Real Kato Blog

There's a big Apple event scheduled for tomorrow, with the new iPhone a near-certainty. But there's also a lot of speculation about what else might be coming.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

College Football 2015: Week 1 Recap

Tuesday, 2015 September 8 - 8:56 pm

Michigan loses its opener on the road; NCSU beats up on a cupcake. Also some interesting upsets from around the country.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2015: Week 1 Preview

Saturday, 2015 August 29 - 3:00 pm

FOOTBAWW. Yes, I'm back at it. Hope has returned to Michigan with the arrival of Jim Harbaugh as head coach. He's proven nothing yet, but it's hard to imagine it could be worse than the debacle of the last couple of years.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Hey Everybody

Saturday, 2015 August 22 - 11:04 am

I guess the site's been down for a couple of days due to changes from my web host. I'm here so rarely that I didn't even notice.

So, what's new? Well, there'll be some interesting Apple news coming up, and I'm getting geared up to resume reporting on college football. This season is hopeful for both Michigan and NCSU, so maybe it'll be more cheerful than years past.

Anyway, who knows if anyone still even reads this stuff any more, but if you do, sorry for the inconvenience. Regular posting will resume shortly.

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Posted by Ken in: site-business

Apple Watch: 2015 Predictions

Thursday, 2015 January 1 - 12:42 pm

Happy New Year everyone. Here's my annual list of Apple predictions.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

2014 Elections: The Aftermath

Wednesday, 2014 November 5 - 12:13 pm

Well, it's pretty much over: Republicans have retaken the Senate. Alaska is still counting but will probably go to Sullivan (R) over Begich (D). Louisiana will go to a runoff in December that favors the Republican. It looks like Warner (D) will squeak by in Virginia over Gillespie (R); this after he was projected to win by something like 9%. So in the end, it looks like a 54-46 majority for the Republicans.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

College Football 2014: The End

Sunday, 2014 September 28 - 12:36 pm

Back in 2008, I stopped blogging about football midway through the season. Michigan was in Rich Rodriguez's first year, glumly looking at a 2-6 record, and struggling with a couple of earnest but untalented quarterbacks. To some degree the struggles were understandable: there was a major schematic shift in the offense, and the quarterback cupboard was left bare after Ryan Mallett transferred. Michigan limped to a 3-9 record that year, and I thought it was the nadir of Michigan football.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2014: Week 5 Preview

Saturday, 2014 September 27 - 9:47 am

Michigan kicks off its conference season against Minnesota; N.C. State takes on #1 Florida State.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2014: Week 4 Recap

Saturday, 2014 September 27 - 9:22 am

Michigan collapses in flames; N.C. State wins comfortably.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

New CBS Show Scorpion Riddled with Errors

Tuesday, 2014 September 23 - 1:12 pm

I could swear I saw promotional materials for CBS's new tech-y series "Scorpion" promising that the show would feature technically accurate hacking techniques based on real-life stories.

That went out the window in the show's first few minutes. If you plan on watching the show and you don't want spoilers, then stop reading here. But trust me, you probably don't want to watch this show... so read on for just a couple dozen of the hundreds of plot holes and implausible elements to this show.

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Posted by Ken in: television

College Football 2014: Week 4 Preview

Thursday, 2014 September 18 - 6:54 pm

Michigan will be tested by Utah; N.C. State plays Presbyterian Girl's Junior High School.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2014: Week 3 Recap

Thursday, 2014 September 18 - 6:35 pm

Michigan and N.C. State both win handily.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2014: Week 3 Preview

Thursday, 2014 September 11 - 10:15 am

Sorry, no time for an extended preview this week.

Michigan plays Miami (OH) at home; it's a soft opponent which will hopefully take some of the sting out of last week's loss. The game is on BTN at 3:30. Prediction: Michigan 58, Miami 3.

N.C. State plays at South Florida, which will be a stern test. It's also at 3:30, on CBSSN. Prediction: N.C. State 27, USF 33.

Your Game of the Week is Tennessee at #4 Georgia at 8:00 on ABC.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Apple Watch: Um, Apple Watch

Wednesday, 2014 September 10 - 12:59 pm

I've always called my Apple posts "Apple Watch", but now there's an actual Apple Watch so maybe I should call them something else.

