HellaFrank

Yesterday at PRWeek’s NEXT Conference, Steve Rubel talked about how the mobile phone will be the new computer. This is not a groundbreaking statement, in Japan for example it is very common for a businessperson to take only their mobile phone into a meeting for note-taking and other purposes. But Steve said something else that made me look at the mobile phone in a new way — we’re not just going to use it as a computer when we’re away from our laptop or desktop, it may very well replace what we know as a computer today.

In the near future, processor speeds in phones will undoubtedly improve dramatically, hard-disk space is already skyrocketing, and as more and more of our data lives online (Gmail, Facebook, Picasa, etc…) we won’t even need to store it on a computer anymore, we’ll just need internet to access it.

Wherever you go, the phone can be hooked up to a monitor and you will be able to do work, listen to music, watch YouTube — pretty much anything you can do today on a computer. Want to leave work and finish up at home? Just put the phone in your pocket and you’re all set.

And I’m now trying to figure out why I’m calling it a phone. It’s not.

I remember when I was younger and we would learn in school about the first computers — they were the “size of a house” and people put punch cards through them to make them work. We would laugh and try to imagine what kind of mouse went with a computer that big. A few years from now, kids will be doing the same thing, but they’ll be laughing at those 2 or 3 foot tall towers we hooked up to monitors as they plug their playing-card-deck-sized computer into the flatscreen to watch some TV.

A funny thing happened in Buffalo today — the power to Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, went out at gametime because some  balloons got caught in the power lines. During the first quarter, the AP says: “the game, which had been delayed for 15 minutes in the first quarter, resumed with on-field officials keeping time while shouting out the time left on the play clock.”

This reminded me of the Argentina vs. Paraguay soccer game I attended in Argentina a few weeks ago. While there were screens and a Jumbotron in the River Plate stadium,  none were turned on, and nowhere in the stadium was there any indication of time elapsed during the game, let alone replays or that game where you have to follow the hat with the ball under it.

No clock or replays was hard to get used to, but as the game went on, it was obvious that this lack of technology restored a purity to the game — the experience was all about the game and the players on the field, and this focus showed among the spectators.

There’s a certain charm in stripping a sporting event down to its core elements. The NHL has had several very successful outdoor hockey games, the next occurring at Wrigley Field, that likely reminds people of their youth, playing hockey on a frozen pond.

While technology undoubtedly enhances certain aspects of sports, sometimes it’s refreshing to see superhuman, high-paid, over-hyped athletes in a setting reminiscent of elementary school recess football, or summers playing baseball the neighbors in the street.

HellaFrank readers! I am now back from my travels abroad to Argentina, and so much has happened… Just before I left, Major League Baseball implemented instant replay, a sorely needed addition to umpiring and I was very eager to see it in action.

So far things seems to be running smoothly — not being used too much, confirming the right call, and even reversing a call on Friday. Whether instant replay is a success is up for debate. Overall I think the long term success of instant replay will come down to how “instant” the replay actually is.

One of the main knocks on instant replay in football and baseball is that it stalls the game and takes way too long to get a final answer. It’s hard to tell if it will always take 4 minutes, as it did in the recent reversal, or if that’s just growing pains of MLB instant replay, but one would think that in the off-season, the process would be streamlined a bit (why they implemented it mid-season doesn’t make a ton of sense.) The Bleacher Report says it’s taking way too long and is being used for insignificant calls, but is any call in baseball insignificant? That’s the beauty of the game — there’s no clock, no mercy rule… Anything can happen.

The value of instant replay may be debated for a while, and getting it to be instant is key to its success, but once a double off the wall is changed to a walk off home-run in a big game, I think everyone will be believers.

Ok, this is a little offbeat for HellaFrank but seriously one of the most fascinating things I have seen in a long time, via Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed. Below is a map of the United States which is color coded BY COUNTY based on what percentage of the population says “pop,” “coke” or “soda” to refer to soft drinks. Simply mindblowing. I’m especially intrigued by the huge part of the South and Southwest that use the brand-name “Coke” for all, um, sodas. Yes, Coca Cola is based in Atlanta so that could have something to do with it, but it’s not like Texas is that close to Georgia.

