The online version of the story also omits the photo showing us and the remains of our lunch (I wanted to clear the tray, but the photographer said “no”), but through the miracle of modern technology, I can repair that omission.

And, of course, the online version will vanish in a day or so, while the paper version will live on in landfills for centuries to come. So I’ve captured the online version here, complete with original typos.

The New Yorker did better on accuracy when they did a story on “where e-mail goes” — their fact checkers called several times, once to verify that you could, indeed, see mountains when sitting in the IBM Almaden cafeteria. On the other hand, they didn’t like my actual title (Senior Technical Staff Member) and had me make up something slightly crisper (and I’ve forgotten what I made up), so you can’t rely on them 100%, either!

Free Ice Cream

We had a Webvan delivery this morning — as always, they were on time and courteous. Unlike previous deliveries, though, this time the ice cream was very soft; the driver said it had been in the freezer compartment on the truck, but “maybe there was no dry ice”. I called to complain, and the customer service rep immediately credited our account for the price of the ice cream and said she’d check with the warehouse to make sure they’re putting dry ice on the trucks. I’d really rather have had the ice cream arrive solidly frozen, though — tonight, we’ll have to do a quality assurance test on it.

When I went to bed last night, it looked like Bush had won, so when I picked up the paper a few minutes ago and the headline said “Too Close to Call”, I thought they’d gone to print before 11pm Pacific and didn’t pay any attention. But I decided to check the Web anyway, and was surprised when CNN said that there was going to be a recount in Florida.

It’s too late to do anything to affect the outcome, but I can still hope.

Media Lunch

Pete, Debbie, Diane and I had lunch at Falafel’s Drive In, a San Jose institution; while we were finishing up, the people at the next table introduced themselves as a reporter and photographer from the San Jose Mercury News and wanted to know if they could ask us a few questions about our reaction to the election and take some photos.

We were game, and wound up talking with them for about 15 minutes, describing how we were following the news last night on TV and Internet, and how I tried to get news during dinner using my cellphone and Sprint’s “Wireless Web” but failed (and I tried again while we were talking and got similarly useless stories), and how Jeffrey was so interested he wouldn’t go to bed until after 11. I don’t know if any of our conversation will actually make it to the paper; I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, probably before we know who got elected!

The reporter did like Pete’s quote: “It felt like we had flipped a coin and it landed on its edge.”

How many votes does usability cost?

The Curmudgeon has a truly informative interactive graph showing just how far out of balance the Buchanan vote in Palm Beach County was compared to the rest of the state. And Dan Bricklin’s discussion of Ballot Usability in Florida is worth reading, and the South Florida Sun Sentinel has a long article from the scene of the crime (I guess that’s a bit judgmental on my part, isn’t it?). And the Jerusalem Post says
“in the end, it came down to bubbe and zayde“.

Non-political commentary site of the day

Microsith. May the farce be with you, and thanks for the pointer, Doc.