irish voting problem

I have a couple of issues with the way transfers are handled in Ireland.

The main problem I have is the way the surplus votes are transfer based on those last received pile of votes.

This leads to a random selection and not proportional representation at all. If we continue to use this method we need to change the name.

I found a very interesting paper on the Mathematical Aspects of the Irish Election that pointed out these problems and I'll attempt to visualise it as best I can.

Scenario 1
3 seater constituency, 39,996 votes and a quota of 10,000. And 5 candidates running.

The boxes are opened and the first count:



We know Dennis is VERY popular. So popular he has 2nd preference votes from ALL of Albert, Barry and Cian voters (28,990). The only people who don't like Dennis are Evan voters (2,006). They all voted exactly the same with Albert, Barry and Cian as 2nd, 3rd and 4th preferences.

Evan is eliminated and votes redistributed for the second count.



Albert is elected! Looking at his 12,000 votes, next preference candidates are Dennis (9,994 votes/83%) and Barry (2,006 votes/17%).

Count 3 and surplus of 2,000 is redistributed, but it is taken from the top, meaning that only the top 2,000 votes (which came from Evan) are redistributed, all going to Barry.



Barry is elected! Looking at his 11,001 votes, next preference candidates are Dennis (9,001 votes/81%) and Cian (2,000 votes/18%).

Count 4 and surplus of 1,001 is redistributed, but it is taken from the top, meaning that only the top 1,001 votes (which came from Albert, which came from Evan) are redistributed, all going to Cian.



Now Cian is elected and all 3 seats filled.

Having received the most 1st preference votes, and the vast majority of 2nd preference votes from the 3 runners up in count 1, Dennis fails to get elected.

Scenario 2
3 seater constituency, 19,996 votes and a quota of 5,000. And 4 candidates running.

The boxes are opened and the first count and John is elected on first count.



We know Paul is popular, almost reaching the quota.

Looking at John votes, the majority of 2nd preference votes go to George and Ringo for 3rd preference. But there is some support for Paul, giving him their 2nd vote. Perhaps 5% (300 votes) but they are hidden somewhere in pile of 6,000 votes.

Second count and the 1,000 surplus votes are taken from John's top pile and redistributed. Since this is random and just happen to be the last votes counted, these contain no votes for Paul.



George is elected! Like last time, the surplus of 501 votes, which came from John are distributed and all go to Ringo for count 3.



And Ringo is elected and all seats filled.

If you're interested in this I urge you to read the paper and question is this way of voting unacceptable?

us presidential election post

This will probably be the only post I do about the US Presidential Election 2008.

First of all, has anyone noticed the connections between the West Wing TV Show and this election?
There is definitely a Santos/Obama and Vinick/McCain link. Considering Santos was based on Obama!
The candidates were also brought to the White House for a chat with the current president before he lands the winner in it for the next 4 year? What about the Republican just about to cancel the debate at the last minute?! Only time will tell, but hopefully Obama's running mate won't die on election night!
The BBC also have a nice article on this here.



On another note, as for Vice-Presential pick. McCain's choice was brilliant! A life safer for his campaign which would have been a walk over for Obama if another white male, stereotypical ticket was on offer from the Republicans! For those guts they deserve a it, if only to show the Democrats you messed up not picking Hillary (Altho if the West Wing parallel continues, Obama might have a chance to still pick her!)

I think this comic sums up a lot too:

So anyway, since I don't have a vote, I'm just going to sit back and watch the American People possibly screw the world over for another 4 years!

iphone prices worldwide

With the release of the new iPhone world wide on Friday, I have been contemplating should I get one. Afterall my old phone is getting a bit dated!

The offers here in Ireland from o2 are pretty shite to be honest. A €45, 18 month contract and pay €169 for the 8GB model up front! So I started to look online at the other countries offers to see was everyone else getting screwed, and the answer is yes.

I've gotten prices from USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Mexico, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. This is the 8GB model of an iPhone on the smallest and cheapest contract. You can see a summary below and a break down of each country on my Flickr Photostream.

