text:
miami of ohio (not that miami of ohio)
Preview: Miami (Not That Miami) 2014
Michigan vs Miami
(Not That Miami)
Michigan Stadium
Ann Arbor MI
3:30 Eastern
September 13th, 2014
|Slightly cheaper than last week: 20 bucks
Partly cloudy, 60
0% chance of rain
light winds
Tip of the hat there.
This is not a good scoreline.
This isn't Bo's Miami. The EDSBS commentariat's preferred term to distinguish this Miami from the other one is "puntin' Miami," and it's not like the other Miami has been Oregon this last little bit. Miami is bad. Miami is coming off losses to Marshall and Eastern Kentucky. They've already suffered 21 penalties. Miami is probably about as good as Appalachian State (not THAT Appalachian State).
So this is a good opponent for right now.
Run Offense vs Miami (Not That Miami)
guys chasing guys
Marshall was a very good run offense a year ago and picked up where they left off in their opener, with Devon Johnson ripping off a 55-yarder and acquiring 151 on just 19 carries. This continues a theme for the Redhawks from last year, when Miami was gashed for a whopping 5.1 yards a carry en route to a rush defense that was statistically worse than Michigan's rush offense last year. Think about that.
Miami ceded 223 rushing yards in an average outing last year; they were a MAC version of Purdue. While they did choke out I-AA EKU, if Michigan has any intention to prevent people on ledges across the Michigan diaspora from jumping they will have to mash this defense.
Survey says… probably! Both DEs check in at 245 and neither DT hits 290; their "OLB" is ND (sigh) transfer Lo Wood, who you may remember is a cornerback. They were very bad last year and seem pretty bad this year. Possibly the most interesting matchup will be DE Bryson Albright, who hit double digit TFLs a year ago, against either of Michigan's noob tackles.
This will be a test of what Michigan wants to do for the rest of the year. This is a game where you'd think they might be able to manball up and manball it down the opponent's throat with a series of 1970s formations. And they may well do that: Appalachian State featured a lot more under center stuff than the ND game did.
Is the rest of the year going to be a passing spread-ish lineup? If it is against Miami, yes. If it's not… well probably yes. Something to keep an eye on.
Key Matchup: Michigan tailbacks versus their blocking allergy. Blocking allergies affect millions of Americans. Stop blocking allergies.
[Hit THE JUMP for Not That Notre Dame Quarterback.]
Guess the Score, Win Stuff: Baby Coaches
So surprise: nobody guessed last week's score, and if you had you certainly wouldn't be the kind of person who'd appreciate a poster of Michigan legends. So we're running it again. Get it RIGHT this time.
How this works again:
- Readers predict the final score of a designated game by placing a guess in the comments, preferably in the format of [M score][hyphen][Opp score], for example "41-30" or "35-31 Michigan", or "28-24 Go Blue", or "38-34 Gardner FTW!" or "38-0" etc.
- The three guys who read this part holler at people who post in a different format
- First person (by timestamp) to post a particular score has it.
- If you got it right, I contact you for an address by your MGoBlog account email, and you give me some time to get that to you.
- If nobody got it right we push it to next week or let it go.
- Brian voices displeasure at the puns in the headlines.
About Last Week:
This Week's Game:
They call themselves the cradle of coaches. But these days you don't get a cradle; you get a crib, and the crib has to be solid on all four sides (a side can't come down), and it has to be able to adjust for when the baby gets bigger, and preferably it converts to a toddler bed too. Cribs are really expensive, but that's only scratching the surface. There's the swinging electronic cradle that your baby coach will want to sleep in, and the swing that just calms your baby coach, and the swing that takes 4 C batteries and does both, and the travel version of the same. And these days pack-'n-plays are all the rage, though they're really hard to put together.
Perhaps one day Chuck Martin will be a Bo or an Ara or a Woody, or a Randy Walker, etc. He seems to have the chops. But then, even Beethoven spent his first year spitting on himself, soiling diapers, and crying. So much crying.
And on the Line…
This 24" x 32" print by renowned portrait artist (and namesake/godson of Bennie Oosterbaan) Ben McCready. From left: Carter, Harmon, Chappuis, Bennie, Kramer, Desmond. Plus some configurations of the stadium. Ace and I already have ours in our "offices."
And one for Mott: If you'd rather skip guessing the score and just get one, Ben has this available as a limited 24x32 edition at an MGoBlog discount of $100 ($25 off), or get the 18" x 24" open edition for $50. For every print sold Ben said he will donate an extra print of that size to a patient at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, in the buyer's name.
Fine print: One entry per user. First user to choose a set of scores wins, determined by the timestamp of your entry (for my ease I prefer if you don't post it as a reply to another person's score--if you do it won't help or hurt you). Deadline for entries is 24 hours before the start of the game. MGoEmployees and Moderators exempt from winning. We did not invent the algorithm. The algorithm consistently finds Jesus. The algorithm killed Jeeves. The algorithm is banned in China. The algorithm cheated. No algorithm demonstrates as much class and commitment to education as much as The Algorithm does when their student athletes are committing academic fraud. The algorithm blames Jeeves.This is not the algorithm. It just thinks it is.
Unverified Voracity In The Community
Predictorama. Everyone predicts Nebraska-Michigan:
- Athlon: M 31-27: "This matchup is relatively even, but a slight edge goes to Michigan. Taylor Martinez and his receivers will test the Wolverines' secondary, but Nebraska's defense will struggle to stop Denard Robinson. Expect Michigan's defense to make one play late in the game that seals the victory for the Wolverines." [NO PRESSURE GREG]
- BWS: Martinez will complete more deep, downfield throws in this game than Michigan has allowed all season, but none of them go for touchdowns; they're heaves to wide receivers who can out-leap and out-muscle Michigan's corners. However, Michigan holds Nebraska to near 150 yards rushing. It's boom-or-bust for Nebraska's offense. Michigan finally gets a good kick/punt return. Nebraska rallies late but Michigan clutches to the win. Michigan 27 - Nebraska 24
- Maize and Brew: Ultimately I think both offenses find some success running the ball, but there are a lot of stalled drives that go 40-50 yards and end in that awkward no-mans-land between "why are you punting" and "why didn't you punt". How the teams approach these situations and who has the most luck on X-and-short will ultimately decide the game. When it comes to this, I like Michigan's odds. Michigan 30 - Nebraska 27
- Holdin' the Rope features Who Are You And Why Do You Care?: Prediction based on everything but football: Nebraska 21 - Michigan 17.
- M&GB: While Nebraska will score some points, Michigan's offense should be able to move the ball with relative ease. The offensive line will get enough push against an overmatched front seven and pave the way for a big day on the ground. The 'Huskers have done a good job this season of matching up with opposing receivers, so look for another big day from tight end Devin Funchess as well when Denard does need to pass. Michigan 42 – Nebraska 24. [ed: yow]
The MZone also has their Know Your Foe series featuring Nebraska mascots past:
I'm surprised the entire state isn't a raving insomniac mess after that business and Li'l Red.
All of us are Purdue. Don't ask me to explain.
I award Jerry Kill the Award for Most Walrus-Looking.
in the communnnity
hmmm. Post idea.
Ryan profile. Via Mike Rothstein comes an extended look at Ryan the Barbarian. In retrospect, this was obvious:
Jake noticed that several kids had stuffed animals they had won in an arcade game in the lobby. He put his arm up the drop portal -- the one the toys usually popped out of -- in an attempt to circumvent the system and grab a stuffed animal.
"The guy had to use the butter from the popcorn machine, rub all over his hands, way up there, to get it out," Susan said. "He was stuck up there for a while."
And thus began Michigan's unique strategy of scouting claw machines across the Midwest, offering anyone with their arm stuck up one.
Hyman profile. This from the Daily:
On the way back from Boston, with Boston University the clear leader in the clubhouse, the Hymans detoured to Ann Arbor for a stop.
It would be their last.
Zach and Spencer sat across from Red Berenson in the coach's office, while Berenson laid out why they should be Wolverines. It didn't take long.
"Ten minutes into Michigan, we had completely forgotten about every other school," Spencer said. "It was over. Zach and I were sitting in the (Ross Academic Center) and we looked at each other and it was like, 'Yeah, we're going to Michigan.' "
Big test tonight for that surging fourth line.
Check on the blocking. Press conference regurgitating here but let's bring that out from behind a jump to confirm that, yeah, Joe Kerridge is in the process of Wally Pipping one Stephen Hopkins:
"I think Joe's had a pretty daggone good stretch here," coach Brady Hoke said Wednesday. "He's practiced well. You look at the iso's and some of the things that he's doing in practice, and then when he gets out there on the field. That's a big part of it."
