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Markets are fascinating. Already they've been used to predict flu outbreaks with greater accuracy than experts.
The Iowa Electronic Markets is very interesting and in the UK there's a growing trend to use betting markets on political events to predict results.

Of course markets fail, and this one may, but its definitely worth a go, especially if it can be linked to implementing the idea somehow.

It does sound remarkably like the Iowa Electronic Markets.

You think wrong. Some quotes from the Wikipedia entry:

In recent years, the use of a byte to mean 8 bits is nearly ubiquitous

Meaning even today it's not universal.

A contiguous sequence of binary bits in a serial data stream, such as in modem or satellite communications, or from a disk-drive head, which is the smallest meaningful unit of data. These bytes might include start bits, stop bits, or parity bits, and thus could vary from 7 to 12 bits to contain a single 7-bit ASCII code.

Here I think is the most revealing definition for the discussion in the present context.

The eight-bit byte is often called an octet in formal contexts such as industry standards, as well as in networking and telecommunication, in order to avoid any confusion about the number of bits involved.

Another site says that:

* Pre-1965, and including the IBM 701, bytes were almost always 6 bits, though they weren't called that much then, but rather characters.

* 9 bits were sometimes used

* The PDP-6, PDP-10, and DECsystem 20 all supported changing the byte size with instructions from 1 to 36 bits (probably only some of those)

The latter reference, looking up the PDP-10 on Wikipedia, gives this quote:

Some aspects of the instruction set are still considered unsurpassed, most notably the "byte" instructions, which operated on arbitrary sized bit-fields (at that time a byte was not necessarily eight bits)

I have Novell Linux 10.0 installed. I ran RedHat from version 6 on to 9. Most of our RedHat servers ended life at version 8 and switched over to Mandrake 10.1o. Aka Mandriva 10.1, aka Madriva 2005?

Novell makes it almost impossible to get the free download of version 10.0, but if you are patient you can get it. Took me about 2 weeks to get the ISOs from their FTP server.

I was looking at Novell's Distro to provide DNS/DHCP. As a desktop, I was rather impressed. What I think is missing from most distro's is a central place to manage the system. Novell/SuSe has YaST which blows away apt-get, RPM, Urpmi, and has all the configuration settings in one well defined application with a constant feel. And unlike Urpmi and many of these tools, it actually works right out of the box. The live update works very well and is very user friendly. It handles Kernel updates and walks you through it.

Novell/SuSe has Ximian Evolution which looks very much like Outlook and has Exchange integration. http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/exchange/ximian.htm

This is one awesome distro. But it comes at a cost. It really is bloated inside of VMWare. It seems to lock up every 5 seconds for half a second. It is not what I am looking for in a DHCP/DNS server.

I almost went with Trustix, but wasn't sure of it's future. BSD seemed a good choice for this, but as everyone knows BSD is dead :)

We use Zenworks, Netware, eDirectory, and many other tools from Novell. But we are no loyalist. We are moving away from their solutions due to the lack of direction at Novell.

But no matter how you cut it civil liberties won't shoot you in the face.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~policult/assets/VietNam/Kent State.jpg

'the whistle-blower, Stephen Heller, has been charged in L.A. Superior Court with felony access to computer data, commercial burglary, and receiving stolen property.'

http://www.uiowa.edu/~c016003a/mapslavetrade.gif

Another novel and interesting way I came across to predict the spread of infectious disease is the University of Iowa's Flu Prediction Market. A description from their page:

Information about influenza activity is diverse and widely distributed. Different health care professionals have different information regarding influenza activity. This information could be quite helpful in predicting future influenza activity if it could be aggregated and analyzed efficiently. However, because this information is disparate, standard research and statistical methods have not proven to be effective. Thus, the medical community does not have access to accurate influenza forecasts. The Influenza Prediction Market is an attempt to satisfy the need for accurate information regarding future influenza activity.

The first experimental prediction market was the Iowa Electronic Market (IEM). It has developed methods to predict future events ranging from election results to movie box office receipts and has a forecasting record substantially superior to alternative mechanisms. We propose that markets for infectious diseases may be useful for predicting infectious disease activity quickly, accurately, and inexpensively by aggregating the expert opinion of health care professionals.