Click on the map below and it will take you to an interactive map where you can click on each state to get its breakdown by county. Aaaand, let me know in the comments what you say to refer to carbonated drinks and where you’re from. HellaFrank is from San Francisco and says “soda.”

Map created by PopvsSoda

Let me start by saying that this post is going to get very baseball and statistic focused, so if you don’t like that stuff, then… um… read it anyway. Second, despite the colors I chose for the chart below and my love of the Chicago Cubs, this is a (almost) completely objective argument:

CARLOS ZAMBRANO IS ONE OF THE BEST HITTERS IN BASEBALL

(YEAH, I SAID HITTER)

We all know Carlos Zambrano is an awesome pitcher. This year so far he has 12 wins, an ERA of 2.76 and almost 100 strikeouts. But it’s his batting that may even be more impressive. Below is a chart that has Carlos’ current statistics for this season so far (65 at-bats) and the projected stats if he were to get 600 at-bats like an everyday heart-of-the-lineup player that doesn’t get hurt (correct me if I’m wrong, but 600 seemed like a nice round average number, maybe a tiny bit on the high side, but not by much).

WARNING: These numbers will blow your mind…

So, let’s analyze…

Batting Average: .354??? Are you kidding me? Simply amazing, even if it’s just 65 at-bats. I’d imagine luck runs out after about 3 at-bats in the major leagues, so this .354 is legit. It might come down a bit if he were to bat more often, but .354 can handle coming down a little. He would have finished second in batting behind Magglio Ordonez last year. ‘Nuff said.

Slugging%: He’s currently .009% higher than Manny Ramirez. Moving on…

Runs: Ok, this is the weak point but still respectable and moving up in the batting order might help.

Hits: Last year Ichiro Suzuki lead the league with 238 hits. Behind him were Magglio Ordonez and Matt Holliday with 216. Carlos Zambrano would have been tied for 4th in all of Major League Baseball.

Home Runs: 18 home runs in the “post-steroid” era? I’ll take it. Speaking of steroids, last year he would have tied Miguel Tejada.

RBI: 92 runs batted in last year would have had him tied for 49th in the Majors. Not bad, but if you consider that all his at-bats are in the 9th spot, this number would definitely go up if he batted elsewhere.

Strikeouts: I put this in because he does strike out a lot, but no more than some other sluggers like Adam Dunn or Ryan Howard.

So there you have it folks, one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball.

World Series. Game 7. Two outs. 9th inning. Runner on 2nd. Tie game. Pull Big Z or let him hit? Put on a helmet Carlos and bring that World Series trophy back to Chicago…

CC Sabathia, the former dominant starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians (and born and raised in the Bay Area) was recently traded to the Milwaukee Brewers and took out a full page ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Wednesday thanking the city for 10 great years.

Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami heat from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004 and soon after his departure, took out a full page ad in the LA Times to thank the fans and the city (probably not Kobe though).

So if this becomes a trend, if athletes that are traded, or retire, start taking out full page print ads in the local newspapers, could this somehow save the reeling print industry? Maybe it’s time for ad sales to shift their efforts to something that the economy has very little effect on, apparently — professional athlete’s salaries.

Math is not my strong suit, but if we take CC’s $11,000,000 salary this year and and assume he starts about 30 games and throws around 100 pitches per game, he only had to throw 3.5 pitches to pay for the $12,870 ad he bought. Yeah, he didn’t even have to actually fully-throw that fourth pitch…

Yesterday I rocked out with about half the state of New Jersey at Bon Jovi’s free concert in Central Park and it… was… AWESOME…

50,000 people were at the Great Lawn to watch and seeing all the old tour t-shirts, Bon Jovi tatoos and hearing stories about concerts people had been to reminded me how this guy was THE MAN back in the day. He is still a pretty big deal, especially among the Jersey crowd, but it seems like his music is now mostly played in bars, sung along to by drunk 20-somethings that were probably a little to young to have really been engaged during his hey-day… Myself included. But his music has transcended decades and as was apparent yesterday, he still has a massive fan base and can easily fill 35 acres of park with fans (see photo above!).

Made me think I should have taken all of my childhood guitar lessons a little more seriously and been a rockstar. Now I’ll just have to wonder what it’s like to see women with a heart with a sword through it tatooed on their back with your name above it… Umm, yeah, I saw about 5 of those.

