A Suitably Innocuous Blog

This one is unpredictable.  With the third big emotional event for the team this year, the first being the death of Vicki Zimmer, and the second being the tsunami in Samoa, home to some Bengals' players, the team has had a rough ride.  Throughout they've played their best team football in years.

To borrow from Montgomery Scott, "There be men here."

Chris Henry went from being a severely troubled boy to a man who seemed to have put his life together.  On the playing field, he'd become a reliable difference maker on the team.

The story of his turnaround followed by his untimely death is a true tragedy.

Some people I know put a lot of the Bengals' passing problems on the injury to Henry.  His deep speed has not been replaced since he broke his arm.

The local paper has predicted a low scoring Bengals win.  I'll be watching the game only expecting to see positive intangibles.  A solid effort will be no surprise from the 2009 Bengals, but I have no prediction for the final outcome.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, Football.  

I can't claim credit for that title.  Paul Daugherty is calling the Vikings the Favres in his column and I think he has hit on one of the big keys for the game:  live by the Favre, die by the Favre.  If the game becomes a Favre-fest, he could make enough mistakes to lose the game.

Unfortunately for the Bengals, that's not too likely.  The Vikings and Favre are well matched and Favre does not have to go out and win games on his own.

I heard Daugherty on WNKU yesterday predicting a Bengals victory, while in the paper today Joe Reedy predicts a Bengals loss, 27-21.  The Enquirer prognosticators are split, I haven't heard what the TV commentators have to say yet, and opinion on FOX sports radio earlier in the week was also split.

Two of the best run defenses in the league meet today.  Given the weak passing game of the Bengals, this could be a bad thing.  The Bengals' weak red zone TD conversion ratio costs them 4 points per drive, a problem the Vikings don't have.

The Vikings are coming off an embarrassing loss to Arizona.  The Bengals beat Detroit.  This is a game the Bengals are allowed to lose.  It's a game that some expect them to lose.

Reading all the matchups, looking at the injury lists, and thinking about the psychological "intangibles", I'm going with Daugherty and predicting a Bengals win.

Bengals 35, Vikings 31.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, Football.

This just isn't a good year for Detroit on any front.  What can you say about another game that the Bengals should win easily and is a must-win to clinch a winning season and keep them 2 games up in the playoff rankings?

Not much.

The paper predicts a 24-7 win.  I'm going with 31-17 Benglas.  After three quarters the Bengals will have enough of a lead to rotate people out and Detroit will get some garbage points and stats in the 4th quarter.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, Football.

After a big disappointment last week versus the Raiders, it's time to go out on a limb and predict the winner of today's Bengals-Browns game.  This one is rarely easy to predict, with the team that should lose winning, shootouts where the both defenses seem to take the week off, and special team's breakdowns.

Factors that should motivate the Bengals include the missed opportunity last week to go up another game on the rest of the division, it's Cleveland Week, and if they win they will sweep the division for the first time in their history.

Division wide sweeps are rare, at least in the AFC North (old AFC Central).

Even though Benson may not play today, the Bengals have so much depth at running back that there should be no drop off in running against a Browns defense that has lost two starting linebackers for the year.

The Bengals have several players on defense dinged up, but their cornerbacks should make life difficult for Quinn in his first start versus the Bengals.  This could open up opportunities for Jamal Lewis, who has a great history running through and over the Bengals.

The weather here in Cincinnati is glorious, with cool but not cold temperatures and clear skies.  If the Bengals passing offense can get in synch, they could light up the scoreboard.

On the intangibles front, the Bengals seem to have the edge:

• They have the desire and legitimate shot at sweeping the division for the first time in history.
• They are upset at losing to a team they should have beat last week.
• The Browns have changed starting quarterbacks again, and Mangini doesn't appear to have confidence in either Quinn or Anderson.
• The Browns lost a shootout in Detroit by one point and may have left it all on the field.

My worries for the game are the continued inability of the offense to put together four contiguous quarters of scoring and Browns return man Joshua Cribbs.

The local paper predicts a close game decided in the fourth quarter, a Bengals win 20-14.  Without Braylon Edwards as a legitimate receiving threat, and the combination of a hard hitting Bengals' defense and a dominating Bengals running game, I don't think it will be that close.  Even if the Bengals' offense doesn't score as often as I'd like, they should keep the Browns' offense off the field.

Bengals 24, Browns 10.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, Football.

... you grind the coffee, put it in the filter basket properly, put water in the pot, turn the pot on, and walk away, taking 15 minutes to realize that you didn't actually pour the water into the brewer.