Some things I've noticed:

• Switzerland is the cheapest place to buy a contract-less iPhone
• Belgium is selling unlocked iPhones with no contract
• Canada has the worst deal, with a 3 year contract
• After Belgium there is Denmark with a 6 month and Norway for 12 month contact

Data-wise:

• The Netherlands, UK and USA offer unlimited data
• Sweden, Norway, Mexico and Finland only have 100MB per month
• Ireland and Switzerland isn't doing too bad with 1GB per month

Price-wise:

• Per month: Mexico, Germany and The Netherlands are all under €30
• Ireland is up there with The USA, Norway and Denmark with most expensive monthly contact
• At the end of the contact, Canada, USA, New Zealand and Ireland are most expensive

You have to take what you get from the contract (datawise, free minutes, sms) with what your going to be paying. Obviously when you live in one country it would not make sense to buy a contact for another country.

All currency conversions done via xe.com. I couldnt translate/understand Italy, Hong Kong or Japan. There is no word from Australia, Spain, Portugal or Austria.

One last bit of information. The i in the iPhone means Internet, as it does it iMac. That holds true in the USA & UK as you can use it as an Internet Phone. It is a pitty that other countries put a cap on how much you can use the Internet on it. o2 here in Ireland gives you no indication of your monthly download and if you reached or exceeded your limit of 1GB.

I found it intresting to see the wide differences around the world. I am considering getting the unlocked Beligan iPhone or waiting to see what the prices for unlocked one sell on eBay for. I'm not sure what i'm going to do yet. Lets see how the launch goes 1st!

irishman wins world race

Update: Its Official, see below..Irishman, Damian Foxall and his French team mate Jean-Pierre Dick will sail into Barcelona tonight in the Paprec-Virbac 2 winning the 1st ever Barcelona World Race.

The Barcelona World Race is a new two-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race starting on the 11th November, 2007 [and to be held every four years]. For the first time, this race will see the world's best professional sailors from both solo and fully crewed disciplines coming together to compete against each other in teams of two.

I've been following them since late November, when they were battling for 3rd position. It was great to get an update every day via RSS about accidents, masts breaking, teams dropping out, challenges for 1st position! They have held the lead for a while now, with Hugo Boss nipping at their tails, but tonight they will complete the race by returning to Barcelona, winning the competition.
One thing I must say is that the media attention over the entire race has been poor. Only once I heard an update on the news about how they were getting on, and this was a quite news day over Christmas. This is a shame considering there is an Irishman winning this race! I'm sure there will be loads of press today and tomorrow about our new Hero, now the hard work is over!

UPDATE: Its official:

Updated : 11/2/2008 21:02 GMT

Jean Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall have crossed the finish line at 20h 49.49
GMT in the port of Barcelona and officially are the winners of the first edition of the Barcelona World Race. The ecstatic duo are clearly over the moon, jumping up and down in celebration of an incredible feat - 92 days 8hours 49minutes and 49seconds having covered 28,329 miles non-stop around the world.

the game

RULE 1: You are playing The Game.
RULE 2: Whenever you think about The Game, you lose.
RULE 3: Loss must be announced.

The objective of The Game is to forget that it exists.

P.S. I lost.

heath

Uncyclopedia is an encyclopedia full of misinformation and utter lies. Or as they say, puts the "psych!" in "encyclopedia". Even they draw the line somewhere!

On the subject of Heath Ledger, there was rumors of him getting the Oscar nod for playing the Joker in the Dark Knight. That would add him to a list of 1 other dead person who received an Oscar! From Wikipedia:

To prepare for the role he lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology. While he initially found it difficult, Ledger was eventually able to generate a voice which did not sound like Jack Nicholson's take on the character in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance.

flickr goodies

Today Flickr released two new things!

First is their new Uploadr application. Nice design and finally allowing you to edit titles and descriptions before you upload!

The second new feature (for pro accounts only) is Stats (finally)!

Be enthralled by graphs and chats!
Learn which of your photos are popular today, this week, or over all time
Discover where your visitors are coming from
See how they found you
Thrill at a helpful breakdown of your photos.

Apparently it takes a little while to dig up the numbers for my account, so I have to check back tomorrow and things should be ready then!

in the paper

I finally got around to scanning in the newspaper article from the Sunday Tribune about my post on RTÉ editing Wikipedia.

Article from the Sunday Tribune 9th September 2007
SundayTribune Web Version

In other news, you can get to my photos by going here: photos.langersblog.com :-)

learner drivers

A recap of the last few days:

Thursday
New rules are introduced for learner drivers, changing the system we currently have. The major chance would be that all second provisional license holders will now need to be accompanied for a full licensed driver from midnight Monday.
Excellent a shake up in the way things are done! About time!

