Once again the TMobile Sidekick (the insecure, but still agonizing slow-to-open-to-java-developers, platform by Danger...oh, that's a corporate name you gotta regret right now. Wait, "Thinner, better, easier to use", is that in reference to the device, or Ms. Hilton?) has been "hacked" and important data released to the general public. No, not as bad as hacking the secret service guy's sidekick, but didn't everyone want Victoria Gotti's phone number?

Dang, what a shame. Nice device, great idea, and seemingly solid execution. Slow, dumbass, totally mishandled rollout of their API. But that's not enough bad karma for me to even wish them this mess. Who's gonna take the fall for this PR nightmare -- T-Mobile, the web systems that let you hack into the backend, or the device itself? Or perhaps they were slow to release the API because of architectural security holes? Probably a post-mortem for a business school kid in a year or two.

[EDIT: Check that. People are sheep. Sales are soaring....which proves being cool is much more important than some obscure abstract sense of security. The only security people need is to be part of the in-crowd.]

The ever intelligent Mike Masnick makes a great point in an post called "Why Mobile TV?" on TechDirt Wireless about the Mobile TV hype in places like Gizmodo, or here, or here.

Again, it always seems to come back to a single issue: mobile devices are primarily communications devices, not broadcast devices -- and most of the mobile TV efforts seem heavily focused on simply moving the TV broadcast experience to the phone -- which just doesn't seem that compelling.

This does raise two possible questions to contemplate:
1) short of true "video phones", a'la Dick Tracy, can video be used in a manner more befitting the true idiomatic use of the mobile phone? Video on a phone that's more like true communication, less just watching old news clips?
2) the discussion of "broadcast versus communication" or a "one-to-many versus one-to-one" is a very valuable way to frame the discussion of the merits of any mobile application. It's clear that simply transposing a successful broadcast framework to the mobile (like TV, or even the web, for that matter) might be useful -- sometimes-- it fails to truly address, or perhaps adapt, to the way in which the content itself is being accessed and consumed, and the context in which it is most valuable.

[btw, title quote from Orson Welles]

So, my beloved Patriots, winners of back-to-back Super Bowls and 3 out of the last 4. With all the talk before the game about "Dynasty", it's pretty clear now that either "Dynasty" or "Dominance" must be mentioned in the same breath when describing Belichick's reign in Foxboro.

Aaron Schatz and the team at Football Outsiders take a good look at the "Dynasty" label, as well as trying to assess the impact of this year's team as one of the greatest of all time. In the end, I totally agree, that the brain-fart of a loss to the Dolphins on Monday Night Football -- with Harrison's interferance in the endzone, and Brady's late picks, seal the deal that losing to such a weak team in a late game comeback is unacceptable, and would pop them out of the running for the "best team of all time".

And perhaps last year's squad would seem less dominant, as well, given the early self-destruction in Buffalo and then a hapless loss in Washington, or perhaps on the basis of weaker offensive stats (compared to this year's numbers with Dillon). But that's it, folks, you can count the losses on one hand for the last two seasons: Buffalo, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Miami. No losses in the post season. Credit for winning goes all across the board: Pioli and the scouts for building a team with quality depth and flexibility, and the coaches for making the most out of all the player's abilities, and, of course, players who can make the play. I suspect, that in retrospect, that these will be the Willie McGinest years, just as much as the Belichick years, or the Dynasty years.

Or maybe we'll look back at this "Dynasty", much as one can point to the pass interferance rules and Steelers balanced attack, and the Patriots and the (re)advent of instant replay. Not only for the "Tuck Rule", but for the many times that use of instant replay somehow miraculously goes the Patriot way. I don't have any misgivings about that -- if instant reply is used right it only gives an advantage to the right call, not to any particular team. Of course, you gotta use the truth to your advantage, and if I recall correctly Dungy didn't buzz once this year for Indy.

And, although the media is doing their appropriate group-speak right now, it's striking to note what a shift this is just from just a few weeks ago in the playoffs. Not to sound like Rodney Harrison, looking for the disrespect, but even Don Banks, who called the Super Bowl for the Patriots before the season even began, didn't include the Patriot's record setting winning streak in his Top Five news items for the season. And, speaking of taking "group speak" to a new level, kudos to Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch, for uncovering more damning evidence on Patriot's beat guy from Worcestor, Ken Powers, and his obvious and embarrasing plagarism. Yikes.

