ESPN360 and the iPhone

Notice I didn't say ESPN360 on the iPhone - for that you'll have to look elsewhere. But for someone like me, whose Comcast internet means no ESPN360 access, I just found out my iPhone was the key to unlocking the online sports streaming service.

Since ESPN has obstinately decided to use the cable TV model on the web - charge the providers, not the customers - those of us who get our Internet through a non-participating ISP (and for all I dislike about Comcast, I can't blame them for not buying into this horrible precedent of an online business model) can't access the Worldwide Leader's online live video.

The iPhone is no help on the go - as far as I know, there's no way to watch the video on the device. But navigate to espn360.com using AT&T's 3G (or Edge, I imagine) service and ESPN sees you as qualified. If you have a free myESPN account (or if you sign up) you can then click "Remote Access" to set your username as someone who can use the service. Then at home using a non-360 ISP, log in to ESPN and start watching.

Michael Phelps' .01 second win last night will get some play on the highlight reels for a while (I assume - since I've been at the tennis until past midnight most nights, I haven't actually watched much of the prime-time coverage). I've been checking out a few different outlets' documentation of the finish, and the most startling thing is how different the finish looks depending on where the cameras were set.

The overhead TV camera makes it look as though Cavic beat Phelps to the wall. But Sports Illustrated had a camera underwater, right between the two lanes, and the frame-by-frame look at the finish seems to give Phelps the slight edge.

Shame the super-super-slow-mo footage swimming authorities looked at wasn't released...

olympics update

I have determined that the Air Pistol events might be the worst possible event to televise. In this case, it actually needs commentary. Because all eight contestants shoot at the same time, I can't figure out how they determine which one to keep the camera on.
However, it's so bizarrly bad I'm captivated.


To recap: live video of team archery - good. Live video of individual air pistol - bad.

More to come, I'm sure.

olympic obscurity

My favorite thing about the Olympics is always the really obscure sports, the ones you usually never see, but only read about happening in the previews when some publication picks the medalists in every event.

As the Olympics have gone on, each year there has been more time devoted to televised sports (I remember when it was a big deal that NBC was going to be showing events on more than one channel for the Games) but all that time is still filled with things like gymnastics, swimming and the rest of the sports I'm not particularly interested in (although this morning I did actually get to watch part of a team handball match, which is possibly the most obscure of all the Olympic sports, in this country at least).

But tonight I've discovered the live video feeds on NBCOlympics.com. As I type, I'm watching a qualifying round of team archery. Just a live video feed (thankfully with multiple camera angles, rather than just one camera turned on and left) with out any announcers. Just a little text box of live updated play-by-play. In other words, perfect.

I'm going to have to see how the live video works throughout the games, but for now it appears to be exactly what I've always wanted - the ability to watch whatever sport I want, with no annoying voices except the venue's PA announcer, and some unobtrusive informative commentary in text form.

(And I've been typing long enough that China has now beaten India in the team archery match).

It's this sort of thing that makes me wish I was still in college, when I could have shifted my schedule and devoted large chunks of the calendar to watching the Olympic stuff I've never seen before. (Seriously, have you ever seen archery televised? And it's interesting to watch. It quick-moving, and the scoring is easy to understand.) Now I'm going to have to do with sneaking in some watching here and there, during a week when I'm already going to be sleep-deprived because I'm working a day job and covering tennis every night this week.

What I'm really looking forward to, though, is the next winter Olympics. If I don't make it to Vancouver, you can bet I'll be watching all the curling rounds online.

and, to keep things on a political bent...

I like to imagine a world in which actual campaign ads look something like this:


Empire Strikes Barack

kiwi humour

I thought I'd posted this a long time ago, but they came up in conversation recently and I realized they hadn't made it onto my corner of the internet:

One of our favorite aspects of New Zealand culture was the willingness to poke fun at themselves, and just about anything else. It even manifested itself in a government advertising campaign for home safety. The ACC - Accident Compensation Commission - pays for all medical bills resulting in any accidents, for anyone in New Zealand. (This takes the place of personal injury lawsuits, which are generally not allowed in the New Zealand court system). The ACC put out a series of TV ads to try to lower accident rates around the home, but the ads have a serious black humor to them.

For example, every time this ad came on TV, Kirsten started laughing uncontrollably:

More of the ads can be seen here. And here's one more that wasn't on-air while we were in NZ.

kiwi humour, part II

One more for you-

This is an official Australian tourism commercial that got a ton of play in NZ our last few months there. Apparently it created some controversy in the UK, since "bloody hell" was seen to be a bit dirty:

This is a NZ take on the ad, apparently put together by a consumer advocate program:

The Rodenator!

I loved this item in Wired Magazine last month. Who wouldn't want to force a bunch of explosive gases down a gopher hole and ignite them? I wonder if I can rig something up for less than $1,900, though.

The actual movies of the wonder in action are a little bit disappointing:

If you're looking to kick up dust, it appears to work well enough. But the product also has the cheesiest promotional video ever:



Rodenator- Let's kick some gopher ass.