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More NFL Players Attack Microsoft's $400M Surface Deal With The NFL (yahoo.com)
An anonymous reader writes;
"These tablets always malfunction," complained one NFL offensive lineman in January, foreshadowing a growing backlash to Microsoft's $400 million deal with the NFL to use Surface tablets. Friday the coach of the San Francisco 49ers and their controversial quarterback Colin Kaepernick both complained they've also experienced problems, with Kaepernick saying the screen freezes "every once in a while and they have to reboot it."
Friday Microsoft called their tablet "the center of the debate on the role of technology in the NFL," saying they deeply respect NFL teams "and the IT pro's who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help them succeed." It included quotes from NFL quarterbacks -- for example, "Every second counts and having Microsoft Surface technology on sidelines allows players and coaches to analyze what our opponents are trying to do in almost real time." But Yahoo Finance wrote that "The quotes read like they were written by the Microsoft public relations team," arguing that Microsoft's NFL deal "has been a disaster... The tablets failed to work during a crucial AFC Championship game last January -- again for the New England Patriots... sports media interpreted that the malfunction benefited the Broncos on the field, giving the team an unfair advantage -- the very last thing Microsoft's tablets, meant to aid coaches in their play calling, should be doing."
The NFL issued a statement calling Microsoft "an integral, strategic partner of the NFL," adding "Within our complex environment, many factors can affect the performance of a particular technology either related to or outside of our partner's solutions."
Friday Microsoft called their tablet "the center of the debate on the role of technology in the NFL," saying they deeply respect NFL teams "and the IT pro's who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help them succeed." It included quotes from NFL quarterbacks -- for example, "Every second counts and having Microsoft Surface technology on sidelines allows players and coaches to analyze what our opponents are trying to do in almost real time." But Yahoo Finance wrote that "The quotes read like they were written by the Microsoft public relations team," arguing that Microsoft's NFL deal "has been a disaster... The tablets failed to work during a crucial AFC Championship game last January -- again for the New England Patriots... sports media interpreted that the malfunction benefited the Broncos on the field, giving the team an unfair advantage -- the very last thing Microsoft's tablets, meant to aid coaches in their play calling, should be doing."
The NFL issued a statement calling Microsoft "an integral, strategic partner of the NFL," adding "Within our complex environment, many factors can affect the performance of a particular technology either related to or outside of our partner's solutions."
the rate as our iPads, I believe that. Of course, they're real computers and more complicated, but sixty times more is just killing our IT department.
Why not use something airline pilots are already using?
Good enough for commercial aviation, good enough for pro football?
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
They're using Surface tablets?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
It's a product placement, not an actual solution.The NFL is counting it as advertising revenue. Therefore, no one cares what the end users and support staff think about it.
I always use Microsoft Windows 10. It never fails! Unlike the Patriots. They should have learned to use things like sign language so they can communicate with each other, and words.
these things should have zero problems. They're running a bunch of data driven apps, probably web apps. My cheapo LG phone crashes, sure. But it was $100 bucks. These are $1000+ tablets that are crashing enough for folks to complain. What the hell is going on?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I'd love to see a more thorough technical analysis done. Put a debug tool that monitors the system in real-time. Analyze every sports stadium and their network and equipment infrastructure. And put out a whitepaper that details everything.
Do we know if every NFL stadium has dedicated AP equipment with isolated and prioritized vLANs routing on-the-field device data directly to-and-from their supporting hardware infrastructure? Do we know if every device works with a clean OS install before every game? Are the servers consistent in every stadium? For all we know, someone may have patched two switches together across an old 100Mb link just to get things operational, or someone's running the hosting software on some old P4 server that can't handle the demand, or someone swapped the away team's AP with a cheapo D-Link unit they got at Target, or sixty thousand smartphones are choking the Surface tablet traffic.
It's easy to blame things on Microsoft, especially when your profession is football and not IT. But, in my experience, more often than not, someone screwed up the infrastructure side of the equation.