DOH!

We're still tired from a busy week and then hectic Thanksgiving preparation.  I had planned to take Wednesday off but ended up working.  In spite of the rush, Thanksgiving went well.

Filed under: Personal. 

I received a coveted Google Wave invite last month and jumped right in.  This week, Google gave me eight invitations.  I invited some business and marketing people I know and their initial comments included "this looks like chat" and "IM does a better job at chat than this".  I've heard similar reactions from technical people, so this isn't a "geeks vs. suits" thing.

I'm not completely comfortable with Wave, but I think it has potential--after all, it's from Google--and am willing to give it a try.  Other people aren't.  They accept the invitation, don't "get" wave, and revert back to the collaborative systems they already know: IM, email, forwarding Word and Excel documents.

I'm not sure how to get them to stick with Wave.

I'm not sure I should try to get them to stick with Wave.

Wave needs a metaphor, but it doesn't seem to have one and its name doesn't hint at  one. IM has a clear metaphor.  Word processors have a clear metaphor.  Wave doesn't.

Metaphor guides software design, its usage, and acceptance.  Without a metaphor, potential users will either abandon Wave or try to use it as a tool they already understand.

This is the inverse of the saying "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."  My experience with software is that when someone sees all their problems as nails, they try to use the software as a hammer.

The people I've invited are viewing Wave as IM, meanwhile I'm viewing Wave as a middle ground between Sharepoint and wikis.  Either we're all missing the metaphor or Wave doesn't have one.

I see that Scoble has already spent some time on Wave and the email metaphor.  He ends up dismissing Wave and he may be right.  Without a good metaphor to guide its understanding and use, Google Wave will become this century's Microsoft Bob.

Can anyone offer meaningful description of Wave that I can use to help people understand and use Wave?

Filed under: Google, Wave, Software, Usability.

It's time for my weekly Bengals prediction.  The local paper picks the Bengals over the Raiders 27-6.  The Raiders have switched quarterbacks, their coach is under investigation for violence against his staff, and they are owned by Al Davis.

With a record of 7-2 against 2-7, it's easy to agree with the Enquirer's prediction, but there are some other things to consider:

• The Bengals have never been a good team out west.  Even under Marvin Lewis, their record traveling to the left coast is bad.
• The Bengals will almost certainly be without Cedric Benson.
• Larry Johnson, acquired to help the running game, has a great history against the Raiders, but brings a lot of baggage with him from his time with the Chiefs.  There are legitimate concerns that his attitude will hurt the Bengals' locker room.
• The Raiders put a serious hurt on Philadelphia earlier in the season.  They have plenty of talent.
• The Raiders have a shutdown corner in Nnamdi Asomugha.

This is a team that the Bengals should beat, but the Bengals have a long history of losing games they should win.

They had a easy end of the season schedule in their last playoff year, 2005, and should have run the table and earned a first round bye.  Instead they lost the games and ended up facing Pittsburgh in the first round.  Carson Palmer was injured early in the game and the Bengals lost.

I think this year will be different.  It has to be.  Right now the Bengals are second in the AFC behind the Colts and would have a first round bye if the playoffs began today.  They need the bye and home field advantage.  The players know this, but this year instead of thinking they've already earned the bye, they know they still have to earn the bye.

The Enquirer notes that the Bengals' record against Pittsburgh and Baltimore this season prove they are physically tough, and proposes that winning the five "easy" games in their remaining schedule can prove that they are mentally tough.  I think their comeback from the Denver loss and their ability to come from behind late in games shows that they have become mentally tough this season.

Today's game is the test.  The Bengals will pass this test.  Bengals 30, Raiders 13.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, Football.

Update: Raiders 20, Bengals 17.

What went wrong?  Not the defense.  They hit very hard and very well and gave the offense several chances to score.

The offense couldn't put score, something's wrong there.  They established the run but they couldn't consistently pass and when Carson Palmer has to carry the ball for two touchdowns, it should be more of a concern than a pleasant surprise.

Scott was awesome, but is the loss of Cedric Benson a problem?  Should the Bengals go to "running back by committee? when Benson returns?

There will probably be some fan complaints about bad officiating, and the officials were bad, but the game shouldn't have been close enough for that to matter.

Caldwell's mental error and fumble "cost" the Bengals the game, but I say again that it shouldn't have been close enough for that to matter.

This one's on the offense.

The only bright spot for the Bengals was that the other three teams in the division lost as well.

