LTS

Yes, 48 hours later. But to me the purpose of something being live is to watch it when it happens. Once I know the score and see 84 social media updates, etc. the purpose of watching is gone. You really won't save money. In the end time based services all work on contracts with the content producers and those contracts aren't going to be much different from one service provider to another. The service provider differentiators all boil down to the packages of channels they carry. For Sling they broke it up into two packages and NONE of them have local channels. For Fubo they do not carry Turner networks. It's all about finding the provider that has the right package. Of course the days of service providers are coming to an end with ESPN launching their standalone service soon. I am sure they are negotiating a very short contract with Spectrum or more expensive for longer term. ESPN is rumored to be launching standalone in 2024 I believe.

Many beers are... But so is bourbon... sooo

It most assuredly was not unlocked when I jumped in here around 11am yesterday to complain about uncovering a yellow jackets nest while I was working on my deck. Fantastic getting one inside my shirt and getting bit 3 times... Also.. refrigerator shopping.. I'd like to find one refrigerator where there weren't so many reviews stating massive failures. It's like the technology that we've had forever is suddenly hard to figure out. (I know, cheap materials, over engineering, etc.) So.. at least I got to complain on Friday...

The antenna.. forgot about that. Although that may soon be a thing of the past as well.. with ATSC 3.0. That said, for us "in town" folks.. we are screwed. ESPN+ is not a viable option for most games. I didn't think they were ever free. I suppose I could go convert my TVs to Roku.. or at least one of them. That said, I've heard nasty things about Spectrum streaming quality. Welcome to the programming fee wars! These are always done to coincide with the start of something important (college football) and all done to put the pressure on the carriers to accept higher carriage fees. This all comes down to you, the consumer, paying more for television. A minor point though is that no one is blacking anyone out. The carriage agreement expired and so Spectrum is no longer licensed to carry the channels.

The event was relevant enough for you to post about it, even if you wanted to throw shade. I find it pretty cool that they put a volleyball court on the football field, held a match, and got 92,003 people to attend to set the world record for attendance at a women's sporting event. People were partying in the lots before the match, I am sure it was a cool atmosphere. I can only imagine the energy during the event. https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38294591/nebraska-volleyball-sets-world-record-attendance-women-sporting-event https://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/volleyball/nebraska-volleyball-players-enter-stadium-via-tunnel-walk/video_ce11fabe-5243-5b96-8a7e-d52af526ff9d.html What an amazing opportunity for those women to experience an intro like football players get. 92,003 fans, regardless of whether they were only there to say they were there were exposed to a women's sport that routinely gets little fanfare. I don't see a negative in any of this... whether the corn fields were cleared or not. Oh.. and I'll add that my teenage daughter who plays volleyball found it pretty inspiring.

Using Google Maps measure distance.. Rough perimeter of United Center is 1724 feet, KBC is 1458. I can't find height measurements for KBC. United Center is 140' tall. Many people love the big, obnoxious scoreboards. It's the trend, that's for sure. KBC size.. let's see. Google perimeter checks below. Nothing scientific. TD Garden: 1575' Bridgestone: 2283' Amelie: 1664' Little Caesar's: 1778' Canadian Tier Centre: 1381' (a smaller arena!) Bell Centre: 1650' The building just is not that big. Which is what causes cramped walkways and seating.

Who are unplugged people? Are the complaints without merit? It seems fair to complain about the NHL breaking up coverage the way they do. Pretty sure last year the TNT games that were broadcast on MSG in the local Buffalo market excluded Rochester. No problem, I'll get ESPN+! Oh.. for ESPN+, Rochester is in the local Buffalo market. A quick run through in my head.. a Spectrum intro plan would be my best plan to get ALL the games. That would be $59.99 for MSG/TNT/ESPN (12 mos. intro) + $20 local broadcast surcharge (ABC) + whatever ESPN+ costs (I have Disney + Bundle so I pay $16.99. That puts me at $96.99 plus whatever other hidden fees Spectrum wants to lump in. Oh.. and their app is not on FIrestick, so I have to hope my TV can get the Spectrum app or I have to shell out for cable box. All other courses of action are easily over $100 per month. Basically we're talking $700+ to see all Sabres games... the pain of living in market. But the out of market won't be that much cheaper. I'm only going to see the MSG+ and ESPN+/Hulu games I presume. That's most of the games for $47 per month or so. Basically half the cost to get the vast majority of the games. Meanwhile I pay $80/year and I get every F1/F2/F3 race and more. Interesting...

