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The new Steel Curtain?

Back in the 1970s, the Pittsburgh Steelers defense was badass. In 1976, for example, the Steelers started off the season 1-4 and lost Terry Bradshaw to injury. The defense then stepped up, pulling off three consecutive shutouts. The Steelers’ defense didn’t allow a single point in five of their last nine games that year, and only one opponent (Houston) was able to score in the double digits (a 32-16 Steelers win). Eight of the Steelers’ defensive players were chosen for the Pro Bowl that year, and four of those would go to to enter the Hall of Fame. All in all, the Steelers defense of the day was so badass that they earned a legendary nickname: the Steel Curtain.

Since the 70s, the Steelers have generally had pretty good defensive teams. After all, a good running game and a bruising defense is “the Pittsburgh way”. It’s “smashmouth football”, and no one has consistently done that better than the Steelers. But this season’s Steeler defense is different. It’s like the defense of years past, but it’s “clicking” on every level. Consider the statistics:

– The Steelers have not allowed a 100-yard rusher all season.

– The Steelers have not allowed 300 yards in offense all season.

– The Steelers have given up ten (or fewer) points in four of their last five games.

– The Steelers defense has allowed nine total points in third quarters this season.

– James Harrison and Lamar Woodley have already combined for 25 1/2 sacks between them this year, a team record.

– Troy Polamalu has had interceptions in three consecutive games, and leads the league with six total picks.

– Overall, the Steelers defense is giving up the fewest yards rushing, passing and overall, and the fewest points in the NFL.

– The Steelers are giving up an average of 238 yards per game, easily the lowest in the NFL.

All this was on full display last Sunday when the Steelers traveled to Foxboro, where they had previously been 0-2 in Gillette Stadium. Patriots QB Matt Cassel was riding high on back-to-back 400-yard passing games. Darth Vader was looking like a genius (again) for his pick at backup QB.

Steelers-PatsSo what happened? The Pats managed only 169 offensive yards. Cassel threw two picks and fumbled twice. The Pats went 1-13 on third downs. Had Large Benjamin not thrown that interception deep in his own territory at the beginning of the game (which gave the Pats the ball at Pittsburgh’s 14 yard line), it’s possible that the Pats might not have gotten into the end zone at all.

The 1976 Steelers – the epitome of “Steel Curtain” – led the league in giving up the fewest points, yards rushing and total yards. As good as they were, however, they only managed to be #3 in yards passing. The 2008 Steelers – the “New Steel Curtain” – is leading in all defensive categories, something that hasn’t been done since at least 1991, when the Eagles led the league in the three yardage categories (but did not give up the fewest points).

I’ll admit that the Steelers’ offense is struggling. Just as the Bears had “Good Rex” and “Bad Rex”, I’m never sure if “Good Ben” or “Bad Ben” will show up. I’ve watched many games on the edge of my seat this year, hoping and praying that the offense will get the job done. But after the game’s over I take a deep breath… and remember what the defense has done. The Steelers’ defense destroyed the Redskins, Chargers and Bungles.

Let’s hope they can keep it up against Dallas!

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An alternative to Bittorrent

Bittorrent is a great technology for downloading large files, especially video files. It’s so good, in fact, that many ISPs estimate that between 50% and 90% of all their traffic is data being shared by Bittorrent. But Bittorrent isn’t perfect. In fact, there are two distinct disadvantages to using Bittorrent to get your video files.

The first has to do with Bittorrent technology itself. When a user wants to share a file, he uses his Bittorrent client to create a .TORRENT file based on what he wants to share. He then uploads that torrent file to a tracker, a server on the Internet that keeps track of the IP addresses of people sharing the file. People then connect to the tracker and download the torrent file to their own computers. They then load the file in their own Bittorrent client, which connects to the tracker and starts downloading pieces of the file. As soon as a few pieces are downloaded, the downloader also begins sharing his pieces with other people downloading the file (collectively known as the swarm). Although this is what makes Bittorrent so fast, it also creates two problems: a) you can accidentally connect to a computer owned by the Media Police, and get busted for sharing illicit files; and b) according to Bittorrent etiquette, you’re supposed to upload as much as you download. This means that a 350MB download of a TV show actually costs you 700MB in bandwidth. As a one-off, that’s not that big of a deal. But if you’re downloading 10 shows a week, it really adds up: 7GB worth of bandwidth to download 3.5GB worth of shows!

