Futbol And Football

Anybody following the UEFA Champions League semi-finals this week?

If you’re a soccer fan, it’s been a “must-see” week, with Chelsea outing the world-class Barcelona team on a 2^nd half lay-up by Fernando Torres in a match earlier this week, and Real Madrid losing to Bayern Munich last night in a heartbreaking 3-1 penalty shoot-out after Bayern had tied Real-Madrid 3-3 in the aggregate.

Bayern, a four-time champion of the Champions League, will now have reached the final for the second time in three seasons, and will take on Chelsea at Allianz Arena May 19.

Of course, if you’re more interested in the football that takes place on this side of the Atlantic (I happen to enjoy both!), then you’ll want to tune in to ESPN this evening at 8 PM EST for the first round of this year’s NFL draft.

The first five projections? Stanford QB Andrew Luck is expected to go to Indianapolis at #1.  #2 is Baylor’s QB Robert Griffin III to the Redskins.  #3 is offensive tackle Matt Kalil from USC, expected to head to the Vikings. #4 looks to be Alabama running back Trent Richardson, expected to be picked up by Cleveland. And bringing in the rear is LSU corner back Morris Claiborne, expected to be taken by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  But this is all pure speculation, so watch tonight’s first round tidings to know for sure.

Meanwhile, IBM made an important announcement today in the healthcare research field.  It announced that researchers from The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo are using IBM analytics technology to study more than 2,000 genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms.

As part of the initiative, Researchers will tap into IBM’s analytics technology to develop algorithms for big data containing genomic datasets to uncover critical factors that speed up disease progression in MS patients.  Insights gained from the research will be shared with hundreds of doctors to better tailor individual treatments to slow brain injury, physical disability and cognitive impairments caused by MS.

Using IBM analytics technology, SUNY Buffalo researchers can for the first time explore clinical and patient data to find hidden trends among MS patients by looking at factors such as gender, geography, ethnicity, diet, exercise, sun exposure, and living and working conditions. The big data including medical records, lab results, MRI scans and patient surveys, arrives in various formats and sizes, requiring researchers to spend days making it manageable before they can analyze it.

Using an IBM Netezza analytics appliance with software from IBM business partner, Revolution Analytics, researchers can now analyze all the disparate data in a matter of minutes instead of days, regardless of what type or size it is. The technology automatically consumes and analyzes the data, and makes the results available for further analysis. As a result, researchers can now focus their time on analyzing trends instead of managing data.

MS is a chronic neurological disease for which there is no cure. The disease is believed to be caused by a combination of genetic, environmental, infectious and autoimmune factors making treatment difficult. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, there are approximately 400,000 people in the US with MS, and 200 people are diagnosed every week. Worldwide, MS is estimated to affect more than 2.1 million people.

You can learn more about IBM’s Big Data strategy and portfolio here.

Beer, Beer, Football, Beer

The headline of this post hails from the signage outside the BBQ and drinking establishment just catty corner across the road from my domicile in Austin, Texas.

Billy’s Brewery said it all for this Sunday of National Football League Championship games: Beer, Beer, Football, Beer.

Although by the end of the day, I’m sure many fans would have evened things out a bit and wrote instead: “Football, Football, Beer, Shakespeare.”

It was that dramatic a day in the NFL.

Now, mind you, as reported in this blog a few weeks ago, my Dallas Cowgirls have long been out of it.  But I’m not just a fan of one team, I’m a fan of the game.  And as any fan of the game must do, they must carry on and watch the professionals do what they do.

And boy did they do it yesterday.

I’ve not seen that dramatic a back-to-back series of NFL Championship games since I was probably a toddler, and I don’t really remember those.

So let’s start with the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens. And let’s begin with the end, the missed 32 yard field goal by Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff.  What should have been an easy chip shot to tie the game 23-23 and send both teams into OT, curved left like a bad Todd Watson hooked drive and veered well left of the uprights.

As I joked on Twitter, I’d love to listen to some local Baltimore sports radio talk this morning, as it just had to be brutal. Cundiff would be well served to not show his face around town, at least for a few months.

That dumb luck aside, the Ravens should have won the game. The Pats were hardly at their best, and it was their defense that saved them.  Tom Brady, their celebrated QB, was inconsistent, laser-like on some passes, sloppy on others.  He threw no TDs and two interceptions, and just looking at the data, earned a season-low 57.5 passer rating.

Surely he’ll have to do better in the Super Bowl.

I will give Tom Brady this: When it was time to dive into the endzone for the Pats to go up from 16-20 to 23-20, Brady literally dove right in, head first. Hard core leap for the TD, Brady.  Maybe you deserve that Brazilian supermodel after all.

Now, flash West out to Candlestick Park, where relentless rain left a sloppy field for the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers, just the way I like my NFC Championships.

My money was on the Giants from the get go, but I knew not to count the 49ers out, especially with young, hungry quarterback Alex Smith, who struck first on a 73-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis with just 7:11 left in the first quarter.

The 49ers went on to stop a Giants first down, earning great field position before running a silly, accident-waiting-to-happen-in-the-rain reverse, the fumble from which Kyle Williams was able to recover.

By halftime, the Giants had eaked out a 10-7 lead, but this was still anybody’s ballgame.

In the third quarter, Vernon Davis struck again, this time in a 28-yard TD catch that put the 49ers up 14-10.  The ghost of King Lear could be heard howling from the underbelly of Candlestick Park, the rain and wind screaming as the plot thickened.

In the fourth quarter, Eli Manning threw a deep pass to Mario Manningham for another TD, but not three minutes later San Francisco responded with an Akers 25 yard field goal.

