Yes, I kinda knew it wasn't just me getting my first Wordle score of 1

Felix Salmon clears up the surprise on my scoresheet: Wordle gets more intentional.

Personally, I rather enjoyed the thematic flavor of Wednesday's and Thursday's answers. It's nice, I think, when the Wordle of the day is actually the word of the day.

Can't count me among those who got Sunday's in one guess, though.

I'll get that one next year.

Ah, yes, technology is everywhere

The chipped balls are live: The World Cup's New High-Tech Ball Will Change Soccer Forever.

Within every match ball is a device designed by KINEXON, a major player in the performance-tracking world across several sports. Per the company, this device weighs 14 grams (just under 0.5 ounces), and actually houses two separate sensors operating simultaneously:

• Ultra-wideband (UWB) sensor: A type of technology that’s superior to GPS or Bluetooth for precise positional data, plus can transmit data in real time to constantly track the ball’s position.
• Inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor: A sensor meant to detect nuanced movements of an object in space.

...

KINEXON’s in-ball device is supported by suspension technology provided by Adidas, designed to house the sensor at the central interior point of the ball and keep it secure in a consistent location.

The article mentions that several tests in various professional leagues have used special jerseys to allow additionally chipping the refs, the players, etc.

But what will we argue about then?

First time ever, legitimately got it in one.

I'm sure I wasn't the only Wordle hero today, but anyway I didn't cheat, I just got lucky.

Hey! Guess what?

The World Cup has started!

It's a little weird to be watching it in late November, but that's OK, at least it's here and it's started!

It's been a long time since I figured out where to find Telemundo on my TV remote.

Let's go!

Fred Brooks has died

Here's a nice memorial article. Here's another. And here's his Wikipedia page, if you really somehow have no idea who Fred Brooks was.

I never met him, but I surely benefitted from him. I did my first serious programming on IBM mainframes, back in 1981, long after he had left IBM and moved to Chapel Hill.

And both The Mythical Man-Month and No Silver Bullet were seminal readings for me when I was just starting out.

I dragged my copy of Man-Month around with me for several decades, until it basically disintegrated from being read so many times.

And Silver Bullet was packed with practical insights, talking about critically important practices such as prototyping and incremental development long before the days of the Agile Manifesto.

He's nowhere near as well-known as he should be, which is a shame, because he certainly was a very important presence in the software engineering field.