By David K.

A shake-up at the top of the BCS rankings could benefit the Pac-12, but there was plenty of shake-up to go around here at home too. Meanwhile, Larry Scott and the Pac-12 watch with amusement as the rest of the country is in the grips of the latest rounds of Conferencemageddon.

1. Stanford (7-0, 5-0 Pac-12)
LW: 1
The Cardinal made a strong statement on Saturday with their pummeling of the Huskies, the only team on their schedule so far who has a winning record. Stanford dominated on both sides of the ball, especially up front. As they continue moving through the meatier part of their schedule, the Cardinal can help themselves in the BCS standings with wins while hoping more teams at the top stumble. With games left against USC and Oregon, plus the Pac-12 championship game (likely against Arizona State), Stanford stands a reasonable shot at playing for the national title.

Continue reading »

By Brendan Loy

Wow, it’s been more than two weeks since I blogged anything?!? Not counting my November 2008-June 2009 hiatus, that has to be a record dating back to 2002, no? Anyway, sorry, I’ve been really busy, and what free time I’ve had for the Interwebs has been going toward Twitter instead.

But look! A pretty picture of Notre Dame Stadium at night! (And here’s a panorama!) This past weekend, as a 30th birthday present from the Best. Wife. Ever., I returned to Notre Dame for the first time since graduation, and attended the USC-ND night game (sitting in the USC section this time). It was a glorious weekend in all respects. And despite the perhaps slightly inflammatory t-shirt I wore to the game…

…I was otherwise on my best behavior, and more than anything else, spent the weekend (aside from tailgating and the game) soaking in Notre Dame, indeed posting so many #LoveTheeNotreDame tweets that David felt compelled to express some #PANIC and to remind me who I was rooting for. Heh. He needn’t have worried; my rooting interest was never in doubt. But I do love Notre Dame, and it was wonderful to be back, if only for a couple of days. It’s hard to express this sentiment adequately without sounding like a complete sap, but it’s a very special place, and I missed it more than I realized.

The trip “woke up the echoes” of what almost feels like a completely different life, even though it ended only 4 1/2 years ago, because upon leaving Notre Dame, I not only entered the “real world” but also promptly started having kids, such that my time under the Dome is now something akin to a distant, long-ago dream. Being back was almost like an out-of-body experience. (It also made me really, really look forward to the day — in 3 or 4 years, perhaps — when we go back for a game, not against USC, with all three girls, and do the whole “Notre Dame football weekend” thing as a family. Can’t. Wait.)

Oh, and also, I stopped in Chicago on Thursday night, crashed at Kyle Whelliston’s place, and met the original Bally. So there was that.

So anyway, back to the Notre Dame part of my trip. As you may have heard, USC, which came in as a 9-point underdog, won the game. So that was awesome. Fight On!

Go Irish, Beat Navy! Fight On Trojans, Beat the Farm Drunken Trees!

By Brendan Loy

Last night, inspired by the generally unsatisfying, incomplete, and often vacuous nature of the tweets I keep seeing from both Left and Right about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the ongoing economic calamity — and also by this National Review article, among other big-picture economic pieces I’ve read recently — I went on another one of my extended Twitter monologues of political pessimism and #PANIC. Before it disappears into the nothingness of Twitter’s terrible archive system, I thought I’d post it here for posterity. Warning: some profanity.

Ken Gardner (@kesgardner): America is exceptional and I cherish the system that makes us so: capitalism. I like working hard and being rewarded for it. #iamthe53

Me: Do you like the stagnation in real wages since 1973? #iamconcerned MT @kesgardner: I like working hard and being rewarded for it. #iamthe53

How did we collectively fail to notice that, economically, the American Dream has been moribund for decades? #IAmStagnantRealWagesSince1973

I am not the 99. I am not the 53. I am sick of rigid ideological perspectives that obscure what matters. #IAmStagnantRealWagesSince1973

I am not a number. I am worried about my girls inheriting a crappier America than mine. I am angry at failed leadership & failed ideologies.

I am angry that a broken political system, a worthless press, demagoguery, ignorance & fairy tales prevent America from fixing its problems.

I am sick of a politics dominated by rigid ideologues, Left & Right, whose misplaced self-confidence is exceeded only by their utter myopia.

I hate the inadequacy of our politics AND the sniveling self-regarding Bloombergian vacuousness of many who posture against that inadequacy.

It’s not that we need to be more “bipartisan.” Pitched battles are fine, when informed by facts & reason. The problem is WE NEED TO SOLVE SHIT.

For DECADES we’ve had an energy crisis, a health care crisis, a debt crisis… crisis after crisis. WTF happened to us? We won 2 world wars!

The American Dream was a thing once. Now it’s not, but we pretend it is. Our “leaders” tell us fairy tales while leaving our crises unsolved.