Cleveland Day was the big game when Paul Brown was still alive, and it probable still is to the Brown family.  But for players and fans, the Bengals' nemesis is the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Always has been and hopefully always will be.  Paul Daugherty's Time is now for Bengals offers a good analysis of why this game matters. He also touches on the fan aspects of the game.  I really enjoyed this paragraph:

It is the sad truth. It will make you angry. I understand. Pittsburgh Fan is a mindless slob/internet troll who can get downright medieval in the stands and in the men’s room. He revels obnoxiously in his steadfast loyalty, but really, there’s nothing noble about rooting for a chronic winner. It requires only your presence, not your guts. Let’s see you hang in there for 12 years of 5-11, Polamalu jersey-wearer.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, football, fandom.

Both teams are 6-2, but the Bengals have a better division record and have beat the Steelers once already this season.  The Steelers outrank the Bengals in every statistical category that seems to matter, and they have a long tradition of steamrolling teams, including the Bengals.

Cincinnati's only hope for a win is to not let the LeBeau's defense take away the running game.  Even if Benson gets off to a slow start again, keep pounding away in the second half.

Even if the Bengals lose, if they can give as good as they get from the Steelers, it will build confidence and credibility around the league.  If they somehow win, I worry that they'll get complacent and mess up the way they did back in 2005.  You don't want to play the Steelers three times in one season, and a first round bye is something I think this Bengals team needs.

The local paper predicts a Steelers' win 20-17.  I think the score will be higher but also expect the Bengals to lose by 3 even though the line is 7 last time I looked.  They are still have a shot at the division title and have a realistic shot at the playoffs.

Filed under: Cincinnati, Bengals, football.

Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, an article poses the question Are Too Many Students Going to College? The question is important, but some of the answers are a bit disturbing.  Many in my high school actively discouraged my going to college, and didn't think I should take the ACT or SAT.

There was some shock and consternation when I aced both and was one of the top scorers in my class.  Oh, and my SAT showed a good balance between math and language.

Yes, I feel a bit smug about that.

Ignore for a moment that I didn't get my education finished back in my 20s, and look instead at some of the statements made by higher education experts:

Marty Nemko: All high-school students should receive a cost-benefit analysis of the various options suitable to their situations: four-year college, two-year degree program, short-term career-prep program, apprenticeship program, on-the-job training, self-employment, the military. Students with weak academic records should be informed that, of freshmen at "four year" colleges who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high-school class, two-thirds won't graduate even if given eight and a half years. And that even if such students defy the odds, they will likely graduate with a low GPA and a major in low demand by employers. A college should not admit a student it believes would more wisely attend another institution or pursue a noncollege postsecondary option. Students' lives are at stake, not just enrollment targets.

and:

Richard K. Vedder: A large subset of our population should not go to college, or at least not at public expense. The number of new jobs requiring a college degree is now less than the number of young adults graduating from universities, so more and more graduates are filling jobs for which they are academically overqualified.

There are other comments in the post, and some other good questions asked about higher education and our society.  The whole piece is worth a read, but I'm really disturbed by Nemko's comments.  I believe his facts, but I don't agree with evaluating and categorizing people in high school.  They aren't done growing up yet, and even if they were that's just not right for the American mindset.

Or maybe we should give up on the belief that "in America you can be anything".

Filed under: education, society, economics.

After reading about Facebook's iPhone App developer giving up on writing for the iPhone, I was down on the App Store again.  It got worse this morning when I read that Rogue Amoeba is also walking away from the iPhone over the App Store.

Apple, wtf!?!?!?!?

The app ecosystem is the iPhone's "killer app" but in the thanks to the (dis)approval process the only thing it will kill is Apple's advantage.

Will Google/Verizon or Palm/Sprint get these and other developers to switch?  I'd be trying hard to do so if I was them.

Filed under: Apple, iPhone, app store, hubris, stupidity.

And more street vendors in general. The street food scene in Portland is a bit higher end than in NYC, but both are good.  There was this great Polish trailer in Portland where I found stuffed cabbage made just like my grandmother did.  This was (if I remember correctly) on 12th and Hawthorne.  A lot full of trailers with all kinds of ethnic food.  Yummy!

I didn't have a bad meal when I was in Portland, the worst was merely good.

Over at UrbanCincy, Randy Simes offers some good reasons why street vendors would be good for Cincinnati. The lower ongoing expenses for rent and taxes hadn't occurred to me.

Filed under: Cincinnati, urban life, street food.