November 13, 2005

I'm Back (Link-O-Rama)

I had a rough few days, but I am now typing this on a beautiful new laptop. I'd like to thank everyone who left advice about my computer problems in the comments section last week. I actually printed all of the comments out (which is a first, for sure), and will try to figure out the best way to get my old laptop up and running again.

In the meantime, I figured out a way to access the old laptop on battery power (which lasts about two hours at a time), so I was able to get all of my favorite places on to the new computer so I could make up for Friday's missing Link-O-Rama entry. The one thing I still need some advice on is the best way to transfer a whole bunch of files from one laptop to another.

As far as I can tell a CD only holds 700 MB, which isn't enough for the type of files I'm looking to move. There's got to be an easy way to move an entire music library from one computer to another without buying something expensive, right? As always, let me know in the comments section. And now, the links ...

  • In addition to being one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Kevin Garnett has always struck me as simply a good guy. Whether it is the way he conducts himself during interviews or his considerable charitable work, he seems like the sort of athlete many sports fans say there aren't enough of. Now, if only he'd start shooting more ...
  • Speaking of Garnett, the boys over at Courtside Times have a nice look at the Timberwolves' improved defense. Of course, when you're giving significant minutes to offensive non-contributors like Anthony Carter, Mark Madsen, and Trenton Hassell your defense better be good.
  • In what probably isn't shocking to anyone who watched his one season with the Gophers, Kris Humphries hasn't exactly taken the NBA by storm. Here's my favorite quote, from Utah coach Jerry Sloan:

    Kris has got to learn he can't shoot the ball every time he touches it. He's got to learn to play with other people, because if he shoots every time he catches it, his career is going to be a very selfish one.

    Here's my question: How did the Sloan and the rest of Utah's decision-makers watch him in college and not notice that as a major issue?

  • To their credit, the Los Angeles Times has a feature called "Outside the Tent" where they give a guest columnist an opportunity to criticize the newspaper. Friend of AG.com Matt Welch was last week's columnist and wrote a great piece taking the paper to task for their "value-subtracting" coverage of the Dodgers.

    Welch's criticisms were both interesting to read and even-handed. Plus, he's a contributor to The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2006. Oh, and if the Minneapolis Star Tribune ever feels like giving someone a few hundred words to criticize them, I'm available.

  • On a somewhat-related topic (and one I've talked about plenty here), the Wall Street Journal ran another in a long line of reports about the constant and gradual decline of the newspaper business. Here's an excerpt:

    The Fourth Estate is braced to get more bad news about itself next week.

    On Monday, the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases its semiannual figures on circulation -- and they are expected to show that paying readers continue to disappear at an alarming rate during the latest six-month period.

    Challenged by online rivals, a dearth of younger readers and an advertising downturn, newspapers are suffering through their worst slump in years. The last ABC figures, which were released in May, were the worst for the industry in nine years, showing that average daily circulation had dropped 1.9% in the six months ended March 31 from a year ago.

    [...]

    The growing worry in the industry is the numbers reflect not just a slump, or a simple extension of a long-term decline in readers, but a more tectonic shift in habits. More Americans clearly are getting their news online.

    Funny, in the last year this blog's readership has increased significantly, and traffic at both The Hardball Times and Rotoworld are way up as well.

  • No mention of declining newspaper readership would be complete without Star Tribune columnist Jim "Shecky" Souhan. Souhan, whom I've criticized here a number of times for a number of reasons, was featured in Dead Spin's ongoing "Why Your Hometown Columnist Sucks" series last week. Apparently I'm not the only person who gets rubbed the wrong way by his awkward one-liners and flawed logic.

    I can't disagree with anything Dead Spin said, although in Souhan's defense there are far worse sports columnists writing for far more prominent papers. That doesn't make him any more enjoyable to read, of course. The only disappointing part of seeing Souhan get his due? That Dead Spin didn't list "Shecky" among Souhan's nicknames.

  • This is more like the abbreviated "Week in Waffle Crappers" (and it would be last week, anyway), but the Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com, Elisha Cuthbert, sadly announced that she has no plans to appear nude on film.

    The good news? She has significantly improved the physical appearance of the average blogger -- moving us from about a 1.1 on the looks scale to maybe a 1.2 -- by starting up a blog about hockey on NHL.com. Seriously. Needless to say my love for her grows stronger every day.

  • And finally, I didn't have a chance to link to my FoxSports.com articles from last week, so here they are: Playing for Keeps: Closers ... Tuesday's Football Daily Dose ... Wednesday's Football Daily Dose ... Thursday's Football Daily Dose

    • Today at The Hardball Times:
    - Measuring the Dollar Value of a Player: Part 1 (by Vince Gennaro)

    Pick of the Day (137-116, +$2,125):
    Philadelphia -3 (-110) over Dallas


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