Hate your team? Do something about . . .

I don't purport to be an expert in the management history of the Yankees' George Steinbrenner, but I do approve of his overall inability to handle losing.

I think his reputation as a total hard case comes in large part from his overwhelming desire to win -- win every $*&# World Series without exception. Therefore, those proven to stand in the way of his drive are not long for the pinstripes.

Love the Yankees (like I don't) or hate the Yankees (like I do), you still have to admire their commitment to winning. If more teams took success on the field as seriously as the Yankees apparently do -- for the most part, at least -- then we would have more to cheer about when it comes to our own lovable losers of a hometown team.

So it really comes as no surprise that within hours of the Yanks being dropped in the first round of the playoffs that the "Joe-Torre-is-history" talk started. Steinbrenner does not suffer fools well . . . even if they have multiple World Series rings to show for their efforts.

There are many head coaches across ever major and minor league sport that deserve to be shown the door, even if they had some level of prior success. I say, "Talk's cheap; takes us to the top, or get out."

Sports is just entertainment, and everyone comes to a game to have a good time and forget about their problems for a while. But fans shouldn't be expected to sit through losing season after losing season. It is unreasonable to think anyone is going to keep coming back for the same failures over and over again.

After all -- winning isn't everything; it's the only thing. You're only as good as your last post season appearance . . .

Calling all bloggers!

Hey, you guys! What's going on?

I've noticed a steady decline in the overall quantity of updates from some of my favorite reading spots (see list to the right and go from there).

Thus, I'm encouraging everyone of you dedicated readers and fellow bloggers to take it up a notch beginning Monday.

I'm asking my favorite blog writers to join me in posting at least one time per day, every day, for the rest of month of October starting Monday, Oct. 9. Again, quality is great; but how about we at least get back to some quantity to get us rolling?

I hope I can deliver on what appears to be an easily obtainable writing goal. Will you join me? We can exchange comments to keep us all honest . . .

Thanks . . . now let's get to it!

Even more Tommy Lasorda

LOL

NFL Week 5 picks (new format)

Office picks by participant (click on image to see larger)

UD: Urban Docent
TL: The Limey
FF: Fantasy Fanatic
OG: The Other Guy

Stick a fork in it . . . it's done.

George Lucas, the indisputable saint of geeked-out basement dwellers everywhere, is quoted in this Variety article as stating the obvious:

"As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we've moved away from the feature film thing because it's too expensive and it's too risky."

Lucas indicated there will be a new focus on producing small-budget films, TV, animated movies and other entertainment offerings in addition to the special effects and gaming stuff. There are efforts in the works as well to figure out the money-making dynamics of online distribution of Lucasfilm materials, but the big-budget stuff is over as far as he's concerned.

Yes, the bubble has officially burst if even Lucas has decided to jump ship.

Years ago when the Star Wars universe first started expanding with Episodes I, II and III, Lucas indicated to interviewers that he was ready to put his trademark franchise behind him -- to some degree -- in favor of making smaller more indie-like films. Now he's apparently ready to follow through.

The article is well worth a read because Lucas points out what was become all too clear with the arrival of so many online, satellite and cable options. Film entertainment is going to become even more personalized and splintered with folks paying to see versions of things they want to watch in settings more accommodating than a traditional theater.

So in the not-too-distance future, it could be that people will all be watching different takes on the same material. Movie title "XYZ" will have versions A, A-1, B-1 and the super-premium, all-inclusive C and C-1 through C-4.

This is all really great to some extent: you can see what you want when you're good and ready. But it also carries some bad: to see it all and get the full experience, you'll have to pay extra and sit through much repetition to take it all in.

I'll admit that it's refreshing to see DVD editions released with extras, bonus material and never-before-released restored stuff. But I hate seeing three or four packagings of what is essentially the same film with just slight variations from one incarnation to the next; this is just money grubbing of the worst kind to exploit "true fans."

In the end, it's all just entertainment and stuff that shouldn't preoccupy way too much of your life. But it can still be a tad annoying to have way too many variations constantly pestering you for your "fun money."

Any thoughts?

The future of digital cameras?

Got you one of those fancy digital deals to handle all of your photography needs? Think all those mega pixels make you more nimble on the shutter?

Well some optical science folks are doing their part to make sure that pricey camera of yours is nothing more than last generation's overpowered, under performing chunk of electronic waste.

According to this story, researchers are hard at work perfecting a singe-pixel digital camera that gathers images in infrared, ultraviolet and visible color schemes. Basically, you'll end up with an image obtained much more quickly with less power and less memory requirements for storage. (this photos is not the actual camera)

The same news source included information about another neat photo-related project underway. Apparently a couple of guys have invented a way to disable digital camera equipment.

The device uses sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. It looks for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras. Future versions might operate in the invisible infrared range so the neutralizing technology would work unnoticed.

So in the future, we'll have smarter and faster digital cameras being thwarted by even smarter anti-digital equipment. I applaud the ingenuity of both efforts.

But I was a little troubled to see that all is not well on the photo front. Consider this item:

The main camera on the Hubble Space Telescope has shut down unexpectedly for the second time this year.

Tommy Lasorda's got your e-mail address

Major League Baseball has a funny way of cheesing off your fellow baseball buddies.

You can go onto the MLB site and select a team-specific e-mail card to send to your friends. Tommy Lasorda will ask your loser friends to watch the post season even though their team of preference is out of the running.

Brilliant!!!