From my phone’s camera (regular camera’s were not allowed!)…

David Pogue wrote yesterday about the iPhone and points out that the hardware has not changed that much since the first go-round. The actual form of the phone is now a little more manageable, and the voice quality has increased dramatically, but other than that and a very simple GPS feature, the hardware is pretty much the same iPhone as before.

But it’s the software and the iPhone App Store that’s now really making the iPhone special. Any developer can now offer applications, after an approval process, for iPhone users to add to their phones. The actual iPhone itself and its large, beautiful touchscreen serve as the vehicle to deliver the app functionality to the user.

While making the internet connection speed faster with 3G helps, the software is what’s really empowering the iPhone now. Most handset makers are creating new ways to hide keyboards and slide different parts of the phone various ways to make them more usable and fun, but it’s software that can have the most impact on usability.

Think of something you wish your phone did that it currently doesn’t. Hardware issue or software? Software right? If the answer is hardware for some reason, I’d like to hear what the issue is in the comments.

With software essentially defining the  functionality of the iPhone, and all phones for that matter, I guess you could say that developers are the artists, with the iPhone as their canvas. Umm, a really really nice canvas… With a monthly fee……

Also posted on LaunchSquad’s Exclamation Blog

A teacher in high school once told me that often times I’ll see things come in threes. I’m not sure how much I’ve noticed this phenomenon since then, but last week it was in full effect.

The topic that came up each time was a green startup called Project Better Place. First I had dinner with a friend who was interning there this summer and told me all about it. The next day a ringer on LaunchSquad’s softball team brought up the company over dinner at the lovely Frankie’s Bohemian Cafe. Third, the next day I stumbled upon and article about Project Better Place on Earth2Tech.

Project Better Place has a very grand vision: “We see an oil-free future and a healthier, safer planet.” They want to accomplish this by bringing electric vehicles to the public and building the infrastructure to make it  easy and sustainable. While the vision is a big one, it also seems to have a good chance for success.

The CEO, Shai Agassi, was once up for CEO of SAP, the fifth largest software company in the world. He left to start Project Better Place. The company has also gotten some serious funding ($200 million to start, for their work in Israel) and buy-in from auto manufacturers including Nissan, Renault and potentially Daimler.

This is definitely one of the most intriguing green companies to watch. It will be a long road, but so far the company seems to be well on the right track. Gavin Newsom wants the San Francisco Bay Area to be the first U.S. region to participate in Project Better Place, which seems appropriate.

The prospect of electric cars has always seemed ideal, but ultimately, not realistic. But technology and companies like Project Better Place and Tesla Motors are finally working to making widespread electric car use possible. Definitely rooting for these guys, and looking forward to following how things progress. Sounds like Denmark is next…

Also posted on LaunchSquad’s Exclamation Blog

Now that I live in New York, I am much more exposed to the fiasco that is the New York Yankees on a regular basis and it has become very clear that Hank Steinbrenner is not smart or tactful.

The Yankees stink right now, they’ve had some key injuries this year and now star pitcher Chien Ming Wang is out for ten weeks because he hurt himself running the bases, something AL pitchers rarely do, during interleague play. So what does Hank Steinbrenner do? He blames interleague play, the national league, and the fact that major league baseball still uses a rule “from the 1800s.” As told to the Associated Press:

“My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century,” Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. “They need to grow up and join the 21st century.

“Am I (mad) about it? Yes,” Steinbrenner added. “I’ve got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He’s going to be out. I don’t like that, and it’s about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s.”

Wang is an elite professional athlete, a baseball player, and if he’s capable of making contact with a 90 mile per hour fastball (and throwing a ball that fast), then I hope he knows how to run correctly — apparently not. I see teams of 40-year-old obese smokers in Central Park playing softball on a weekly basis that can run the bases better than that.

And what’s this stuff about the 1800s? As far as I know, the DH wasn’t instituted until 1973. Maybe the rule was created in the 1800s, but then again, so was that rule about three strikes and you’re out. Maybe we should get rid of that one too Hank, then you’re players may actually have a chance to get a hit every now and then?

Alright, I’m done… HellaFrank promises to be in a better mood next time!