Given the shit storm generated by the anniversary update, and the subsequent failed patches, I'd say the latter.
In my case, the last few cumulative updates fail to install unless I remove my usb mouse. That is fucked up in the extreme.
Yep. they do. Not worth the full MSRP, but worth it used a year later for 50% the price as long as you understand the the things are as stable as a low end windows laptop.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The funny thing is what's going to happen when she gets elected. Socially she's very liberal, economically she belongs to the Banks and Megacorps. She's gonna fuck everyone, not just the conservatives. I expect the worst of her crap to get full support from the Republican Elites in the Senate since the big banks own them too. I say when because I'd be shocked if she doesn't win given how much money all the big banks and corporations have dumped in her coffers. Usually they donate to both sides but since there is only one insider running she's picking up 100 percent of that money.
I've run into numerous bugs on Linux. I've been using it since 1999 since I finally gave up on Amiga hardware developments and moved on. During that time it has improved by leaps and bounds and has always been very stable but did suffer a lot from lack of driver support by hardware makers. It has been years since I had to hard boot a linux box though even when programs crashed. I've had to use Xkill a few times or open a terminal and kill a choked program by hand. These are generally bugs not in applications and not in Linux itself but you can see by the Kernel change log that developers are constantly chasing bugs.
Up until now everyone in the NFL and media has been referring to them as iPads. Microsoft has finally figured out how to get people to refer to their hardware by name.
NFL doesn't care what tablet are used, they only care who will pay the most for the exclusive deal. a 1 hour game takes 3 1/2 hours to get done greed baby greed
Jack of all trades,master of none
I used to be a football fan. I used to go to games. Then it slowly dawned on me that my favorite team wasn't owned by people who cared about winning. It was all about money.
Yeah, call me naive for not figuring that out sooner.
The labor disputes weren't enough for me, but when the owner started threatening to move to Florida I started getting turned off. They didn't move to Florida, but they did move to Tennessee.
The only good thing about sports in my opinion for the last 15-20 years is when there's a good scandal and NFL coaches turning on a major sponsor ranks right up there.
They can't give teams their choice of technology because of sponsors who bought the whole league. They can't give teams full control of their devices because there are too many cheaters. They make billions annually but even partnered with Microsoft they cannot satisfy their coaches with their technology.
Hearing stuff like the announcers referred to their Microsoft Surfaces as iPads for the first couple of seasons is just icing on the cake.
Some have said it's just problems with wireless connectivity and thousands of fans in the same place all using their cell phones but couldn't they overcome that if it is what the problem really is?
It's not hardware and Windows is not solid -- at all.
My mouse stops working. I remove it and put it back and it works again. The hardware has not stopped, the mouse didn't overheat. It's just the OS that decided not to see it anymore.
Now, it's on the back of the CPU, so I decide to connect it to front USB ports -- just to make testing easier.
It doesn't work. A balloon states it is searching for a driver for the mouse. What for? Does Windows have different drivers for the same mouse if we plug it on different USBs? Why the f*? I do it at home in Linux all the time, I can connect the mouse to any of the USB ports. It works instantly. Why not in Windows (which idiots say it's easier)?
After some time I get tired of waiting for the driver to install, because the minutes go away and nothing happens. I look at the screen and there's a message inside the balloon: "Click here for more info". OK, please tell me because I may be stupid since I'm not able to use the fine Microsoft software: how can I click on anything without a mouse?
Well, I kinda feel the OS has won and put the mouse back on the same port it was connected to. Then it works and I quickly click on the balloon -- only to learn that there's an explanation about Windows not being able to get a mouse driver (online or from Windows Update, AFAIR).
Duh, we have security standards, of course the PC won't reach Microsoft. The IT people cannot allow that. But how would I know if I didn't click on the balloon? And no, I can't do it without a mouse! Nobody can!