Hopkins became the starting fullback midway through last season when then-starter John McColgan suffered an injury. He started every game at fullback until sustaining the hamstring injury before the UMass game in Week 3.
Now, it appears he's out of a job.
Brandon Moore isn't playing much after returning from injury either, but I don't think many people are surprised about that.
See no evil no longer works. The NCAA is set to adopt the long-in-the-making penalty revamp that will finally make head coaches responsible for their assistants breaking NCAA rules:
"It's a tougher penalty structure, there's no doubt about it," Southern California athletic director Pat Haden said in an interview conducted prior to USA TODAYSports' acquisition of the document. "The point is, for head coaches -- and this goes for any sport -- you have this responsibility. You need to be constantly vigilant and you need to be constantly coaching your coaches about how important it is to play by the rules." …
Head coaches can avoid penalties for violations committed by their staff if they can document vigilance about potential red flags. For example, the document states that a head coach should ask about how unofficial visits are paid for and advises head coaches to ask their assistants if they suspect a third party or handler is involved in the recruitment.
The rules are supposed to go into effect Tuesday; hopefully they'll have some impact. Always tough to tell.
Puck drop tonight. The CCHA's parting gift to Michigan starts this weekend as what might be the conference series of the year will see the Saturday game bereft since it's on at the same time Nebraska-Michigan is. The athletic department is selling half-price tickets to both games this weekend, which says something about where Yost attendance is when you can't even sell out a 7:35 Friday game against Miami.
Whether Yost is present or not, they'll drop the puck. MHN on the Redhawks:
Miami is led offensively by a strong group of underclassmen. Five of their top six scorers are a freshman and sophomores. Sophomores Blake Coleman (4-1-5 in 4gp), Austin Czarnik (2-3-5 in 4gp), and freshman Riley Barber (3-2-5 in 4gp) are all tied for the team scoring lead.
Like the Wolverines, the RedHawks welcome a pair of freshmen in the crease who have split playing time. Freshman Jay Williams is 2-0-0 with a 1.94 GAA and .915 save percentage. Fellow classmate Ryan McKay is 1-0-1 with a 0.48 GAA and .984 save percentage.
After two weekends in which the play on the ice was dominating against lower-level competition this is an acid test. Racine will get the start for M.
BONUS: The only word we'd had on Michigan's nonconference scheduling after the move to the Big Ten was something Red tossed off about having little desire to continue "so-called rivalries" against Miami and Notre Dame, which was disappointing. Red seems to have reversed his opinion somewhat, though:
Berenson said on Inside Michigan Hockey this week that Miami is interested in scheduling non-conference games after the CCHA disbands.
I'm guessing scheduling ND is out of the question after they ended the football series in the most dickish way possible.
I'm nervous that Michigan's going to run out 14 games against Bentley next year. Any indication they're not is welcome.
Meanwhile, here's my contractually obligated reminder that the Michigan schools and a guest—probably Bowling Green—should ditch the GLI for a State of Michigan Championship that would be awesome. The trophy could be a mitten the size of a man the winning captain has to put on. Yeah.
Squash. It was known at the time that Rick Pitino was theees close to becoming Michigan's basketball coach a while back when the Amaker hire was made, and good Lord what—
"The day that I committed to Louisville, I signed an agreement to be the next head coach of Michigan and I was fired up to be the coach at Michigan," Pitino said. "The athletic director at the time, who's no longer there (Bill Martin), was playing squash and my wife came up, she just didn't want me to go to the west coast, UNLV, and be away from the children. She agreed, okay let's go to Michigan."
She eventually convinced him to change his mind, and due to one of Martin's squash matches, Pitino informed Michigan of his decision via voicemail.
"I tried to call the A.D. at Michigan between 12 and 1," he recalled. "I had a false name. I would give him a fake name and he would call me back. I couldn't get a hold of him because he was playing squash. The secretary said he demands that he doesn't get interrupted unless it's an emergency and if you want you can leave a voicemail.
"I left a voicemail and went to Louisville and I'm really happy I did."
What qualifies as an emergency to Athletic Director Bill Martin?
- 50% off sale at Squash Unlimited
- Opportunity to hire nice man who wears turtlenecks but has no coaching acumen
- Molasses explosion
- 30% off sale at Squash Unlimited
- Member of immediate family diagnosed with rickets or beri-beri, ONLY rickets or beri-beri don't come to me with any of this scurvy business eat an orange for crissakes
- 1975 America's Cup highlights VHS arrives via Pony Express
- Champagne reaches 56.7 degrees
- Anything at all not related to the most important part of his job
People in charge of things are just in charge of them. There is not necessarily a reason.
Lewan draft stock. Doing okay you guys:
Michigan's Taylor Lewan matched the physical challenge presented by hated in-state rival Michigan State and their 6-6, 278 pound defensive end William Gholston. … Just as Lewan did in 2011, the Michigan left tackle controlled Gholston, demonstrating enough lateral agility and balance in his kick-slide to maintain the edge and the great length and strength to lock up his opponent. Gholston lacks the explosive burst to give Lewan a stiff challenge in pass protection but the Spartans also sent smaller, quicker pass rushers against Lewan, including linebackers on the blitz. Having only played on the offensive line since his senior season of high school, Lewan demonstrated the improvement in pass protection scouts are hoping to see from him to warrant the frequent comparisons he's gained to former Wolverine star Jake Long.
Lewan has specifically improved in his patience as a pass blocker, recognizing spin movies and sliding laterally rather than lunging. As he has throughout much of his career, Lewan was also consistently able to knock defenders off the ball in the running game. Despite his height, the 6-7, 310 pound Lewan played with good pad level, winning the battle of leverage against Gholston and other MSU defenders.
Let's hope he stays anyway.
Etc.: Quinton Washington picture pages WSG Campbell, Roh, and Floyd. John Beilein will live forever. John Beilein says things to media members. Downing, Motte, and Compher feature in USHL prospects article. How do improve NCAA rule enforcement: outsource it. How Northwestern busted the 80 yard Venric Mark TD. Denard Robinson's mechanics. Injuries hit Horford (apparently minor) and McGary (minor, still recovering).
Puck Preview: Gongshow Finals
The Essentials
|BGSU vs Michigan
Miami/WMU vs Michigan
|Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
|8:05 PM Fri
TBD Sat
|College hockey lines, junkie?
|Friday: FSD Plus
Saturday: FSD (final only)
Bowling Green
DeSalvo has been DeMolishing opponent defenses. HA!
When Michigan got only a split from Bowling Green on the final week of the regular season, that was annoying and ominous. The rest of the league didn't think it was ominous for them. They were wrong.
In the first round Bowling Green bussed up to Marquette and probably ended Northern Michigan's season by winning a series against a team that had swept them just three weeks earlier. It was no fluke, either: BG was about on par with Northern in shots in their 5-3 win Saturday and won 4-1 Sunday to clinch the series.
They took on league champ Ferris State the next weekend. Again, their opponent had swept them just three weeks previous. Total goals were 9-2. Again they won the series in three games. This one was a bit of a fluke. Both wins were in OT; on Friday FSU outshot the Falcons 56-34. BGSU fell behind 3-0 on Sunday before launching a stirring comeback. New hero Dan DeSalvo—who didn't even play against Michigan—added his 8th, 9th, and 10th goals of the CCHA playoffs as part of a natural hat trick that took BGSU from 3-1 down to 4-3 up, and through.
Unfortunately I was out of town for the untelevised BG series and can't offer any in-person evaluations to help refine the existing Puck Preview. That post spent a lot of time pointing out that BGSU was the worst team in the league by a good margin and apologizing for any jinxes this might stir up. From reports from people who were there it did seem like Michigan gave the Friday BGSU game away with a series of deflating turnovers late. Saturday Michigan endured nine penalty kills and still outshot BGSU 49-22. They couldn't score until five minutes had elapsed in the third.
That's about right: Michigan should bomb the BGSU net and win; if they get sloppy or enjoy a parade to the box DeSalvo might be able to make them pay.
Czarnik (yes that Czarnik) and Smith are Miami's goal engine
Sniper Reilly Smith (27-16-43) is one of three CCHA Hobey Baker finalists with MSU defenseman Torey Krug and Michigan's Shawn Hunwick. Two of those players were unanimous All-CCHA first team picks. The other is Hunwick. #gongshow
Anyway: Miami took it on the chin from Michigan in early February (Puck Preview), getting swept 4-1, 3-0 at Yost. At that juncture the Redhawks were outside of the NCAA tournament. Eight straight wins later they are playing for a one-seed at the Joe. Miami hasn't given up more than one goal in a game since the Michigan series, and while two of those games were against UAH the other six were against tourney aspirants, ND, OSU, and MSU. They are rolling. In the three series against serious opposition they've outscored their opponents 25-3.
