I’ve been researching some of the lesser-known candidates and here’s how I’m voting:

Attorney General: Campbell
Primary Reason: Posted his entire voting record on his website as to how he stands on the issues. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the bills, but I love and respect transparency and openness in government. The other guy seems like an asshole. His stance on illegal immigration is to “work with law enforcement”. You know, instead of actually prosecuting businesses that break the law in hiring illigals. Not only that, but his website sucks.

Chief Financial Officer: Alex Sink
Primary Reason: Tom Lee is a pro-life, long-term (career politician) conservative Christian Republican who wants to “manage state government finances like a business.” In other words, Alex Sink isn’t a psychopath. Not only that, but the financing behind Tom Lee’s campaign is absolutely brimming with finance, development (buildings), and insurance companies (special interests). Alex Sink’s campaign contributions appear to be mostly from real people.

Agriculture Commissioner: Charles H. Bronson
Primary Reason: Because he wants to “restrict or even prohibit selling agriculture land to anyone who would use the land for a nonagricultural purpose.” Sounds great!

U.S. Senate: Bill Nelson
Primary Reason: I already like him. He always replies to my emails with intelligent responses that actually regard what I wrote about (something I wish Mel Martinez could get the hang of). I also think his opponent, Katherine Harris, is an evil devil woman. For reference, Harris appears to be absolutely ignorant to most of the issues I care about. I don’t think she can even associate anything other than “coal” and “oil” with the word, “energy”.

In the Florida election for Governor, the two major candidates are Charlie Crist (former Attorney General, state legislature Senator, and Commissioner of Education) and Jim Davis (former state legislature Representative, current U.S. Congress Representative for the 11th district). Here’s why I’m not voting for Crist:

• He supports the The Freedom to Worship Safely Act which grants special privileges and status to churches (and oddly, the wording of the text may make it a first degree misdemeanor if a pastor reads from certain passages of the Bible that command physical harm). He helped draft the bill.
• He is pro-deregulation on just about every issue involving private property and business (regardless of impact). This leaves him on shaky ground in regards to environmental issues. It also makes me worry about monopolies and safety regulations.
• He actually believes in supply-side economics (i.e. make the rich richer). Also known as Reaganomics. Evidence of this can be found all over his website and in his campaign ads.
• He regularly uses the phrase, “activist judges” which indicates a severe leaning towards FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) politics. A good indication that his tank is filled with BS. “Activist Judges” is a made-up term that is supposed to scare voters into voting for you and scare them out of voting for the other guy. In reality it is just made-up, meaningless bullshit.
• He is a strong supporter of limiting liability and accountability for injuries. So if a company is found to be negligent or accidentally cuts off your arm, your ability to seek damages will be severely limited by law instead of, you know, the judgment of a jury. It would be one thing if awards for damages were out of control (which was a popular political myth a few years ago), but it turns out it has been debunked.
• He fought against off-shore oil drilling not because it is bad for the environment, poses safety concerns, and contributes to global warming. No, he fought against it because it would be ugly (“A mere ten miles from our shoreline”!).

• This is the most important reason: His website is far too sparse as to where he stands on various issues. Imagine if a teacher assigned you a writing assignment that was supposed to be at least 10 pages and you only handed in 1 page. That is what his page on where he stands is like. This leaves me with a severe aura of distrust in regards to Charlie Crist, especially when you compare it to Jim Davis’ stance page

  Here’s why I’m voting for Davis:

• His educational plan focuses on improving general education and not on improving FCAT scores—which really only test math and reading skills (note that I didn’t say writing skills). Instead of using the FCAT as a form of punishment for schools, it will be used as a diagnostic tool. You know, what tests are supposed to be for! He also wants to build a lot more schools to reduce class size (yes!) and raise teacher salaries (way too low).
• He wants to provide tax credits for job training and certifications. Tax incentives for gaining knowledge are a very good and very old idea.
• He appears to believe in socialized medicine (aka “single payer system”). He recognizes that one giant entity can negotiate much better prices for treatment and medication than a whole lot of smaller players.
• His environmental policy is much more realistic and advantageous than Crist’s: “Jim Davis will protect and preserve Florida’s environment by fighting to protect Florida’s coastline from offshore oil drilling, managing Florida’s land conservation efforts, protecting Florida’s public lands, and fighting for full funding of Everglades protection and restoration.” Look at that, he actually associated offshore oil drilling with an environmental impact! Apparently this is kind of association is too much for Crist.

• And now for my favorite reason to vote for Davis: “Every small business and community in Florida should be able to harness the power of high-speed Internet access. Jim Davis will bring broadband Internet access to every community in Florida, including rural communities.” YES!

According to dontvote.org I should definitely vote!

I only got two questions wrong:

• I didn’t recognize Elizabeth II (queen of England)

• I didn’t recognize Christina Aguilera (pop culture pretty face)

  Fortunately neither of those women are important when it comes to United States politics.

  I was worried that the site might be used as a tool to discourage certain citizens from voting. It turns out that my fears were overblown. The questions were generally very easy (unless you suffer from prosopagnosia) and I can’t imagine how anyone would consider the test slanted or biased in some way.

  On the other hand, I don’t think it is a very good test. It has less to do with having basic knowledge of politics and more to do with recognizing the faces of political leaders. For instance, I know who Ban Ki-moon is but I’ve never seen his face since I listen to NPR and read most of my political news as text. The only reason I got the question correct was because I knew the picture was not one of the other options (process of elimination). A better test would not involve pictures at all.

