A ‘Little Batman’ Video And 10 Most Valuable Sports Teams

Our ‘little batman’ is off and running. Since Mason took his first steps just a few days ago, he’s been gaining confidence and walking more and more each day.

Carrie tells us he wants to walk everywhere now rather than crawl. We’ll be visiting Mason soon so we’re really looking forward to seeing our little man move around.

Forbes Magazine Top Ten Valued Sports Teams of 2014

	#1 Real Madrid FC Value: $3.44 billion Owner: club members Real Madrid has made it to the Champions League semifinals for four consecutive years and generates more revenue than any sports team in the world.
	#2 Barcelona FC Value: $3.2 billion Owner: club members In April, Barcelona's board voted to expand Camp Nou stadium to a capacity of about 105,000 from 99,000 as part of an $800 million renovation of its grounds.
	#3 Manchester United FC Value: $2.81 billion Owner: Glazer family Adidas will pay United $1.3 billion over 10 years starting in 2015 in the richest uniform deal in the history of sports.
	#4 New York Yankees Value: $2.5 billion Owner: Steinbrenner Family The enterprise value of YES, the regional sports network 20% owned by the Yankees, was $3.9 billion for 80% acquired by 21st Century Fox in November, 2013.
	#5 Dallas Cowboys Value: $2.3 billion Owner: Jerry Jones The Cowboys struck a 25-year stadium naming rights deal with AT&T last year for an estimated $500 million.
	#6 Los Angeles Dodgers Value: $2 billion Owner: Guggenheim Baseball MLB approved the Dodgers new $8.35 billion, 25-year television deal with Time Warner Cable in January.
	#7 Bayern Munich FC Value: $1.85 billion Owner: club members Bayern Munich captured the Champions League in 2013 and its club membership swelled by almost 30,000 over the past year to 223,985.
	#8 New England Patriots Value: $1.8 billion Owner: Robert Kraft The Patriots have sold out every home game since 1994 even though their ticket prices are second-highest in the league.
	#9 Washington Redskins Value: $1.7 billion Owner: Daniel Snyder The Redskins continue to thwart calls to change the team's name. Washington's new head coach, Jay Gruden, is the club's eighth since Dan Snyder bought the team in 1999.
	#10 New York Giants Value: $1.55 billion Owner: John Mara, Steven Tisch The Giants packed an average of 80,148 fans per game into MetLife Stadium last season, more than any team except the Cowboys.

As expensive as US sports franchises have become they still can’t match soccer’s glamorous big name teams of Europe. The 3 most valuable sports teams in the world play the non-American brand of football Americans call soccer. Spain’s Real Madrid, worth $3.44 billion, leads the way for the second straight year, a notch ahead of fellow Spanish soccer power, Barcelona, which is worth $3.2 billion. Manchester United rounds out the top three with a value of $2.81 billion.

Even though former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer paid $2 billion to buy the Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball team, Forbes Magazine still considers that buy a bit of an outlier. Forbes valued the team at $575 million so no one will know for sure what an NBA team is really worth until there is a normal, legitimate sale unlike the circus that is still going on with former owner Donald Sterling and his family.

The unseasonably hot weather looks like its finally going to give us a break

The weather guessers are calling for a high temperature of 72F Friday and Monday it’s forecast to be 60F!  60F!!! Can’t wait for that. We’ve had enough of this 90F stuff for this year as we had another one just yesterday. With no a/c in our houses, we’re just not equipped to deal with this kind of heat. I suppose we could move out into the 5’er parked our driveway to sleep as we can crank up the a/c in it. It will definitely be getting a lot of use when the kids arrive home in early August.

Thanks for visiting!

 

NO MEETING IN AUGUST

 

NEXT WINDOWS MEETING WILL BE

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 9 AT 7PM

Please bring a friend

 

 

“If This Then That” (IFTTT) – Or Is It “Who’s On First”?

It was about a year ago when I first ran across the web service app called IFTTT pronounced like ‘gift’ without the ‘g.’ It stands for “If This Then That” which at first reminded me of Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First” skit. But, the name of this web service is appropriate as it states exactly what it does. IFTTT lets users connect different web apps together they call “Channels” (i.e Blogger, Android, iOS, Facebook, Twitter etc.) and then run actions named “Recipes” based on “Triggers’'.

