So here we are, election eve. The candidates are busy with last minute rallies of their supporters, robo-calls, and a flurry of advertising designed to get you to cast your all important vote for them.

The thing is though is that so much of it's based on misdirection, outright falsehoods - i.e. politics as usual. For a couple of candidates who harp on being agents of change, and mavericks it's the same ol', same ol'.

Understand this. The Founders of our Republic were the real mavericks. The real change agents. Their lives were literally on the line for what the spoke, what they wrote and the risks they took are nearly impossible to imagine today.

Instead we see very little other than negative attack ads, and people who are so pathetically full of themselves that they make comments along the lines that anyone who doesn't agree with them are un-American. THIS my friends is where our political system, our parties, our Republic has gone.

Yes, politics over the years has been ruthless. Nasty. Our candidates today have absolutely nothing of the abuse that was thrown upon candidates of yesteryear. During a course in college at IU, a course entitled "The Presidents and the Press" we heard of a case where a candidate was disparaged in the press by being referred to as "a practicing thespian."

Now let's think about that. Today, most of us wouldn't think twice about that statement. But at the time, this was a derogatory comment, not because of what a thespian is, but rather for the fact that most people had no idea what that meant. Redirection, spin, fear.

Sound familiar?

Today's candidates, while certainly different on a number of issues, are at the heart of it very close on a number of issues, and absolutely opposed on many others. However, this election hasn't really been about issues. It never is. It's about showing how bad for us the other guy (or gal) is, and why you shouldn't vote for them.

Notice what I say there. That we shouldn't vote for the other candidate, NOT why you SHOULD vote for them. That's the politics of fear, uncertainty and doubt. FUD at it's finest, and it's all crap. Palin's been especially good on embracing her 'pit bull' role. Some of the backhanded comments have been absolutely amazing, and not in a good way.

For someone who's telling us she's an outsider, she's clearly a very quick study because all the usual Washington rhetoric is there with her. She has no problem taking things out of context and twisting them around into negative attacks. All while scolding Joe Biden for being hung up on the past. Yep you're an outsider alright. I don't know what's worse: the fact that so many people blindly buy it, or that she's really trying to sell it.

Then we have Obama's - I believe - short lived ad talking about McCain not being able to use a computer. Nevermind he can't physically get his arms in place to do that. Nice one. I clearly don't agree with many statements Obama's made on economic issues, and yes I think that he might be more left than perhaps is good.

I have some issues with circumstances around his connections, however, I also understand how politics works and that peripheral associations do not necessarily mean continual contact or that the person of question is going to be in such a consultative role in any administration.

Obama's short career in the Senate offers up questions. Today we learn that he has some aunt living illegally in the US? And that she's been on the list to be deported for four years? Apparently Obama's unaware of her issues and that he said he supports the law being upheld. This seems to me to put him in a corner.

I also do not care for the possible impact of changes to labor union laws that might occur. I am personally not at all interested in having, joining or being forced to be a part of a union. I don't want to see them implemented just for the sake of creating more unions. They may have their place in some workplaces but keep them out of mine.

The simple fact of our economy places both candidates onto a wall of shame for voting YEA on the financial bailout in my book. Yes I know there are many economists who believe it was necessary, and it is entirely possible that if Lehman Bros, weren't allowed to fail then perhaps things would have been different in September. Maybe not.

Let's talk about this whole issue of experience that so many of the McCain ads have focused on. It's crap. All of it. First off, there isn't one candidate on either ticket who has sat in an executive office and made the choice to send 250,000 men & women into harm's way. McCain hasn't done it since he's never been POTUS, nor a Governor, and Obama's not done it either because he's also never been POTUS or a Governor. In fact sadly Palin is the only one who "might" have had that experience as Governor if she's deployed her Guard.

While I absolutely respect John McCain's service & sacrifice, it doesn't immediately make him more qualified. He's made statements recently and ran TV ads indicating that his experience sitting on the deck of a carrier waiting to get the GO order meaning he's addressed conflict and has experience in crisis. Sorry but that isn't leadership in the sense of what we're talking about here. That's taking an order. Entirely different things. Sorry Senator McCain but no, you haven't had crisis experience in an executive "buck stops here" role.

By the way, show me where Reagan, Geo H.W. Bush, Clinton, or Geo W. Bush had that experience. They didn't. No one does unless they've been the highest ranked member of the Armed Forces, or President. The closest they get is commanding the state National Guard, and if you weren't Governor then you don't have that either.

