Technology and Football

Friday's New York Times online ran an article titled "N.C.A.A. Is Slower to Embrace Technology" about two of my favorite subjects; technology and college football. The gist of the story is that, since the NCAA prohibits computers and television monitors in the coaches' box during games, coaches are at a disadvantage. They can't watch replays or plan strategies by examining their data on the other team's tendencies.

The technology ban is driven partly by the idea that the game should be decided by players on the field. I support this...kind of. For a long time I was opposed to officials using instant replay during a game. While it was interesting for fans to watch the replays on TV and the Jumbotron, I felt it was an intrusion for officials to use it. Let the players play the game and the officials make the calls. If they made a mistake, that was the breaks. The game had been played without replay for decades and survived. Also, games were often delayed for several minutes while the officials deliberated. But I gradually changed my mind. If it makes the game fairer, I'll go for it. Also, there's now a time limit on how long the refs can mull things over.

The article features a photo of the Penn State coaching staff looking glum. This shot was taken during the Temple game when, because a leg injury, head coach Joe Paterno spent the second half in the box instead of pacing the sideline. As Heath Ledger said, "Why so serious?" The Lions won the game by a score of 45-3.

One final note: I almost reconsidered my take on replays last weekend during the PSU/Illinois game. An Illinois receiver snagged a pass at the edge of the end zone. Clearly out of bounds, IMHO. But replay reversed the call and Illinois took the lead. No worries. The Lions prevailed again.

Learn to Use the New Library Catalog

The library has a new state-of-the-art online catalog! I'll be doing a demonstration on Wednesday, October 1 at 2:00 p.m. in the Sargent Community Room. I'll show you the catalog's innovative features, including easy-to-use search tools, customized reading lists, RSS feeds and much more. Please join us for a look at the latest in library technology. To register, please visit the library's Events Calendar.

New Features on our Events Calendar

The library's online Events Calendar has been improved with several useful features. Above the calendar are two new buttons. The "Print View" button will show you a printer-friendly version of the calendar. In addition, if you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to the calendar with the "RSS feed" button. Library events will be automatically sent to your reader. But there's even more! Clicking on an event listing opens the Event Information window, which also has two new buttons. Click the "Notify Me" button and we'll e-mail you about similar events at the library. The "Download to calendar" button will let you send the event to an web-based calendar, such as Google Calendar.

Online Computer Dictionaries

Computer terms can sometimes sound like a foreign language. FOLDOC, the Free Online Dictionary of Computing, and techdictionary are online dictionaries that can help. In addition to computer terms, they also contain Internet and telecommunications terms, acronyms, emoticons or smilies, chat abbreviations, filename extensions, HTML tags, and domain suffixes.