Friday
The Gardaí say they would not be using their discretion on a case-by-case basis in relation to provisional drivers and would enforce the law as normal.
Our Minister for transport Mr. Dempsey also said on the news that the new laws will come into force as announced and went against the Gardaí by stating they will take a 'common sense' approach for 'two or three months' in relation to the short period in which some drivers will have to make new arrangements.
I'm getting mixed signals!

Saturday
Opposition politicians call for the minister to defer the introduction for six months saying that the government is out of touch with the conditions of ordinary people and the number of people who will be discommoded.
The opposition doing what they do!

Sunday
Minister Mr. Dempsey announced he was deferring the introduction of the accompanied driver provision until 30 June 2008. This gives the 122,000 people on their second provisional license plenty of time to apply for and sit their test, because they would now have it on demand.
Good for him, listening to the people!

Monday
The Driving Instructors Register say that they don't believe it is possible for all the drivers on their second provisional to pass the test before the end of June. This is might be because there is a failure rate of about 50%, the surge in applications in the last few days and the fact it isn't just second provisional license holders applying for the test.
Maybe the Minister and the Driving Instructors should of had a meeting?!

Tuesday
With the new rules/law in place, I guess it is business as usual...

For your Information:
Number of people on provisional licenses are as follows:
1st - 209, 253
2nd - 121,871
3rd - 31,792
4th - 25,076
5th or subsequent - 37,233
That's 94,101 who are gone past the 2nd provisional license stage!

Sources: rte.ie/news & rsa.ie

rte post

My RTÉ post got a lot of reaction. This was mainly thanks to links from Damien and Tom. I also noticed that a few of the papers then picked up on the story!

The Sunday Tribune:

The edits were first spotted by 24-year-old blogger Darran Crowley from Cork, who highlighted them on his blog.

Link

There was also stories apparently from Irish Times or Examiner and the Daily Mail who did not give me any credit!

On a side note, as you have noticed, this blog has taken a bit of a break, I started my Masters Degree in UCC (in Business Information Systems) which is taking up a good bit of time! I will try to continue to update more often. I also stopped contribution to Team Geared Up Blog :-(

rte edits wikipedia

I've caught our National Broadcaster, RTÉ editing numerous Wikipedia articles. These include rival radio station FM104 and TodayFM's Gift Grub.

Some of the worst edits include changing FM104's article from:

FM104 is aimed mainly at 16-35 year olds, broadcasting mainly popular music and rock music. The station's flagship programme is the award-winning Strawberry Alarm Clock

to

FM104 is aimed mainly at 16-17 year olds, broadcasting mainly popular music and rock music. The station's flagship programme is the Strawberry Alarm Clock,

I'm pretty sure FM104 does not aim themselves at a 2 year age range, and there is no denying that the Strawberry Alarm Clock has won awards. Why does RTÉ think otherwise? Surely they shouldn't edit Wikipedia if they don't have any knowledge on the article in question!

Other Edits to Gift Grub mainly involve removing half the article or parts of it. They also added the following piece... very bias towards RTÉ.

In December 2006, Gift Grub received a heavy blow when impressionist Oliver Callan left Today FM in a row over his alleged rights to material on the Gift Grub 7 album. His departure left the comedy slot without more than 20 of its most popular characters including Enda Kenny, RTE Newsreader Bryan 'Dobbo' Dobson, intrepid reporter Plastic Sheeting (based on RTE's Southern Correspondent Paschal Sheehy), Dave Fanning, Damien Dempsey, George W Bush, Derek Mooney, Pat Kenny, Marian Finucane and many others.

Callan's claims are the subject of threatened legal action and he even went on RTE's Liveline programme to air his grievances, which generated much press coverage and dinted Gift Grub's album sales. Oliver Callan has since set up a rival comedy slot on RTE Radio called Nob Nation, which now has a much bigger audience than Gift Grub due to it being carried on both RTE Radio One and on 2FM.

I've found all this using the WikiScanner. See more of RTÉ's Edits here, including a request to create a Jenny Huston article!

Any response RTÉ? I know you have read my blog before!

skypes downtime

On Thursday Skype went down. The cause? Microsoft!!

The disruption was initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine software update.

Could Microsoft take down other services across the world with the power of mass restarting and simultaneous logging on?

darran in the simpsons

Ever wonder what you might look like as a Simpsons chatater?
This is how I see myself!

