Sneak was delighted to hear that tennis player Andy Murray is adopting a Web 2.0 haircut. No, not a poorly-sorted mop of barely connected strands, but a barnet decided by the wisdom of crowds. Or at least the wisdom of visitors to his web site. Or at least their votes. Anyway, Sneak wonders why Murray is wasting the wise crowd’s time with such inanities. Why not apply long-tail theory to managing his career? After all, while there are only a very small number of people who know what they’re doing negotiating a lucrative sponsorship deal with, say, Nike, there are a very large number of people who know very little about such matters. However, if Murray were to tap into all the millions of people who know very little, he might find that it adds up to a lot. According to long tail theory, anyway. And, while he’s running around the court without shoes the following week, he could ask the crowd what shots to play...

November 10, 2006 Sports, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1)

Is it just Sneak, or is the trident-wielding cartoon Poseidon gracing Google's front page today, in honour of the swimming events in the Olympics, just a tad too pleased to see us? Or is that just a bunch of share options in his pocket?

August 16, 2004 Sports | Permalink | Comments (3)

Electronics giant Sharp is currently testing out a software package called Himpact Sports, which automatically records only the highlights of televised sports events. For football, for example, it exploits the fact that important parts of the match are repeated in slow motion to work out which bits are worth seeing and which bits are just David Beckham. The New Scientist reports that in tests, the software has cut an hour of American football down to around 14 minutes, and an hour's baseball to 10 minutes. But Sneak feels that with a bit more work the Japanese boffins ought to be able to cut both these US sports down to zero. Apparently the next sport on Sharp's list is the bare-bottomed spectacle of sumo wrestling, but Sneak feels that a more impressive feat would be to boil down Formula One motor racing. On one level it should be easy to select the worthwhile moments: any frame that doesn't feature Michael Schumacher pointing in the right direction is bound to be a highlight. On another, it's a monumental challenge. How do you compile an interesting and engaging summary of two hours' racing, when nine out of ten times you know exactly who will win before the race has even started?

July 5, 2004 Sports | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sneak was of course in Portugal the other day, for the start of Euro 2004. And thoroughly enjoyable it was too, until the last-gasp catastrophe against the French ended all Sneak's fun. With nothing better to do after the game than leaf through the Euro 2004 match brochure. Sneak was surprised to discover that Kim Milton Nielsen, the Danish referee who famously sent off Beckham and disallowed Sol Campbell's goal against Argentina at the French World Cup in 98, is in fact a Danish IT manager by profession, listing his hobbies as "computer" (sic). Sneak was glad to see that all the training in making unpopular decisions, dealing with high levels of stress, and battling overheating fans has finally paid off for one of our number. Even if it has sent him blind.

June 15, 2004 Sports | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to Gizmodo, runners carrying the torch that will light this year's Olympic flame in Athens are being given cards by torch-relay sponsor Samsung that read: "If approached by media, please remember the following message: 'I am honoured to have been given the opportunity by Samsung to be a torchbearer for the Samsung Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay.'" It doesn't go on to say so, but Sneak assumes that the runner is required to recite this in a happy, sing-song voice through a fixed grin, and not to gasp it angrily between curses, complaints about how heavy the torch is, or comments of a political, anti-big-business or anti-crass-commercialisation nature.

June 7, 2004 Sports | Permalink | Comments (1)