The Journal of William M Butler

Early Voting, Rutherford County, Grade D+

2008-10-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

I voted at the La Vergne Civic Center today. The line was orderly. I arrived at 2:15pm and, with just 40 people ahead of me, left at 4:15. 120 minutes for 30 people. That works out to an average of 4 minutes per person. This is unacceptable. Sure, I voted, but let's not forget that it's the first day of early voting. On the actual day of the vote, if no changes are implemented, I predict an incredible failure in our democratic system.

When I voiced my concern, the person in charge of the venue told me that it's the voter's fault since voters rarely turn out in such large numbers. He indicated that he had requested additional computers (the ones used to validate your voter registration prior to the voting machines) to help speed up the process. As I watched the process, it became apparent to me that the greatest increase in efficiency would not come from an increased number of computers, but rather from an better response time from the database in charge of looking up voters' registrations. In order to get to the search screen, my official waited 2 minutes! Just to pull up the search screen. It was an additional 3 minutes to find my name and print off the paper and from there another minute and a half to vote.

The summary here is that someone with half a brain needs to improve the query speed of the central registration computer in the next few days or there are going to be some serious problems. I was very vocal in my criticism of the speed of the process and as a concerned voter, I hope that you will do the same. This election is important and I don't want to see bureaucrats screw it up.

The standard should be 30 seconds to 1 minute per person. The most effect means of getting to this level would be to improve the registration lookup process to 2 minutes instead of 5 minutes. No additional hardware or manpower at the voting sites would be needed to accomplish this.

Why do Republicans seem to lack a sense of humor?

2008-10-03T07:01:00.001-07:00

The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Real Time. These are fairly left-leaning comedic talk shows. Where are the right-leaning talk shows? Why do they not exist?

Having the capacity to laugh at our mistakes is instrumental in our development. Humor is an effective outlet for dealing with poor decisions. This admission of our mistakes in the form of humor acts as a release valve and reassures others around us that we are not infallible and are open to change and the ideas of others.

I have friends who are republicans and love to laugh. They are even self-deprecating in their sense of humor, but their political heros seemingly have no sense of humor in public circles. Why is this true? Where do republicans go to mock their party's poor decisions or, for that matter, to mock the democrats?

It's been said that families who do not laugh together are dysfunctional. I am inclined to agree. Any group of people who cannot see their mistakes along with their triumphs is missing out on a key growth opportunity.

Start laughing Republicans.....it will give you more credibility and by lowering your guard, you might just learn something about yourself.

Media Center Progress

2008-09-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

AppleTV, no. SageTV, no. The best solution I have found so far is a Mac Mini with XBMC for playing my library of avi files. AVI files reach my library via ripped DVD's and bittorrented TV shows obtained with Miro. I just have Miro drop everything into my Movie directory and then XBMC picks them up automatically. It is sooo fast. For recording Over the air TV shows, I'm using Elgato Hybrid with EYETV software 3.0. It's extremely fast and uses very little processor. I can have EYETV record the show and drop it in the movie directory or watch live programming directly with EYETV. I tried AppleTV. It is a closed system with very little support for various video file formats. I tried SAGETV. It uses like 80% processor compared to 13% processor for EYETV when viewing Over the Air content. This 80% processor utilization caused all sorts of skips (during the debate....grrrr). I assume mplayer implementation on OSX is the culprit. Hope this helps someone. I am extremely happy with this setup.

Out of Gas

2008-09-25T19:50:00.001-07:00

An underachiever and computer illiterate

2008-09-19T13:17:00.001-07:00

http://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/mccain-894th-out-of-899-at-school

Religulous Trailer - www.LennonAldort.com

2008-09-19T12:43:00.001-07:00

I am so there...

McCain's Ex-wife

2008-09-16T08:42:00.003-07:00

One word....opportunist.