Miami yanked Cody Reichard after the first period of their Friday game in Yost and has rode Connor Knapp since. He's played 8 of the last 9 games; the exception was a gimme against UAH. Knapp will get both games at the Joe unless he implodes. Since he's got a .943 on the year, don't bet on that.
Miami's finally playing like they were expected to at the start of the year; all due respect to Western Michigan but it will be a surprise if the Redhawks aren't in the final.
Western Michigan
Michigan edged Western for the #2 seed in the CCHA tourney on a tiebreaker, one that became more important than expected when Ferris got bounced. Over the course of the season, Michigan has proven itself on a slightly higher level than the Broncos. Michigan had a +25 goal differential in CCHA play; Western was +11. WMU made up for it by winning all their league shootouts. Michigan won just one.
Michigan hasn't played Western since their awful November. Michigan got a split at Yost, losing 3-2 on Friday when Dane Walters scored with under a minute left. Michigan outshot WMU 36-25. The next night Michigan went into the third tied again; Bennett and Treais scored to put it away. The shot differential was flipped.
That was WMU's first loss of the year. While they cooled off after their hot start, they still find themselves tenuously in the tournament. They're 15th at the moment and will play themselves in or out over the course of the weekend. Getting swept is probably doom and a split is hair-splitting time.
The Broncos have something of a tough time scoring. Chase Balisy is their leading scorer with 12-22-34 and they've got three more guys with double-digit goals. I really liked senior captain Greg Squires's magic midget game when I saw them live but he's only got 6-11-17 on the year. Sparks-esque, that. Past their top line-ish WMU has guys a lot like Michigan's lower lines. Danny DeKeyser won the defensive defenseman of the year award in the league, FWIW.
Michigan Vs Those Guys
Tonight it's simple: keep it five on five, don't throw it up your own middle, and bomb their goalie until something goes in.
Tomorrow Michigan will get a stiff test from whoever comes through. I've tried to write something useful here and keep coming up with "play good at hockey you guys!!!" My brain has started its postseason hockey meltdown. I apologize. You have no idea what I'm talking about because of the same phenomenon.
The Big Picture
If you would like to be the committee go ahead: you are the committee. Sioux Sports has added up every single one of the 1.1 million scenarios still on the table and comes away with these facts under the (obviously faulty) assumption that all games are coinflips:
- If Michigan wins the league they have a 75% chance to be the #2 overall seed and a 25% chance to be the #3 overall seed
- If Michigan is swept at the Joe they still have a >50% chance to be the #2 overall seed, a 33% chance to be #3, and an 11% chance to be the 4. In just under 4% of outcomes in this coinflip-based scenario, Michigan loses their one seed.
Sounds good to me. Caveat: since Michigan's bad scenarios are ones in which teams just under them do well in their conference tourneys against lesser opponents, you should be more pessimistic than that… in the event of a sweep, anyway.
In my YATC fiddling I came up with one of the worst-case Michigan scenarios that dropped them to #5. Flipping one game with a worst-case split (beat non-TUC BGSU, lose to TUC) got them back to #3. A win tonight and I think Michigan has #2 or #3 locked down.
The win-all scenario is so clean because only one team matters: Duluth. If UMD wins the WCHA they'll pass Michigan for #2. If they don't, Michigan will hold on to their current spot. Does that matter? Probably not. I assume the committee will send the Bulldogs to Minneapolis despite the presence of the Gophers for attendance purposes, leaving Michigan in a near-empty building in Green Bay. (NCAA Hockey: we hate money, fans, and atmosphere!)
Things get messier in the event Michigan does not win the league, but there's a consolation prize: a lot of YATC brackets with Miami as CCHA champion feature them as the #4 overall seed with WMU and MSU as #4s. This was the scenario that led to Michigan's matchup against the Atlantic Hockey champion a few years back. That is a better draw despite The Hockey Horror making us hold our breath until a point where the game is comfortably in hand (if that ever comes).
CenterIce provides a game preview.
I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying
2/4/2012 – Michigan 4, Miami 1 – 16-9-4, 10-7-4 CCHA
2/5/2012 – Michigan 3, Miami 0 – 17-9-4, 11-7-4 CCHA
Pull the string on a college hockey observer and you'll get a torrent of profanity about the latest refereeing injustices. Do it again and you'll get a statement about how it's a weird year. Do it a third time: more torrents of profanity. A fourth time and you get this: "there are no elite teams this year." Don't bother going any further. It's torrents all the way down.
It's just that… I don't know. I'm definitely not saying this, you know… but… would they be saying that if Jon Merrill hadn't been suspended for the first half of the year?
Consider Michigan's season. When Merrill came back from suspension Michigan was 11-8-3 and yielding 2.6 goals a game. Since, 1.25. They've gone 6-1-1 in that stretch against four opponents fighting for tourney bids with all but one win coming by multiple goals. Nine of Michigan's eleven non-wins in the first half were one-goal contests.
How many of those does Merrill—and the marginalization of Michigan's third pair—swing to the positive? How many goals per game is having him worth? The answer can be a lot less than 1.35 and still be enough to propel Michigan's season record into territory only Minnesota-Duluth is scraping this year. Past it, maybe. The idea I am creeping up to gingerly and fleeing in fear from after considering its audacious blasphemy is obvious.
What if Michigan is this year's elite team?
Look at it from a neutral observer's perspective: here's this team tied for second in RPI and PWR, third in KRACH. It's 10-1-2 in its last 13 games and midway through that stretch added a top-pairing defenseman from the WJC team. Their goalie has entered a new plane of existence in which it's reasonable to put up a .980 over a month. They are surging towards the top of what looks like college hockey's toughest conference. If not Michigan, then who?
Mentioning that point in November when it looked like the team was dead and buried and marveling at the huge distance from that point to this one is obligatory and discharged here. The shift has been abrupt and dizzying.
What changed? Merrill is obvious but Michigan was already on a 4-0-1 move when he re-entered the lineup. The formation of a thunderous top line helps a lot, as does Hunwick going from "still a guy you can win with," as I termed him in a post around the midseason mark, to a surefire Hobey finalist*. And then there's just… this feeling. Of competence and confidence.
Whatever it is, Michigan has rarely found themselves threatened since the halfway point. If it's still a little shocking that this Michigan team is rolling everyone not named Notre Dame, it's true, and the longer it goes on the more confident you can be in your delicate assertions that Michigan might be pretty good at hockey this year.
*[As in top ten, not necessarily top three. That's a possibility, though.]
The throbbing pestilence
The fetid sore on hockey that is Keith Sergott cannot be better summarized than by the meaningless penalty to Blake Coleman with one second left in Friday's game. After they'd let Miami run Hunwick twice without putting Miami on the penalty kill, a pissed-off Coleman plows Hunwick. Sergott does what Sergott does by Sending A Message and making this guy's penalty a major.
This infuriated me. One: the penalty was not a major. It was not dangerous at all, not much of a hit, and warranted two minutes. Two: twice earlier in the game Hunwick had gotten run harder and Sergott either ignored it or evened penalties up. Since the player did not get a DQ, the net result is to make it look like you're being strict without actually penalizing the behavior on the ice in any way whatsoever.
That's Sergott's MO. That's why he was on the ice when Conboy and Tropp assaulted Steve Kampfer, and his inability to keep tempers in check is indirectly responsible for the suspensions handed out at the end of Saturday's game. His incompetence is total, which shouldn't be surprising since he is Bull from "Night Court."
Yost Built has a good summary of this guy's track record:
You'll remember that Sergott was the official a few weeks back at Notre Dame, when he let the Irish run Hunwick at every opportunity and usually just evened things up on the rare occasion that he did call anything. He was also the official when Steve Kampfer was attacked by Andrew Conboy and Corey Tropp. He was also the official of the ND/WMU game when the wrong player got ejected. Even if you set the bar for your officials at "Don't endanger players with your incompetence", Sergott fails in a big way. He shouldn't be reffing BGSU/Alabama-Huntsville, let alone high-profile games.
His existence as a referee is on the same plane as the CCHA adopting "gongshow" as a title sponsor.
Antidote. Denard was at the Friday game:
Bill Rapai
Further highlights from Friday:
And Saturday:
Bullets That Shawn Hunwick Perceives As Lackadaisical Watermelons
Hobey? Yost Built lays out the case for Hunwick:
Hunwick moved into 4th place in the history of the program with his ninth-career shutout. He also now ranks second nationally in wins, is fifth in save percentage, and ninth in goals-against. Hobey. Seriously.