And you know what? There's a message asking if I want to quit retrieving the mouse driver from Windows Update? Well, that won't work, so only a stupid user would insist on that (oh, wait, this is Windows, stupid user is the standard). So I click on quit or cancel or whatever, thinking I'll have the opportunity to locate the very same driver that is in use to see the mouse at the back of the CPU tower. (I did that before, it's not cool to look for a needed piece of software in your own machine -- the OS should know where it is... but... *sigh*).
Except no. You say you don't want Windows to get the driver from some online repo and that's it. End of story, no further dialog. You just stay there looking at the screen -- without a mouse pointer!
Because their computers, you know, actually work.
Windows 10 is a disaster, the Surface is a disaster, yet their stock just hit an all-time high.
It sounded more to me like they were complaining about random hangs and reboots--not sure how better marketing is going to fix that.
...after my Surface Pro finishes installing updates... ...waiting... waitiiiiiiing... ...your Surface Pro has to restart to install updates. Restart now?
Ya, I know I've noticed this too. Mice works flawlessly on Linux and Mac OS X yet plugging in a standard mouse like a Logitech or Microsoft and it screws up on searching the drivers. It's a mouse, which is a standard HID compliant device. No special drivers should be needed for regular use. Sure, some extra fancy buttons MAY not work without the special driver.
I knew somebody involved in making specialized software for the NFL. Their company wanted to use iOS, but the Microsoft Surface deal got made and there was pressure from above to move everything to the Surface. (Apparently, individual teams still hold a certain degree of autonomy, so it wasn't absolutely required in all places.) The product was already pushing the technology bounds of what the iPhone could do and development for the Surface was still pretty raw back then. And the football teams that used the software much preferred iOS too. So there was a lot of unhappiness all around.
But a more interesting aspect was the monetary arrangements. The company was developing for peanuts, below their costs. The NFL really takes advantage of the fact that both everybody wants to work with them for the prestige, and that the NFL is a non-profit. When I asked why he was willing to do all this at a loss, he said was because other sports venues like Major League Baseball and the NBA are not non-profits and actually pay well. They take their cues from the NFL. So if you can get in with the NFL, you can make the big money later by selling to the others.
And he suspects the Microsoft Surface deal itself was structured along the lines of this thinking... Microsoft basically giving away Surfaces to the NFL wanting both publicity and hoping to later actually sell to markets that actually pay money.
The devices assume a certain amount of bandwidth. Stadiums don't have enough bandwidth because A) cheap stadium managers won't pay for it; and B) on game day you have thousands of fans using various devices using various frequency bands to do who knows what.
I've never used one of these devices but I'm gonna guess Microsoft doesn't handle bandwidth congestion issues well. That, and these millionaire football folks all have 1 gig bandwidth with 1 ms latency at home, and have never experienced network lag in their lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/...
Ya, I know I've noticed this too. Mice works flawlessly on Linux and Mac OS X yet plugging in a standard mouse like a Logitech or Microsoft and it screws up on searching the drivers. It's a mouse, which is a standard HID compliant device. No special drivers should be needed for regular use. Sure, some extra fancy buttons MAY not work without the special driver.
What Windows version? Was it the OEM install? Installed from scratch? Upgraded?
What I find is that if common USB devices (keyboard, mouse) are not being detected and installed properly by any of the USB ports then that Windows computer typically does not have the right versions of the chipset drivers and/or the USB drivers installed. It's interesting that people here are willing to put a tonne of effort to get Linux to work but aren't willing to go through basic troubleshooting steps, such as downloading the latest drivers, to get Windows to work.
It's just taking a knee for civil rights.
It doesn't work. A balloon states it is searching for a driver for the mouse. What for? Does Windows have different drivers for the same mouse if we plug it on different USBs? Why the f*? I do it at home in Linux all the time, I can connect the mouse to any of the USB ports. It works instantly. Why not in Windows (which idiots say it's easier)?
