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Re-Districting has put me into HoD 87?

I am having a hell of a lot of trouble finding out anything about November’s Virginia-wide general elections, including what Districts I am in now that the 2010 Census has been used to re-district all the lines in the state.

It looks like I am now in House of Delegates District 87 (used to be 13):

http://redistricting.dls.virginia.gov/2010/DistrictMaps.aspx

I can’t quite tell if I will be in State Senate district 13 or 28 (used to be 29) because the PDF map resolution and detail is not good enough to locate my house on the map:

http://redistricting.dls.virginia.gov/2010/DistrictMaps.aspx

I am disgusted that the publicly funded redistricting maps require proprietary (although free) and security nightmare Microsoft Silverlight to view them.

Update: Some quick analysis over at DailyKos:
Virginia Redistricting Analysis

About the new 87th, Johnny Longtorso writes:
“The new district went 59-41 for McDonnell and 54-45 for Obama. Democrats have grassroots organizer Mike Kondratick running, while Republicans will choose between Virginia Republican Party official Jo Ann Chase and consultant David Ramadan in the August 23 primary.”

About the new 13th, Johnny Longtorso writes:
“Marshall’s district was, I believe, the most overpopulated district in the House before redistricting; it had enough population for two districts. So a lot of precincts had to be removed: the northern portion of the district, including Loudoun County and the northwestern end of Prince William, was moved off to create the new 87th district, while the south end of the district around Manassas is chopped off and added to the 50th and 51st districts. This leaves us with a spindly tentacle that reaches from the Haymarket area to Bull Run, picks up Manassas Park, and adds the bit of Prince William that’s wedged between Fairfax and Manassas. This leaves a district that’s slightly improved for Democrats, having gone 61-39 McDonnell and 55-44 Obama, but which retains Marshall’s base in western Prince William County.

The 13th always seems to be fools’ gold for the Democrats; Marshall has had a tight grip on this district, and always manages to win, even while being outspent. Nevertheless, they’re trying again; Air Force veteran and defense contractor Carl Genthner is giving it a go this time. We’ll see how Marshall does in his newly-slimmed down district.”

Update 2: Better Maps at VPAP.org, thanks VPAP!
http://www.vpap.org/updates/redistricting_maps

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2011 07 18 snolan Local
News
Politics
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Netflix Price Hike, Analysis

Finally some real analysis of why Netflix has announced rate hikes. I am solidly in the long-tail camp, as all the “top-500” stuff is easy to get a variety of other ways; but Netflix is pretty much the only game in town for really old, really small budget, or really esoteric films.

The Netflix Price Hike

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2011 07 14 snolan Movies
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Netflix Rate Hike Annoys a Lot of People

CNN story on Netflix Rate Hike at CNET:
Angry Netflix subscribers–so, who has a better deal?

Take a look at this CNET poll on how angry Netflix customers intend to react to the rate hikes, note the Firefly reference:
Firefly mentioned in poll

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2011 07 13 snolan Fun
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Odd – no candidates for November’s election?

The next major election in Virginia is this November where we get to vote for state legislature and local politicians…

This morning the State Board of Elections website says there are “No Qualified Candidates” for any of the offices in my county, that’s a little surprising this close to the election.

State Board of Elections Website, Prince William Candidates, 2011 Election

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2011 07 10 snolan Virginia Politics Comments (0) Permalink

469 reasons why Facebook sucks

http://scottnolan.org/blocked_facebook_apps is a list of 468 reasons why I find Facebook annoying. I add more all the time. That is a list of all the applications I have blocked in the last year so they stop pestering me through my live feed.

The additional one, is a Facebook internal one called Questions which is doubly annoying because it cannot be blocked using Facebook’s tools. So I recommend only using Facebook through Firefox with two essential Add-On/Extensions installed and configured:

  • NoScript is critical for blocking cross-site scripting hacks, useful for much more than Facebook
  • FeedFilter is useful for blocking Facebook annoyances

Install them both or get the heck off Facebook.

I had to re-block Chat. In Facebook terms, that is – click the Chat crap, click the gear, click the automatically “available to chat” checkbox so you are now Chat (Offline) like one should always be. Adium is the only way to chat, Facebook and Skype suck for that.

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2011 07 08 snolan Computer Security Comments (0) Permalink

Spam on the rise again, damn

Well it was a lovely Spring, with reduced SPAM on both email and blog comments, but that appears to be over and spam has skyrocketed once again. Groan.

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2011 07 07 snolan Computer Security Comments (1) Permalink

Trip to Rome, Italy (May 15-22)

May 15th:
The train from Naples was pretty uneventful, and the countryside is beautiful.

Raining in Rome, cab to hotel was cramped, but only 25 Euros including our bags. Wait a second, for the less than 1 mile trip, that’s pretty extortionate pricing… but it was raining…

Hotel Solis is quaint… meaning 1968 called and wants our room back. At least it is clean and the A/C works. We are a short walk from the Colosseum. Sill no laundry service at the hotel (!?) and Wi-Fi is an extortionate 7 Euros for only 3 hours. Ouch!

First views of the Coloseum

Continue reading ›

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2011 07 02 snolan Fun
Personal
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Trip to Sorrento, Italy (May 9-15)

Sorry it has taken so long to publish the second installment of the Italy trip, work has been pretty challenging for a solid month and is finally getting tamed down again.

Our train from Venice to Rome was full of American tourists and honeymooners from Venice to Florence; then became less crowded approaching Rome where we transferred to EuroStar 9515 to Napoli Centrale.

At Naples we were met on the train platform by Antonio, our arranged van driver, who showed us to his minivan and drove us to the
Hotel Gardenia in Sorrento acting as tour guide along the way. He even stopped briefly at a scenic overlook to let us get out and photograph Sorrento, Sant Agnello, Piano di Sorrento, and Meta from the cliffs to the East, and gave us a quick tour of his favorite places in Sorrento.

Sorrento Peninsula from the road:
Sorrento, Sant Agnello, Piano di Sorrento, and Meta

Continue reading ›

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2011 07 02 snolan Fun
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Looking for ISP other than Comcast

Damn – looks like Roadstar Internet only works if you can see the Blue Ridge Mountains…
RoadstarInternet.com

That may work for a lot of people, but we’d be in the shadow of Bull Run Mountain

Another option might be:
novawireless.net

Not quite as fast as Comcast; and prices are no better, but they must have better service and support and manners.

The driver for this change is that Comcast wants to increase the cost of our internet service because we are canceling Cable TV service because they unilaterally dropped The Weather Channel, MSNBC, FX, TBS, TNT, History Channel, A&E, Bravo, TLC, Discovery, Travel Channel, Food, and Comedy Central from our Limited Cable package.

2011 06 27 snolan Local
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Tricking iCal into Next 7 Day view

Found an undocumented “feature” of iCal – it is possible to get it to behave correctly by setting iCal/Preferences/General as follows:
Days per week: 7
Start week on: Wednesday
Scroll in week view by: Days

What is interesting is that this does NOT do what you would think, it actually does The Right Thing(tm) and starts the 7 day view with today, no matter what day it is. Hurray!

iCal settings to get Next 7 Day View

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2011 06 10 snolan Computers
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