Apps olutely irritating

So I have a Smart TV.  It access the Internet.  It's a Sony and Sony gives you so many Apps.  I have access to Play Store, which lets me add other Apps.  I also have got myself an Amazon Fire which gives me access to more "TV" Apps.  I was pleased to see that the Amazon Fire gives me access to NBC Sports.  You see I have a yearly subscription to the NBC Sports App on my laptop since they show many the the cycling races.  Sounds good right?  Wrong.  You see the 2 are not connected.  The App for the TV only gives you highlights.  I can't sign in with my password and "watch a race."  If I want to watch cycling, I have to connect the laptop to the TV.  Ain't that a bitch?

A lot of Apps need you to buy a subscription, which doesn't bother me since I know what I'm getting.  There are a number, however, that will not work unless you have a cable provider.  Excuse me, but if I got rid of cable because I didn't want to pay for all those hundreds of useless channels, why would I want to pay for cable in order to get one or two Apps for which I will need to then pay for a subscription.  So, guess which Apps I can live without?

Stupid NBC Sports craps on both the Tour de France and Amgen

When NBC Sports decides to drop a turd on the American cyclists, they drop a big one.  I checked out their sports network to see if they were broadcasting at least a highlight show of the Paris-Nice race and saw they weren't.  Their coverage of the race begins at midnight, Eastern Standard time.  Hey, dumb shits at NBC Sports, I don't own a DVR.  Back when the network used to be Versus they broadcast a lot of cycling, but since it became NBC Sports those moments are becoming few far between.  Maybe some moron executive believes cycling to be slightly un-American.  Most likely, however, it's simply a ratings issue.  I suspect that of all the sports networks, non of which are ratings giants, NBC Sports pulls in an average amount of viewers, and they do have to pay Dan Patrick; that guy seems to be all over the place.  This means there might be a few thousand more people watching college basketball then there would be watching Paris-Nice.

Of course their stupidity goes beyond that, it becomes incredulously dumb.  This is how they note times for the races they will be broadcasting (my highlight).

"This TV schedule is subject to change and all times are considered ET. All events are same day delay or next day delay except for Amgen Tour de France, Tour of California, USA Pro Cycling Challenge, and Paris Roubaix."

Holy Shit!  Amgen is now sponsoring the Tour de France! Someone must have their head up their ass at NBC Sports.  Not only do they insult the Tour de France, they insult Amgen.  Of course, maybe they believe I'm the only one out here who looks at their cycling website, which would be fricking stupid.  Of course, for all I know this copy was written by Dan Patrick.

Mass Effect 3 DLC / What? No fantasy TDF?

I finally watched the Mass Effect 3 DLC on Youtube.  Boring.  They said there was going to be some added filler to enlighten gamers as to what actually happens in the end.  The answer is a boring 'nothing much.'  You still end up with, of all things, a 2 second clip of someone laying in the rubble on Earth, someone who may or may not be Shepherd.  Like I said before, in 2 or 3 years Bioware is going to put another Mass Effect game, though who knows what they might call it, maybe Mass Effect Resurrection because Shepherd will rise from the rubble.

To be continued?

Next on the agenda - Cycling, the kind you do on a bicycle.  The Tour de France starts Sunday and I can't wait.  I've watched it on Versus for years.  At some point in time NBC purchased Versus and for the most part they've kept pretty true to previous years' telecast.

There is, however, one exception.  I've been going to the NBC Sports website daily to see if they were going to be running a Fantasy Cycling Challenge or at least a link to one.  So far?  Nothing.  Thousands of people used to participate and I used to be one of them.  I never expected to win and never did, but there was still a lot of fun in creating my own team, usually a team that did not include all of the "superstars" of cycling.  Remember, it's how you play the game; if you play it well and you win, well that's stupendous, if you play it well and lose, well, that's life, deal with it - it didn't cost anything.  But not this year, so far no link has been published.  I did go online to see if there were any listed and there are, but they cost money.  There's one in the UK which is free for the first 7 stages but after that you need to pay 10.5 Pounds Sterling, or about $25 per stage.  Give me a break!  Not out of my bank account.  So, this year, I will most likely just watch.  Oh, and I will not be signing up to watch the live broadcast from my tablet.  My employer would not be thrilled to find me sitting at my desk watch the race live.