Story

Barack Roll

2008-08-20T07:14:00.001-07:00

HandSolo Mobile - A Qualcomm Partner

2008-05-01T14:12:00.001-07:00

Bill Frist

2008-04-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

So he has approval to build an 8 ft security wall around his house. I wonder if his fear/paranoia is derived from the pitiful fear-based administration in office today. It certainly seems to fit the profile. I didn't really have much of an opinion of this guy prior to the Terri Schiavo case down in Florida, when he lent his 'professional opinion' regarding the government's right to choose her fate. His insight (or lack thereof) sealed my opinion of him.

Nashville has outgrown your conservative moral rhetoric Mr. Frist. Hint: people agree with your views because you have money and power and they seek to benefit from that in some way, not because they believe in your views.

So build your wall around your mansion to keep the riff raff out. It worked for the royalty in Europe and it might just work for you. While you're at it, why not consider a moat and a drawbridge!

Hillary WASN'T LYING! Bosnia gunfire footage discovered...

2008-03-26T23:43:00.001-07:00

Problem solving alarm clock

2008-02-21T13:02:00.001-08:00

Talk about your rude awakening...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ajut1IglzQ

john.he.is

2008-02-11T11:42:00.001-08:00

Like Hope, but different.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

2008-02-04T12:25:00.001-08:00

Nice...

Obama Support on the Sports Pages of a local paper

2008-02-02T14:04:00.001-08:00

My brother in law just brought me a great clipping from the sports section of the local paper. It seems that Kenneth Russell (could this be Ken Russell over at ISDN.Net?) took out an ad to praise the potential promise of Obama as the next President of the United States. It was very encouraging to see this. I am continually surprised by the diverse support the Barack maintains. Go Obama '08!

Edwards Dropping Out

2008-01-30T07:15:00.001-08:00

Will he endorse Obama on his way out? If he does, this could make the race incredibly tight between Hillary and Barack. Keep your fingers crossed....

Uncle Jay Explains the News - July 2, 2007

2008-01-16T08:37:00.001-08:00

Excellent political humor regarding Congressional Recess.

Barack Obama Myths

2008-01-10T17:56:00.001-08:00

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp#quran

Iowa Caucus Night

2008-01-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm watching the caucus results at the Obama headquarters in Nashville. There is a decent crowd of 30 here and growing. We are watching MSNBC commentary while waiting on the results.

I feel like this is an historic moment, but it doesn't really feel that way at the moment, but rather, I think it will feel that way when I look back at it years from now, win or lose. There is so much speculation that Barack might actually take Iowa and New Hampshire that it feels real. I'm glad that I'll have the answer in a few hours.

Looks like Barack has garnered 35% so far beating out Edwards and Clinton. This is extremely exciting and you can feel it in the room.

What a night! 38%. I'm looking forward to Obama vs. Huckabee. I think that Obama's unique combination of integrity and understated faith will trump Huckabee's platform.

Jack Headshot

2007-12-15T12:13:00.001-08:00

Jack Headshot
Originally uploaded by wmbutler

That's my boy!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

2007-12-12T08:40:00.001-08:00

Christmas Spirit. These are some talented and unconventional singers.

Hulu.com

2007-12-11T21:10:00.001-08:00

Another site that may have the right equation for video over the Net.

Chimps vs Humans

2007-12-11T19:37:00.000-08:00

Looks to me as if Chimps have better short term memory than humans. This is absolutely amazing video.

SyncTV

2007-11-19T10:12:00.001-08:00

If they are reliable, this will be the winner in my opinion. It offers the perfect compromise between having many channels and cost. SyncTV plans to allow for channel subscriptions at $2-$4 per channel per month as well as access to individual episodes if you don't subscribe to the channel. It's backed by Pioneer and has Mac and Windows clients. It's in Beta at the moment.

http://www.synctv.com/

Miro rocks

2007-11-09T17:58:00.001-08:00

Miro is great for keeping up with your favorite shows via Bittorrent. It completes the triple play of rss, torrent and playback management. I've included my OPML feed here and here is the link to Miro.