The IFTTT team – they’re smiling because they’re going to be filthy rich!

Photo: Patrick Kawahara via Wired

Looking at this service a year ago, it struck me as very much directed towards social networking sites. It seemed to make it easy to do a lot of things that might not be worth doing at all. Then, just a few days ago, I began to look for a simpler, more reliable way to transfer photos from my iPhone to my computer. Apple’s iCloud only seems to work when it feels like it – just like iTunes. I got around this by connecting my iPhone to my computer with a USB cable. But, IFTTT had a better idea – voila!

The best way to perhaps explain how IFTTT works is to show an example. Well over 100 hi-tech companies have joined IFTTT (i.e Google, Apple, Microsoft etc.) to allow anyone to create code or “recipes” based on this simple premise; ‘If This, Then That’, which expresses what it does: Based on a trigger (‘this’), perform an action (‘that’). I connected to the iOS Channel and found an existing recipe that claimed it would automatically email me every photo I took using my iPhone.

Just a note, I had already signed up for a free IFTTT account. Signing into IFTTT I found the iOS Channel, activated it for my use, then began looking at the hundreds of pre-coded recipes available. When I found the one above all I had to do was click on the “Use This Recipe” button and it was mine to use. And darned if it didn’t work as described. I took a few pics with my iPhone and sure enough IFTTT emailed them to me. The recipes are checked checked every 15 minutes so it’s pretty fast too.

Craigslist is also an IFTTT Channel Partner

Above is another example of how IFTTT can be used. Instead of scouring Craigslist looking for a specific item, it’s easy to create a simple recipe (or use an existing one) to have the app do the work for you and email you as soon as it finds one that matches your search criteria.

Nest Products are also IFTTT Channel Partners

Another thing I was happy to see when re-visiting IFTTT is that Nest has joined as a Channel Partner. I was amazed at the dozens of existing recipes that really expanded on the already available hi-tech capabilities of Nest products. It’s no wonder so many high profile companies are joining IFTTT as this is going to save them tons of development costs. All they have to do is put their API’s out there and every wannabe programmer can write code for them at no cost. What a deal.

I’ve only enabled 2 IFTTT recipes – iPhotos and post my blog to Twitter

The uses of IFTTT seem endless especially since most of the big home automation developers have joined (i.e. Nest, Belkin etc.). They couldn’t possibly make a device that could do everything each customer might like. But now, with “if this, then that” technology it makes everything possible. Already IFTTT has over 2 million recipes on their site that are free to use with thousands more being added each day.

These are just some of the companies that have joined IFTTT as partners

I’m not recommending nor suggesting even that everyone go out and join IFTTT and start using these recipes. It’s still a pretty “nerdy”  type service from what I can see. But, it is a good idea, I think, to be aware of these outfits as they come along so that if and when they do hit the mainstream you may have a hint of what they’re all about. I’ll be playing around with this and if I run across anything really exciting and useful, I’ll be sure to let you all know.

Thanks for visiting!

Flying Back To “The Nest Protect” Smoke & CO Detector

All of the research I did last week on the Nest Protect Smoke detector led me to discover that these devices should be replaced with new ones after 10 years. Some, in fact, only have a 7 year lifespan. We have more than 6 smoke detectors scattered about our home and I’m sure some of them must be over 10 yrs. old. So, we decided on a plan to upgrade all of our alarms prior to the end of this year and to keep track of the dates of each install. I already new what my first buy was going to be!

It was the Nest Protect which is  a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. It’s also Wi-Fi enabled and has a lot of other unique features that I detailed in my post about this device on July 10th. All of this techie magic comes at a pretty hefty price for a smoke detector – $109. That means we won’t be installing these Nest’s everywhere in our home, instead we’ll probably spread 3 about the house to give us wide coverage and supplement them with regular models.

  Wireless Interconnect is a feature that allows multiple Nest Protects to talk to each other during an alert or emergency alarm. If a smoke or carbon monoxide (CO) event is detected at one Nest Protect, all Nest Protects will sound an alert. For example, if there’s an emergency in the bedroom, all the Nest Protects in your home will tell you that there’s smoke or carbon monoxide in the bedroom. You will now be alerted to an alarm in your kids’ room upstairs even if you’re in the kitchen downstairs.