They're currently working on expanding the system, but with their current market they give various health care workers $100 they can bid with, and depending on how accurate their bidding is they can get additional money.

Furthermore, it is emerging that the version of Windows CE used by Diebold is both heavily customized and full of dynamically loaded libraries. As a result, there are strong grounds for the conclusion that the operating system is not unmodified commercial off the shelf software (COTS), and that with this extensive use of dynamic linkage, we cannot even tell if the system being run on a particular voting machine resembles the system that was disclosed in the configuration documents submitted with this system when it went through the FEC/NASED approval process. http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/dieboldftp.h tml

Diebold and other ATM vendors say they're "hardening" the installations of Windows they ship with their ATMs by disabling unnecessary services and ports and removing files that support peripherals http://www.computerworld.com/networkingtopics/netw orking/story/0,10801,89119,00.html

Diebold patched the Windows CE operating system in Georgia:"Williams does acknowledge, however, that a month and a half before the November election, he worked with Diebold to apply a patch to the Windows CE operating system. The voting machines run on version 3.0 of Windows CE, he said, and they patched it to correct problems they were having with the system" http://www.votescam.com/Patchelections.php More about how we beat Diebold and the fight for Verified Voting in North Carolina here at http://www.ncvoter.net/
And much thanks owed to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for representing us in this case. http://www.eff.org/

Yeah right! I got your rainbow punch cards right here.

incase of /., there's blue from Bell Labs, pink from Carnegie Tech, orange from Princeton, and several shades of off-white. Each of them have pretty logos even.

No, you can't, and you're completely right about that. But in the out-of-focus picture all the information is (mostly) there, and the question is how to transform that desired subject in focus. If you have the convolution model, you can write an inverse function using Fourier transform. For a quick mathematic formula, see here and scroll a little down until you find section "Wrong lens focus". There's also software that does the trick. The downside here is that it increases the noise as you can see on the focusmagic examples, but nevertheless it's possible and already done. The original work that represents the degradation model is from the 60's.

Resently, i heard a talk of Russell Ciochon about the Giganto. He was also addressing the possibility that humans and Giganto might have co-occoured in the area. He said that he now thinks that the teeth subjected to early humans might actually belong to some other, smaller ape.

Resently, i heard a talk of Russell Ciochon about the Giganto. He was also addressing the possibility that humans and Giganto might have co-occoured in the area. He said that he now thinks that the teeth subjected to early humans might actually belong to some other, smaller ape.

• Problems with Using Microsoft Excel for Statistics
• Fixing Statistical Errors in Spreadsheet Software: The Cases of Gnumeric and Excel
• Using Excel for Data Analysis
• Statistical Flaws in Excel
• On the Accuracy of Statistical Distributions in Microsoft Excel 97
• On the Reliability of Microsoft Excel XP for Statistical Purposes
• Use of Excel for Statistical Analysis
• Reliability of Statistical Procedures in Excel
• Association of Statistics Specialists Using Microsoft Excel
• Statistical Analysis Using Microsoft Excel

Actually, Desire2Learn is really pushing both Blackboard and WebCT, and competition from D2L might have pushed them to merge. I'm at the University of Iowa, which recently adopted D2L (calling it ICON - Iowa Courses Online - http://icon.uiowa.edu/ ) and is dropping both WebCT and Blackboard. Desire2Learn, WebCT and Blackboard were all finalists, and it was pretty clear from the comparison documents published by UI that D2L won primarily because of usability issues.

Some people may read this and think I have a totally self-centered attitude...and that'd be true to an extent. However it doesn't mean that you have to become a callous asshole. You can still be a nice, moral person. However, being nice doesn't mean you're a naive pushover. You have a duty to look out for yourself.

The word you are looking for is assertive.

Evolution can do a bit, but it uses Outlook Web Access. According to Microsoft, only Outlook 2003 will work fully with Exchange. Internet Explorer 5.01 and later for Windows get to use OWA Premium (a very small subset of the full functionality of Exchange + Outlook); everyone else (including Evolution) must use OWA basic, which is a small subset of the functionality in OWA Premium (i.e. a small subset of a very small subset of the full Exchange + Outlook features)

There's another explaination for where most (or all) of the surface water on Earth came from, the small comet theory (see http://smallcomets.physics.uiowa.edu/ for details). And this bombardment has been going on ever since the Earth formed.

