We love the game. Do they ?

Update:
Two days back , something happened in an NCAA basketball game that gave an interesting twist to the arguments we have been having on the quality of sports today. John Chaney, a supposedly ex-hotshot coach of Temple University's basketball team was unhappy with some so called "illegal screens" used by players of St.Josephs and the officials not noting them. He sent in seldom-used 6-foot-8, 250-pound Nehemiah Ingram for the single avowed purpose that he didnt like the way St.Joe's approach to things. What followed was one of the most shameful acts in college basketball history. Ingram became, in Chaney's own words, a goon to show he meant business to St.Joe's players. What was a 6 point game until then was lost on a 16 point margin but the message sure got delivered. John Bryant, the St.Joe's player who was the prime target for Ingram and Chaney is now out of action for the season.
What followed was even worse. Chaney, who has tremendous clout in Temple, took a self-imposed single game suspension for his act. Not the league, not the school, no one had the power to say, he must be suspended for the rest of the season, like the career of John Bryant, who is now going to watch the rest of the season roll by from the benches. This illustrates how much coaches matter in NCAA. A similar act in professional basketball or any other sport would have resulted in atleast 5-7 game suspension for the coach, not to mention sever fines and disrespect. Here, Chaney gets away with just a game, that too self-imposed.
Is this the way sports are going to played in the future ?. An all poweful coach, doing and getting away with what he wants and everyone else just sitting and watching ?

Original Post:
I remember a decade or more years ago when cricket was all that made sense to me. It was pure and blissful and kept me on my tenterhooks all year. And then the match fixing scandal broke out. While I tried rationalising that only a few players were tainted and the game as such was still as pure as it used to be, the enormity of the situation had started to sink in. Its professional and like any profession, there is so much of dirt in it that at this point of time was threatening to obscure the beautiful game that it was.

Fast forward to last year when the doping accusations in baseball started filtering in. BALCO and Barry Bonds were all over the papers and the SF Giants slugger was trying hard to convince the public that he had nothing to do with performance enhancers or steroids, while everyone from his friends in the game (Gary Sheffield) to his trainer to his ex-girlfriend spoke otherwise. Soon Jason Giambi and Sheffield were pulled in and the book "Juiced" released last week, ensured that infamy was here to stay in baseball.

Olympics over the last few years has been filled with doping scandals aplenty. Ben Johnson anyone ?. Late last year and early this year, owners and players of Major League Hockey in the US fought over who gets more money and the talks broke down last week and the announcement that there would be no hockey this season, followed. This time, money was the culprit.

Looking at all these, it begs to be said. Is there no more game in the game anymore ?
Is it all about winning and the adulation and money and not about the joy of being on the arena or the field and enjoying the sheer joy of playing the game ?
While its hard not to be cynical about it, are we at the end of the road for the spirit of sports or what is left of it ?

Wireless Municipalities

Almost five years ago when I started my Masters program at Virginia Tech, the wireless LAN industry was almost non-existent and wireless was all things cellular. In 2001, the Communication Network Services of VT (parent of my research group) started a pilot WLAN deployment project of which I was a part. It was one of the earliest and largest campus WLAN deployments inspired by the now legendary Wireless Andrew project at CMU. It was an awesome experience at a time when WLAN was bleeding edge.

Cut to today. I live in Philly where the city Mayor recently proposed the setting up of the largest single WLAN network encompassing the entire Philly downtown and some suburbs. I was excited on hearing about it. Philly downtown has three fairly big Universities-UPenn, Drexel and Temple. The aim of the program is to provide affordable high-speed service to low income residents of the city and also the many thousand students who cannot otherwise afford high-speed access. This move which envisions a $10 million investment by private sector and the municipality would result in 4000 wireless antennas hoisted upon lamp posts over the next 18 months. The private sector isnt really enthusiastic since the largest cable operator in the US, Comcast has its headquarters in Philly and doesnt want to pay for something that would reduce its cable internet subscriber base. Verizon Communications also isnt happy since its trying to make money with its $30 a month DSL plan. They believe that the municipality wants to hurt the hand that feeds it in form of donations and taxes.

This brings us to the question: are socialist ideas of taking broadband to every home at affordable prices really the best for the corporate community that feeds the municipality to a vast extent ?

Is the Philly project, arguably the largest such in the country, a landmark event or one big mistake ?

VoIP

There have been some extra serious topics going around and I thought Ill write about something more generic for people to chew on. Last week I picked up a Vonage broadband VoIP phone connection at home. Have to say it was long time coming. I usually like being ahead of the curve but this one I got in late. Neverthless, it has been a good experience until now. I got a 500 minutes package for 15 dollars a month which includes all the call features including Caller-Id for free and also 800 and 911 calling.I got my Activation fee waived too which was definitely nice and a Linksys router with phone ports that needs to be returned when I disconnect my service. Best of all ,you get to use your old phone and not the headset and computer speakers that are otherwise associated with VoIP.

