Here are some stories I’ve written:
Recent – Business and Technology
A Technology Touchdown: Indianapolis Colts Step Into the Digital Era – BizTech magazine (Nov. 28, 2012)
The 2012 season marks a new era of football for the Indianapolis Colts. After its first losing season in a decade and an off-season of management and roster upheaval, the team made a fresh start with a new head coach, a new quarterback and new mobile technology to give it a competitive edge. Not only did the NFL franchise replace veteran Peyton Manning with rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, but head coach Chuck Pagano also ditched traditional Âpaper playbooks in favor of digital Âversions on Apple iPad devices. More
To BYOD or not to BYOD – Fed Tech magazine (Oct. 30, 2012)
When the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cut its IT budget last fall, CIO Kimberly Hancher was forced to trim the agency’s BlackBerry budget by half. Her options: Take everyone’s BlackBerry away halfway through the year; allow half the staff to keep their devices, but confiscate the other half; or let employees bring their own devices to use at work. Hancher chose to start a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program and, she says, the staff couldn’t be happier. More
Army IT goes agile – Fed Tech magazine (August 3, 2012)
This fall, the Army will begin equipping battlefield troops with cutting-edge communication technology. For the first time, a brigade combat team will be able to build a mobile wide area network (WAN) that allows everyone from the brigade commander to front-line soldiers to have voice and data communications while on the move. More
How New Instructional Models Are Transforming Education – Ed Tech magazine (Oct. 24, 2012)
Oro Grande School District teachers are breathing life into classes, much as the fictional Dr. Frankenstein did with the eponymous monster of his creation. Last year, sophomores at Riverside Preparatory School, the district’s K–12 charter school, studied Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, in their history, science and English classes. Then the students conducted a mock murder trial of Dr. Frankenstein at the city courthouse, where they served as prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses. More
Houston Rockets’ Network Upgrade Is a Slam Dunk – BizTech magazine (May 20, 2013)
For one weekend this year, the Houston Rockets’ Toyota Center was the center of the sporting universe. In mid-February, the Rockets hosted the NBA All-Star Weekend. With tens of millions of hoops fans tuning in live from across the globe — and even more following the festivities through social media and the web — the Rockets needed to make sure there were no communications outages at the team’s 9-year-old, 18,000-seat arena. More
Rise in Analytics Attracts Students to Sports Business – Ed Tech magazine (April 30, 2012)
In the world of sports analytics, Mark Broadie hit a hole-in-one. The professor from Columbia Business School in New York primarily performs research on financial engineering and security pricing. But as an avid golfer, Broadie takes the same mathematical tools and research techniques he uses for the financial markets and applies them to golf. The result is a major new golf statistic called “strokes gained-putting,” which the PGA TOUR now uses to measure a golfer’s putting performance. More
Sports
Book excerpt: “Giants: Where Have You Gone?”
Bob Brenly is having a rough week – and it’s about to get worse. His 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks are struggling with a 14-20 record and are mired in last place, eight and a half games behind the division-leading Dodgers. It’s only May 14, but the local media are already speculating his managerial job is in jeopardy. Ace Randy Johnson has made matters worse, first by publicly second-guessing him for pulling him from a 1-1 game in the seventh inning, a game the D-Backs later lost. Then yesterday, the southpaw flamethrower dissed the team after pitching brilliantly for the second time in a week, but still losing 1-0. More
Giants could learn from D-Backs’ rebuilding effort – San Jose Mercury News
Does this sound familiar? The team’s left fielder is the face of the franchise, the team’s slugger and once carried his team to the World Series. He’s near the end of his career and is a free agent, but he feels he can still play, wants to end his career at “home†and has publicly expressed his desire to do so. The team, however, is in the midst of a rebuilding effort and wants to get younger, so what does it do? In the case of the Arizona Diamondbacks, they cut Luis Gonzalez loose at the end of last year and committed to a full youth movement by deciding to let unproven rookies and second-year players play everyday, and they’ve been rewarded this year with an 81-63 record and a three-game lead in the NL West with 18 games to play. More
Giants fans head to the ballpark to watch… Warriors basketball – San Jose Mercury News
Last Thursday night, it’s cold and rainy, and I’m shivering in my seat when the crowd begins cheering for no apparent reason. I look at the field, at the scoreboard, and back on the field – and nothing is happening. A few seconds later, the crowd roars again. It’s around the seventh inning, the Giants are down two runs, and the few thousand diehard fans remaining in their seats on this dreary night aren’t even clapping. And then I realize: The booming cheers – that even players on the field could hear – are coming from inside the ballpark, where Giants fans are watching playoff hoops on TV. More