machine error? human error ?

Big news on CNN about voting machines, and folks who wanted to click Obama, but machine took it as McCain...then debate on whether it was the voter's fault or the machine's fault. 

They showed a machine and how it looks, out of all the space on the touch-screen, the two buttons to select obama and mccain are right on top of each other and by themselves, use up about 3% of the screen area - hardly a line space between - blame the guy who designed the User interface !!! not the voters or machines. And this on a touch screen!!!

What do you need the remaining 97% of the screen for? to put disclaimers to avoid litigation? 

Put two big boxes there, one side for John Mccain, with his Big photograph and the same for obama on the other side, then, if something goes wrong, blame the voter or the machine.....

Sense and sensibility

Finally - a good explanation of the credit crisis - follow the link below

http://www.shyamscolumn.com/2008/10/cost-of-financial-ingenuity700-billion.html

I can bet you 700 billion dollars (of taxpayer money), you are never going to get this from media in the US of A

:)

Users !

“There are only two industries that refer to their customers as “users” – Technology and Illegal Drugs. “

(From NYT Technology newsletter by David Pogue)

Normal !!

these recent google quotations are getting very personal :)

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.
  - Ellen Goodman

Nothing to lose...

I guess parents have a hard time dealing with kids and their queries on prime time ads about "veeevaaa viaagraaaa....." and genital herpes and natural male enhancement and such !!

It is usual for ads to say "you suck" to make their point...but i do not think this one did it intentionally....

for a "male enhancement" product: 

"try it...after all, you have NOTHING to lose!!" 

Stars !!

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

  - Richard Feynman

Rice cooks slow

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited India this week. A (nuclear) deal was expected to be signed, but that did not happen and is expected to take longer. This was the headline in a regional newspaper (malayalamanorama, translated from malayalam)

"This Rice will take longer to cook"

(rice is the staple of the state, and of course how much time a variety takes to cook is a common conversation item) 

To each his own...

Q: hows the atmosphere there in US ?

A: Its the same. Everyone is still in their own wonderland !

Its football season, so that still tops tv coverage, and conversations, followed by the election coverage.

Business channels crib abt the bailout not going thru, and how stupid politicians are, news channels not sure if bailout is good or bad.

my cab guy in oregon yestetday was worried about his golf handicap! And my cab guy here in atlanta was worried about the long lines at gas stations after Ike.

The guy next to me in the flight seemed quite happy about how much land he could buy dirt cheap.

to each his own.....or if the bailout goes through....to each his own bit of the leftovers.....

:)

Hard Times

Heard on GMA on ABC:

What is the difference between a pigeon and a stock broker today?

(Today is the day after the 700 billion bailout failed and dow crashed)

A pigeon can still make a deposit on a ferrari !!