 Monday, 28 January 2002
 Congressional websites
Washington Post: Most Web Sites on the Hill Unimpressive, Survey Finds by Juliet Eilperin The Congress Online Project, a venture funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, evaluated the Web sites of all 605 House and Senate personal offices, committees and leadership offices. Just 10 percent received grades of A or B, while 90 percent got grades of C or below.
...lawmakers have a different agenda from the constituents, lobbyists and journalists who are searching the Web. As the report notes, those accessing the sites "are seeking basic legislative information such as position statements, rationales for key votes, status of pending legislation, and educational material about Congress. However, offices are using Web sites primarily as promotional tools -- posting press releases, descriptions of the members' accomplishments, and photos of the member at events."
The best sites, according to the project, correctly identify their audience; provide up-to-date, targeted content; offer opportunities for interaction; are easily used; and employ creative innovations.
The report also outlined several mistakes other lawmakers were making ... includ[ing] engaging in excessive self-promotion, failing to provide fresh content and including so many graphics that visitors have to wait several minutes to download the site. The Congress Online Project, funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts
1 comment(s)
This reminds me that I need to forward someone's name to someone else...
Add a comment...
Word: dustbunny Word of the moment: dustbunny (as one word or two)
Use a form of the word in a sentence. One sentence per poster. Not for internal consumption.
8 comment(s)
This whole situation is totally dustbunnied.
Dustbunnies don't exist, only dust dinosaurs.
How many bunnies can a dustbuster bust if a duster could bust dustbunnies?
The long-toothed dustbunnies cowered as the new housekeeper pulled out the package of Pledge Grab-It dry dusting mits.
Most normal people have dustbunnies under their furniture, but I have herds of dust rhinos.
Bits of fuzz ricocheted around the room like shrapnel after the dustbunny hunter extricated himself from a dangerous situation with his handy DustBlaster-4000.
> wield lemon-scented spray
"the dustbunnies flee in panic..."
Perusing the box office returns, Andre's face fell and he feared there would be no venue for his already-plotted, much-improved-just-like-Star-Trek-II sequel, Dustbunny II: The Sweeping.
Add a comment...
Bush prone to fainting What did Aaron Sorkin know and when did he know it:
KPCC Reveals President Bush Has A Heart Arrhythmia: White House Did Not Disclose After Pretzel Incident That Mr. Bush Has Sinus Bradycardia [KPCC.org]In August, after President Bush underwent a physical exam, the White House reported that his resting heart rate was 43 beats per minute. ... White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters the day after Bush's fainting spell that the president's resting heart rate was 51 beats per minute.
...up until now, the White House has not volunteered, and the media has not reported, that the president's slow heart rate is due to a heart arrhythmia called sinus bradycardia. But now the White House is confirming this.
Generally speaking, a slow heart rate is a sign of a healthy heart, and many well-conditioned athletes have resting heart rates well below the normal 70-100 beats per minute. ... But one common problem associated with bradycardia is fainting.
Had the press known that President Bush has sinus bradycardia, and that fainting is a common symptom of bradycardia, the story might have been reported much differently. But the press didn't ask the right question, and the White House didn't volunteer the right answer. There might be an argument for being a little less fit than he apparently is... get that heart rate up...
new powermacs Oh, and finally Apple released its new professional desktops, with a high-end option of a dual-1 GHz PowerPC G4, 1.5GB of RAM, a DVD/CD burner and two 80GB drives for $3650 (which also gets you $500 off their 22" LCD screen, so you could spend as much as $5650 for the complete system). Apple should have released these the day after the new iMac to begin to justify the hype they spouted, but it's only been three weeks, so hey, close enough. The 'low' end has come down in price to $1600, which is not bad for what you get.
I think it was Bill Machrone of PC Week who often said "The machine you want always costs $5000." I think we've reached the point where that's just not true; I might drool conceptually over a dual-1GHz machine, but there's no way that I can make a case that I would ever use that level of power, RAM or storage (let alone that I would use it to its full capabilities every day). As it is, my single-400MHz G4 machine spends way more time waiting for me than I for it.
I think $5,000 now gets you a dream machine, not just a really good workstation.
Google Search tool for OS X Thanks to Bump for the pointer to the free, tedium-reducing Search Google add-on for Mac OS X, which allows you to select text in any of several applications, hit a keystroke and your browser will automatically search Google for that term or phrase. [credit also to Mac OS X Hints] I look forward to trying it.
Hey, the source code's available too. Cool.
| 
