Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 12, 2010 -> 06:42 AM) Which kind of makes me wonder, shouldn't this be a world wide response, not just a BP / US response? You mean the other coutnries that immediately offered up its ships and resources to help with the Gulf clean-up? Oh wait, our government ignored those offers. If they did we would have had a lot more ships out there cleaning things. Countries were offering assistance pretty damn immediately and our govenrment as well as BP looked the other way (albeit, our government is far more responsible for accepting governmental assistance from other countries than BP). This has been an epic f***up and the Obama administration is culprit 1B along with BP.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 10, 2010 -> 06:59 AM) So, serious question for those who know better. I've been holding 20 shares of BP for the last decade that my Aunt gave me when I graduated high school. If BP goes into Chapter 11 to protect it from creditors, what typically happens to common stock shareholders? Is it worth holding those shares or should I look into dumping it and taking the $600 loss now? They will not go bankrupt.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 12, 2010 -> 07:02 AM) I find it hard to have sympathy. BP was a transparently awful company, and investing in inherently risky. Holy cripes, you guys should have heard the British news outlets talk about Obama and the way the US is handling this thing. They are ballistic. They talk I heard was not what I typically associated with England and the US. It calmed down a bit after Cameron had his talk with Obama but they are f***ing livid at the Obama administration and they refer to him as the Great Joke (instead of the Great Hope). The British citizens are getting killed as there retirements are heavily impacted by what the US government is asking for. I personally have a major long-term buy status on BP because they will recover from this and right now they are incredibly undervalued. However, I could be a complete dumbass and be wrong. I tend to believe people over-react.

Hey Dan. Sorry for the belated wishes, but Happy Bday to one of Soxtalk's finest!!!

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 06:02 PM) AGREED! He has some of the best pure stuff ever. But right now Jimenez is putting up the single greatest season in baseball history (from a pitching perspective, imo).

That is awesome Jeremy. I think I will use it for booking a room for Shipps wedding. You are the man

QUOTE (HeGone33 @ Jun 14, 2010 -> 11:49 AM) I'd like to use either the White Sox or Bulls intro music for the introductions and entrance at my wedding reception next month. I was wondering if anyone could provide the audio files of each for me? For the white sox version, I would use everything up to the Thunderstruck song. Thanks Go with the Bulls. That was what I did for my wedding intro music. Of course the DJ f***ed up.

QUOTE (SHIPPS @ Jun 15, 2010 -> 08:12 AM) I bought my sissy ass 02' Jeep Liberty from them last Febuary some of you might remember. This car in the last week has over heated and left me stuck twice. I feel like I have been sold a lemon. What are my options here? What are they going to do for me? I dont want them to fix it anymore because its a unreliable piece of s*** car. I want a new one. I bought an extended warranty but I just want another car. They arent yet to open so I dont know what to come at them with. I am just pissed off right now ! You are pretty much screwed. I believe the lemon law only applies to new cars. However, the fact that you have your extended warranty should cover you. I also should piont out that Jeep is notorious for having serious issues with there products. I know there will be people who will tell stories about there jeeps that have worked well, but in general, they build a very very poor product. The reason it is popular is because of the uniqueness and the Jeep Wrangler is a fantastic off-road vehicle.

f***. UCLA finally gets past the Titans. Fullerton has PWNED them over the years. s***, sucks, we blew game 2 and Rasmussen was money in game 3.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jun 14, 2010 -> 12:53 PM) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writ...walt.lee/1.html If this is true, it's not surprising at all. And it's sad as well. Ozzie needs to go. Unfortunately I dno't think it will happen. JR needs to have more faith in Kenny than Ozzie but I know JR is loyal, sometimes to a fault and in this case it is a major fault.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 12, 2010 -> 07:26 PM) Wow, UCLA with a two-run shot with 2 outs in the 9th. Puts them on top 7-6 Tell me about it, ugggh. Hopefully when I land back in the US tomorrow and log onto my computer I see that Fullerton has advanced.

How is the Stanley Cup possibly ahead of the World Series. No American sports profession has fewer teams make the playoffs and historically even less teams did. Teams in the NHL, NFL, and NBA have a much easier time getting in and from there like most sports, it is a bit if a crapshoot. World Cup I could buy into because of the 1 out of every 4 year thing and the fact that some countries have almost zero chance. Baseball has a few teams that have almost zero chance too.

US did ok. Some defensive breakdowns on the outside but they were all over the jump balls and our goalie was insane. Was very fun to watch the first game in Europe but I look back to getting into the US for Game 2 and catching the game with American commentators. I just don't understand the french ones all that well, haha. Huge game for the US on Friday.

