A lot of people ask me what I do at work all day.  I usually explain to them that I’m a programmer so I do a lot of computer stuff, really high tech things they just wouldn’t understand.  They usually start praising me about how smart I am and how they wish they were me and this and that, you know the deal.  But I decided to finally post something that I can refer people to every time I get the question.  So here it is, what I do all day at work…

I was faced with a problem this Sunday, like many football fans usually are, of not being able to watch the game that I really care about. Rather, I have to watch what the CBS and Fox stations in my area decide are the games that appeal to the general mass of viewers. The thing I find crazy is the fact that the NFL fails to please their entire viewership by not leveraging the Internet when it comes to sports. But when it comes to television shows, the broadcasting companies are finally understanding how to please people. Look at the success there has been with streaming shows directly from the broadcaster’s websites, streaming the shows right from Hulu, and all the other means of show streaming that are legal now. Why haven’t more content providers done this for sports? I know ESPN has ESPN360, but this doesn’t provide every game that ESPN plays on television, and it is also only available for people using an ISP that has signed up for it. So ESPN is ALMOST there but not quite. As I sit here watching one football game that is being streamed illegally on Justin.tv, and watching another one simultaneously on television, I realized I’m exposed to twice as many advertisements. The illegal stream is doing more good for the broadcasting company than bad. I find it crazy that the NFL wouldn’t cut a deal with Fox and CBS to allow the games to be streamed legally. I’m not the most business savvy person by any means, but I feel like less than 1% of NFL fans will buy an NFL package from their cable provider that allows them to watch any game they want, while over 30% (if not more) would watch a game streaming legally on cbs.com. Since it’s all about money (although it should be about caring about the fans that really make the NFL the sport it is) you tell me which deal would make the NFL more money? I know there are many aspects of the business I’m completely ignorant to, and there are probably plenty of reasons why this isn’t possible, but considering it’s 2009 and they are losing money from illegal streaming, they might as well make everyone happy and make some money at the same time. I’m going to get back to watching my illegal stream, where everyone is benefiting BUT the NFL.

Computer Science Professional Ethics and Communications, the one class that stood between me and my undergraduate degree in Computer Science.  We were given quite possibly the hardest task we had ever seen in our 4 years as Computer Science majors.  The assignment was to make a presentation that would entertain our classmates which consisted of the nerdiest 30 people you will ever meet in your life (myself included).  It’s basically a room full of guys that resemble College Humor’s impression of a Best Buy manager.  But our professor wasn’t going to throw us in the lion’s den with no weapons.  He gave us some fine pointers on how such a daunting task could be completed successfully.  He showed us how Van Halen rocked it in their video for ‘Dreams’. WOW, how could we not make a great presentation after seeing that?  But it didn’t stop there, we were shown Steve Ballmer’s enthusiasm at a Microsoft keynote.  He even went as far as to show us how to entertain a crowd with a funny bit like the ‘Who’s on First’ skit.  At this point, how could we make a presentation anything less than genius?  So my good friend Conrad Weykamp and myself set out to make the best video anyone has ever seen…and we failed miserably.  Luckily there was enough footage to throw a video together and show we at least tried!  So here it is for the first time on the blog.  Just a side note, my face looks gross in the first scene, which is definitely not due to the lack of sun from sitting in my man cave and programming all winter.  Nor would my double chin brought on by Landshark and Bud Light Lime beer drinking have anything to due with it either.  I blame that on our terrible director and producer Chris Pusateri who was barely up to the task of filming the video in a day and then putting it all together in 2 days with an 8 minute time restriction (What a bitch right? And for those that can’t pick up on the sarcasm, Chris was an absolute champion and was the only reason we finished this video on time, or had any chance in hell of making it happen in the first palce).  So for your viewing pleasure, Conrad and Jordan’s Excellent Adventure.  OH! One last thing, the presentation had to be about our proposal for a contest to the FAA for a more efficient and environmental friendly method of removing snow and ice off airport runways (which we won).