Donovan McNabb made it pretty clear in his introductory news conference Tuesday he has an enormous chip on his shoulder. That's a great sign for Redskins fans. Washington landed an elite-level quarterback who spent the past 11 seasons making the Eagles one of the most successful organizations in the league. Watching him hold his new No. 5 burgundy and gold jersey with coach Mike Shanahan was the first of many surreal moments this blockbuster trade will produce.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/12806/mcnabb-opens-book-of-donovan
A few years ago, Scott Piercy stepped to the tee at TPC Scottsdale's notoriously rambunctious 16th hole and stiffed his shot to within 10 feet of the cup.
The crowd went wild, but not in the way you might expect. They booed him.
"They have high expectations of us," Piercy said while recalling that moment. "I just tipped my cap and waved."
Talk about a tough room.
On most occasions during the PGA Tour season, there are three appropriate responses to golf shots: wild applause for the great ones, polite clapping for the average ones, deafening silence for the poor ones.
The 16th at this week's Waste Management Phoenix Open is not one of these usual occasions.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/4941128/exception-to-rule
Thirty years ago, the future of golf films was changed forever.
When a meddlesome gopher won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the classic "Caddyshack," it set a precedent that this genre should be taken seriously by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Since then, "Tin Cup," "Happy Gilmore" and even somewhat inexplicably "The Legend of Bagger Vance" have all earned Best Picture accolades, but never before has a group of golf movies dominated the overall landscape like they did this year.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/4980682/talk-about-golf-movie-madness
I cannot tell a lie. There are plenty of times when being a golf writer is a pretty sweet gig.
For example, my favorite workday of the year: Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club -- just not the Sunday you're likely thinking about. Sure, the final round of the Masters Tournament is always entertaining, and watching the newest winner slide his arms into a green jacket is cool, but I'm talking about the Sunday before the tournament begins.
It is on this day that you will find the venue in its most natural and relaxed setting all week, as competitors mingle with members -- the former teeing it up in preparation for the event, the latter getting in one final round before stepping aside. No patrons are allowed through the front gates yet, and only a limited number of media usually attend, offering a unique, behind-the-scenes feel of the game's best players at the world's most famous club.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/5002393/expect-business-usual-tiger-return
How else to explain why the anticipation of the anouncement of his playing partners at this week's Masters Tournament and their ultimate revelation has become such major news?
Tiger Tracker -->
Get all the latest news, highlights and commentary about the world's No. 1 golfer on ESPN.com. Tiger Tracker
It was announced early Tuesday afternoon that Woods will play in the 1:42 p.m. ET group with K.J. Choi and Matt Kuchar in the opening round. Almost immediately, speculation was that such a grouping will throw off the games of those veteran pros, in effect killing their chances of contending for a green jacket.
I don't get it.
http://espn.go.com/golf/blog/_/name/sobel_jason/id/5060718/much-ado-tiger-playing-partners
There was quite a privacy backlash after Google announced Buzz in February. The day it was announced, I was one of many who raised questions about both the privacy and safety implications of the service, including the fact that it is possible to use Buzz to disclose your location from a GPS-enabled mobile device. CNET's Molly Wood was less charitable, calling Buzz a "privacy nightmare."
The collective groan caused Google to almost immediately apologize for it missteps and quickly tweak its privacy settings.
On Monday, the company announced plans to start reminding users to reconfirm their privacy settings.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10472824-238.html
Don't worry, everyone. The Scrabble you know and love isn't changing.
When I read this morning that starting this July, the Scrabble rules will change to allow the use of proper nouns, I had to check today's date to make sure it wasn't somehow still April Fools' Day.
But no, according to every calendar I could find, today is April 6, and so the story from the BBC seemed to have been the real deal. In that story, a Mattel spokesperson is quoted as saying the rule change, which is expected to be introduced in a new version of Scrabble to be released in July, will "add a new dimension" to the game and "introduce an element of popular culture into the game."
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20001840-52.html
It's more than a little ironic that the new "Glo" Web site--a highly stylized women's lifestyle destination that MSN just debuted after midnight today in partnership with Hollywood's BermanBraun and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.--will likely be one of the online media sites that shine best on the new Apple iPad.
Even though it was conceived before the tablet was even announced and currently uses Apple-barred Adobe Flash in its headline rendering (soon to be adjusted), Glo is actually more aimed at upending the notion of what makes a good women-focused Web site.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20001837-93.html
The appeal of the iPad, HP's upcoming Slate, and other tablets will take a bite out of Netbook sales this year, according to a report released Monday by DisplaySearch.
Driven by the iPad, the tablet market will see dramatic gains this year, taking market share away from clamshell-style Netbooks, says DisplaySearch's "Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report."
Most of the growth, especially for the iPad, will come from North America and Western Europe, where Apple has set up key distribution lines and created agreements with content providers. Overall, consumers are expected to pick up around 5 million tablets this year, forecasts DisplaySearch.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20001820-1.html
Google's quest to build the ultimate machine-learning system has produced some lessons of its own.
