Sep 25
2011

There are two main concerns I had regarding Google+ privacy–granting permissions in Google+ Games, and the broad scope of the terms of service (ToS) required just to use Google+.

Google+ Games Privacy

My issue with Google+ Games is that when I try to play a game I have to first agree to grant the game and its developer various permissions to access and use information from my Google+ Profile–including my Circles. The Google representative that I spoke with explained that it is not as insidious as I was interpreting it.

Google+ Games developers ask for sweeping permissions just to play a simple game.I wrote on Day 14 about trying to play the game Dragon Age Legends, but choosing not to when I found out that I had to first agree to grant Bioware (the game developer) permission to access my Google+ account, email address, and the list of people in my Circles–ordered based on my interactions with them across Google as a whole.

The Google representative I spoke to explained that despite the ominous wording of the permissions pop-up, the access I would be granting to Bioware is not as nefarious as it might sound. He sent me a link to a Google site that describes the Games privacy policies in more detail. That site explains the different permissions a developer might request, and how that permission might be used:

o Name, profile URL, and photo: Typically used to create your game profile, personalize the game for you, and help your friends find you.

o Country, language, and timezone: Typically used to tailor the game youre playing to your location and language.

o Gender and birthdate: Typically used to customize text that refers to you.

o E-mail address: A game may want to directly send you game notifications, updates and special offers.

o Ordered list of your people in your circles: Google gives the developer an ordered list of people from your circles. This tells the game developer the people you are most likely to want to engage with in the game. The order is based on your interactions across Google. This information could be used by the game to present you with people to play the game with, including to invite to the game, and to send gifts and messages.

I agree that having the permissions explained makes it a little less ominous. However, I still maintain that some of these things should at least be optional. What if I dont want the developer to send me game notifications or updates to my email? What if I just want to play the game without subjecting my friends to invites, gifts, or messages?

And, while the information regarding the people in my Circles is limited to presenting the developer with an ordered list–apparently based on the relevance of the contacts–it still states that the order is based on my interactions with these contacts across Google which implies some degree of Big Brother monitoring all of my Google activity to score my relationships with the people in my Circles.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Interactions  


Sep 25
2011

The first question is pretty easy. Various websites were reviewed and there is a pretty standard definition of a sport. It goes something like this.

A sport can be defined as a physical activity that involves competition and can be for entertainment. Based on that definition is football a sport? You gotta believe so. Baseball? Yep. What about just bicycling on your own for exercise? I don’t know, but I used to ride a lot and I always competed against the clock, or an average speed. If someone is running just for the heck of it, it probably doesn’t meet the definition of a sport and is just exercise. But, so what?

Sports are so popular nowadays that it is somewhat alarming. The amount of time and money that we spend on sports is a much higher percentage of what we used to. Then that brings up the question, “What are the most popular sports?”

There are so many ways of measuring popularity. There are TV rankings which seem to be the most prevalent way of measuring popularity. Sales of logo gear could also be the choice. But I think that in person attendance could be considered the most accurate way of measuring popularity of a sport. If you pick one single event, then auto racing would probably win because of the huge area the grandstands cover. But that is just a single event. If you look at all events, college football might be the winner especially with the huge stadiums that have been built and/or expanded recently. By the way, “The Big House” at Michigan is still the largest capacity stadium at 107,501 with Penn State’s Beaver Stadium a close second at 107,282. As a perspective, the population of Grayson is estimated to be about 120,000 people. Bryant County is estimated to have about 37,000. That is a lot of people in one small place at those stadums.

But, there are only 11 or 12 football games a year per university and less for the smaller divisions. College basketball on the other hand can play over thirty games a year when you include all of the post-season play. The total attendance of NCAA basketball games probably exceeds football because of the number of games. Maybe the best way to determine the relative popularity of sports is to survey people. That’s what the government does all the time, but then they still do what they want. Oh well, another topic.

ESPN did a survey a few years back and the results might bear some thought.

According to ESPNs survey, Football was first. Baseball was second. Basketball was third. Those were followed by college football, college basketball, then NASCAR, which had something like 2.2 percent of the population. But I expect that the survey included only those sports that were on TV a lot. That is what ESPN does, show sports and promote sports on TV.

Just recently there was a survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and it pointed out that all of these professional and college attendance numbers pale in comparison to the same sport at the high school levels. The survey reported that approximately 336 million people attended high school football and boys and girls basketball games. According to the press release from the NFHS only 133 million spectators attend those sports at the college and professional levels.

According to the survey, high school basketball led the way with about 170 million fans, followed by football with 166 million. And soccer came in third with 24 million ahead of baseball with 20 million. (That reminds me of the guy that told me recently that he thought soccer was un-American. I had to laugh at his ignorance.)

The whole point here is that mommies and daddies are a lot more likely to invest their money and time watching little Johnny and sister Johnetta than all of the Tony Romos put together, and rightfully so! There is no question that high school sports is the best value of the sports entertainment dollar and probably always will be. It’s part of watching them grow up and it can include the whole family. And it doesn’t stop at high school. Many spectators at Southeastern’s football and basketball games are parents and grandparents, etc. of the players. They’re family and that is very important to everyone.

How far would you drive to see a son/daughter or grandson/granddaughter play sports? The answer is a long way. I know the Boydstuns are driving to Stillwater a lot and I know the Diggs family drives to Lubbock pretty often. Kendra has scored two goals for number 4 ranked OSU and Cheyenne got significant playing time when Texas Tech played powerhouse Florida the other day. Also, both Jordan Smith and Bo White are getting a lot of playing time for the Northeastern State Men’s soccer team and I bet their families have either been up there or have been planning to go. In fact, Bo scored a goal the other day. But we have digressed a little.

If I had make my rankings of my most popular sports to watch (Now this is sport, not event), I would pick the NFL as number one. NBA would probably be number two and various soccer teams would probably be number three. Major League Baseball is just too slow to watch for me. For me, the best events to watch are The World Cup, the Ryder Cup, and the Masters. I could care less about watching anything go around in a circle, car, horse, ostrich, turtles, anything. But, that’s what makes the world go around.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Sports Entertainment  


Sep 24
2011

Pro Wrestler Coaches High School Volleyball

The girls assistant volleyball coach at East Haven High School has second career in sports entertainment.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Sports Entertainment  


Sep 23
2011

With the NFL season about to kickoff Thursday evening, many websites and writers feel compelled to rank the elite quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and defenses the league has to offer.

As fun and entertaining as those articles can be, it left me wondering about professional wrestling and which of the sports performers could be considered the best-of-the-best, the elite if you will.

Join me as I rank the elite performers in the world of sports-entertainment, based on in-ring work, microphone skills,overall popularity, longevity and marketability. These Superstars are the cream of the crop, the most immediately recognizable and celebrated stars the industry has to offer.

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Trackback  •  Posted in Sports Entertainment  


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