This past weekend I was up in Nashville attending PhreakNIC X where I was giving a presentation on lock picking along with Sysmin and Quigon. We (The Hackerpimps) hosted a regular lock picking contest as well as a drunken lock picking contest. It was a blast.

Overall, the presentations were great (though I missed a lot of them). I especially enjoyed Acidus’ presentation on Smashing Web 2.0 for Fun and Profit!. It demonstrated a stunning array of vulnerabilities in AJAX applications that made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Throughout day 2 we had a table setup along with Dosman from PacketSniffers.org where people could try their hand at lock picking. Everyone had a great time tearing through our massive combined collection of locks. Dosman’s collection dwarfed our own, however. He had DOM dimple locks, bump keys, antique locks, shims, a pick gun, and some excellent custom-made boards setup with regular door locks and deadbolts.

The Hackerpimps collection consisted entirely of padlocks: The entire Master Lock line, most of the Brinks high security padlocks, some cheap Chinese-made padlocks (generic a la Wal-Mart), and some easy Taskforce locks. Sysmin also brought along a very special military-grade Sargent & Greenleaf padlock that had ~8 pins with a Medeco cylinder. No one was able to pick it. I tried, but I can’t say that I got very close. I look forward to borrowing the lock from Sysmin in the future to give it a real go (time was limited at the con).

I didn’t take very many pics, but I’ll be uploading them soon. I need to sanitize my presentation and upload it to the HackerPimps website first.

I closed and moved into my new home on Tuesday, the 26th of September. I didn’t blog about it because I’ve been busy with the move!

Anyway, we’re finally moved in and unpacked (except for the garage). Most of the new fence is up and the dogs are having fun in their new place. So far I really love this new house. Before I say anything else on this subject, I want to thank some people for their help in this move:

• Solid – for helping me out when our moving truck ran out of space. For helping me put up the new fence. For helping me fix the old house to get it ready for re-inspection (new siding on the garage).
• Candy – for an excellent job helping us pack.
• Varma – for helping me put up the new fence.

• My inlaws – for helping us out with a bit of storage and helping me with various fixes of the old house (to get it ready for inspection). Also, for helping us pack.

  Now for the pictures (Note: links to whole album):

  Stats:

• ~1600 square feet (200 more than the old house)
• 3 bedrooms (with a large master)
• 2 full baths (garden bath attached to master)
• 3.5 card driveway (driveway has an extension on the side which is pretty neat)
• Very fancy fireplace (see pics)
• 2-car garage (with a cool vertical brace in case of hurricanes)

• Awesome location right around the corner from the new mall (River City Marketplace) and about 4 miles from Jacksonville International Airport.

  Now for the extraneous qualitative info:

• The air conditioner/thermostat can remain set at 78 degrees and still feel very comfortable. My best guess is that this is due to some sort of dehumidfying feature that I was previously unaware of. Should save me a ton on the energy bill.
• The siding is hardipanel which is really nice because it will never rot (the T1-11 siding of my old home did and it was a huge pain in the ass to fix for inspection). It also looks better than vinyl siding IMHO. Also easier to maintain (lasts forever).
• When the house was built they used a vapor-barrier, air-sealing house wrap. My wallet will really appreciate the energy savings of that particular feature.
• There is a storage attic over the garage which I’ve already begun to fill with our not-used-often items like holiday decorations and winter clothes.
• Inside the attic of the house is loads and loads of blown fiberglass insulation (at least I think it is fiberglass). Excellent energy savings (no more drafty old house for me!).
• There are tons of smoke detectors in this house. As in, copious amounts. There’s like four in the living room alone. It is quite odd, but I guess it is a positive feature.
• The ice maker in the fridge works! We can buy 2-litre bottles again!
• There is a laundry room between the garage entry into the house and the kitchen. This is really nice because the room can be closed to seal off the sound.
• All the exterior and interior doors are fiberglass. Awesome insulation and awesome soundproofing.

• The kitchen actually has counter space! The old house had barely enough to put a plate down.

  I’ve already done some improvements:

• Installed a 6-foot privacy fence (to keep our dogs in since they can jump a 4-footer).
• Caulked various nooks and crannies on the exterior (probably not necessary, but it is a good idea). The garage in particular needed the most (since I will be insulating and finishing it).
• Replaced almost all of the light bulbs in the house with compact fluorescent bulbs. Essentially, all lights that are not dimmable.
• Bought a new washer/dryer (Kenmore Elite HE4t: High efficiency awesomeness)
• Fixed a constantly running/leaky toilet (that was probably costing the previous owner a fortune in the water bill).
• Lubricated/cleaned a few squeaky doors.

• Fixed some loose vinyl siding on the garage door frame (just needed some caulk and a bang with the hammer on one nail).

  ...and here’s what I plan to do:

• Finish the garage: Insulate it (walls, garage door, attic area), install some new electrical outlets for power tools, install some vents for the air conditioner, and finish it up with some non-paper-based drywall.
• Do a bit more weatherization (the front door needs a new vinyl strip on its bottom).
• Buy some end tables for the living room.
• Paint over the caulk that I used on the siding (you’re supposed to let it dry for at least 7 days before you paint it) so that it becomes invisible.
• Use the homeowner’s association-approved stain on the fence (I think they want “caramel”).

• Paint/decorate the baby’s room and baby-proof the house. I need lots of electrical outlet covers methinks.