Hot gaming systems: Auction for charity

Here is any idea on how Sony, Nintendo, etc should handle hot new gaming systems that sell out too quickly. Put them up for auction (on eBay possibly) and donate proceeds above the retail price to a charity!

Profile Homepage link corrected

If you looked in my Profile and tried to go to my homepage, you would have had problems because I had a typo. I have fixed that now. My homepage is http://www.geocities.com/stauffer_james/

Election Results

Local:
Assembly: John Murtha (R) -- apparently the only Repulican to win Assembly in WI that wasn't an incumbant
Sherriff: Dennis Hillstead (R) kept his position by a wide margin

State:
Attorney General: J.B. Van Hollen (R) barely won
Govenor: Doyle (D) kept his position
Marriage: Passed by a huge margin
Death Penalty: Passed by a wide margin

Federal:
3rd Congressional District: Ron Kind (D) kept his position by a huge margin
U.S. Senate: Kohl (D) kept is position by a huge margin (no surprise because the challenger didn't have much of a campaign)

Why are the Register of Deeds, Country Clerk, Treasurer, and District Attorney partisan positions? AFAIK they don't make policy so it doesn't seem important to me to which party they belong. I only care if they do a good job. Does anyone know why they are partisan?

Also, is one party controlling the House, Senate, and Presidency a sustainable position? How much has that happened in the past? I know that I am wary of it even when they are people that I support.

Election Results

US House:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2006/general/by_county/us_house/WI.html?SITE=NCAGW&SECTION=HOME

State government positions:
http://www.co.saint-croix.wi.us/Departments/CountyClerk/results.htm
http://dunncountywi.govoffice2.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={B12B7F9C-0C0C-4C05-B85A-771C0F655851}&DE={8CAB993E-7B15-4B94-95B1-263E77D1434A}
http://www.co.pierce.wi.us/county_clerk/Nov_2006_Results.htm
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2006/general/by_county/state_sen_house/WI.html?SITE=NCAGW&SECTION=HOME
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2006/general/by_county/ballot_other/WI.html?SITE=NCAGW&SECTION=HOME

Vote!

Don't forget to vote today! But before you do that, make sure that you research the candidates and other issues so you can make a decision not based on ads and media but on the actual facts.

2nd best choices are the best choices

If you are like me, then in most elections you don't have a perfect candidate as a choice -- you have a choice between someone who is pretty good and someone who is so-so or somewhat bad. I'm glad it is that way. I don't have the perfect candidate as a choice but I also don't have the worst possible candidate as a choice. When someone wins that I don't want to win, I can mostly live with that -- they usually do some good also. (This does not dimish the fact that many unborn babies can't "live with" certain people in power.)

Don't get too discouraged with your choice of candidates -- choose the one who you believe is best and be thankful that you don't have to choose between two completely evil canidates.

Please remember to research the candidates and other ballot questions and then go and vote on Tues! If you don't vote then you don't have a right to complain about what the elected officials decide. If you really don't think either candidate is worth your vote then at least find some name to write in (even if it is your own name) to show that you value that right to vote.

Another Nelson vs. Kind Debate

A TV station hosted another debate and it can be seen at http://www.weau.com/elections

WI 3rd Congressional district debate: Paul R. Nelson vs. Ron Kind

Last night (Oct 24th) there was a Wisconsin 3rd Congressional district debate between Paul R. Nelson (Republican challenger) and Ron Kind (Democrat incumbant). I was there and recorded it. A rough recording of it is a http://stauffer.james.googlepages.com/Nelson-Kind-Debate-Mono2.mp3 (9 MB).
I did miss part of the middle of the debate (During the recording I pushed a button on the laptop that caused it to go to sleep so I had to turn it back on -- then it didn't look like it was recording correctly so I started a new file) but I was also recording to my MP3 player so that missed less and I will post that as soon as I can.

Update: I have posted the recording from my MP3 player split up by question at http://stauffer.james.googlepages.com/nelsonvs.kinddebate

My Three Children

Here are my three children:

• Anna Grace: almost 3
• Joseph James: 1 and a half
• William Grant: 1 week

William Grant

William Grant was born on September 17th, 2006 at 3:13 PM! He weighed 7.0 lbs and was 20.75 inches long. Both Annette and William are doing great! William was born on his great-grandmother Irene's birth and she loved her birthday present.

Born that way

I was reading When a Dog Says "Moo"’ by Chuck Colson and it really bothers me when someone uses the logic that just because someone was born a certain way makes it ok for them to act that way. i.e. If someone is "born" gay, then it is inherently ok for them to practice homosexual activities. If there is a gene that predisposes someone to murder, rape, or lying that doesn't make it ok to do those things, is just means we should help them overcome those things. Here is a news flash: All humans were born with a sin nature! (excepting of course Jesus Christ!)