The article reads like a Sabres fluff piece. "The Sabres won 25 of their 41 road games last season, the most by any NHL team that missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2016. But their 17-20-4 home record was a key factor that conspired against them ending their 12-year playoff drought that is the longest in NHL history. That ranked just 27th in the 32-team league." How does one's record CONSPIRE against them... the only CONSPIRING going on is placing a word like that into the article to steer an emotional response. The entire concept of restricted sales is a farce. Let's see, this policy does not apply when: - STH sell their games to make money - ticket sales from the priority areas are not high enough to keep the lower priority areas from buying - entrepreneurs fire up "outoftownbuffalohockeytix.com" and then buy tickets to resell with a "minor service fee" attached This policy however does: - Assume where you live is directly correlated to the team you root for and annoys out of town fans who may end up being impacted I'm going to hypothesize that Leafs fans will use this policy as motivation to attend in even greater numbers just to prove a point and poke at the front office.

Hmmmm They do? How come I don't recall seeing it.. I don't mean little graphics in face-off circles.. I mean full on.. like the Predators https://blog.rossvideo.com/ice-projection-technology

I don't think the arena would work with some of the larger scoreboards found in other arenas. The building just is not big enough. There's no getting around the exterior walls of the structure, that dictates what you can put inside. Still, the scoreboard is terrible so an upgrade would be nice. How about an on-ice projection system while you are at it? I have no doubt they are going to move to ordering displays to eliminate congestion at the stands and to adjust staffing required.

I would see this similar to the intro they play before they take the ice in the goatheads. It starts with a flashback of things in the past and ties it to the present. There is a question of the reverence to a person versus a uniform, but I think the direction you are heading has value. See above. The franchise dutifully pulls in the past as necessary. It doesn't necessarily change what is happening today and even better if its tied into things. at some point however, the same intro reel with the same calls would do nothing but diminish the greatness of those calls. It's one thing to be reminded of May Day and to find it brought up here and there. It would be quite another to play it before every home game... I do think it would become tired.

Aren't 55% of your lifetime posts in the "have they signed Dahlin thread?" Talk about worrying.

Thanks to all who have posted. I simply have no words for the man who had all of them. I will some day.. but today is not that day.

First, I am glad your nephew is getting help. I have a niece going through similar situations. Second... there's perceived pressure on kids. Having watched and still watching my two kids navigate teen age life I can firmly say that they are subjected to levels of ***** I never thought possible. They are told they have to feel a certain way, or not to do something, or any number of things. Not just social media, but all of the Internet is like this. The problem is they don't know that it's all meaningless. I watched my then 14 year old child talk to me about a situation among friends where the dialogue was basically them quoting mental health sites from the Internet. They were diagnosing each other without any wisdom. Then, add in the fact that some social media influencer or something claims to be suffering from some self-diagnosed psychological issue (yes, I said self-diagnosed) and then they all believe they have it too. It's like looking up skin rash and thinking you have cancer. Why are kids strung out? Because they are exposed to far too much crap and lack mental capacity to properly position it. For them it's the end of the world, for those of us with more experience, it's just annoying. Oh, and all media basically has the same tone to it. You're either going to die, there's a conspiracy, or you're an imbecile and waste of life because "I'm a <insert something>, and here's why you are a moron for not doing something." or "Or <insert something> just happened, and I just can't" Headlines are more egregious than ever and all of them either tell people they can't deal with things or if they have a different opinion they are idiots. Tack on the fact that schools don't teach critical thinking, they teach rote memorization and you end up with a group that can't think, they can only react.

Most of the time I will just stop and let people walk into me. Some of the time I will continue and walk into them providing them with a nice shoulder check. Infrequently I will move to accommodate their path. If they are on their phone it's most assuredly going to be more than a shoulder check. This is what I loved about the subway in Stockholm. Crowded as all get out and yet no one seemed to ever walk into each other or even make contact. It can be done!