The second problem with Bittorrent has to do with most people’s Internet connections. Most broadband connections in the United States are asynchronous, which means that you download and upload at different speeds. This usually means that you can download things quickly, but upload them at a much slower speed. On my own home Internet connection, I can download data at around 7Mbps (or around 125 old-fashioned 56k modems), but I can only upload at 368kbps (or around six 56k modems). So I am able to download an hour long TV show in around 10 minutes, but it will take 10 hours to upload as much as I download. This creates a problem with private Bittorrent sites that require you to maintain a download:upload ratio of 1.0 or higher. You download a file, and while your home Internet connection is uploading at a pokey 368kbps, other downloaders with much faster upload speeds are sharing at 1.5Mbps or higher. Those folks rapidly share the file to the rest of the crowd, leaving you with a ratio of .036 on the file… which eventually causes you to get banned from the tracker for maintaining a ratio of less than 1.0. The sad thing is that even if you turn off all other torrents (and even other programs that use upstream bandwidth), the people with fast upload speeds will always win.

Continue reading “An alternative to Bittorrent”

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Moving your wallpapers

Microsoft, in all its blessed wisdom, decided to keep Windows wallpapers in the system directory. This can lead to stability and\or security issues (“I was trying to install a wallpaper of my kids at the lake, and I saw this folder called SYSTEM32 taking up a bunch of space, so I tried to delete it, and now my computer won’t boot!”). It can also make disk images needlessly large: because Windows does such a crappy job of using JPG images as wallpaper, I keep around 125MB of wallpapers in my own WINDOWS folder, along with a 300MB archive file of wallpapers not currently in use.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could change the location that Windows looks in when you right-click on the desktop and choose Properties > Desktop? Well you can! Just fire up Regedit and go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Look for a string called WallPaperDir. The value will probably be at the default location – %SystemRoot%\Web\Wallpaper. Simply change this to whatever directory you want to use (perhaps F:\Wallpaper) and close Regedit. No reboot is needed – the next time you open the applet, Windows will look in the directory of your choosing!

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How Tina Fey Got Her Scar

Comedienne Tina Fey has a prominent scar on her face. She’s never revealed how she got that scar, and that’s caused a flurry of speculation on the Interwebs. Hell, there’s even a whole website – the Tina Fey Scar Detective – dedicated to finding out what happened.

Obsessive Internet geeks will no longer have to guess what happened. In the January issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Jeff Richmond (Fey’s husband), says that “a stranger slashed Fey’s face when she was 5 years old… in the front yard of her house”. Richmond further states that “[the] scar was fascinating to me. This is somebody who, no matter what it was, has gone through something. And I think it really informs the way she thinks about her life”. For her part, Fey always felt that talking about the attack would feel like exploiting it, and that’s why she’s kept quiet about it all these years. Well, that, and it bothers her parents, who feel somewhat responsible for the attack.

Oh, and Fey is on the cover, too. Yowza!!!

(click to enlarge)
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The USB lunch bag!

Asians have this “thing” for USB gadgets. Sometimes these gadgets are useless, like the USB Fragrance Oil Burner, the USB Humping Dog (no, it’s not a flash drive, it’s just a toy that looks like it’s humping your USB port when plugged in), a USB fridge that only holds one can at at time, or the USB-powered Hamster Wheel (it’s a toy hamster, by the way).

Even when a USB gadget is actually useful, Asians like dressing it up. Take the USB thumb drive that looks like sushi, for example. Even the Brits have gotten in on it with the USB mincemeat pie flash drive!

