We apologize for the delay. We had a dinner engagement last night at Rocco’s Grill in Bee Cave. Some things are just more important than TMQ blogging, like dinner with family.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
Archive for September, 2015
TMQ Watch: September 29, 2015.
Wednesday, September 30th, 2015Your NFL loser update: week 3, 2015.
Monday, September 28th, 2015It wasn’t a bad weekend. Of course, I didn’t watch any of the games, as I was busy all day Sunday (about which, more later), but the teams I expected to engage in good old fashioned curb stompings did, indeed.
NFL teams that have a chance of going 0-16:
Baltimore
Detroit
Chicago
New Orleans
We’re starting to get down there. But at this point, I don’t think there’s a team that’s really bad enough to go 0-16.
Short random notes: September 24, 2015.
Thursday, September 24th, 2015James Mee has his job back.
I feel sure I’ve written about this before, but I can’t find the post now. Mr. Mee was a deputy with the LA County Sheriff’s Office. He was fired because of his alleged involvement in a police chase that ended when the vehicle he was supposedly chasing crashed into a gas station.
At least, that was the claim. So why was he really fired? Well, Mr. Mee was also one of the officers who arrested Mel Gibson back in 2006.
This one’s for Lawrence: Frank Gehry is working on a project to rehabilitate the Los Angeles River. This has some people upset.
(Obligatory. Plus, the video I’ve linked to before has been taken down, so call this a bookmark.)
Obit watch: September 23, 2015.
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015Yogi Berra has passed away.
I hope he doesn’t find heaven too crowded.
The NYT obit, in my opinion, is unusually good, though I’m sure it has been in the files for a long time.
TMQ Watch: September 22, 2015.
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015TMQ Watch? On Tuesday? Yes, we know it is a bit of a shock, but that is our plan and we intend to stick to it.
TMQ Watch will probably go up late in the afternoon, though: we like to run out to DFG Noodles on our lunch hour. And while the noodles are excellent, and the girls are cute (our two big reasons for going) it does cut into our lunchtime blogging.
But enough administration. After the jump, this week’s edited TMQ…
Your NFL loser update: week 2, 2015.
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015NFL teams that have a chance of going 0-16:
Baltimore
Houston
Indianapolis
Philadelphia
New York Football Giants
Detroit
Chicago
New Orleans
Seattle
Obit watch and more random notes: September 18, 2015.
Friday, September 18th, 2015Milo Hamilton, sports broadcaster.
NYT.
Warren “Remo Williams” Murphy. I’ve never read any of the Remo Williams books myself, mostly because I don’t know where to begin with the series. I am told by trustworthy individuals that they are fun…
New indoor range coming to South Austin. Well. Well well well. Well. I am looking forward to trying this out.
Obit watch: September 17, 2015.
Thursday, September 17th, 2015I didn’t know Frank James personally, though I wish I had. I did tell him on his blog that I wanted to meet him if he ever made it to Texas: he wrote Project 64: The MP5 Submachine Gun Story
That wasn’t the only thing he wrote. He was a prolific gun writer and blogger. And everything I’ve read about him says he was a really good guy.
TMQ Watch (for real): September 15, 2015.
Wednesday, September 16th, 2015Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Welcome back to TMQ Watch. After the jump…
TMQ Watch: September 15, 2015.
Tuesday, September 15th, 2015For the past few days, Gregg Easterbrook has been hinting at a “major announcement” about the future of Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Today was the day. And where did TMQ fetch up?
Would you believe the New York Times?
We almost didn’t believe it either, but, yes, TMQ is now under the purview of the paper of record. We’re not sure how we feel about this yet. But having just finished Public Editor Number One
Does this mean that TMQ Watch will continue? Indeed. We would have already written up a TMQ Watch for today. However, we got stuck into a situation at work. We will not go into details except to say that we were busy all day (including lunch). Our plan is to curl up tonight with about four ounces of Canadian Club 10 Year Old Reserve, some fizzy water, and a copy of Carry On, Jeeves
So new TMQ Watch tomorrow, probably late afternoon would be our guess.
Your NFL loser update: week 1, 2015.