Compressed Air Cooler

Since expanding gas cools, could that be used to cool a normal cooler?
It could either have a build-in air tank or accept air cartridges.
Advantages:

• It could use a thermostat to maintain a constant temperature.
• No water mess.
• Not excessively cold like dry ice.
• If it had a tank it could be recharged at most gas stations.
• The "charge" would remain good for quite a while when not used.
  

Disadvantages:

• After refilling the tank it would have to sit for a while to cool off.
• The tank may have to be too heavy or bulky to be useful (Does anyone know the numbers to do the math for this?)

What do you think?

Candidates or Issues

It seems most political campaigns focus on the candidates instead of the issues. Why are the candidates sold instead of the issues? Why don't the campaigns say "... is the way to handle issue ... because ... and candidate ... is the best person to achieve that" instead of "Vote for candidate ..., he supports ..., .., and ..." If you sell the issues then during the next election you can build off of the last election by expounding on the right way to handle issues and still mention which candidate will best achieve those results. Each election could build off of the previous election better and the voting population would be better informed.

I have the opportunity to vote in a primary election next Tuesday. If you have a similiar opportunity to vote then I urge you take take the oppotunity!

Distributed Internet backup

Consider a distributed computer program like the following.
1. You download the program an install it.
2. During install it asks you how much space you want to share for others to use and which folders you want to backup.
3. It then starts sending your data (encrypted) to other users on the network (the client would probably have to send the data to multiple places and keep track of where it is).
4. It also starts accepting backup data from other users.
If you need more space than you can provide then you can pay extra. If you provide more space than you need then you can get paid.

Then your backup data is distributed across the internet. I think it would be useful to many people!

Would this work well? Does it already exist?

Increasing vehicle efficiency

A friend directed me to a Popular Science articles titled "The Race to 100 MPG"
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/automotivetech/e5690576b64fc010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

I had some comments about the 3 advances mentioned.

• Cut weight and wind resistance: That is nice but there are some major problems with that. Cutting weight generally reduces the crash worthiness. I would hate to see that car hit even a mid-sized car at freeway speeds. I like efficiency but safety is more important. The size and shape of the car also reduce visibility of the driver which is also a safety concern. Finally I have a family of 4 with 1 more on the way so I could never dream of using that kind of car for anything but a commuter vehicle. I just don't think reducing weight and wind resistence will help much given the needs of car owners.
• Hydraulic drive system: I think this is excellent. One of the great things about it is that it could be fit into current car designs without major changes which should make adoption much easier. I like it that it is a component change so the engine could be made more efficient independantly which would make integration by the manufacturer easier. This sounds like something that could be in many new cars in just a few years.
• Jet Engine: First, this just sounds neat. Wouldn't you love to see your neighbor's face when they ask you what kind of engine your car has and you say "a jet engine!"? It would also be neat if it gives are car a "jet engine" sound (but much more quiet). Once again this appears to be an independant upgrade so that would really help.

As a developer I am a strong proponent of iterative development (many small changes instead of a few huge changes) and I think iterative effiency improvements will provide the fastest adoption also. I also like the electric motor and battery system from Tesla Motors.

I can't wait to see these things developed and make it into mass production!

Electronic vehicles

Someone showed me the cool developments by Tesla Motors. That is such a sweet car. I can't wait until they make a large family car and it becomes old enough that I can afford a used version (maybe in 15 years). That got me wondering if there is a better application of an electronic vehicle that would help accelerate its adoption. I think the sports car idea is great but is there something better?
Here are the attributes of electronic vehicles:

1. Quiet
2. High torque
3. Low range (Tesla is trying to improve that but for now the range is apparently about 120 miles for available vehicles).
4. Low maintenance costs
5. More simple system so less to go wrong
6. Higher initial cost
7. Low fuel costs
   
8. Long refuel time
9. Great for lower speeds and stop-and-go driving

The Tesla sports car finds 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 positive and 3, 6, and 8 negative.

Is there another type of vehicle that would find more of the attributes positive? Consider a school bus:

1. Lower noise might help the driver hear children outside (if it isn't too noisey inside!)
2. High torque is good for moving a heavy bus.
3. Low range doesn't really matter. I doubt most buses go more than 100 miles in the morning or evening (for trips a diesel may still be best).
4. Lower maintenance costs would definitely help.
5. The simple system would be good for just about any vehicle.
6. Higher initial cost isn't good but a school district is more likely to look at the full cost over the expected life of the vehicle so with the lower fuel and maintenance costs this probably will not be a problem.
7. Lower fuel costs definitely help.
8. The long refuel time won't really matter because they could easily be recharged during the school day.
9. School buses are stop-and-go vehicles so this is a great match.