Of the eight guys in front of him in GAA, four come from minor conferences (Union, Niagara, RIT, Quinnipiac), and he's played twice as many minutes as Knapp and CJ Motte. Only Douglas Carr from UML and Kent Patterson from Minnesota are from major conferences, have played around as many minutes, and have a better GAA. And Patterson is only .01 ahead.
The four guys ahead of him in save percentage play for Niagara, Union, RIT, and Robert Morris. And none of them are within 225 saves of him.
He is obviously the best candidate amongst goalies. Can he win against the usual parade of scoring forwards?
Baseball standings. Here you go:
|Ferris State
|Western Michigan
|Notre Dame
|1 2/3
|Lake Superior
|Michigan State
|2 2/3
|Ohio State
|2 2/3
|Northern Michigan
|3 2/3
|5 2/3
|Bowling Green
|7 1/3
The conference title race is still competitive, but Ferris State has a clear edge since they're in first place and have a BGSU series left. Michigan will either have to fly through the last three weeks or hope for Ferris to drop some points this weekend at Notre Dame.
The final week could be a barn-burner: WMU plays a home and home with Ferris as Michigan travels to BGSU. If the standings look like they do right now that could be a weekend where a split in FSU/WMU gives M the title.
The call out. Red Berenson is not a guy who expresses much emotion publicly, so a relatively gentle statement like this…
"We'll keep sending the information to the league but the league has to respond. I don't know that they've done a good job of it so far."
…says a lot about how frustrating it's been to watch the league ignore opponents making the Hunwick a target part of the gameplan without consequences. After Saturday, Red's opening statement was this:
"Don't ask me about the officiating."
So people figured out ways to ask him about the officiating without really asking him about the officiating. It was like watching JoePa interviewed at Media Day, when every question was not about retiring (nudge nudge wink wink). So Red said "we should not have to kill that many penalties in a game like that" when asked about the penalty kill and "it was the way the game was being handled" when asked about the emotions escalating at the end.
Legion of Boom! Top line nickname? No? Maybe? Yes? Needs more brutal hits, probably. Whatever.
Level up. When AJ Treais got a pass from Lee Moffie, held it… held it… held it(!) and then passed it back to Moffie at just the right moment for him to bang it into the net I was not surprised.
This was surprising. After a couple years of watching Treais be not Mike Comrie I'd resigned myself to the fact that he wasn't going to be the devilishly entertaining short guy that is my favorite hockey archetype*. But dang if he isn't basically all of Michigan's secondary scoring in the Legion of Boom era.
A lot of this has come from sniping. See his first goal Friday above. Yeah, Reichard could have done better there but Treais had about a square inch of real estate to make that relevant and nailed it. Then he zinged himself:
I saw a very small spot. I was just trying to get it to that spot, and the puck went in. I haven't done that since juniors. Usually my goals are back-door tap-ins.
This has not been true of late. High-variance shooting percentage aside, Treais has started walking dudes and generating chances. It seems like the light has gone on.
Moffatt and Brown are also contenders in this category.
*[Austin Czarnik's a good example. Western's captain this year is the best I've seen, though.]
You knew this was going to be in the post halfway through Saturday's game. I find it inexplicable that Lindsay Sparks ever gets scratched. He makes that line with Moffatt and Hyman so much more dangerous. Multiple times against Miami he set up excellent scoring chances by driving into the offensive zone and then pulling up to survey guys diving to the net or setting up in the slot; he also rang the post on a wrister.
Maybe he's not the greatest defensive player in the world but he's a chance generator. Against the flailing bottom sixes of the CCHA he's got to be a net positive.
Next up on "I can't believe this guy is a scratch": Mike Chiasson.
The Keith Sergott of power plays. A salute to the Miami PP, which sunk further into the depths after going 0/12 on the weekend. They dip to 13% on the year even without considering the shortie; Michigan's penalty kill is up to 16th.
Miami is now 8 of 94 on CCHA power plays.
Goal controversy. I will trade Blasi the goal they got double-reviewed Saturday for Fort Wayne, and I'll include Tayshaun Prince.
Vogelhuber. I'm little surprised "Vogelhuber" is not a rank in Vogon society.
Pairwise Bits
I did mention that Michigan's bye-week fall was mostly illusory and a strong weekend would see them pop up. I didn't think it would be all the way to second, and it really isn't all the way to second: they're in a three-way tie with Mass-Lowell and UMD that sees each competitor take one comparison and lose one from the other. Michigan wins the tiebreaker by the hair on its chinny-chin-chin.
There's not a whole lot of complexity here. Michigan will win comparisons based on RPI against virtually everyone with two exceptions:
- #1 BU. Michigan probably has to have BU get at most a tie out of a weekend series with Northeastern to pass them before the playoffs give people a bunch of unplanned series not accounted for in the TUC stuff.
- #4 Duluth. M is going to have a hard time winning this comparison unless Duluth spits the bit down the stretch and they play very well. COP is basically Duluth's without very specific events unfolding and they have a ~1.5 game edge in TUC.
If M goes 3-1 in the next two weeks they're in great shape; 2-2 and they are probably going to drop to fourth or fifth. The margins here are very narrow, just like they are in the CCHA. Michigan is assured of nothing but has positioned itself well.
Random factoid: every game Michigan has played has been against a TUC (above .500 in RPI) save for their opening swing against Bentley, SLU, and Niagara. This will be an even more impressive statement in two weeks because both MSU and Northern are also TUCs.
WCH on the weirdness of the series. The Daily on Hunwick's weekend and the ref business:
Despite forbidding any questions on the matter, that Berenson spent much of his time speaking about officiating and taking shots at Blasi (after a dominating sweep, no less) says quite a lot.
Referees Brian Hill and Keith Sergott lost control of the game, Blasi lost control of his players, and Michigan was the team getting penalized.
For those keeping track at home, yes Keith Sergott is that Keith Sergott, the one who presided a particularly touchy and physical Michigan-Notre Dame series two weeks ago.
So, in honor of Berenson and in the spirit of reticence, I too ask that you not question me about the officiating.
Yost Built on Friday and Saturday. Saturday:
So after the first 13:50 of the game, the RedHawks had had nearly eight full minutes of power play time. In that 7:57 span with Miami up a man, shots were 5-5 and goals were 1-0 in favor of the Wolverines. That is some penalty killing!
There is also a quality ref rant in that post.
Puck Preview: Miami
[If this seems like excessive Hockeybear, It's a scheduling quirk: he blows up OSU, Miami, and MSU.]
The Essentials
|Miami at Michigan
|Yost Ice Arena
|7:35 PM Friday/Saturday
|College hockey lines, junkie?
|Friday: FSD Plus
Saturday: CBS Sports
Record. 15-11-2, 11-9-2 CCHA. A preseason CCHA favorite, Miami has been a disappointment. Like Michigan they endured an awful stretch in the first half of the season. They were 2-6 out of the gate, splitting against Bemidji State and Colgate before being swept by Ferris State and Lake Superior.
While they have slowly recovered it's taking them longer to get back to the level expected of them than it has Michigan, and their final three conference series are doozies: Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. Throw in a no-win situation against Alabama-Huntsville (UAH is so bad wins against them actually hurt your RPI and are therefore excluded from calculations) and Miami is in a battle for its tournament life. They're currently 11th; any stumbles down the stretch will threaten their bid.
The good news for the Redhawks is that they are hot now, 6-2 in their last eight, all against the fierce pack of contenders in the CCHA.
As noted on Monday, this is a matchup of the top two teams in conference goal differential. Michigan's climbed to +13 in two fewer games, did it largely without Merrill, and has an easier closing stretch, so you would give them a slight advantage on paper, where all games should be played.
Previous meetings. The Redhawks had a slight advantage in a home series during Michigan's awful stretch, winning 2-1 on Friday before a 3-3 tie Saturday. Miami outshot Michigan 29-21 on Friday and 41-28 Saturday. Merrill, obviously, was not available.
Reilly Smith lights the lamp
Dangermen. There actually is one. This unusual for a very good and very defensively-minded CCHA. He is Dallas draftee Reilly Smith, who is averaging just over a PPG. His 19 goals are fourth nationally. As you might imagine, he's a sniper. The third goal in this LSSU-Miami game from a couple weeks ago is Smith popping the water bottle from just outside the crease:
Letting him shoot is a bad idea.
Austin Czarnik (yes that Czarnik) is his primary setup man with 7-16-23. Miami has a bit of depth behind those two—another three guys have eight goals and a fourth has six—but is just 29th nationally with 2.86 goals per game. Michigan is ninth (yes, yes, SLU and all that).