USA USA USA Lets kick some ass. And I'm in France right now. What I would have done to see all of the french people crying like little b****es.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jun 11, 2010 -> 06:50 PM) JR would be foolish to allow KW to quit over Ozzie and his family. Kenny will be done at the end of the year and be promoted to another role. He can't just keep working as hard as he does with the stress that he goes through. He might go back and become another teams GM down the road again. That is what I believe will happen. Hahn has the job, they won't even need to really interview.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 8, 2010 -> 03:49 PM) As opposed to a team like Missouri going to California often. The geography sucks, there is no way around it. Multiple teams get shipped half way across the country every year. Haha. YOu've had to meet the Titans enough time over the past couple years. Than again, so has UCLA and I'm hoping after today they will be disposed of

QUOTE (Felix @ Jun 5, 2010 -> 09:00 AM) sup Haha. Your ace did his job though. He's a real good Friday starter with a nice MLB future. It has been super hard following from out of the country but I've been lucky to find a couple sports bars to catch some of my Titans post-season games. Hopefully Renken can do his thing tonight against UCLA and we can head back to Omaha!!!

QUOTE (girlslikebaseballtoo#26 @ Jun 4, 2010 -> 10:31 AM) YES ..She is taken!! Recently engaged actually! YAY ME!! ..I was single for a long time before this relationship though ..dated around, but couldn't be with a guy who would insist NASCAR is better than Baseball ..one who insisted men in firefighter uniforms were more attractive than ones in Baseball uniforms ..one that said Football was more of a man sport because it's full contact ...THEN I WENT OFF ..How is baseball not a contact sport? Watch a guy try to steal home and see if he doesn't get smashed on by that catcher ..Baseball requires a little bit of brain power also, which I LOVE!! I believe it takes a real man to stand at the pitchers mound and let a 5oz ball fly at them at speeds of up to 105mph. (depending on the speed of the ball thrown and the strength and accuracy of the batter), furthermore it takes a real man to sit behind a batter and catch balls off the bat at similar speeds from a shorter distance. ..SORRY ..I get carried away ..BREATHE BREN!! lmao Haha. I assume Blackwood is your fiance? If not, how do you know Blackwood? School?

Guys, I look forward to following the draft coverage on FS while I'm away on my honeymoon. I never miss the draft but I look forward to reading the threads while I'm in line at the Louvre, etc, haha. So here's to one awesome draft!!!!

Viciedo is back in the lineup.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 03:13 PM) Hmm, I think maybe you're seeing it that way through your yellow and black sprint-colored glasses. I know they take some flak because they have been the exclusive provider for the iPhone for the last 4 years or so, but there isn't much they can do about that. I also understand their network has been pushed a bit because of the wild success of the iPhone, but I wouldn't say they are "getting hit with tons of negative PR," or that their plan has been an "epic failure." Do you really think Verizon would be spending the amount of money fighting them through their ad campaign if they thought AT&T's plan was an "epic failure"? I agree with you that they were caught off-guard by the huge amounts of data that the iPhone users are consuming, but to say that paying $ for an exclusive contract for one of the most successful products of the 21st century and having more users than you anticipated, to the point that it is straining your infrastructure - to say that is a failure - that seems to be a bit inaccurate to me. I guess what matters now though is how they capitalize on their position in the marketplace going forward. Because you're right, the exclusivity contract will end sooner or later (2012?). ATT was the one who had there ad campaigns launched against Verizon (who I personally think is the best network around...pound for pound). And in terms of negative PR, I might be a little biased because I work really closely with a lot of IT types (who are huge Apple fan boys) but won't thing they won't ever quit jabbering about is how weak ATT's network is and everything along those lines. Same with my casual friends. Pretty much all of us, including those that have iphones, are pretty willing to admit it and this trend isn't just in my little click of friends and it is why ATT has begun advertising significantly about there coverage maps with the guy from Old School (not Jason Lee but the other one).