What do you think? Would electric vehicles make great school buses?

Update: I searched and found a few links about hybrid electric buses but not much about normal eletric buses. Here is a link about the Zebra bus:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/seminars/zebra-bus/zebra-bus.htm

Instant Messenger feature

It would be nice if instant messenger clients put some visual clue whenever the conversation is stagnant for a certain amount of time. That would usually show where each sub-conversations is. For example there could be a line across the screen whenever nobody types for 5 minutes. Of course the time should be configurable.

Global warming and clouds

Clouds act like a blanket. During the day they block the sun and therefore the earth doesn't heat up as much. During the night they reflect the heat back to the earth and therefore the earth doesn't loose as much heat. So would they prevent global warming? NASA wonders that too:

For example, if Earth's climate should warm due to the greenhouse effect , the weather patterns and the associated clouds would change; but it is not known whether the resulting cloud changes would diminish the warming (a negative feedback) or enhance the warming (a positive feedback). Moreover, it is not known whether these cloud changes would involve increased or decreased precipitation and water supplies in particular regions. http://isccp.giss.nasa.gov/role.html

Anna quote

"Please me have ... (pause, thinking) ... What I talking about?"

Mass media news is pathetic

I get most of my news through websites, blogs, etc -- not through mass media outlets such as T.V. and radio. When I do listen to the news on T.V. or radio I am absolutely astounded by how pathetic it is. It sounds like it is intended for children.

Examples from a 1/2 hour T.V. news program of which I listened to only about 15 minutes:

• There was a T.V. news story about some new new circles on the highway to help motorists follow at safe distances. That's nice. And it wasn't just 30 seconds mentioning an explaining. It was 3 minutes getting opinion, showing the circles, and other useless stuff.
• There was a T.V. news story about a hit and run accident. It was reported on the scene of the accident (like there is anything to see so why does that matter) and the reporter said the driver could have been distracted by a cell phone (but he could have been distracted by a million other things also so why make conjecture).
• Another T.V. news story about a group of rich people who took out an ad to request that taxes on the rich be increased to give more money to education. They reported that after the ad came out other rich people called them to give their support (so what -- So now you have 200 people out of the whole state who support you, which is insignificant). They did a few interviews with people on the street (the opinions of 3 people in the whole state are useless). They ended the useless report saying that it could happen in the future (well really, I didn't know that taxes might change in the future). They never even attempted to address real issues such as the potential impact of the tax increase and how the extra money would affect schools.
  

All of those stories were a few minutes long (not just a few seconds to mention it). Isn't there anything else more important than that happening in the world or even state? With commericals they spent at least 1/3 of the news on those stories. There is just too much junk to make it useful.

Cable Choice

Citizen Link supports the FCC mandating Cable Choice (http://www.family.org/cforum/briefs/a0041214.cfm) but why should the government mandate that? AFAIK cable companies are free to offer cable choice and customers are free to not choose cable if cable choice isn't offered. Smells like big government.

Pig Rodeo

In England they have rodeos but because of space constraints they use large pigs instead of horses. They even have a national championship held at Buckingham Palace.

The UN is not for freedom and fair representation of people

The UN recently compplained about the US not supporting the UN.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5057684.stm

Well, I for one do not support the UN because it does not fairly represent the people of the world -- it represents nations and in many of those nations the people are not free and not fairly represented. Therefore the UN is unable to take any freedom or moral high ground.

Scientists have long known ... but they've had precious little fossil evidence

From
http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/Full_Story/did-sgQF80kQJV09-.asp:

"Scientists have long known that fish evolved into the first creatures on land with four legs and backbones more than 365 million years ago, but they've had precious little fossil evidence to document how it happened."

Change that last "how" to "that" and then the statement is more accurate. :-) You can't know that it happened unless you can prove that it happened, much less show transitional fossils. This is like the old pictures that arranged horse fossil in order of height and showed that they evolved that way. Just because a group of fossils show a transition doesn't mean that they were related, much less in that order!

What really gets my goat is when people present something as scientific when it really just a belief -- and that damages true science! Until we invent some type of time machine, there will probably be no way to scientifically prove anything about the past (that is not accurately recorded).

Vote

I will be voting today so don't forget to vote if you also have that opportunity!

My 3 Angels

My sister-in-law, Priscilla (John's wife) started a blog:
My 3 Angels