Yep, that would be me. It's been a long strange trip, but eventually I ended up in the CS department at the University of Iowa.

How would it work for a site like OKCupid? Their matching algorithm is based on users' responses to multiple-choice questions -- assume each response has some numeric (enumerated) value. Throw all those values into a table, probably via a join, such that each row is a user and each field corresponds to a question. (Let NULL values correspond to questions a user hasn't answered.) You in front of your computer will be looking at people's profiles, but the system operates under the assumption that the person will answer questions in a manner consistent with their profile, so if you mark several people that you're interested in and several that you're not interested in, based on their profiles, the system can train a classifier based on their answers to questions and find people whose responses are similar.

I don't think OKCupid is using the same math I'm using, but their approach is probably pretty similar.

In fact, I seem to recall reading that lack of emotion impairs decision-making, especially when making decisions that involve oneself. Here for example is a brief from some guys currently studying just that, or one could take a look at the work of Antonio Damasio.

With this in mind, one would sincerely hope that both genders are equipped with a full set of emotions.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

I found here a sample of AKR emission from earth's magnetosphere. This sample has a higher frequency shift than the one from the first link in the fine article, but also I think they are similar, in both cases structures that oscilates with high to low-frequencies, and then high again, can be heard (that, or I need new earphones :)

Maybe you would like to compare the spectrograms:

Earth's AKR emission.

Saturn's AKR emission.

Also, one of the samples from cassini is very similar (IMO) to this sample of a chorus emission at earth's magnetosphere (more info here, in the sense that there are some structures rising from low to high-frequency.

Sadly, the spectrogram is not so clear, like the one from cassini

Very interesting stuff. Yes, I did some work in that area. No, I am not a space physicist. And finally, yes, I have this page in my bookmarks.

Here is another, perhaps even stranger sounding recording from the Iowa scientists' web site.

http://cassini.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/cassi ni/SKR2/casskrtrig04207a.wav

The University of Iowa has a fairly good computer graphics crowd--Jim Cremer, Chris Wyman and others are actively engaged in this field. It's worth taking a look at.

ObDisclosure: I'm a grad student there, although not in computer graphics.

The University of Iowa has a fairly good computer graphics crowd--Jim Cremer, Chris Wyman and others are actively engaged in this field. It's worth taking a look at.

ObDisclosure: I'm a grad student there, although not in computer graphics.

The University of Iowa has a fairly good computer graphics crowd--Jim Cremer, Chris Wyman and others are actively engaged in this field. It's worth taking a look at.

ObDisclosure: I'm a grad student there, although not in computer graphics.

Diebold was running an ftp server from which various items were freely available.

http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/dieboldftp.h tml
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/10/1172/9052
http://www.google.com/search?q=diebold+source+code

And Slashdot related stories about Diebold
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aslashdot.org +diebold+source+code&btnG=Search

I'm not familiar with certification process of voting machines but maybe the State also has a copy of the source code.

It depends on the size of the University, the role of the department in the University, and the nature of the job. My experience has been with the University of Iowa, a 30000 student research university with an attached regional hospital. There are 2 central IT groups on campus (hospital and central academic campus), and about 3000 smaller departmental IT groups. Generally, the larger IT departments are better managed, better staffed, and better funded than the smaller departments. Management also tends to be skilled at managing people. Smaller departments vary widely. I've worked for both central IT groups, and I once accidentally took a small departmental job. I don't think I'd ever take a small department job again. Usually, the hardest thing to do is figure out what the salaries are going to be. If it's a public institution, chances are that salaries are public information. Call the HR department to find out the mean salary for the job title you're interested in.

This is a fraudulent science "experiment"

This demonstration to "prove" the theory of evolution requires the addition of living things to be added to the tank before the experiment to "prove" that life evolved. These animals are hidden, with the intent to bring them out to the appropriate time, with a claim that they "evolved" from inert materials.

http://faraday.physics.uiowa.edu/astro/8A30.90.htm

Gee, if evolution is so "factual" and so directly based on scientific observations, why is it necessary to resort to fraud for demonstration?

