matches can be easily spoiled:

  • I follow tennis players on social media and they obviously are going to announce the outcomes of their matches.
… Read the rest
Did I provide you with excellent service?

Did I provide you with excellent service?

It seems like every time I make a phone call to the customer service department of a big company, I get an email, a return phone call, or a postal mail survey asking how my customer experience was. They always say I was randomly chosen but that defies the laws of probability.

It’s hard to argue conceptually with the idea that you should ask your customers how they are doing. But how about this:

  • Talk to your employees manning the phones. They probably have a good idea about whether customers are generally happy or not.
  • Listen in on some phone calls and take notes.
… Read the rest
New tennis faces for 2011

New tennis faces for 2011

The highlight of the Australian Open this year for me was seeing three very promising players that I’ve never seen before, two of which I’ve never even heard of:

  1. Bernard Tomic, who has a very unconventional style that really messes with people’s minds. You never know quite what he’s going to do. Does need to ditch his father as a coach.
  2. Alexandr Dolgopolov, who also has somewhat of an unusual style, but can surprise you with easy power.
  3. Milos Raonic  was the most impressive of all, although he didn’t make it as far as Dolgopolov. He’s much more of a classic player, with an incredible serve.
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Civil discourse and “tone”

Civil discourse and “tone”

Often when people get into a vigorous debate of ideas, especially with those that disagree with them, it gets derailed by someone complaining about the “tone” of the debate or pleading for “civil discourse”.

As usual, Glenn Greenwald has a brilliant summation of this issue:

“One other point about this fixation on the “tone” of our politics. Political debates are inherently acrimonious – much of the rhetoric during the time of the American Founding, as well as throughout the 19th Century, easily competes with, if not exceeds, what we have now in terms of noxiousness and extremity – but far more important than tone, in my view, is content.

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Come for the tennis, stay for our captive breeding program

Come for the tennis, stay for our captive breeding program

I played tennis recently at a “public” court owned by Valley Church in Cupertino, CA. I was browsing their website today and came across a page about the tennis courts:

Valley Church: Sports Ministry

I think the mission statement bears repeating:

Building bridges with people through sports, introducing them to Jesus Christ, establishing them in their faith, assimilating them into the church and training them to reproduce.

Could that possibly be any creepier? Note that they’ve since removed that text but I found an old version of it.… Read the rest

Wealth now, philanthropy later

Wealth now, philanthropy later

Seeing this latest monument to Bill Gates’ ego reminded me of the following quote from the book Slow Money by Woody Tasch:

“Wealth now, philanthropy later” is an inappropriate response to the challenges of the 21st century.

It has long bothered me that born-again philanthropists are lauded for their contributions for society, while ignoring all the suffering they caused and damage they’ve done to the environment. Suddenly they got old enough (or guilty enough) to start being concerned about their legacy.… Read the rest

Google vs inertia

Google vs inertia

I can’t remember the last time I used Google to find a piece of factual information and ended up with a completely wrong result.

The rare exception recently was a search I did for:

“I promise you I will” lyrics

I was trying to find the name of the artist whose song repeats that phrase over and over. Here’s what Google found:

Top result: Depeche mode
8 of the top 10 results: Depeche mode
13 of the top 20 results: Depeche mode

The real answer?

A one-hit wonder band called When in Rome. The poor guys had their one hit and pretty much everyone seems to think that it’s actually a Depeche Mode song.… Read the rest

Frontline reports on the tricky issues

Frontline reports on the tricky issues

Frontline is one of PBS’s greatest gift to media. They have a great new show on derivatives and it gives a good overview of the recent economic collapse:

The Warning

In an era where all the major news organizations are either afraid to criticize a sitting administration (or even a past one) or are politically motivated rather than motivated by seeking the truth, Frontline can be a breath of fresh air.

Although the show generally has somewhat of a liberal bias, it’s interesting to note they had the courage to air another great program on the war in Afghanistan and give it an accurate, yet provocative name:

Obama’s War… Read the rest