The Numbers Men
Oct. 17th, 2005 07:23 amEver since I was young, I have had an unhealthy obsession with numbers. With football matches, this extended to my main interest in the results in the Sunday edition (this being when some games were still played on Saturday at 3pm) being the level of attendance at each game. Specifically, how attendances differed from division to division.
I always got obscure pleasure from seeing third division sides who obviously had some kind of hard core fanatcial supporters, generating 20,000+ attendances for games at home to the likes of Bury. Meanwhile, other clubs (I recall Carlisle's foray into the upper echelons here) struggled to reach crowds of 9,000, even when 8,000 of them were travelling Manchester United fans (although none of these, of course, would have come from Manchester).
It is for this reason that I remember the dark days of First division football back in the early 1980s, when average attendances were about 20,000. I remember Newcastle heading towards relegation and getting attendances in the region of 9,000. And ticket prices were a lot cheaper in those days. So, say what you like about the recent changes in pricing, television coverage and the like -- it hasn't impacted attendances. And, to be honest, I never thought that I would see the day when Wigan, a club I remember from its non-league days -- would generate an attendance of more than 20,000.
Neither has it hit attendances at the lower division games. These too are up on about 20 years ago.
+++++
Microsoft continues in its attempt to gain unrivalled levels of shit-hood. I updated Windows last night and, of course, it promptly decided to stop my main machine from communicating with the outside world. All settings were restored to defaults, fucking me up no end. I quickly looked up on the other machine how to turn off the firewall (I vaguely recalled that turning it off and later turning it back on worked last time) and, yes, this worked. So, the Microsoft idea of an "upgrade" or "update" is to stop your machine doing what you want it to do. You then end up talking to a softly-spoken incomprehensible Irishman whose main talent is the management of someone else's anger, because that is what he usually has to do. When it comes to technical matters, he is fucking useless. Which is all to the good (from Microsoft's point of view), because it means that, next time round, you don't bother phoning Microsoft.
I think that the perfect Windows XP car would be one that wouldn't go anywhere and which had locks that meant you couldn't open the door. Microsoft would then proclaim it the safest, most secure car on the planet.
Paul Phillips, geek extraordinaire, wrote a piece yesterday on how he spent many man-hours working out how to rip Flac (lossless) CDs without using Windows. Although this all seemed somewhat pointless, you have to admire the man for making a stand. For doing so, he wastes more time than I would care to -- life is too short. But, well, I'm glad that he does it.
+++++
Those of you who watched the Ultimate Poker Challenge on Saturday (I caught a bit by accident after The Shield finished) would have seen Liv being taken back to make-up and the game being put "on hold" for a while because of a dispute over whether someone said "raise". Okay, I know that these people are all novices, but I would seriously love the Luton Friday-night fest to be delayed for half an hour because one of the players burst into tears and needed time to cool down.
There's more to the game than knowing how to play the cards. My own temperament (which requires blowing off steam, shouting, whatever, to stop me tilting) is more suited to online play, because I also have a tendency to let my emotions get the better of me in live games. But I haven't yet had to ask for a delay so that I can get my make-up put right.
Poor old Vicky C came out with a horrific comment as the players sat down again, along the lines of "personally, I find that a new dash of lipstick cures most problems". I'm sure she can't be taking this series seriously. Well, I know that no-one else is (let's hope that Roy and Vicky got good money out of it). What is good about the programme is that it might encourage some UK players into the game who, if they take anything in this series as a guide, while fairly quickly be ripped to shreds.
I always got obscure pleasure from seeing third division sides who obviously had some kind of hard core fanatcial supporters, generating 20,000+ attendances for games at home to the likes of Bury. Meanwhile, other clubs (I recall Carlisle's foray into the upper echelons here) struggled to reach crowds of 9,000, even when 8,000 of them were travelling Manchester United fans (although none of these, of course, would have come from Manchester).
It is for this reason that I remember the dark days of First division football back in the early 1980s, when average attendances were about 20,000. I remember Newcastle heading towards relegation and getting attendances in the region of 9,000. And ticket prices were a lot cheaper in those days. So, say what you like about the recent changes in pricing, television coverage and the like -- it hasn't impacted attendances. And, to be honest, I never thought that I would see the day when Wigan, a club I remember from its non-league days -- would generate an attendance of more than 20,000.
Neither has it hit attendances at the lower division games. These too are up on about 20 years ago.
+++++
Microsoft continues in its attempt to gain unrivalled levels of shit-hood. I updated Windows last night and, of course, it promptly decided to stop my main machine from communicating with the outside world. All settings were restored to defaults, fucking me up no end. I quickly looked up on the other machine how to turn off the firewall (I vaguely recalled that turning it off and later turning it back on worked last time) and, yes, this worked. So, the Microsoft idea of an "upgrade" or "update" is to stop your machine doing what you want it to do. You then end up talking to a softly-spoken incomprehensible Irishman whose main talent is the management of someone else's anger, because that is what he usually has to do. When it comes to technical matters, he is fucking useless. Which is all to the good (from Microsoft's point of view), because it means that, next time round, you don't bother phoning Microsoft.
I think that the perfect Windows XP car would be one that wouldn't go anywhere and which had locks that meant you couldn't open the door. Microsoft would then proclaim it the safest, most secure car on the planet.
Paul Phillips, geek extraordinaire, wrote a piece yesterday on how he spent many man-hours working out how to rip Flac (lossless) CDs without using Windows. Although this all seemed somewhat pointless, you have to admire the man for making a stand. For doing so, he wastes more time than I would care to -- life is too short. But, well, I'm glad that he does it.
+++++
Those of you who watched the Ultimate Poker Challenge on Saturday (I caught a bit by accident after The Shield finished) would have seen Liv being taken back to make-up and the game being put "on hold" for a while because of a dispute over whether someone said "raise". Okay, I know that these people are all novices, but I would seriously love the Luton Friday-night fest to be delayed for half an hour because one of the players burst into tears and needed time to cool down.
There's more to the game than knowing how to play the cards. My own temperament (which requires blowing off steam, shouting, whatever, to stop me tilting) is more suited to online play, because I also have a tendency to let my emotions get the better of me in live games. But I haven't yet had to ask for a delay so that I can get my make-up put right.
Poor old Vicky C came out with a horrific comment as the players sat down again, along the lines of "personally, I find that a new dash of lipstick cures most problems". I'm sure she can't be taking this series seriously. Well, I know that no-one else is (let's hope that Roy and Vicky got good money out of it). What is good about the programme is that it might encourage some UK players into the game who, if they take anything in this series as a guide, while fairly quickly be ripped to shreds.