I can't speak to the Surface; but my work laptop, a Samsung RV511 running Win 7 Pro, has 3 USB ports. Two on the left side, and 1 on the right. I can plug something into either of the Left ports with no complaint; but if I plug that same device into the Right-hand Port, it acts like it has never seen it before. And vice-versa with something that was originally plugged into the Right-hand Port being moved over to the Left. It's a Brand New Day.
All I can think of is that those two sets of Ports are probably on two different USB Controllers (remember, this is a LAPTOP. It isn't like we're talking on-board-ports vs. ports-on-a-PCI-card), and Windows is too retarded to poke around in its own Current Configuration to see if the damned DRIVER is actually ALREADY INSTALLED. Even if it had to make a redundant copy of the Driver, at least it could do it SILENTLY, rather than acting like a horse that was approached from the wrong side (horses have no Corpus Callosum; so each hemisphere has its own visual-record and memory); IOW, it freaks out...
Say what you will about Macs and OS X, at least they don't do retarded shit like that! Glad to see Linux is also smart enough to recognize things that have been plugged in elsewhere before ON THE SAME COMPUTER.
What I find is that if common USB devices (keyboard, mouse) are not being detected and installed properly by any of the USB ports then that Windows computer typically does not have the right versions of the chipset drivers and/or the USB drivers installed. It's interesting that people here are willing to put a tonne of effort to get Linux to work but aren't willing to go through basic troubleshooting steps, such as downloading the latest drivers, to get Windows to work.
If your OS needs a Driver to provide basic functionality with a USB HID device, the problem is with the OS, sorry!
I can plug ANY random USB keyboard or Mouse into a Mac, and the MOST you will see is a "Identify this Keyboard" "Assistant" pop up the first time. And NEVER even that with a Mouse. It Just Works.
Now if you want some "Advanced"/"Non-standard" Features, THEN you will likely have to install some software; but just to get basic functionality going. NEVER.
Based on my experience with WiFi, which is nowhere near a mature standard, I'd really expect to have problems with WiFi communication in a stadium with 50,000 people in it, regardless of what type of hardware is used. However, the problems they are describing don't sound like WiFi problems. I would expect communications with a server to be slow and perhaps stall for several seconds while the connection is reestablished. The software should be smart enough to recover without rebooting. Perhaps doing everything locally instead of over the network would help.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
hmmmm....typo explains it. Should have left out the "not" before applications. What happens when I'm tired and posting. At least my dyslexia is mostly under contorl.
Because they ported SQL to Linux, added Bash and APT to Windows 10 and use Ubuntu and CentOS in the cloud for their big clients. Linux - when it absolutely has to work to scale ...
How about not complicating a game about couple of guys throwing a ball around to the point where you need a convoluted IT infrastructure to support it?
Given that the game has 1 hour of actual playing time and maybe 7 or 8 seconds of action per play and about 2 plays per minute that doesn't add up to much action in a game that drones on about 3 and a half hours.
"1 hour of actual playing time"? Try 11 minutes of actual football action. While the sport has some pretty amazing highlights there is a TON of waiting around while nothing actually happens.
Windows 10 is a disaster, the Surface is a disaster, yet their stock just hit an all-time high.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I guess they have updated to the latest anniversary update of windows 10. Since that update I also need to reboot almost everyday because it just locks up, never had any problems before that update.. And it doesn't seem to be fixed any time soon...
As with the Anniversary update I also get random lockups and need to reboot with my regular PC, I would also say it's the software side, not the hardware..
I'm forced to use Microsoft software at work. I encounter multiple bugs every hour, some quite serious.
I can confirm that
At home, I have the luxury of using Linux. I can go literally years without encountering a software bug.
I can NOT confirm that. Random example pulled out of my ass:
$ systemctl service_that_does_not_exist disable
$ echo $?
0
$
HTH
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
Aww, that's so awful for the Patriots. While the tablets may be to blame, it's hard for me to feel too bad for a team with a history of "communication issues" for visiting teams.
