The byes are gone! Now it's just pure football week in and week out for the next two months! Big games this week: Can Chicago bounce back against the Giants or have they been exposed? Yeah, their defense is solid, but that won't do it by itself. San Diego at Cincy should be good too, as well as Philly and Washington. Should be a good day to watch some football!

• Baltimore (-7.5) vs. Tennessee (38 O/U)
• Buffalo vs. Indianapolis (-13) (45 O/U)
• Chicago vs. New York Giants (0) (39 O/U)
• Cleveland vs. Atlanta (-7.5) (41.5 O/U)
• Green Bay vs. Minnesota (-5) (39 O/U)
• Houston vs. Jacksonville (-11) (37.5 O/U)
• Kansas City (-2.5) vs. Miami (40 O/U)
• New Orleans vs. Pittsburgh (-4.5) (45.5 O/U)
• New York Jets* vs. New England (-10.5) (39.5 O/U)
• San Diego (-1.5) vs. Cincinnati (47.5 O/U)
• San Francisco vs. Detroit (-6.5) (44.5 O/U)
• Washington vs. Philadelphia (-7) (43 O/U)
• Denver (-10) vs. Oakland (33 O/U)
• Dallas (-7.5) vs. Arizona (43 O/U)
• St. Louis vs. Seattle (-3) (44.5 O/U)
• Tampa Bay vs. Carolina (-9.5) (37 O/U)

Technorati Tags: NFL | Picks | Odds

I', still a?little bit in shock after this week - Detroit, Buffalo, Miami, and Santa Clara - oops, San Francisco all got W's this weekend. That's a lot of meaningless wins - unless you're Atlanta, Chicago or Minnesota, and then the win has meaning because it translates to a loss for them.

I didn't realize how much of an impact Jerome Bettis had on the Steelers, and I used to joke about that, since I didn't really believe it. That was until I heard that 6 of Ben's 14 picks have been from inside the 5 yard line of their opponent. My first thought was why on earth are they passing from the goal line, but I realized it's because they don't have a big, bruising back to pound the ball in. If there were 6 picks, you can count on there being at least 6 incompletions too. That's 12 attempts that last year were probably runs by Bettis. Imagine how outcomes could have changed if 8 of those were touchdowns. 5 of their losses were by 10 or less points, and 2 were 7 or less. Add 8 touchdowns in there, and it's pretty feasible that they could have won 3 or 4 of those 5 games. Instead of 2-6, that would be 5-3 or 6-2. All theory, but interesting none the less.

• Atlanta 14 (-6.5), Detroit 30 (47 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]:
• Cincinnati 20, Baltimore 26 (-3) (41.5 O/U) [P: $5.88, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $5.88]:
• Dallas 19 (-3.5), Washington 22 (41 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $0.00, T: ($20.00)]:
• Green Bay 10, Buffalo 24 (-3) (40.5 O/U) [P: $6.06, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $25.15]:
• Houston* 10, New York Giants 14 (-14) (43 O/U) [P: $1.00, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $20.09]:
• Kansas City 31, St. Louis 17 (-2.5) (48 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $0.00, T: ($20.00)]:
• Miami* 31, Chicago 13 (-14.5) (37 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: ($10.00)]:
• New Orleans 31 (-2), Tampa Bay 14 (38.5 O/U) [P: $7.69, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $26.78]:
• Tennessee 7, Jacksonville 37 (-9.5) (37.5 O/U) [P: $1.82, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $20.91]:
• Minnesota 3 (-6), San Francisco 9 (43 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]:
• Cleveland* 25, San Diego 32 (-13.5) (41 O/U) [P: $1.25, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $1.25]:
• Denver 31, Pittsburgh 20 (-2) (36.5 O/U) [P: $11.50, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $30.59]:
• Indianapolis 27, New England 20 (-3) (49.5 O/U) [P: $14.00, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $33.09]:
• Oakland 0, Seattle 16 (-7) (37 O/U) [P: $6.25, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $6.25]:

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 9 - 5 (64.29%) - Winnings: $5.45
• Picks (season): 84 - 44 (65.63%) - Winnings: ($21.92)
• Spread (this week): 10 - 4 (71.43%) - Winnings: $60.00
• Spread (season): 61 - 63 (49.19%) - Winnings: ($20.00)
• Over/Under (this week): 8 - 4 (66.67%) - Winnings: $32.73
• Over/Under (season): 76 - 48 (61.29%) - Winnings: $210.91
• Total Weekly Winnings: $98.18
• Total Overall Winnings: $168.98

Technorati Tags: NFL | Picks | Odds

The folks over at CodeSmith have released version 4.0 at DevConnections in Las Vegas (as I predicted during my talk at the GR .NET User Group back in October). The new features are pretty compelling, but by far my favorite right now is the ability to basically treat a template as a code snippet.