True.. but $18 beers also help. The PSL is only so much of it. $85 parking? 🙂

At some point we have to traverse out of the observable space. 3D is our current limitation of observation. Science keeps coming across unexplainable impacts to the known models and that's what is so great about things. We keep pushing those boundaries at a record pace looking for why a reaction is being observed. The key is knowing that something is acting upon something else even if you can't see it or measure it. Came across this today: https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/wobbling-muon-experiment-could-reveal-a-5th-force-of-nature-if-the-results-hold-up I believe in more than 3D.. just can't wait for it to be proven.

Every UFO is a UFO until it's explained. One night on a New Hampshire beach I saw a collection of seven light points that were moving out over the ocean. They all acted like they were "attached" almost as if you put lights on a bubble of sorts that was constantly changing shape. So the lights all moved relative to each other but not necessarily in straight lines. It was 100% a UFO. Or, as the news had later explained it. A collection of some kind of gas that had formed off a something or other oil station and was interacting with the atmosphere. I dunno, it was a long time ago. It was freaky when I saw it though! More to follow.... I firmly believe the Universe as we know it is not necessarily the only Universe that exists. We can only see as far as the light that had made it to this planet over the period of time in which we have had to observe it. As such, each the day Universe(s)? appear bigger because more light will have made it to a location where we can observe it. Additionally, we build technology that allows us to see further out into the cosmos to see light sooner. Time travel is an interesting concept. Your concept on technology is flawed, I believe. Let's use sound as a relative example because it's easy for us to comprehend. We know thunder is the byproduct of lightning. However, the distance it takes sound to travel means that the lightning strike that created the sound occurred in the past relative to when we hear it. We don't question if the lightning occurred because we saw the flash (that was instant due to the speed of light). Now scale out to distances where the speed of light comes into play. Thus light years. When we observe a light event from an object 1 light year away we are seeing the past. It's in our present, but the occurrence of what we are observing did in fact occur in the past. Naturally if we wanted to observe the phenomena as it occurred then you would have to travel back in time. I think the concept of time itself is the problem when thinking about time travel. But what you are describing would not require time travel. It would merely be the need to traverse a distance that we measure by using a means that ignores that distance. If you study quantum entanglement and see that entangles particles can instantly communicate over a distance that is beyond the speed of light you begin to scratch the surface of the problem. The other constraint we currently have is that we have not yet proven that something can travel faster than light. But, light moves in the third dimension. So, if you consider the possibility of tapping the fourth dimension you are collapsing the distance between two points. Similar to drawing a line on a piece of paper.. in the 2D world the only way to get to the other end of the line is to move along it. But, if you fold the paper the ends of the 2D line are now brought next to each other and you can jump to them through 3D space. If you were constrained to 2D you would still have to follow the line even though in 3D we can see it has been folded. If you can move into a 4D space then in theory you would be able to move to a new 3D point faster because you would be outside of the 3D constraints. Quantum physics is a fascinating (and brain pounding) science. I think it will be maybe 20-30 years before there is an insane quantum breakthrough (given the current accelerating pace of scientific discovery on this planet). It will change everything. I am not a quantum anything. I just read the theories. https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/07/12/first-particle-successfully-quantum-teleported-into-space-are-transporters-next/?sh=18a8ea6596e5 A well explained example of using quantum teleportation that actually has reference to Star Trek's Teleporter. The concept that the ability to create a copy of quantum particle information states and replicate them over distances instantaneously. Theoretically creating an exact copy of the original particle in a new location. The natural follow up to that is that you now have two identical particles in the Universe. If you expand that a replication of an entire person (we are all quantum particles) then you would have an exact replica of that person (at that instant of time). They would begin to immediately diverge because they would be in two locations experiencing different things. So, the concept extends that to prevent that from happening you would need to destroy the source as the new person were being created. Anyway.. quantum teleportation is real. Just not at scale, known to humans. It could very well be known to other species which would allow them to travel great distances. By the way, an atom is not the smallest particle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subatomic_particle

The only ones on the hook for paying the bill are the people who want to go to the game. I know it's not easy but frankly if you provide me a quote to build something for X cost an then you tell me you'll need Y more.. I'd tell you to stuff it. Take a hit on your margin and get better at your job. An extra $300M.. that's just laughable. I guess someone forgot that the cost of condos in Miami have gone up so the vacations for those who agreed to this deal went up in cost. (ooooh yeah, I'm snarky on that)