Now, take General Petraeus or perhaps Dwight Eisenhower, entirely different thing.

So we're down to this. Who to vote for? I feel myself wanting to vote against Palin. I don't care for her stance on a number of issues. But at the same time I have some serious questions about Obama's economic policy.

I think it comes down to me not being completely happy casting my vote for either candidate. Hopefully Florida gets this right tomorrow. The state has a history of mucking things up as we all well know.

We shall see. Either way, this is a historic time for our Nation. I will fly my flag with pride as we move to the polls tomorrow.

This week is one of the nuttiest for us as of late.

On Tuesday we flew up to Orlando to meet up with Regina's father and some other family to spend a few days at Disney World. We had a 6:00 AM flight arriving at MCO around 6:35 AM. Twenty minutes earlier than expected. Cool!...sortof.

Regina's father had driven from Illinois along with a few others and met us at the airport where we then drove back to the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel. Nicely there was a room available as soon as we got there at 7:45 AM or so. Pretty nice considering normally the checkin is in the afternoon.

We met back up around 9 to head off to Disney's Hollywood Studios park. They've changed the name from MGM due to the number of studios Disney owns now. It was nice to go see the park during the day since the only other time I'd been there was the Wednesday night party for Lotusphere.

I'd say the favorite attraction of the day was the "Lights, Motors, Action" stunt show. Some very trick specialty cars and bikes doing some pretty killer stunts. Add in the fact that it rained pretty heavily right before the show (and during part of it) and it's even more interesting.

Disney's also creating a new American Idol interactive show, so Jordan Sparks was there filming a video for that project. Kinda neat to watch how that went down. It's possible some of us in the crowd are in the video since they shot it in an open area of the park with visitors all around.

About midday, Regina's brother Adam arrived at the park having dropped off the moving truck containing Regina's grandmother's household items at the Dolphin. More on that later.

I mentioned it rained...well it rained twice, heavily. Ponchos are your friend. Luckily Wednesday would be better.

At the end of the day was the Fantasmic show, which features a story of Mickey fighting all of the evil characters of Disney. Lights, video, music, lasers flames, fireworks....good stuff. I won't say more you have to see it for yourself. One thing though, I've never seen video projected onto water vapor before. Neat stuff.

On Wednesday we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Again this is a park I've been to before, but only via Lotusphere and only at night. The Lotusphere experience there was less than entirely positive since it rained all night and the animals weren't out so there wasn't as much to see.

This time though we had the chance to see the various safari tours and attractions where we saw all of Animal Kingdom's creatures. It's pretty amazing how they get all of that into the park. When you're on the safari ride it really doesn't look like you're at the park because you can't see anything but that ride's landscape. Of course the Lions were sleeping...but the Tigers on the walking tour were up and active.

It was Regina's father Harold's birthday, so Regina got him a "Today's my birthday" pin to wear around the park. He was then greeted by many of the park staff wishing him a happy birthday. Embarrasment day for him. ;-)

We finished off the day with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe at the park. All in all a nice couple of days at Disney. But this was just the beginning!

I really cannot wait to watch the debate tonight and I am very happy it's still a go.

Of course the Democrats will proclaim Obama wins, and Republicans will claim McCain wins. Honestly there's no point in even asking each side afterwards since we already know their answers.

I am still not convinced that having either Obama or McCain in D.C. this week mattered one iota. Neither one are on the banking committees and really did not NEED to be in Washington to hash out the details of our US banking bailout.

The funnier thing is that even in principal, President Bush's plan along with Henry Paulson seems to have created quite a bit of animosity in the Republican party.

I had a gut feeling all along that John McCain would be at Ole Miss tonight. There was no way he was really going to skip it, especially with Obama planning to be there.

I suspect they'll both head back to D.C. after the debate, sometime this weekend.

Now, who will perform better tonight? Well that's hard to say. Obama's a good orator, but usually that's only when he has a teleprompter or written speech in front of him. McCain usually seems to like to use cards with notes, and has in the past needed to refer to a card in order to thow a zinger Obama's direction.

It is going to be interesting, it is going to be fun, and I can't wait.

Well we missed Ike, or rather he missed us. Ike is heading to Texas now it seems, Cat 3 most likely. Time to get prepared if you're on the Texas coast.

Meanwhile, I am off to the last flyaway race of the year for me, MotoGP in Indy. Pit walkabout today, meet up with some friends this afternoon...should be a good weekend.

Over the last 24 hours, the projected track for Ike has shifted quite a bit from what was forecast yesterday.