As I get more and more into it, I think I'll be able to see a lot of value in CodeSmith Projects, as those could be pretty compelling for easy code generation as part of a build process.

Anyway, I'm excited, and hoping to get the upgrade soon!

Technorati Tags: CodeSmith

It's been about a week or so since I've finally gotten my issues with FeedDemon taken care of. I didn't post about the issues I was having because I didn't see it helping the situation at all, but now that it's over, I think the guys over at Newsgator deserve some recognition.

First, my issue: FeedDemon stopped synching automatically - I could synch manually, but it never took place on it's own. It also stopped marking most items read, meaning that I quickly got up to 5000+ unread items that got synched every time. Feed reading became a headache rather than something I enjoyed. Then one day, it just started working again - I think it has to do with upgrading to the latest Windows Live Messenger - that's all that changed that day - and suddenly, synching started working again.

Here's how you can tell a company has good customer service: The Newsgator support team (a.k.a. Jack Brewster) didn't actually solve the problem, but yet I felt that I was important the whole time. He kept me informed of what was going on, including indicating that he was in touch with Nick Bradbury about the issues, and though the support ticket stretched over the course of a week or so and not much changing on either end, I think I had contact with him on basically a daily basis. Basically, he did an awesome job in my opinion - and this isn't the first time I've thought that about him.

And in case you were wondering, about the time my laptop started working again, the Newsgator team (Nick) was pretty sure they found the issue and fixed it. As a matter of fact, from the release notes on the latest beta, two bugs I found are fixed - look for 73823 and 76137.

Oh yeah - 2.1 rocks! I've completely changed how I read feeds now.?I used to read feeds one item at a time, but since 2.1 added paged newspaper viewing, I'm now in Dave Winer's River Of News camp. Now that I'm using it, I can't believe I went this long without it!

Technorati Tags: FeedDemon | Newsgator | River+Of+News | Customer+Service

It seems the debate is still going. This time, it's between Scott Hanselman and Paul Stovell. Scott (and Keith Pleas) did a presentation at Tech Ed this year about building enterprise frameworks. Scott had a slide basically saying that when you build a framework, you need to be careful about how you allow your users to extend it. He says to use internal and sealed more and only open it up as people request it. He does a good job of defending his position, using real life examples in his day to day job.

Paul, on the other hand, doesn't agree with Scott's assessment, maintaining that he gets routinely frustrated looking at the .NET framework and seeing the code he needs hidden in?an internal or sealed class.

It's an interesting debate. I'm torn on where I come down on it, because I can see benefits of both sides. Having built a framework, I've thought about both sides of it, and right now, I fall in the open inheritance camp. At least based on what we delivered in the framework - everything is public, and can be potentially overridden. Oh yeah, and since the framework is a set of templates, the generated source is delivered with it.

And maybe that's the difference. If I was required to deliver a framework in DLL format, I might have a different view. Then I would be responsible for how every project used every portion of the framework. That could be tough over time, especially as new versions get released. By delivering source, you get a "snapshot framework" - you get it from a point in time, and from there, you have choices. First, don't modify the generated code or templates in hopes that you can get updates to the framework as we release new ones. Second,?change just the templates so you only have to worry about merging in template changes if you want to go to a new release.?Lastly, change the generated code and go off on your own. No matter what a user decides, we're not necessarily maintaining the framework for that project anymore. We're now maintaining it for future projects. So, since you get the source, we can be as open as we want to be - you get the source anyway, so even if we closed it up, you could just as easily open it back?up.

But when you release a framework as a standalone thing, it's a little tougher to take the plunge and just open it up. You now are responsible for the way everyone uses it, and if they use it in a "new and interesting way" (read, they break it), you have to fix it. And when you have to fix it, you'll be much more judicious about how much you expose. Reading Paul's post, it's obvious what view he's coming from - a user of the framework.?And when you think about that, it's obvious where the argument is going. He wants to be able to get to the inner workings of anything he's doing - because nothing will ever be a 100% exact match. On the other side is Scott.?He has to build and maintain the framework, so he's going to be much more stringent in how he opens it up. Same with the .NET framework - if it was wide open, it probably wouldn't be nearly as accepted as it is today, just because of the ways it would get extended and the reputation it would get for not working because someone broke the internals of it.

Agree or disagree, just seeing the discussions brings about a lot of great ideas and different ways of thinking, which is good for all of us.