I’ve never been interested in actually owning any of these USB devices… until now! Behold the USB-powered lunch bag:

The manufacturers claim that the bag will hold the contents at 140F as long as the device is plugged in to a USB port on your computer. Engadget doesn’t know when (or even if) the bags will make it to the US.

All I know is that I want one!

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Eva Amurri: Butterface

By now, everyone on the planet – even your grandma – has heard the word “butterface”, a not-so-nice slang term for a woman with an attractive body but less than attractive face (hence, “but her face!” = “butterface”). Pointless aside: such women are sometimes referred to as BOBFOCs in the UK, which stands for “Body Off Baywatch, face off Crimewatch” (Britain’s version of Cops).

There’s no better example of a butterface than Eva Amurri, the daughter of Italian director Franco Amurri and American actress Susan Sarandon. Her face isn’t horrible, but it’s nothing to write home about, either. Her body, on the other hand, is slammin’:

(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)

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HAHAHA!!! AP Top 25 is out!

The final AP Top 25 poll of the regular season is out… and just look at the standings!

1. Alabama (62) 12-0 1,620
2. Florida (3) 11-1 1,516
3. Texas 11-1 1,488
4. Oklahoma 11-1 1,480
5. USC 10-1 1,355
6. Penn State 11-1 1,257
7. Utah 12-0 1,216
8. Texas Tech 11-1 1,197
9. Boise State 12-0 1,103
10. Ohio State 10-2 1,069
11. TCU 10-2 885
12. Ball State 12-0 834
13. Cincinnati 10-2 824
14. Oklahoma State 9-3 798
15. Georgia Tech 9-3 708
16. Oregon 9-3 630
17. Georgia 9-3 495
18. Boston College 9-3 482
19. Missouri 9-3 479
20. Brigham Young 10-2 385
21. Michigan State 9-3 312
22. Mississippi 8-4 280
23. Pittsburgh 8-3 241
24. Northwestern 9-3 190
25. Oregon State 8-4 122

Go Jackets!!!!

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HELL YES!!!!

The final score from Athens:

Georgia Tech 45
Georgia 42

So then it’s up with the White and Gold
Down with the Red and the Black
Georgia Tech is out for a victory
We’ll drop our battle axe on Georgia’s head
When we meet her our team will surely beat her
Down on old Georgia’s farm there’ll be no sound
When our bow wows rip through the air
When the battle is over Georgia’s team will be found
With the Yellow Jackets swarming around.

What’s the good word?

Enjoy a couple of pictures:

I’m a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech, and a hell of an Engineer
A Helluva, Helluva, Helluva, Helluva, Helluva Engineer
Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear.
I’m a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an Engineer

Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I’d dress her in white and gold,
And put her on the campus to cheer the brave and bold.
But if I had a son, sir, I’ll tell you what he’d do–
He would yell: ‘TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!’ Like his daddy used to do.

Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum, and sugar three thousand pounds
A college bell to put it in, And a clapper to stir it round.
I’d drink to all the good fellows, who come from far and near.
I’m a Ramblin’, Gamblin’, HELL OF AN ENGINEER!

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I *love* Katy Perry

There, I said it: I love Katy Perry. Although it might come as a disappointment to my fans and friends, it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Katy is cute and sassy. She has her own “kooky” style that reminds me of the girls that worked at Junkman’s Daughter in the 80s (or maybe Zooey Dechanel). She easily wins the “Nicest Rack In Pop Music Since Jewel” award, and (most importantly), she’s brought back good old fashioned, God-fearin’ pop music. Seriously. I challenge anyone to listen to “Hot ‘N Cold” and not think it’s the most infectious piece of pop music since Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping” (and it’s far less annoying, too!). I even like the “Hot ‘N Cold” music video, something I haven’t been able to say about a song for ten years!

Oh, did I mention that she’s cute?

(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)

Continue reading “I *love* Katy Perry”