Code Number : 8A30.90?

Disclaimer:

Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website.

The demonstrations contained and referenced herein are listed for the purposes of cataloging and describing physics demonstrations which should be conducted only under the direction of a trained instructional support professional or physicist. These demonstrations are not presented for the purpose of being conducted by persons unconnected to this Facility and/or persons not consulting with or being supervised by the recognized instructional support professional or physicist and his/her staff. The University is responsible only for those demonstrations carried out using its own equipment using established safety and scheduling policies, and bears no responsibility for those choosing to use this source material for their own purposes. All demonstrations described and contained herein are public domain, and can also be found in reference materials in libraries, bookstores, and electronic sources.

Further information regarding legal liability in use of demonstrations and labs will be found on the web site Injuries in School/College Laboratories in USA.

The University of Iowa Disclaimers: U of Iowa Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Disclaimer.
Condition : Good
Principle : Evolution
Area of Study : Solar Astronomy
Equipment : Aquarium (Large Tank), U.V. Lights, Variac, Light Bulb, Two Carbon Electrodes and Holder, Test tube Holder, Aquarium Accessories, Water (40 Liters), Liquid Nitrogen (2.4 Liters), Carbon (Charcoal - 10 lb.), Sulfur (60 grams), Calcium (120 grams), Ground Chalk, Phosphorus (Phosphoric acid - 13 ml), Trace amounts of elements (Na, Cl, K, I, Fe, Mn, Mo, Si, F, Cu, Zn), Large Stirring Rod, Large Tongs, Sponge Animals.

Procedure : This demo is based on an experiment where amino acids were created using much the same conditions.

Set the fish tank on the table. Fill this with water to a height of 6 1/2 inches above the table and you will have approximately 40 liters. Put the 10 lb. of charcoal into two large plastic beakers with the small sponge animals hidden in amongst the charcoal. The liquid nitrogen is picked up from Biochem Stores ahead of time. The rest of the chemicals can be measured out into their own separate petri dishes. Place the U.V. lights above and/or behind the tank. Have the electrodes all set up and ready to put into the tank when ready. Procedure: The Lecture Demonstration Coordinator helps with this experiment. Pour the charcoal into the tank of water. Now with stirring pour in the liquid nitrogen. A nice rolling fog will develop. Next add the sulfur (60 gr.), calcium (120 gr.), Phosphorus (Phosphoric acid - 13 ml.), and the trace minerals sodium, chlorine, iodine (Iodized Salt), potassium (Salt Substitute), iron, copper, zinc, (Metal filings), manganese (Manganese Oxide - MnO2), Silicon (Sand), Molybdenum and Florine (We usually do without these two). Now we have all the ingredients to make life. Add a little energy in the forms of U.V. radiation (U.V. Lights), and Lightning (Electrodes hooked to variac). The light bulb is put in series with the electrodes so that you can see that current is flowing in the mixture. At the end of lecture the teacher shut off and unplugs the variac and pulls out one of the spon

Star Wars is more scientifically sound than the theory of evolution!

This demonstration to "prove" the theory of evolution requires the addition of living things to be added to the tank before the experiment to "prove" that life evolved. These animals are hidden, with the intent to bring them out to the appropriate time, with a claim that they "evolved" from inert materials.

http://faraday.physics.uiowa.edu/astro/8A30.90.htm

Gee, if evolution is so "factual" and so directly based on scientific observations, why is it necessary to resort to fraud for demonstration?

Code Number : 8A30.90?

Disclaimer:

Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website.

The demonstrations contained and referenced herein are listed for the purposes of cataloging and describing physics demonstrations which should be conducted only under the direction of a trained instructional support professional or physicist. These demonstrations are not presented for the purpose of being conducted by persons unconnected to this Facility and/or persons not consulting with or being supervised by the recognized instructional support professional or physicist and his/her staff. The University is responsible only for those demonstrations carried out using its own equipment using established safety and scheduling policies, and bears no responsibility for those choosing to use this source material for their own purposes. All demonstrations described and contained herein are public domain, and can also be found in reference materials in libraries, bookstores, and electronic sources.

Further information regarding legal liability in use of demonstrations and labs will be found on the web site Injuries in School/College Laboratories in USA.