Technorati Tags: Designed+Inheritance | Open+Inheritance

The latest ARCast podcast from Ron Jacobs is about Microsoft's Certified Architect Program. Normally, that wouldn't be enough for me to post about it. But this one features a former NuSoft employee - Jim Wilt. He's an extremely smart man, and is one of the first people to go through this certification program.

The?WMA file seemed to be off for the first 6 minutes (not sure about the MP3 version), but after that, it's fine, and worth a listen if you're an architect and wondering what this new process entails. What Jim said reflects fairly accurately what he'd relayed to me in the past when he went through the process.

Technorati Tags: ARCast

Once again, I'm late in the week posting this, but still before Sunday, so it's still valid!

There's some good games this week - Cincy / Baltimore, Denver / Pittsburgh, and Indy / New England all look really good. Then you have a few duds: Green Bay / Buffalo and Oakland / Seattle come to mind. Too bad one of the duds ends up on MNF. At least Sunday night is a good one.

• Atlanta (-6.5) vs. Detroit (47 O/U):
• Cincinnati vs. Baltimore (-3) (41.5 O/U):
• Dallas (-3.5) vs. Washington (41 O/U):
• Green Bay vs. Buffalo (-3) (40.5 O/U):
• Houston* vs. New York Giants (-14) (43 O/U):
• Kansas City vs. St. Louis (-2.5) (48 O/U):
• Miami* vs. Chicago (-14.5) (37 O/U):
• New Orleans (-2) vs. Tampa Bay (38.5 O/U):
• Tennessee vs. Jacksonville (-9.5) (37.5 O/U):
• Minnesota (-6) vs. San Francisco (43 O/U):
• Cleveland* vs. San Diego (-13.5) (41 O/U):
• Denver vs. Pittsburgh (-2) (36.5 O/U):
• Indianapolis vs. New England (-3) (49.5 O/U):
• Oakland vs. Seattle (-7) (37 O/U):

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Technorati Tags: NFL | Odds | Picks

It's official! Pittsburgh is the team to make the Super Bowl and miss the playoffs the next season. You can't even look at their schedule and find hope - if you have the same record as Oakland this far into the season, you might as well call it quits. Did Jerome Bettis really have that much impact on this team? If Cowher was thinking of retiring after this season, will he still do it? Do you think he wishes he'd joined Bettis last year? After last week when I touted the Jets' chances based on their weak schedule, they go out and lose to Cleveland. So much for that advantageous schedule, huh? If Tennessee beats Houston, and no one is watching, does it count? Kansas City is an odd team - they look horrible some weeks (not their fault - having your QB's head taken off in the first week will do that to you) and then they come out and wallop Seattle. Yeah, Seattle isn't as dominating as last year, but they are still tied for the lead in their division. Indy / Denver was by far the best game of the weekend, and possibly a glimpse of what's to come in the playoffs, where Denver will probably crumble under the pressure again. New England / Minnesota turned out to be a dud, didn't it? I guess Tom Brady's a pretty good quarterback and apparently plays well under pressure. It's like he's played in big games before.

My performance this week wasn't all that good, but I still only ended up down $3.00. Not too bad - and as usual, my O/U picks are carrying me. So far for the season, I'm at a very decent 15% return - making $178 on $1120 down. Overall, at the half way point, my return isn't quite as nice - $70 on $3360, or 2% (and dwindling every week!).

• Arizona 14, Green Bay 31 (-4) (44.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• Atlanta 29, Cincinnati 27 (-4) (44 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]
• Baltimore 35, New Orleans 22 (-2.5) (37 O/U) [P: $11.50, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $11.50]
• Houston 22, Tennessee 28 (-3) (42 O/U) [P: $6.45, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $6.45]
• Jacksonville 13, Philadelphia 6 (-7) (42.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]
• Seattle 22, Kansas City 35 (-6) (38.5 O/U) [P: $3.57, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $22.66]
• San Francisco* 10, Chicago 41 (-17) (42.5 O/U) [P: $0.61, S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($19.39)]
• Tampa Bay 3, New York Giants 17 (-9) (41 O/U) [P: $2.22, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $21.31]
• St. Louis 24, San Diego 38 (-9.5) (46 O/U) [P: $2.27, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $21.36]
• Indianapolis 34, Denver 31 (-1.5) (39 O/U) [P: $10.50, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $29.59]
• New York Jets 13, Cleveland 20 (0) (38 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• Pittsburgh 13 (-9), Oakland 20 (38.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• Dallas 35, Carolina 14 (-6.5) (41 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]
• New England 31 (-3), Minnesota 7 (40 O/U) [P: $6.90, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $25.99]