This would be a game to sic the checking line on Smith and company, but Michigan doesn't really have one.
Defense and goalie and whatnot. The Reichard/Knapp platoon continues into both goalies' senior years. Reichard has a slight advantage in starts and Knapp a large advantage in save percentage (.928 to .901) and GAA.
Knapp started both games against Western; the two split series against LSSU and Northern. It's getting towards put up or shut up time for the Redhawks, so I expect Knapp on Friday and, if things go well in net, Saturday.
As far as their defense goes, they don't get much offense out of them but senior Chris Wideman will plunge down from time to time. Their opener against NMU was reminiscent of the goal Moffie manufactured in Michigan's OT GLI win over MSU:
He's got 1-14-15 on the year and given the state of the Miami power play it's safe to assume a larger fraction of those goals are even strength that you might expect.
Speaking of…
Special teams. Your power plays per game:
|PP For / G
|PP Ag / G
Miami's special teams have been poor. They end up shorthanded more frequently than their opponents and are struggling to score on the power play. They're even worse than Michigan (46th versus 43rd). In the CCHA they are converting at an under 10% rate. That's probably the most inexplicable stat of the season.
Their PK is pretty good (12th) and significantly better than Michigan's (26th). Merrill, etc.
Michigan Vs Those Guys
Even those shots out. While Merrill should help in this regard, Michigan is still giving up a ton of shots even after his return to the lineup. Maybe they're not all spectacular but asking Hunwick to keep up his blistering pace (.975 in the past four games!) is a bit much.
Match Pateryn with Smith. Pateryn is Michigan's best defenseman when the puck is on the other guys' sticks; his size, reach, and reliability should help cut down on opportunities for Smith to loose his deadly shot.
Go ahead and goon it up. Miami is undisciplined (last in the league in penalties taken) and their power play is awful. A few tweaks may get you an extra power play or two and they're not going to hurt you if the random number generator goes against you.
Hunwick: keep playing out of your mind. It would be nice, right? .975 will do just fine.
The Big Picture
CCHA baseball standings again:
|Ferris State
|Western Michigan
|1 1/3
|Ohio State
|1 1/3
|Notre Dame
|1 1/3
|1 2/3
|Lake Superior
|1 2/3
|Michigan State
|2 2/3
|Northern Michigan
|4 2/3
|Bowling Green
This is a huge series because all series are huge in the tightly-packed CCHA. Michigan wants to finish fourth or better to guarantee themselves a home series and can put themselves in a good spot by getting anything better than a split this weekend. A split leaves them where they are.
As far as the Pairwise goes, I believe a 6-2 record down the stretch will see Michigan occupying a one seed when the conference playoffs roll around*. You'd hope BGSU would be a slam dunk, leaving them with the task of sweeping one of their other three series and splitting the other two to get there. Miami is the toughest opponent left; getting the sweep this weekend would be a huge step towards both a potential left-field CCHA title and that one seed. Easier said than done.
*[They would have to defend that by reaching the Joe and going at least 1-1 there. They'd be in a good spot, though.]
Hit up Yesman's preview for another look at things and some +/- figures. INCH on Hunwick:
Hunwick's no longer just a good story; he's legitimately among the best netminders Michigan's ever had – boasting the best save percentage and goals-against average in program history at this point. And as the Wolverines find themselves in an interesting psychological position – seventh place in the standings but just five points out of first – Hunwick finds himself with the opportunity to do more than inspire walk-ons everywhere, he's got the chance to put this team on his back as they attempt to end a national title drought that's fast approaching a decade and a half.
AA.com on three things to watch. Daily on Reilly Smith.


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– This week's WWE Classics Five-Star Match of the Week was chosen by Darren Young and Titus O'Neil. They chose Ric Flair vs. Vader from Starrcade 1993. Young told WWE's website:
"The Prime Time Players' favorite match is Ric Flair vs. Vader, WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Starrcade 1993. Why that match stands out is because Ric Flair was the underdog and Vader was the World Heavyweight Champion. One of the most impressive things in this match was when Ric Flair performed a delayed suplex on Big Van Vader himself. Four hundred and fifty pounds over his head. At the time, Ric Flair was in his late 30s/early 40s, so to pick up a guy that big was unreal."
– With WWE Champion CM Punk being pulled from the TLC pay-per-view due to injury, the last time a WWE pay-per-view event did not have a WWE Title match was the No Way Out event in February 2007.
– Here is video of Natalya and David Otunga at an anti-bullying rally on Tuesday in North Charleston, South Carolina:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Probiotics are microorganisms with potential health benefits. They may help prevent and treat antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and relieve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
Dr. Benjamin Kligler, Vice Chair of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, believes that patients often know more about probiotics than their doctors. Antibiotics kill both bad and good bacteria. Probiotics are good bacteria that help maintain the natural balance in the gut and do not interfere with antibiotics.
The most widely studied strains include Lactobacillus species (including L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, L. bulgaricus, L. reuteri and L. casei among others), Bifidobacterium species and Saccharomyces boulardii.
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) are bacteria that infect and inflame the stomach lining. Doctors now believe they are the most common cause of stomach ulcers and may cause stomach cancers. In a probiotics study, 90 children and teens with H. pylori, aged 3 to 18, took daily doses of two antibiotics plus an ulcer drug and 250 mg of the probiotic S. boulardii twice per day or a placebo for seven to 10 days. After four to six weeks, 93 percent of those in the probiotic group had no H. pylori compared to 81 percent for placebo. The placebo group reported four times the number of side effects compared to probiotics.
"With the level of evidence that probiotics work and the large safety margins for them, we see no good reason not to prescribe probiotics when prescribing antibiotics."
Typical dosages vary based on the product, but common dosages range from 5 to 10 billion colony-forming units (CFU) per day for children and from 10 to 20 billion CFU per day for adults.
Reference: American Family Physician; 2008, Vol. 78, No. 9, 1073-8.


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Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has revealed that he has both Aston Villa striker Darren Bent and Queens Park Rangers' Loic Remy on his transfer wishlist as his hunt for a new striker continues.
Both the manager and the new director of football Joe Kinnear are keen on bringing in a new striker this summer after last season saw them rely on Papiss Cisse too much.
The Toon lost their star striker Demba Ba in January after selling him to Chelsea and they are now left with just three recognised striker in their ranks.
Newcastle had been linked with both Arouna Kone and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but both of those strikers have now moved on to Everton and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
Darren Bent is not considered first-team material at Villa Park and spent most of last season on the bench and is expected to leave the club this summer with Newcastle the likely destination.
Pardew is also interested in signing QPR striker Loic Remy after the London club was relegated from the Premier League last season.
The Newcastle manager tried to sign Remy in January but the Frenchman eventually chose QPR instead.
Pardew told theNorthern Echo: "Both of those players are on our list. I make no bones about that.
"But they are under contract at other clubs. It's difficult, you have to be careful. It's nice for our fans to hear names, but I don't want to disrupt other clubs' preparations.
"We have a list of four or five strikers who will push Papiss Cisse, Shola Ameobi, Adam Campbell and Yoan Gouffran because that will be important next season.
"We do need two strikers. Last year, I didn't think there was enough competition in that area for a Premier League team."
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text:
Inglewood, CA Rental Homes and Apartments for Rent
Search rentals in Inglewood, CA. At RentalGuide.net, we have comprehensive rental listings to help you find Inglewood apartments for rent. You can also find rental houses and condos. Click on a listing to view details, or refine your search for Inglewood apartments to search by price, beds and other criteria.


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of doing that and if say you have blu rays that like 25-50GB per disk.
Handbrake takes care of DRM for DVDs. For Blu-Ray use MakeMKV to extract the disc from DRM, then Handbrake to bring the file size down to 5 to 10 GB depending on the quality you want.
I'm amazed anyone DOESN'T rip their discs. Who wants to be forced to wade through stupid menus and messages that you can't skip?
Is there a good option (for mac preferably) that will rip a DVD after looking it up in some database (like CDDB) to get the names and indexing information correct. Ripping is easy enough, but I'm tired of choosing all the chapters for each episode when ripping season 3 of whatever. The last time I let RipIt have a go at a DVD I ended up with Battlestar Galactica disc 2 starting half way through the third episode.
Huh? ripit, in its basic mode of operation, creates a decrypted, clean copy of a dvd, without any bogus sectors etc. That's it. Why would it do what you claim is beyond me, perhaps it's a bug. I haven't used ripit's compress feature, so perhaps you're referring to that?
He's asking for more than just a decrypted copy of a DVD.
