IT Meets the World Cup 204
daria42 writes "Looks as if there are some mad soccer fans at ZDNet ... they have compiled a guide to some of the IT systems behind the soccer World Cup. 'What does it take to design, build and operate an advanced, fault-tolerant IP network while the whole world watches?' one of the articles asks. Another looks at how broadcasters have beefed up their infrastructure as they prepare for an influx of fans desperate for information, while another looks at one of the upcoming matches: FIFA vs. Hackers."
More importantly (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, but is it streaming in the US? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Damn US-centric website (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Damn US-centric website (Score:5, Interesting)
The real question should be:
What does it take to make Americans watch Football
And not for nothing but I have only once in my life watched an entire game of Football/Soccer. Ireland v Italy from the Meadowlands, in 1994.
Re:Soccer is a boring sport that kids play... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Damn US-centric website (Score:2, Interesting)
There are over 200 NCAA Division I men's soccer teams, and yet professional soccer in the U.S. is a curiosity at best. Why is this? I think the reasons may be more deeply rooted in the American need to be unique and dominant (see "American-invented sports" such as baseball, football, basketball, NASCAR, etc.) rather than in soccer's popularity or approachability. I will posit that *at least* 1 in 4 kids in the U.S. have played soccer at some point in their youths.
But to say that soccer is not popular in this country because it is 'young' is patently false.
Re:Another use of technology in World Cup (Score:4, Interesting)
"The first stage was gathering a lot of information. We went back 20 years and collected all sorts of information about the teams; things like team performance, score and scorers."
Shame that the none of the teams and player are the same as 20 years ago. Injuries are going to play a major part in this year's cup and there is no way you can account for them.
Want to predict the outcome? Go with the bookmakers. They are rarely wrong.
Re:Don't mention the World Cup (Score:3, Interesting)
Which is, as everyone knows, called "The World Series" because it was originally sponsored by a (now defunct) newspaper called "The World".
Here is the real fun ... (Score:3, Interesting)
NATO surveillance planes to patrol World Cup [yahoo.com]
Erich Mielke would be happy.
Re:Soccer? (Score:1, Interesting)
Aah, selective history. Gotta love it.
It was originally called "association football". Americans shortened it to "soccer" (aSSOC...). Brits shortened it to "football". Both sides claim to be right. Both sides are.
Two countries each thinking the other is wrong
Re:Soccer? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Damn US-centric website (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Damn US-centric website (Score:3, Interesting)
Watching people get excited at a basketball score every 2 seconds makes me laugh everytime. That really is the sport of people with ADD.
Are you telling me gridiron fans don't get excited when one of their players is tackled just before reaching the tryline? Or that a baseball fan isn't excited when a player hits the ball that just falls short of going into the crowd?
Why not? It's the greatest and most nerve-wracking spectacle in sport. Nothing comes close.
It's beautiful in its simplicity. A simple, twelve-yard kick. Not like in ice-hockey where you get to run up and get comfortable on the puck, you have to hit it cold. A penalty kick is the easiest thing to do in football, but in a situation where if you miss, your country is eliminated from the world cup, breaking the hearts of tens of millions of your countrymen watching on TV, it becomes the hardest thing to do in the world. It's so straightforward to score a penalty, that humiliation of missing is crushing, the pressure is unmatched anywhere in sport.
The sixty-yard walk from the centre-circle to the penalty spot becomes sixty miles. The eight-foot by eight-yard goal becomes eight by eight inches. The six-foot seven goalkeeper becomes sixty feet tall, the ball is a lump of iron. Your legs become heavy, a billion people are watching you, waiting for you to fail and humiliate yourself.
A joke? I don't think so.