My .02, get rid of tablets, photos, phone calls, headphones, and anything else other than the coaches and players on the playing field and sideline talking to each other in person. They can all carry around clipboards that have Microsoft Surface, Apple iPad, or whatever other brand sticker on the back if the advertising money is that important.
Considering most business will BUY technology they need rather than being paid to use sub-par garbage for advertising purposes.....
It'll be Obama's 2 terms all over again.
The republicans will forget they are there to serve the American people and instead just be obstructionist jerks.
Trusting anything considered critical to a Microsoft platform is a joke.
That's why I shudder everytime I see a Windows screen on some Navy vessel's displays on TV. It's like "That's not FIRE CONTROL, is it???"
The highest service Congress can perform with a bad president is to not pass stupid stuff the president wants just to look like they are achieving something. Our constitutiion has checks and balances to try to limit damage from one branch going off the rails.
Whichever candidate gets elected this time around, an obstructionist congress would be an excellent thing to have.
Remember when Apple sold massively discounted computers to school districts back in the day so kids would get used to using them and want something familiar at home? Then of course they were so crash-prone and awful that kids wanted anything other than what they used at school. It looks like MS is adopting the same strategy. I won't discount the lack of technical skills of players and coaches though.
Explaining someone's joke always makes it funnier.
Non-techies complaining about tech? Wow! Unprecedented.
Some have made this to be Surface vs iPad. It is not.
From what I have heard, the problems were with WIFI and not the tablets themselves. The device is almost always blamed for network issues.
From what I've read, the problem is "Tablet" vs "Paper" not type of tech.
Unless support wasn't part of the deal that was signed, then it clearly is Microsoft's fault. And the NFL's. They are the ones who agreed to the deal.
And these three words: User Acceptance Testing
I have a feeling this was technical people saying "it should work" and sales people saying "it's flawless" and the NFL saying "this will be great" and people getting bonuses and high-fiving each other.... and NOBODY actually trying it out in a real setting ahead of time.
Serves them right.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
No, adults that look at each idea on its own fucking merit instead of partisan assholes is what is needed.
Yeah, they completely remove the USB ports so you don't have them.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/no-port-in-a-storm-apple-rumored-to-be-removing-usb-on-macbook-pro
Nice scare article. They are likely going to move to USB-C. Not even the same thing.
How does your statement if actually applied differ from mine in actual result? I said stupid stuff should not be passed. I understand your statement to mean you want things looked at for their merits. When upon examination of said merits, it is noticed it is stupid stuff, it should not be passed. This correlation holds for the vast majority of legistation I have ever read.
Unless your definition of "partisan asshole" equals someone who disagrees with you on the merits of the ideas. That does seem to be the defintiion shared by many people who can't understand why people who disagree with them won't just shut up and do what they want, instead of what the people who keep electing them apparently want.
Personally I'd tend to consider "partisan asshole" to apply to those who pass legislation knowing it is crap, but that by passing it they score a point for their party.
Just like the out of style furniture your Grandma won't throw out in her living room ("It's good as new, only gets sat on twice per year!") why not provide NFL teams slipcovers that make better tablets look like Surface tablets on TV?
Then the NFL can pocket their product placement money, Microsoft can continue to pretend the Surface is not a piece of shit, and teams can have gear that actually works when they need it to.
Problem solved.
Who did what now?
I think we can all agree the NFL isn't most businesses. Considering how much US tax dollars go to subsidize stadiums, their (until recently) tax-exempt status... Why pay for things when you can get paid for product placement?
How will the NFL blame this on the Patriots?
The reason Republicans are obstructionist is that their constituents want them to obstruct. If you remember, Obama had a Democratic Congress when elected. He immediately used the control of Congress to ram a particularly bad healthcare bill through. The backlash was to lose the House on the next election cycle and the Senate on the one after that. We had a Democrat in my district who was one of the very last moderate Democrats left in the House. He voted for the health care bill and despite the fact he had had a long and popular career he was done. People didn't send him up there to support Obama but to support his district. He failed and they removed him in the very next election.
Exactly