The University of Iowa Disclaimers: U of Iowa Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Disclaimer.
Condition : Good
Principle : Evolution
Area of Study : Solar Astronomy
Equipment : Aquarium (Large Tank), U.V. Lights, Variac, Light Bulb, Two Carbon Electrodes and Holder, Test tube Holder, Aquarium Accessories, Water (40 Liters), Liquid Nitrogen (2.4 Liters), Carbon (Charcoal - 10 lb.), Sulfur (60 grams), Calcium (120 grams), Ground Chalk, Phosphorus (Phosphoric acid - 13 ml), Trace amounts of elements (Na, Cl, K, I, Fe, Mn, Mo, Si, F, Cu, Zn), Large Stirring Rod, Large Tongs, Sponge Animals.

Procedure : This demo is based on an experiment where amino acids were created using much the same conditions.

Set the fish tank on the table. Fill this with water to a height of 6 1/2 inches above the table and you will have approximately 40 liters. Put the 10 lb. of charcoal into two large plastic beakers with the small sponge animals hidden in amongst the charcoal. The liquid nitrogen is picked up from Biochem Stores ahead of time. The rest of the chemicals can be measured out into their own separate petri dishes. Place the U.V. lights above and/or behind the tank. Have the electrodes all set up and ready to put into the tank when ready. Procedure: The Lecture Demonstration Coordinator helps with this experiment. Pour the charcoal into the tank of water. Now with stirring pour in the liquid nitrogen. A nice rolling fog will develop. Next add the sulfur (60 gr.), calcium (120 gr.), Phosphorus (Phosphoric acid - 13 ml.), and the trace minerals sodium, chlorine, iodine (Iodized Salt), potassium (Salt Substitute), iron, copper, zinc, (Metal filings), manganese (Manganese Oxide - MnO2), Silicon (Sand), Molybdenum and Florine (We usually do without these two). Now we have all the ingredients to make life. Add a little energy in the forms of U.V. radiation (U.V. Lights), and Lightning (Electrodes hooked to variac). The light bulb is put in series with the electrodes so that you can see that current is flowing in the mixture. At the end of lecture the teacher shut off and unplugs the variac and

Cool site. I never knew that a bomb going off would cause aurora to appear somewhere else on Earth. Coincidentally, that's the second website I've seen today mentioning beta particles/electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines in space. And before today I had never heard of the phenomenon. Weird... (The other one was here (via boingboing.net))

I do data mining research, most recently on the Enron email dataset, and I've actually been having to roll my own multi-mailbox storage, access, and retrieval systems. It's taking way more time than I'd like, at this point I've gotten a database and web-based viewers made up (beware, they're quite slow).

If anyone has an idea of an open-source application similar to what the submitter is looking for, it would help my research quite a bit. There's practical research applications in this stuff, if someone's interested in making it.

Ask an economist why MS makes a "Pro" and "Home" version. I believe it's in part something called Market segmentation and in part price discrimination -- MS is trying to get purchasers at varying pricepoints by offering different products, even though in the case of the OS those differences are totally artifical -- MS simply made the better product, simply stripped out some features and called it a less expensive product. It's not like a physical product that uses more expensive materials or something like that to justify the different pricepoints.

I'm not an economist, but I did take a class in college that used Gregory Mankiw's book _Principles of Economics_. If you're interested in understanding why MS, and a lot of other companies, price their products the way they do, you may want to read it.

Yes, the Ford Taurus is a very ugly car.

1b. New Madrid fault lets loose. Midwest buildings tumble down.

Sorry to be the wet blanket, but please don't parody a song about when the US government shot and killed 4 peace activists.

Never forget. :-/

Any argument about predicting 2000 by tea leaves or NH towns can always be argued to be about the popular vote, as opposed to the winner.

One problem with this: http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem// is that they don't have an electoral college vote futures market which would be much more relevant than the popular vote in a close election.

And futures markets can't be expected to function in the event of wholly novel circumstances like a Supreme Court coup d'etat.... so whether it is New Hampshire towns, or futures markets, you can't hold them responsible for the 2000 election outcome, only, perhaps, for things like the total number of votes.

Fluky electoral college votes, and supreme court interventions come under the heading of "acts of (a particularly bloody minded) God"... beyond prediction by futures markets.