Now, most of the models show Ike heading through the Southern Bahamas, north of Haiti (although they're likely to get more rain, which they seriously do not need), and then making landfall at Cuba's coast as a category 4 storm.

From there, the consensus of tracks have the storm over most of Cuba's length, which in turn weakens Ike to a category 2 storm and possibly a category 1 storm as it exits Cuba around 2pm Tuesday.

From there, Ike will enter the favorable waters of the Gulf of Mexico, potentially strenghening once again to at least s category 3 storm.

Needless to say everyone in the Gulf Coast needs to continue to watch Ike, as he's quite far from being finished.

For us here in South Florida, we also need to pay attention to each update to see where Ike may go, just in case it makes an unexpected turn.

So here we are just a few days before the midway point of hurricane season and we have Hurricane Ike heading our way.

The track has shifted South since yesterday. That's good for us, but we're vary far from being out of the woods on this one. By the looks of things right now, Ike is heading for the Florida Straights, possibly as a Category 4 storm, which is very bad news for the Keys.

Logically extending the track line forward, and the Panhandle, Mississippi and yes folks, Louisiana are in it's gunsights. The track could move more North, which takes LA & MS out of the mix somewhat. We'll see. The three day track, which is much more reliable than a 5 day, ends 2pm Monday between Cuba and the Bahamas.



Some models show it going farther South yet and interacting more with Cuba. If this is the case then the mountains there will likely knock the storm down somewhat.

Here's a nice Google maps overlay of the track with our location marked with the pin....the image shows the end of the 3 day "cone of discontent" as I call it...the pros say cone of uncertainty..but really, come on. The cone essentially means anything in the shaded region is fair game.



If you're interested in following along at home, here are a couple of sites we visit for tracks and advisories:

* The National Hurricane Center, Miami
* Weather Underground

So, you have an Apple TV. Great. But, you aren't overly pleased with the little Apple Remote. Well, if you happen to have an iPod Touch or iPhone. You're in luck.

With the advent of the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch 2.0 software update and the AppStore, comes a little app called Remote (free). Download and sync the app to your device to get started.

When you launch Remote you'll need to enter a passcode in order to pair the device with Apple TV. This is much like how you had to enter a code in iTunes to pair with Apple TV.



Once the device is paired to Apple TV, it connects and you're able to control Apple TV from anywhere your device can access the network. What this means is that since the device doesn't require a line-of-sight to the Apple TV like an IR remote does, you can have control of Apple TV from just about anywhere in the house. If the iPod Touch or iPhone can connect to your wireless network, you're good to go. Sweet.



The iPhone/iTouch will show album art, playlists, track lists, track controls..everything you need.



The other nice thing with this method is that you don't have to turn on the TV to use Apple TV. If you're only listening to music and thus really don't need the display, you're in good shape. Save some power, save your TV.

So now it's time to pick which media device I'd place into my home theater setup. My requirements to play digital music and photos is pretty easy, lots of players work those options.

* Netgear's EVA8000 is popular, works well with my Netgear ReadyNAS DUO and costs $349.99. It does support a good number of formats, and will do video. It requires a PC to be available since it's just a streaming device, i.e. no internal storage. It also won't play iTunes protected content.

* Now, there's no question the Sonos unit is pretty darn sweet. They've got a really nice deal there, if you want music only. Sonos also supports a really wide variety of file types including Apple's AAC and Ogg Vorbis. You can of course connect an iPod to the Sonos unit which would allow the iTunes DRM content to be shared. It's also multi-room capable.

Sonos can be a pretty expensive option though. The smallest player - ZonePlayer 90 (which is un-amplified, good for connection to a home theater receiver) runs $349, and that's before you add the Controller for another $399. If you want the amplified ZonePlayer 120, that's $499. A bundle including one of each item can be yours for $999.

* Squeezebox from Slim Devices (owned by Logitech) is another popular option, and they have quite a collection of devices, ranging from the rather simple Squeezebox Classic for $299, up to the $1,999 Transporter. The Duet isn't a bad option at $399 and comes with a display remote and the player. It is however, music only.

* Then there's the option of a built PC for the purpose of playing the content. Sure I could use my NAS and access the PC via the TV. Sure this could work, but certainly not for much less than what you'd pay for a 40GB Apple TV, and have it be something that works into a media center well (i.e. a small device). The other issue is simply the user interface that many of the PC based options use. Simplicity is key, and I think Apple TV wins there too.