The project, code-named "Seti" in a nod to the search for life in outer space, is being used on huge data sets in an attempt to solve what Google calls "hard prediction problems." Google revealed the name of the project in a blog post Tuesday that also acknowledged the limits of engineering.
Machine learning is a favorite topic of Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and is useful for improving translation algorithms and semantic understanding, according to Google. But, of course, it's an enormously complex notion, one that can intimidate even Google's computer scientists that could make use of such a system.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20001843-265.html
The ailing Rhapsody music service that Viacom and RealNetworks failed to revive starts going it alone this month. The newly independent company will partner with a major music label this time around as well as slash monthly music prices from $15 to $10.
In February, Viacom and Real announced they would spin off the jointly run music subscription service and that they would sell a minority share while each held on to 47 percent of the company's stock. On Monday, Rhapsody said that Universal Music Group, the largest of the top four recording companies, has acquired a stake of just under 5 percent. An undisclosed entity acquired an even smaller amount.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20001831-261.html
More big news out of the Digg camp this week. Late Monday, Digg founder (and now interim CEO) Kevin Rose announced via blog post that the company would be "killing" the DiggBar, the iFrame-based content viewer that caused a lion's share of controversy when it was launched this time last year.
In Rose's own words, he called the DiggBar an "inconsistent" and "wonky" user experience, and one that was "bad for the Internet." According to Rose, the company will instead choose to focus on its browser extensions, which offer many of the same features that could be found in the DiggBar. Rose said that these add-ons would also be overhauled in a few months' time.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20001844-248.html
Researchers have uncovered a spy network that stole classified and other sensitive documents from the Indian government, the Dalai Lama's office, the United Nations, and compromised computers elsewhere, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The operation, dubbed "Shadow Network," is detailed in a report that also cites evidence it says links the Shadow network to two people living in Chengdu, China, and the underground hacking community in that country.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20001857-245.html
An investor in Plastic Logic said he was misquoted in a recent report and the e-book reader company is not for sale.
The Financial Times suggests that Plastic Logic backer Hermann Hauser was interested in a buyer for the maker of the yet-to-hit-the-market Que ProReader, quoting Hauser as saying the company was "in very interesting negotiations." However, Hauser said Tuesday that his comments were misconstrued.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20001865-56.html
The Federal Trade Commission is inching closer to a decision on whether to challenge Google's pending acquisition of AdMob.
Staff members inside the regulatory group have been asked to start preparing for the possibility of action against Google, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. That doesn't mean they are necessarily planning to take action, but the move--coming weeks after reports that AdMob competitors were being asked to weigh in on the deal--shows that the FTC clearly hasn't decided against it, either.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20001871-265.html
Didn't it seem like just yesterday that everyone and their brother was announcing plans to launch an e-reader? Well, now that the Apple iPad has landed, we wouldn't be surprised to see the floodgates opening and tablet announcements flying just as fast and furiously, if not more so.
Today's supposed contender: Finnish phone giant Nokia, which is working with design and manufacturing partners on a new touch-screen tablet that could emerge as early as this fall--at least according to one analyst, Ashok Kumar of Rodman Renshaw.
A federal appeals court decision against the Federal Communications Commission has left many people wondering if the open Internet's days are numbered.
On Tuesday, a three-judge panel in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. unanimously tossed out an FCC cease-and-desist order against cable giant Comcast. The FCC said in 2008 that Comcast had illegally slowed its customers' Bit Torrent traffic. Comcast, which changed its practices voluntarily before the FCC took action, claimed it was simply managing its network. The cable giant appealed the FCC's order to clear its name and set the record straight.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20001886-266.html
Undoubtedly, the Apple iPad is an entirely new class of device, but is it the gadget for you? CNET Senior Editor Donald Bell gives you his final word on whether the iPad will change the world as we know it--and whether it's worth your money. Read more
"As if the "Star Wars Holiday Special" and Jar-Jar weren't insulting enough to fans, George Lucas has decided to turn the franchise into an animated sitcom. I have a bad feeling about this." The article says that Seth Green is involved, which either sets off your late April Fools Day alarm, immeasurable dread, or excitement.
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/1718250/Star-Wars-To-Air-As-Animated-Sitcom
Now that the 300,000 early adaptors have had a few days to play and work with their iPads, we're moving beyond the "first impressions" articles (but here's a video of a 2-1/2-year-old's first encounter with the device). The detailed reviews aren't out yet. The largest source of early complaints is a complex of problems with Wi-Fi reception. Apple has posted a technical support note implicitly acknowledging the problems and suggesting some work-arounds — specifically, changing SSIDs or encryption methods on base stations that offer both 2.4-GHz and 5.8-GHz signals. Finally, here's a
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/06/1848242/iPad-Progress-Report
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