In all seriousness, I’ve always held Diebold (now Premier Election Solutions) in distaste. They haven’t exactly been the aid to election woes as they promised to be. In fact, they probably have made it worse. The machine designs are all proprietary, so there is no oversight on the correctness of the results (vote flipping, anyone?). They leave no paper trail, which means data (this being election results) can be tampered with after the fact. Not to mention that the systems are also susceptible to viruses and the like.
I was sorely disappointed when I saw my first e-voting machine, and I’m still upset that we’re still using the same machines this time around. Sigh, maybe I will never live in a free world.
I caught the Hotel Cafe Tour when the ladies all stopped by in Dallas. Ingrid Michaelson really knows how to keep a crowd going. Priscilla Ahn brings out the fun instruments (harmonica and kazoo). Laura Jansen really can pound it out on the keyboard, and everybody cheered the hometown girl, Erin McCarley.
Meiko sounded like she had the most fun, though. She performed what is now my new favorite song, which she wrote as a joke (more of a taunt in my opinion) to the jealous girlfriend of a platonic friend of hers.
No, that’s not from the show I went to. Still the same song, though.
Reposted lyrics:
you don’t know who
you’re dealing with do you
with your perfect hair little jezebel
without a thing to do
i heard your voice
when you thought i left the room
i heard you say
i couldn’t never compare to you
well i got a secret
that i can’t keep
i had a long talk with your baby
in my back seat
and he was real real sweet
yea he was real real sweet
play your cards right
and get out of my life
cause we both know
i am not the quite type
yea i got a secret that
i can’t keep
everytime he left you
i was waiting down the street
and he was real real sweet
yea he was real real sweet
but you’ll never know you’ll never know
the truth
no no no you’ll never know the truth
will you
i got secret that i can’t keep
i know that he loves you
but he’s in love with me
and it goes real real deep
yea it goes real real deep
but you’ll never know you’ll never know
the truth
no no no you’ll never know the truth
will you
I went on an unofficial Photo Walk with some kids over at TexasPhotoForum last Saturday. Unofficial because the official Kelby sanctioned one in Dallas proper was full. We still managed to grab a good group to head on out to historic Frisco to get some shots.
All the activity is on the forum, so I can’t show you all that was taken that evening. Take a peek, though, if you’re a member.
I’m visiting CNN.com, and I see a link to an interview of the fake bigfoot ordeal. As soon as I click on it, I get this littel fun message:
This CNN.com feature is optimized for Adobe Flash Player version 8 or higher.
You are currently using Flash Player 10
Yes, I’m using the pre-release version of Flash Player 10. There’s a good reason for doing so, and I’m also a bit of a masochist. But wait?! How is 10 less than 8?
The culprit is in this bit of JavaScript code (if you can call it that):
CNN_FlashDetect.prototype.detectVersion = function ( num ) {
var isVersionSupported = false;
if ( ! isNaN( num ) ) {
isVersionSupported = ( this.getVersion() >= parseInt( num ) );
}
return ( isVersionSupported );
}
The problem is that this.getVersion() returns a string. Therefore, the comparison that it makes for isVersionSupported is really a string comparison. In my case, it would be "10.0.0" >= 8. Unfortunately, it’s not 10 that’s being compared to 8. It’s ‘1′ (the first “letter” in my version number) being compared to ‘8′. ‘8′ is greater than ‘1′, so my flash player isn’t supported .
I do understand that I’m playing with fire by using prerelease software, but come on! Do your number comparisons correctly! I’m hoping that one of the CNN.com developers is reading this. If you are, you’ll find that blob here.
EDIT: It turns out someone beat me to the punch on finding out the problem. Even goes into more detail on what happens on each browser. http://blog.computerelibol.com/?p=16
Browsing randomly on Wikipedia, I found this to be hilarious, yet disturbing. What musuem proprietor decides that dinosaurs getting freaky would be the centerpiece of the new exhibit? And to think of the taxpayer money that went into this.
Or maybe the remains were found in this position… I mean… wow. What a way to go.
I found this science fair ribbon while going through a bunch of old junk in my closet.
I didn’t make it past regionals, but I wasn’t intending to go any further. My project wasn’t very detailed. Though, it’s what’s on the back that I found interesting:
My timing was wrong. Gas was 99 cents a gallon back then, so fuel efficiency was scoffed at back then. If I did this project today, I think I would have some sort of funding now.
I did get a mention in the local paper on my project. However, I was misquoted, saying that my project was aimed at making a better SUV. I was actually trying to make eighteen wheelers less sucky.
Very few posts as of late because I’ve been either spending my time packing, unpacking, throwing stuff out, buying new stuff to replace the junk I threw out, etc. In between all the excitement, I managed to make it out to the Maker Faire Publicity thing out at Fair Park.
There were many interesting projects out there, including a car decorated all in yarn. Yep, yarn. The Yarn Car. You can check Tim Klein’s page out here.
I also got to see a performance by the kids from ArcAttack. They are the home of the Singing Tesla Coils. It’s a very interesting way to make music, but I can’t imagine it’s very cost effective in terms of producing sound. Not to mention safety, and the fact that the room smelled like ozone afterwards, but it was cool nonetheless.
You can see more pictures of that day on my photostream.
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