He wants the same thing that is commonplace and expected for a music CD: something that detects all the tracks and matches them up to content titles. Clearly he wants something that can sort out a pile of Buffy DVDs, correctly label season, episode and title names and possibly fetch extra metadata.
A simple ripper doesn't do that.
Besides Kaledescape, I am not aware of anything that does.
Apple's prohibited programs fulfilling some of those requirements from being sold in the AppStore. Off the AppStore, however, there are some solutions. You might look into iVI, though it seems targeted at the anime audience. http://www.southpolesoftware.com/iVI/iVI.php [southpolesoftware.com]
Give it to XBMC, then point it to thetvdb.com and imdb.com. Name the files correctly, "Farscape 1x2" for example, and let the magic of the media center software do the rest.
"Hey guys, is there anyway to automate boring task?"
"Sure! Just manually perform boring task first and this program will perform irrelevant task for you automatically!"
Thanks. Really.
Is there a good option (for mac preferably) that will rip a DVD after looking it up in some database (like CDDB) to get the names and indexing information correct. Ripping is easy enough, but I'm tired of choosing all the chapters for each episode when ripping season 3 of whatever. The last time I let RipIt have a go at a DVD I ended up with Battlestar Galactica disc 2 starting half way through the third episode.
For the Mac, I use MetaX can write tags to ripped movie files, which gets data from tagchimp.com. But it's user-contributed data, so duplicates, errors and typos can creep in.
There is no such service (as CDDB) to get DVD chapters. DVD "chapters" don't really exist outside the menu-software of the DVD (a random software or hardware DVD player will never enumerate chapter names), Handbrake can handle CSV's if you really want to name them.
I'm amazed anyone DOESN'T rip their discs. Who wants to be forced to wade through stupid menus and messages that you can't skip?
The two are unrelated, actually. There a players which offer unconditional skipping and which use the disc directly.
"Handbrake takes care of DRM for DVDs."
For *some* DVDs. It doesn't handle all of them because the producers of the DVDs keep updating their bogus DRM techniques and thus it is a constant arms race. And it is genuinely bogus, because that's what most of these techniques do: insert bogus sectors and other trickery that trips up a simple ripping program but not most DVD players (and the ones that don't work are collateral damage). Why the media producers bother to keep throwing money at a problem that people will just find a way around in order to use the product they have already bought is beyond my understanding. Do they really think they're stopping anything by spending all that money on DRM? And, no thank you, I don't want to disclose all sorts of unnecessary personal information in order to activate a digital copy that isn't ripped the way I want it anyway.
These days it's easier for a pirate to set up a movie library than a legitimate purchaser, and that situation *sucks*.
Anything that Handbrake can't handle, AnyDVD will.
There are really very few DVDs that you will need to use AnyDVD for. There have been a few failed attempts at extra copy protection on DVDs. However, for the most part it's mainly Disney disks that will give you trouble.
The vast majority of DVDs won't give you trouble.
However, since you're going to need AnyDVD for BluRays anyways you've got that as a backup option.
+...yeah. It's easier to pirate than use modern video media to it's full potential.
of doing that and if say you have blu rays that like 25-50GB per disk.
That's a really good point. BD movies would fill a tb drive in 20-40 movies. That's bad, but not crippling. I doubt a carrousel BD changer for 20-40 disks would be much cheaper (and you can always expand a FS).
I still think backing physical content up on HDs and then long-term storing the physical copies wins.
BD movies would fill a tb drive in 20-40 movies. That's bad, but not crippling.
You can easily double that capacity by recoding both the video and audio streams at lower bitrates.
For my own Blu-ray archival, I convert all of the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio tracks to AAC 5.1-channel 640kbps or 2-channel 224kbps using eac3to. Next, I convert all of the H.262, H.264 and VC1 video tracks to H.264 using a constant quality value of "16" and the "slower" encoder preset using x264. Lastly, I convert the graphical PGS subtitles to text SRT using SupRip. For a two hour 1080p movie, I averag
At 50GB/disk, you can still get 40 movies on a single 2TB drive. Even with the hard disk shortage, this is an affordable solution. In reality, you can delete all the extras when you rip and get far more movies on the drive, or you can even re-encode. Though I use FreeBSD with ZFS to add disks in pairs for redundancy, a Windows Media box can also work well, as it has a way to add capacity... a co-worker of mine goes this route, though I think ZFS has him intrigued.
Yeah, I upgraded my FreeBSD 8.1 box to 9.0-RC2 so I could start playing with ZFS v28. Madly sacrificing chickens in triplicate, after a Gentoo-like recompile of 400 ports, freebsd-upgrade left me a somewhat hosed system where basic services (startx, portupgrade) won't run complaining that libz.so.5 is missing. I guess I'm looking at a fresh install.
As far as I got with ZFS, it totally rocked. In my test I set up a three drive mirror (which I think of as a plain mirror with a presilvered hot spare). Seei
Cool. I'm still on FreeBSD 8, just because I'm redoing rooms in the house and don't have time to experiment
Like most home users crazy enough to run their own basement server, I use it for several jobs. It's a time machine target, it's a music server, it's a pictures repository, it's a CrashPlan target (thanks to Linux emulation), it's a web server, and probably things I'm forgetting. For me, the main appeal of ZFS is the data integrity. A few years ago, my backup scheme involved Unison, and it caught a b
BluRay jukeboxes aren't exactly cheap either. Plus the software isn't very widespread. DVD jukeboxes had the exact same problems which is why it became more common to see people rip everything.
Furthermore, the DRM of your disks is still going to limit you with a physical jukebox solution. It's still there and getting in the way.
The only way around that really is to just get rid of the DRM to begin with.
People have put together hard drive based solutions specifically because they don't like DRM limitations a
Niether Blu Ray or DVD are compressed for storage, they are compressed to fill their respective discs. Please keep this in mind for all future conversations involving home media theaters and internet streaming.
... is to rip everything to a large hard disk and set up some sort of media center.
Absolutely. Rip it to your format of choice, and put the discs in a box in the garage... in case you have a HD failure and need to re-rip them or want to re-rip them in a different format later. Alternatively, sell/give away/throw out the discs after ripping and when you need another copy buy/download another copy.
Rip discs. Use media center application.
Same here. Just wish my system could do it faster. The sooner I get rid of my physical DVDs, the better.
Precisely. Even at today's prices, it's still pretty affordable to set up a fault-tolerant array with several tb of storage. Most 1080 movies compress to 8-10 gigs without much loss of quality. That's 100 HD movies per tb of storage, give or take.
Many movies don't do justice to the extra data used to encode a BD version. A lot of content isn't available in high definition to begin with..
Regardless of how you manage your disks you might want to peruse a review or two before you shell out extra money for a new version of something that you likely already have or can get dirt cheap.
Googling for cd rom jukebox first hit in shopping is a 100 disc cd/dvd jukebox with usb and dasychainable for ~150 bucks each. other than that ISO's and a fat NAS
That represents 900G of storage space tops.
Plus you need the software that can manage that device.
How big is your budget?
http://www.kaleidescape.com/ [kaleidescape.com]
http://www.kaleidescape.com/products/ [kaleidescape.com]
Beautiful stuff. Flawless operation. Drains your bank account.
Beautiful stuff. Flawless operation. Drains your bank account.
They gotta make their money now before the business model evaporates in 10 years.
About the only problem I have is that they sell exclusively via distributors. I really dislike hardware that I can't simply order online... I mean, you can get a $50k custom-built server spec'd and ordered online, their stuff isn't any different so why can't one buy it directly?!
Looks great, but what does it actually cost? I assume it follows the old adage "if you have to ask, it's too much". Seems that you can only get it via stupidly priced "Solution Designer" type folks.
It costs more than any other available option.
It's highly proprietary. You can't just use any playback client. You must use THEIR playback client. The same goes for jukeboxes and disk packs for their RAID arrays.
What you rip isn't portable. It can't be taken "out of the system".
You can't load your rips onto your phone or tablet.
... sitting on the living room floor. The system is managed by an ugly bag of mostly water.
Surprising efficient and effective.
Low tech for high brows.
In March of 2011 I bought an HP desktop that has a media center remote. (It also has a TV tuner, BluRay, and HDMI.)
I installed XMBC, which supports the remote. It provides a great menu to navigate EVERYTHING, isos, avis, mkvs, mp3s, aacs, flacs, and some of those other whacky DVD rip formats.
The only problem is that my hard drive with about 500 gigs of DVD rips crashed! Just make sure to back up everything on a regular basis!
The only problem is that my hard drive with about 500 gigs of DVD rips crashed! Just make sure to back up everything on a regular basis!
It's easier to re-rip/download than it is to backup media (movies/music).
