The background on this post, I suppose, is that I was mad about YouTube streaming. Partway through last year, Willow.TV – the online broadcaster that shows most of the cricket that gets shown in America – introduced a partnership with YouTube, in which many events would be streamed via YouTube rather than on the Willow.TV website. You would think that getting the video experts at YouTube involved would be a good thing, but it’s not; I’ve had far more problems with YouTube broadcasts than with any other streaming technology, including Willow’s old homebrewed streaming system. And if you’re on wireless internet, forget it – you might as well try to stream the entire contents of the Library of Congress to a cell phone. It’s just a disaster.

Rand changed some of the language to be less accusatory, which is probably a good thing, and he deleted the shot at Comcast. He’s so journalistically responsible. As always, these appeared first at RandBall, your home for not getting sued.

It was reported this week that both Apple and Google are considering a bid for television rights for English Premier League soccer. At first, I was excited about this sort of advance in broadcasting, until I thought about what this actually means. If Apple wins, you can look forward to having to buy the $799 AppleTV EPL version, which for a low monthly fee of only $40 will show you all the games, as long as you keep buying software updates. On the other hand, if Google wins, the pricing will be fair, but for your hard-earned cash you’ll get to watch the YouTube loading-buffering-spinner thing, along with the occasional picture that jumps around in the stream for no reason whatsoever. It hasn’t even happened yet, and already I’m nostalgic for Comcast’s opaque offerings and lamentable customer service.

On with the links:

*Tim Allen at Canis Hoopus breaks down the story of Wes Johnson. One year into his career, Johnson is unable to do anything that’s really of any use whatsoever on an NBA basketball court, which considering he was drafted in the top five, has to put him in the running for worst Timberwolves draft pick ever. And that, my friends, is saying something.

*Speaking of the Wolves: They beat the Hornets last night, and you can see why, given how excited the newest Hornets look to be there.

*The Classical looks at the world of professional televised darts. This will interest you if you’ve ever wondered if the words “sacrosanct”, “disquiet”, and “risible” can be used in an article about darts.

*And finally: The goofs at Down Goes Brown note that Canadiens fans are up in arms because their new coach doesn’t speak French, and so have some notes on other Montreal fan complaints.

That’ll do it for me this week. Looks like by this time next week, we’ll all be frozen solid, so I suppose we’d better enjoy this weather while we have it. Get outside and, I don’t know, do some ice fishing or something. Hard to beat sitting on a upturned bucket next to a hole in the ice, waiting for something to happen.