Muslim Condemnation of Terrorism
Jeffrey Weiss, in The Dallas Morning News Religion blog, points out again that, contrary to widespread opinion, Muslims do speak out against terrorism. He publishes in condemnations of the Mumbai terrorist attacks released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, two networks of Indian-American Muslims, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. All are welcome responses to this violence. The condemnations show that blaming violence on religion is too simplistic an explanation. All people of goodwill condemn the attacks. Unfortunately, some want to go farther and condemn the terrorists' religion as well. This furthers the divide among people of goodwill in different religions and is counterproductive.
Computer Tape Drives Still Going Strong
Trey Garrison, on his personal blog, opposes Dallas County's proposal to delete their email backups after 90 days. He ridicules Dallas County's IT department: "They store email records on 'tape.' What is this, 1962? ... Tapes??? Really? WTF?"
Trey Garrison reveals his lack of knowledge of IT (that's Information Technology, Trey). Magnetic tape continues to be a viable medium for computer backup, with over 500,000 tape drives installed worldwide for just Sony's AIT technology alone. Tape is a medium that allows for the cheapest storage of the largest amounts of data. In fact, it's the very existence of cheap, plentiful, tape backup technology that undercuts Dallas County's argument that it needs to delete emails after 90 days because of the high cost of retention. With tapes, the county could keep archives for years.
Even though tape is a great medium for off-site backup storage, it's a poor medium for quick access and searches. For that, hard disk storage is superior. The Dallas Morning News story reports that by next summer Dallas County will get a new email archiving system that will allow for fast and easy keyword searches. Let's just hope they keep emails around long enough for there to be something to search.
After ridiculing Dallas County for what Garrison sees as 1962 technology, on another topic Garrison reveals his own fondness for 1962 technology: paper phone books over online directories. He says it might be because he's "burned out on surfing." It looks like phone books won't die ... at least until Trey Garrison and my grandmother do.
BCS: Whining About a Broken System
It's the first week of December and that means it's time for the annual whining about the broken system known as the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the NCAA's method of choosing its national champion for its top division of football. The focus of this year's whining is the decision to rank Oklahoma over Texas, despite Texas' victory over OU in October, giving OU the inside track on reaching the BCS championship game in Miami. Michael Landauer, on The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, seems to take the position that any complaints are simply whining with the way things turned out this year. He argues
"There is no fix. There is no perfect system. But allowing two national polls and a complex computer ranking system to break a three-way tie isn't a bad way to go. It sure beats sending a team to the Big 12 championship that is ranked below another."Landauer is wrong. There are two things wrong with the BCS system. First, and most obvious, is that the system needs to allow more than two teams to play for the national championship in the field. The NCAA itself recognizes this, organizing a playoff for what it calls the Football Championship Division, but not for what it calls the Bowl Championship Series. Any resistance on the part of the NCAA is due only to financial reasons, not competitive reasons.
Second, and less recognized, is that the system allows for human subjectivity. Most people complain about the computer rankings that are used as part of the BCS rankings, but it's the human polls that have to be kicked out of the system. The computer rankings are just objective tie-breaking rules. The NCAA should choose an algorithm and go with it. All teams know going in to the season what the algorithm is and what kind of schedule and record they will need to make the field for the playoffs, after which results on the field will dictate who gets crowned national champion. Allowing humans to decide who is ranked above whom is folly. This year, it's the Oklahoma vs Texas debate that gets most of the attention, but there's an Ohio State vs Boise State decision that the NCAA also must decide. And that one is most likely to be settled, not based on which team is judged the better football team, but which school is most likely to pack the stands with fans and gather the largest television audience. As long as any subjective human criteria are used to determine which teams get into the prestigious BCS bowls and the ultimate national championship game, expect the annual whining to continue, justifiably so.
1 comment:
Fantastic, and yet very simple.
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