Recently, I wrote a rock paper scissors (RPS) web service and submitted it to a competition in Switzerland. (That sounds more impressive than it actually is...)

First, the good news, in my group I tied for first place with a record of 6 games won and 4 games lost. However, when you take the individual rounds into account, I came fourth in my group -- dead middle out of 7 contestants in Group 1.

http://www.00001001.ch/codeduel/fr/ranks.aspx?grId=0

I was given the user id “noname”.

There were a total of 112 contestants, although some of those appear to be Bots entered into the competition by the organizers to fill out the groups. The top prize was a Tablet PC.

I didn't know this...

TIP: Sharing Message Box Text

Ever seen a message box that you wanted to remember or share? What did you do?

...

When you see the dialog box, instead of copying an image to the clipboard, you can copy the text by simply pressing Ctrl-C. That's right--the standard keyboard shortcut for Copy will cause [the message text] to be placed on the clipboard.

How to use Microsoft Component Services (COM+) with .NET assemblies.

http://www.csharphelp.com/archives/archive116.html

I'm currently watching the (final) game of the NBA Finals. Pistons up by 24.

And it occurs to me that there is one more thing about basketball that is driving my a little crazy right now.

OK, it's the middle of the third quarter. The referee calls a foul. The commentators are in the midst of talking about something else (how the Lakers are going to have to rebuild during the off season). The camera pans away to show some happy fan, or the owner, or a pretty girl, or something. When the camera returns to the court, Shaq is in the midst of missing yet another free throw. The commentators are still talking about things other than the game in progress. And play continues.

What the heck? The commentators didn't even mention the foul. The TV didn't show a replay so that I could understand what about that play meritted a foul call. The TV didn't display relevant stats such as the number of personal fouls that player has left. It's as if the play didn't happen.

What's a person like me - someone still trying to understand the nuances of the game - to think? Every other sport that I watch (football and hockey in particular) show replays, and allow commentators to give their opinion on the penalty called. Basketball seems to be a sport of distractions. Show and talk about anything but the game in progress...

Here I sit, watching the four potential leaders of Canada debate on television. We in Canada face a huge challenge this year with our election, much like our American friends who face a similiar dilemma. Who should I vote for if I don't like any candidate? Is there a “None of the above” checkbox?

A year ago, if you asked me who I would vote for in the next federal election, the answer was simple: Paul Martin. I liked Mr. Martin when he was finance minister. I actually hoped his boss, Jean Cretien, would step down sooner just so Paul Martin can take over the job sooner.

But now, I hope Paul Martin and the Liberals are kicked out of office on their collective behinds for the broken promises of last elections, as well as the squandering of billions of dollars of my taxes. It's ironic that “liberal” is listed as a synonym for “wasteful” in the thesaurus.

The dilemma is who to vote for if not the Fiberals. Do I vote for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives? I briefly considered it, but quite frankly the Reform / Alliance / PC / Conservative merged party needs more time to mature before it's ready to take power. A lot of former members of the Conservative party don't support the new party (take Joe Clark for example). It needs 4 more years before all of the internal squabbling is resolved and they are ready to be one cohesive party.

That leaves who? Jack Layton and the NDP? I actually like the new Jack Layton™. He was a councillor in the City of Toronto for years. I have never been a supporter of the NDP (socialists), but here I sit thinking they may be a breath of fresh air. Now, I'm not saying the NDP should take power, but what if they had enough power to keep the winning party honest? What if the had the power to resist steep tax cuts, and encourage increased spending on social programs without the power to actually ruin the finances of the country?

Strike me down with a lightening bolt. I just might vote NDP. *Shudder*

I've been following Mark Cuban's blog with interest, and he often talks about changes he would like to see in NBA basketball. Many of the changes have to do with the consistency that rules are enforced, as Mark points out the differences between individual officials, players, time of the year, time of game, etc... in the way fouls are called.

Here's my 2 cents on what's wrong with basketball.

First, let me state right up front. Basketball is my least favorite sport. I can't watch it. Football is my favorite sport. Hockey keeps me on the edge of my seat with my heart beating at twice the normal rate, although I haven't gone to a game in decades. Baseball is a great sport to watch at the ballpark on a nice day. Heck, I like SlamBall more than I like NBA basketball. (SlamBall is fun to watch - check it out on SpikeTV Saturday nights.)

Some of these things may seem like fundamental basketball concepts, and so maybe I will never ever be a fan of the sport. But perhaps many people have the same beefs as I.

1) Often, the last 2 minutes of the game take 30 minutes to play. That's way too slow. The last two minutes of a basketball game are the slowest 2 clock minutes in sports. Zzzz...

2) With less than 5 minutes to go, either team can win. This drives me crazy. A team can be up by 20 points, but the other team still has a chance to win. What's the point of watching the first 40 minutes of the game? Just tune in for the last couple of minutes.

3) The intentional foul. So let me get this straight... a defensive player is allowed to intentionally interfere with an offensive player, forcing him to make a free throw (a lower percentage shot) in order to get the ball back with plenty of time left. That just lets the losing team have one more chance to get back in the game (see #2 above) and slows the game down (see #1). The offensive team should get to keep the ball after a free throw - that will cut down on fouls, speeding the game up.

4) While I'm on the subject, this whole concept of “team fouls”, where fouls over a certain limit cause free throws while fouls under the limit don't. So sometimes a team has “fouls to give“, near the end of a quarter. Fouls to give. What a stupid concept.

5) While writing this, I looked up the rules of the game on http://www.basketball.com/. Maybe it's just me, but the rules are WAY too complicated. The following is one example of a rule.

When a weakside offensive player is above the free throw line extended, his defensive man may be no lower than the "middle defensive area" extended for more than 2.9 seconds. When a weakside offensive player is below the free throw line extended, his defensive man must vacate the "inside lane" unless his man is positioned adjacent (posted up) to the three-second lane extended. When a weakside offensive player is above the tip of the circle, his defensive man must be no lower than the "upper defensive area" for more than 2.9 seconds. When a strongside offensive player is above the tip of the circle extended, his defensive man may be no lower than the free-throw line extended (upper defensive area) for more than 2.9 seconds.

Did you get that? This is just one subsection of the rules for defensive fouls - and I cut out more than half of that subsection. I bet most fans watching the game don't know all the rules. I mean, read the above... how could they?

When James Naismith wrote the original 13 rules for basketball, it was simple. I'm not suggesting we go back to that, but when you compare the mechanics of the game (put the ball in the basket) with the rules of the game, it looks like it's gotten out of hand.

There is someone living in Santa Monica, California by the name of Scott Duffy, who happens to be the same AGE as me, featured in Entrepreneur Magazine.

I wonder if we look the same too?