17-17

And then the heavens truly opened up the Greek chorus appeared as the game went into overtime.  The Giants’ Steve Weatherford punted downfield, and 49er Kyle Williams’ knee brushed the ball, and the Giants recovered the “fumble.”  After the official review, it was the Giants’ opportunity to seize the moment.

And kicker Lawrence Tynes didn’t disappoint.  Once again, just as he did with Green Bay four years ago, he planted a 31-yarder between the uprights and, once again, the Giants will be facing the Patriots in a SuperBowl.

One can only hope that William Shakespeare continues to look down from the heavens in that rematch from four years ago.

Football Brain and Lotusphere

This is the first post of the new year, 2010.

You’ll have to excuse me, as I attempt to string the semblance of a grammatically correct sentence together after the better part of two weeks of mind numbing football and very little exposure to Internet technology.

I did have to work some (see the previous post), but this past five days I definitely allowed my brain to enter full on into football consumption mush mode.

You know, the kind where you’re sitting on the couch with the remote in one hand, a beer in the other, saliva pouring out of the sides of your mouth.

If you’re a married female, you certainly have seen your husband in such a condition at one point or another.

I call it football brain.

I suspect it takes a full week or two to get fully back into game mode, so this blog post is my start.

Speaking of football, I do want to congratulate my Dallas Cowboys for beating up on the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday to take the NFC East (I know you Giants and Redskins’ fans can’t stand that, and well, that makes me smile as well!)

I have to say, it might have helped if Donovan McNabb’s teammates might have shown up to catch a pass once in a while.

His line did their job, but his receivers were MIA.  Which is perfectly fine by me…I hope they don’t show up at the Jerrydome again next Sunday!

Those receivers are probably feeling about as lonely as the kicker for East Carolina University, Ben Hartman, whose four missed field goals against the University of Arkansas in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl Saturday night cost E. Carolina the game, and which set off a cyber frenzy calling for Hartman’s head.

Those fair weather fans forget one small fact: Hartman is the team’s all-time leading scorer.  DOH!  But I suspect that part nobody will remember.  Hang in there, Ben!

Meanwhile, back in Pasadena, your University of Texas Longhorns are on the ground and warming up for their attempt at rolling over the University of Alabama Crimson Tide this Thursday night.

Sports forecasting Website Accuscore has simulated the game over 10,000 times, and currently gives UT only a 35% chance of victory.

To that I say Hook ’em Horns, it’s all about any given Saturday (or in this case, Thursday!)

Okay, that’s enough football brain.  It’s time for me to start crossing my way back into the world of technology.

Did you know that from January 17-21, IBM will be hosting the 17th annual Lotusphere event in sunny Florida?  The 17th!

Out of all the IBM events I’ve frequented over the years, Lotusphere is one that’s never made the list…until this year.

I’ll be joining my IBM colleagues on the ground in Orlando, providing some blogging and Tweeting coverage, and possibly even some Turbo guerrilla video…and I can’t wait.

Considering I’ve been using Lotus products in my everyday existence since about 1993, I’m excited to finally be making the journey to be amongst the Lotus faithful.

You can follow the Lotusphere tidings (no need to wait until the conference…the stream is now conscious!) at hashtags #lotusknows and #ls10 and, of course, here on the Turbo blog.

Welcome back to reality, mi amigos.  You’ll get over it soon.

IBM and NFL

My Dallas Cowboys looked pretty shaky there in Kansas City yesterday. All I can say is God Bless the emergence of Miles Austin!

I had to watch the game on my Time Warner DVR in fast forward mode, because I was too firmly ensconced in my viewing of the President’s Cup to watch the game live (just so you know how my sports priorities ranked yesterday).

When I did finally turn on the Cowboys/Chiefs game, I thought I’d gone into another universe when I saw the Chief’s “Dallas Texans” uniform.

Huh?

I was a very wee lad when the Dallas Texans were sold off and the team moved to Kansas City in 1962 to become the Kansas City Chiefs (and the very same year the Dallas Cowboys franchise was started), something I had to go hunt down and learn via Wikipedia.

You learn something new every day!

On the topic of football, earlier today IBM announced a renewed marketing and services partnership with the NFL.

IBM has been a sponsor since 2003, and with this new agreement, IBM will continue to provide consulting expertise and IT solutions to the NFL to help them more efficiently manage their IT infrastructure and data storage.

The NFL is working to improve upon its current data center, and so IBM will help to reduce costs and energy consumption as it helps the NFL increase their power and cooling capacity.

Specifically, the first phase of this new agreement will include an initiative to shift the NFL’s IT Shared Services environment to a dynamic infrastructure by delivering a number of operational improvements.

IBM will provide design and construction services for an upgraded data center facility located in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, the services for which will allow the NFL to improve scalability and capacity while reducing their daily operating costs and improving their overall energy efficiency.

“With IBM’s help, our IT infrastructure can become more energy efficient, cost effective and adaptive with how we manage our IT services and data,” said Nancy Galietti, Vice President of Information Technology from the NFL. “IBM understands our needs from a business and IT perspective and we look forward to working together on this journey to deliver a dynamic infrastructure.”

As part of the initiative, the upgraded data center facility will create efficiencies and allow the NFL to take advantage of newer, faster and less expensive technologies. The upgraded facility will:

• Improve resiliency by minimizing single points of failure
• Add the capability to install high density computing and offer more computing power in less space.

IBM Vice President, Client Executive Marketing, Rick Singer said of the agreement, “The NFL is a great partner, and we believe that this initiative will enable their business growth. Our goal is to provide the NFL with opportunities to offer premium services to its business divisions and clients.”

In addition, IBM will deliver a plan to optimize the NFL’s storage environment that can reduce the overall cost of storage hardware through virtualized storage provisioning.

Are you ready for some football?