One of the great things about the Nest Protect is that when more than 1 is installed they will actually “talk to one another”.  If an emergency is detected by one Nest Protect that triggers the loud alarm it will send an immediate message to all other Nest devices on the network to set their emergency alarms off as well. With 2, 3 or more of these alarms screeching in the middle of the night, it should be enough to wake up even the soundest sleeper.

The Nest Protect WiFi app monitors each detector and updates its status

Compared to the difficulties I encountered in setting up the Belkin WeMo Insight Switch (which I returned), the Nest was a breeze – simple, fast and reliable. All I had to do was download the free app from Nest and follow the excellent, detailed steps to connect the Nest Protect to our Wi-Fi network, test it to make sure it worked, then attach it to the ceiling in the location we’d chosen.  It couldn’t have been any easier.

Thanks for visiting!

Cooling Off By The Straits of Juan de Fuca

It was way too hot here in the Cowichan Valley yesterday as we got up into the 90’s. Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight for this heat wave as the forecast is for well above normal temperatures for at least the next 10 days. This is one time I really hope the weather guessers are wrong. I’m hoping we get back to our much more normal and comfortable mid-70’s sooner rather than later.

Mason really liked the cool breeze coming in off the Straits of Juan de Fuca

Living near Victoria there’s always one surefire way to beat the heat and that’s to head down to the ocean overlooking the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Carrie had called and said her condo was really hot so we stopped off to pick-up Mason and take him with us while Carrie went to look for some kind of portable A/C unit.

Taking the path through the tall, dry grass was pretty cool too!

Arriving at the Dallas Rd. waterfront walkway we parked and then took the path through the tall brown grass. Mason was in his stroller and he sure loved that. It was probably the first time he’s ever been in grass that tall – it was like a hay field. I’m not sure what he was thinking but he was jabbering a mile a minute and pointing at the grass the whole time we were in it.

Once out of the hayfield we made it to the asphalt walkway on the cliffs overlooking the straits. There was a nice, perfectly cool breeze blowing in off the water making it just right for an early morning walk. We had Rylie with us and since the whole area is an off-leash park including the walkway she had a great time meeting up with dozens of other dogs of all shapes and sizes.

We spent well over an hour just walking along the cliffs and stopping occasionally to look at the boats out on the water or just the Olympic mountains across the straits in Washington State. We decided to head back to Carrie’s to see how she had made out in her search for an A/C unit. Carrie ended up with a pretty fair sized electric fan instead as the Walmart she went to had a run on A/C units and they were completely sold out. With 4 fans running the condo was a little better.

It was still a little too hot for Mason though so a walk to the nearby Water park was in order. Mason just loves the fountains that spray up. He has no fear at all of putting his head right over the nozzle and pushing the ring that makes the water spout up. He doesn’t seem to mind getting splashed in the face either. I think our little man has a rather adventurous spirit.

After saying goodbye to Mason and Carrie, we made it home just in time for me to watch the opening kick-off of the World Cup Final between Argentina and Germany. As everyone knows by now Germany won beating Argentina 1-0 and bringing my sports prediction winning streak to an end after 2 games.

Earlier this year I had picked Canada to win the Men’s Olympic Hockey Gold Medal and the Seattle Seahawks to win the Super Bowl. Somehow, both those teams survived my legendary ‘kiss of death’ curse. Argentina, however, wasn’t so lucky as it looks like I’m back to my losing ways as a sports prognosticator.

I watched the entire 2 hours of the game which included 30 minutes of extra time before Germany scored with only 7 minutes left to clinch the win. It was pretty apparent from the time the 2nd half began that one goal was going to win this game and that made it pretty exciting to watch – at least for me. Although I hate to admit it, Germany was the best team in this year’s World Cup – from their first game to their last.

Thanks for visiting!

As The World Cup Final Approaches A Fearless Prediction

Sunday at noon PDT, the most watched event in the history of television, the 2014 World Cup Final, will kick-off at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The last World Cup Final in Johannesburg, South Africa drew a worldwide TV audience of 715.7 million in-home viewers. Sunday’s match is expected to draw somewhere between 750 million to 1 billion viewers. The Super Bowl record is last year’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos which drew 112 million.

