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boilerhorn

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by boilerhorn

  1. Congrats, sir! This is quite awesome and you should be proud (as I suspect you are)!
  2. Collective intelligence increased at both USC and FAU.
  3. Fwiw - that is one of the real ones @EastTexan
  4. Most of my complaints about it have been mentioned before, but I'll reiterate... Poor casting Poor directing Poor character development So-so writing I considered the possibility of doing it as a series. I might have worked if someone like Jon Favreau was the writer and/or director. It would have pushed them into a different dimension relative to funding of talent, too. Rather than a ton of recognizable actors, they cast with talented lesser-knowns. In the same vein, when considering a series, I lamented, "Holy crap, I cannot imagine dragging this out to 10 episodes." However, different writers, directors, and actors would have made it more consumable. Moreover, you only have to suffer through 45-50 minutes on a "weak" episode. The worst of the Mandolorian or Boba Fett episodes provided character development value, context value, etc. Each Eternals episode could have had a standalone thought/idea as needed. At some point, someone inside Disney gave the green light to a 2+ hour theatrical release. At that point, they established an acting budget and target cast that would appeal to darn near every demographic. Gemma Chan is an attractive person and has performed well in other roles, but she was stiff and uninspiring here. Jolie is an overrated actress and just did not seem to fit. As noted, Madden as Ikarus - meh. Nanjiani - with each smile/smirk I saw Silicon Valley. (BTW - he is cast in the upcoming Obi Wan Kenobi seris). I do believe it opens up another door in MCU and could be the springboard for some new/different storylines. Let's hope they clean it up a bit and do a better job at casting and directing.
  5. Understood. I was focusing more on the idea of CS + Cyber focus/certificate at Purdue versus a Cybersecurity degree from the Polytech college at Purdue. Fwiw, the certificates in the CS department are really just confirmation that the student took 3-4 CS classes with specific focus.
  6. Purdue has a really strong CS department, but be 100% sure you understand what degree is being sought in cyber security. Similar to UT, Purdue CS has a CS degree with a security track. My oldest did CS at UT and got the security certificate. Purdue offers a cybersecurity degree through its Polytechnic Institute. Purdue has a "T" counterpart to just about every engineering major they offer - in the Polytech Institute (which was not called that when I attended many years ago). I studied EE (ECE) while at Purdue and there was also an EET major. There was almost zero crossover or interaction between EE and EET majors. EE was far more theoretical and far more mathematically and fundamentally rigorous than EET. Moreover, EET was far more application oriented. In some ways the EE is to EET what CS is to MIS. It's as close a comparison as I can easily muster. Here is a link to a Cyber Security major offered in the Polytech side: https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/degrees/cybersecurity The ranking reference is a little misleading, IMO, as I cannot see how this specific degree (from the "T" school) would rank above a Michigan CS degree in anything. A security certificate from the Purdue CS department? Yes. If your student was planning CS at a top school like UT or Purdue and is interested in cyber security, I'd be cautious about the above path. It will be far more of an applied role. Most security oriented courses in a CS department will focus more on the mathematics, algorithms, crypto, etc. There will be classes where you will need to use C or assembly code to hack weak operating systems (via buffer overflows, etc.). The "T" option would not have that. Another interesting note: both Purdue's and Texas's CS departments are part of the Science Colleges and were initially offshoots of the Math departments. As for West Lafayette, it's not the most cosmopolitan place in the world, but it has come a long way in the past 30+ years. Plus it's 60 miles from Indianapolis and 120 miles from Chicago. Not that you want your kid driving to Chicago every weekend
  7. Pete Rose says, "Hi. Don't change the channel." "Set to graduate in May" is not exactly a ringing endorsement. I may be reading too much into it, but he could be an academic risk.
  8. And part of what makes Belichick and Saban great is their willingness to take swift corrective action. They are performance and results driven. BoB, Valai, etc. did not produce the requisite results - bye!
  9. If I were king (I will not be), it's an 8-team playoff with the following constraints: P5 conference winners are in 3 top ranked "other" teams are in. 2 teams per conference max From that, we'd see 1: SEC: Bama 2: B1G: Michigan 3: Big12: Ok St 4: Pac: Utah 5: ACC: Pitt 6: At large 1: UGA 7: At large 2: Cincy 8: At Large 3: Notre Dame You only augment the seedings to make sure that 2 teams from same conference do not meet in round 1. IMO, the only reason for the 4 team playoff is to manage ire if/when BCS selects 2 teams from same conference. Oh, and money.
  10. Agree with @Murfdogg21 that NIL will not bring parity. It will enable teams meeting the following criteria to enter the arms race: huge alumni base wealthy alumni base - with money "sitting on the sidelines" administrations willing to follow/enforce the rules In general, NIL benefits Texas, Notre Dame, Michigan - and there may be others. To a lesser extent, it benefits Oregon and USC; they've violated the spirit and the letter of the law for some time, but have enough resources to accelerate their payment game. The reason UGA and Bama want NIL to be constrained and/or managed is that they realize their alumni bases do not have infinite funds - and the proud donor base has already been paying. We are in the early days of NIL and the largest funds are coming from money that has been sitting on the sidelines. At what point do donors start to assess the ROI of these investments? At what point does NIL impact a donor's willingness to fund football/athletics operations? Capital projects and coach salaries could be impacted. What could blow up NIL and college football as we know it? Bezos dropping $1B to make Princeton a D1 power or Musk dropping the same at Penn. Because they are in the Ivy league, it is unlikely. However, what if Jerry Jones, Rob Walton, and Jim Walton decided to endow the Arkansas football program? In total, they are worth $130B (Jerry's the poor one at $10B net worth). Again, it is unlikely, but Jerry might be willing to do it for his ego. @WBT said, "It's almost like ESPN's drive to make college football a regional sport (in a low population, low income region at that) is bad for business." When you look at the present outcome, that model is mind-boggling. I think they were following the NASCAR model. Also regional and in similar regions, (at one time) fans spent more of their disposable income on NASCAR than any other sport. However, NASCAR has parity.
