//nedward.org is the personal weblog of John Niedermeyer, a Brooklyn-based Interactive Designer.
I was fooling around with this neat New York Times interactive Election Guide, and I inputted my predictions for how the states will vote in November.
This was my worst-case scenario, with Bush winning both Florida and Ohio… the result? TIED.
It’ll be the House of Representatives rather than the Supreme Court, this time around…
_UPDATE: Lame… no celebrity sightings, but we snapped some pictures of the security perimeter, which I will post later._
We’re going to venture into the “protected” zone across the river tonight. “Tbone”:http://tbone.suckahs.org describes “his DNC outing”:http://tbone.suckahs.org/archives/002325.php last night, spotting Former CA Gov Gray Davis, and the less talented half of the celibrity fomerly known as “Ben-ifer”, Ben Affleck.
We watched a lot of the convention on CNN and C-SPAN last night. I keep waiting to see “Wonkette”:http://wonkette.com on “MTV”:http://www.mtv.com/chooseorlose/, but there were Andy Dick re-runs on instead.
I miss “Tabitha Soren”:http://www.voice.neu.edu/960425/soren.html…
My commute last night back to Boston was uneventful, (which “seems”:http://yovanoff.typepad.com/yovablog/2004/07/convention_comm.html to be the “consensus”:http://www.utterwonder.com/archives/000579.html#000579). I think half our population was scared away by the “DNC”:http://www.boston04.com.
Helicopters are buzzing around our house, and since we live “near the Charles river”:http://www.cambridgema.gov/dnc/, we’ve noticed Coast Guard and Police boats patrolling the river in formation… a strange sight, given that on any given day you’d usually see small sailboats and rowing crews.
Boston is locked-down, but I feel safe. I think it’s unreasonable to expect that an event this size will ever be held again without tight security. Though I understand concerns about civil liberties and free speech, can you imagine how weak the Democrats would look if a terrorist attack happened at their Convention?
The image of _State Police in riot gear_ is primarily a deterrent — the message is, “we’re ready”. If the police actually had to use that outfit, then I’d be worried.
The Airport Express I ordered last month arrived yesterday.
After 2+ hours of fiddling, googling, plugging and unplugging, I’ve finally got Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs streaming from my Powerbook’s iTunes, to my Onkyo receiver and Cambridge Soundworks speakers.
The problem was to get my $60 Netgear router to recognize the AX —as the documentation makes no promises of connecting to a third-party wireless router, (on a side note, I’ve never understood the pricing of the original Airport Extreme—at $200, what advantages could this model possibly offer over any other IEEE 802.11g router?). Expecting it to plug-in and work, like all my Apple gear, I became increasingly frustrated with that blinking amber light (which tells you there is a problem, but provides no other details).
After searching around in vain, I stumbled across this thread on the Apple forums: AX: Switching between Client and Network ?—and cjb65 points out that all you have to do is place a “$” before the 128-bit WEP key, when you set up the network… and pow! it works… Although, I’ve yet to get it to extend the range of my primary network. The AX is merely acting as a “client” now.
It sounds good, however, there are some “cons” to report:
Still, now that is streaming well enough, I’m impressed. I can’t wait to take it on the road, and use it as a portable wireless network. Now, if only my cell phone could browse the web…
John Kerry made a great choice for his VP running mate — they will make a great team.
If you’re a supporter of Kerry/Edwards, they will give you a free “bumper sticker”:http://www.johnkerry.com/signup/bumper_KE.php, just for signing up with the campaign.
The downside is, they’ll email you a couple of times a week, (which some may find “inundating”:http://www.capndesign.com/archives/2004/06/john_kerrys_marketing_campaign.php). I think that’s a fair trade.
UPDATE: Incidentally, I did it, and when I hit submit, a page appeared saying “help us cover the cost of mailing this, won’t you?” So I felt guilty, and sent another “$25 contribution”:http://ned.suckahs.org/archives/002042.php.
_Fireworks over the Charles, Boston, Massachusetts_
I generally don’t enjoy staying in Boston for two holidays — “4th of July”:http://www.july4th.org/, and New Year’s Eve… This town is a tame place for a party, and the concept of the _roof-deck_ seems to be lost on the landlords here.
Still, I’m not holding fast to my rule this year… we spent the New Year in the South End, and we spent last night BBQ’ing at our house. It was a short walk down to the Charles River for the “fireworks”:http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/07/05/afterglow_on_the_esplanade/… pretty low-key this year, and we couldn’t hear “the Pops”:http://www.july4th.org/concert/, because they apparently decided Cambridge didn’t _need_ speakers this year.
Saturday was spent at the _Casa del_ “Jason”:http://yovanoff.typepad.com, Brian, Adam, Dana, & “Jaron”:http://www.jaronsworld.0catch.com (whom I shouldn’t even link to, because he’s using a horrible hosting service), drinking beer and eating properly-encased “hot dogs”:http://www.hot-dog.org/. They throw “quite a party”:http://yovanoff.typepad.com/photos/july4th/pahty_people.html — no small feat when your house is sandwiched between a _primary school_ and a _playground_.
At least we’re getting away next weekend– camping in the Finger Lakes… and there will be “wine”:http://www.senecalakewine.com/…
//nedward.org is the personal weblog of John Niedermeyer, an Editorial Designer at NYTimes.com, living in Brooklyn.
