Tretakoff Musings

Very cool feature from Yahoo! Sports, when you play their Fantasy Football game: they use a company to create simulated news stories , based on your fantasy performance in the week. Hadn't seen this before, but, now that my team has advanced to the Super Bowl (against my brother in law), I was amused by the simultaneous pseudo fame, as well as the rueful harbinger for the automated threat to journalism. On to next week's big game! Go Cowboys! Playoffs: Marin Cowboys Brings Down SB CHAMPS G-MEN Marin Cowboys (10-5) 117.14 SB CHAMPS G-MEN (9-6) 86.64 Alfred Morris put up 21.30 points and Julio Jones scored 21.20 as Marin Cowboys beat SB CHAMPS G-MEN, 117.14 - 86.64. Marin Cowboys has been just plain unbeatable and has now won seven straight. This win avenges a 90.38 - 77.68 loss to SB CHAMPS G-MEN back in Week 8. Marin Cowboys Smooth Moves With 21.30 points against a projected 13.63, Alfred Morris ranked ninth in the league in scoring and has now overachieved in four...

GigaOm has a post today about CrowdMob . Basically, a mobile gaming platform that, instead of selling you upgraded characters or subscription fees, requires you to buy local daily deals instead. Pretty interesting idea: the customer gets what they want, but it will require a critical mass of offers, as the deal has to appeal to the purchaser. If there is only one deal, it has a limited chance of that. Having said that, it's actually a very innovative approach. After all, local is inherently connected with mobile, and mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing segments, especially among the same demographics who purchase local deals. And it offers gamers a chance to actually get what they want, and have reasons to try the businesses. One quibble, though: the article states "... by allowing merchants to redeem a deal through a variety of methods without having to take a paper coupon, ". This makes it seem that the burden of having to take a paper voucher is one tha...

No, the NFL season continues on. But my Fantasy season has come to an inglorious end. I've had several great seasons , but this one doesn't rank up there. In 2006, I took it all. 2007, I came 1 win short of the title. Last year, I snuck into the playoffs after having given up, and managed to even get through the first round. This season? Not so much. Despite having the #1 pick of the draft (which I did NOT arrange for, as commissioner, despite conspiracy theories to the contrary) which I used on fantasy stud Adrian Peterson, and my beloved Cowboy gunslinger Tony Romo as my QB, and even a new iPhone app to manage my team , I failed to make the playoffs for the first time in my fantasy career. I finished on a high note, as the image shows here, with yet another strong performance. In fact, in my league, I scored the 4th most points all season. Yet I could not overcome the attention deficit that my work life imposed, causing me to make late adjustments and poor lineup choices. Th...

I have another confession: as much as I love my iPhone, I have yet to truly appreciate it as a gaming platform. When the games started to hit in a big way for this new platform, I was excited: I abandoned console games (except for the occasional Wii party game), as I simply don't have enough time to devote to the beautiful but expensive investments console games offer. For the last couple of years, my gaming fix has been occasionally found on a Sony PSP, allowing me the portability to enjoy a good cigar with my skills at driving the Cowboys to yet another Superbowl on Madden . The iPhone promised me the ability to finally take one more step to convergence: one device to rule my communication, productivity, multimedia, entertainment, and now gaming needs. I embraced the Brothers In Arms ability to immerse myself in WWII action. I marveled at the NASA-produced update of the classic Lunar Lander, complete with actual Apollo landing missions and innovative controls. And I breathlessl...

