ManagerZone football

I have discovered the world of online football managing games, and how fun it is.

I first tried soccer-manager.tv6.se, which was advertised on the web site of a Swedish TV channel. Although the concept seemed interesting, I decided to move to another game.

The main reason for my lack of satisfaction was the low usability of the user interface. For instance, when choosing the line-up and the formation, you cannot see the players' abilities, which forces you to go back and forth between pages. Another example is the strategy screen, which seems unfinished. It seems possible to choose between long and short passes, but I can't figure out how to do it. All my clicks on the screen remain unanswered. Weirdly, this screen lets you choose how much doping you want to use. Realistic? maybe, but it should have nothing to do there.

Another bad point is that the players' abilities are strongly skewed towards the physical: form, health, condition and strength. For all I know, my players could all be horses! Not much is said about the technical ability, play intelligence, heading capabilities...

Finally, all training is handled on a team basis. Your entire squad will have the same training, you can't train your players individually.

I then considered Hat Trick and ManagerZone. I went for the latter, as it offers 3d views of games. I am very pleased so far. Here is a random list of the things I like:
- Helpful help.
- Large community.
- The possibility to challenge other players
- You can create your own private leagues and cups. Note however that this feature is not free.
- Advanced training (handled individually, possibility to send players to training camps).
- Easy access to your players' capabilities.
- The preferred position of each player is unknown, you have to figure that out from the players' stats.
- Coaches have abilities, just as players do. Coach recruiting is non-trivial, and it should be that way. Finding good coaches to train you players is just as important as recruiting good players.

If you know other football managing games, please let me know, and don't forget to say what makes your game so special.

Pres. Sarkozy raids Tchad and saves the lives of French prisoners

No, that did not happen. But sometimes I wonder how our president plans his communication.
In the recent affair of "L'Arche de Zoé", a group of French citizens tried to kidnap children from Tchad under the pretense that these orphans (many of which actually have parents) needed to be saved. They are now detained by the local authorities.

Sarkozy has always condemned the action of "L'Arche de Zoé", and claimed that justice should be administered by Tchad, a sovereign country.

A few weeks ago, he went to Tchad and brought back a few journalists, flight attendants and a pilot. This went well with Tchad's president, but not so well with the justice system. Back in France, N. Sarkozy recently announced "I will fetch all those who are left in Tchad", which obviously contradicts his earlier announcements. I guess he was trying to please the families of French citizen still under arrest in Tchad, but he managed to anger an entire country. Being a former French colony, Tchad is upset that the former occupier intends to take care of the case. Cannot Tchad be trusted to judge the case and apply the sentence?

This behavior is unfortunately typical of our president. He is obsessed with appearing decisive and frank, whereas I believe he should give more importance to achieving his goals, which often requires having a low profile.

What is depressing is that this slip of the tongue was not visibly reported by the international media. Instead, newspapers keep spreading the image of an energetic leader, when a more critical reporting should be suggesting another image, that of a pretentious fool whose mistakes can have long-lasting consequences.

Conversation with Viviann

Viviann is the bot replacing customer support at Viasat.se
I got bored waiting for my electric stove to get warm, so I chatted a bit with Viviann.

Are we going to win the game on Saturday?
You have asked a question which is not in the database...
Do you know anything at all?
I don't know if I do.
Why are you smiling?
Unfortunately I don't know why, try to reformulate the question.
You aren't so smart, but you are pretty anyway
It is nice that you think I'm pretty!
Shall we meet?
You have asked a question which is not in the database...
What do you mean?
Unfortunately, I cannot put it more clearly.
That was not very nice
I don't understand what you mean.
Sure.
Ok!