Phone as Secretary

Smart
phone predicts owner's behaviour by observing bluetooth discovery events and other triggered behaviors like phone calls and emails sent and received. Some might worry about the privacy concerns, but it sounds like an excellent tool to me.

Usability

Great article on how usability will trump every other issue in technology as more users join the ranks. Well worth the read.

Kids in the Kitchen

What a day! Here's a bit of the noise I lived through. :)

Playing at Thanksgiving

Had a wonderful day at John and Anne's place. Brought our JRT, Buddy, to
their place because I love letting him run off the leash in their 13
acres of grass. Sure was fun.

GUI Design Explained

/. has a an item titled User-centric GUI Design Explained to All with some great links. Primarily they're pointing to an article titled Usable GUI Design "showing that good user interfaces are not beyond the means of free and open software development: 'This article presents five key points of user interface design [...] that any software developer should be able to use.'"

It's particularly timely for me since my time is discussing usability and our applications designs daily.

Berkely Researchers: Florida Vote Fishy

Wired News has an article about
Researchers: Florida Vote Fishy giving the story about the UC Berkeley researches looking the 2004 election counts. Amazing. Give it read. I think it's a given that something fishy happened.

Pazzo Ristorante

Where we did finally eat. :)

Maggie at Todai

She thought the mascot "thing" was wierd but posed anyway. Nobody
really felt like sushi after the movie (saw the Polar Express, HIGHLY
recommended).

very cool animation

Wow! Amazing Animation done by an artist who turned each frame into a stencil, went around town painting them, then put them together as the most amazing animation. Check it out!

Venture Capital: Investors see open-source software potential

If anyone has any remaining doubts about the business viability of software development using Open Source models, it's time to put them to rest. An article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer says that venture capitalists see open-source software potential.

Microsoft on MONO - Reactions?

Just saw this post from Joe Stagner titled Microsoft (and Joe) on MONO where he makes it clear that Mono may not as "unencumbered" as I imagined. I sure wish Miguel and Mono guys would make some visible response to this!

Error at the M$ Show

This was certainly my most enjoyable moment of the evening. We were at the Microsoft Mobility Roadshow at the Oregon Convention Center. As we walked out (an hour early, worst presentation I can remember!) we looked up at the displays in the hall:



It's an XP error dialog indicating an ActiveX component error. :-)

Donald Knuth: Letter to Condoleeza Rice

Wow! In an Open Letter to Condoleeza Rice, Donald Knuth laid out what bothers him about our current government. Knuth is easily one of the brightest minds in computer science. A generally smart guy that should be listened to.

Attending M$ Seminar

Jason and Brian at the Micro$oft Mobility Roadshow.

Typical M$ Presentation

Yup. Powerpoint, talking head, bad video for laughs, blah blah blah.
:)

Pickin and a'Shoppin

Enjoyed hearing these two young guys on Saturday while I was shopping.
Nicely done.

Living Poor, Voting Rich

I still don't understand why predominately poor and lower middle-class folks in the deeply red states vote for the party that has always, throughout our history, favored the rich and powerful. Living Poor, Voting Rich analyzes this disconnect.

Departure of Reason

This article from the New York Times, The Day the Enlightenment Went Out captures much of what's got me so completely flabbergasted about this election. It seems clear that this outcome signals the triumph of belief over fact.

TomPaine.com - Kerry Won. . .

Greg Palast has written another review of the election, highlighting our need for election reform. It's title Kerry Won. . .

Drawing on what happened in Florida and studies of elections past, Palast argues that if Ohio’s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots.

Don't discard Palast's views as simple "fringe media" ranting. He wrote about the 2000 election for the BBC and framed what has become the view in most of the rest of the world; our election system is actually inferior to the other democracies.

Reason: Whither the Democrats?

Just read this article,Reason: A Functional Party No More: Whither the Democrats? What a brilliant dissection of how it all looks to me.

Dean was the candidate I wished for. He may not have been "electable" but he could more clearly have articulated the views and values that I stand for.

Notice, especially, Cavanaugh's reference to this Boston Globe article suggesting that this may be the election that energizes a floundering Democratic party int he US. We'll see.

Think Money Didn't Matter?

Some amazing data i saw on Aaron Swartz' Blog:

Think money doesn’t decide who wins elections?

Candidate name	% of vote	% of money	Difference
Bush	51	53	2
Kerry	48	46	2
Nader	.3	.5	.2
Badnarik	.1	.3	.2
Peroutka	.1	.1	.0
Cobb	.1	.01	.08

Think again.

One of the issues I hope to see addressed; campaign financing.

A Spoiled Election

Greg Palast, and independent voice speaking from outside the country, came to observe. He sees another election spoiled rotten, reminding him of Florida in 2000.

What to Expect

I think Dan Gillmor has this exactly right:

There's no secret about what's coming. We don't have that excuse this time.

Here comes more fiscal recklessness -- as we widen the chasm between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else, cementing a plutocracy into our national fiber, we'll pay our national bills on the Treasury Bill credit card for the next few years. Many economists expect a Brazil-like financial crisis to hit the U.S. before the end of the decade. If we muddle our way though the near term, we'll still have left our kids with the bill.

Here comes an expansion of the American empire abroad, a fueling of fear and loathing elsewhere on the globe. This is also unsustainable in the end. Empire breeds disrespect.

Our civil liberties will shrink drastically. This president and his top allies in Congress fully support just one amendment in the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Say goodbye to abortion rights in most states. Roe v. Wade will fall after this president pushes three or four Scalia and Thomas legal clones onto the Supreme Court. Say hello, meanwhile, to a much more intrusive blending of church and state.

The environment? We'll be nostalgic for Ronald Reagan's time in office.

This is not sour grapes. This is reality.

Not My Country

I guess my first reaction is this.... The winning party describes a country that is not my country.

The hard-right, "christian conservative" majority of this country is not the community i live in. We're as divided as any time in my lifetime. The cities voted overwhelmingly liberal. The prairie, the suburbs, voted overwhelmingly conservative. I don't see any real overlap.

This would simply be politics except for the impression the world gets that this ruling party speaks for the country. The international community will judge us based on what W and the republican majority decide. I believe those choices will continue to erode our respect and standing in the world and continue to support the arguments of our enemies. We are less safe with this president.

This hits me where I live, making me worry for the security of our home and about the prospect of terrorist acts in my community. It makes me want to scream "I didn't support them!", to somehow convince the rest of the world that the actions of my government are not the choices of all the people.

it also makes me consider finding a community in the world that is more in keeping with my values.

wow......

Can't describe the level of disappointment i'm feeling. Maybe in another post. Sigh....

Bush-be-Gone Party

We're enjoying the party at the home of one of Maggie's friends. Linda
Hunt drove the Bush-be-Gone car across country to get out the vote.

Quite a bunch of folks, all liberals anxious to see Bush end his term in
the whitehouse the way his dad did. :)

The Big Board

In our development group, we think of "the Big Board" as our whiteboard
spaces. Finance-shminance. :)