Tag: internet

Python, Selenium, Cognos, and timeouts

One of the tools I developed and manage for work is populated with data from Cognos on a daily basis. In order to not have to download and upload a file like some sort of IDIOT, I figured it would be good to write a Selenium script to do this for me.

For those of you who and are reading this post because you are my friend from the real world or bike racing or the internet, you might want to stop reading it because it will probably not pertain to you and I’m really writing it so I can remember what the hell I did later on.
Continue reading Python, Selenium, Cognos, and timeouts

Watching cross worlds

I was thinking to myself today, “I wonder how much Universal Sports/NBC/Comcast/Xfinity paid for the rights to UCI CX? And I wonder how much the UCI would make if they charged everyone in the US $5 per race to watch it?”

I think I actually thought this out loud, while reading Twitter. Or something.

Because if you’re a fan of cyclocross in the US, you have probably discovered the wonder of installing Hola in Chrome, pretending to be another country where Jack Donaghy didn’t win the rights to broadcast CX worlds, and going to the UCI YouTube channel, and watching the race in normal definition (WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE we had pixelated crap feeds on steephill.tv AND WE LIKED IT) on your laptop or TV.

The situation in the US is so ugly that Tim Johnson is tweeting out VPN solutions.

ANYWAY, I was thinking all of this (and, as usual, Cosmo has a great post/rant about this), and thought I had a GREAT IDEA in the “charging $5/race”, until I realized that in all of the countries I pretend to be via Hola, the race is broadcast for free on YouTube.

Except in the US, where the UCI found a network willing to give them some money to “broadcast it” to it’s “subscribers” (and yes, I tried cycling.tv, but it was terrible, and they kept billing me after I cancelled my subscription).

So anyway. Someone in the UCI Media Rights Sales Department (gotta be a thing, right?) managed to discover a way to get some cash money from Xfinity International Sports, and we’ll never be able to watch UCI CX in a non-janky fashion again.

But thank you, Hola.

AWESOME THINGS!

Two awesome things happened in rapid succession!

  1. My favorite Internet Comic Person, Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics (which is fantastic) confirmed that we are INTERNET FRIENDS ON THE TWITTER.
    Replying to me on the Twitter confirms that we are INTERNET FRIENDS.

    HELL YEAH.  Maybe he can come to my ALL-STAR BBQ? (please note that I do not own a grill or a yard)

  2. One time I did a bike ride with some dudes and said something that some people thought was funny, and now it’s a TSHIRT:
    Not everything I say is worthless, apparently.

    Which you can BUY.

    ALSO, all profits from the shirt sales are being donated to charities in Vermont – which needs help, what with the storming lately. The names of the charities will be revealed once my office has power and I can fax in some paper work (because there are i’s to dot and t’s to cross).

BASICALLY, I’m killing it on the Internet today.

Other things I say are also available for licensing/tshirt creation.