The MS documentation on MSDN is quite extensive. Sometimes it is very helpful, other times not at all. My recent research for a quick way to set one of our client's sites in the "Secure Zone" so that it would consistently run an ActiveX control they needed with minimal interaction from the user, brought me to this MSDN article which included the exact registry key I needed.

Well, not exactly. I mean, the official documentation actually stated the wrong registry key. (Or more likely it was a key used for some other situation that wasn't mentioned.) But the one that actually worked was mentioned in the new Comments section by two users. (The comments section was added when MS recently (last year) upgraded to the online MSDN version 2.)

Well, I guess in the end it all worked out. I haven't decided if I'm happy about this experience or not. (The client is of course because it works for them now; but who cares about them, really? ;-)

I saw a deal this morning for a movie I have on my wishlist:

So, being the good (okay, mediocre) employee that I am, I e-mailed the link to my personal account so that I wouldn't spend company time purchasing it. Then, when I got home that night (12:45 AM... it was a long day), the price went up $3 to $12.99. WTF mate?

Maybe this just makes up for the 100 other times where I didn't wait until personal time to mess around on the intertubes?

I just read an article titled It takes a master to lead an apprentice that made me think.

It reminded me that I consider myself to be a master and an apprentice in different things in my life depending on the topic and individual/group I'm dealing with at the time. There are some things I am fully confident teaching. Other things I teach and know that I know just barely enough more than the recipient does to at least bring them up to the level I'm at. And there are folks out there that I respect knowing that they have a lot more knowledge of the topic than I do.

I am also afflicted with the same attitude my mother has, that of the "know-it-all". It doesn't help that I do most of my teaching and working all on my own at small places (private schools, small companies, etc.), without peers in the same situations with which to discuss stuff. I need articles like this to help keep me grounded and humble. I say humble not because that is good in and of itself, but that it prepares you with an attitude able to absorb new things.

Long story short, Change Vista's 'System' partition / move BCD boot manager? by Silent Sam worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

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In addition, we (humans) resist change, so we're extremely suspicious of any new process, especially one that hides it's workings. (That is, physical paper vs. magical electronic bits we can't see.) Add in the fact that we have been voting for a long, long time with paper ballots, so trusting a new process, especially by "old-timers" that often run government and voting in particular, that don't want to. "If it's not broke, don't fix it." Right? I suspect (paranoia here, no facts or research) that we did have more errors than we ever realized--the extra scrutiny will help the voting process be even more accurate. Then we won't have any more Black Sheep movies. (Comedy of course, but with the plot of a voting scandal Hey, I'm not smart--a Chris Farley movie example is all you're getting.)

I'm not excusing any bugs or errors--these voting systems need to be perfect. But I haven't seen any press along the lines of understanding that Diebold, and similar companies, have taken on a much bigger task (not time-wise, but skill-wise) than even they realize probably. And that with all of this, we, hopefully, will end up with even more accurate systems.