The Hockey Machine

Hockey, Hockey and more Hockey! And a little MIS 225.

[thehockeymachine]

MIS225 Assignment 4

I decided to look at the Vancouver Youth Hockey Association Website for this assignment because I created it and I can show much more of what is required to fix it. The first problem is its load time: It can be fixed in a number of ways 1) since I am using WordPress I can install a cache plug-in but I would need to go in and alter the .htaccess, the php rules and a host of other stuff that takes time. If this were a commercial site it would be done. The media is not optimized either e.g. the photo’s are large in size, which reduces load speed. Optimizing for the web could be done, and should for commercial sites, but again it takes time. Also, the media could be hosted on other sites and through commercial hosting services such as Amazon. Thus when your page is loaded different elements come from varied locations with larger band width. Also, this is cheap hosting, low ram allocation, limited bandwidth, shared etc. Also, WordPress is bulky but a convenient frame work.

The second problem is the SEO as can be seen below from my backend:

There are no titles, no descriptions and no key words on most of the pages, this takes time to do properly. Also look at the Home version 2, Home2 pages in addition to the home page. I bet the developer was doing this for free and got lazy to save time, but just a guess.

The first five things to do to fix this site are as follows:

SEO the Media:

Use the ALT and Title attributes for all images.

Media should have a relevant file name.

Meta Descriptions:

These tell the search engine what your site is about, andshow up in search results which tell people what your site is about. Although this does not have an impact on your SEO ranking it is vitally important to what shows up in your Search Engine Results Page(SERP’s)

Limit your description to 140 characters.

Meta description should be naturally worded.

Do not over use keywords in description.

Keyword Placement:

Use one primary keyword per page

Use keywords strategically, in your headings, subheadings, first paragraph, and the last paragraph.

Linking Strategy:

Internally link within the site itself.

Use a keyword for the link, having a simple click here is useless.

If a page or post is not important to your SEO, use a “no follow” link so search engines will ignore it.

Use your full domain name when linking to social media. This helps with branding.

[thehockeymachine]

No need for word, watch kid in white,Learned both to skate and skick handle 36 months ago ALL TEN YEARS OLD! VIDEO SLOWS IT DOWN, THEY ARE FAST, REAL FAST

[thehockeymachine]

Ten Year old Squirt in a hardcore practise with two 14 year old Bantam AAA

This is my son, who turned 10 last month, at his biweekly practise session with his two 14 year old friends who play Bantam AAA. The older boys are great kid...Exciting for me but maybe not for you..

[thehockeymachine]

Customer Service Defined

I would like to extend a belated “Thank you” to United Airlines for their help in my family’s time of need. This thank you comes more than fifteen years after the event but I will never forget how their astounding customer service helped ease our pain and lighten our burden. My first wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in early in the spring 1995, a few months prior to our wedding on June 8th. The tumor was small approx half the size of the nail on my pinky and we were given assurances that we had caught it in time. She was immediately sent to a surgeon who scheduled her for a short procedure to remove the tumor. Just prior to the scheduled procedure the denial set in, I see it clearly now, but was oblivious to at the time. Pat, my wife, canceled the procedure using our upcoming wedding as an excuse to postpone the removal. I threatened to cancel the wedding; but, after promising to have the procedure within a month of our marriage I agreed and our nightmare began. In the summer of 1997 approximately six months prior to her death we purchased tickets with United Airlines for a flight between Calgary, AB, Canada and San Diego, CA. After check-in at the Calgary Airport, but prior to our departure, I wheeled Pat over to the washroom and I waited outside the entrance. It was then that I was approached by a United Airline employee. She had apparently been watching me help my wife and asked if there was anything she could do to help. I explained that she had Cancer and that we were on the way to see an Oncologist California. The woman seemed concerned and immediately walked to the counter to talk with a colleague and they were soon on the phone to some unknown authority. My initial thought was that they were going to deny us boarding due to her condition and we would need to make other arrangements. To my surprise they upgraded us to first class, and had a porter waiting for us on the layover in Denver. We were taken to the lounge where we received service that was second to none. We traveled all of the time so first class and the VIP lounge was familiar to us, but this was service above and beyond. They even arranged for transportation to our hotel. I was flabbergasted and thought that I had seen it all; but to my surprise upon arriving at the Airport and checking in for our return flight our experience was repeated. My wife passed away Christmas Eve of that year. I will always remember what United Airlines did for us, thank you again.

[thehockeymachine]

Eight year old playing Peewee.

[thehockeymachine]

Spatial intelligence & Situational Awareness

Spatial intelligence is the computational aptitude that facilitates the cognitive ability to solve dynamically evolving events and anticipate the future state of complex systems with reference to a particular time and space and anticipate future events.

This sort of instant assessment is made at every position. It can be illustrated by defensemen attempting to interpret the play choices of adversaries during a 2-on-1.  It can be observed with goalies attempting to stop a breakaway and with forwards trying to read what the goalie is giving them on said breakaway. 

Bear in mind that these decisions are being made in reference to every player on the ice, with respect to where they are located and what they are doing. Not to mention the fact that you’re perched on blades, while others are yelling at you and someone is likely trying to hit you.

Wayne Gretzky is widely regarded as the master.  He seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and knew where he wanted to put the puck before he even got it.  He had an amazing ability to read the game and make decisions that no one else on the ice had even dreamed of before.

Situational awareness is very closely related to spatial intelligence.

Spatial intelligence is basically knowing everything that’s happening around you, situational awareness is more being conscious of all that’s going on in the context of the what the other players plan to do and predicting their next move.

Are you confused?

To simplify it even further:

Spatial intelligence is knowing what’s going on all around you.

Situational Awareness is understanding how the intentions and actions of those around you effect what’s going on around you.

The players with the best “game sense” excel at both of these. When you couple these high-level mental components with tremendous individual skill, you get a fantastic all-around player who can both skate and think the game at high speeds.