The list of bad refereeing and improperly won matches is almost endless: Ghana beating the US because of an alleged foul which every camera showed never took place, Italy beating Australia because of an alleged foul which every camera showed never took place (probably because the ref didn't feel like running around another 30 minutes), a Croatian player getting three yellow cards before finally being sent off, Ronaldo getting his own teammate Rooney sent off, and, of course, Frings getting pulled tonight because he had the audacity to try to prevent himself getting hit in the face.

Then there are things like offsides calls being wrong 25% of the time. Not quite Maradonna's Hand of God, to be sure, but bad refereeing is so endemic that I don't see why people even bother watching this shit. The Italians and Brazilians don't bother playing the game, they just dive and the cameras all see it. But not the refs. FIFA needs to fully revamp their refereeing, add a couple extra assistants on the field and accept the fact that video is with us and proves the veracity (or lack thereof) of whatever happens on the field. Even after a dozen different TV cameras showed Fring blocking a hit and not striking someone himself, he's out tonight.

Meanwhile, I need a big shovel. I'm running the show in our readiness testing and it's up to me to have the new version up and running, along with finding the errors in our documentation on actually getting our software installed and running. Because the server I have VMWare on is Windows 2K3, according company policy it has to have static IP address. I've been waiting a week already one the deadline for my completion is tomorrow. I also can't use our other virtual servers on the IT center racks because for some reason, images aren't being dumped onto the machines. Maybe it has something to do with the fire.

High atop Munich on the first floor of the Panopticon (main door now broken: stairs only) we've already hit 30°C indoors. There's no A/C. It's time to go home, although the trains will already be full of idiots drunk enough to be stupid but not drunk enough to fall over and sleep, all on their way to the Theresienwiese (where Oktoberfest is held) or the Stadium or to every bar and Biergarten in town to watch tonight's spectacle. I'm betting there will be at least three clear Italian dives during the game, as well as the same number of "seriously injured" players rolling around and crying like schoolgirls until some German gets a yellow card, after which each will magically heal and start playing again.

If the refereeing is so bad -- and it is -- stop fucking watching the games. If people would stop watching and stop buying all the swag out of disgust, FIFA would actually react. It's all about the money.

Fuckwits.