We've pretty much all seen how the states stacked up in the presidential election, but have you seen what it looks like when you display the votes county-by-county?

Images are taken from USA Today online. Click each one for the latest info.

By State:

By County:

I have had the privilege of helping test Doppler, a Windows program that allows podcast aggregation as well as windows media aggregation (audio or video). Good stuff. If you have not checked it out and you're a podcast consumer, you need to go get it now. And there's even more features to come soon!

People who read this blog regularly probably know I use FeedDemon, a terrific software creation of the infamous and very cool Nick Bradbury, as my RSS aggregator. I was excited to see that Nick is programming RSS enclosure support into FeedDemon - Awesome! Hey Nick - linky linky????

I guess I should make those who know me from outside the office aware that I have accepted a new job where I work, since much of what I write here is related - albeit somewhat indirectly - to my job. That, and many readers of this blog tell me they keep an eye on this site because of my professional work and experience in that regard.

Note: Just a quick reminder that this blog represents my own personal thoughts, positions and beliefs alone. Nothing I say here is in any way associated with my employer.

Up until last week, I was the Corporate IT Director at a terrific software company in the Portland Oregon area, managing the team of people that makes all the IT systems the company relies upon work. The team there does a lot of work: They handle all company desktops and laptops, software, help desk and end user support, phones, servers, enterprise apps, intranet and Internet web sites, corporate web and software app development, networks, lab environments, infrastructure, network security, and a bunch of other aspects of IT at the company. I have had the pleasure to work with a talented and great group of people in that department, and am proud of all the employees there and the work they have done and will continue to do. One real sign of success as a manager is when you get to the point where you have one or more employees who are ready, able and even hungry to take your job away from you. I was privileged to be in that position as a manager with my employees, and as a result I am confident the department will continue to grow and serve the company well.

So what now? I have made the move to a new position at the same company as Director of IT and Security Operations. That means I will be focusing on working with a team that does amazing security work at Corillian, while continuing to work with the IT department in a higher-level guidance and strategic planning role.

It's a natural and positive move for me (I have been heavily involved in many aspects of security operations and planning over the past few years) and an opportunity to continue to learn and grow in a red-hot and quickly-expanding area. It also means I can maintain somewhat of an IT-planning focus and continue to stay on top of new and unusual software and technology. It's a challenge that looks exciting to me, and for which I am quite motivated.

And it means a slight change of pace, which will be nice. I've worked at the same company for five years, and a little change here and there is a good and healthy thing.

It also means this blog will likely take on an even stronger security slant and emphasis, but I intend to continue to cover IT and technology in general. In fact, it's hard to divorce the two from each other and truly stay in touch with goings on.

And besides, when it comes down to it, I'm really just a technology and gadget geek.

I'm chatting with a friend on IM as the numbers flow in. We're teaming up and splitting duties between news sources, and sending each other info on MSN Instant Messenger. I copied and pasted numbers from a web page into the MSN IM program:

Candidate	Vote %	Electoral vote
Bush (R)	51%	269
Kerry (D)	48%	207
Nader (I)	0%	0
77% of precincts reporting

And here is what was sent/converted by the IM client when I cut-and-pasted the text:

Interesting that MSN IM thinks Bush is the gay one, Kerry is a drunk, and Nader has the bright ideas. And it must be true - I saw it on the Internet!

Or maybe I'm missing something?

I am taking some time off from the "well it looks like we won't get to go home on time after all" news-pundit crowd by watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart election night coverage on Comedy Central. Much has been said recently about the "fake news" show. It's hilarious.

Great references to Tron and any number of other hilarious things. Rob Corddry exit polling aliens in Halo. And the interviews are classic. The best part is these interviews are not set up - their real, just off the wall in the question department.

The looks on the faces of the interviewees are priceless... And Rob even gets them to lick voting booth curtains after speaking to a scientist about what's likely to be found on those curtains when so many people use the booths.

Question by Rob Corddry: "Is it possible that I got genital warts while voting?"

Scientist's answer: "The probability is near zero."

This is so much better than the real news.

Will it be the same thing all over again, only exactly the opposite? If Zogby's exit polls hold true (always use caution with exit polls, as we learned 4 years ago), Kerry wins the election, and Bush wins the popular vote. Now that would be ironic. It would be interesting to see what impact that would have on the pre-election polls done by Time Magazine that showed the majority of Americans are in favor of abolishing the electoral college. Do you think that opinion would change, as well?

CAUTION: Early 2000 exit polls showed Gore +3 in Florida [and we know what happened there]; showed Gore-Bush even in CO [Bush won by 9], 2000 exits showed Gore +4 in AZ [Bush won by 6]

Zogby International's 2004 Predictions
(as of Nov. 2, 2004 5:00pm)

Zogby International Finds: Bush at 49.4%, Kerry at 49.1%

The nationwide telephone poll of 955 likely voters was conducted (November 1-2, 2004). The MOE is +/- 3.2