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 8 - 6 (57.14%) - Winnings: ($15.98)
• Picks (season): 75 - 39 (65.79%) - Winnings: ($27.38)
• Spread (this week): 7 - 7 (50.00%) - Winnings: $0.00
• Spread (season): 51 - 59 (46.36%) - Winnings: ($80.00)
• Over/Under (this week): 8 - 6 (57.14%) - Winnings: $12.73
• Over/Under (season): 68 - 44 (60.71%) - Winnings: $178.18
• Total Weekly Winnings: ($3.25)
• Total Overall Winnings: $70.80

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Technorati Tags: NFL | Picks | Odds

Mid-season. Bitter sweet. I wonder how baseball ratings compare to the NFL? The Tigers in the Series is exciting, but it would be nothing compared to the Lions being in the Super Bowl. Michigan would go crazy.

This could be Chicago's week to lose. Remember the problems they had with Arizona? Well, the 49ers are worse, so it's only logical that they be able to pull it off when no one else can. Arizona and Green Bay: yet another early season meaningless game. Kind of like Houston and Tennessee. Now, here's an odd thought. Given the Jets' schedule, they could be a playoff team pretty easily. It's pretty weak. Pencil them in!

• Arizona vs. Green Bay (-4) (44.5 O/U)
• Atlanta vs. Cincinnati (-4) (44 O/U)
• Baltimore vs. New Orleans (-2.5) (37 O/U)
• Houston vs. Tennessee (-3) (42 O/U)
• Jacksonville vs. Philadelphia (-7) (42.5 O/U)
• Seattle vs. Kansas City (-6) (38.5 O/U)
• San Francisco* vs. Chicago (-17) (42.5 O/U)
• Tampa Bay vs. New York Giants (-9) (41 O/U)
• St. Louis vs. San Diego (-9.5) (46 O/U)
• Indianapolis vs. Denver (-1.5) (39 O/U)
• New York Jets vs. Cleveland (0) (38 O/U)
• Pittsburgh (-9) vs. Oakland (38.5 O/U)
• Dallas vs. Carolina (-6.5) (41 O/U)
• New England (-3) vs. Minnesota (40 O/U)

Technorati Tags: NFL | Picks | Odds

?Another down week - and this week, I was actually down picking games even. But seriously, how many people actually picked Green Bay, Houston, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Oakland, and Minnesota to actually be able to beat their opponents? Those games right there are 6 of my 7 missed picks. I could have been 12-1!

In case you missed it?a bit ago, I obviously forgot about Indy being undefeated. Unfortunately, the next possible match up of undefeateds is the Super Bowl. I think it's almost a given that we won't be seeing that. But wouldn't that be exciting? So Bill Parcels is now an idiot in Dallas? He's been a winner everywhere else, but all of?a sudden, he can't coach again? I wonder if Jerry Jones has anything to do with Bill's performance...

• Carolina 14, Cincinnati 17 (-3) (44.5 O/U) [P: $6.45, S: $0.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $15.54]
• Detroit 24, New York Jets 31 (-4.5) (43 O/U) [P: $5.00, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $5.00]
• Green Bay 34, Miami 24 (-5) (40 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]
• Jacksonville 7 (-9.5), Houston* 27 (41 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: ($10.00)]
• New England 28 (-7), Buffalo 6 (37.5 O/U) [P: $4.26, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $4.26]
• Philadelphia 21 (-6.5), Tampa Bay 23 (42.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]
• Pittsburgh 38 (-3), Atlanta 41 (37.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• San Diego 27 (-6), Kansas City 30 (42 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• Denver 17 (-6.5), Cleveland 7 (31.5 O/U) [P: $4.35, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $23.44]
• Arizona 9 (-4), Oakland 22 (40 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• Minnesota 31, Seattle 13 (-7) (41 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]
• Washington 22, Indianapolis 36 (-8.5) (48.5 O/U) [P: $2.22, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $21.31]
• New York Giants 36, Dallas 22 (-3) (45 O/U) [P: $16.00, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $16.00]

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 6 - 7 (46.15%) - Winnings: ($31.72)
• Picks (season): 67 - 33 (67.00%) - Winnings: ($11.40)
• Spread (this week): 6 - 6 (50.00%) - Winnings: $0.00
• Spread (season): 44 - 52 (45.83%) - Winnings: ($80.00)
• Over/Under (this week): 7 - 6 (53.85%) - Winnings: $3.64
• Over/Under (season): 60 - 38 (61.22%) - Winnings: $165.45
• Total Weekly Winnings: ($28.09)
• Total Overall Winnings: $74.06

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Technorati Tags: NFL | Picks | Odds