* A number of home theater receiver/amp manufactuers such as Yamaha, Denon and Onkyo have set up their units with Ethernet ports for network connectivity and streamed content. Some also have iPod docks and connectors so the iPod content is available to your home theater that way.

In terms of dealing with that pesky Apple Fairplay DRM, there are solutions ranging from apps that strip DRM from tracks purchased in iTunes (which seem to get broken again every time iTunes is updated) or apps that have virtual CD burner emulation and allow you to burn your iTunes content to a virtual CD and then rip it back into the library. What a pain.

So...what's a technophile to do?

For awhile now I've been wanting to put together a solution for digital media in my home theater system. There are of course quite a few options out there on the market, and of course there's always the option of a roll-your-own design.

As with anything, what you plan to do with it makes quite the difference. So first off I had to set my expectations and have a list of goals to accomplish. Quite honestly they're pretty simple:

1. Play digital music on the home theater system, including files purchased from iTunes

2. Ability to show photos/slideshows on the TV from my photo collection

In the past we've used our TiVo Series 2 with the media server software on a PC, which lets us stream music and photos from a PC on our network. However, even with the little additions they've added over time, the experience is far from satisfying. Photo support works "ok" but the resolution is far from what I'd call great, and of course on the music side the TiVo can't play iTunes purchased content.

The requirement to view/listen to content purchased from the iTunes store turns out to be quite the differentiator.

Before we get to that point, let's talk about file type & size. Eventually I'll likely get into video over the network, but right now I am just talking music & photos. On the music side I have to balance file size with quality. Ideally you'd like to use a lossless file format, or one that maintains the full fidelity of the CD you're ripping.

Choices generally would be WAV, FLAC or the Apple lossless format. The tradeoff there is file size. Lossless files will be very large. Perhaps on the order of 35MB for a 4 minute track. Do the math and you see how much disk you'll use up. This also doesn't work well on portable media players due to their relatively small storage capacity.

So you're left with the option of either use a lossy format such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis and the like - and choosing a high enough bitrate to maintain quality or having two copies of everything, one for the home theater and one for the portable players.

Clearly two copies isn't the best idea. Sure I could have a TON of storage to accommodate that plan but the management of such isn't something I find to appealing. So, lossy format it is.

As to format, MP3 is by far the most well supported. There are many who swear by Ogg, and some that claim AAC is better. While Ogg is quite popular and supported on many players, it isn't quite as well supported for what I want to do on iTunes (iPod support requires some custom work), and AAC doesn't seem to be much better than MP3 to my ears and isn't as well supported. So MP3 is the format. Good, two out of three choices.

The last one is bitrate. Well this is easy. I can tell some difference between 192k and 320, so I'll go with 320. Sure the iTunes store stuff is 192 or lately 256 has shown up - but that's OK.

Ok, with that solved it's time to figure out what media device to include with the home theater gear....stay tuned.

Ok well not really.

IndyCar at Kentucky

Scott Dixon wins the Kentucky IndyCar race, with Helio Castroneves finishing second for the 7th time this year. Of course Helio could be as unlucky as Vitor Meira who started 2nd and led a fair number of laps, trying to get his first series win this weekend. And yet again, it wasn't meant to be.

Vitor's comment afterwards, something to the effect that they need to consistantly be starting up front to have a chance certainly has weight. As he said, you can't have 1 or 2 chances each year and expect to win. You need to give yourself more starts up front to position yourself for the win.

We were happy to see Sarah Fisher out there this weekend, and I suppose no one expected too much considering she hasn't been on track since Indianapolis in May. Al told though I'd say she did reasonably well, passed cars, didn't wreck and finished.

One note on the new TV deal for 2009.

NASCAR at Watkins Glen

Ok first off, NASCAR...figure out how to put wets & wipers on your cars and run them in the rain. The Nationwide race in the rain was pretty cool. Why can't they do that with Cup? Canceling quals on a road course because of rain is just pathetic. If anything should be on their list for 2009 things to fix, that's right there as #2 with the whole tire issue and Goodyear.

We're happy to see that Sam Hornish Jr. is OK after his car slid sideways, driver's-side-first, into the barrier of sand barrels dividing the rack from pits. Pretty wild stuff. The wreck on Lap 83, started by contact between Michael McDowell sent David Gilliland's Ford spinning out of control into the guardrail. This promptly caused all hell to break loose with something like 9 cars involved. Bobby Labonte limped away from the wreck and was transported to a local hospital for a look-see.

So Kyle Busch wins at the Glen....his 8th win this year. Those who don't like "the shrub" better get used to him.