I did a little reading on the difference between CDMA and GSM and I haven't seen anything that really puts one or the other as being significantly better. Basically it seems like the USA has more CDMA than GSM and that for a while the US was primarily CDMA. Europe is primarily GDMA and than Asia is a mixed bag (CDMA & GSM). I don't know much about the Latin/African countries as neither appear to be on the cutting edge when it comes to cellular technology. I did read a few things that indicate CDMA has more long-term capabilities when it comes to download/upload speeds and that the big difference in the new networks Verizon/Sprint are rolling out is that the upload/download speeds will be much more real time as currently there is a lag on all of the providers prior to connecting (CDMA & GSM). Many more differences than that, but that appears to be one of the bigger differences. GSM has an international backing, but it appears in the world, CDMA is gaining some popularity. CDMA's upload speeds have real life possibilities of 700kbps per second to 384 for GSM. Basically put, GSM has more international pull, primarily due to the European Union making it the standard in Europe. CDMA has some real nice capabilities. Technically speaking, CDMA is a bit better, but from a data network standpoint, GSM wins because with a GSM phone you'll get more coverage WORLDWIDE.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 02:36 PM) No, I'm certainly not claiming their network is superior in any way. But to argue that they somehow are in trouble because their business plan succeeded more quickly than anyone might have predicted is silly. I don't think being overly successful is really going to kill them. ATT? Or Apple? r I don't necessarily think ATT's business plan has been overly successful. I think they currently have a network that can't handle the number of customers they have, but clearly they have to be happy with the # of customers they have. That said, there plan was an epic failure because they are getting hit wtih tons of negative PR and have generally a very bad public image. That isn't a good thing for the long-term continuance of your business, especially when your size is pretty reliant on an exclusive right agreement that will be ending in the foreseeable future.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 10:56 AM) Their 3G growth was exponentially faster than they thought it would be. CDMA's "3G" technology is really something that has been around a bit longer and didnt require the advances that GSM's did for rollout. Their "distressed" network is simply a lack of 3G coverage in certain areas which is overloading some of the towers which have to stream the data back to the sources. This wont be an issue for long as this has been ATT's push for over a year. In fact in Chicago, its made some major strides. Of course like I said before, CDMA devices interfere with GSM calls, so in large cities, more CDMA makes it harder for GSM devices to work properly. But clearly ATT has had superior devices, both on blackberries and now the Iphone. That might change a bit. ATT more than any other provider is so reliant on a 3rd party provider. Yes, they all rely on the LG's/Blackberry/etcs of the wrold, but ATT is the only one with this huge exclusive rights deal that they rely on for a major chunk of their business (and the Iphone business tends to be there biggest $ maker as the smartphone segment has much higher profit margins). The Android base is growing significantly and most of the good Android based phones are being released on the CDMA platforms and quite frankly if I was going to get behind a company during a war, I'd get behind Google. They should see an extraordinary market share gain as they continue to gain notoriety on the Verizon and Sprint networks, not to mention the new 4G phones being releasd by Verizon/Sprint appear to be incredible phones. Iphones are also incredible but more and more phones are capable of doing what an iphone can do at a lesser smart with more carrier flexibility. I also am not completely convinced that ATT has the best Blackberry phone. All of the BB phones with the exception of the storm appear to be kind of similar (from a general consumers standpoint). The big difference is on when the most recent model was released on each carrier, but be it a curve/tour/bold/etc they all tend to be similar. Only question is whether you need a world wide phone or not and than if you wnat a touch form (see storm). The European countries have some badass technology so I'd be really curious to see how that market does. I also am not sure who streams more...US or other countries. I know the rest of the world texts more than the US (albeit US texts a lot more than we used to), but I see us as being larger data hogs for some reason (complete guess though as I haven't looked into that).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 3, 2010 -> 10:51 AM) Now we're talking. The thing is that ATT's GSm technology has the backing of all of Europe, Asia and South America as far as development goes for both their 4G technology and any enhancements to their already superior 3G technology. The 4G technology that Verizon is rolling out is a very small footprint and many doubt the actual funding behind such a move as they would have to really start abandoning their 3G technology and make a commitment to the 4G LTE network that at the moment is almost exactly like the GSM 3G network. With such a large worldwide market share, GSM is clearly the leader in this space regardless of what maps on commercials tell people. GSM as of right now is the standard for cellular service, while CDMA is a nice bit player in America. I would actually put alot more stock into one of the Asian or European GSM companies to expand through ATT into the US and really make this a serious turf war. If I was to bet on a technology, I still think its whoever solves the cell network/WiMax issue. If a carrier can somehow seamlessly marry coverage from traditional cell towers and VOIP from an internet provider including home and public networks, then we have a very reliable, fast and technologically superior provider. Sprint seems to have a leg up in the whole VOIP thing but they haven't been able to come close to doing what they were originally hoping they would be capable of doing. I could definitely see a big cell phone company from outside of the US getting involved and getting ATT whipped into shape. They have really let there network deteriorate despite being on a platform that is considered favorable around the world. However, I'm not sure exactly GSM ended up winning out in world wide standards vs CDMA. Do you happen to know why? I thought part of the reason was that the European Union backed one source a long time ago so that happens to be what they went with. Where as in the US our government in a sense tends to stay out of those type of issues. It is why in some ways electroncially we can fall behind because we end up with companies investing in multiple platforms. However, it also tends to leads to some cool inventions and innovation.