But back to the favorite topic of "no respect" or a "lack of stars". I don't think it's magic that there are "no stars" on this team -- but a core part of the design. Each game is unique, and each gameplan is distinct. The Pats don't smother you with one dominant part of their ability (pass you to death with Manning; eat you with the defense like the Ravens, etc.), but gameplan to attack your weaknesses, take advantage of all of their own strengths, and focus on the details, the situational football, that will turn every game. Seems logical, right? But hard to characterize and hard to pidgeon hole into a single catch-phrase, impossible to diagnose as simply this-or-that. No, the game is more complicated than that, and the team is too smart to play the game on their opponent's terms. The Patriots don't have one way to beat you, they can beat you in a lot of different ways, and most often, find a way to get you to beat yourself.

All of which makes for an unpredictable story, with too many details and too many if-then scenarios for the pundits and writers to cover in a five-second soundbite. Playing harder and smarter doesn't fill out an article, does it?

Three for Three, anyone? I think the odds are clearly against it, but there's one guy I wouldn't bet against, and that's Belichick. What worries me? The coaches leaving; the secondary being young and thin (if they release Ty Law and Ty Poole); linebackers like Ted Johnson and Willie McGinest and Tedy Bruschi getting up there in years (I figure Phifer will retire, right? We got Banta-Cain and Klecko on deck?); depth on the offensive line (I say that every season). That having been said, we're set at wide receiver (unless they botch David Given's RFA status, which I doubt), should be set at tight end with Watson coming back, and deep and young and strong at defensive line. It seems like no matter what happens, this staff can make adjustments and "coach 'em up" like no other staff in the league.

Nobody's figured how to do win three in a row in the Super Bowl era, even pre-salary cap. And a guy who can take a team like the 2001 squad to the big game and win in the biggest upset in recent memory -- could surprise us all. Again.

A few things that have been widely covered or discussed, but with enough "Wow" for me to react:

1) Amazon's new Yellow Pages service, which includes photos of the storefronts. It's an amazing concept -- but I'm skeptical of real value beyond the whizbang. While it can be neat to see a storefront before trying to get there, the truth of the matter is that the geo-location of the pictures and the actual address lookup leaves much to be desired, at least in NYC where I tested. Not that this stuff needs to be perfect in order to prove it's value, but still, if you don't know where you're going, you need a higher degree of accuracy that doesn't leave you half a block off target. Not Amazon's fault, really, I've found the same issue in NYC no matter who/what, even when I roll my own system.

Also, the nature of this stuff is that even commercial landscapes shift at an amazing rate. The storefronts I glanced at look incredibly different now, not only in winter, but with the natural attrition of businesses. While I'm impressed by the effort involved to accomplish this much, I have to wonder why I feel like it's such a commendible *near miss*....is it the fact that webcams and real-time viewing makes me feel like each shot should be a live picture?

2) Keyhole Systems, which was acquired by Google, and their amazing application for browsing satellite imagery. The images themselves are amazing -- rich, detailed, color photos. But the Keyhole application makes zooming, panning, and scrolling them an incredible experience. After plotting my work address, and my home address, and watching the view from Keyhole as it leapt 80 miles in the air to land at my doorstep -- a'la the Hulk jumping from place to place -- the train seemed like a hopeless method of transportation. Stunning stuff.

3) TiVo to Go. After days and days of checking to see if I'd gotten the update, it finally arrived. Does it do what they say? Yeah, but in a weird way -- and many of the noted shortcomings are true: transfers are slow, the resulting video seems a bit warped, the password protection is a shame. But, all that having been said, the set up for the desktop app was quite solid, and it works as expected, and the value of getting the files off the TiVo unit and stored onto other media is a huge step forward. I'm a long-time subscriber and a fan, so I'm not apt to chuck it all and run to a homegrown solution, or to the Windows Media thang -- but for a company that's been used to delivering miracles, this one is just a solid step forward, especially in an environment when their mere survival is a valuable asset alone.

And, since I've had blinders on with a J2ME project for the Blackberry, I missed what looks like a ton-of-fun: http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/ the TiVo developers SDK. Yummy, yummy.

4) maps.google.com. That trademark Google usability. Clean, smart, fast. The maps themselves are actually so much clearer without all the crap that MapQuest sticks in there -- and the user interface just so much more pleasent and clear. The matching of local data is amazing....now to figure out their javascript enough so that I can post a lat/lon to it and squeeze it onto a phone!