You have been warned, the site at the end of this posting contains massive Trek spoilers. DO NOT CLICK if you want to be a “virgin” for the reboot of Trek coming this Christmas. Said link is here.
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Get ready for the Puppy Bowl!
Starting lineup and pre-game info is here.
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Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory
Based on the much-loved (and loathed by yours truly) film Forrest Gump, my son Neal and I visited the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory in Charleston last weekend. Hate the movie, LOVED the decor and food. Check out my tumblr feed…
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Voting with (little) Confidence
Electronic voting systems – introduced en masse following high-profile problems with traditional voting systems in the state of Florida during the 2000 presidential election – were designed to quell fears about accuracy. Unfortunately, those concerns continue to permeate political conversation. The Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act of 2008, introduced recently by Rep. Rush Holt, proposes government funding for jurisdictions that use electronic voting to switch to systems that produce a paper trail. But many experts say that a paper trail alone can’t solve the problem.
Ben Bederson, an associate professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, was part of a team that conducted a five-year study on voting-machine technology. Bederson says that machines should be evaluated for qualities beyond security, including usability, reliability, accessibility, and ease of maintenance. For example, in a 2006 Florida congressional election, some voters were uncertain whether touch-screen machines had properly recorded their votes, especially after 18,000 ballots in Sarasota County were marked “No vote” by the machines. “Security, while important, happens to be one of those places where voting machines actually have not proven to fail,” Bederson says. “However, in many other ways, they have failed dramatically, especially [regarding] usability. The original Florida problem was primarily a usability issue.”
In the study, participants were told to vote for particular candidates in mock elections. The researchers then compared the results recorded on the machines with the voters’ intentions. Bederson says that even for the simplest task – voting in one presidential race on a single screen – participants had an error rate of around 3 percent. Bederson notes that, although the error rate that occurred in the study may not necessarily mean that there is the same error rate in terms of actual votes on actual machines, the study does raise concern, considering how close some recent elections have been.
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Microsoft to acquire Yahoo!
Wow, I was just commenting yesterday to a colleague about how much cash-on-hand Microsoft has (over 22 Billion last I checked), and then I wake up to read that they are going to use some of that to
TV
Odd Couple Season Three on DVD – Edited?
The third season set of my favorite sitcom of all time The Odd Couple was released last week. Since I have not had a chance to pick it up yet, I am concerned at some comments on-line about the episodes…
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Fort Sumter and SC Aquarium photos
Just uploaded the first of many sets of photos to Flickr – Check them out at my Tumblr feed here
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Oh, and I forgot to mention, please visit my Tumblr log…
Lots of interesting links posted at http://josephdickerson.tumblr.com/. Please check it out.
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Boy are my arms tired…
Flew back Sunday night from a three-day weekend (with my middle son Neal) in Charleston, SC. Had a grand time and fit a ton of stuff in, including: – A visit to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory restaurant, based on…
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Lightest Apple served up – Malaysia Star
Lightest Apple served upMalaysia Star, Malaysia – Jan 28, 2008THERE was definitely something in the air at this year’s Macworld conference and like every year, Apple Computer chief executive officer Steve Jobs waited …
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Apple sees success; Wall Street sees something else – San Jose Mercury News
Apple sees success; Wall Street sees something elseSan Jose Mercury News, USA – Jan 23, 2008Particularly impressive in the holiday quarter were Apple's computer sales, which jumped 47 percent year-over-year to $3.55 billion. …
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Seriously sad news… Heath Ledger dead at 28…
Wow. I’m driving home and hear the news break that Heath Ledger, who is playing the Joker in the new Batman film The Dark Knight has died at the age of 28. He was found surrounded by sleeping pills… It’s…
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Crap.
Ah, crap.
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The “new” Enterprise revealed!
JUST RELEASED, a shot from the Star Trek teaser trailer: The original Enterprise, under construction (click for bigger version):
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Preview of Star Trek: The Tour
Here’s a great set of photos and a video clip from Long Beach, CA, where the traveling Star Trek: The Tour exhibit is setting up shop. It’s coming here to Atlanta (eventually) but man, am I tempted to get a…
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Trek teaser trailer… described!
Kay, so there’s this little independant movie called Cloverfield coming out this Friday (you may have seen an ad on the Sundance channel) about love in a time of great turmoil (or something like that, real Merchant Ivory stuff). Usually I’d…