talkingDigital

Election season is in full swing and nothing irritates me more than thinking about all of the voters who go to the polls armed only with the claims of their favorite candidate. I believe that we should be anxious to research all sides of every issue and never let one candidate’s claims dictate how we feel about the other candidates or themselves.

While I tend to lean ever so slightly right in my political views, I still read news and information from both sides of the aisle. Here are a few websites that will help. Some are essentially neutral while others are very slanted. No matter where you stand, I would encourage everyone who votes to vote informed and armed with the truth no matter who is telling it.

Mostly neutral sites –
FactCheck.org – this is a great site for looking up the facts and figures used by candidates to show both their own strengths and their opponents weaknesses.
FactCheckEd.org – Sister site of the above but designed more for teachers.
Politifact.com – a similar fact checking site, but Politifact has a cool feature called the Truth-o-meter that measures candidates claims on a scale from True to False.
Politico.com – does a reasonable job at trying to stay balanced although its left-slanting writers and polls are more often cited.

Left slanted news (mainstream news agencies have been omitted for space) –
DailyKos.com – A site that doesn’t even pretend to be balanced or unbiased. Their site description in Google is “Daily weblog with political analysis on US current events from a liberal perspective.”
TalkLeft.com – Describes itself as “The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news”
ThinkProgress.org – Pictures of the president and supporters always taken mid-blink while liberals are shown pointing fingers or in publicity shots.
Thedemocraticdaily.com – Perhaps the only liberal news site you need to know as it is a feed of all of the other liberal news sites and blogs.
MediaMatters.org – Organization that monitors right wing news and blogs.

Right slanted news (talk radio sites omitted for obvious reasons) –
Humanevents.com – website of the official conservative newspaper – Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly all contribute.
WorldNetDaily.com – poorly designed site, but one of the more cited sources for conservatives.
NewsBusters.org – Comparable to WorldNet in content, but much better design and more multimedia content.
Hotair.com – my personal favorite, lots of great stuff and a fun read with a good sense of humor.
NewsMax.com – written like a mainstream  news site, but uses obvious right slant.

I am still all worked up about eBay raising its final value fees.

When I first began with eBay their philosophy was to stay out of the transaction as much as possible and allow the community to self regulate. No one really cared that eBay took a small percentage from every sale because it was less than five percent and the listing fees were cheaper than a classified ad.

Over time eBay has raised their fees again and again in order to increase profits. How can they be shocked to see profits and membership declining?

I mentioned in the article above that eBay began as an experiment in capitalism. It is fast becoming an example of how over taxing kills off a society. Rather it is proving that capitalism works by demonstrating what happens to a market when capitalism is removed.

In addition to higher final fees, eBay also announced more restrictive selling policies. The company has resorted to babysitting its users. A complete 180 degree turn from the original hands-off governing policy.

It is sad to see eBay die, but I really hope that someone else sees the open door and starts up an eBay killer. For over a decade, other companies have tried to compete with eBay, hopefully a few brave folks are still out there because this would be the perfect year for eBay to meet its match.

I went to the funeral of a long time friend last week. Gary, like my dad, was an avid builder of plastic models. He and my dad both belonged to a club made up of other model enthusiasts. I would go with my dad to the club meetings each week, and I also enjoyed the hobby very much.

Building plastic models for me, my dad and everyone else in the Grand Junction Scale Model Society consisted of more than breaking pieces off of the plastic tree and gluing them together with airplane glue.

We built scale miniatures. My dad is one of the best at it. An entire model can take over a year to finish as special after market parts are added, colors are matched and fine details, are painstakingly implemented. What comes in the box is just the skeleton.

Over time I transformed from model builder to computer guy. I still have a closet full of models that I hope to build some day. Deep down I am still a model builder, however my association with those in the model club has transformed from fellow modeler to that of their computer guy.

I now fix computers for many of the guys who have known me since I was six. Gary had also been a client of mine.

When I walked into Gary’s funeral, I sat down in a row with these long time friends who have become my clients. I hadn’t even sat down when a few of them started whispering computer questions too me.

They gave each other a hard time about talking business at a friend’s funeral, but I knew that Gary would have done the same if the tables were turned.

Someone made a comment that being a computer guy is a lot like being a doctor or a lawyer as someone always has a question for you, but I compared it more to being a superhero. I told them, “I didn’t ask for these powers.”

Deep down I am a model builder, a photographer and an observer of politic I don’t know how I became a computer guy. I have more to say about movies, books and art than I ever would devote to computers were it not for how I make my living.

Several times a week I ponder how I became a computer guy. I do it for one reason, I enjoy helping people. The satisfaction that comes from completing a model is wonderful, but it doesn’t equal the satisfaction I feel from helping someone get emails from their kid serving in Iraq.

I hope someday I can return to building models and pursuing my personal interests, but for now humanity needs me to save the world one desktop at a time.