Monday, September 14th, 2015NFL teams that have a chance of going 0-16:
Baltimore
Pittsburgh
Cleveland
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Oakland
Philadelphia
New York Football Giants
Washington
Minnesota
Detroit
Chicago
New Orleans
Tampa Bay
Seattle
Lawrence asked me the other night who I thought might be the first coach fired. My gut response was: whoever’s coaching the Jets this year. (Todd Bowles. You’re welcome.) It is his first year, but when one of your linebackers breaks your starting quarterback’s jaw, and people say “Yeah, he was asking for it”, well that’s your dumpster fire right there.
If not Mr. Bowles (the Jets, after all, won) perhaps Gus Bradley in Jacksonville?
A few random things I found interesting.
Monday, September 14th, 2015Some by way of the Hacker News Twitter, others from elsewhere.
Nice appreciation of Elmore Leonard from The New York Review of Books.
Brian Krebs goes to Mexico in search of Bluetooth ATM skimmers, part 1.
Fun with software defined radio, or scanners live in vain.
NFL loser update resumes tomorrow.
Obit watch: September 14, 2015.
Monday, September 14th, 2015Moses Malone, legendary NBA player with the Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs (among other teams). NYT. HouChron.
Frank D. Gilroy. Interesting story. He knocked around television for a while in the 1950s and 1960s, then had a huge Broadway hit with “The Subject Was Roses”…and then was unable to replicate that success, and spent the rest of his life knocking around movies and theater.
Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#X of a series)
Friday, September 11th, 2015In the time I’ve been doing the Art (Acevedo) watch, I don’t think I’ve ever put up a photo of the chief. Some of the articles I’ve linked to may have had photos, but I don’t if people click through, and I don’t think there’s ever been one here.
Until now.
Darth Acevedo pic.twitter.com/F9XjGbwOsn
— Philip Jankowski (@PhilJankowski) September 11, 2015
Yes, the chief is kind of a geek.
Also:
“Do not get in my way.” If someone does, could they be charged with obstruction of justice?
Random thought.
Friday, September 11th, 2015Sensors included on the iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro:
- Touch ID
- Three-axis gyro
- Accelerometer
- Barometer
- Ambient light sensor
Not included: GPS, unless you purchase one of the cellular models. It looks like “assisted GPS and GLONASS” are built into the cellular chipset or something?
I keep thinking about getting an iPad or some other sort of tablet to supplement my first generation Kindle Fire. But it always comes back to this: I want GPS, and can’t get it. Okay, I could if I bought a cellular model, but:
- The cellular iPad 2 is $130 more than the Wi-Fi equivalents in every memory configuration. Same with the iPad Pro. Except the Pro only has one cellular/Wi-fi memory config, and that’s over $1,000.
- I don’t want cellular data. I don’t have the $60 to $85 a month it would take to add a device to my plan. $60 to $85 a month is at least one good Smith and Wesson a year. I’d be perfectly happy with a device that just does Wi-fi, as long as it has GPS. If I desperately needed data in non-Wi-fi areas, I’d enable the hotspot feature on my phone – at least that’s only $30 a month, I think.
It isn’t just Apple, though. I’ve looked at Android tablets too. I’ve heard that Android gives you lower-level access to GPS data than iOS, but I haven’t been all that impressed by the Android tablets I’ve seen. The price/memory ratio just seems out of whack to me.
Best Buy, for example, is selling a Nexus 9 with 32GB of memory (which to me is a hard minimum; I’d prefer 64GB) for $432. I can get a Mini 2 for $319 from Apple, or a Mini 4 with 64GB for $499. Decisions, decisions. Do I want an Apple device that doesn’t have GPS, but that I can trust to be updated regularly and work for a while? (I’m still using a MacBook I bought in 2007 as my main computer.) Or do I want to buy another shoddy piece of crap Android thing that’s going to stop getting updates in 18 months, but does have GPS?
Or does it? The specs on Google’s site show the Nexus 9 does, but they also show it has a cellular chipset. Does the Wi-Fi only version do GPS? Can I buy a cellular tablet and use GPS on it without a carrier? Who knows? I can’t find that on Google’s site, the specs on Best Buy’s site don’t mention GPS, and asking a Best Buy employee seems like a good way to invoke the customer appreciation bat.
Am I making this too hard? Am I asking too much? All I want is a reasonably priced tablet that does GPS and doesn’t require a cellular data plan. Why is this so hard?