Extravaganswer, Pt. 7
Check out the latest batch...
1) Are the football scholarships good for only one year at a time? What month do they get renewed for the next year? Are they ever not renewed? - Anonymous
Yes, they are sometimes not renewed, though that is typically an internal matter. They are renewed before July 1, but mainly that's just a formality. Here are the rules:
Title:15.3.5.1 - Institutional Obligation.
The renewal of institutional financial aid based in any degree on athletics ability shall be made on or before July 1 prior to the academic year in which it is to be effective. The institution shall promptly notify in writing each student-athlete who received an award the previous academic year and who has eligibility remaining in the sport in which financial aid was awarded the previous academic year (under Bylaw 14.2) whether the grant has been renewed or not renewed for the ensuing academic year. Notification of financial aid renewals and non-renewals must come from the institution's regular financial aid authority and not from the institution's athletics department.
Title:15.3.2.4 - Hearing Opportunity.
The institution's regular financial aid authority shall notify the student-athlete in writing of the opportunity for a hearing when institutional financial aid based in any degree on athletics ability is to be reduced or canceled during the period of the award, or is reduced or not renewed for the following academic year. The institution shall have established reasonable procedures for promptly hearing such a request and shall not delegate the responsibility for conducting the hearing to the university's athletics department or its faculty athletics committee. The written notification of the opportunity for a hearing shall include a copy of the institution's established policies and procedures for conducting the required hearing, including the deadline by which a student-athlete must request such a hearing.
2) Jon, do you think the financial failure of Green Zone in America has brought Matt Damon action films to an end or do you think they'll try again with a marketable story line? - Anonymous
Umm, well, Mr. Ebert, I have full support for Matt Damon in action roles - the Bourne trilogy is fantastic - and I think The Green Zone was just a matter of poor marketing and general disinterest in the genre for the time being. The movie got good reviews, but besides the Hurt Locker, which I did NOT get all the fuss about, I can't remember a particularly successful war movie over the last few years. Black Hawk Down maybe, but that was in 2001.
3) Have you considered posting up a little pic and bio like Brian Dohn had? - Anoonononon
Yeah, and I actually thought I had. I'll take care of that in the next couple weeks.
4) Is there any plan to fix the comment delay? I don't understand how this problem is still not fixed after 3 years. - Reformed Droog
Droog, my man, you really, REALLY care about the comment delay. I just called our main computer guy for you, and here is what he said: "What happens is you make the comment, and that's the one weakness of the system. The pages are all static pages. Every time you build an entry, it builds all the index pages that have it. Any categories, tag pages, archive pages. When someone makes a comment, it rebuilds again. The entry, all the index pages, and the home page. Every time a comment is made, it puts in the queue all those rebuilds. Thirty rebuilds times thirty comments is 900 rebuilds. There's no way to fix it, but usually control-R will reload the page and help the process. The comments are the annoying part of the system, but that's how it works."
5) Mr. Gold, what are your thoughts about Coach Neuheisel claiming that Coach Carroll left USC b/c he was frustrated defending mobile QBs and/or spread offenses? Thank you in advance. - Gilligan
I think it's a bit of a copout. I think Pete Carroll left USC because he got a better job offer. Simple as that, really. Being questioned after a 9-4 season or a huge salary and almost total control in the NFL? Hmm.
Pete left because the clock was ticking and he wanted to get back into the NFL, where he has had limited success in the past. He's organizing the Seahawk roster well, has drafted intelligently, and might be able to pick the Seahawks out of the Seattle muck they're currently in. It will be tough for him. If he fails, he won't be there for long. After that...who knows....New Mexico State?
Jon,
I hate to be the guy who doesn't get the hint at the end of the night, but the response about rebuilding pages is a complete excuse and/or BS answer. And as someone who is responsible for the infrastructure of a division of a fortune 500 company, I've heard tons of excuses and BS from IT guys. Refresh, you say? I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT...
The bottom line is that if the current solution is flawed, you need a new solution. THIS IS THE WORST DELAY I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR A COMMENTS SECTION. I'd put that in 72pt bold red font if I could. I mean, it's a blog for crying out loud - comments are the whole point. The reason I harp on the delay issue is because it makes it hard to "converse" with other UCLA fans and get opinions, etc. when it take 15+ minutes to respond to people.
I'm no genius, but I could swear I heard something about newspapers dying out, and how that's why it's so important that they turn to the Internet. Ignoring things like comment posting delays is indicative of a lack of interest in this emerging media. The Internet is faster, cheaper, and INTERACTIVE. Or maybe they're just hoping this whole Internet thing is a passing fad.
Of course, if newspaper company executives had any foresight, they wouldn't be scrambling to jump on this newfangled World Wide Web thing.
P.S. Tell the IT guy that I said, "Mr. IT Guy, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this blog is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
P.P.S. Of course, maybe I just like to hear myself talk, and that's too hard to do around here...
@Droog: you are responsible for the infrastructure of a fortune 500 company and you have nothing better to do with your time than whine about a comment delay on a sports blog? jeez. give me the name of the company you work for so I'll know not to invest in them...wait...I can only guess who it is -- BP? Halliburton? maybe Transocean?
@Droog: you are responsible for the infrastructure of a fortune 500 company and you have nothing better to do with your time than whine about a comment delay on a sports blog? jeez. give me the name of the company you work for so I'll know not to invest in them...wait...I can only guess who it is -- BP? Halliburton? maybe Transocean?
Jon,
Between Board meetings at Microsoft and obligations to my foundation, I was browsing your site and saw that Mr. Droog had an issue with comment delay and I’d like to offer a suggestion that you should try…
In the latest code from hg head there were changes to CXWindowsEventQueueBuffer.cpp that may fix your problem. That is the version which is linked source packages.
Your main problem may be that you’re using a Linux server and the host OS makes a difference. This is sometimes the cause on Linux when debug messages are turned on since it's constantly updated and the hidden log window which causes high CPU load through high server CPU usage causing mouse lag.
Jon, I’m glad that I was able to take a few minutes to address this important non-sports question posed by Mr. Droog, who as “someone who is responsible for the infrastructure of a division of a fortune 500 company,” has such little time to take away from his duties to make comments on your blog, while dealing with potential recidivism to his dystopic drooginess.
Well, back to work….
Bill
Excuse me for being a UCLA fan. God forbid I should take 10 minutes out of my work day to read a sports blog that I've been reading almost daily for the last 4 years.
The irony of the double post...
Why such objection to me stating what I do? You're upset because I was trying to validate my "expertise" on this matter before someone jumped on me to prove I know what I'm talking about?
All I'm saying is that someone should actually care about this website in an age when the Newsweeks of the world are going belly up...
I agree with everything Reformed Droog said. Everyone has enough time for some UCLA and the lag is the worst I have EVER seen as well. I'm a Software Engineer and think the response is a cop out. I mean you do realize that refresh doesn't do anything if the page has not been updated. Computers are fast it should not take that long to rebuild. Maybe you don't need to rebuild the archives with each post? Try doing the big tasks less often like once a day and get those comments up there ASAP.
No, Seattle, it's Goldman-Sachs. And guess who's been the biggest recipient of their cash for the last twenty years: B. Hussein Obama.
i love this blog