> It's easier to re-rip/download than it is to backup media (movies/music).
No. It is much more of a bother to rip stuff again.
Backing up your media can be as simply as "cp DiskA/* DiskB".
Messing around with any number of optical disks is going to be more bother than that.
It's easier to re-rip/download than it is to backup media (movies/music).
No. Handling hundreds of discs or torrents to recreate a collection is a lot more job than hooking up another 2-3TB disk and keeping two copies. That is, if you're insisting on keeping a collection, I know more and more that don't at least for movies. They download, watch and delete and if they want to see it again, they'll download it again. Music is different, there you can play it many many times in playlists but movies you see a handful times tops, most actually just once or twice.
I already have a file server, I wanted my media center to be small and silent. So I bought an Apple TV gen2, jailbroke it and dropped XBMC on it.
It's low power, damn near instant on and completely silent. The single only down side is that it'll only play H.264 HD since that's all that's HW accelerated, but I can live with that
It wasn't until the middle of second line that I noticed that the poster was suggesting optical disks.
People actually use optical storage for anything but backups?
People use optical storage for backups?
They aren't useful for backup either. Hard disks are cheaper and easier to handle, and often last longer.
The only reasonable use for DVDs is for when you need to send a couple of GB to someone with a slow or capped internet connection.
Just put all your movies on a shelf in alphabetical order. If you have LOTS of them, then use a more orderly system [ehow.com]. For the 5 seconds it takes to manually swap out a disc to watch a one or two hour movie, anything else is massive overkill.
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f104/tsudhonimh/bookcases/bookcase_4unit.jpg [photobucket.com]
I wanted a home theater PC with instant-access to all of my films. My solution was as follows:
(a) Rip all discs to hard drive,
(b) Index and link to files with software solution
In detail:
(a) I chose to go with MakeMKV for most of my ripping. It rips the mpeg2/4 video directly to an mkv file, without reencoding, and you can choose all the tracks you want to go with it. (I.e., some titles I rip multiple audio streams and subtitles, some I take just English 2.0). For me, I just ripped the main title from each film; if I want to see the special features later, I'll take the box down off the shelf and pop the disk in. (Special features don't really matter to me that much.) Each rip averages 3 to 6Gb. Now MKV, while a great file format, isn't compatible with some (especially older) consumer electronics. You can always re-encode, if you really need to make a particular title portable. And for my Blu Ray / HD-DVD titles, I re-encoded anyway. I found a 1080P 6Gb-target-size h.264 two-pass re-encode to be indistinguishable on my 52" TV from the original. In fact, it's probably quite a bit of overkill.
For storage, I have a couple of 3Tb drives in an external enclosure, with a duplicate unit for backup. (Got them for a song before the manic price gouging going on now started!.) So far, it's holding over 500 titles and several TV series, and plenty of room to grow. And I can always increase capacity.
(b) For keeping track of everything, I eventually went with Collectorz.com Movie Collector. I've tried many solutions, both free and payware, and Movie Collector was the one that fit my needs the best. (There is a lot of good software out there -- look around!) As I ripped my collection in my spare time, I simply scanned in the UPC on the back of each film using an old CueCat barcode scanner. The software then populates all of the data for the film. Once the film was ripped, I simply linked the title in Movie Collector to the video file on the hard drives. Now I can visually browse my entire collection and watch any title at the click of a mouse. And it's nice to be able to go, "Hey, how many Humphrey Bogart movies do I own?" and find out with a simple filter.
What worked for me might or might not fit your needs, but hopefully it gives you ideas.
Why not keep them in MPEG2/4 containers if you're keeping them MPEG2/4 codec, that way commercially available consumer electronics media devices can play them as well.
That's worthless if you want 5.1 AC3 audio - that doesn't fit in an MPEG2 container in any way that consumer electronic devices like. If you have a home theater receiver, that matters.
1080P 6Gb-target-size h.264 two-pass re-encode
For future reference, the only thing multi-pass encoding gets your is accurate quantizer scaling to precisely hit a target filesize. If you don't have any filesize constraints (because you're storing this crap on a disk several hundred times larger than the file), just set a static quantizer or quality target and forget about it. The codec is much better at deciding just how much data is needed than you are.
but I'm retiring it out (at my own pace) for a stack of hard disks which have far higher data density.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKYQ5ibxslI [youtube.com]
Store those movies in these file folders with plastic pockets. Buy the kind that will let you also store the jewel case printed material.
Figure out how many hours a week you are planning to watch movies from your collection. Figure out how many years it is going to take to finish what you already have. Finally realize the only reason you have such a big collection is to brag about the size of the collection. So save some money on the techno solutions and buy more movies to enhance the bragging.
Sounds like a Lego Mindstorms project... Start building!
You didn't specify how large your collection is. If it's just a few hundred discs, then I personally agree with whoever it was way up there that just recommended one of those big honking disc binders. One or two 320-disc binders, while weightier than you might imagine, are nice and easy to keep in alphabetical order, if you've got a fairly static collection.
Once the numbers get much above that, though, yeah, I'm not sure, either. Six of those binders can break through a cheap ikea-type shelf (true story), and anyone who pipes up "rip them" can go suck on a tesla coil... I'm still trying to find a solution myself, maybe something like a DIY Redbox Kiosk, though I don't know how much those actually hold...
How many DVDs can you watch?
7 a week? Really? Haven't you got a life?
I suggest a normal person with varied interests and in employment won't watch more than 2 DVD's per week on average (and with TV, movies, music, gaming, Internet and other exotic activities like going to concerts, doing sports, or reading a book requiring our time, I reckon the number may be smaller. Have you got kids? You watch more than 2 DVDs a week, but I guess you are tired by now of watching Toy Story yet again).
So lets say you will watch 100 DVDs this year. All of them only once. And most of them, perhaps all, will never be seen again ever, because you have other 100 to watch next year.
At this time of the year if you have a DVD "collection" what I suggest you should be doing is to get rid of half of it in order to make space for next year 100 DVDs.
The situation does not change much if these DVDs are in your computer (or server farm, whatever).. YOu won't watch most of it ever anymore.
So my solution is keep a collection of 100 and be scrupulous about this: a new disk gets in one gets out. It is that simple. Eventually you build a real collection of movies that you may watch sometime again. Keep the collection in a shelf, alphabetically, and forget the bloody computer and ripping: you have better things to do with your life (I hope).
"I will make no bargains with terrorist hardware." -- Peter da Silva


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Google Faces Up To $5 Billion Fine From Competition Commission of India 89
An anonymous reader writes "Google is facing investigation by the Competition Commission of India and potentially faces fines up to 10% of its three-year average turnover. While Google has settled anti-trust cases in the U.S. and the European Union, India's competition regime does not have provisions for settlement process." From the Times of India article linked: "The complaint against Google, also one of the world's most valued company, was first filed by advocacy group CUTS International way back in late 2011. Later, matrimonial website matrimony.com also filed a complaint. Referring to Google's settlement with the European Commission, matrimony.com counsel Ferida Satarawala said: 'Google's unfair use of trademarks as well as its retaliatory conduct are not specifically addressed in the European settlement and are distinct theories of harm being pursued by the CCI. Therefore, this settlement is unlikely to address CCI's concerns in our case.'"