It's good to call out. I don't recall if I suggested Spectrum Choice for locals (Bills games) and then MSG+ for Sabres games in my original statement. It makes sense that RSNs are not included in the choice. Sports channels are the most expensive channels to have in a package. Naturally because they have to pay licensing fees to the sports leagues who have to pay athletes insane amounts of money. I'm not paying for Spectrum choice either.. not with an $18 broadcast surcharge. The local antenna or the local bar is the way to go. 🙂

Or they may have fine cognitive skills but acting like debit cards and everything else have been around their entire lifetime is being obtuse. We're not there yet as a society, as surprising as it may be. Also, don't get in line behind someone who is older if you want to avoid the chance that something might happen. It seems like one could easily avoid the problem by getting in a different line.

The sound sync issue, I believe, is caused by the main camera being delayed while the alternate angle cameras are live. I'm not sure if that's to accommodate out of town broadcasts that use announcers that are at home or what. I don't believe its only MSG that has that issue. A full cost/benefit analysis. Well, I am much older and I have done the cost benefit analysis. When we spoke about Spectrum Choice where you could pick 15 cable channels as part of the package it gets really hard for some people to pick 15. I would have that issue. I haven't had a live TV service in my house since April and I have not missed it one bit. Come October I will have MSG+.. because $30 per month is cheaper than $90 per month for Fubo which is what I had to have in the past to get MSG. Well, that or Spectrum, but no thanks on Spectrum. Sure I got ESPN on Fubo.. but not TNT, so I was missing those games as well. My cost/benefit analysis says that paying $90 per month on the off-chance I am inclined to watch another station is not the best choice. Max recently announced they have the ability to stream live events and it is suspected they will be in talks to carry sports programming in their packages. ESPN+ is the best way to watch hockey, if you are not in market. I wish I was not in market. MSG+ will appeal to many many many NYC area residents simply because of all the teams that are covered. I don't think they will suffer like the RSNs who are covering one to two sports over a wider area. But the market will shift into a la carte first.. then the fluff stations (not those fluff stations Inkman) will fall by the way side.. and then it will cycle back into a conglomeration of streaming packages because people won't like a la carte pricing.

Let me expand. The Sabres signed Clifton at $3.3M. I would imagine Dumba was looking for a longer term and or higher AAV and the Sabres felt Clifton was a better value for the roster. Clearly Dumba did not get signed to a long term deal by ANY team. That's my supporting evidence. Pivot to the Sabres could sign him for 1 year. Yes, possible. But, they brought in Johnson for leadership and 3rd line/ 7th defense positioning. Bringing in Dumba for the year pushes someone else out of the lineup for short term gain. Signing Dumba while Jokiharju and Lyubushkin are on the roster also decreases their trade value as other teams know the Sabres have to move someone. To me, it makes more sense to let Dumba sign in Arizona and then try and trade for him if you need him versus putting him on the roster now and having to deal with the number of contracts and roster size. Basically, Dumba was not a roster focus the moment Clifton became the person signed. But, if they need him later in the year they could trade for him.

You can't fault them. It's the local channels that are causing the fee. I wish Spectrum could drop them. They've become a huge problem around the country because they keep raising their fees. They do this because they don't make much money because no one cares about the news. Honestly, what is the point of a local channel in today's world? How much local programming exists in any given day? The news, and that's about it. They get some syndication spots and they get to pull some local ad slots during nationally broadcast television. Most people already know what's happening in their local news because it's on social media. The entire industry is about to get beat down just as the music industry did with streaming. That it's held out this long is amazing to me. Young people simply do not care for television (or the movies).. and they are the only demographic that grows... all the others just shift or decline.

Definitely. My guess is Dumba was looking for a high-value, long term contract and didn't get any takers. He then reverted to looking for a single year contract with whomever would pay him the most to be a rental and likely not be a team to make the playoffs. Basically, Dumba set himself up to be traded to a playoff team at the deadline and Arizona will get a pick. Buffalo doesn't fit into those categories... now, could they trade for him? Certainly.