Just a heads up that there are fraudulent IRS emails going around claiming you’ve underreported your income and asks you to click a link. These are fake and the IRS would never email you for something like this. It’s kind of clever that I started getting these emails around right around when the third Estimated Self Employment Tax payment was due (September 16). If you check the email headers, the email is clearly not from the IRS and the link they provide also doesn’t go to irs.gov.
Category: Asides
Random things I feel like mentioning without having to write a full post.
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9.12 DC Tea Party – Widespread Ignorance
Unbelievable. For every smart person, there’s like 3 dumb, ignorant people in this country. I feel like they need to be segregated or something. It’s really astounding.
Freedom, huh? Only in this country are people like this allowed to gather, protest, and spout this kind of BS. I say we have plenty of freedom.
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I Present… Roger Federer
His amazing between-the-legs (tweener) shot to set up match point against Novak Djokovic in the 2009 US Open semis. It’s one thing to even get this trick shot over the net, it’s a whole other thing to hit a passing shot winner against someone at net. I jumped off my couch when I saw this. Unbelievable.
Djokovic hits a very nice lob, and Roger Federer runs back for it…
I want to impress upon non-tennis fans, this shot is incredibly difficult and players practically never pull it off. But to hit it for a clean winner… just WOW. This is the shot of the year. Roger called it the shot of his life.
Also to kind of explain, if someone hits a good lob (based on speed, spin, and height), it can be near impossible to get back and get a good hit on it no matter how fast you run back. So sometimes the only option left is try the tweener but people always dump it into the net or it’s so weak, the opponent can easily put it away at net. To make this shot at this point late in a match, late in a major, to set up match point… that’s just how Roger Federer rolls.
CBS commentator Dick Enberg’s comment cracked me up: “And for my next act, I’m going to hit a winner while in a box while they saw me in half!”
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The WTA Tour Sucks
Seriously, women’s tennis is in a poor state right now. Everyone’s pretty much on an even keel. On any given day, anyone can win. That’s why you got retired players coming back or thinking about coming back. And you have teens like Melanie Oudin taking out top seeds. And geezus, don’t get me started on Ivanonic. Girl went out 1st round, worst than last year’s 2nd round exit. She was ranked #1 before! And the other day, the current #1 seed (without a slam), Dinara Safina, was competing with her no name opponent to see who could suck more, who could hit more errors. It’s ridiculous. And when the women play, breaking serve is a normal, frequent occurence.
You know, it’s a shame Sharapova had to have surgery on her shoulder because I think she would’ve dominated during the time she was out, even with the Williams sisters playing. The Williams simply took advantage of a weak field. Sharapova can hold her own against both.
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Federer Chokes Against Tsonga in Montreal
I can’t believe Fed blew a double-break (5-1) lead in the 3rd set to lose the match against Tsonga in Montreal. I’m almost beginning to think he lost on purpose, just to pace himself before the US Open. Because right now Tsonga looks like he’s about to lose to a frickin qualifier in the 2nd round at Cincy. How could Fed lose to Tsonga?!
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NPD’s Statistics About Apple are BS
I keep seeing tech articles talking about NPD’s recent numbers saying Apple has 91% of the market for $1,000+ computers. And people are saying wow, they’re so dominant.
Well they’re are all ignoring the fact that the report only covers computers sold in RETAIL STORES. The largest PC sellers like Dell and HP primarily sell online and Apple’s main sales channel is retail, so that stat is not surprising. With enough spin, any statistic can look favorable. Also note retail stores like Best Buy that actually sell PC’s usually sell the cheapo ones. I’d like to see Apple’s share of ALL $1,000+ computer sales – it’s probably more like 5%.
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Andy vs. Andy
Andy Roddick and Andy Murray are playing their 3rd set tiebreak in their semi right now. Crowd’s crazy for Murray. I’m rooting for Roddick. Murray is annoying – yelling and fist-pumping after every single point, like he just won the set or something.
UPDATE: Yesterday I voted on tennis.com that the final would be Federer vs Roddick. Well, Roddick has just won in 4 sets over Murray. TMF vs Andy Roddick for the Wimby final! Yes, The Mighty Fed is definitely back. Andy’s playing better but it’s still a tough matchup for him. Fed’s just always had his number. 18-2 record doesn’t lie. But you never know. I’m hoping Fed gets #15 on Sunday.
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Karlovic Can Only Serve
Tennis fans already know this about Dr. Ivo but if Karlovic didn’t have that powerful serve, I’m pretty sure Federer could have bageled him 3 times. Breaking Karlovic in each of the first 2 sets was impressive, especially the way Federer was returning in the games he broke. Karlovic volleyed poorly but I think that has more to do with how Roger hits/returns the ball and his ability to come up with amazing passing shots.
P.S. Once again, NBC proves they are incompetent, stupid, ignorant, or all of the above. They are airing a tape delay of this match later in the day. NBC apparently has the rights to this match so it wasn’t on ESPN360.com either. I ended up watching another live stream online that was actually good quality and had decent commentary (not sure if it was BBC or what, but Boris Becker was commentating). So suck it NBC, I ain’t watching your tape delay. The ESPN2 commentator even said “we can’t tell you the score for the Federer/Karlovic match because NBC will air it later today.” Well, screw that. Is NBC not aware of something called the Internet? No wonder they’re in last place among the networks – NBC is just plain dumb.
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Bing
Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, ain’t too bad. The results are pretty good and I can find what I want easily. I’ve actually switched to Bing as my default search engine to test it out. I like the interface too, it’s feels clean and refreshing – a nice bit of style without being too complex or too simple. I also think the 12px Arial looks so much better than the 11px Verdana Microsoft always uses on their sites.