It was not my intention for these recent posts to be so focused on the upcoming Watchmen movie, but hey, I'm an addict. ;-) Apparently, I may not be alone, as a new game for the iPhone rolls out the same day as the movie, allowing you to immerse yourself in the gritty rich world of the Watchmen. These games, called MMO's, offer more of a free-form approach to exploring a world. In this case, I think they have to do a lot of convincing for me to want to sign up. Judge for yourself:

Been a little more quite than I anticipated. First, the holidays, mixed with an office move, then followed by a trip to Tucson to visit the family. Pix are on Flickr ; they should be Picnik 'ed mostly later today. Bonus: my mother unearthed some classic child photos of me,and I'll be posting them to Flickr, as well. Some random comments: - For those who have been following my Twitters, I'm sure you've had enough of my complaints about US Air, but for those who missed them, I advise avoiding them at all costs. Even though I had significant frequent flier miles with them, I will avoid flying them, ever again, if possible. Atrocious service,substandard aircraft, and their Phoenix hub is like a third world country. We ran a bit late, got to the counter 44 minutes before the flight, and were denied boarding becuase we had luggage to check. Result? An unplanned overnight stay inthe stunning airport La Quinta,at our cost. - Dude, I got my Dell. A sweet Inspiron desktop from th...

It only looks that way. Work has been brutal, but the end is nigh: I have hired two new staff members, and one has already started. With trips to Chicago and NY coming up, the extra help could not have come at a better time. I've also been logging a lot of biking and other fun exercise, so blogging (and calls to my mother, father and friends) have suffered. I've been reduced to Facebook status updates and occasional snippets...but hopefully, I'll be back in a regular publishing groove soon. I owe a big post on Plaxo , as they worked through my issues to get me fully working. And man, is it sweet. Look for it shortly. I also need to point out the best PC deals ever in the Dell Outlet ; top of the line PC's for under $400. Plus my recent solution for podcasts on the Treo, syncing with iTunes. And that's not mentioning my recent transition to Skype . And finally, a review of Madden 08 on the Wii: the results will surprise you. For now, I leave you with an image of the ...

The headlines scream every day: although Google will deny it, they are clearly taking aim at Microsoft's desktop dominance by releasing free versions of traditionally paid software. Word? Hell, check out Google Docs. Excel? Um, there's this Google Spreadsheet. But now, Google has really upped the ante on Microsoft's monopolistic hold on a segment of desktop software: Google Earth now has a Flight Simulator mode. Yep, it's true. Just download the latest version of Google Earth , fire it up, and hit Ctrl+Alt+A. Voila, you're ready to fly. No, this not just a flythrough: takeoffs, landings, but with Googlicious real maps and terrain. Want to take a spin with a prop pusher? Gotcha. Looking for a racier challenge? How about an F-16 Viper? And yes, it's FREE. Oh, Mac users? Yeah, you get in on Air Google, too. Someone's just gotta add in a real-time audio layer for United's Channel 9, mapped to the location you are flying, and we've got a whole new entry i...

Why do hot dogs come in packages of 10, but buns in packages of 8? Why do gas stations display their prices in 9/10 of a cent? Why do major airlines insist on charging more money for a one-way ticket than a round trip? These are some of the major annoyances in life, but none tops one of my personal pet peeves: Why do the makers of football games for consoles (PS, XBox, etc.) not make the rosters able to be updated over the Internet? The answers to all of the above, of course, is to make more money . In the case of the last example, it's particularly galling. Electronic Arts, makers of the venerable Madden franchise of football video games, has been doing this since 1988. See, Madden costs about $60. Every August, video gamers who are football fans (like myself) pony up the bucks. What do we get in return? Gee-whiz new features, like NFL Network play by play, or a new and improved "build your own superstar" subplot. But what we all really are paying for is the updated rost...

It had to happen. Fantasy Sports is an ever-increasing popular obsession among sports fans, dating back to the Rotisserie Baseball that started in the 1980's. Constructed by bored sportswriters who were looking for ways to amuse themselves, they created a game where an individual player's stats gave him "points." You could assemble a team of players, and the points they earned for their individual achievements would be your total score. Soon, the concept spread from baseball, to football, to basketball...it's now a HUGE business, and, with the arrival of the Web, it became even easier to manage a league, trade, etc. The problem? For non-sports fans, it's not only boring, it's aggravating. And, for fans of football (like me), who the heck cares about baseball, for instance? Many have tried to look at ways to make fantasy sports more universally appealing, but failed. Others, such as the Sports Guy, have made noble attempts to help, offering his legendary US...