Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet • Hacker News Board

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#41

Post by josefresco » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:20 PM UTC

dhemmerling wrote: post #32

Surface is getting all the heat in the article, but in the linked interview [1] he blames pretty much every part of the infrastructure other than the interface: > The other communication systems involve the press box to the coaches on the field, and then the coach on the field, the signal caller, or the coach-to-quarterback, coach-to-signal caller system. Those fail on a regular basis. > And again, there's a lot of e…

THIS. Read the transcript, he rants almost exclusively about the entire "system" and it's many parts that all seem to fail at some point. The "tablet" issue is a minor sub point but you know ... clicks = money so the headline "Bill Belichick Hates Microsoft Surface" is what every "journalist" went with.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#42

Post by greedo » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:20 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…

Younger folks...

My TWC cable net connection has been dropping on a daily basis for the last two months. Resetting the modem solves it until the next outage. (TWC has since replaced a shit ton of stuff to fix this).

So everyday, my two special snowflakes would get pissed when the Wifi would go nowhere. They would text me expecting me to fix it even when I'm in the office. They would text me when I was watching football (my only sacrosanct timeslot). They would text me when taking a dump. I could feel my blood pressure rise everytime I heard the phrase "The WiFi is down!"

So no, I think you're completely wrong about youngsters being less perturbed. When I was their age, my motto was "I want my MTV..." Their motto is "I want my WiFi..."

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#43

Post by ChuckMcM » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:21 PM UTC

I wonder if there is an actual product here or if there is just a product placement. And by that I mean has anyone sat down with coaches and said "Given what you do in a game on the sidelines, the choices you are making, the questions you are asking, and options you are trying to weigh; Is there a way to improve the tools you've already been using with some automation?"

Anyone know?

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#44

Post by vlunkr » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:22 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…

I don't know, I know plenty of "young" people who are outraged if their internet is out for 5 minutes.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#45

Post by greedo » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:23 PM UTC

spaceisballer wrote: post #21

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.

$400 million reasons...

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#46

Post by tstrass » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:23 PM UTC

tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #23

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...

Fair point if the problems are just crashes, but I wouldn't be surprised if Belichick was getting that frustrated over much more minor things at a time when the game is not on the line. In my experience many older people have extremely low tolerance for usage of technology not going perfectly.

For example, I could picture BB chucking the tablet from something like a slight lag when navigating menus or even just dissonance between how the app works and how he expects it to work (regardless whether or not poor design is to blame).

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#47

Post by coleca » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:24 PM UTC

yk wrote: post #26

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.

Reminds me of a story I heard during a project management class many years ago. The PM was working on a govt contract for the US Army in the late 90s to build a mobile mapping system for use in the field on the Humvees. He got all the specs from the generals to build this marvel of a technology system with screens and scrolling maps (90s remember) and decided to talk to the soldiers in the field to ask them what they wanted out of the project.

The soldiers told him what they really wanted was a piece of plywood that they could fold out and lay their paper maps on. They didn't want screens or electronics, because those don't work with bullet holes in them, but the paper maps work fine even if they get shot.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#48

Post by makecheck » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:25 PM UTC

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #12

arcanus wrote: post #4

> Microsoft entered into a long-term sponsorship partnership with the league in 2013. At the time, the N.F.L. had a list of demands for the equipment, including ruggedness, ease of use, size, effectiveness in extreme temperature and glare resistance. > In 2014, Belichick noted that the system had crashed, but seemed mostly cool with it. “I’d say that’s all kind of part of the game,” he said. > “I just can’t take it a…

It's important to know what he was using. He's going back to pictures but I doubt the tablet crashes often just looking at pictures. If there is some software developed specifically for his /the NFL's use, you have a code base that's giving the entire platform a bad image.

Even if software is at fault, the managers of any long-term strategic “partnership” with high publicity are still responsible: they should know what it means to stamp your name on something, and have everything under control. If some app isn’t working and that broken app is tarnishing your entire platform, you’d better have either a “plan B” implementation or enough control over the app to quickly bring it up to some standard.

Also, it really matters to have competent support and help documentation. Asking for help should not be a frustrating experience; users should want to come to you first (and not the press) to fix all their problems. If they continually receive useless answers like “power off and on”, or they have to wait a long time, or even your support people don’t know what’s wrong, then you shouldn’t be surprised if your users find other ways to vent and solve their problems.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#49

Post by notatoad » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:32 PM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #30

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.

>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.

if they had, would the surface tablets have been able to use it? I'm not aware of any licensed spectrum that standard wifi cards are capable of communicating on.

Re: Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet

#50

Post by coleca » Wed, Oct 19, 2016, 4:32 PM UTC

Twirrim wrote: post #10

Mostly what stands out to me from this is that they only get the tablets just a few hours before the game. That's ridiculous, unless the NFL is also providing all the technical support (which Bill's actual rant doesn't imply they do.) Having just a short time to use, test and get them ready for the game is incredibly lousy, and certainly won't give the team's IT people any chance to seriously troubleshoot and improve…

Since the tablets are operating wirelessly it becomes very hard to test since the conditions before the game aren't the same as what occurs during the game. All the fans with their smartphones aren't there yet polluting the airwaves until the game starts (some don't make it in until after the game has already started).

Also worth noting that some of the reporters were complaining at last week's game that the WiFi was down in the press box at Gillette Stadium at the start of the game. There could have been a bigger networking issue going on there.

The Pats use Extreme Networks WiFi gear in the stadium.