So the big Apple event was yesterday... here's a brief recap and my opinions.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

College Football 2014: Week 2 Recap

Sunday, 2014 September 7 - 11:23 am

The Big Ten collapses into a big heap; N.C. State manages another comeback.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2014: Week 2 Preview

Saturday, 2014 September 6 - 10:45 am

Michigan plays Notre Dame one more time before the series goes on hiatus; N.C. State plays Old Dominion.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2014: Week 1 Recap

Monday, 2014 September 1 - 1:05 pm

Michigan restores order to the universe; N.C. State squeaks out a win.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Footbaww 2014

Sunday, 2014 August 24 - 7:06 pm

Football week is finally here, so it's time to fire up the old blog again.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Apple Watch: Apple Acquires Beats for $3 Billion

Wednesday, 2014 May 28 - 5:36 pm

Apple today announced that they will acquire Beats Electronics and Beats Music for a total of $3 billion, confirming rumors that have been flying around for the past few weeks. Apple will spend $2.6 billion up front and another $400 million over time. This is slightly less than the original rumored amount of $3.2 billion.

There's been a lot of speculation about the reasons behind the acquisition, and why Apple was willing to spend so much money. Here's a roundup of some of the possible reasons.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Apple Watch: SmartHome Rumors Brewing

Tuesday, 2014 May 27 - 12:36 pm

A large number of Apple-related sites are buzzing about the possibility of a "smart home" (or "connected home") system to be announced at the upcoming WWDC in June. I had speculated about this back in 2011... it does seem to fit with Apple's philosophy of taking an existing technology with a terrible user experience and making it better.

Let's consider what an Apple-based system might look like.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Apple Watch: 2014 Predictions

Wednesday, 2014 January 1 - 3:57 pm

The annual ritual continues... here are my Apple predictions for the year.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

College Football 2013: Week 13 Recap and Week 14 Preview

Saturday, 2013 November 30 - 12:48 pm

This will probably be the last football post of the season. Go Blue.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 12 Recap

Friday, 2013 November 22 - 4:59 pm

Michigan wins in bizarre fashion; N.C. State loses again.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 12 Preview

Saturday, 2013 November 16 - 12:09 pm

I am having trouble getting enthused for these games.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 11 Recap

Sunday, 2013 November 10 - 12:23 pm

It's looking like a lost season for both Michigan and N.C. State at this point. Michigan loses to Nebraska; N.C. State loses to Duke.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 11 Preview

Thursday, 2013 November 7 - 7:29 pm

Michigan plays Nebraska; N.C. State plays Duke.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 10 Recap

Thursday, 2013 November 7 - 6:26 pm

Ugh. And Ugh.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 10 Preview

Saturday, 2013 November 2 - 9:33 am

It's rivalry week... Michigan plays at Michigan State, North Carolina plays at North Carolina State.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Apple News

Monday, 2013 October 28 - 10:05 pm

I'm a bit behind on Apple news, so let's catch up.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

College Football 2013: Week 9 Recap

Monday, 2013 October 28 - 9:19 pm

Michigan was idle; N.C. State gets demolished.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 9 Preview

Saturday, 2013 October 26 - 9:16 am

Michigan is idle; N.C. State travels to Florida State.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Apple Announcements Coming Tomorrow

Monday, 2013 October 21 - 11:26 pm

Some last minute predictions for Apple's media event tomorrow.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

College Football 2013: Week 8 Recap

Monday, 2013 October 21 - 10:53 pm

Michigan wins a wild shootout; N.C. State was idle. Also, four top ten teams lose.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 8 Preview

Saturday, 2013 October 19 - 8:49 am

Michigan plays Indiana; N.C. State has a bye.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 7 Recap

Thursday, 2013 October 17 - 8:39 pm

Ugh. And ugh.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

The Evolution of Blogging

Sunday, 2013 October 13 - 11:21 am

Well, I've finally had enough. As of today, there'll be no more comments on this blog.

There was a time when blogging was a community conversation. We found people with common beliefs and interests, we shared information and personal stories with each other, and we had a constructive dialog via our comment sections. I made several real-life friends through this blog, and I learned to open up about myself; I don't regret any of it.