  11. Poor guy's dick has a toenail.
  12. He is talking so much that it has almost become white noise for me.
  13. In 1987, auto-admit was 1100 or top-quarter. If you were willing to take 2 summer school classes and get Bs, you were also in. SAT and ACT have become big business these days. They want you to take the test multiple times, buy their review materials, buy tutorials, etc. The SAT has been redesigned many times over the years. Aside from the 1600 -> 2400 -> 1600 scoring changes, the most profound change occurred in 2017, which resulted in average scores rising by about 40-50 points. Now, Johnny Average feels smarter than his also average older sibling. This is a good article charting the data: https://blog.prepscholar.com/average-sat-scores-over-time
  14. Of the drive-thru burger places we've mentioned, I think PTerry's is near the top. @Harvdog did a really good assessment of Hop Doddy. For what it's worth, Larry Foles (Nick Foles's father) was one of the "innovators" behind Hop Doddy. Larry is one of the principals in "Guy And Larry Restaurants" and their portfolio includes Salty Sow and Roaring Fork (among others). The burgers at Roaring Fork are quite good...
  15. I'll add to the fray here. I will not drop a burger place if the fries are shit. I'll just not order them again. Mighty Fine is well above average and consistent at that. Not exactly "fast food" though. I like Phil's, especially the Jollyville burger - french toast bun Dan's (or Fran's) is a great burger. HopDoddy is asymptotically approaching mediocre. The first few times was good and it has gotten less compelling each time. One of my kids ordered a burger "plain" from them. It was extremely unimpressive. And - premium pricing... In the 80s and early 90s, Fuddruckers and Chilis had high quality (and quantity) burgers. The ingredient quality fell off a cliff about 10-15 years ago. Fuddruckers had VERY good buns - and of course the pump jalapeno cheese. Whataburger has fallen off lately. The food quality has dropped. The service has suffered. I no longer seek it out. I liked Jewboy, but I do not view it as the transcendent burger that others do. First had In N Out in SoCal. First visit was OK. Second visit sucked. Will not give them my business again. If I recall correctly, PTerry's was modeled after In N Out after the Terry's tried to get In N Out to franchise in Texas. It's better than In N Out. Large nationals like Burger King, McDonalds, Hardees, Jack, etc. are typically at the bottom of the list for me. Their only advantage: reasonably predictable floor. They'll be mediocre to poor, but seldom worse than expected. Seldom better, too.
  16. Carriker's take is interesting: cautiously optimistic. "Thompson chose Nebraska over [lists all the names Charles floated to the media]." "It's a QB competition. Gotta be open." Coming from Texas, son of OU QB - "Am I the only that feels like we might getting kamikze'd here? ... Let's take Barry Switzer's son..." Hilarious. Recurring comments about "waiting his turn to play" are interesting. Seniority should not be a criterion [or only one of many, many more] for whether he should play. We'd scrutinized Brown for years when he used that approach. Casey was waiting because Ehlinger was better. He was QB2 (or 1b) to start this year because - heading out of camp - Card was better. "Politics" to Charles Thompson is really him disliking Sark's merit approach vs. a seniority approach. I appreciate what he did while he was here and wish him no ill will - not that he would give a darn anyway Hook Em
  17. Are there any specific concrete examples you can share w/o violating confidences, etc? I've heard comments about arrogance, poor effort, and lack of background study. There were reasons Card was named the starter at the beginning of the season and I have to believe they were more meaningful and sophisticated than, "everything being equal, start the young guy."
  18. FIFY. Imagine one of Eddie Reese's swimmers pulling any of the crap AB pulled. Goodbye! [edited for clarity]
  19. They overlapped for Brown's first 2 years. 2010-2011 In 2010, Pittsburgh had Mike Wallace, Hines Ward, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antwan Randle El ahead of him. Brown had 16 receptions for 169 yards. 5-90 in postseason. They lost to GB in the super bowl. In 2011, Brown had 69 receptions for 1109 yards and 2 TDs and was named team MVP. 2nd leading receiver with largely the same WR room. Jericho Cotchery replaced Randle El. Arians had to have known him in Pittsburgh. I do not know when his erratic behavior became more apparent, though it's pretty clear Tomlin managed him fairly well.
  20. Adam works at ESPN. I sometimes watch ESPN. Adam is a lying cockbag. ESPN will protect the NFL shield.
  21. In general, AB's past behavior makes it difficult for him to be a credible or sympathetic character. You cannot be an asshat in 99% of your life and expect for folks to immediately align with you on the 1% where you are being totally honest and sincere. And Arians knows this. Let's assume AB is telling the truth here. His histrionics forced this whole episode to be played out in public. And likely made him persona non grata for every other team in the NFL (not really if he can still play). It's not in his nature, but if he had let this play out by seeking the counsel and assistance of his attorney and of the NFLPA, the Bucs might end up with serious sanctions, etc. and may have mitigated additional damage to his career.
  22. The only sentence he actually wrote: "Business gonna be BOOMIN!" He asserts that Arians gave him the throat slash gesture. If true, it's on video somewhere. If FOX does not have it, there are 50k+ cameras in that stadium and SOMEONE has it recorded. That would definitely help his credibility.
  23. ISU and WVU lost. Your highlighting is wrong.
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