Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet • Hacker News Board

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#21

Post by spaceisballer » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 3:57 PM UTC

pyrophane wrote: post #18

Now, I have to preface this by saying that I don't know much about football and even less about coaching it, but I wonder how much of this speaks to a lack of a real need for a technology solution for coaches. If it were providing a lot of value to them, I imagine they'd have a harder giving it up. This NFL suggests that there is such a need: "Since Microsoft has been a partner of the N.F.L. and implemented their tec…

They probably implemented it with no real need. I'm sure some coaches appreciate it. But really I'm sure MS wants them used on the sidelines so they are on TV so they can advertise the tablets.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#22

Post by zeveb » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 3:58 PM UTC

I've seen this time and time again in multiple different industries.

Electronics technology & software are truly great and wonderful, but they are still too immature (the latter more so) to be truly reliable. I'm confident that someday they will actually be superior to physical technology like pads of paper, but they're just not there yet. Honestly, I don't really expect them to get where they need to be within my lifetime.

For that matter, high-tech stuff isn't as reliable as low-tech stuff. I know that when I pick up my landline wired headset that I will have crystal-clear calling, every single time; I don't know that with my cordless phone; I don't know that with my cellphone. I know that when I pick up a pen & paper, that I will be able to quickly write and draw whatever I want; I don't know that with my laptop, nor with my tablet, nor with my phone.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#23

Post by tetraodonpuffer » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:03 PM UTC

liquidise wrote: post #2

This speaks to a higher level perception about software. Bugs and crashes, however inconsistent, irreparably damage the sentiment about using a technology. Younger folks grew up in an age with these inconsistencies and are less perturbed by them. To older folks though, manual systems rarely "fail" during use. The bar of acceptance is a great deal higher when your reliability and availability are compared to pencil an…

if a play that might win or lose your game is hinging on you being able to use a piece of software to do something, your quality requirement will be just as high regardless of your age... that would be like saying that a young trader might care less about a bug in their trading software that lost them $$$ compared an older trader...

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#24

Post by vermontdevil » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:03 PM UTC

He also noted that the comms system fails regularly.

Seems NFL sets them up a few hours before kickoff.

Perhaps it is time for NFL to improve their tech support in all areas. There might be a relationship between the tablet issues and the problems with the comms system.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#25

Post by s3r3nity » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:03 PM UTC

pyrophane wrote: post #18

Now, I have to preface this by saying that I don't know much about football and even less about coaching it, but I wonder how much of this speaks to a lack of a real need for a technology solution for coaches. If it were providing a lot of value to them, I imagine they'd have a harder giving it up. This NFL suggests that there is such a need: "Since Microsoft has been a partner of the N.F.L. and implemented their tec…

My read of it is that there are absolutely a lot of problems that tablets/electronic devices could solve on the sidelines of an NFL game. However, the urgency and real-time nature of football such that a lot of money and careers can be made/destroyed by a single game, any/all bugs are immediately seen as a significant hinderance.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#26

Post by yk » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:04 PM UTC

pyrophane wrote: post #18

Now, I have to preface this by saying that I don't know much about football and even less about coaching it, but I wonder how much of this speaks to a lack of a real need for a technology solution for coaches. If it were providing a lot of value to them, I imagine they'd have a harder giving it up. This NFL suggests that there is such a need: "Since Microsoft has been a partner of the N.F.L. and implemented their tec…

Belichick is considered the best coach in football of the last twenty odd years, so he has probably his process with pen and paper nailed down. And the thing is, new technology requires a learning curve both individually and also on a larger scale culturally, so I would guess that tablets after a year or so of use would provide a lot of value, however they do not do so now.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#27

Post by jsprogrammer » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:06 PM UTC

liquidise wrote: post #2

This speaks to a higher level perception about software. Bugs and crashes, however inconsistent, irreparably damage the sentiment about using a technology. Younger folks grew up in an age with these inconsistencies and are less perturbed by them. To older folks though, manual systems rarely "fail" during use. The bar of acceptance is a great deal higher when your reliability and availability are compared to pencil an…

Do you think that as old folks exit the market, inconsistences will be further tolerated?

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#28

Post by edw519 » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:06 PM UTC

This is what inevitably happens when you have a solution looking for a problem.

I have 2 "systems" at work...

One includes email and a white board with index cards taped to the wall next to it.

The other includes Jira, Confluence, Infor, Sharepoint, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe Illustrator, GIMP, Skype, Webex, Success Factors, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

If I don't need all this horrible shit to build software, why would anyone need any of it to play football?

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#29

Post by thesehands » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:08 PM UTC

davesque wrote: post #3

Not sure this really says anything bad about Microsoft. Is it really hard to imagine an NFL coach losing his temper with something let alone a computer?

Bill Belichick in his episode of a Football Life lived with the clock being wrong in his car because he simply couldn't change it[0]. I'd argue that all this currently shows is that the system was not worth the time for BB to get to grips with. This is not to say that its a bad system, just that it didn't work for one user. It's only news because BB happens to be in the conversation for greatest Head Coach of an NFL team ever.

[0] http://www.nfl.com/videos/new-england-patriots/09000d5d8226f...

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#30

Post by tw04 » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:10 PM UTC

I'm guessing it has far more to do with network connectivity than the tablet itself. The problems he describes to me sound like exactly what I would expect in a stadium filled with 100,000 cellphones emitting wifi and cellular interference.

I'm guessing the NFL didn't get clearance from the FCC to use a dedicated wavelength within the stadium to isolate their systems from noise.