With the new Simpsons movie coming out this summer, only a matter of weeks from now, everyone is jumping on the bandwaggon! 7-Eleven Stores are even being turned into Kwik-E-Marts selling "Squishees", "Buzz Cola", and "Krusty-O's" Cereal!

News Link

Go here and click on "Create Your Simpsons Avatar"

cormac harrington

A hello and welcome to the world to my new cousin Cormac David Harrington.

Cormac, you'll be looking at this when your all grown up after Googling your name. The time stamp is a day before your Birthday because I'm in Canada! I can see into the future!

UPDATE: First Photo!

piston broke

My friends father recently returned from his challenge where he drove from Cork, Ireland to Banjul, The Gambia as part of the Plymouth - Dakar Banjul Challenge.
The two man team drove a Punto across the desert to reach their destination. It took them over 20 days to complete the journey. That is a pretty impressive achievement. They kept in touch with his satellite phone and the car made it to the end. It was one of the better ones as well because it was such a small simple car that didn't cause many problems!

The Plymouth-Banjul Challenge or the Ultimate Banger Challenge is a cheap alternative to the Dakar Rally. The entrants must use a car worth approximately £100 for the 4,000 mile or 6,000 km adventure where all proceeds go to charity!

Read about their adventure on their team website: Piston Broke

global heating

So it finally comes around to bit us in the ass. Global Warming is here!

Take a look at a few pictures from last January I took on my holiday to Kandersteg. I have matched them up similar photos taken a few days ago from Patrick who is back for his own holiday. The differences are scary.

As you can see from these photos of the village, there is a severe lack of snow.

These photos of the campsite path shows you exactly how little snow there is. Last year you could cross-country ski through the campsite. This year it doesn't look too good.

More worrying is this photo I found on Flickr.

Originally uploaded by u_sperling.

So I think I got the best deal this winter with a record snow fall here in Whistler!

all right

Great news coming to me in over the web! They have dropped Old Man Marty on 2FM! Sorry... RTÉ 2FM. Moved Rick around, and got the breakfast guys from FM 104 to do the Breakfast Show!

Dec sums it up well here. I'll be happy when I return, that is if it looks the same in a few months!

trams for cork

The Green Party today unveiled plans to bring a light rail system to the city of Cork.

YAY!

Dan Boyle announced that it would be a rail line connecting Ballincollig to Mahon going through the city centre. Then a spur line linking Bishopstown to CIT and Cork University Hospital. After that they could extended the line to Passage West, (and maybe Carrigaline?) and develop a light rail network for the Northside of the city.

After that news, other candidates and councillors came up with more crazier plans such as a harbour water bus service, from the city centre to Ringaskiddy, Rochestown, Cobh and Mahon.

Altho the plan for re-opening the Cork to Midleton rail line isn't really a bad idea, it could work! But what about re-opening the Cork to Crosshaven line? Servicing Carrigaline, that would take a lot of cars off the road. Pitty most of that old rail line is a road now!

But whatever the government does, they have left cork out of this transport 21 plan. They have to do something!! Get the finger out >:-(

Green Party Proposal

euro firefox

The Internet Browser Firefox is in Europe. As you can see, very much so in Finland, Germany and Poland as you can see from this map.

The browser is now used by some 23.2 per cent of European PC web surfers - up from 19.4% in April.

via The Inquirer

This shows that there is a lot more non-technical people using Firefox. That's good!

Spread the word! Spread the Fire! Get your families, friends, next door neighbours, EVERYONE to use it!!

GetFirefox.com

P.S. Big shout out to the Danish and Norwegian readers reading my Blog! Please identify yourselves!!

new imagery

Google have updated their satellite imagery!

On October 3rd, we updated Google Maps and Google Earth with the following new imagery:

- the whole state of Minnesota, South Carolina, North Dakota, Missouri (updated to 2005), Idaho, Maryland, and now full coverage for the entire state of Texas
- Updates to Florida (most of the state covered now)
- 15 high-resolution cities in Germany
- update for London, 2006 data at 10cm from Bluesky
- South Georgia Island (courtesy of the British Antarctic Survey)
- Albany, OR; Lubbock, TX; Port Townsend, WA; Portage County, OH; Trumball County, OH
- 32 Digital Globe Citisphere cities (updates and new coverage)

In addition there was a significant update to the regular Digital Globe imagery all over the world.

Enjoy! - link

So what i hear you say, they update imagery ever few months! This time it is different! You can now see my house! Yup!

YAY!! =)