Those annoying Verizon FIOS commercials.

So in a past life, I worked for a couple of high-tech firms (mostly in the networking arena), so I’m a little bit familiar with some of the jargon – familiar enough that those new Verizon FIOS commercials, with their talk of “dB hot” and “true qualm” (whatever the bleep that is), set off my BS detector. And it turns out that I’m not alone. Turns out that Tom Wright-Piersanti thought the commercial was a little too slick, and he had enough technical knowledge to root out the truth behind those terms. It’s a good read if those commercials have gotten under your skin as they did mine.

Comments

  1. Also, the people in the ads are a little too good looking to the point where I get depressed over my insecurities and forget the message. Just thought I should point that out.

  2. Keith,

    I know this is your non-baseball sanctuary, but I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. I recently blogged about baseball implementing a salary cap (I’m against it), and I wanted to support my argument by citing the structure of initial contracts for players, in which I believe a player has to be on a major-league roster for three seasons before being eligible for arbitration, and isn’t eligible for free agency until they’ve tallied six years. But I can’t find anything online supporting this, and I’m actually curious. Is there a website that outlines the various stipulations of an initial contract for a player?

    Again, sorry for invading your non-baseball space, and thanks for making fans like me much more educated about the administration of a baseball team.

    Sincerely,

    Connor Doyle

  3. Connor – no apology necessary. I don’t think I’ve seen a site that explains what you’re looking for, but you’re pretty close to the mark. It’s not so much about years but about service time – each day on the 25-man roster or a major-league DL counts as a day of service, and every 172 days constitute one year of service (there are about 182 days in a season, but you can’t get credit for more than 172 in one season). After about 2 years and 130 days of service, you’re arb-eligible (that’s the super-two rule), and after six years of service you can become a free agent.

    Let me know if you’re looking for anything else.

  4. Thanks very much, Keith.

    Take care,

    Connor