No wonder the CLECs and RBOCs are not happy. There are already reports of local service providers blocking VoIP service in the fear of losing their revenue streams. Vonage is complaining to FCC about local operators blocking its service and its getting nastier by the day. Meanwhile, elsewhere Skype, while getting good deals under its belt is having Customer Service issues.

For Indians in the US, there are VoIP providers offering unlimited calling to India for 35 dollars a month. And for people who need more than 500 minutes a month, Vonage offers a 24.99 unlimted calling plan. And then there is AT&T CallVantage which has garnered good reviews but is a tad more expensive than Vonage.

All in all, we have a good bunch of options to choose from and with competition hotting up, things will only get better. And in that note, Ill wrap up.

Shameless Plug: If you decide to take a Vonage connection, let me know and I can refer you :)

Update: Pradeep has a good writeup on the overall VoIP picture here.

Whats with Valentine's day and gifting ?

No, I am not a Shiv Sainik who is against the celebration of V Day because of moral crap. That is pure bullshit from people who have nothing else to do and whose wives dont get the attention they deserve from their husbands. I am a sane, literate person who questions the increasing pressure and focus on V Day. Its been 5 years since I was in India for V Day. So forgive me if I am out of touch with things there.In the US, things are now at a point where the amount of caring and love you have for a person is increasingly being measured in terms of extremely tangible metrics like how many carats is the engagement ring, how many tiers are in the wedding cake and yeah, how many roses did you give to her for Valentine's Day. Added to this are what gifts to give for V Day. Is it thoughtful or insensitive. The works.

I understand that February the 14th is a day for people in love to express in some way or the other, their feelings for their lovers. Cool. I am all for it. But to have the expression of love being measured in terms of material things is taking this a bit too far. I have gifted my girlfriend and now my wife for every single of the V Days we have been together and am glad to note that she doesnt measure my gifts with any yardstick but the fact that I remembered and gave her something. Unfortunately my friends have a whole different story to tell me about their V Days, ranging from getting some really special action or getting none based on their gifts, being kicked out to the couch courtesy a bad gift and so on. Is this really how a Valentine's day is supposed to be ?

Are we losing track of the simple pleasures of live and giving anything and everything a tangible and material twist ?

We are a dynasty baby! Oh Yeah !
Pictures Courtesy: http://www.boston.com

Dynasty!

Just a few seconds ago, the New England Patriots nailed their third Super Bowl in four years and picked up the tag of the first dynasty in football in the 21st century. I would love to write and write and write about this victory given the amount of anti-Patriotism I have had to face from Eagles fans in Philly. But I will stop here and soak in the glory.

Attaboy Brady, Teddy, Dillon, Harrison, Dillon, Givens, Branch and every single member of the victorious Patriots. And most of all, attaman Belichick.

We believed and will continue to do so, always.

Go Pats !

PS: No Nipplegate this time around. Sadly.

Its SuperBowl time and the Patriots are in the SuperBowl, again ! This is me at my work during Interdigital WingBowl 2005. 

Is it worth the price ?

I am heading into a contentious territory where I have debated with many over the last few months. A fellow blogger even wrote a related article on NASA and marketing, a few weeks back to great response and debate. I wouldnt want to take up the big picture but rather focus on one small area, portable music players and the now ubiquitous iPods. For more than a year now, I have drooled over getting myself an iPod. I knew it had much less functionality than many players out there. It was definitely more expensive than the rest of the pack and was more propreitary than most, if you want to put Sony's foolish Atrac NetMD systems at the top of the pile. But the industrial design of iPod and its siblings were enough to dispel all other problems away and let us marvel at the engineering and design that went behind this runaway bestseller.

This brings me to the question, is it really worth the price ?. I succumbed last evening to the lure myself and treated my wife to a iPod Shuffle, the least expensive sibling of the family. Like the rest of the iPod family, the Shuffle gives you some good stuff but also compromises on other useful stuff like a display, FM tuner and a voice recorder. The Creative Micro Muvo N200 has a similar configuration as the iPod Shuffle but with an added FM tuner and display for $30 more. I could have afforded the price. But, then it didnt have the charm of the Pod. As is the case with all other Apple products, are the looks worth the price ?. I certainly thought so and plunked a 100 bucks on it. The sound quality is exceptional and the looks are awesome. The comfort of use is good and so is the process of moving songs into the Shuffle using iTunes. But then you cannot move songs to the Shuffle without iTunes which sucks sometimes.

Time will tell if my decision was wise or not, but for now, my wife loves it and so do I !