I know this is light hearted... but this isn't: http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem// I believe in futures markets. If Kerry wins, I reevaluate my belief.

Until then, I'm very worried, because I think these numbers mean something very bad for my guy. We shall see.

hahah... this post actually made me laugh out loud.. we are not increasing global terrorism. The terrorists are increasing global terrorism. We are merely responding to it in an appropriate way.

By the way, who brought up any arguments about States' Rights and smaller government? And would you mind pointing out where I stated what party I am affiliated with?

The status quo is fine with me, because we are doing the right thing. 61% of people surveyed think Bush will do the better job with terrorists, so I am afraid you are not in the majority on this issue. Only 42% of poll respondents said that going into Iraq was a mistake.

Bush is also waaaaay ahead an another important poll... one that is hardly ever covered because of what it is saying.. Background...

Why play for fake money when you can play for the real thing? Check this out.
Disclamer: Not associated with this site, just remember it from a /. story.

Here is the Iowa Electronic Market's prediction graph of Bush vs. Kerry.

The historic problem with this approach is also accountability - ballot stuffing (i.e. putting lots of extra paper ballots in the box) has always been a problem with paper ballots. If there are a suspicious number of votes in the box, how do you tell who put the extras in, which candidate they were voting for, etc?

There is a bit of info on this page about the problem. The parties used to actually force people to vote on coloured paper depending on who they were supporting, and they made the ballot box transparent - so they could always tell who you were voting for! Of course, if all the officials at a particular voting station were corrupt, then practically anything could happen.

And, while I agree that without the correct technology paper voting as it is used in the UK and Australia is a much better plan, it's not as though the British system hasn't been the home of massive electoral fraud over the years. Blackadder probably sums it up pretty well:

Political Commentator: And now it's time, I think, for a result, and tension is running very high here. Mr. Blackadder assures me that this will be the first honest vote ever in a rotten borough. And I think we all hope for a result which reflects the real needs of the constituency. And behind me...yes, I can just see the Returning Officer moving to the front of the platform.

Blackadder: As the Acting Returning Officer of Dunny-on-the-World...

Commentator: The acting Returning Officer, Mr. E. Blackadder, of course. And we're all very grateful, indeed, that he stepped in at the last minute, when the previous Returning Officer accidently brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving.

Blackadder: I now announce the number of votes cast as follows: Brigadier General Horace Bolsom...

Commentator: Cheap-Royalty-White-Rat-Catching-And-Safe-Sewage-R esidents Party...

Blackadder: No votes.

Blackadder: Ivor Jest-ye-not-madam Biggun...

Commentator: Standing-At-The-Back-Dressed-Stupidly-And-Looking- Stupid Party...

Blackadder: No votes.

Blackadder: Pitt, the Even Younger...

Commantator: Whig...

Blackadder: No votes.

Commentator: Oh, there's a shock.

(Pitt the Even Younger turns to his mum and cries)

Blackadder: Mr. S. Baldrick...

Commentator: Adder Party...

Blackadder: Sixteen thousand, four hundred, and seventy-two.

(Cheers are heard.)

...

Commentator: And now, finally, a word with the man who is at the center of this bi- election mystery: the voter himself. And his name is Mr. E. Bla-- Mr. Blackadder, *you* are the only voter in this rotten borough...?

Blackadder: Yes, that's right.

Commentator: How long have you lived in this constituency?

Blackadder: Since Wednesday morning. I took over the previous electorate when he, very sadly, accidently brutally cut his head off while combing his hair.

Commentator: One voter; 16,472 votes. A slight anomaly...?

Blackadder: Not really -- you see, Baldrick may look like a monkey who's been put in a suit and then strategically shaved, but he is a brilliant politician. The number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in his policies.

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner had this concept back in ~1975:

"And the tachnical breakthrough odds were also nice and fat. For old time's sake he put another thousand on the introduction of an Earth-Moon gravislide before 2025. That was a perennial dissappointment."

Course in the book there are other areas that are bet on as well, like political areas. You may have heard of the Iowa Electronic Markets with the election so close. It's still gambling anyway you slice it. (Of course campaign contributions still seem to be the place for big payoffs there)