Links Round Up for 12/5/10

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Links Round Up for 10/31/10

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Links Round Up for 10/10/10

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Links Round Up for 10/3/10

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It’s October! My favorite month, and not just because it’s my birthday this month. Baseball postseason, Football in full swing, the weather is cool, and the leaves are changing. What more can you want? But enough of that. Here are the things that caught my eye during the last week of September.

Some closing notes: Dexter Season 5 premiered last week: Here’s the full episode from Showtime’s official YouTube page. As far are music goes, I picked up Brandon Flowers’ (of The Killers) new album, Flamingo. It’s pretty good (note: really good. very personal).

Links Round Up for 09/26/10

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  • Facebook is not worth $33 Billion: So there was this time in the late 1990s when Venture Capitalists invested billions into websites without any strong models to make money. Good thing nothing bad came from that. (also, what ever happened to valuing a company based on the money it makes?)
  • Think You Know Baseball? No, You Don’t: This is a shining example about why statistics can be used to prove whatever you want. This guy doesn’t actually tell us anything of substance. “A metric called Win Probability Added (WPA) goes plate appearance by plate appearance to see just how much a player helped or hurt his team’s chance of winning. Value is added for big plays at crucial moments.” That is a completely made up, BS stat, probably because the guy doesn’t like Derek Jeter. You know what matters? Wins and Losses.
  • Degrees that Hiring Managers Want: Toping the list is heath care/nursing. IT is also on there.
  • What it Means when You say ‘Literally’: Wrote about this a while ago. This drives me insane….not literally.
  • With no Jobs, Grads ‘Gamble’ on Education: This is pretty interesting. I think it was grad school that made be the developer I am. I was also able to get an assistantship, which meant school from free.
  • Wait. What Does Your Startup Do?: I get way to many pitches for websites like this. “It’s like a Facebook for orphans.” 37signals said that there is a social network that doesn’t exist today, there is probably a reason. Think about that, because it’s true.

In other news, Facebook was down for the good part of a day and Twitter was hacked. Crazy!

And for music…The Gaslight Anthem. I recommend it all, but if you’re only choosing one, The ’59 Sound is the best.

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Big Day for Baseball

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I’m not a Hot Stove blogger by any stretch, but today’s baseball news is too much to pass up!

  • Possibly the biggest news of the day is the Blue Jays deal Doc Halladay to the Phillies while the Phillies send Cliff Lee to Seattle in a 3-team trade. This is expected to be finalized in the next couple of days.
  • Meanwhile, John Lackey has been signed by the Boston Red Sox.
  • The Angels may have lost an Ace pitcher, but they did sign Hideki Matsui to a 1 year deal
  • Finally, the Yankees lighten their load even more by releasing Ching Ming Wang. Now they are in need of a number 4 guy (they may have been anyway, knowing Wang’s shakiness for the last 2 years). Rumor has it the are looking at Justin Duchscherer and Ben Sheets, as well as Jason Marquis and Joel Pineiro.
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The Yankees and the World Series

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Celebration

Since the last time the Yankees went to the World Series in 2003 I’ve: Graduated college (MS and BS), started a company, grew my business, and much more. Since the last time they won in 2000 I’ve: graduated high school, started web design, started programming, started driving, and much much more.

This is the Yankees 4th trip to the Fall Classic this decade, and the 7th in my lifetime, winning 4 of them. Some people would said I’m spoiled; that I’m lucky my team has made and won it even once in my lifetime, something a lot of people I know probably can’t say, and definitely couldn’t say by the time they were 11. But I’m a Yankees fan and I thank God for that. I say that because I was born in NY, and my allegiance had to lie within the state. And it just so happens that my grandmother grew up a few blocks away from the stadium. Both my parents are Yankee fan and so am I.

Because of this, I expect more- not because I’m an asshole, but because of our history. With Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Thurmon Munson, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and so many more, how can we not be the best? And this team is the best we’ve had since our record breaking 1998 team. I see a lot of parallels- the camaraderie, the veterans, the great young talent, the raw power, and the drive. It’s not a given that we will win every game, but we don’t count ourselves out and we know that we can win every game- especially now.

So to the Phillies (and their fans) I say bring it on. And to the Yankees and their fans: let’s finish this decade that same way we started it- with a championship.

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Since the Last Time I Went to a Yankees Postseason Game

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Yanks 10

Since 1998, the last time I went to a Yankees Postseason game (Game 1 vs. the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, to be exact), I’ve:

  • Watched the Yankees enter 5 and win 3 World Series
  • Graduated grammar school
  • Entered and graduated high school
  • Started, stopped, and started again playing the drums
  • Had 2 surgeries: 1 on my hip and 1 on my shoulder
  • Started driving
  • Held at least 11 different jobs (some concurrently, I didn’t get get hired and fired a lot)
  • Got my Bachelor’s in Media/Info Tech with a minor in CS
  • Got my Master’s in Software Engineering
  • Started my own freelance web design/development operation
  • Started a web applications company
  • Saw my first concert
  • Saw 50+ more
  • Gone to Ireland
  • Totaled a car
  • Got my thesis published

Wow. It’s been 11 years, and a lot has happened! I’m very excited to go to Game 6 (whether it’s tonight or tomorrow). Let’s go Yankees!

Yankees Discuss Bonds

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756*

Dear Yankees,

If you acquire Barry Bonds, I will be very, very disappointed. And beyond pissed. I will lose a lot of respect for you as a franchise. In short, we’d be fighting. I’m still kind of pissed at you for slapping Torre in the face. So to Brian Cashman and the brothers Steinbrenner, do the right thing.

Your Fan,
Joe