Back to back iPhone Ads

Back page ads for iPhone in the New York Times Front Page and Business sections Sunday.

Canon G10 Shutter Lag

The shutter lag on the Canon G10 is a bit slow...

Chuck Taylor Starts a Blog

I'm looking forward to Chuck's new blog: Seattle Post Times. Chuck edited the stories I wrote for the weekly and I learned a lot of what I know about journalism from him. Chuck has also helped out considerably on NewsCloud.

Sarah Palin Heads Home

NewsCloud is seeking contractors

NewsCloud is seeking four Seattle-based contractors for 2 to 6 month assignments:

1) Multidisciplinary Software Project and Partnership/Outreach/Marketing Manager

2) PHP/Facebook Developer I

3) PHP/Facebook Developer II

4) Web Community Moderator, Customer Support and Fulfillment

Job descriptions and instructions are at:
http://www.newscloud.com/jobs

Please pass this on to your Seattle-based friends. Thanks!

Obama Sunglasses: Is he the one?

Obama's sunglasses make me wonder...is he the one?

Or, is he an agent?

I guess we'll have to wait to see how populist his agenda is!

Colts Schedule Softens: Should Help Them Make Playoffs

The Colts have had a rough start this year - and they still look a bit weaker than in past years. That said, their schedule really lightens up. They only play one team over .500 (the 9-0 Titans).

Texans 3-6
Chargers 4-5
Browns 3-6
Bengals 1-8
Lions 0-9
Jaguars 4-5
Titans 9-0

With this schedule, I expect the Colts will capture one of the two wildcard births.

Deep Secrets ofThe Daily Show - New York Times City Room Blog

The New York Times links to our Daily Show News blog.

Cool New Features Added to Social Media Toolkit

NewsCloud's Social Media Toolkit has added some big features from the NewsCloud platform: RSS feeds, Mobile support, Twitter posting, ReCaptcha for registration, Google SiteMaps support, Ad Rotator and Server, Blog page: matrix style display of incoming RSS feeds with SimplePie integration similar to AllTop

Read more and see examples

Read the Social Media Toolkit application to the 2008/2009 Knight Foundation News Challenge

Minnesota Senate Race Too Close To Measure Accurately

Marty Andrade raises a great point about the margin of error and the closeness of the Minnesota Senate Race:

About 2.9 million votes were cast, so a 600 vote “victory” is about a .02% difference. This could be “statistically significant” or “statistically insignificant” based on the expected margin of error of the counting process. (note: his lead is now 300 votes)

According to this test, the error rate for optical scan systems is about .10%.This means Coleman’s number of votes is well within the margin of error for the system in place.

We don’t know who “won” this election. Our ruler can’t measure a distance this close. If the .12% number is accurate for MN, then the error rate for this election could be as high as +or- 3000 votes. A recount might find Coleman up by over 3,000 votes, or it might find Franken up 2,500 votes.

It would take a margin of error of less than .01% for there to be anything resembling a significant confidence level (interval) for this race.  

Statistically, a coin flip will be just as good as a recount in a race this close. Of course, no one would put that into law.

I'm no math whiz - but it seems that every time you count this race, you'll get a different result.

I raised this issue in the Gregoire-Rossi recount of 2004.