In the end, the problem isn’t Obama, or Bush, or Congress (though they all suck). The problem is us. All of us. Not Left, not Right. Us.

Or maybe the problems of the modern world are just too complex to solve. But again I go back to, DAMMIT WE WON TWO WORLD WARS.

#TeaParty and #OccupyWallStreet have more in common than they’ll ever know. They see a tiny sliver of the truth & think it’s the whole truth.

Why does our binary political system force us to choose who’s f**ing everything up, government or the private sector? What if THEY BOTH ARE?

I have three daughters. I fear they will inherit from my generation a poorer, crappier America, in decline. For this, I blame everyone.

I boldfaced that “more in common than they’ll ever know” tweet because I particularly like it. I really think that’s true. The Tea Party isn’t wrong about our unsustainable debt; they’re just wrong in their myopic focus on that one crisis among many, and in their blind adherence to rigid conservative ideology in seeking solutions to our many problems. Likewise, Occupy Wall Street isn’t wrong about financial sector greed and malfeasance and how it’s screwed us over; they’re just wrong in their myopic focus on that one cause among many for the current mess we’re in, and in their blind adherence to rigid liberal ideology in seeking solutions to our many problems.

Continue reading »

By David K.

I can’t remember exactly how old I was when my dad brought home the first computer I would ever use, a Mac Classic I believe, for summer from the high school where he worked. My first memory of using a computer was playing the black and white version of The Oregon Trail. Fast forward a few years and I was in school, always the first to finish my classwork so I could play Word Munchers or Number Munchers on the Apple IIe we had. I was already hooked. For the rest of my life, computers would be one of my biggest passions. I convinced my parents to get our first home computer (a lowly Performa 475) and then later to upgrade (a Performa 630). I had a subscription to MacWorld and MacAddict. I was a member of Guy Kawasaki’s Evangelist mailing list. For my 17th birthday I asked for (and got) a copy of MacOS 8 for our home computer. Even in those dark years when you were away from the company, I was an Apple fan. Thanks for coming back by the way, it got SO MUCH BETTER!

My passion followed me to college, where I had MY first Mac, a PowerMacintosh G3 tower. I even had a couple Apple posters on the walls in my dorm room. Two years later when my brother went to college he got my G3 and I upgraded to a shiny new G4 tower. From there it kept going. A G4 iMac, a G5 iMac, and my current iMac a Core2 Duo machine. I’ve owned every model of iPhone since the first one, and I use my iPad more than my desktop computer. I’ve followed the keynotes, watched the videos, and truly enjoyed using your products, so many of them ground breaking, over the years.

But I think my favorite moment relating to Apple technology happened just this summer. Earlier this spring my nephew was born, the first in a new generation of our family. He and his parents were living in Chicago at the time so it was hard for the whole family to get to see him in person, especially my elderly grandparents, whose health isn’t what it used to be. While visiting them in California this summer, someone, I can’t recall who, remarked that it was too bad we didn’t have a fast enough computer or internet connection (they still only have dial up!) to do a video chat so they could see and interact with their great grandson for the first time in something other than pictures. At that moment it hit me, we DID have a way to do it. I had my iPhone 4, and a healthy 3G connection at their house! We made the arrangements and one afternoon we got Grandma and Grandpa together in the kitchen together, made the call and then I handed them my iPhone. It was, as you would say, a truly magical moment. The joy on their faces as they saw their great grandson in action for the first time, as they talked to him, listened to him make those cute noises babies make, and saw him moving around, it was like the weight of their age lifted off their shoulders for those few minutes.

So for inspiring me to a life of passion about computers I thank you, but my biggest thanks is for helping to enable moments like the ones my grandparents were able to share with my nephew. That story and millions of others like it are the legacy you have left behind. Today we lost a true visionary, your family lost a loved one, and we all mourn for that loss, but we also celebrate the creations you have helped usher in that have changed and enriched our lives. I regret that I never had the opportunity to meet you, but even without that personal connection you have touched my life and so many others. Thank you Steve. Rest in peace.

By Brendan Loy

Apple co-founder, chairman and (until very recently) CEO Steve Jobs, whose inventions repeatedly changed the world as we know it, died today of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

His death prompted massive news coverage (totally overshadowing Sarah Palin’s decision not to run for president) and an overwhelming outpouring of public grief more typical of a head of state’s death than a corporate CEO’s. But of course, Jobs was no ordinary CEO. He was — well, I’ll let President Obama say it:

Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

On that last point, I am one of the many who learned of Jobs’s death on an Apple device. The above screenshot was taken with my iPhone a few minutes later, but here’s a shot of the actual breaking-news moment — a push notification from my CNBC app, superimposed over the Mandel Initiative podcast, which I was listening to on my drive home:

One more reaction for you, from none other than Bill Gates:

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.

R.I.P., Steve Jobs.

P.S. Above, a more personal reflection by David K.