But blogging has changed as a medium. Now, really, there are basically two types of blog commenters: rabid Obama-bashing trolls, and spammers. I didn't get so much of the former category on this blog, but I did get buckets and buckets of spam. Despite all my attempts to rein it in (CAPTCHA, keyword blocking, IP address blocking, country blocking), I still got a thousand spam comments for every useful one. I'm tired of trying to ban every possible spelling and usage of "Oakley", "Gucci", and "Nike". Handling email spam is easy compared to handling comment spam.

I'm really not sure where I want to go with this blog in general. I don't write as much overall, as I'm sure you can tell. For short-form stuff, I've pretty much switched to Facebook and Twitter. I still like having this blog for longer-form writing every now and then, because I like having it under my control, and I like that my posts won't get lost in all the noise of social media sites.

I predict that someday we'll come up with something new: some kind of decentralized social media organization, one where we can connect with real people and real friends, but cut out spammers, trolls, and advertisers. Ideally it'd be a place where each person has some control over their own layout and content. The technology exists; someone just has to put it together and find a way for it to gain widespread adoption.

Maybe we'll call it "Geocities".

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Posted by Ken in: bloggers, commentary, site-business

College Football 2013: Week 7 Preview

Saturday, 2013 October 12 - 10:50 am

Michigan plays at Penn State; N.C. State plays Syracuse.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 6 Recap

Friday, 2013 October 11 - 9:30 am

Michigan wins the Little Brown Jug; N.C. State gets an ugly loss.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 6 Preview

Wednesday, 2013 October 2 - 9:05 am

Michigan starts Big Ten play against Minnesota; N.C. State plays Wake Forest.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

Thoughts on Breaking Bad

Tuesday, 2013 October 1 - 9:32 am

I don't think it's hyperbole to say that "Breaking Bad" was the best TV show I've ever seen.

SPOILER ALERT:
If you haven't watched the show and don't want spoilers, stop reading now.

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Posted by Ken in: television

College Football 2013: Week 5 Recap

Tuesday, 2013 October 1 - 8:46 am

Michigan was on a bye; N.C. State easily defeats Central Michigan.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

U.S. Government Shuts Down

Tuesday, 2013 October 1 - 8:13 am

Here we go again.

Much like in 1995, Congress has shut down the federal government by refusing to pass a continuing resolution to fund its operations. In 1995 the conflict was largely over the Republicans' desire to cut Medicare. This time, it's all about a minority faction of the House, the Tea Party, and their continuing obsession with repealing the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare").

Some facts about the shutdown:

Among the affected will be active duty military personnel, who will see delays in getting paychecks.
This will do nothing to reduce the deficit; in fact, the act of shutting down and restarting government operations will cost billions of dollars.
This will do nothing to halt Obamacare.

So a shutdown accomplishes no Republican political priorities, it hurts Republican as well as Democratic constituents, and a large number of Republicans are against the idea. It is fifty or so Tea Party Republicans in the house that are holding the other 485 members of the House and Senate hostage until we appease their tantrums over Obamacare. (I don't think "tantrum" is an overstatement.) This is an outrageous upending of the democratic political process.

Why do John Boehner and mainstream Republicans go along with this? Because in the gerrymandered House districts in their states, they are terrified of Tea Party opposition in their re-election primaries, and they can't beat Democratic opponents without Tea Party support.

I predict that the mainstream GOP will cave on the issue and pass a funding bill without ties to Obamacare. If Boehner is smart, he will try to negotiate on some other point, like tax and spending reductions, but he will leave Obamacare off the table. He will infuriate some Tea Party Republicans and may in fact lose his chair as Speaker of the House, but at some point Republicans will surely come to understand that their job is to provide a functioning government for the people.

My sincere hope is that this event will end up fracturing the Tea Party from the Republican party as a whole; and that either the Tea Party will wither away and die, or that the Tea Party will be the new conservative opposition party and that mainstream Republicans en masse will defect to the Democratic party instead.

Please write to your Congressional representatives to tell them to stop acting like children.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

College Football 2013: Week 5 Preview

Saturday, 2013 September 28 - 8:43 am

Michigan has a bye; N.C. State plays Central Michigan.

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Posted by Ken in: sports

College Football 2013: Week 4 Recap

Friday, 2013 September 27 - 10:38 pm

Michigan squeaks by UConn; N.C. State loses to Clemson.

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Posted by Ken in: sports