Based on nothing more than a hunch and a wish, I predict that at the end of the final match between Germany and Argentina the winner of the 2014 World Cup will be:

Argentina

I’ve watched a lot of the games of this year’s World Cup and there’s no doubt in my mind that the 2 best teams are in the final (although the Netherlands is an extremely close 3rd). The one team I do not want to win is Germany but here they are and with my track record of predictions in sports I’m probably giving their foes, Argentina, the legendary ‘kiss of death’.

Lionel Messi of Argentina is the best football player in the world today

Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer in the world today, plays for Argentina. Somehow, and some way, I think he will find a way to Captain his country to victory in Brazil. It should be an exciting game and I can’t wait to see it.

Thanks for visiting!

A Little Surprise, A Good Buy And One Not So Good

I took a day off from blogging yesterday just for the heck of it. My plan to cut down on the frequency of posting with my new blog hasn’t exactly turned out that way as things I find interesting to write about keep popping up most days. It’s a lot better now though as I don’t feel any pressure at all to write a daily post now that I’ve broken the evil “daily blog spell”.

Here’s the ‘Surprise’ - Mason’s first steps into the arms of his excited Mama!

Mason’s first steps were captured on Carrie’s iPhone and are we ever happy about that. They’re just small tentative steps but he’s now getting more confident each day and starting to go for longer walks all on his own. Looking at the short video clip it’s plain to see Mason is quite pleased with himself but Carrie even more so. She really gets a kick out of her little boy and just loves him all to bits!

A Good Buy - Coleman Double High Queen on sale at Canadian Tire for $69

We’ve been watching for sales of Queen size air beds for a while and spotted this Coleman Queen with electric pump on sale at Canadian Tire for just $69 (reg. $120). It was the last day of the sale so Paulette and I, along with Rylie of course, whipped into Duncan and bought one. We have a single-wide Coleman already but our house is going to be full of family in a few weeks and even with the 5’er and 2 extra bedrooms in the house we figured we’d still need more sleeping accommodation.

A Not So Good Buy - Belkin WeMo Insight Switch – 2 Thumbs down on this one

If you’ve been reading my blog lately then you know I’ve been quite interested in the new crop of ‘home automation’ products like the Nest Learning Thermostat and Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm. It just seems to me that these Wi-Fi capable devices could be extremely handy for us RVers when we’re far from home as they allow us to control and monitor equipment right from our smartphones or tablets. I thought I’d give the Belkin Wi-Fi light switch a try to check it out.

The WeMo app was nice and user friendly – when it could talk to the device!

A lot of companies are going to be rushing home automation products to market in the months to come to try and compete with Google’s Nest brand. Nest has quickly established itself as super-reliable and extremely stylish, which is only fitting as both of Nest’s founders worked for Apple and were instrumental in the development of the iPhone. Steve Jobs desire for functionality as well as beauty seems to have rubbed off on Nest. I’m sad to say the same cannot be said about Belkin’s Insight Switch.

Quite simply, Belkin’s switch is not ready for prime time. I bought one on sale for $39 a few days ago and returned it a day later for a full refund. I wouldn’t recommend this product to anyone right now – great concept but poor performance. According to Belkin’s promotional material:

“The Wi-Fi enabled WeMo Insight Switch connects your home appliances and electronic devices to your Wi-Fi network, allowing you to turn devices on or off, program customized notifications and change device status - from anywhere.”  I just wanted to be able to program lights to turn off and on when we’re away.

The Wi-Fi connect process was unnecessarily confusing and cumbersome. It took me about an hour just to connect the thing to my home network and even then the iPhone App still wouldn’t recognize the device. After doing 2 consecutive firmware upgrades and resetting the Insight Switch to Factory Mode all seemed well – it was working as advertised. I downloaded the iPhone App and all seemed well as the device showed up on my network and appeared to be o.k.

To test it, I plugged a lamp into the switch and I was able to turn the lights on and off using my iPhone. Next, I used the app to easily program the lights to turn on and off at times I specified. Perfect – it worked and I thought I had a winner. Not so fast! A few hours later the Insight Switch lost Wi-Fi contact with my router and was useless. Belkin’s help pages had various suggestions like “yes, this can happen so just reset the switch”.  Seriously? How about fixing the dumb thing? Two thumbs down!!

Thanks for visiting!