5 Thoughts for August 3, 2015

1. Motley Fool has the most ridiculous assertion, that Comcast's Gigabit Pro is a Google Fiber killer. Ridiculous, you see, because 2Gbps at $300 is limited to medium-sized businesses and apartment buildings. Just about everyone else will find 1Gbps far in excess of their actual needs, including VSBs, or will otherwise provision multiple 1Gbps connections. Just think about it: (2) 1Gbps Google Fiber = $200 (business rate) vs 2Gbps Comcast Gigabit Pro = $300. Math should be simple, except at Motley Fool, apparently.
2. Yay! Russell Wilson has agreed to terms. Apparently it's 4 years, $87.5M with a $30M signing bonus spread over the contract and $60M guaranteed. Then, they followed up by signing Bobby Wagner in a long-term deal, which means that all of their stars are locked away until the end of 2017. This could be a sign of a mini-dynasty in the NFL.
3. The IOC's two remaining finalists for the 2022 Winter Olympics, are two fairly repressive regimes: China and Kazakhstan. China won. Riddle me this: How did Beijing, China win the Winter Olympics, which are hosted in February, when air pollution in Beijing is highest in February? Oh, and it'll all be fake snow, which resembles the Sochi debacle where temperatures were 60F and all of the snow was fake. Things that make you go, hmm.
4. Windows 10 is not bug free. I've encountered a handful of usability bugs while using it for the last two days. But other than usability issues, it's working fine (no BSODs and no freezes). It's much better than W8, by way of the little refinements (visual and usability) and the return of the start menu accessed directly from the desktop. Boy, it bugged the hell out of me that I had to go to the live tiles mode to access the start menu. Of course Microsoft being Microsoft, they really want you to use a Microsoft account to use some of the more interesting additions -- I find this annoying as you know that it's being used to track you.
5. Rio, Brazil and the IOC are somewhat in a panic mode right now. After trying to pass bullshit off as truth, saying that the waters in Rio are safe for the 2016 Olympics, the WHO told them that they had to test for both bacteria and viruses. You see, up until the AP report came out, Rio was only testing for bacteria. There is no way Brazil can afford to make the required investment and construct the infrastructure required -- think how much and long it took for Portland's Big Pipe to get built -- which means that Rio 2016 will be as infamous as Sochi 2014.