A couple of days ago I replaced Gentoo Linux with Kubuntu on my old laptop. I didn’t have the time, and the laptop probably didn’t have the power, to keep compiling every program I wanted to install. As a consequence of the switch, I got to use the nifty new KDE 4 which comes with a little network management applet that looks absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately doesn’t work.

Well, didn’t work. I fixed it, though, by following the suggestions at http://uncleham.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/kubuntu-904-wpapsk-nobroadcast/ — I would detail my procedure here but it’d just be a repeat of what you can find at that link, with a couple of notable differences: (1) my router broadcasts its SSID, and (2) “Connect automatically” works fine for me. No need to reenter the encryption key at every login.

I actually have a hunch about why this worked, and I don’t think it had anything to do with using the “Connect to hidden network” button. When I clicked the button, I made a point of not filling in any configuration settings that I didn’t have to. Checking it over afterwards, the one obvious difference …

You know that little audience reaction graphic that CNN puts on the bottom of the screen during debates? I want one.

OK, backing up: as I understand it, CNN puts about 80 people in a room in Ohio to watch the debate and equips them with little dials which they can turn left and right to indicate, on a scale of 0 to 100 . . . something. I'm guessing the dial setting is supposed to correspond to how much people agree with or identify with what's currently being said, but it really didn't say; unfortunately CNN didn't give any vertical scale other than "+.....-" (Note to anyone who wants to do better-than-useless data analysis: this is a Very Bad Idea. Always label your axes.) Anyway, the graph at the bottom of the TV screen shows some sort of average opinion over the focus group, split up by party affiliation or gender or whatever.

During the second presidential debate last night, I started thinking, why couldn't we the people pull this nifty trick for ourselves? It should be pretty easy to emulate CNN's dial gadget with a small Java applet to allow people to contribute their opinions over the internet. Of course, the UI …