Instant Runoff Elections

(Now with correct spelling of the Democratic party. Surry.)

Oregon said no the measure for "open primaries". I was mixed on this
measure. I joined the Democratic party this year specifically to vote in
the primary. I have yet to drop my party affiliation, although I still
consider myself an independent. And in spite of the fact that I vote
Democratic nearly 100% because the few politicians I actually believe in
are Dems, and because the others tend to come across to me as the
better of bad choices.

I voted no on the measure for two reasons: I'd heard mixed reviews for
open primaries run in other locations, so on that count I decided to
be conservative by keeping the current closed primary. My ultimate
reason for a no vote: I am more interested in "instant runoff"
elections than "open primaries". I believe if we had passed this
measure then the odds of getting a measure for instant runoff passed
in the next few years would be significantly lower.

From Blue Oregon, "it's time for instant runoff"...

http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/11/its-time-for-in.html

Instant runoff seems to provide a means of encouraging "third party"
candidates, and of supporting voting for those candidates without
"wasting" a vote.

Cool For A Day

"For a day, at least, newspapers were cool again."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/politics/2008/11/the_people_want_papers.html

I stopped at a store early Wednesday evening to buy a paper, for
reasons unrelated to the election. I was surprised to hear the clerk
say they were sold out, and she said so was the drugstore a block down
the street.

A President's CTO?

From Bob Warfield...

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/who-should-obama-hire-to-be-americas-cto/

I don't think a single CTO or CIO, whatever that would mean in the
context of an administration, makes sense whatsoever.

What would make more sense to me would be a collection of people
meeting peridoically in a "roundtable" like format for ongoing general
topics a president should be aware of. Or perhaps a "technology
council" to address specific issues that would benefit an
administration by producing a "recommendation" on that specific issue.

-Patrick

New PC Business Model

From James Robertson...

http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=The_Ground_Shifts_in_the_PC_Space&entry=3403023822

I wonder when Apple will be forced into that market. I'm sure it will
be distinguished nonetheless.

The business model is interesting. If these boxes will come with a
WiMax antenna, then a contract with ClearWire / Sprint / whomever
would be interesting.

Oregon's Two Dem Sens: Go Mount Hood!

Oregon now has two Democrat senators.

http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/11/smith-concedes.html

It's not easy to replace a senator, especially in Oregon. Now there
are two Democrats. The pair are both relatively young and could remain
in office together for many terms.

Not so long ago Oregon had two fairly moderate Republicans who did
very well serving together for a long time. Mark Hatfield served five
terms and especially stands out for me as a true "maverick". He stood
up to his party and the senate generally on several military issues
including the Vietnam War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hatfield

Bob Packwood had his share of problems, but all in all was on the
better side of the senator scale.

Wyden and Merkly can do good things for Oregon and the country. For my
own interest, we should get a decent wilderness bill passed. Oregon is
woefully low on land actually designated as wilderness. In the
Portland area specifically they should come up with a better Mount
Hood Wilderness act than Wyden could get with Smith. And they should
be able to get it passed through a Democrat Senate and House.

Feeling Like Joe Berkovitz

I read Joe's blog for Flex/Flash information. But he captured my
position well this morning...

"I don't know who Barack Obama really is, or what he will do about the
dire place our country has been taken to. All I know is this: for a
change we elected someone who is candid about our problems, and is
obviously an intelligent and kind person. In America, something as
simple as this is something to be proud of: look at where we've been.
Elections are in the realm of appearances, but we are emerging from an
era in which we have both appeared and acted monstrously, to others
and to each other. So, for a moment, I'm celebrating this result.
And hoping for some real action to follow."

http://www.joeberkovitz.com/blog/2008/11/05/a-brief-moment-of-pride/

It's going to be a tough row to hoe. Obama seems to have the
leadership skills and disposition to make good things happen. Put
working across the aisle aside for a moment... the Democrat party in
and of itself is extremely diverse. Even with decent majorities in
Congress this will be a fair bit like herding cats. Tigers and lions
maybe.

WTF

From a tweet by Patrick Mueller...

Our Westford, MA office actually has a building named "WTF4"? Is there a WTF1..3 also? WTF?

California Prop 8

California Prop 8 is leading. Sorry California - you seem to have as many ignorant asses as the rest of the country.

Do we get to keep the married friends we've already gathered?

To LtU w/Love

"Via Patrick (who was once a LtU contributor), two interesting blog posts:..."

http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/3052

Still an avid reader - just had to drop off some extra-curricular
activities a while back.

Word Play

Please to be explaining this one to me from the Financial Times...

In recent days, lawyers for the nine banks that received the government funds held talks over how to respond to calls for pay restraint from Congress and state regulators, according to people familiar with the situation.

The companies – Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo – said they would not spend public money on compensation, the people added. Wall Street executives say that banks will pay bonuses from earnings and existing cash resources, like in previous years, and use the government capital for acquisitions and to replenish their depleted balance sheets...

The banks declined to comment on the conference call. Wall Street executives say that after one of the worst years for the industry, average bonuses will be down sharply this year.

However, they argue that they will still have to pay substantial compensation to star bankers and traders in order to avoid a brain drain from the industry into rival sectors such as private equity and hedge funds.

Let's say I have $100 and the government bails me out with another $100 and says, "You cannot spend this on booze." But then let's say I spend $100 on booze, saying, "I used my own money."

Did I follow the instructions of my benefactor?

For crying out loud. I think we can afford to let these folks go, or live on a few billion less in bonuses.

Open Source Bridge in PDX

Here's a presentation from the first meeting of folks organizing the Open Source Bridge conference for Portland next summer...

A blog and etc. is in place.