Sen. John McCain	Sen. Barak Obama

Do Netscape users prefer Obama? Do Mac users prefer McCain? Is it possible to correlate a web user's display settings with their Presidential preferences? If so, Dave's Browser Poll aims to find out, just for fun of course.
 
Actually, we did virtually the same thing way, way back in 1997. The significance of this research was not lost on the experts at Yahoo, who listed Dave's Browser Poll as one of its Picks of the Week back in October, 1997. We loved what Yahoo said about us:
 
"...if you're the type of person who likes to analyze statistics, then there's a 50% chance that you'll get a kick out of Dave's Browser Poll. And even if you don't, you'll be helping Dave do important research. (This year's Nobel Prize committee carelessly overlooked his work.) So check out Dave's question and, as always, take your pick(s)"

Photo: Phill Hillyard

I guess it's a good thing I re-built the page about Michael Johnson's 1996 world record! Bolt looked easy doing it, too! And hats off to Johnson for having the class to congratulate Bolt:
 
"Incredible performance by Usain Bolt once again. It's much better than the 100 meters because we see him giving it everything. The other guys weren't even anywhere close. Congratulations Usain Bolt!"
Michael Johnson quoted by BBC
 
We'll keep our page up, but the dynamic code that calculated the number of days Johnson held the record is now removed with a static 4,402 in its place. The record is broken...long live the new record!

I had neglected this site for way, way too long. Other things were priorities. And besides, it was a lot easier to just put up a myspace or facebook page that had a fair amount of functionality. But now, I've got most of the back-end functionality back up and running and in fairly up-to-date technology (Asp.Net 2.0, IIS 8, and the C-Sharp language).

The first content page I've renovated and put online is my tribute to Michael Johnson's world-record 200-meter dash in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. It's appropriate that this page go up since the track and field portion of the 2008 Olympics in Bejing get underway this weekend. I haven't read anything about the prospects for anyone breaking MJ's time of 19.32, but you never know. If the swimming results are any indication, it's possible that some track and field records will be broken. My gut feeling is that, since this record has stood for 12 years now, it's going to stand for a long, long time.

That was, indeed, a very special night for me and my family. My brother-in-law's sister (my sister-in-law?) was a former Olympic athlete and obtained tickets for us in 1996. We had second-row tickets along the backstretch, which didn't give us the best view of the 200-meter dash. In fact, when they ran the semi-finals, I stood up while the race was run. I couldn't believe it when a couple of people behind me yelled at me to sit down! Geez, it's the Olympics! You can't get up off your butt for 20 seconds to watch a potential world record? My wife urged me to not say anything and sit down, which I did begrudgingly.

Dan O'Brien after clinching the decathlon at the 1996 Olympics

When Dan O'Brien won the decathlon, he came over right by us during his celebration, flag-draped, where his family was sitting. Dan had a large group of family and supporters there--he is adopted and his parents have apparently adopted several children. So I was able to get quite a few good pictures of Dan's celebration. I would also get some good pictures of Johnson when he took his victory lap. Dan's victory was a great story because Dan famously failed to make the 1992 Olympic team. In the trials, he passed on several lower heights in the pole vault and then missed three times in a row, earning no score in that event. But on that hot, steamy night in 1996, just a few feet in front of me, Dan was able to celebrate his long-awaited gold medal.

So I hope you enjoy the site as I slowly get content placed back online. And good luck to the 2008 200-meter participants, but I have the feeling that my MJ tribute page is going to be valid for a long, long time.