Monday, September 22, 2008

US Election Votes

I can't believe that this is still not fixed. After 8 years since the voting screwup in Florida and they still can't come up with a system that will work. The new voting machines that were built in response to that mess are a disaster. Check out the link.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080919/1553112317.shtml

If you google these things or search techdirt you will find lots of articles on the companies that make these machines. The worst was the fact that this company sued another company who's job it was to test the machines to make sure that they worked as advertised. The reviewing company found serious problems and when they tried to release their report they were sued and gagged.

The US - the bastion of democracy, :-}~~~~~

I feel bad for the people who just want to vote and have their say. They wonder why their turnouts are so low. People think that their votes don't count or will get screwed up so they think why bother.

8 years and they have not fixed the problem because they don't want to fix it. Our last municipal election here in Ontario used a new ballet that you filled out and then was scanned into the system. You got to see that the scan was good and the results were in 5 minutes after the polls closed. Worked great.

I bet that the company building the new evoting machines have friends in the Republican party.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Politics


I can't make up my mind who's campaign is worst. Ours or the one south of the border. Saw this though and I can't agree more.

Say what you want about Bill but he didn't run the country into the ground like the Republicans did. Our conservatives are not much better. The Liberals got the fiscal house in order and now they are coasting on all that work. Paul Martin might not have been the best prime minister but he was a very good finance minister.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Gas prices Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Tell me we are not getting screwed!!!!!

Today oil dropped to 101 a barrel. The last time it was at this price was the end of March and guess what the price of gas was then? 1.02/L

What am I paying today with oil at 101 a barrel??? !!!! 1.22/L

Tell me we are not getting screwed.

New Cell Phones

Sorry for the delay in posting but August was a bit nuts and between mom being in the hospital and me dropping a ladder on my foot I have spent more time in hospitals and clinics that I can shake a stick at. Mom is now home and I am still hobbling around but time heals all.

Now for the goodies. Anyone looking at a new phone should hold off for a bit. There are some great phones coming down the pipe from HTC and Sony. So if you are an Apple fanboy don't bother reading any further because I am no fan of the Iphone. Nice phone if you don't mind being spoonfed media and apps all at a cost.

From HTC there is the Touch Diamond. Great phone, here is the link from Giz

http://gizmodo.com/5045615/sprint-htc-touch-diamond-out-on-sept-14-for-250

Then there is the HTC Touch Pro which I like even more because it has a 5 line qwery keyboard

http://gizmodo.com/5047833/sprint-to-get-htc-touch-pro-in-october-for-300

Then HTC released info on another new one that will replace the original Touch. It's called the Opal, nice but no 3G and same slow processor

http://gizmodo.com/5047151/htc-opal-leaks-the-sequel-to-the-htc-touch

Then yesterday HTC got the howard forums in an uproar when they released info on the newest smartphone, the Touch HD. Huge screen and at 800/480 double the resolution of the Iphone :-)

http://gizmodo.com/5047830/htc-touch-hd-looks-big-and-beautiful

Sony has also come out with a winner if you don't need a smartphone running Winmo. The Xperia X1. Great screen and new and innovative UI.

http://gizmodo.com/5047734/sony-ericsson-xperia-x1-to-hit-streets-first-in-europe-september-30

These will all be coming out in Europe first of course and then the states and then Canada last of course. Watch Gizmodo for updates on release dates for your carrier.

Now if we can just get the carriers to offer decent packages to go with these great phones we will all be happy.