text: Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums :: View topic - Pets Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Pets Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Pets View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message aniJoined: 18 May 2003Posts: 1Location: Japan Posted: Sun May 25, 2003 4:52 pm Post subject: Pets Hi I am ani.I lives in JAPAN.I would like tell you about my pet. I have one dog and two cats. I think pets can makes our feeling happy. If you know anything cute animal please tell me. Back to top chanonJoined: 11 Nov 2003Posts: 1 Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2003 3:41 am Post subject: My pets Hi! my name is chanon.I live in Thailand. My pets name is "Pangee" . I think my pets is cute. Back to top Tsay Yi-JiunJoined: 15 Dec 2003Posts: 1 Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:58 am Post subject: I have two hamsters...someone may think I'm stupid...but I don't care... They also give me many many happy...They play important roles in my mind... Back to top sasi_alohaJoined: 29 Dec 2003Posts: 4 Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 8:25 pm Post subject: I have three cats. Their names are Chok, Tongkhaw, and Tee-Lek. Chok is the oldest cat in my house. He is 8 years old, but he is very healthy. His favorite food is a snack. Tongkhaw is 3 years old. He is very fat because he loves to eat and he is a lazy cat. He spends time to lie down. He is 6 kilograms now. Tee-Lek is a kitten. he is so cute. He looks like a little tiger and he is very naughty. My cats are good friends and I love them so much Back to top toonnoyJoined: 11 Nov 2003Posts: 2 Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 8:59 pm Post subject: I love dog In my opinion,dogs are the best pet for 3 reasons. First,dogs are good friends because they are very grateful. You can spend free time effectively. They are also best friend when you are alone. Second,the dogs are useful because they keep a thief away from a house. Finally, dogs can protect their owners. For example, if dogs seeing human injure to owners, it will injure to human promptly. In conclution, a dog is wonderful pet. What do you think about a dog? Back to top gosonJoined: 30 Apr 2004Posts: 1 Posted: Sun May 02, 2004 1:39 am Post subject: i love dog Long time ago. People are double together pets which pet of people has many and some people to feed, friend and use work and many at people must stay with pet. At we will tell about pet it is a dog in all pet. A dog is pet at people to like the best which is animal has wise easy for learn and many use work such as to look home and honesty to expand boss. When to related between people and dog begin from. People yet to live by to hunt animal and to take vegetable for food. They are take live together is big group in cave. People and fox will chair to live into hunt animal. Afterwards people to invent weapon to rise and fox begin to live close people more than. Which to bring into use fox come for many benefited in side hunt animal and protect by it receive food to reward. When pass time tie to increase more than. Twin begin learning at will take live together and friendship receive develop over think. A dog is pet has benefit for people and it can to live people are good. If give dog of you are good dog must have good study and to feed with love. Back to top mayoJoined: 23 May 2004Posts: 1Location: japan Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 6:08 pm Post subject: My pet hello My name is mayo. I'm live in japan. My family has a black cat. He have lived for 6 years. He is very friendly I want talk about your pets. Back to top waeJoined: 29 Apr 2004Posts: 6 Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 8:51 pm Post subject: Re: My pets Hi Chanon! I am college student in japan. Nice to meet you. I iove animal very much. I have a cat in my home town. I go to college in Tokyou,[main city of Japan] but my home town is Totori,so I miss my cat. His name is john. he can do tricks. I would like to know about your pet more and your country. Back to top waeJoined: 29 Apr 2004Posts: 6 Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 8:57 pm Post subject: Re: My pets chanon wrote: Hi! my name is chanon.I live in Thailand. My pets name is "Pangee" . I think my pets is cute. Back to top baby2000Joined: 13 Dec 2004Posts: 2 Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:10 am Post subject: Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi!!! I love humster, but my pet was dead, so I am sad everyday since my pet was dead. Back to top sherryyenJoined: 05 Jan 2005Posts: 20Location: Taiwan Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:01 am Post subject: my pet well... i'm sherry,i'm a student from Taiwan. my pet is a duck. i know it's funny but i still think it is cute to have a pet which is a duck. does there anyone have a pet that is cute but hardly to see in a pet shop? Back to top Hiroko. HJoined: 27 Sep 2004Posts: 6 Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 6:43 pm Post subject: I have a dog too.She was a stray dog. But now she is loved by my family. When you have a pet,you should take care of it.The responsibility is carried with it to keeping the animal. Pet's happiness depends on you! Please love your pet. Back to top oleskaJoined: 09 Dec 2004Posts: 3 Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 5:51 am Post subject: Re: Pets Hi We are Dorota, Ola and Ania. We live in Poland in small city Nidzica. We love pets. Dorota has two parrots, one dog, and one hamster. Ola has one sweet parrot and she has cat in head . Ania has two dogs, and hmmm... she doesn't know . Dorota loves horses, Ola loves cats and Ania loves dogs. We are so crazy girls . We are 12 years old. GOOD BYE!!!! Back to top EllonneJoined: 21 Sep 2005Posts: 1 Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:18 pm Post subject: Hi! I'm Thai student. I love dog too. In myopinion, there are two reasons that make dog becomes a popular pet. The firest reason is that it can useful. Your dog can guard your home when you go out. And you can play with it in the spare time. The other reason is that it's easy to bring up.Because dog is clever than other pets. You can tame it easily. And you can trained your dog to do anything easily. In conclusion, dog is a good pet than other pets. In your opinion, What pet do you like? Panuwat Punapet 47210645 EE2B Group 12 Back to top blue dragonJoined: 05 Sep 2005Posts: 13 Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:45 pm Post subject: Hi!I'm blue dragon from Malaysia. I have a pet too.Mypet name is "Comel". It's was a nice cat.It's has a long tail and long fur. Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Pets All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Student Forums----------------ComputersCurrent NewsCultureEnglish SchoolsFamilyFilm and CinemaFoodHealth and FitnessHelp CenterHobbiesHolidaysLearning EnglishLiteratureMaking FriendsMusicOpinionsPetsScienceSportsThe Strange and MysteriousTOEFL and Other English ExamsTravel You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Dave's ESL Cafe is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. 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Colombian singer-songwriter Juanes will perform in Sunday's Grammy Awards ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, his record label, Universal Music, said in a statement.
The musician, who has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Pop Album category for "Juanes MTV Unplugged", will join a list of artists including Sting, Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons, Rihanna, Bruno Mars and The Black Keys to be featured on stage.
Juanes, who won last year's Latin Grammy Album of the Year prize for that same release, which was recorded in early 2012 before a live audience at the New World Symphony Center in Miami, will be competing against Ricardo Arjona, Fonseca, Kany Garcia, and Jesse & Joy for this prestigious award.
A native of Medellin, Colombia, Juanes has won 19 Latin Grammys and one Grammy award during his career.


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In the wake of the NFL Combine, a few prospects have seen their stock rise and some names have slid down a round or two.
Sammy Watkins, the Clemson wide receiver, not surprisingly lived up to the hype. He's a freakishly talented athlete and will make any offense better immediately.
Here's the deal though. The Detroit Lions, who are desperately in need of wide receiver help, have the 10th overall pick. Watkins likely will be gone by then.
Still, this is a deeply talented draft and the Lions should get player who will produce an immediate impact at No. 10.
Here are the top five possibilities for that 10th slot:
1. Wide receiver Mike Evans (Texas A&M) — Lions general manager Martin Mayhew's draft philosophy is to take the best player available. If Evans is still on the board, the 6-foot-5 wide receiver would make perfect sense for the Lions who are in the market for a No. 2 wide receiver. What a book-end pair that would create with Evans and Calvin Johnson.
Evans developed a reputation as a hard worker with the Aggies — working hard without or without the ball in his hands. If there's a knock on him it's that he has limited football experience — one year in high school and two in college. Last season he led the Aggies with 65 catches for 1,322 yards and 12 touchdowns during the regular season. Evans has been compared to Tampa Bay's Vincent Jackson. He worked out with Hall of Famer James Lofton prior to the draft.
2. Cornerback Darqueze Dennard (Michigan State) — Considered by many the top cornerback available in the draft. Dennard was slower in the 40 (4.51) than Justin Gilbert (4.37). He was a three-year starter for the Spartans, allowing just three receptions on 31 attempts of 15 yards or longer on him last season. Dennard also excels against the run as an open-field tackler. He won the Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back.
The Lions have faith in cornerbacks Chris Houston, who struggled last season, and Darius Slay, a rookie who matured during the season. That doesn't mean they don't need another corner. Draft one and let them all compete in training camp. New defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said a team can never have too many cornerbacks. No one can argue with that.
3. Cornerback Justin Gilbert (Oklahoma State) — He's the quicker of the two and more of a pure athlete than Dennards. He led the Big 12 with seven interceptions in 2013 — two of them were returned for touchdowns. Confident, he said at the Combine he feels he can score whenever he gets his hands on the ball. He returned a half-dozen kickoffs for scores at Oklahoma State too. He needs work on his technique but that is no different from most rookie defensive backs.
4. Wide receiver Marquise Lee (USC) — He's a much different receiver than Evans because of his smaller stature. Lee, who is 6-foot, possesses explosive straight-line speed and could play on the outside or in the slot. He struggled with injuries in 2013 as a junior, but was the Biletnikoff Award winner as the top receiver in the nation as a sophomore with 1,721 yards and 14 touchdowns. He ran a 4.52 at the Combine. He's often compared to New York Giants' wide receiver Victor Cruz. He salivates at the thought of playing with and learning from Calvin Johnson.
5. Safety Hasean Clinton-Dix (Alabama) — With Louis Delmas gone, the Lions are in need of a safety to start opposite Glover Quin. Clinton-Dix, who is commonly known as Ha Ha ( a name his grandmother gave him), could be the answer. He's 6-foot-1 and 208 pounds and ran a 4.58 40 at the Combine. Playing in Alabama's system has set him up well for the NFL. He's a quick decision maker on the field and uses his explosiveness well. In 2013, his junior season, he had two interceptions, 51 tackles and four pass breakups. He's been compared to Seattle's Earl Thomas which isn't a bad thing.